Steve Jobs sent a curt reply to The Little App Factory, telling them it was not a big deal for them to change their Apple trademark-infringing, iPodRip product name.

Rewind: iPodRip was software designed to pull media off an iPod (no, not for piracy, but to recover files in the event you lost them on the host machine). Apple’s lawyers complained. The Little App Factory’s John Devor wrote a plea for help. Jobs responded in typical fashion.

Long story shorter: iPodRip has been renamed iRip.

Bigger picture: Yes. Steve’s back, baby! The curt reply has returned!

Our only question now: Who’s next?!

[Full text of both emails is up at CrunchGear. Via Gizmodo]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Steve Jobs Tells iPodRip to Change the Name — Not a Big Deal

Fortune Magazine has named Steve Jobs CEO of the Decade. The Apple co-founder, Apple II, Mac, iPod, iTunes, and iPhone visionary is summed up in suitably dramatic fashion:

Youthful founder gets booted from his company in the 1980s, returns in the 1990s, and in the following decade survives two brushes with death, one securities-law scandal, an also-ran product lineup, and his own often unpleasant demeanor to become the dominant personality in four distinct industries, a billionaire many times over, and CEO of the most valuable company in Silicon Valley.

Congrats Steve! Take a moment between tweaking the last few pixels on the iTablet icons and getting (what we hope is) the massive next generation iPhone HD OLED screen white balance just so, and enjoy.

And if anyone hasn’t seen it yet, get on over to iTunes and watch Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Address. He sums himself up even better than Fortune, of course.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Steve Jobs — CEO of the Decade

My, oh, my how far we’ve come in so few years. Daring Fireball sums it up beautifully:

Hard to believe this was just four years ago. The demo starts around 2:45; the look of utter contempt comes about a minute later.

(Not iPhone friendly, sorry).

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Monday Fun Video: Steve Jobs Intros 2005 Motorola ROKR

Steve Jobs isn’t the story. But he’s the story. And today, arguably the most important and influential CEO in technology returned to the stage he’s so effectively owned. And he owned it once again.

Sure, he let Phil Schiller and Jeff Rubin do some of the work, but he’s been doing that for a while now. Was the reality distortion field back in full effect? Well, given no iTablet, no iPod touch video, and looking — in his own words — vertical, we got Steve Jobs, and it was good to see him back in action.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Steve Jobs Returns to Keynote Stage

Attention true believers! Daring Disney dispenses 4 billion big ones to buyout mighty Marvel, its merry mutants, and stupendous superheroes!

Okay, rewind. To make that most tangential of relationships possible (just so we can blog about comics, of course): following Disney’s Pixar acquisition, Steve Jobs — then CEO of Pixar and still CEO of iPhone maker, Apple Inc. — became Disney’s largest shareholder. Now reports are circulating that Disney is buying Marvel Comics — home of Spider-Man, the Hulk, Fantastic Four, Wolverine and the X-Men, and a literal fortunes worth of other character properties, for a cool $4 billion.

While this does mean Disney will likely be better positioned to compete against Warner Bros. and their portfolio of DC characters (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Watchmen, etc.), other than eventually being able to watch a Disney-produced Marvel film via iTunes, it probably doesn’t mean much for Apple — and certainly doesn’t mean we’ll see adamantium shelled iPhone any time ever.

But, again, it does give us the chance to geek out and project Steve Jobs as the new owner of Marvel. Or as the new Kingpin. Or Doctor Strange, if the 60s fit is better. Or…

Dunno, which Marvel Character is the most Steve Jobs?

[Thanks to our buddy Phil from WMExperts for the tip!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Steve Jobs / Disney – $4 Billion + Marvel = Captain America iPhone?!

Since returning to work following a 6-month leave of absence and a liver-transplant, Apple CEO has been locked on delivering the long-rumored, hugely-anticipated (by the blogsphere at least) Apple iTablet, or so says the Wall Street Journal.

Similar to the months before the January 2007 unveiling of the iPhone, Jobs is said to be relentlessly micro-managing away with his typical utter focus on usability and design, making engineers cry and developers miserable in hopes of delighting consumers with a tablet concept that “just works”.

Making it worse, apparently, for Apple employees this time around is that aforementioned leave of absence Jobs took gave them all a brief respite of freedom, and now they’re left to lament what they previously never knew. Or something like that. Really, melodramatic much?

What’s clear, however, is that Jobs takes introducing whole new product categories very seriously:

Mr. Jobs killed the project twice in recent years, the first time because the battery life was too short, and the second time because there was insufficient memory, said one of the people familiar with the matter.

Asked for comment, however, Steve Jobs proved he’s still on top of his game, at least when it comes to curt responses:

“much of your information is incorrect,”

You go Steve!

Update: Fake Steve chimes in with Do not get in my way when I am on a mission, or I swear to God you will get hurt

[via MacRumors]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Steve Jobs Locked on iTablet

Did Apple CEO Steve Jobs approach former Palm CEO Ed Colligan back in 2007 with a gentleman’s agreement to stop hiring each other’s employees? (Similar to the agreement allegedly just terminated between Apple and Google?)

Bloomberg, based on communications revealed by Palm’s Derick Mains, says indeed he did. The conversation reportedly took place in August 2007, after Apple unveiled the iPhone in January and shipped it in June — and after Apple had hired 2% of Palm’s workforce to do it. Palm then brought former Apple iPod executive Jon Rubinstein on board to reboot their smartphone efforts, and it’s at this point Steve Jobs apparently stepped in:

Jobs, Apple’s CEO, told Colligan he was concerned that Rubinstein was recruiting Apple employees. “We must do whatever we can to stop this,” Jobs said in the communications. [...] Jobs said Apple had patents and more money than Palm if the companies ended up in a legal fight, according to the communications.

Palm’s response?

“Your proposal that we agree that neither company will hire the other’s employees, regardless of the individual’s desires, is not only wrong, it is likely illegal,” Colligan said to Jobs, 54, according to the communications. Colligan said he thought about Jobs’s proposal and considered offering hiring concessions, before deciding against it, according to the exchanges.

Palm, of course, did go on to hire liberally from Apple’s iPhone engineer ranks. Still, it’s interesting to see Palm offering up this exchange on a silver platter during a time when tech companies in general, and Apple in particular, is coming under higher government scrutiny. It comes on the heels of other recent Palm vs. Apple scrapes, of course, including the ongoing jousting match over iTunes sync and USB access, the still simmering patent dispute Jobs hints at above and that Apple and Palm have played about in the media, and of course humorous comments from investor Roger McNamee and Colligan himself about how the iPhone is/was doomed.

[via Engadget]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Steve Jobs Asked Palm’s Colligan to Stop Stealing Apple Employees?

Let’s just ask it: is it time for an open letter from Steve Jobs concerning the state of the iTunes App Store? Apple’s CEO has written several of these over the course of the last few years — rare public statements typically addressing wide-spread perceptions of critical problems or situations facing Apple. He’s taken on DRM in music (but not video) to prevent the EU from forcing Apple to license FairPlay DRM, offered $100 to early iPhone 2G buyers incensed by a rapid post-launch price drop, addressed the lack of native apps on the iPhone amid massive developer dissatisfaction, espoused Apple’s commitment to the environment given Greenpeace’s constant PR pressure, and spoken about the uncertainty surrounding his health prior to Macworld to help assuage investor panic. There was even a “leaked” internal letter regarding the troubled MobileMe launch, one of the worst customer relations situations Apple has faced in recent years.

While the App Store is not yet a large-scale consumer facing problem like the iPhone 2G price cut or MobileMe were (some consumers don’t even use the App Store, many others don’t follow any backstage news about), nor a regulatory issue like DRM-music threatened to be (Apple is hardly a monopoly in the smartphone space) or Jobs’ health might have been to investors, it is and will continue to cause Apple pain in one very important area: tech savvy, power users (and media) who typically influence friends (and readers) and generally presage public perception.

Jason Calacanis, who’s frustration at this point clearly overcame his reason (see Marco Arment’s retort), and Mike Arrington, who might again garner Leo Laporte-esque responses himself, are easy to dismiss given their bombastic personalities, passion, and self-interests. Others aren’t so easily dismissed. Long time Mac developer Steven Frank is one example. Daring Fireball’s John Gruber is another. Dieter’s ranted about it on iPhone Live! and Jeremy and I have even written a word or two. Heck, even Apple’s highly operational COO Tim Cook and perennially affable Senior VP of Marketing, Phil Schiller, have mentioned it.

But Steve Jobs hasn’t.

Granted, Jobs is just getting back to work after an extended leave of absence and has been letting his team do their share of heavy lifting, but despite Apple’s highly innovative, world class executive team, Steve Jobs is still the voice of Apple, and there’s likely very little else — aside from carefully watching and tracking tiny improvements over an extended period of time — that will help ease the growing concerns about the App Store and grant Apple a little renewed faith along the way.

An open letter from Steve Jobs in Apple’s news feed, symbolic though it may be, stating a clear “we want a delightful App Store experience for developers” manifesto, reflecting an understanding of the current concerns, offering a “Mobile Me News” olive branch of openness — doing what he did for DRM, the $100 credits, the green initiative, the native apps SDK — would not only address the immediate perception problem, but could start fixing the root cause. Even a “leaked” letter like the one that followed MobileMe’s launch would be a start.

Apple’s often effective, often decried, culture of secrecy is widely thought to emanate from Steve Jobs. He’s shattered it before for Apple’s benefit. Is it time for him to shatter it again?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Is It Time for an Open Letter from Steve Jobs on the App Store?

TMZ caught Steve Jobs leaving the Apple campus. So now, yes, he’s been captured on film and all gadget perfectionists everywhere can sleep soundly.

So, our take away is that a) Steve Jobs is a paparazzi level technoceleb. Congrats? b) he was reportedly photographed with an iPhone. Ironic in a little-brother sort of way. And c) Jony Ive is not only the best designer on the planet, but an intimidating looking bodyguard. Multitasker!

Once again everyone here at TiPb wishes him well, and hopes that he’s enjoying whatever fourth or fifth gen iPhone is in his pocket and will be revealed to the rest of us in the years to come.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Steve Jobs Pictured at Apple

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Dieter and Rene discuss the iPhone 3.1 Beta, the return of Steve Jobs (and Fake Steve), iPhone 3GS news, and questions from the live chat. Listen in!

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iPhone 3.1 and OS News

• Speaking of charge cases, TiPb got the tip that some chargers were having trouble under 3.0, but that Apple knows about it and will be fixing it soon in 3.1…
• And lo and behold, they’ve already gone and released the iPhone 3.1 beta just in time for iPhone Live!
• New features include BT support for Voice Control, Save As for video editing, and more!
• As always, Jailbreakers are warned to avoid 3.1 until the Dev-Team gives the all-clear
• Don’t expect an iPhone 3GS jailbreak/unlock any time soon though…
• 3.1 is also good news to users experiencing MobileMe account and random icon bugs

General News

• Heeeeeee’s Baaaaaack: Steve Jobs returns to Apple
• Heeeeeee’s ALSO Baaaaaack: Fake Steve returns as well
• We get it, the iPhone 3GS is faster than fast fast
• Mobile YouTube Uploads Increasing 400% PER DAY Since iPhone 3GS Launch
• European Union: One Phone Charger Shall Rule them All — And Apple’s agreed?!
• iPhone 2G Turns Two Years Old!

How To

• TiPb Has iPhone 3G 3.0 Jailbreak Guides for Mac OS X and Windows PC

From the Forums

• One of our favorite threads, started by SM12, has just been given new life by the iPhone 2G birthday — what phone did you have before the iPhone?
• With iPhone 3.1 just around the corner, Ivoryplum wants to know what you’d like to see in the next iPhone OS update?

Credits

Thanks to the the iPhone Blog Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Our music comes from the following sources:

• I Called You — iPhone Remix by Pete Leidy
via Sneakmove iPhone Ringtone Challenge

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb Presents: iPhone Live! #17 — 3.1 Beta!