biography

book review Amid the choking fumes from the Apple flame wars, Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs comes as a breath of fresh air.

Jobs, along with the bold company he built, gets people's blood boiling with loyalty and with loathing. Vitriol often is the chief characteristic of debates between fans of Macs and of Windows PCs, between fans of iOS and of Android.

Isaacson, though, has done an admirable job navigating the minefields with his biography, simply titled "Steve Jobs." The result is a book that, although not perfect, is a reliable and captivating guide … Read more

Walter Isaacson's biography, "Steve Jobs," has arrived. It's a good read, and CNET News is teasing out tidbits from the 656-page book.

Jobs died earlier this month at age 56 after a fight with pancreatic cancer. The book arrives when interest in Jobs and Apple--the company Jobs co-founded and led--is perhaps at an all-time high.

Isaacson's book brings forth an ocean of anecdotes about Jobs. Below is a look at a handful of them.

Disclosure: "Steve Jobs" is published by Simon & Schuster, which like CNET is owned by CBS.

Childhood The book … Read more

Steve Jobs thought about putting iTunes on Android much like Apple did for Microsoft's Windows platform, but the move didn't make sense. Why? Jobs didn't want to "make Android users happy."

Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs contains a lot of Android references. Jobs blew up when Google decided to launch Android and panned the search giant every time he could. The Apple-Android duel has led to a bevy of lawsuits. Ultimately, Jobs viewed Android as a "stolen product."

Jobs felt the same way about Microsoft Windows in some respects, but hell … Read more

Kindle users who preordered the Steve Jobs biography might want to fire up that e-reader ASAP.

Not long after that iconic ticking wrapped up an episode of CBS' "60 Minutes" featuring a preview of Steve Jobs' authorized biography with its author, Walter Isaacson, word broke that the Amazon Kindle version of the book was being delivered a little early.

Yes, the book is supposed to be released tomorrow anyway, and it's already tomorrow in much of the world, but Kindle users reported receiving their digital preordered copy a little ahead of schedule this evening.

This Twitter user … Read more

Steve Jobs met with President Obama a few times and gave him ideas for how to generate jobs in the U.S., according to his biographer, Walter Isaacson.

Jobs also told Isaacson that Obama needed a management style more like his own, which could be both mean and manipulative. They clashed over how best to attract and retain talented overseas engineers. And even though Jobs had supported Obama's candidacy, he also warned Obama that he would be a one-term president.

The pancreatic cancer that killed Steve Jobs was discovered in 2004 when he was being checked for kidney stones. Biographer Walter Isaacson tells Steve Kroft that Jobs postponed a potentially life-saving operation--a decision he later regretted.

In early 2009, Steve Jobs was "wasting away" in desperate need of a liver transplant, his biographer Walter Isaacson tells Steve Kroft. Jobs finally had the surgery in Memphis, and it was done in great secrecy--much like the development of a new Apple product.

Steve Jobs' colleagues at Apple often referred to his "reality distortion field." It's a science fiction term that described his belief that wanting and willing something--even the near-impossible--could make it happen.

Steve Jobs was kicked out of his own company after a boardroom showdown. When he returned years later, Apple was almost bankrupt, but Jobs turned it around, leading one of the biggest comebacks in business history.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was already gravely ill with cancer when he asked author Walter Isaacson to write his biography. Jobs told Isaacson to write an honest book--about his failings and his strengths. In addition to more than 40 interviews with Jobs, the book is based on more than 100 interviews with friends, family, colleagues, and competitors. "He's not warm and fuzzy," Isaacson says.

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, the company had just 5 percent of the computer market. When Jobs died of cancer 14 years later, Apple was the second most valuable company … Read more

Still more snippets of the authorized Steve Jobs biography have emerged, with Bloomberg relating a couple of choice bits about Jobs' relationship with new Apple CEO Tim Cook and the company's industrial design wizard, Jonathan "Jony" Ive.

Jobs hired Cook away from Compaq not long after the Mac mastermind had returned to the company he'd founded. Cook had an undergrad degree in industrial engineering from Auburn University and an MBA from Duke, and when they met, Jobs saw him as a kindred spirit. "I knew what I wanted and I met Tim, and he wanted … Read more