The death of Apple co-founder and tech visionary Steve Jobs dominated the headlines this week. Jobs passed away Wednesday after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer, leaving behind the largest tech company in the world and a legion of fans devoted to his innovative products, including the new iPhone 4S.
As the world discussed Jobs’ legacy, we took a look back at his (and Apple’s) long and often rocky relationship with Microsoft. Jobs and Gates talked about their intertwined history in a 2007 All Things Digital interview with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, covering everything from Gates bringing an early version of the BASIC programming language to Jobs loaded up cassette tapes in 1977, to the rivalry between the two companies.
Curiosity about Jobs’ life also resulted in a skyrocketing number of preorders for the upcoming biography, “Steve Jobs,” prompting publisher Simon & Schuster to release the book a month early. Washington publisher Bluewater Productions also released a digital version of its Steve Jobs comic book three weeks early, noting it will donate a proceed of sales to the American Cancer Society.
I also appreciated this insightful read from Xconomy editors Wade Roush and Curt Woodward, cautioning readers not to “saintify” Jobs. Roush and Woodward offer a good reminder that Jobs was a brilliant man, but still a human being who never shied away from controversy.
Here are a few things I’m catching up on:
The same day Microsoft announced it will soon let Xbox users stream live cable TV through their consoles, the Redmond company announced a new app that lets Xbox 360 players use their Windows Phone as a remote control. Called the Xbox Companion App, it lets users find and control content from the Xbox Live Marketplace, including games, movies, TV shows and music. The free app is coming soon, said Microsoft’s Ben Rudolph on its Windows Phone blog.
Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system also got a bit of love this week from Seattle’s AppStoreHQ.
The company provides a directory of mobile apps to help users find what’s important to them. On Friday, it announced that its directory now covers the Windows Phone ecosystem, in addition to those for Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android platforms. The company said the rapid growth of the Windows Phone Marketplace — 30,000 new apps in under a year — is evidence of developers growing appreciation for the OS.
LivingSocial, the deals site that includes investments from Amazon.com, has issued $143 million in equity to buy TicketMonster, Korea’s largest daily deals site. DailyDealMedia says LivingSocial has filed a document with the Securities and Exchange Commission saying the sale was “made in connection with a business combination transaction, such as a merger, acquisition or exchange offer.”
Zayo Group of Colorado says it has an agreement to acquire Seattle’s 360networks Holdings (USA) inc., a deal that almost doubles Zayo’s fiber network and make it what its CEO calls “a national provider of bandwidth infrastructure service.”
Week in review: The life and death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs
