60 Fun Facts About Steve Jobs

With whom did Jobs co-found Apple Computer Company in 1976?

A third partner drew up the paperwork and left within days.

Which animation studio did Jobs buy from Lucasfilm in 1986?

He paid $10 million, half of it capital for the company and half to Lucasfilm for technology rights.

What company did Jobs found in 1985 immediately after leaving Apple?

Apple bought it in 1997 for about $400 million, bringing Jobs back.

In which city was Jobs born in February 1955?

His birth mother travelled there from Wisconsin to give birth and arrange a closed adoption.

Abdulfattah Jandali, who fathered Jobs, was born to wealthy parents in which country?

He met Jobs's mother while studying for a PhD at the University of Wisconsin; her father opposed the match.

What did Paul and Clara Jobs promise Steve's birth mother in order to keep him?

She had wanted college graduates to adopt him; the couple lacked degrees.

Which company gave 13-year-old Jobs a summer job after he cold-called its co-founder for spare parts?

Bill Hewlett himself took the call.

What illegal device did Jobs and his high-school friend build and sell as teenagers?

Jobs later said that without them 'there wouldn't have been an Apple'.

Which Portland, Oregon, school did Jobs attend for a single semester in 1972?

He kept auditing classes after dropping out, and later credited one of them for the Mac's typefaces.

Which audited college course did Jobs credit for the Mac's typefaces and spaced fonts?

He told the story in his 2005 Stanford commencement speech.

Where did Jobs get free weekly meals while sleeping on friends' floors after dropping out?

He also returned Coke bottles for food money.

Which video game company hired Jobs as a technician in 1974?

Co-founder Nolan Bushnell called him 'difficult but valuable' and often the smartest guy in the room.

How long did Jobs spend in India in 1974 seeking spiritual teachings?

He came home with a shaved head and Indian clothes; the guru he had gone to see had died the year before.

Which branch of Buddhism did Jobs practise under the master Kobun Chino Otogawa?

Kobun later conducted his 1991 wedding at Yosemite.

Which arcade game did Bushnell ask Jobs to build with as few chips as possible?

Jobs told Woz the bonus was $750 and gave him half; the real figure was $5,000.

Who was the third co-founder of Apple, who stayed only briefly?

Apple was founded as a partnership on April 1, 1976, in the Jobs family home on Crist Drive.

Where did Jobs get the idea for the company's name?

He had just returned from the All One Farm when he suggested it to his partner.

What did Jobs sell to fund the first batch of Apple I boards?

His partner sold an HP scientific calculator; about 200 Apple I computers were eventually made.

Which semi-retired Intel manager provided Apple's early funding and brought in investor Arthur Rock?

Rock started with $60,000 after seeing a crowded Apple booth at a computer show.

How many expansion slots did Wozniak insist the Apple II should have, against Jobs's preference for two?

Woz threatened that Jobs should 'go get himself another computer'; the Apple II launched at the West Coast Computer Faire in 1977.

Which 1983 Apple computer was named after Jobs's daughter, though the company claimed it was an acronym?

'Local Integrated Software Architecture' was the cover story; Jobs later admitted the truth to his biographer.

What did Time magazine honour instead of a person in its January 1983 issue?

Jobs had disputed a paternity test that put the odds at 94.1 percent.

Which Pepsi executive did Jobs lure to Apple in 1983 with the 'selling sugared water' line?

Two years later Sculley's reorganisation pushed Jobs out of the company.

Who directed Apple's famous '1984' Super Bowl commercial for the Macintosh?

The $1.5 million ad ran once during Super Bowl XVIII and was called 'more successful than the Mac itself'.

On what date did Jobs unveil the Macintosh at Apple's shareholders meeting?

The Super Bowl ad two days earlier had promised the launch and that '1984 won't be like 1984'.

Which early Apple employee conceived the Macintosh project before Jobs took it over in 1981?

His co-founder was on leave after a plane crash, making the takeover easier.

On what date did Jobs submit his resignation letter to Apple's board in 1985?

Five other senior employees left with him to start NeXT.

Which billionaire invested heavily in NeXT when Jobs was running out of money?

The NeXT computer was launched at a lavish gala at Davies Symphony Hall in October 1988.

What did Tim Berners-Lee invent in 1990 using a NeXT computer?

NeXT workstations cost $9,999 and sold only about 50,000 units before the company went software-only.

What was the first feature film Pixar produced with Disney, with Jobs credited as executive producer?

Released in 1995, it was the first computer-animated feature film.

How much did Disney pay for Pixar in the 2006 all-stock deal announced by Jobs and Bob Iger?

It made Jobs Disney's largest individual shareholder, with about seven percent of the company.

Which Apple CEO was ousted in July 1997, making Jobs de facto chief on his return?

Jobs was named interim CEO that September and joked he would be 'iCEO' when he dropped the interim tag in 2000.

Which handheld product did Jobs kill in March 1998 to refocus Apple?

He also cancelled Cyberdog and OpenDoc, and made Mac clone licences too costly to continue.

What colour plastic clad the first iMac in 1998?

It dropped the floppy drive and went all-in on USB, and sold for $1,299.

What was Michael Dell's 1997 answer when asked what he would do if he ran Apple?

In 2006 Jobs emailed staff to note that Apple was now worth more than Dell.

Which designer made the black mock turtlenecks Jobs wore as his everyday uniform?

He paired them with Levi's 501s and New Balance 991 sneakers.

What term was coined for Jobs's power of persuasion during keynotes?

His Macworld keynotes were nicknamed 'Stevenotes'.

Which ice hockey player did Jobs quote at the end of his January 2007 Macworld keynote?

'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.'

On what date was the first iPhone released?

Time declared it Invention of the Year; work had begun in 2005.

What size hard drive gave the first iPod its small form factor in 2001?

It held 5 to 10 GB, cost $399 and sold over 100,000 units before the end of the year.

What type of cancer was Jobs diagnosed with in 2003?

He resisted surgery for nine months in favour of diets and alternative remedies before the Whipple procedure in 2004.

Which colleague offered Jobs part of his own liver in 2009, an offer Jobs angrily refused?

They shared a rare blood type; Jobs had a liver transplant in Memphis that April anyway.

Which news service mistakenly published a 2,500-word obituary of Jobs in August 2008?

He responded at a keynote by paraphrasing Twain: 'The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.'

Where did Jobs marry Laurene Powell in March 1991?

The vegan cake was shaped like Half Dome, and Kobun Chino Otogawa conducted the Buddhist ceremony.

Which novelist turned out to be Jobs's biological sister, whom he met as an adult?

She fictionalised the search for their father in her 1992 novel The Lost Father.

What did Jobs learn about the Syrian owner of a restaurant near San Jose that he had visited?

Jobs never chose to meet Abdulfattah Jandali knowingly, fearing blackmail or press leaks.

According to his sister, what were Jobs's last words?

He died at home in Palo Alto on October 5, 2011, and was buried in an unmarked grave at Alta Mesa Memorial Park.

What 'farewell gift' did every guest receive at Jobs's memorial at Stanford?

Bono, Yo-Yo Ma and Joan Baez performed at the invitation-only service.

Which 2010 billionaires' philanthropy campaign by Buffett and Gates did Jobs decline to join?

His charitable giving remains largely a mystery; he did donate $50 million to Stanford hospital.

Which president posthumously awarded Jobs the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2022?

Ronald Reagan had given the two Apple founders the National Medal of Technology in 1985.

Roughly how many patents does Jobs hold in total, including those granted after his death?

Most are design patents for the look and feel of products; the Mac OS X Dock patent was issued the day before he died.

At which Silicon Valley secondary school did Jobs meet Wozniak and girlfriend Chrisann Brennan?

He skipped the electronics club in favour of putting on light shows for the school's avant-garde jazz programme.

On which Los Altos street was the Jobs family home where Apple was founded in 1976?

The partnership was formed there on April 1, 1976, starting in Jobs's bedroom before moving to the garage; the house was designated a historic site in 2013.

What acronym did Jobs's team invent to explain the Apple Lisa's name instead of his daughter's?

Jobs later admitted to biographer Walter Isaacson that 'obviously, it was named for my daughter'.

Which machine did Jobs see at PARC in 1979 that inspired the mouse-driven Lisa and Mac interfaces?

The Macintosh 128K of 1984 became the first mass-produced computer with a GUI.

After the Pixar sale, roughly what share of Disney did Jobs own as its largest individual holder?

Bob Iger wrote that Jobs 'rarely created trouble for me' as an active board member.

At which event in 2000 did Jobs drop 'interim' from his CEO title, joking he would be the 'iCEO'?

He had been formally named interim chief executive on September 16, 1997.

In which city did Jobs undergo a liver transplant in April 2009?

He had flown to Tennessee for the operation at Methodist University Hospital's transplant institute.

Where is Jobs buried, in an unmarked grave at his own request?

It is the only nonsectarian cemetery in Palo Alto, the city where he lived and died.

In 1982 Jobs bought, but never lived in, a two-floor apartment atop which Manhattan building?

He spent years renovating it with architect I. M. Pei before eventually selling it.