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The tweet that made Steve Jobs furious

by Dave Caolo Feb 8th 2010 at 9:00PM



Apple doesn't have a huge social media presence. There's an iTunes Facebook page and what can arguably be called a MobileMe blog, but that's about it. However, they do monitor the likes of Twitter, like any self-respecting company would, and a recent tweet reportedly ticked off Steve Jobs but good.

Recently, Steve set up meetings with tech writers and executives from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to promote the iPad. He gathered the group from the Times at Pranna, where he ordered off the menu, wore "... a very funny hat" and reportedly tried to sell them on distribution via the iPad. Having taken place in a public restaurant, the gathering was called "Intimate" and "family-style" by observers.

By contrast, representatives from the Wall Street Journal met Steve and his new device behind closed doors. According to sources, the Journal group was confined to the 5th floor of their building and several staffers who wanted to meet Jobs could not. One of the lucky few was editor Alan Murray, who sent the following Tweet, supposedly after playing with an iPad:

"This tweet sent from an iPad. Does it look cool?"

According to Valleywag, the tweet infuriated Steve Jobs and was soon deleted. When Valleywag followed up with Alan to ask about the incident, he replied by simply saying that he can't discuss it. Later in the day, he wrote via email, "I will say that Apple's general paranoia about news coverage is truly extraordinary- but that's not telling you anything you didn't already know."

Apple is notorious for great design, extreme secrecy and yes, what many have called paranoia. Teams working on unreleased products are kept under a so-called "cone of silence" with Steve's notorious temper -- he has reportedly gone off on high-profile members of the press who had written disagreeable reviews of Apple products -- keeping things in check.

Lest you think Steve is just a big meanie, he gets it as much as he dishes it out. In rather not-safe-for-work terms, Steve shared with the panel of journalists the flavor of some of the angry emails he's received from disgruntled fans after product announcements. We'll let you read that on your own.

[Via MacRumors page 2]

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Apple doesn't have a huge social media presence. There's an iTunes Facebook page and what can arguably be called a MobileMe blog, but...
 

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rick70

Paranoia? Bill Gates stole the whole Mac user interface because Steve Jobs showed it to him. I guess he learned the lesson well!!

March 17 2010 at 9:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
FANtastic

can't you understand it? Don't you recall how Apple erred terribly by letting Bill Gates see how the system operated BEFORE he came out with WINDOWS? He stole their ideas and made kabillions.... I don't blame Steve Job's at all... he is a power and control freak and maybe that's necessary due to all the blatent stealing that goes on, today.

February 17 2010 at 3:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mike

hey steve... your toyota has a software problem too ! ! !

February 09 2010 at 10:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sam54

It's going to go the way of the Newton..............................can't put it in my pocket, can't use it to make a telephone call..............Thanks but it's got nothing my Fujitsu P1630 doesn't give me now (except overpriced software).

February 09 2010 at 9:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
BigSkyBob

This comment posted from an old PC laptop. Does it look any more, or less cool?

February 09 2010 at 8:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
B

Why does Steve Job's continue to make fun of Bill Gates instead of just dong a commerical? Bill and his wife are busy trying to help people with their money! NOT making fun of people!!

February 09 2010 at 7:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Teri

Steve Jobs is a briliant man, my uncle has met him. However, you think his attitude is a reflection of the fact that a lot of people act rude while using his technology? It's just my observance that a lot of people just don't know how to interact with other people while using so called interactive technology. It's kind of like that movie WALL-E (which has a lot of Apple influences) and how the people on the ship aren't aware of anything around them, because of technology taking care of everything--including their attention span.

February 09 2010 at 7:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joseph Papierz Jr

If you worked hard on a product that you really believed in and after a pre-release conferance with the press, (a priviledge that someone in the press corp. abused), someone "let the cat out of the bag" taking some of the thunder from your planned announcement you would be upset too.

While on the subject of Apple. I often see comments and ocassionally article written that Apple is a far better system than Microsoft. Yet no one has actually said why? Sometimes people say Microsoft is this or that and that's bad, but what is so good about Apple products? When I browse the computer products and programs on the internet or in a computer store everything seems to be Microsoft compliant, I don't recall seeing much if anything addressing Apple. Why is that?

February 09 2010 at 6:52 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
You Don't Need To Know

OK idiot, lets see if you can build and run a multi-million dollar company. Things like that don't just happen, stupid. You need to work, and Steve Jobs really did work for the place that he's in right now, so i don't think you have the right to tell him how to run his company

February 09 2010 at 5:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
hrlybill

TWEET THIS!!!!!!

February 09 2010 at 4:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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