Less than 15 minutes after the doors to the Palo Alto Apple store opened to sell the first West Coast iPhones, CEO Steve Jobs popped in with wife Laurene by his side. The crowd went crazy as he arrived. There was cheering and flashbulbs everywhere. Jobs was dressed in his signature nondescript outfit: black shirt and faded baseball hat, and had a faint smile on his face as he walked into the store. Read More.
What do you do when your main competitor is about to unleash the most hyped gadget ever to the cell phone-toting masses? Give said gadget a mocking nickname in a memo to employees.
The Thursday letter to Verizon Wireless employees from COO Jack Plating is delicately titled “iWhatever.” In it, Plating acknowledges the incessant iPhone hype and assures employees that AT&T can’t match Verizon’s service, choice of phones and extras, like music.
“A day hasn’t gone by over the past two weeks when someone hasn’t asked me what our response to the iPhone is. I meet each of these opportunities with enthusiasm, because the iPhone is simply a response to you and what Verizon Wireless has achieved,” he writes.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs spoke with the company’s US staff last night, letting them know about iPhone strategy and offering a free iPhone to many employees. Any US full-time Apple employee, and any part-timer who has been with the company for over a year will receive a free 8GB iPhone by the end of July, Jobs said.
Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner has given the thumbs up to a biopic that will feature his social activism along with his sexual exploits. According to Hollywood publication Variety, the film will be directed by Brett Ratner, who helmed the final installment of the X Men series and the ‘Rush Hour’ films.
“I want to show it all, from his first orgy to the stroke that almost killed him in the 1980s,” said Ratner.
