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Steve Jobs' Biographer Left Out Details on Vision for 'Next Apple TV'

Tuesday March 6, 2012 10:43 am PST by Eric Slivka
While Steve Jobs' official biographer Walter Isaacson created a stir last October with his disclosure of Jobs having "finally cracked" how to develop a revolutionary television set product, it now appears that Jobs shared even more about the product that Isaacson has so far declined to make public.

The revelation came in an interview with Brazilian television yesterday, and The Next Web highlights Isaacson's comments about holding back the information because it would have been "unfair to Apple" to share it before the company's plans were publicly known.
[Isaacson] says that he left a few things out of the book, one of those being details of “what [Steve Jobs] thought the next Apple TV should be.”

He says that he left it out of the book “because Apple hadn’t yet done it and I thought that, maybe, that was unfair to Apple before they produce the TV…reporting what Steve thought it should be.”

Apple has been rumored to be working on a Siri-enabled television set that could be set to launch late this year or early next year. The company has reportedly been investigating components for the product, with various prototypes sitting in Jony Ive's design lab.

Related Roundups: Apple TV, tvOS 12
Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Neutral)
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kyjaotkb
83 months ago
He'd better watch his back... He could well be samsung'd on his road to work any day!
Rating: 10 Votes
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SandboxGeneral
83 months ago
What the heck is that awful setting they have him in?
Rating: 8 Votes
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Mjmar
83 months ago
Who else is more excited about Apple's new TV endeavor than the iPad 3?
Rating: 8 Votes
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Peace
83 months ago
Wow. Is this guy being interviewed or interrogated ?
And is he talking about the Apple TV or the Apple Television ?
Rating: 6 Votes
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trainwrecka
83 months ago
Wonder what else was left out.
Rating: 6 Votes
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Peace
83 months ago

Kudos to Walter Isaacson for not publishing it b/c he thought that it wasn't fair to Apple (and to Jobs). He knows how big of selling point discussing a pre-release product would be to the book yet he respected the secrecy of Apples development chain.

I'm sure a lot of authors wouldn't have been so honorable.


Well after reading the book. Well.. Part of the book. It seems like Isaacson started to really like Steve. He saw a part of him that nobody else saw. Except for Steve's family. So i'm gonna guess he did it out of respect not some NDA agreement.

And darn it. I'm 58 years old and I want to cry again..

Steve we do indeed miss you.
Rating: 6 Votes
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ilovedrums
83 months ago
i still don't understand why apple would need to make it's own tv in order to implement a new tv product. why can't it be something like the current apple tv that plugs into your existing tv? it doesn't make sense that i would have to go out and buy a brand new tv just to use apple's service. what if i bought one not too long ago?
Rating: 5 Votes
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mpick92
83 months ago
Hopefully we see Steve's Apple tv future tomorrow.
Rating: 4 Votes
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Starship77
83 months ago

Wow. Is this guy being interviewed or interrogated ?


It is the idea of the show. It's called "Roda Viva" and this is an expression in Portuguese that means a person is "surrounded, with no way out" or something like this. It is to play with the idea that the guy being interviewed will not be able to hide anything. But of course it's not serious… ;)
Rating: 4 Votes
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50548
83 months ago

What the heck is that awful setting they have him in?


Actually this TV show is one of the most serious and respected in Brazil, having interviewed hundreds of celebrities, businessmen and politicians over at least the last 30 years.

It's called Roda Viva ("Live Wheel") and owes this "awful" (not really) setting to its name, which means a round table of journalists surrounding the person being interviewed, normally live (instead of being previous recorded).

Too bad I am not currently in Brazil; this program is really excellent for anyone wishing to see good interviews.

p.s.: And what's all this whining about an "ugly" studio anyway? Do you expect a serious interview to look like American Idol? Brazil's private channels already have what is regarded as some of the best design, technological and creativity resources in the world of TV. Get a grip, guys.

p.s.2: By the way, what an EXCELLENT interview, the best I've seen so far with Isaacson. The unique setting of Roda Viva is able to extract the most information from interviewees as few TV shows can do; definitely worth watching.
Rating: 3 Votes

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