BEST OF THE WEB: Steve Jobs didn’t invent things – he tweaked them

It’s been over a month now since Steve Jobs’ death, and plenty of stories have come out about the man and his work habits – including a treasure trove in his authorised biography.

But a new piece on the New Yorker takes an interesting view, suggesting that Jobs was not an inventor, but rather a tweaker, someone who worked with products until they were just right, rather than coming up with the idea.

It’s a bit different to the view the public often has of Jobs, who sees him as the figure who magically came up with the idea for the iPod and iPhone. But it’s a view that gels with Jobs’ biography, which suggests colleagues viewed him as more of a marketing genius than an engineering marvel.

The piece takes a good look at this, but also analyses one of Jobs’ most quirky traits – he never liked to have his own ideas tweaked.

“Jobs was someone who took other people’s ideas and changed them. But he did not like it when the same thing was done to him. In his mind, what he did was special. Jobs persuaded the head of Pepsi-Cola, John Sculley, to join Apple as CEO, in 1983, by asking him, “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?””

“The architecture of Apple software was always closed. Jobs did not want the iPhone, iPod and iPad to be opened up and fiddled with, because in his eyes they were perfect. The greatest tweaker of his generation did not care to be tweaked.

And yet, Jobs has at times criticised others for taking this approach, saying of Bill Gates, “he has never invented anything… He just shamelessly ripped off other people’s ideas”.

Jobs is a complicated character, but this piece is a quick look at how the Apple co-founder tended to approach product design and development.

Richard Branson – the world’s next angel investor?

Richard Branson invested in Square this week, an American mobile payments start-up. It was an unusual move for the British billionaire, who has spent most of his attention on the Virgin group and the various companies within it.

His move into Silicon Valley start-ups is intriguing, and given he invested in blogging platform Tumblr in September, a possible sign of more activity in this area. Over at The Atlantic Wire, Branson’s people said he had indeed been spending more time in California – does this signal the emergence of a new, prolific angel investor?

“Branson is aiming for ultimate disruption with his start-up investments and dealing only with the tech industry’s heaviest hitters. With both Tumblr and Square, Branson’s entrance into the investor circle comes after massive rounds of funding – $85 million and 100 million, respectively.”

“The geeks and executives of Silicon Valley know Branson is someone who likes to go big, and news of his entry into the start-up world spawned rumours that Square would soon take over the world.”

TechCrunch has reported that Square is on the verge of launching internationally, and given this investment has just finalised, that may soon become a reality.

And speaking of Square, MG Seigler wrote a great piece on his blog about why this small company is going places – check it out here.

The most powerful people in tech

Forbes released its list of the most powerful people in the world this week, and while politicians and celebrities may litter the list, there are plenty of technology personalities this year to observe.

With Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg in the top 10, it’s clear that technology is now playing a huge part in the way we view the world, and is a great example of how power is shifting to new industries.

“What the CIA failed to do in 60 years, Zuck has done in seven: knowing what 800 million people – more than 10% of the world’s population – think, read and listen to, plus who they know, what they like and where they live, travel, vote, shop, worship,” the publication said of Zuckerberg.

“US users spend more time on Facebook – on average 6.3 hours a month – than on any other site.”

The entire list is available here and is worth a peruse, especially for all the tech personalities.

Amazon’s reach grows with free book lending

Amazon has been expanding its reach over the past few years and is now on track to be one of the biggest consumer entertainment companies in the market today. After expanding from books, to television, to music to films, its power is now expanding more than ever before.

Amazon Prime, the company’s premium content service, has now added a new feature – the ability to download one free Kindle book every month.

As The New York Times points out, this is a huge change, and probably part of something much, much bigger.

“There has to be some master plan, because Amazon is spending itself silly to pull this off. Because the offer is limited to owners of Kindles –  it doesn’t work if you use the Kindle service on an iPad, for instance – it is intended to sell more Kindles.”

“Obviously, the notoriously e-terrified book publishers wouldn’t sign off on Amazon’s free-book deal without a lot of reassurance – and a lot of payments. And sure enough, Amazon says that these free Kindle books aren’t really free. It’s paying publishers for the right to distribute them.”

Amazon is now thinking of different ways to shake up the market, and is surely keeping its competitors on their toes. Whether or not this is the individual deal that turns the market in Amazon’s favour, it’s definitely a sign Jeff Bezos is thinking big.