Former Apple executive Bill Campbell reflects on Steve Jobs and Tim Cook: Best of the Web

Late last week, Apple director Bill Campbell ended his 17-year run as a director at Apple.

In an exclusive interview with Adam Lashinsky of Fortune, Campbell discusses his experiences working with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and current chief executive Tim Cook:

It was 1997, shortly after Jobs had returned to Apple. Jobs and Campbell were neighbours in Palo Alto, and Jobs would frequently take walks on weekends and knock on Campbell’s door. Sometimes Jobs simply would wander into Campbell’s backyard and sit down by the pool. “He came by one day, and we sat on a bench by the pool,” Campbell says, “and he said, ‘I’d like you to join the Apple board.’ The only time I’ve had a rush like that was when I was asked to be a trustee of Columbia University. I said, without hesitation, ‘For sure.’ ”

The daily harassment of women in the game industry

Recently, tech companies such as Google and LinkedIn have revealed they have significant problems when it comes to gender diversity.

Against this backdrop, Brianna Wu has an article at Polygon detailing the harassment many women face as developers of video and computer games.

My name is Brianna Wu. I lead a development studio that makes games. Sometimes, I write about issues in the games industry that relate to the equality of women. My reward is that I regularly have men threatening to rape and commit acts of violence against me.

If you are a woman working in the games industry, especially in a public way, you’re going to experience harassment. I imagine telling my 12-year-old self that fulfilling my dream of making games would lead to constant threats. Would she still do it? Would any woman?

Be warned: Some of the language and situations in Wu’s article are confronting.

The revolution sparked by the smartphone

Last week in Control Shift, I discussed five of the fundamental differences between the old PC-first internet and the new mobile-first internet for businesses.

Of course, it’s not just established industries the smartphone is disrupting.

Over at Wired, Robert Capps discusses how smartphones are ushering in a new age of creativity:

Look at your smartphone. Think about the decisions you will make on it today. You may snag a dinner reservation, tell your spouse you’re running late, or craft a response to an email from your boss. But you might also decide that the light peering through the trees is worth an Instagram or figure out how to describe your exasperation with a troubling new development in Iraq in 140 characters. You may write something longer on Facebook about the joy of seeing your 5-year-old make a new friend at the park, or the frustration of watching your father get old and need to move into a home.

A squatter in my condo: The dangers of Airbnb

Business Insider’s Julie Bort’s article begins with what has become an increasingly common tale. Namely, a home owner renting out her property to a guest she “met” through accommodation classifieds service Airbnb:

Tschogl is a rehabilitation therapist, helping people with vision problems, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area… She was happy with Airbnb until a man who goes by the name “Maksym” contacted her through Airbnb asking to rent her Palm Springs condo for longer than a month. He told her he needed accommodations for an extended business trip, Tschogl says.

However, according to Business Insider, the situation quickly turned into a nightmare as the tenant morphed into a squatter who refused to leave her property:

But Maksym stayed in the condo, according to Tschogl. “It became a confusing situation. Both I and Airbnb told the guest to leave, but he would not,” Tschogl told us… She hired a lawyer and discovered that in California, once someone rents a property for 30 days, that person is considered a tenant on a month-to-month lease. To get the tenant out would require the whole eviction shebang, which could take 3-6 months and $US3,000-$5,000 in legal fees. She couldn’t just ask the police to haul the guy out.

The article is a timely reminder of the risks that are increasingly a part of the booming share economy.