In the days following Steve Jobs’s death, publisher Simon & Schuster decided to release its authorized biography of the Apple founder a month earlier than planned. The book, written by Walter Isaacson and simply called Steve Jobs, will be out on the 24th, but details are already leaking.
According to the Huffington Post, which got a hold of a copy, Isaacson paints Jobs as a gruff supporter of Barack Obama, telling him: “You’re headed for a one-term presidency” when they met in 2010. He encouraged Obama to work more closely with businesses, citing “regulations and unnecessary costs” that might make an American company build factories in China, and criticized teachers unions for blocking much-needed education reforms.
Jobs and Obama did not quite have a love affair, but the Apple chief was willing to help:
The book also described how Jobs was “angrier than [Isaacson] had ever seen him” when Google released its Android operating system, which he felt infringed on patented iPhone technology:
Jobs also slammed Google’s work, telling Isaacson that “outside of Search, Google’s products — Android, Google Docs — are shit.”
The author has also issued some previews of his own in the form of a 60 Minutes appearance set to air on Sunday. In the television interview, Isaacson explains why Jobs initially declined to undergo surgery to treat his pancreatic cancer, hoping instead that alternative therapies would be enough to cure the disease:
The 656-page book, which is based on years of research and dozens of conversations between the writer and his subject, also addresses less weighty topics, such as the contents of Jobs’s iPod, which included Bob Dylan, Yo-Yo Ma, and the work of his onetime girlfriend Joan Baez.
This post has been updated with additional information.
Steve Jobs Said He’d ‘Go Thermonuclear War’ On Google Over iPhone ‘Theft’ [HuffPo]
Biographer: Jobs refused early and potentially life-saving surgery [CBS News]
