Gawker: valleywag, lisa brennan-jobs

A fake Steve Jobs pops up on Facebook

Owen Thomas — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:40:00 EDT

There's a "Steven P Jobs" on Facebook. But it's not Apple's CEO. How can I tell? The biographical details, which anyone can get from Wikipedia, are all correct. But the "About Me" section is a dead giveaway.

It reads, "Have a passion for really great products!" The exclamation point kills it for me. Add to that: He's not even in Facebook's Apple network. His wife, Laurene Powell-Jobs, and his daughter Lisa Brennan-Jobs both have Facebook profiles, and they aren't on his friends list. Sadly, 75 Apple employees, drawn to any electronic hint of their cult leader, are.

I'm left wishing Dan Lyons had been the one to pull this stunt. The original Fake Steve Jobs would have made this Facebook page so convincing I would have believed it. And gladly.

Steve Jobs isn't in Apple's Facebook network — but his wife is

Jordan Golson — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:00:52 EST

Laurene Powell-Jobs, Steve Jobs's wife, is in the Apple network on Facebook. Isn't that for Apple employees only? To join an employer's Facebook network, users must have an approved email address. Only those whose addresses ends in @apple.com can join the Apple network. As far as we can determine, Powell-Jobs does not hold a position at Apple. If she did, Apple would certainly have to disclose it in SEC filings. So what is she doing in the Apple Facebook group? Her full Facebook profile is below.

What it reveals: Powell-Jobs is friends with a few notable people, including her stepdaughter Lisa Brennan-Jobs, and two children of Google.org head Larry Brilliant, Joe and Jon. (Don't you hate it when your parents' friends add you on Facebook?) She's also reviewed The Incredibles, a movie released by the Pixar studio her husband sold to Disney.

Lisa Brennan-Jobs on her "glamorous world"

Jordan Golson — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:20:49 EST

Apple CEO Steve Jobs fathered a daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, who has grown up into the very image of her famous father. Biographies of Jobs have recounted how he initially refused to acknowledge her, but later invited her to live with him as a teenager. In a first-person article in February's Vogue, Brennan-Jobs addresses her personal history — as far as we know, for the first time. Here's the 100-word version:

In California, my mother had raised me mostly alone. We didn't have many things, but she is warm and we were happy. We moved a lot. We rented. My father was rich and renowned, and later, as I got t know him, went on vacations with him, and then lived with him for a few years, I saw another, more glamorous world. The two sides didn't mix, and I missed one when I had the other. When I left Marco he gave me a gift: a small glass snail. I think it meant that I'd had my home all along: Snails carry their home with them wherever they go.

What if Steve Jobs were a girl?

Owen Thomas — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:00:18 EST

It's long been known that Apple CEO Steve Jobs fathered a daughter, Lisa, out of wedlock, and did not acknowledge her until later in life. (Apple's ill-fated Lisa is apocryphally said to be named after her.) Now, Lisa Brennan-Jobs is an accomplished magazine writer. Her latest assignment: a story in February's Vogue. But my eyes stopped on the magazine's contributors page, which featured a striking photo of Brennan-Jobs. She is the very image of her father.

Seeing the picture, seeing Jobs's face on his daughter, got me thinking. In what other ways are they similar? Did Brennan-Jobs inherit Steve's brilliance, his charisma, his infamous temper? Would she be as suited to the job of running Apple as her father? Would the male-dominated technology industry accept her?

This is not so much a question about Brennan-Jobs — though it's an intriguing thought to imagine her delivering a Macworld keynote. No, it's about the still-rampant sexism in tech. What if Steve had been a girl? Would he have been able to start Apple, raise venture capital, take the company public? Women CEOs are still few and far between; with eBay CEO Meg Whitman's retirement, replaced by a man, we have one fewer. That's a movement in the wrong direction.

Stinginess begins at home

ndouglas — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 14:09:13 EST

Cult of Mac author Leander Kahney found that Steve Jobs hasn't cut a single check to charity. Maybe he puts his family first, right? Well, no. For those of you who haven't read the roman clef A Regular Guy (by Jobs' biological sister), we'll connect the dots: it turns out the mogul refused to pay child support for his daughter Lisa, denying she was even his, for years. Can't imagine that's healthy. At least he named a computer after her — okay, a failed one, but there's only so much love a dad can give, eh?

Jobs vs. Gates: Who's the Star? [Cult of Mac, Wired News]