What was Steve Jobs really like?

Steve Jobs was a legend when he headed Apple. That impression has only grown after his passing. But who was he, really? His wife, his successor, and his designer will tell you if you’re in the Beverly Hilton on the 6th of September. The rest of us will read about it here or watch it on YouTube.

Jobs’ widow Laurene Powell Jobs, iPhone designer Sir Jony Ives and captain of a $1-trillion company, Tim Cook, will speak at the Code Conference this year.

Steve Jobs for everyone

Cook has taken Apple into the stratosphere, although he is often critiqued for not coming up with another blockbuster new product, apart from the Apple Watch. That this digital wrist must-have now sells more than all the Swiss luxury watches makers doesn’t seem enough to silence those critics. It also unlocked iPhones while we were all wearing masks during Covid.

Ive, who left Apple to start his own design consultancy, was Jobs’ closest collaborator and the designer who gave the world so many of Apple’s simplistic (and ludicrously profitable) gadgets.

Powell Jobs, who is the founder and president of the Emerson Collective, obviously knows her late husband the best. They sat on the floor of their house for long enough, while famously debating what couch to buy, and will be a fascinating person to listen to – except for lounge furniture shopping advice.

Code is an annual event hosted by tech journalist extraordinaire Kara Swisher and organised by tech publication ReCode (owned by Vox Media) and attracts big-name speakers.

I would go just to hear Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen and NYU Stern professor of marketing Scott Galloway, who wrote that excellent book The Four.

You can also hear Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, new Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, and Snap CEO and co-founder Evan Spiegel, who must be kicking himself for not selling to Facebook when his app was still hotter than TikTok.