The claims have been made by singer Neil Young, who has stated in a recent interview that he was working on the mystery device with the late Apple CEO before he passed away last year. According to Young, Jobs preferred listening to vinyl records while at home and was working on a solution to deliver a device that would be more suitable for professional musicians with a preference to higher quality music.

At the moment, the most popular format is the mp3 of course, which obviously isn’t ideal for consumers who have become used to listening to music at a higher quality. The current iPod supports formats such as MP3, AAC and WAV, but an article by The Guardian reveals that this device that Young and Jobs were working on would feature an uncompressed music format, as well as the ability to download songs while a user sleeps.

Unfortunately, Young also states that since Jobs has passed away, work on the device has come to a halt, or in his words as he put it – there’s ‘nothing much going on’ right now. We’re obviously intrigued by this higher audio quality that Young is on about though, so we hope that the project isn’t dead and buried just yet. As for the ability to download songs while sleeping, that’s a fantastic idea which we’re sure will become available sooner rather than later anyway.

Another potential problem though regarding this mystery device – would there really be enough demand for this higher audio quality iPod? The iPod is obviously immensely popular with the young generation at the moment, most of whom cannot tell the difference between uncompressed and compressed music. Perhaps Jobs and Young were working on a device which would come as a secondary alternative to a standard iPod to suit those with a greater ear for quality.

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Below we have added an extract of a statement from In Icon’s Tandy Cheung, as you can see he still believes that legally there is nothing wrong with the figure, but suggests that morally the timing of the launch was questionable, here’s what he said:

“Though we still believe that we have not overstepped any legal boundaries, we have decided to completely stop the offer, production and sale of the Steve Jobs figurine out of our heartfelt sensitivity to the feelings of the Jobs family.”

We think that if this product launched prior to Steve Jobs passing away, or perhaps In Icon decided that a percentage of the proceeds would go to pancreatic cancer charities the figurine would have been acceptable, instead the fact that it was launched shortly after his death seemed coincidental and many though In Icons were wrongly exploiting Jobs’s death.

When In Icons were selling the 12-inch ultra-realistic figurine it sold for $99.99, the announcement has resulted in some people putting the figure on eBay for ridiculous amounts – the highest we have seen is $2,500 and we’re not fans of this either so we won’t be linking you to the listing – why do people stoop so low?

Before we leave you we thought we would ask you opinion on the matter, would you pay $100 for the figure if Jobs’ family OK’d it and a percentage of the proceeds went to charity?

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We tried to head over to the InIcons website to find out full details, however it looks like the massive spike in traffic has caused the site to go offline (at the time of this post), luckily lots of tech websites have been talking about the action figure today and it has even been feature on the HLN news channel – you can see a video showing this report at the bottom of this post.

The figure is very realistic, so much so the news reporter talking about the upcoming product mistakenly thought she was looking at a photo of Jobs, this may land InIcons in some trouble with Apple’s lawyers as the figure is unauthorized – which means the company has no right to use Steve Jobs’ name and/or image.

We managed to get on the InIcons.com website earlier and it looks like the company was taking pre-orders earlier today for $99.99 a pop, we think that this price tag is very high and any reputable company who had the authority to distribute such a product would donate some of the proceeds to pancreatic cancer charities as this is what ultimately led to Steve Jobs’s demise.

Below we have embedded a few images from the HLN news report as you can see the figure is very much life-like and Steve’s attire is spot on – he is wearing the iconic round glasses, black turtleneck and blue jeans which he donned throughout many of his keynotes.

Hopefully we will hear some sort of comment from Apple on the matter soon, will you buy the action figure from InIcons.com? Or do you think it is a cheap way of earning money out of Jobs’ death?

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AppleInsider are reporting that Apple is looking to launch the next iPad on February 24, which is the birthday of former CEO Steve Jobs. The clams are coming from sources that are allegedly inside the iPad supply chain. Companies that are providing components for the new iPad are working round the clock to meet Apple’s deadline, and the launch of the iPad 3 is expected to be higher than 4 million units.

Sources are claiming that ODM and OEM makers have been careful to ensure that production lines are running smoothly. It is claimed that employees of Foxconn will only be allowed to take five days off during the Lunar New Year if they are working in the iPad division. Staff at Catcher Technology who supplies casings for the device will also be working overtime during the holiday.

There has been many rumors hinting at an early 2012 release for the iPad 3 for a while now, but until now there has been no specific date. Recently there has been talk that Apple was working on a smaller iPad to take on the likes of the Kindle Fire from Amazon.

It would be a fitting tribute if Apple were to launch the next iPad on Steve Jobs birthday, and would have been heavily involved in previous versions of the device. Do you think it would be nice for the iPad 3 to be released on Jobs birthday?

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The revelation came in a eulogy she had written about her brother which was shared during a memorial service for Jobs on October 16th and later published by The New York Times. It describes Simpson’s hopes and aspirations before meeting her brother for the first time and what he was like as a person, as well as what she thought of him when she met him for the first time.

The biological siblings did not meet each other until 1985 as Jobs was adopted. Having grown up with an absent father, Simpson wrote how she’d longed for a man to love who could love her back. She’d wished for her father to be ‘rich and kind’ and to come into her and her mother’s lives and help. Her wish came true through her ‘rich and famous’ long-lost brother.

‘My whole life I’d been waiting for a man to love, who could love me. For decades, I’d thought that man would be my father. When I was 25, I met that man and he was my brother.’

Simpson also explained in her eulogy that Jobs’ love for his wife and family ‘sustained him’ meaning it kept him going. She described the goals he had set that he had hoped to achieve before his death, including the launch of a boat he was building and his son’s graduation, explaining that he was unable to achieve all of them. Details on what some of his other goals were can be found at Apple Insider.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of the eulogy was the part revealing his last words. Simpson said ‘he seemed to be climbing’ as his breathing slowed, then he is described as ‘gazing’ at his wife, children and his sister Patty, then over their shoulders saying ‘OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.’ What are your theories on what these resounding last words could have meant?

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Steve Jobs first thought the problems were down to Google and Motorola who were trying to be mischievous, in response to the release of the handset. The Guardian is reporting that the former Apple CEO felt the two companies were trying to “shoot Apple down“.

Jobs only decided to tackle the issue head on after Tim Cook had quoted someone that had suggested Apple could become complacent and arrogant, a criticism often leveled at Microsoft. This was when Apple called an emergency press event to deal with the problem. Many users were complaining of dropped calls or the signal strength dropping when the device was held in a certain way.

The biography says Jobs was in Hawaii at the time on a family holiday when the issue first broke, and he was at first very defensive. Once he had the conversation with Tim Cook, Jobs immediately flew over to the Apple headquarters in California.

Steve Jobs felt though the situation was blown way out of context by the media, which only saw a return rate of 1.7%. This turned out to be a much lower return rate the previous iPhone 3GS model had seen.

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As most of you are well aware, iTunes remains available on Apple’s Mac OS X platforms, but since 2003, the company has now extended its availability to Microsoft’s Windows as well.

If you ever wondered why iTunes has never made it to Android, some comments taken out of Walter Isaacson’s biography are excellent reading and it reveals that Jobs did indeed plan to include iTunes on Android at one point. Here is some of his comments, as reported from CNET:

“We thought about whether we should do a music client for Android. We put iTunes on Windows in order to sell more iPods. But I don’t see an advantage of putting our own music app on Android, except to make Android users happy. And I don’t want to make Android users happy.”

Yes, you read that correctly. The main reason that iTunes is not on Android, is that Jobs didn’t want to make Android users happy. Jobs’ opinions on Android are well documented of course, but perhaps his comments may be deemed as very harsh in the view of Android owners who just want to enjoy the best format of listening to music. You may argue that there are plenty of better alternatives out there on Android for listening to music but let’s face it – iTunes is head and shoulders above everything else at the moment.

It has become apparent that Steve Jobs has said a lot about Android in his biography. It is pretty fascinating reading – here’s his comments about Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates for example. Let’s just hope that Tim Cook manages to emulate some of the fiery nature that Jobs had in relation to his rivalries with other operating systems.

So Android users, Steve Jobs didn’t want you to be happy – what are your thoughts on this?

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Jobs was angry as he felt Apple’s ideas were blatantly being copied in Android handsets in the early part of 2010. According to The Guardian he was livid when HTC released a smartphone that had many of the popular features that were found on the iPhone. This led to an expletive-laden tirade where he said Google’s actions resulted in “grand theft”.

Walter Isaacson who is Steve Jobs official biographer was told “I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40bn in the bank, to right this wrong”. Jobs continued by saying “I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this”, and that’s when he said about “destroying Android“.

Jobs met with Google’s Eric Schmidt and told him he didn’t want his money, but just wanted him to stop using Apple’s ideas in Android. The meeting between the two didn’t resolve anything and is believed to have taken place in March 2010 in a café in Palo Alto. They did seem to be on friendly terms though, but was around the time Apple begun its court actions against HTC that is still ongoing.

Google first launched Android towards the end of 2008 with the first devices appearing a year later. The rivalry between the companies has become more heated as features such as touchscreen control and pinch-to-shrink appeared on Android smartphones.

Do you think the Android platform has stolen ideas from Apple?

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Stores remained closed at 9 a.m. until noon which meant the stores’ employees were able to pay tribute to Jobs during an event that was held at the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, which celebrated his life with a live broadcasting. It was held at 10.30 a.m. until 11.30 a.m. and was not open to the public.

According to Reuters the memorial page displays several messages from employees, customers and others from all over the world at any one time with new ones being posted regularly. The company says it set up an email address dedicated to those who wished to leave the thoughts, condolences, memories and comments after the tragedy the day he died. They had received over a million so set up the Remembering Steve page as a memorial.

Since his death there have been many people paying tribute including a student from Hong Kong who found his subtle logo design received great success. There was also a biography of Steve Jobs released and has even been talks of a movie being made about his life. Whether you are an Apple fan or not, there is no denying that Steve Jobs has revolutionized an industry we now take for granted and will be greatly missed although he has left his legacy behind to live with us always.

Will you be paying tribute to Steve Jobs on the Remembering Steve web page?

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According to a report on Cnet an analyst is claiming that the iPhone 4S was not Jobs last big project. The next model that could well be called the iPhone 5 was reportedly the great mans last project he had a major say in. Rodman & Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar, feels the handset will become even more successful because of the link with Steve Jobs.

It is claimed to have a slimmer form factor and larger screen, but with the same overall dimensions to the current model. We have heard such rumors before concerning a redesigned iPhone that didn’t materialize, but reports have claimed before an all new iPhone was delayed until LTE technology is ready for the device.

Another source is also claiming that the next iPhone will have a complete redesign, and that Steve Jobs spent a great deal of time with it. The iPhone 4S saw all its changes on the inside and with the software, and has similar technology to the iPad 2. It has the same processor, accelerometer, gyroscope, and memory capacity among other things.

The source is also claiming the company will launch the handset during the summer of next year at the WWDC event, which used to be the normal time of year for a new iPhone. If it is indeed true and Jobs had a big say in the rumored device, it will further add to the appeal of the handset.

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