Mon, 17 May 2010 Steve Jobs 2am emails: Apple's motives are pure, hits out at Adobe again

Apple's CEO Steve Jobs has been replying to emails again, this time a 2am response over the weekend to Gawker blog writer Ryan Tate, who asked what was so revolutionary about the iPad. Annoyed by an Apple ad and citing Bob Dylan, Tate asked: "If Dylan was 20 today, how would he feel about the company? Would he think the iPad had the faintest thing to do with "revolution?" Revolutions are about freedom."

Gawker Media is an online media company and blog network that includes Gizmodo, who recently hit the headlines when they paid for a next-generation iPhone prototype, which allegedly was lost in a German themed US bar and was eventually returned to Apple.  According to reports, California's Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team reportedly entered Gizmodo senior editor Jason Chen's residence last month with a warrant, seizing four computers, two servers, and a number of other incidentals including flash drives, cameras, and mobile phones.

In a lengthy exchange of emails, for the Apple CEO at least, Jobs replies, quoting a Dylan lyric while taking a dig at Adobe again over Flash and iPad battery life and highlighting Apple's no porn stance when it comes to iTunes App Store applications: "Yep, freedom from programs that steal your private data. Freedom from programs that trash your battery. Freedom from porn. Yep, freedom. The times they are a changin', and some some traditional PC folks feel like the world is slipping away. It is."

Hightlighting various publishers, magazines, iPad applications and technical standards, Gawker's Tate wonders if Apple will have an adverse effect on the future of digital publishing. Jobs responds claiming publishers have the freedom of choice not to develop for the iPad.

"Wait - of course they don't have to. They don't need to publish on the iPad if they don't want to. No one is forcing them. But it appears they DO want to," Jobs insists.

"There are almost 200,000 apps in the App Store, so something must be going alright. The magazine apps will be far better in the end because they are written native. We've seen this movie before."

"Gosh, why are you so bitter over a technical issue such as this? Its not about freedom. Its about Apple trying to do the right thing for its users. Users, developers and publishers can do whatever they like - they don't have to buy or develop or publish on iPads if they don't want to. This seems like its your issue, not theirs."

The email correspondence continues, Gawker's Tate covering Apple's attitude to application programming interfaces (APIs) and "Apple's pet police force literally kicking in my co-workers' doors."

Jobs, writing at 2.20am sends a final response, for now at least: "You are so misinformed. No one kicked in any doors. You're believing a lot of erroneous blogger reports."

"Microsoft had (has) every right to enforce whatever rules for their platforms that they want. If people don't like it, they can write for another platform, which some did. Or they can buy another platform, which some did."

"As for us, we're just doing what we can do to try and make (and preserve) the user experience we envision. You can disagree with us, but our motives are pure."

"By the way, what have you done that's so great? Do you create anything, or just criticize others work and belittle their motivations?"

The full email correspondence between Gawker's Tate and Apple's Jobs can be found here. According to Wikipedia, Gawker.com is  New York based blog that bills itself as: "The source for daily Manhattan media news and gossip" with a focus on celebrities and the media industry. Below is the Apple ad that prompted the original email.