David Pogue has a substack blog now and he’s written “Five stories from 50 years” about his interactions with Apple and Steve Jobs that is well worth reading.
Not all his interactions with Steve Jobs were happy ones, and when he wrote something in his tech column for the New York Times that Jobs didn’t like, he’d receive a nasty call from Jobs letting him know.
Back in 2007 when the iPhone was initially released, I remember reading Pogue’s column, and as he often did, he included a video. This one was especially whimsical, as he had made it with the hundreds of people who were in line at the New York City Apple Store waiting for the store to open so they could be among the first to buy the new gadget.
Here it is, still hilarious after all these years. BTW, as he explained in a followup column, he did not actually throw his previous phone into the river.
And here is David describing the making of that video and receiving a call from Jobs:
When the iPhone was about to go on sale in 2007, a thousand people lined up around the block at New York City’s Apple Store.
I’d written a parody of “My Way,” with the crazy idea of filming a music video with the participation of people standing in that line. It was a total blast; everyone in line was game. I edited the results together and uploaded it—and for six hours, ladies and gentlemen, it was the most watched video on YouTube. (It’s still there.)
Anyway. That night, I got a call from Jobs’s assistant. “I have Steve on the line,” she said. “Can you take the call?”
I was out to dinner with my family, but I said yes.
“David?” Jobs said when he came on the line. “I saw that song video you posted today.”
Oh GREAT, I thought. I steeled myself for another epic reaming by the CEO of Apple.
“I just wanted to say, it was the funniest fucking thing I’ve ever seen,” he said.
