'60 minutes'

Steve Jobs and 'the passion of his honesty'

Steve Jobs is infamous for being an abrasive and often abusive boss--determined to get his way. But for those at Apple who stood up to him, there could be a humorous payoff, his biographer, Walter Isaacson, tells "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft.

"He could have been kinder, he could have been gentler to people," Isaacson says. "But I think the honesty and the passion of his honesty both made for the great products but also made for that cruelty sometimes."

Stiil, he didn't mind people pushing back at him, Isaacson says, recollecting an … Read more

Steve Jobs told Obama he would be a one-termer

Steve Jobs met with President Obama a few times and gave him ideas for how to generate jobs in the U.S., according to his biographer, Walter Isaacson.

Jobs also told Isaacson that Obama needed a management style more like his own, which could be both mean and manipulative. They clashed over how best to attract and retain talented overseas engineers. And even though Jobs had supported Obama's candidacy, he also warned Obama that he would be a one-term president.

Walter Isaacson: 'The key to understanding Steve Jobs'

In an interview on "60 Minutes," biographer Walter Isaacson says that two of the key influences in Steve Jobs' upbringing were learning that he was adopted, and growing up in Silicon Valley, where the emerging digital world met the Bay Area's counterculture.

Isaacson tells of a turning point when Jobs was a child and grappling with being adopted, and took to heart the reassurances of his adoptive parents.

"He said, 'From then on, I realized I was not just abandoned, I was chosen. I was special'," Isaacson said. "And I think that's the … Read more

Steve Jobs, family man beyond the public persona

College student Reed Jobs decided to study oncology after seeing his father, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, battle cancer. Reed's younger sister Eve is a great horseback rider, and their sister Erin has her father's great sense for design. And the eldest, Lisa, who was estranged from her father when she was young, became very close with him in recent years.

These are some of the insights that Jobs' biographer Walter Isaacson shared with "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft as the two browsed through some Jobs family photos--on an iPad, of course.

The photos show a side … Read more

Steve Jobs and his 'reality distortion field'

Steve Jobs' colleagues at Apple often referred to his "reality distortion field." It's a science fiction term that described his belief that wanting and willing something--even the near-impossible--could make it happen.

Steve Jobs was kicked out of his own company after a boardroom showdown. When he returned years later, Apple was almost bankrupt, but Jobs turned it around, leading one of the biggest comebacks in business history.

Steve Jobs: 'I admire Mark Zuckerberg'

"They just don't get it." That's how Steve Jobs described his digital rivals Microsoft and Google in an interview with his biographer, Walter Isaacson.

For his just-released biography, Steve Jobs, Isaacson conducted more than 40 taped interviews with the Apple co-founder and CEO--all of them done while Apple was on its ascent with one great product after another, but Jobs was on his decline, ill with a form of pancreatic cancer that would end his life at age 56.

On 60 Minutes Overtime this week, we take a listen to some of those interviews in which … Read more

To Jobs, Microsoft and Google 'just don't get it' (video)

Listen to Steve Jobs as he talks about what these two tech giants were lacking in this excerpt from " 60 Minutes Overtime" (starting around 0:46 in the video):

Walter Isaacson taped many of his interview sessions with the notoriously private Steve Jobs and learned a great deal about the complex life and personality of a man who typically shunned the public eye. Isaacson shared the tapes with "60 Minutes" to help bring the more than 40 interviews he did to life.

As producer Graham Messick points out, these recordings were made on walks and in … Read more

Jobs in his own words: Meeting his biological dad

In a preview clip of a "60 Minutes" interview airing Sunday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who died earlier this month at the age of 56, tells biographer Walter Isaacson he "didn't like what I learned" about his biological father and asked at the time that they never meet.

Of course it's just one of the many revelations Isaacson reveals about the complex life and personality of Jobs, who was adopted and unknowingly met his biological father.

The show airs on CBS Sunday at 7 p.m. ET/PT. Isaacson's biography "Steve Jobs&… Read more

Steve Jobs biographer: Jobs refused surgery

"60 Minutes" has posted a preview teaser from its interview with Walter Isaacson, the biographer whose book about the life of the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs hits store shelves next week. In the interview, Isaacson says that Jobs initially refused to have surgery until urged by friends and family.

In the clip, which is embedded below, Steve Kroft of "60 Minutes" gets Isaacson to discuss Jobs' handling of a tumor, which Isaacson says Jobs attempted to treat with alternative medicine versus having it surgically removed.

"You know, I've asked him about that," … Read more