February 8, 2010: Apple CEO Steve Jobs allegedly flipped a tweet sent from an iPad by an editor at the address The Wall Street Journal.
Reason? Apple showed the iPad to top employees in a news release months before its official release. While Jobs had already unveiled the device to the public a few weeks ago, the suggestion that people outside of Apple were getting early access to the tablet clearly upset him.
Tweet iPad quickly disappears.
The infamous iPad tweet
In the early days of the iPad, scholars regularly debated the idea that the tablet could rejuvenate magazines and newspapers. Some saw it as a savior for struggling media, just as iTunes proved a boon for music companies after Napster.
During preparations for the launch of the iPad in April 2010, Steve Jobs met with The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Apple wanted to get news organizations to develop flashy apps for the upcoming tablet. Some of the journalists got their hands on the tablet. Inevitably, the man took to Twitter, the social media platform now known as X, to show off his early approach.
Jobs was having none of it.
Apple’s CEO was already on edge at this point, as he often is before any major product launch. He reportedly said he is not known for “turning off the message” during press meetings. The New York Times that he was showered with abuse from some so-called “Apple fans”. He said some of the emails he received about the iPad contained “really nasty things … (things) like ‘F**k you and your family.’
Steve Jobs controls the iPad story
With a desire to control the iPad’s narrative, it’s understandable why something as minor as a tweet sent from one of Apple’s upcoming tablets would enrage Jobs.
At that time, the guy who feels the offensive tweet — The Wall Street Journal online executive editor Alan Murray — said Valleywag“I’d like to talk about it, but I can’t.
Valleywag pinned the iPad tweet deletion on an angry Jobs:
“Tea News‘s online executive editor Alan Murray quickly deleted a February 4 tweet that, it is now clear, was posted during Apple CEO Jobs’ show-and-tell with select News employees,” the publication wrote. “One tipster told us the deletion ultimately leads back to a furious Jobs.”
Murray later sent an email Valleywag about the situation.
“I will say that Apple’s general paranoia about intelligence is truly extraordinary,” Murray said. “But that doesn’t tell you anything you don’t already know.
Photo: Alan Murray
Stephen Colbert brings the iPad to the Grammys
The iPad actually resurfaced before launch. A week earlier, the tech world went into meltdown when Stephen Colbert used a pre-sale iPad to read the list of Grammy nominees.
“I saw (Apple) announce it and I said, ‘God, I want one of those,'” Colbert later told reporters. “I went, ‘I’m opening the Grammys. Send me one and I’ll pull it out of my pocket (on stage).’ By the way, it’s gone – I can’t keep it. They passed it to me backstage, they pulled it out, and I passed it to them when I got backstage.”
In other words, when it came to secrecy and control, Apple took no chances!
