Steve Jobs on Wi-Fi Interference: Turn Off Your Laptops
This clip is an excerpt from a longer recording: Steve Jobs on iPhone 4 and FaceTime: A bigger leap.
What Jobs talks about
Jobs opens by diagnosing a demo failure as a Wi-Fi problem, blaming the many active base stations in the room. He asks the audience to shut off laptops, base stations, flashes, and phones so the demos can continue.
The recording also captures him arguing that some developers lie about what their apps do, use unpublished APIs, and then complain to the press after rejection. He says Apple will not change its mind just because of that pressure.
He ends by defending Apple’s privacy policies and asking the audience to stop making him “blind” with camera flashes. The moment shows his forceful stage presence and his insistence on protecting product demos and platform rules.
Jobs speaks throughout; audience responses are heard but no other speaker is identified.
In his words
“Because there are 570 Wi-Fi base stations operating in this room.”
“Would you like to see the demos or not?”
“So all you bloggers need to turn off your base stations, turn off your Wi-Fi.”
“Some people use unpublished APIs, and their apps get rejected.”
“This is violating our privacy policies”
Key points
- The demo is being disrupted by too many Wi-Fi signals in the room.
- Jobs asks the audience to turn off laptops, base stations, flashes, and phones.
- He says Apple rejects apps that hide what they really do or use unpublished APIs.
- He criticizes developers who go to the press after rejection to pressure Apple.
- He defends Apple’s privacy policies and says publishing data about new products is unacceptable.
Full transcript
My camera's not turning on. What's that? I did slide it and let go. It's not turning on. Okay. We'll let an expert see if we can turn it on. Our networks in here are always unpredictable, so... I have no idea what we're going to find. They are slow today. You know, you could help me out if you're on Wi-Fi, if you could just get off. I'd appreciate it. We're having a little problem here. We figured out why my demo crashed.
Because there are 570 Wi-Fi base stations operating in this room. Okay? We can't deal with that. So, we have two choices. Either, I've got some more demos that are really great that I'd like to show you. So, we either turn off all the stuff and see the demos, or we give up and I don't show you the demos. Would you like to see the demos or not? Okay. So, here's the deal. Let's turn off the lights in the hall. Several hundred of these are these Wi-Fi things, too, by the way. So, all you bloggers need to turn off your base stations, turn off your Wi-Fi. Every notebook, I'd like them to put them down on the floor. And all of you, look around. I'd like you to police each other. If you want to see the demos, shut all your laptops, turn off all these Wi-Fi base stations, and put them on the floor, please.
Come on, look around you. I mean, I'm not, you know, I think bloggers have a right to blog, but if we want to see the demos, we're not going to be able to do it, unless we turn off all these Wi-Fi base stations and laptops, set them on the floor. I've got time. I really want your Wi-Fi devices off. Are they off? Are they off? Please turn them off if you've turned them back on. We're making mistakes. We're fixing them as fast as we can.
And what happens sometimes, though, is that some people lie. Some people use unpublished APIs, and their apps get rejected. Some people submit an app that they say does one thing, but really does something else. They try to hide it from us. They get very clever about that. They try to hide it from us, and we find it, and we reject it, and they run to the press, and they tell the press the story about oppression, and it gets written up, and they get their 15 minutes of fame because they hope it will convince us to change our minds, which it never does, but they keep trying to do that. And it's unfortunate, but we take it in the chin. That's part of what we do, and we don't run to the press and go, this guy's a son-of-a-bitch liar.
And we went through the roof about this. So we said, no, we're not going to allow this. This is violating our privacy policies, and it's pissing us off that they're publishing data about our new products. And you guys have to stop making me blind, or I'm going to fall off the stage here like Bob Dylan. Thank you. Guys, can I ask you to stop using the flashes for a little while? That'd be great. I can hardly see anymore. Thanks. You know, I can't see when you do that. Thanks. So maybe later, could we do some more? That'd really help me. Thanks. You know, I could hear a lot of phones beeping, so could we just take a minute, maybe everybody could flip the silencer on their phones?
Thank you.
Transcribed from the audio with OpenAI Whisper. Timestamps link to the video above. Errors are possible.