Nervous before a live TV appearance (‘ready to throw up’)

Around this recording

The recordings either side of it, in order.

All 202 recordings of Steve Jobs →

1. 1980

   Presentation at Regis McKenna’s agency (‘Insanely Great’ footage)

   Jobs, apologising for arriving late after driving at 90 mph, gives a first-hand account of Apple’s founding and growth, computers as ‘tools for minds’, VisiCalc, education and the company’s design philosophy (‘simplicity is the ultimate sophistication’).

2. 1980

   RTÉ interview at the Cork factory

   A 25-year-old Jobs, visiting Apple’s newly opened manufacturing plant in Cork, tells RTÉ’s Pat Kenny that personal computers will spread into homes, businesses and schools and mentions the Apple II flying on the Space Shuttle. Among the earliest surviving television interviews with him.

3. 1981

   Raw TV interview in his Apple office (ABC 20/20)

   A 26-year-old Jobs explains why he dislikes the term ‘home computer’, compares personal computers to the fractional-horsepower electric motor, and describes the computer as ‘a 21st-century bicycle’ for the mind.

4. 1981

   ABC News feature: starting a company in Silicon Valley

   A short ABC News segment in which the 26-year-old Apple chairman, shown riding his BMW motorcycle, explains Silicon Valley’s tolerance for start-up failure and why it is a good place to start a company. ABC News re-posted the clip on what would have been Jobs’s 60th birthday.

5. 1981

   ABC Nightline debate with Ted Koppel and David Burnham

   After a Cape Canaveral computer failure, Koppel moderates a debate between Jobs and privacy writer David Burnham. Jobs calls the computer ‘the bicycle of the 21st century’ and predicts one in ten US households will own one within five or six years.

6. 1981

   CBS News feature on the personal computer

   A short CBS news piece on the arrival of the personal computer in which correspondent Barry Petersen interviews Apple chairman Jobs. Jobs argues that people will adopt computers the way they adopted calculators and ATMs, gradually and on human terms rather than in a ‘1984’-style future.

7. 1981

   Nervous before a live TV appearance (‘ready to throw up’)

   A bearded young Jobs in a brown suit fidgets while being prepared for a live satellite TV interview, marvels ‘Look at that! I’m on television!’ and tells the crew he needs to know where the restroom is because he is ‘deathly ill, actually, and ready to throw up at any moment’.

8. 1982

   Applefest Boston: Jobs and Wozniak on software copy protection

   At the BCS-hosted Applefest in May 1982, an audience question prompts Wozniak to tackle copy protection technically while Jobs sketches a future of low prices and convenient electronic software distribution. One of the few surviving recordings of the two founders on stage together in the Apple II era.

9. 1982

   Academy of Achievement acceptance speech

   A ‘mischievous’ 27-year-old Jobs, attending at the suggestion of Bill Hewlett, urges the student delegates to seek unconventional experiences, think for themselves and give back to the innovation that enriched them. The seven-minute audio was released by the Academy after his death.

10. 1983

    NBC News interview during the Lisa tour

    A short NBC News clip shot during the January 1983 Lisa promotional tour in which the 27-year-old Jobs describes the ‘personal office system’ market and how the mouse lets users point at things instead of learning complex keyboard commands.

11. 1983

    Lisa presentation at the Aspen design conference (surviving excerpt)

    In a leather bomber jacket, Jobs compares the human brain with computers, explains the Lisa’s graphical interface and argues its ease of use multiplies productivity, before closing with a multimedia slide show.

12. 1983

    Aspen design conference keynote: ‘The Future Isn’t What It Used To Be’

    Wearing a bow tie (‘they paid me sixty dollars, so I wore a tie’), Jobs tells the assembled designers ‘we really, really need your help’, predicts PCs will outsell cars by 1986, and foresees portable computers with radio links, electronic mail, software sold like records and voice recognition a decade away.

13. 1983

    Aspen design conference: the ‘lost’ informal Q&A session

    Sitting backwards on a metal folding chair in casual clothes, Jobs takes questions from conference-goers for about 45 minutes on networking, privacy, graphic design, hiring and the future of the industry.