Jobs has been talking about anthropomorphic technology for quite a bit [1]. I've always liked to imagine Jobs had some influence on WALL-E's EVE. It was a Pixar movie, after all...
1. Longer than this, but it's the only reference I could find: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/3533.html
Close. Jonathan Ive (Apple's chief designer) helped design EVE: http://gizmodo.com/389772/wall+e-movie-is-jonathan-ives-late...
Jobs doesn't do the actual industrial design - he knows what he likes, and he has a great eye for it (or so I hear) but the man behind Apple's design aesthetic is Jonathan Ive. And he did design Eve.
http://gizmodo.com/389772/wall+e-movie-is-jonathan-ives-late...
The power multiplier that Jobs brings to the company comes from two things: his uncompromising sense of good taste and his idealism for the role of technology in our lives.
The things that Jonathan Ive builds are reflections of his own deep commitment to those values. He gets it.
I'd have to think that letting the design guy worry about design would probably be the better route, rather than clouding with all of the other business decisions and realities in a major way
Indeed, the story of Jony Ive reflects this: toiling in relative obscurity before Jobs' return, Steve immediately recognizes his talent and promotes him aggressively.
Here's a design patent for the glass staircase, listing Jobs as lead designer: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sec...
Amusing if true: the glass cube outside the Manhattan Apple Store was designed by Steve Jobs himself, and the lease stipulates that it is his personal property and he has the right to remove it at the end of the lease: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/05/12/05/jobs_wants_32_...
(If I ever had the balls to ask Steve Jobs a completely inane question, I would ask what the hell it was with him and cubes.)
I've always liked to imagine Jobs had some influence on
WALL-E's EVE. It was a Pixar movie, after all...