Ashton Kutcher To Play Steve Jobs In Upcoming Film 215
An anonymous reader writes "Variety is reporting that Ashton Kutcher – who you likely recognize from That 70s Show, Punked, and Two and a Half Men – has been tapped to play Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in an indie film titled 'Jobs', based on a script from Matt Whiteley. The film will chronicle Steve Jobs from wayward hippie to co-founder of Apple, where he became one of the most revered creative entrepreneurs of our time."
First (Score:5, Funny)
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Dated April 02
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2012/04/report-ashton-kutcher-to-play-steve-jobs-in-movie/1#.T3mlMtlAqnA [usatoday.com]
Re:First (Score:5, Informative)
Posted by samzenpus on Sunday April 01, @23:28
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Not all countries seem to have that pre-midday rule. US being one that doesn't. (According to wikipedia).
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I was reading the April Fool's Day page yesterday.
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Don't feel bad, I was there yesterday too.
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I hadn't even heard of it before (Argentina). I'm inclined to think most countries *dont* have such a rule.
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At least it's not fucking pink ponies again.
In this case, I'd take the fucking pink ponies. I'm not a Jobs fan, per say, but NO ONE should be posthumously represented by Ashton Kutcher.
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Re:First (Score:5, Funny)
Given his acting skill, I believe Ashton Kutcher might be perfect for representing a posthumous Steve Jobs.
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At least it's not fucking pink ponies again.
In this case, I'd take the fucking pink ponies. I'm not a Jobs fan, per say, but NO ONE should be posthumously represented by Ashton Kutcher.
Nor, non-posthumously,
-AI
Charlie Sheen (Score:3)
I was hoping for Charlie Sheen for the win.
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Pointless, likely (Score:5, Insightful)
Will this movie offer anything that "Pirates of Silicon Valley" didn't? I doubt it.
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Johnny Depp as the quirky but lovable captain Larry Ellison of HMS Oracle?
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Johnny Depp as the quirky but lovable captain Larry Ellison of HMS Oracle?
Interestingly enough, Johnny Depp is going to be in this movie - as Captain Jack Sparrow.
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Will this movie offer anything that "Pirates of Silicon Valley" didn't? I doubt it.
I don't recall anyone uttering a phrase beginning with "Dude, where's my -" in "Pirates of Silicon Valley". If they can slip Steve Jobs saying that in the new movie then I'd watch it.
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there will be a whole new series of sequels, with the first titled "Patent Wars: The Stubborn Menace", starring Darl (McBride) Vader of the Imperial SCO Fleet battling the slightly more well-dressed than scum Novell Alliance.
Then there will be "Patent Wars Episode II: Attack of the Apples", with an army of black-skivvy-wearing fanboi clones in an epic battle against the Jedi masters of Samsung... "fong pei!!"
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Re:Pointless, likely (Score:5, Interesting)
Just thought of something else. Don't the other players have interesting stories too? Commodore and Atari immediately immediately come to mind. I mean, Jobs was an adopted child, call him a waaambulance: Jack Tramiel is a friggin' nazi death camp survivor. That's academy award material!
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So immediate that there was an echo.
Re:Pointless, likely (Score:4, Interesting)
Just thought of something else. Don't the other players have interesting stories too? Commodore and Atari immediately immediately come to mind. I mean, Jobs was an adopted child, call him a waaambulance: Jack Tramiel is a friggin' nazi death camp survivor. That's academy award material!
This clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PPeHExUbqs [youtube.com]
has some interesting stories from the Commodore 64 days told by Bil Herd.
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You probably copypasta'd this but it gave me a good laugh in the morning regardless XD
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Yeah, it's odd isn't it? Pirates of Silicon Valley ended up with a giant Bill Gates on a screen looking down on tiny Steve Jobs like he would an obediant, well-trained puppy.
And since then, Jobs went on to business mega-stardom and Bill Gates became a genuine hero by trying to rid the world of lots of nasties like Malaria and Polio.
What's the hype? (Score:4, Insightful)
I still don't get why Steve Jobs is revered. To me he was just another guy who wanted to make a lot of money at the expense of loyal fans of products that were not even designed by him.
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I'd explain why to you, but I don't feel like going over the history of the iMac, iTunes, the iPod, iPhone, and the iPad.
Re:What's the hype? (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the problem is the idea of "revered" - I mean, maybe some people do "revere" him, though to me that seems a bit silly.
Jobs was an amazing businessman and had a genius for marketing, no doubt. He's certainly comparable to other legendary business types on those notes, and may be the best in history in those areas.
One thing I note on slashdot is that a lot of people get pissy when the business people who make things happen get any credit, and instead they want to focus on the geeks who invented stuff. And that makes a certain kind of sense, to be sure - I mean, what Woz did was impressive, and it's hard to be a good businessman without a good product.
The problem is this:
What would have become of things if it were just Woz? I sincerely doubt that Apple would have been anything but one of those things that barely anyone outside of a handful of people remember, kind of like some people nowadays remember some really neat but obscure BBS software from back in the day.
Woz made things that Jobs was able to work with to make Apple huge. Without Woz and his kit, I think Jobs would have almost certainly found some other opportunity to get involved with and turn into something huge.
I don't think Woz, by himself, would have done much but make really neat stuff to give away. Which is really nice of him, but he would be completely obscure by this point in time unless someone like Jobs came along and brought his stuff to the masses.
Personally, I have a lot more respect for the Woz than I do for Jobs, but even so I cannot deny that without a Jobs-type Woz would just be some bearded nerd who makes cool shit that nobody outside of certain very small circles ever heard of.
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I wish I had something meaningful or interesting to add, but I don't. I just wanted to say I appreciate your post.
Re:What's the hype? (Score:4, Insightful)
It was his vision and it all started after his return.
You could make the same argument about George Lucas. When you liked Star Wars, it was Lucas and not McQuarrie, Kirshner, or Muren , and when the prequels came out it was Lucas and not Church or Tzu that took the blame. I realize the word 'Insightful' appears next to your post if you take Jobs down a notch, but that doesn't change the fact that if he didn't return, millions of households across the US woukd be very different today. This is inescapable no matter which word associated with him you redefine.
If you really think Steve wasn't that B of D, then you have to say Bill Gates wasn't, either. Go ahead, perjure yourself anonymously in case somebody wants to spend a mod-point on you. Educate me on how Steve wasn't really that involved even though his success was legendarily unique. The worst case scenario is I eat some humble pie and learn something in the process, I'll take those odds.
Re:What's the hype? (Score:4, Interesting)
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"Telling people what to like."
Awww, someone feels left out.
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Because he made a company that's richer than most sovereign nations.
True, if he were born today he'd just be a cocky asshole with little or no future. But he WAS born in the right time with the right skills, and did something notable. Which is true for all billionaires.
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I've had a few toxic bosses and coworkers in my life, so I too am lukewarm about revering an asshole. Like it or not, he WAS a talented business man and a significant innovator.
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Job
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Building humanity into everything that you do is a worthy life endeavor, building human touches into objects people can appreciate, building bridges that people need beyond products are touchstones that are the marque of SteveJobs.
Generations will pass before its accepted and understood what SteveJobs ' designed' after products mimicking feature failure after feature failure trying to replicate Steve's ' products' are similar but remain lacking and unsatisfying...products - which fail for reasons, primarily
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Why is Jobs so revered?
Because he had VISION.
Because he was willing to take RISKS.
Because he did NOTHING HALF-ASSED.
Your lack of respect someone who's not a hands on engineer is a mirror to engineering's perception that management and MBA types have no respect for them. Just because some one's occupation is different than yours does not make their efforts or contribution any less significant. How many companies have you founded? How many of those companies have become household names? How many of those have
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- he made the largest IT company in the world.
- he was not a geek, and appealed to "arty" types - so way less competition for "reverence".
- he marketed things that the market didn't know it wanted.
and probably lots of others.
Same reason Zuckerberg is revered (Score:3)
He made a lot of money. Does not matter if you are a total scumbag, if you make money, you are revered. It's the American way.
I wonder if the film will protray Steve Jobs as an idea theif, and patent troll? Or would that be too accurate?
Re:What's the hype? (Score:5, Informative)
I have a much harder time working out why Ashton is revered!
Why he is revered, is that so difficult? Why he is chosen is maybe a bit more obvious after seeing this [static2.ad.nl]...
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Which makes for a rivetting film. He also showed a lot of people how to take as much as you can from open source, give hardly anything back, and patent the crap out of evolutional uses of it.
Re:What's the hype? (Score:5, Insightful)
Engineers design to specs and requirements. Jobs tended to specify the high-level requirements. The engineers who worked for him are very clear on this -- Jobs was a micromanager who pushed hard for certain elements of design and usability. The Jobs approach was unique, and resulted in the distinctive Apple products of the 70s, 80, and 2000s. Unlike most CEOs, Steve Jobs had a close personal hand in the the successes and failures of Apple.
NB: I'm not a big fan of either Jobs or Apple. But his contributions are pretty clear.
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But when Jobs had his own company, Next, his micromanaging created the "perfect computer", in Steve Job's mind, that few could afford. He added hundreds of dollars to the price because he insisted that the case be a perfect cube and perfect cubes could only be manufactured by one company in the US.
Apple fired him once and re-hired him when that had a management team that could hold him in check. Steve jobs pushed harder on anything that could be patented to keep others out of the market, keep prices high an
Re:What's the hype? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, Steve Jobs made big mistakes, too. Not just the NeXT, either. During his original stint at Apple, the Apple Lisa was a total faillure. And he did some pretty nasty things in his personal life. He certainly wasn't perfect, and he made some pretty collosal mistakes. All that said -- Apple's major succcesses have come to significantly outweigh their failures, as evidenced by the current market for iPhones, iPads, etc. A lot of that success can be attributed almost directly to the vision and ideals of Steve Jobs. I'm not an Apple fan myself, but I can understand why the Apple fans revere him.
Re:What's the hype? (Score:4, Interesting)
Not to mention that he accidentally stumbled into history's greatest moneymaker, the App Store. Originally he was going to release the iPhone with no ability to run 3rd-party apps whatsoever (apart from web apps which was and still is more of a punchline than a solution as a replacement for all native apps - even ChromeOS has full offline capability), which would have made it nothing more than another quirky footnote in tech history, but then he caved to overwhelming developer pressure to allow 3rd-party apps on the device. This also led to the popularization of curated computing, the most damaging event in computing history.
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The App Store makes almost no money for Apple, as evident by their latest numbers [apple.com] (PDF):
Revenue for Software, Service and Other Sales (including sales from the Mac App Store in addition to sales of other Apple-branded and third-party Mac software and Mac and Internet services.) account for $729M, divided by the $28,270M they made the fourth quarter makes it about 2.6% of their total revenue, this does not account for costs for maintaining the infrastructure and paying for bandwidth. Revenue growth is smalle
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Except you need an iPhone to run those trivial donut money-generating apps. iPhone is seen to have 'got there first' with 3rd party apps to do just about anything, just like the Mac is seen to have 'got there first' with GUIs and mice, even though they scammed the ideas from Palo Alto.
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What package curation has been done in Linux? Protip: If you say repos, you'll make yourself look like an idiot.
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What package curation has been done in Linux? Protip: If you say repos, you'll make yourself look like an idiot.
How are repos not curation? They may use different standards about what to include or exclude than you might like, but the process is absolutely curation.
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Haha you fell for it. Repos are not curation because there is no limitation on which repos you can use, much like a jailbroken iPhone and the various jailbreaker app stores, to put it in terms you might be familiar with.
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Last I checked, no one has to jailbreak their Linux install to run their own applications. You can in fact unpack the source, compile and run just about any software from within ~. One only needs root to install it globally.
Repos generally only provide supported packages and are not a walled-garden. In fact many distros make it trivial to create custom repos.
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Last I checked, no one has to jailbreak their Linux install to run their own applications. You can in fact unpack the source, compile and run just about any software from within ~. One only needs root to install it globally.
Repos generally only provide supported packages and are not a walled-garden. In fact many distros make it trivial to create custom repos.
But curation != walled garden. I'd say they're almost orthogonal.
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Haha you fell for it. Repos are not curation because there is no limitation on which repos you can use, much like a jailbroken iPhone and the various jailbreaker app stores, to put it in terms you might be familiar with.
You don't know what curation means. You are also free to visit many different museums. Does that mean their collections are not curated?
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No I think you don't understand what "curated computing" means, it's basically synonymous with "walled garden computing." It's where a central authority decides which apps are available for a platform. Linux repos are curated but not an example of curated computing (since users are free to add, remove and create and share repos, and apps can be freely installed directly on the device as well).
His failures made him who he was. (Score:2)
Jobs had a lot of failures - and he was kicked out of Apple for good reasons. Next was also (financially) a failure.
Then came Pixar (a hardware company when Steve joined) and the turn around at Apple.
I am not a fanboy of Apple, but you have to respect what he did. He had a bold vision - which he always had. But then he executed and managed people to get there. He couldn't do that initially at Apple. He had to leave to mature.
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But then he executed [...] people to get there.
Jesus Christ dude, you CANNOT call a man a murderer without showing some proof.
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The Jobs Chronicles? [wikipedia.org]
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Next, his micromanaging created the "perfect computer", in Steve Job's mind, that few could afford...Steve Jobs is a marketer.
So you're saying that he was bad at marketing, but all of his success came from his amazing skill at marketing?
Either way, I don't think it's necessarily much of a criticism. "Steve Jobs didn't invent things, he merely knew how to make products that people really wanted to buy!"
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"Steve Jobs didn't invent things, he merely knew how to make products that people really wanted to buy!"
And if people didn't initially want to buy those products, his charisma on stage made them more compelling. I've only ever owned one Apple product (iPod) but I always watched his keynotes to see his energetic, funny and always interesting demonstrations Apple's newest gizmos; something he did very well.
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Designing an overly expensive computer is not marketing, as I said in my earlier post. Jobs keeps getting accolades because he is such an innovator but he is not an innovator, he is a marketer.
"Steve Jobs didn't invent things, he merely knew how to make products that people really wanted to buy!"
That is not what I am saying. A more accurate statement would be "Steve Jobs didn't invent things, he merely knew how to convince people to buy things that other people built".
Jobs biggest contribution to Apple was the concept of the closed system. Make Apple hardware and software a bit different so that it can be pat
Re:What's the hype? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:What's the hype? (Score:4, Interesting)
I have even less respect for Jobs than Thomas Edison. Both exploitative businessmen with negative contributions to society that overshadow the positive, but Edison at least had more tech skill and actually did some inventing himself, and his negative influence didn't have such long-lasting effects.
Also I think that Jobs wasn't even a great businessman any more than George Lucas is a great filmmaker. Like Lucas, he needed to be surrounded by critical peers to keep his crazier ideas in check, and without this moderating influence things went all to hell (see: NeXT, a lot of early Apple projects). Another example of poor business skill is his quest to destroy Android at all costs because he thought it was a "stolen product." He was an artist and not a techie, when another product showed any hint of influence from one of his own he didn't see it as normal tech evolution, he saw it as plagiarism.
Re:What's the hype? (Score:4, Informative)
This is something all the Jobs-worshipping Apple fanboys overlook. He was a notorious asshole boss, known to berate employees until they were reduced to tears or fire employees at the end of an elevator-ride chat if they shared an idea he didn't like. These sudden firings were known to Apple employees as "being Jobs'd."
And the guy bought a new Mercedes every 6 months so that he wouldn't have to put plates on it under California law, and then parked in handicap spots everywhere he went. That tells you a lot about him.
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This is something all the Jobs-worshipping Apple fanboys overlook. He was a notorious asshole boss, known to berate employees until they were reduced to tears or fire employees at the end of an elevator-ride chat if they shared an idea he didn't like. These sudden firings were known to Apple employees as "being Jobs'd."
So basically that's how he built a successful company and products so masterfully craftet that the competition is flattering them through imitation? Every boss should be like that it seems. ;-)
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Sure and every factory should be like Foxconn.
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"All" of them? How many actual "Jobs-worshipping Apple fanboys" have you actually met? When was the last time you saw one?
"Fanboys" are like the Loch Ness Monster. Lots of people claim to have seen it, but when pressed offer no evidence.
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Oh that makes it all okay, he forces the best out of people in the process of mistreating them, so it's not bad.
Blue Boxes? (Score:2)
Are they going to include how Jobs and Woz raised seed capital by selling "blue boxes" (long distance call billing bypass devices) to organized crime? (As documented by Esquire magazine.)
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which is what sums up the bullshit that IP laws are and how the rules are different. circumvent drm and sell the solution and you're thrown into jail now, do it with friends and you're thrown into jail for organized crime.
dud of a movie though if they don't include that, it's one of the most exciting times of woz and steve's careers - and it could contrast nicely with jobs yelling about ip theft and stealing pixars movies/pirating music in later stage in the movie, if they interlaced the scenes nicely.
Wrath of Apple fanbois (Score:2)
And thousand of fanbois goes "nutso" because Ashton isn't "deep" enough to play first class prima donna Jobs :)
If serious about that (and I don't know if this ain't still April Fools) Ashton have really good look alike similarity to early Jobs, he has good screen energy (yeah, I know it gets wasted on lot of useless things, but still - he has charisma), and I guess he is really aching to prove himself as good actor. And material is interesting - Jobs was complex persona. Maybe it will work, I don't know.
Any
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And thousand of fanbois goes "nutso" because Ashton isn't "deep" enough to play first class prima donna Jobs :)
If serious about that (and I don't know if this ain't still April Fools) Ashton have really good look alike similarity to early Jobs, he has good screen energy (yeah, I know it gets wasted on lot of useless things, but still - he has charisma), and I guess he is really aching to prove himself as good actor. And material is interesting - Jobs was complex persona. Maybe it will work, I don't know.
Anyway, as any artistic rendering - you can watch it, you can pirate it, you can ignore it. Your choice.
It isn't because he's not deep.
It's because Ashton Kutcher is a bad actor.
Well, (Score:2)
Wrote this awhile back.... (Score:2)
==============
Apple headquarters, main boardroom. It is full of executives in suits and ties.
John Sculley: Right, all those in favor, say 'aye'.
(all hands go up)
Everyone: Aye!!
(Steve enters, wearing jeans, sneakers, and a denim shirt. His hands are full.)
Steve: Alrighty, folks, I got pizzas and Shastas. Now let's get this meeting started! (silence.) What?
Front of the building.
(Steve is bum-rushed out the front doors. Lying on
Brilliant casting! (Score:5, Funny)
Get a douchebag to play a douchebag! Genius!
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Insanely great!
im no fan of ashton (Score:2)
An interesting choice (Score:2)
how do they avoid Isaacson material? (Score:2)
Yet another reason (Score:2)
to not go see that movie. How did Ashton Kutcher manage to get himself a career as an actor? Rob Schneider could probably do a better job than Kutcher, as could any of a thousand other people, many of whom aren't even actors.
Re:demi (Score:4, Funny)
BURN!
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More than BURN, dude! Where's the Stupid Helmet?
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The idiot. I would've stayed with Demi. WAY hotter than most chicks her age.
But nowhere near as hot as the younger chicks Kutcher is capable of getting.
Re:demi (Score:5, Funny)
The idiot. I would've stayed with Demi. WAY hotter than most chicks her age.
Most chicks her age are dead.
Re:demi (Score:5, Funny)
Will somebody please mod this funny?
My wife had to walk over to my office to find out why I was laughing like an idiot (she was not nearly as amused for some reason).
Re:demi (Score:5, Funny)
My wife had to walk over to my office to find out why I was laughing like an idiot (she was not nearly as amused for some reason).
Enjoy the couch tonight, buddy.
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That's definitely the wrong way to hold it!
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Did fictional depictions of Steve Jobs have an impact on you as a child?
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I loved it. I really should watch it again.
IIRC Woz said at the time that the details for events he personally witnessed were generally accurate though a number of Apple employees were folded into one or two characters. That, however, isn't surprising. (It's the same cost concerns that leads to Ebert's Law of Economy of Characters [suntimes.com].)