Publisher pushes up Jobs bio release to October 24

The release date for the first authorized biography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has been pushed forward to October 24 following his death, publisher Simon & Schuster said Thursday. The 656-page book by Walter Isaacson, entitled simply "Steve Jobs," had been scheduled for release on November 21, according to Simon & Schuster's publicity department, but the death of Jobs on Wednesday at age 56 prompted a rethink. Online pre-orders for the book were booming. Online retail giant Amazon featured the book with a special ad on its home page Thursday, and it held the top spot on the site's best-seller list. According to US bookseller Barnes & Noble, the book is based on more than 40 interviews conducted with Jobs over a two-year period and interviews with over 100 "family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues." "Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published," Barnes & Noble said. "He put nothing off limits and instead encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly, even foes, former girlfriends, and colleagues he had once fired or infuriated," it said. Apple on Wednesday announced the death of Jobs, the technology visionary behind the Macintosh computer, the iPod, the iPhone and iPad. Jobs had battled pancreatic cancer for years. Isaacson, chief executive of the Aspen Institute think-tank, has also penned biographies of Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein and Henry Kissinger.