Minnesotan's Apple dream came true, then it soured

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The iPod music player was about to debut in 2001, but Steve Jobs was none too pleased with preparations. "This feels like crap!" the Apple Computer chief growled while connecting and disconnecting iPod earbuds.

As Mike Evangelist remembers it, Jobs looked as if he might hurl his pre-production iPod across the room.

"These headphone jacks all have to be replaced by tomorrow," he recalls Jobs snapping. "Find a way to fix it."

A publicly ebullient Jobs would go on to unveil the iPod as scheduled, but Evangelist wouldn't forget what happened behind the scenes.

Now the Minnesotan is detailing his Apple experiences on a Web log he plans to turn into a book. In doing so, he has fed a seemingly insatiable appetite for inside details on the iPod and Macintosh maker along with its famously perfectionist leader. His blog has been something of a sensation with page views recently exceeding 750,000.

Writers Block Live (http://writersblocklive.com) is less kiss-and-tell memoir and more analytical journal about a company he still loves. Much of it revolves around his stressful yet enthralling experiences as an Apple software-marketing manager. Some are fly-on-the-wall takes on key Apple events.

The project doesn't have Jobs' seal of approval. When Evangelist asked his former boss if he minded him writing the book, Jobs e-mailed, "I'd prefer not, but this is America."

Evangelist, 51, also touches on his lengthy journey toward Apple employment.

1984: Evangelist was shopping and wandered into an electronics store, where a Mac was on display.

"I could see that the Mac was different. Its screen was black on white," like paper. Apple's MacPaint program displayed a lifelike picture of a woman.

"I was playing around with the mouse, and I could see there was this menu called 'fonts.' I typed a couple of words, changed the font, and I was blown away."

Evangelist worked for an ad agency at a time when that industry relied on wax rollers and other crude tools for laying out text and graphics. He sensed those days were numbered.

1987: As head of a small marketing firm, Evangelist loved putting his Mac Plus to creative use. His client proposals put him ahead of rivals with IBM Selectric typewriters.

It dawned on him that he wanted to work in the Mac business. He got a job nearby at a Mac hardware maker.

1988: Evangelist applied for Apple jobs and, at one point, contacted the top Mac "evangelist," or cheerleader. "My name is Evangelist," he said, "so what the heck."

He used the Rolodex-like HyperCard database program to show his credentials as flipping cards. Nothing came of it.

A while later, Evangelist met the evangelist at a tech conference. "Hey!" the man said, "You're the guy who sent me that amazing HyperCard résumé." He had recommended that Evangelist be hired, but the matter languished.

Autumn 1999: The era of computer-based DVD recording was dawning. Evangelist was running U.S. operations for Astarte, a German supplier of DVD-authoring gear aimed at Mac-using professionals.

Apple aimed to make DVD recording a consumer craze and thought Astarte could help. It asked Evangelist to show his firm's software.

He put together a version for a PowerBook laptop for easier transport from Minnesota. None other than Avadis "Avie" Tevanian, Apple's top software guru, turned up in the Silicon Valley conference room.

"At the risk of sounding like an awestruck schoolkid," Evangelist said, "I knew who he was. I was petrified."

March 2002: Evangelist's interstate commuter lifestyle was taking a toll. "As I became more successful at Apple, there was a constant pressure to be there more."

He considered moving his family from Minnesota to Silicon Valley but decided instead to ditch his dream job.

"It was hard to be in the thick of it one day, and shut out the next," he said. He missed "hanging around backstage at the keynotes, and going on press tours, and talking to highfalutin' journalists, and flying off to Japan with Steve."

But he realized soon after leaving Apple that his chronic heartburn was gone. He had blamed his condition on the spicy food he ate in California.

Maybe, he thought, joining Apple had been a mistake. "Maybe I didn't listen closely enough to my family's original objections [because I so] wanted to be part of Apple."

But "some days I miss it, even now," said Evangelist, now and heading a firm that makes Power Mac add-in cards for speeding up DVD projects.

"I was at the center of the universe. Now I'm just an observer."