About the founder of Sound Blaster - Sim Wong Hoo

Hi hope @Leo talks about Sim Wong Hoo - passed away few days ago suddenly. He was the founder of Sound Blaster… and Mp3 players like the Zen, and Nomad. Creative founder Sim Wong Hoo, the man behind Sound Blaster, has died - The Verge

Here’s a local article about the interaction with Steve Jobs - Once upon a time, S'pore tech company Creative went up against Apple & walked away with US$100 million - Babelfish

In May 2006, Creative sued Apple, saying that the iPod and iPod Nano infringed on a patent that the company had for the interface in its Zen media player.

Apple countersued.

The legal dispute was eventually settled with US$100 million paid by Apple, granting them license to a patent for the hierarchical user interface used in Creative’s products.

In an interview with CNBC, Sim spoke about his belief that Apple had taken their ideas.

“It was something we had to do because Apple did not just… infringe our patent. Actually, Steve [Jobs] came to our booth, saw our products and liked the product. He saw the future of Apple there.

[…]

Then, he asked our people to go to his headquarter to present it to him. Our people went to look for some collaboration. Unfortunately, I was not there because I was in Singapore. Maybe if I was there, maybe the history would change. He was trying to work something together, but it didn’t turn out.”

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I saw your email. We’ll definitely cover it on TWiT tomorrow and MBW on Tuesday. Thanks!

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You’re a legend. Thanks for this.

Actually just bought an AE-5 Plus card for my main rig to add on some audio capabilities that my mainboard doesn’t have. Quite a brand! Sim Wong Hoo will be missed.