World affairs

Has Steve Jobs come back from the dead to sell us some more amazing Apple technology? Eh…no. But he is being depicted as an angel in a Taiwanese commercial promoting a different type of gadget.

While Steve Jobs may have sworn that his “last dying breath” would be used to destroy the competition from Google’s Android operating system, in the commercial, the Apple founder is mocked by a Taiwanese comedian who is using an electronic tablet similar to the iPad. The ‘Action Pad’ runs on the very technology that Jobs hated – the Google Android.

Why did Jobs have such an issue with it? Not only was it his biggest competition, he also believed that it was based on stolen iPhone technology. At one point he referred to the Android as ‘sh*t’ and famously said:

“I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40billion in the bank to right this wrong. I am going to destroy Android because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”

Mail Online reports that in the ad comedian and impersonator Ah-Ken is dressed in Jobs’ trademark black turtle neck sweater and blue jeans and pontificates about the virtues of Action Eletronic’s ‘Action Pad.’ Did we mention that he’s also wearing wings and a halo? The man has only been dead since October. Too soon Action Electronics, too soon.

“Introducing the new generation of the pad,” says the fake ‘Jobs’ character as he plays with the tablet. Throughout the advert his wings flap as he grins and goes through the various functions that the Action Pad is capable of.

“Thank god I finally get to play other tablets!” he exclaims in the final scene.

While the commercial doesn’t use Jobs’ name or refer to him or Apple in any way, the resemblance is uncanny and already angry fans have lashed out at the video on YouTube, calling for others to boycott the ‘disrespectful’ and ‘disgusting’ company in Taiwan.

“Steve Jobs always promoted things that were good for people, Apple products, so his image can also promote other things that are good,” said Chelsea Chen, a spokeswoman for Action Electronics.

“It’s just an impersonator, not Jobs,” she added.

We wonder what Apple will have to say about this one...