i was told i should grow up to be like walter isaacson. when i wrote, "liar's poker," he said i should write a book about a great man. i didn't know where to begin. even though i was told by walter, no less a person than walter, it just didn't catch. it does not interest me. maybe it is egotistical. maybe i don't want someone else to take over my book to the extent that would. charlie: give me the one person who would most likely attract you. michael: if you put a gun to my head and said, you have to write a biography? charlie: come on, you know what you would say. michael: obama? charlie: i don't know. michael: there is nobody i would want to spend that amount of time on. charlie: no athlete, president cultural figure? michael: there are a lot of books i would love to write that sound like biographies. peyton manning. i would love to spend a season with him, his last season with the denver broncos. just about the way someone can essentially think their way to success on a football field. charlie: somebody said, talking about me, the thing

. ♪ walter isaacson is one of the country's leading biographers. esh from his 2011 profile of steve jobs, walter has now tackled a new subject in computing -- the geeks, geniuses, and renegades who created the digital age. tonight, walter isaacson and "the innovators."

also joining us is jon fortt and walter isaacson.you think of apple's watch and how are you backing some of apps you thought would be a part of it? >> i thought it would say an exciting launch. i have been listening to what you were saying the last few minutes and i think it was true it was kind of a soft launch on the watch but it's very promising. i think it could be a huge new product for apple. for us it's really all about the apps. it's the apps that make the iphone a great product. it is beautiful, it's lovely but it's really the app that is give it utility and i think we're really looking to see if there's going to be a whole app ecosystem specifically around the watch that creates a whole new level of utility. >> what i see here is called video texting, a video texting app. what is that? >> you can think of it like very similar to text messaging but with video so you don't have to type. if you think about having a device on your wrist, of course it's not really very convenient to enter characters in there, and so this way you

>> it's walter isaacson.the aspen strategy group. >> shameless. >> shameless plug for joe. running aspen strategy group. you talk about russia quite a bit. we see a major dissipation of power in russia and can putin survive? >> i think russia is a country in serious decline. it's a one prop economy with a democratic problem. there are going to be fewer russians in the future. the average russian male dies a decade earlier than his normal in most developed countries and they can't make the reforms they need. putin isn't trying to make the reforms. he's got a strategy of becoming china's gas station and cutting himself off from the sources of change and technology in western europe that he needs. i think russia is in real trouble. >> that's not a good thing. >> it's not a good thank you because -- >> most of us as americans by nature are optimistic. if you have been studying in an academic way, where does your optimism come from about the united states over the next 30 40 years? >> i look at a variety of things

. >> host: and you work with walter isaacson. >> guest: i do. great guy. >> host: mickey edwards with -- is our guest, and the first call comes from jeeves in mount vernon -- from joseph in mount vernon, new york. go ahead. >> caller: congressman, i'm glad to hard you, but i think your teaching should have been done in congress. what did you do to change this, what's going on when you were in it? >> guest: you know one of the things that -- it was different when i was there, you know? we have strong disagreements there were party line votes even in those days, but there was not the demonization. there were a lot of people who would work together across the aisle, and you would make your case, you would argue it as well as you could, and at the end of the process you would, in a conference committee or some other way, you would say let's get together, you know? we've got to keep the bridges from collapsing, we have got to keep the government running. and that's what's missing today, is people unwilling to compromise partly because of our party pr

believe the final apple tv which we heard was a major undertaking by steve jobs, still alive as walter isaacson'sook will be published? what were happen? >> it looks that way. i have been expecting it for a while. i think we have got another example of another reason some people will cut the cord. cory: does an apple tv need to be the device? could it be something else more like what they have already got? michael: it will integrate with what i am sure they have already got. it will be important with the phone and the tablet. we will have a lot of connected tv's. at least the journal reported it will be multiplatform. that is certainly what the consumers want. cory: the notion that content is king, how important are these deals? do you need 400 channels because your users are going to want 20 of them, but you do not know which 20? do you really have this type of business around the right 20 channels? michael: you can have a business, a smaller size, round big channels that do not include espn? i've -- i think that is literally the elephant and we all see it. there will be small groups of people t

later on we'll go to south by southwest, talk with walter isaacson. the dax this morning got above 12,000 for the first time. pre-market here looks pretty robust. more "squawk on the street" from post nine at the nyse when we return. say you're a finance guy. a farmer. a researcher. you used to depend on experience. the internet. your gut. today you can use ibm watson analytics. it can make sense of all kinds of data. uncover hidden correlations and new opportunities. and give recommendations with more confidence on who will buy. what to make. where to plant. which helps you make smarter decisions. there's a new way to work and it's made with ibm. >>> jim mentioned tesla shares on the rise this morning thanks to some news that elon musk announced using his personal twitter handle. about to end range anxiety via ota software update. affects entire model s fleet. so that leaves the rest of us to figure out how a software update is going to end your range anxiety. >> well, anything i guess that shows a more accurate -- you know something that goes off or

>> you read back to the walter isaacson binary of steve jobs and this is something that he talked aboutalked a lot about the idea that he did not think about companies like dell and microsoft in the way that he wanted to position the company but you thought about mercedes and bmw, these aspirational or near luxury products that can create a price premium and have the mortgage -- margins that lend to that. in a way, the luxury market is the jobsian way of thinking. cory: we have seen a number of high retail brands losing their luster. i am thinking of perry ellis. someone who has oversold their name to everyone who can make it, so it became meaningless and cheap. >> that will be their challenge. if you think of luxury, it is two components, exclusivity and experience. on the experience side, they will have to improve and they have announced they will make changes to their store experience. luxury sales do not typically take place on hard surfaces there is carpet. there is a contingency -- intimacy level to it, a service perspective. as good as they are with their service, there would be

walter isaacson is former ceo of cnn and a cnbc contributor. r really talked to me about the physical tv set. he was always interested in an integrated product that makes it easy to get the content through good content management good software, good piece of hardware. the tough thing about tv is getting the content. when steve jobs was alive, he could push cajole sometimes brow beat the kmuk companies to put their songs as single songs on the itune store. it's been harder to get the television content providers and others to play along. especially since the cable providers want to keep control of that pipeline. >> walter what's the future of tv content? so far it's felt like the golden age for television. but tell me with apple jumping in here and we've seen sling with this other package, you're starting to see the unbundle. does this start to look like the music industry? or do you think it holds on and is stronger in the future? >> well, i'm talking to you from austin where i'm at south by southwest and there's a whole lot of people going into

it is an official biography by walter isaacson. the book was released afters' death. l never know what he thought about it. it is that book the isaacson book the point of view they are shooting in the south bay and palo alto right now. well, we can talk about that air crash in france. we don't know what happened. there are a lot of suspicions. landon, how is the market reaction to this space? >> reporter: well, it hasn't seen futures since the crash. futures were higher before the crash. they're higher ahead of the open. keep an eye on the air bus up o 11 points. the nasdaq down 15 to 1610. scott, back over to you. >> thank you. >>> a federal bill will protect students. lots of teachers use apped and websites as a part of tear lesson plans. it's a move to put a right of federal law protecting students' private data, their names, locations and of course their school work. president obama actually suggested this law last journal. they have their own law too prevent students from selling information. once again, we are ahead of the federal law. >> they're trying to catch

walter from austin. >> our thanks to water isaacson for joining us today. dow increase hanging on, despite the decline in l. coming up later on this morning, more on what to watch for in a moment. is now the time to sell netflix? one firm is making that call this morning and we'll talk about why. it seems like it was bound to happen eventually. twitter severely limiting the act scess of the latest crazy i social. that's when "squawk alley" continues in a moment. now with the you can watch live tv anytime. it's never been easier with so many networks all in one place. get live tv whenever you want. the xfinity tv go app. now with live tv on the go. enjoy over wifi or on verizon wireless 4g lte. plus enjoy special savings when you purchase any new verizon wireless smartphone or tablet from comcast. visit comcast.com/wireless to learn more. >>> broad rally taking place this morning. oil up 200 points. let's bring in rich peterson. resilience in the face of oil. >> now we're a little bit positive. i think we're trying to pull out that positive march so we can h

this new book on top of the walter isaacson book. thank you very much.e. >>> coming up next prince charles. prince charles gets personal in an incredibly rare sit-down interview with us at cnn. he is talking about his ten years of marriage to camilla and the challenges she's faced being his wife after diana. meet the world's newest energy superpower. surprised? in fact, america is now the world's number one natural gas producer... and we could soon become number one in oil. because hydraulic fracturing technology is safely recovering lots more oil and natural gas. supporting millions of new jobs. billions in tax revenue... and a new century of american energy security. the new energy superpower? it's red, white and blue. log on to learn more. mouths are watering, and stomachs are growling. or is that just me? it's lobsterfest... ...red lobster's largest variety of lobster dishes all year. double up with dueling lobster tails. or make lobster lover's dream a delicious reality. but hurry this won't last long. >>> in a rare sit-down interview with britain's

the real steve jobs the actual man, commissioned his own biography, an official biography by walter isaacson. that book was released days after jobs' death. we'll never know what he thought of it, but the book was his idea in the first place. that book, the isaacson book is the movie they have been shooting in los altos and palo alto. >> now to oscar award winning actress anglino jolie who revealed she underwent the knife to prevent cancer once again. in 2013 she had a double mast mastectomy, but this time she had both of her ovaries and her fallopian tubes removed. she discussed the choice writing she's hoping to spare her children from losing their mother as she lost hers. hoda kotb has more on the story. >>> in an op-ed in this morning's "new york times," actress angelina jolie writes she chose to have her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed last week to reduce her chance of getting cancer. almost two years ago, the 39-year-old oscar winner revealed she had a double mast mastectomy, a decision she made after losing her mother to ovarian cancer in 2007. >> after losing my mom to these issu

joining me from london walter isaacson author of "the innovators", also i should say the author of biographiesrst of all, what are you doing in london? >> one of the reasons i'm here i'm trying to do research in leonardo da vinci, most of the scientific drawings and engineering drawers are in the royal collection in windsor castle. it was a good excuse to come over here. i want to show when you talk about genius how the connection of science to art, the connection humanities to technology that's really the essence of genius and the great example of that was da vinci. >> you always find wonderful -- not only wonderful people to explore but wonderful places. i know you have worked on steve jobs and of course alan turing and the forefathers and mothers of the commuter age. what is that special spark? >> i think one of the special sparks is a bit of rebelliousness, it occurred to me that everybody i've written about from steve jobs, albert einstein, mark zuckerberg they seem to at one point or another, drop out of school. maybe that's why i'm not invited to give graduation speeches or rebel or que

i think walter isaacson book was a little controversial within the apple community because it didn'tnt the happiest picture of jobs. this is a human picture of jobs by people who knew him really well. >> this is, as you mentioned, sort of revisiting jobs' legacy, the cover of "fast company" says kind, patient, human, what is it about his legacy was misunderstood to this point. >> one of the things i think about it's right in the middle. this is probably a very friendly book that's why they got so much cooperation. and brent did like steve jobs. i think one of the things that people miss about him they said he was heartless. probably was all heart which is why he was difficult. everything mattered to him. if i had to say that was the most misunderstood thing they misunderstood the passion for something at times could be cruel, angry and things like that so he was a complicated man and i think you should read all the stuff about him because he's a historical figure and he has left a huge legacy. he's going to be complicated like many people, like thomas edison, henry ford. >> what do y

. >> it's interesting that on the one hand you have walter isa isaacson who was not close to steve jobs, but who jobs brought in at the end to give extraordinary access. then you have brent who walked a long journey with jobs but jobs kept at arm's length toward the end of his life. how much does that arm's length relationship they had toward the end of jobs' life influence the way brent remembers and expresses about jobs now? >> i think we learned a lot about brent's relationship with steve through the reporting of the book. we came to understand that steve had a close circle of friends. he had apple and his family. those were the three great priorities in his life. if you were outside of that, he would always have those three priorities in mind first. so he decided that he didn't want brent covering fortunate anymore, but they still had a relationship, they still had a sort of friendship. >> for an executive with as much depth and as complicated as steve jobs has become known to be, how much material do you think that type of a persona could offer for the years to come? >> i think the

. >> walter isaacson's great book bob iger seems to be the only executive that steve jobs didn't make of as soon as he left the room. he actually respected him. >> let's tackle starbucks, announcing joint venture to produce and sell ready-to-drink beverages in china, testing delivery service in seattle and new york city. lots of buzz surrounding controversial race together campaign to spur conversations about race. last night during jim's inter view on "mad money," schultz insisted it's not a ploy to boost business. take a listen. >> there's no part of this on any level that's about marketing or pr or trying to get more business. i don't think it's going to hurt business. we have not seen that in the last 24 hours. this is going to have a long tail to. i think people trust the brand, trust intentions of the company, trust our people and i have great faith that our people will do the right thing and not put any customer in a situation where they're being handed something they don't want to carry. >> you always say, not here to make friends, you're here to make money. you like this? >>

. >> anecdotal questions on the set yesterday, walter isaacson and joe both said they lose their watches. sarah eisen says she doesn't wear one. >> i don't wear one, i always lose them. wouldn't that look cool? you can get a lot of dates if you went out to a really nice restaurant with donny, wearing the google glasses and get the watch and the whole time just talking. then you know you're streaming. watching "house of kardcards"? >> how about in a church? >> can't let too much of the plot. >> all morning about the batch because the lead story is just -- >> the watch. >> i don't know about your party. i would be embarrassed today if i were you. >> you say that about my party all the time. >> saying it today. it just -- come on guys really? >> why? why? >> this morning, the front page of the daily news is calling 47 gop senators traitors pause they sent a -- this is what they did. they sent a warning letter to tehran about a possible nuclear deal. >> yep. >> yeah. the paper, which has called the president feckless for negotiating with iran contends the senators for betraying the u.s. cons