Published October 06, 2011

| FoxNews.com

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/10/06/insanely-great-20-minutes-on-phone-with-steve-jobs/?cmpid=NL_FNTopHeadlines_20111006

Jan. 27, 2010: Apple CEO Steve Jobs holds the new iPad during a product announcement in San Francisco. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/10/06/insanely-great-20-minutes-on-phone-with-steve-jobs/?cmpid=NL_FNTopHeadlines_20111006#ixzz1a3rGBz6F

EDITOR'S NOTE: When Lucas Haley wrote his first letter to Steve Jobs in the summer of 1996, he was an unemployed college grad. 15 years later, he's the owner of Animatology Studios in Portland, Ore.

“Hi. This is Steve Jobs.”

Those are five words no one expects to hear from their telephone. You can imagine my surprise when those words came across the line. Here's my story. 

Like many people, out of college I wasn't sure what I wanted -- or more specifically, how to get where I wanted to be. This was a "pre-i" world: no iMac, no iTunes, no iPhone. Gil Amelio was CEO of Apple, a company producing beige boxes and stock value losses. And Steve Jobs was quietly heading companies that would soon define their industries: NeXT (soon to be Apple OS X), and Pixar. 

He was a bit of a hero of mine.

So I wrote a letter. 

Sure, email existed at the time, but a letter seemed more real. I wrote about how I grew up with a Mac Plus, about my experience at our alma mater Reed College, and about my hopes for my life. 

I explained that I knew he wasn't going to give me my magical dream job, or any job for that matter. But I wanted to let him know that he was an example to me of how to live one's life -- to take chances, work hard, and never compromise on yourself. 

After dropping the letter in the mailbox, I promptly forgot about it, never thinking it would ever get past the gates.

Several months later, on a rainy Sunday afternoon, I got a call. It went exactly like this:

“Hello?”

“Hello. May I speak with Lucas Haley?”

“Speaking.”

“Hi. This is Steve Jobs.”

At this point I was ready to call bull on whichever friend was prank calling me. I barely caught myself in time, remembering that I hadn't told anyone about the letter. This couldn't be anyone but Steve Jobs. 

The sudden realization strengthened my suspicion that I hadn't said anything in an awkwardly long time, and I blurted out a weak “Can ... can I help you?”

Steve Jobs and I spoke on the phone that afternoon for over 20 minutes, about college, about work, about chasing dreams, and about how he couldn't give me a job but here's the name of someone who could. It was all very surreal, and immediately upon hanging up it felt like it couldn't have happened.

I've thought about that phone call many times since then, for many different reasons. When the news of his cancer broke, I wrote another letter wishing him well; this time I wrote from a different perspective, having a family, a career, and new dreams. 

And when I heard he had passed, it really made me think. In this day and age, when CEOs are vilified -- often rightfully so -- for corporate greed, shady dealings, and backhanded politics, there remained at least one captain of enterprise who took the time to call a young, underemployed pup ... just because he had written a letter.

For me, the world is a smaller place without Steve Jobs. He was a leader who fought for the best, not the most.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/10/06/insanely-great-20-minutes-on-phone-with-steve-jobs/?cmpid=NL_FNTopHeadlines_20111006#ixzz1a3rN6sCM

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis, whose NFL legend as a pioneering rebel began 60 years ago as an assistant with the Baltimore Colts and was punctuated with a 1992 Pro Football Hall of Fame induction in Canton, has died at 82.

The team's website released the news Saturday morning, posting a simple tribute with his name in large silver letters above "July 4, 1929-October 8, 2011."

The Raiders said the team will issue a statement later Saturday. No cause of death was released, and it was not immediately clear when and where he died.

"Al Davis' passion for football and his influence on the game were extraordinary," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement tweeted by spokesman Greg Aiello. "He defined the Raiders and contributed to pro football at every level. The respect he commanded was evident in the way that people listened carefully every time he spoke."

It was Davis' willingness to buck the establishment that helped turn the NFL into THE establishment in sports -- the most successful sports league in American history.

It was Al Davis' willingness to buck the establishment that helped turn the NFL into the most successful sports league in American history."He is a true legend of the game whose impact and legacy will forever be part of the NFL," Goodell said in the statement.

Davis was charming, cantankerous and compassionate -- a man who when his wife suffered a serious heart attack in the 1970s moved into her hospital room. But he was best known as a rebel, a man who established a team whose silver-and-black colors and pirate logo symbolized his attitude toward authority, both on the field and off.

Davis was one of the most important figures in NFL history. That was most evident during the 1980s when he fought in court -- and won -- for the right to move his team from Oakland to Los Angeles. Even after he moved them back to the Bay Area in 1995, he went to court, suing for $1.2 billion to establish that he still owned the rights to the L.A. market.

Reports surfaced in April that Davis had been hospitalized, but the team dismisssed them then as rumors, saying Davis was in good health and was preparing for the NFL draft.

Davis' death comes as his team has filled its fanbase with a temperered sense of optimism, as the Raiders had endured seven straight losing seasons of 10 more losses before finishing at 8-8 in 2010 and starting this season with two wins and two competitive losses.

Before last season, Davis said he liked what he saw in new quarterback Jason Campbell, acquired in a trade with the Washington Redskins that offseason.

"I really liken this team a great deal to the team of 1980, in which the great Jim Plunkett pulled us out of the doldrums, took us to the Super Bowl as a wild card, and we had so many great players who eventually made their way into the Hall of Fame," Davis said in a preseason interview with Sirius NFL Radio.

Until the decline of the Raiders into a perennial loser in the first decade of the 21st century he was a winner, the man who as a coach, then owner-general manager-de facto coach, established what he called "the team of the decades" based on another slogan: "commitment to excellence." And the Raiders were excellent, winning three Super Bowls during the 1970s and 1980s and contending almost every other season -- an organization filled with castoffs and troublemakers who turned into trouble for opponents.

Davis also was a trailblazer. He hired the first black head coach of the modern era -- Art Shell in 1988. He hired the first Latino coach, Tom Flores; and the first woman CEO, Amy Trask. And he was infallibly loyal to his players and officials: to be a Raider was to be a Raider for life.

But it was his rebellious spirit, that willingness to buck the establishment, that helped turn the NFL into THE establishment in sports -- the most successful sports league in American history. He was the last commissioner of the American Football league and led it on personnel forays that helped force a merger that turned the expanded NFL into the colossus it remains.

Born in Brockton, Mass., Davis grew up in Brooklyn and graduated from Erasmus Hall High School, a spawning ground in the two decades after World War II for a number of ambitious young people who became renowned in sports, business and entertainment. Davis was perhaps the second most famous after Barbra Streisand.

"We had a reunion in Los Angeles and 500 people showed up, including Bah-bruh," he once told an interviewer in that combination of southern drawl/Brooklynese that was often parodied among his acquaintances within the league and without.

A graduate of Syracuse University, he became an assistant coach with the Baltimore Colts at age 24; and was an assistant at The Citadel and then Southern California before joining the Los Angeles Chargers of the new AFL in 1960. Only three years later, he was hired by the Raiders and became the youngest general manager-head coach in pro football history with a team he called "the Raid-uhs" in 1963.

He was a good one, 23-16-3 in three seasons with a franchise that had started its life 9-23.

Then he bought into the failing franchise, which played on a high school field adjacent to the Nimitz Freeway in Oakland and became managing general partner, a position he held until his death.

But as the many bright young coaches he hired -- from John Madden, Mike Shanahan and Jon Gruden to Lane Kiffin -- found out, he remained the coach. He ran everything from the sidelines, often calling down with plays, or sending emissaries to the sidelines to make substitutions.

In 1966, he became commissioner of the AFL.

But even before that, he had begun to break an unwritten truce between the young league and its established rivals, which fought over draft choices but did not go after established players.

And while the NFL's New York Giants' signing of Buffalo placekicker Pete Gogolak marked the first break in that rule, it was Davis who began to go after NFL stars -- pursuing quarterbacks John Brodie and Roman Gabriel as he tried to establish AFL supremacy.

Davis' war precipitated first talks of merger, although Davis opposed it. But led by Lamar Hunt of Kansas City, the AFL owners agreed that peace was best. A common draft was established, and the first Super Bowl was played following the 1966 season -- Green Bay beat Kansas City, then went on to beat Davis' Raiders the next season. By 1970, the leagues were fully merged and the league had the basic structure it retains until this day -- with the NFL's Pete Rozelle as commissioner, not Davis, who wanted the job badly.

So he went back to the Raiders, running a team that won Super Bowls after the 1976, 1980 and 1983 seasons -- the last one in Los Angeles, where the franchise moved in 1982 after protracted court fights. It was a battling bunch, filled with players such as John Matuszak, Mike Haynes and Lyle Alzado, stars who didn't fill in elsewhere who combined with homegrown stars -- Ken Stabler, another rebellious spirit; Gene Upshaw; Shell, Jack Tatum, Willie Brown and dozens of others.

Davis was never a company man. Not in the way he dressed: jump suits with a Raiders logo: white or black, with the occasional black suit, black shirt and silver tie. Not in the way he wore his hair -- even well into his '70s it was slicked back with a '50s duck-tail. Not in the way he did business -- on his own terms, always on his own terms.

After lengthy lawsuits involving the move to Los Angeles, he went back to Oakland and at one point in the early years of the century was involved in suits in northern and southern California -- the one seeking the Los Angeles rights and another suing Oakland for failing to deliver sellouts they promised to get the Raiders back.

But if owners and league executives branded Davis a renegade, friends and former players find him the epitome of loyalty.

When his wife, Carol, had a serious heart attack, he moved into her hospital room and lived there for more than a month. And when he hears that even a distant acquaintance is ill, he'll offer medical help without worrying about expense.

"Disease is the one thing -- boy I tell you, it's tough to lick," he said in 2008, talking about the leg ailments that had restricted him to using a walker. "It's tough to lick those diseases. I don't know why they can't."

A few years earlier, he said: "I can control most things, but I don't seem to be able to control death. "Everybody seems to be going on me."

As he aged, his teams declined.

The Raiders got to the Super Bowl after the 2002 season, losing to Tampa Bay. But for a long period after that, they had the worst record in the NFL, at one point with five coaches in six years.

Some of it was Davis' refusal to stay away from the football operation -- he would take a dislike to stars and order them benched.

The most glaring example was Marcus Allen, the most valuable player in the 1984 Super Bowl, the last the Raiders won.

For reasons never made clear, Davis took a dislike to his star running back and ordered him benched for two seasons. He released him after the 1992 season, and Allen went to Kansas City.

Davis' only comment: "He was a cancer on the team."

The small incorporated city of Irwindale, 20 miles east of Los Angeles, learned an expensive lesson about dealing with Davis. The city gave the Raiders $10 million to show its good faith in 1988, but environmental issues, financing problems and regional opposition scuttled plans to turn a gravel pit into a $115 million, 65,000-seat stadium. The deposit was nonrefundable, and Irwindale never got a penny back.

When he fired Mike Shanahan in 1988 after 20 games as head coach, he refused to pay him the $300,000 he was owed. When he became coach of the Denver Broncos, Shanahan delighted most in beating the Raiders and Davis. And when Davis fired Lane Kiffin "for cause" in 2008, withholding the rest of his contract, the usually humorless Shanahan remarked:

"I was a little disappointed, to be honest with you. When you take a look at it, I was there 582 days. Lane Kiffin was there 616 days. So, what it really means is that Al Davis liked Lane more than he liked me. I really don't think it's fair. I won three more games, yet he got 34 more days of work. That just doesn't seem right."

But for most of his life, few people laughed at Al Davis.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

June 6: Apple CEO Steve Jobs gestures during a keynote address to the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/08/24/apple-ceo-steve-jobs-resigns.

DEVELOPING: Steve Jobs, the legendary chief executive officer of Apple Inc., resigned Wednesday, effective immediately, according to the company's board of directors. 

The company named Tim Cook, its previous chief operating officer, to the post.

Jobs wrote in a letter to the board that "if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come."

Jobs submitted his resignation to the board Wednesday and "strongly recommended" that Cook be his successor.

He went on to say that he'd like to serve as the computer giant's "chairman of the board, director and Apple employee."

"I believe Apple's brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it," he said. "And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role."

Art Levinson, the chairman of Genentech spoke on behalf of Apple's Board, and said "it has complete confidence that Tim is the right person to be our next CEO."

The Wall Street Journal reported that Cook, 50, was widely considered as the leading candidate to run the company after Jobs, who has been on medical leave for undisclosed reasons since January.

According to the report, Cook is a 13-year veteran at the company, and ran the day-to-day operations during two prior medical leaves of absences.

Earlier, Apple shares gained 0.7 percent to close at $376.18.

Colin Gillis, a financial analyst for BGC, told Reuters, "I will say to investors: don't panic and remain calm, it's the right thing to do. Steve will be chairman and Cook is CEO."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/08/24/apple-ceo-steve-jobs-resigns/#ixzz1Vzccz8cv

By Kim Yoo-chul

If you've been putting off calling your sister or brother in Canada or your European cousins due to fears of the higher cost of calling from your smartphone, a promotion from Vonage may pique your interest.

The U.S.-based Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) provider is giving away one free international phone call, at a maximum of 15 minutes, to anyone who downloads its new iPhone mobile application Time to Call, which is also free.

Not surprisingly, the promotion will cost the provider, however it seems evident that Vonage doesn’t care because it believes the market for international calls in Korea is a highly lucrative one considering explosive local demand for smartphones.

``South Korea is important for Vonage. It has a large, sophisticated user base with high smartphone penetration and significant outbound international calling needs,’’ said Marc Lefar, a chief executive from Vonage, in a recent interview with The Korea Times.

Time to Call, a stand-alone mobile application for the iPhone has so far been released in 87 countries.

The chief executive explained the service allows customers to purchase a call and talk for up to 15 minutes to landlines and handsets in 100 countries for $0.99 or $1.99, billed instantly through iTunes. 

He stressed it is the easiest way to make low-cost international calls on the go.

Vonage has also been developing mobile applications for smartphones, Android-equipped ones as well as the iPhone that will simplify the calling process and even allow customers to dial from their contact list without entering the access number.

Korea, a nation of 48.6 million, has taken to smartphones relatively late, but has quickly caught up.

Since November 2009, Korea’s smartphone market has taken off, inspired by the then-unexpected iPhone fever. 

This has pushed Samsung to migrate into software-focused handsets, bringing the Galaxy S smartphone into a market rivalry with Apple.

The number of smartphone users is expected to surpass 20 million by the end of the year, according to estimates from the nation’s top telecom regulator, with top-tier handset makers such as Samsung and LG Electronics promoting their Galaxy and Optimus brands aggressively.

Another good sign for Vonage and its interest for growth in Korea may be that Korea is now a top spot for Apple, meaning local Apple vendors such as SK Telecom and KT will release the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 at the same time as vendors in Apple’s most-trusted regions of the United States, Japan, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Lefar, a former chief marketing officer (CMO) at AT&T Mobility, said Vonage hopes the service and other forthcoming products could be successful in Korea.

When asked about financial details such as revenue and profit targets, the executive declined to comment. However, he added Vonage will try to claim a larger stake in the world’s most-wired country.

Challenging Skype

Vonage, which is also the biggest U.S. provider of telephone service over the Internet, has recently said it will let users of its home plans make calls with a second device, such as mobile phones.

And the plan is apparently Vonage’s updated strategy for competition with Skype. The Luxembourg-based service is Vonage’s biggest rival.

Skype, which was acquired by Microsoft, allows people to make free calls over the Internet to other Skype users and even offers cheaper calls to landlines.

As of the end of July, the number of Skype users had grown to over 3.5 million in Korea, evidence of Koreans’ steady appetite for low-cost international calls.

``Some mobile carriers have been experimenting with mobile VoIP to provide their own VoIP client offers to compete directly with Skype. But Vonage has one of the largest VoIP networks in the world, terminates a growing share of traffic on VoIP network and has significant expertise in this market,’’ said the executive.

Lefar said he’s aware of the ongoing so-called ``free-riding’’ controversies between mobile carriers and mobile VoIP service providers here.

But he stressed Vonage doesn’t believe that it is a free-rider, as consumers who’ve paid for a fixed-broadband connection and other data streams should have the freedom to use the services that they wish.

``Mobile VoIP on 3G- and 4G-based networks is still nascent, and quality of service varies greatly from carrier to carrier and from country to country. We expect to begin expanding our 3G and 4G services to other areas of the world, including Southeast Asia, as we do more testing.’’

After targeting home-focused users for many years, Vonage is shifting its primary target to mobile devices.

``Consumers want to have the freedom to make calls at great rates from their other connected devices. Approximately 40 percent of all international calls worldwide originate from a mobile phone and that’s why we think this was a good chance to extend our service to customers even in Korea.’’

Vonage, which went public in 2006 at $17 a share in the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), has seen an 80-percent rise in its stocks so far this year.

The bulk of future sales at Fourquare Labs should come from software that helps businesses monitor shoppers, says Chief Executive Officer Dennis Crowley

(Bloomberg) — Foursquare Labs Inc. plans to get most of its future sales from software that helps merchants track the behavior of potential customers, Chief Executive Officer Dennis Crowley said.

Foursquare, a Web service that lets users share their whereabouts, already offers free tools to 500,000 businesses. The New York-based company will eventually begin charging for additional services that help monitor shoppers, Crowley said today in a televised interview with “Bloomberg West.”

“It’s going to be the tools that we offer these local merchants,” Crowley said, when asked where the company would generate the majority of its revenue in the future. While there are no immediate plans to charge for new services, “it’s something that’s on our road map,” he said.

The strategy marks a departure from the approach used by Facebook Inc. and other social-networking companies, which rely mostly on advertising to make money. Instead, Foursquare wants businesses to pay for help analyzing the data generated by its 10 million users. Foursquare already collects some revenue from partners such as Groupon Inc., which show users discounted offers on meals and activities that are nearby.

Foursquare also gets some advertising money. It has ad deals with companies such as PepsiCo Inc., Safeway Inc. and Zagat Survey LLC. Meanwhile, it faces increasing competition from location-based features offered by Facebook, Google Inc. and other large rivals.

‘Really Interesting’

Foursquare announced in June that it raised $50 million, providing money to add engineers and expand internationally. The company aims to help merchants recognize customer behaviors and cater offers to them, Crowley said.

“Do we want to hit the users who come in five times a week? Do we want to hit the users who bring five of their friends?” he said. “We’re starting to develop more advanced tools for the merchants, and that’s starting to be really interesting for us.”

Crowley — who sold his previous startup, Dodgeball, to Google in 2005 — has no plans to sell Foursquare. The service is approaching profitability, he said.

“I’m hoping that we’re going to be a profitable company relatively soon,” Crowley said. “That will probably open up a number of doors for us.”

Chang is a reporter for Bloomberg News in San Francisco. MacMillan is a reporter for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Businessweek in San Francisco.    

Google+, the social networking site from the search giant, experienced massive growth in its first few weeks.

What ever happened to loyalty? 

A shiny new social-networking site comes along and before you know it, we're all flirting with the frisky startup, leaving our dates back at the table to pay the check. At least, that's how it seems with Google+, the latest competition for our Facebook affections.

In just a few weeks, Google+ has enticed roughly 20 million people to join, according to Comscore. And that's before it's even officially debuted; you still have to be invited to go to this dance. Furthermore, while the service is still in pre-release mode, many of us using it have found it to already be simpler, slicker, and generally better at the social-networking waltz than Facebook (and it always lets you lead).

Uber-venture capitalist Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners recently argued that the social network war was over.

"The last 500 social companies funded by the venture capital community are all worthless," McNamee said during a presentation to a crowd of media types. As far as McNamee is concerned, the social platform has been established, and it's Facebook. He may be right. He has nearly 30 years experience investing in tech, including an early bet on Facebook. And Facebook, according to the company's own tally, has 750 million members.

Plenty of people have offered excellent reasons for abandoning Facebook, however. Some of my FB friends have already switched because changing networks is as simple as a mouse click, and there's no exit cost whatsoever -- indeed there may be several benefits.

Many FB friends, for example, would rather switch than fight Facebook's ever-evolving privacy settings. Purposively convoluted, Facebook's pages of inscrutably marked multiple boxes have made it about as friendly as Windows Millennium Edition. So one day your chat line is closed, the next you're open online for everyone to see. It's created Facebook fatigue.

Then there's the grandma factor: If everyone is on Facebook, not only is it no longer cool but it also means I can't say anything without fear of retribution -- or being outed for playing beer pong by my boss or mom. 

That's no fun at all, and Google+ at least makes it easier to compartmentalize friends, acquaintances, and business associates (unlike Facebook's lists, which are a pain in the you-know-what). Some Google+ members are even creating "frenemy" circles (now there's an idea that's bound to get you in trouble).

There are two other important undercurrents to the rising tide boosting Google+: momentum and the nature of social circles.

The first issue looks ominous for Facebook when one looks back at the fall of MySpace. The switch from MySpace to Facebook seemed predicated on a number of factors. There was the sheer clutter of MySpace, which looked like something out of an early GeoCities blog. It became a blinking, flashing, honking mess. And Facebook connected people and conversations more seamlessly. 

Perhaps more critical was the sheer momentum of Facebook as it picked up speed, sucking in more and more friends until it became an irresistible social vortex. Now, Google+ looks poised to possibly do the same to Facebook, draining away members and eyeballs.

The second point is a lesson about social behavior. Switching from one network to another may just be an inevitable part of our social habits. Every once in a while, we simply need a change. No one can eat the same meal every day, and we can't visit the same bar or coffee shop every day without getting bored. Some folks have been on Facebook for nearly 7 years; that's a long time to be hanging out at the same watering hole. And what is it they say about the 7-year itch?

So switching social circles may be preordained. And Google+ is simply the next hot hangout.

Follow John R. Quain on Twitter @jqontech or find more tech coverage at J-Q.com.

With her gravelly voice and eclectic style, Amy Winehouse, 27, who has been found dead in London, won comparison with some of the great female singers such as Sarah Vaughan and Nina Simone.

But like another great singer, Janis Joplin, she had a talent for self destruction, and fought a long battle against substance abuse.

Amy Jade Winehouse was born on 14 September 1983 in the well-to-do area of Southgate, north London. Amy Winehouse burst onto the British pop scene in 2003

Her taxi driver father, Mitchell, was a jazz enthusiast and often sang songs to his daughter as she grew up.

She trained at the Susi Earnshaw Theatre School from the age of eight and, by the time she was 10, had formed a rap group with one of her best friends.

Winehouse later attended the prestigious Sylvia Young Theatre School.

She began writing music at the age of 14 and a former boyfriend sent a tape of her singing with a jazz band to an A&R man.

Critical praise

It led to a contract with the Island/Universal record label and a publishing deal with EMI.

Her debut album Frank, released in 2003, was described by The Times newspaper as "earthy, warm, lived-in and astonishingly versatile".

She co-wrote all but two of the songs and won praise for what one reviewer described as "the cool, critical gaze" in the lyrics.

Frank was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize for album of the year in 2004, and Winehouse won the Ivor Novello songwriting award for best contemporary song with Stronger Than Me.

But it was the critical praise that followed the release of her follow-up album in October 2006 that propelled her to international stardom.

Rehab, the first track released from Back to Black, reached number seven in the UK singles chart.

The song, about her refusal to attend an alcohol rehabilitation centre, generated huge publicity, with Winehouse frequently being photographed drinking on stage and in pubs.

In February 2007, she scooped the title for best British female at the Brit Awards and, four months later, she picked up song of the year at the Mojo Awards.

Winehouse was again nominated for the Mercury Prize and went on to be named artist of the year at the MTV Europe Music Awards in November.  The singer had been plagued by problems with drug and drink addiction

But as her popularity soared, her health began to suffer and her behaviour became more erratic.

She appeared to be drunk on Channel 4's The Charlotte Church Show in 2006, and took part in Never Mind The Buzzcocks in a similar state.

Marriage

Her weight plummeted during an exhausting schedule of promotional appearances and concerts in the UK and US.  

She admitted punching a female fan at a gig in London and attacking her boyfriend when he tried to calm her down.

She confessed to self-harming and spoke of battles with eating disorders. And she shocked a journalist from US magazine Spin when she carved the name of then-boyfriend Blake Fielder-Civil into her stomach with a shard of mirror during an interview.

It was a break-up with Fielder-Civil that inspired much of Back To Black.

But she surprised fans, and her own family, when she secretly married him during a trip to Florida in May 2007.

In November of that year, there was further turmoil when Fielder-Civil was arrested and accused of inflicting grievous bodily harm and attempting to pervert the course of justice.  Amy Winehouse secretly married Blake Fielder-Civil during a trip to Florida in May 2007

Winehouse herself was arrested and released on bail in December 2007 but no charges were brought against her.

A month later she went into a rehab facility following the publication, by a tabloid newspaper, of pictures of a woman they claimed was Winehouse, allegedly smoking crack cocaine.

She played a number of gigs in 2008 but it became increasingly apparent that the turmoil of her private life was having a severe effect on her ability to perform.

Time out

Following a diagnosis of what could have been the onset of emphysema, she managed a creditable performance at Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday concert in June 2008.

But her performance at Glastonbury a few days later was described by one critic as "dismal" and tabloid interest centred on an incident where she appeared to punch a fan.

Amy Winehouse took some time off after a slew of festival appearances in 2008.

In 2009, she was found not guilty of assaulting a burlesque dancer at a charity ball in central London.

She made a low-key return to the stage in a surprise performance at her local pub in London in October 2010.

Earlier this year, Winehouse was admitted for treatment at the Priory clinic in south-west London.

Last month, she pulled out of her European tour after she was jeered at the first gig in Serbia for appearing to be too drunk to perform.

For 90 minutes, she mumbled through parts of songs and at times left the stage - leaving her band to fill in.

In her short career Winehouse gave us just a glimpse of what might have been, before she was undone by her own personal demons.

But the songs she recorded, and the string of awards they brought her, served to underline what a talent she was.