Google's Vic Gundotra, on getting a call from Steve Jobs on a Sunday: the Icon Ambulance

The news that Steve Jobs has resigned as Apple CEO, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, will inspire a lot of people to write a lot of things online. Much of it will be garbage. Some of it, like the personal recollection I'm linking to here, will not.

I am glad that Google's Vic Gundotra chose the moment to share this story, about receiving a phone call from Steve Jobs on a Sunday, while attending religious services.

Jobs blocks his outgoing Caller ID, so Gundotra didn't pick up—he was worshipping. At the time, Gundotra handled all mobile apps for Google, and had regular dealings with Jobs. Gundotra listened to his voicemail, and a message left by the Apple CEO, and called him back before even reaching his car.

"Hey Steve – this is Vic", I said. "I'm sorry I didn't answer your call earlier. I was in religious services, and the caller ID said unknown, so I didn't pick up".

Steve laughed. He said, "Vic, unless the Caller ID said 'GOD', you should never pick up during services".

I laughed nervously. After all, while it was customary for Steve to call during the week upset about something, it was unusual for him to call me on Sunday and ask me to call his home. I wondered what was so important?

"So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I've already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow" said Steve.

"I've been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I'm not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn't have the right yellow gradient. It's just wrong and I'm going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?"

Of course this was okay with me. A few minutes later on that Sunday I received an email from Steve with the subject "Icon Ambulance".

Icon Ambulance (Google+, via MacRumors, via @kouroshk)