The end result: Flipboard, arguably the first and most enduring killer app for Apple's iPad tablet. He recruited Evan Doll, an early Apple iPhone engineer, to help him translate the fundamentals of print publishing to the digital platform. I started to realize there was this whole opportunity to reform how content and advertising is presented on the web.' You'd never think about buying Vogue without the ads, right? But banner ads just get in the way of content. In print, you have these full-page ads that people actually view as part of the content. 'The advertising was also a shadow of itself in digital. 'I remember thinking to myself, 'I read this same article on the internet, and it looked nothing as good as it does here in print, with awesome graphics, pullout quotes, inset maps and beautiful full-bleed photography,'' McCue recalls. En route to a family vacation, he grabbed a magazine from the plane's seat-back pocket and turned the page.

So in mid-2009 he handed over the reins, turned in his resignation and set his sights on a life of leisure-maybe the occasional angel investment here, perhaps some philanthropy work there, a whole lot of family time in between. Two years after selling his startup Tellme Networks to Microsoft for a reported $800 million-plus, McCue essentially completed his efforts to integrate the company's innovative voice-recognition software into the Microsoft platform.

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