Ex-Apple CEO Steve Jobs Has Died

ABC News ^ | October 1, 2011 | Ned Potter

[Kaslin]

Steve Jobs, the mastermind behind Apple's iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac and iTunes, has died in California. Jobs was 56.

His death was reported by The Associated Press, citing Apple.

Jobs co-founded Apple Computer in 1976 and, with his childhood friend Steve Wozniak, marketed what was considered the world's first personal computer, the Apple II.

[GraceG]

Rush will have something to say about this.

[My Favorite Headache]

He accomplished in 56 years more than man could do on his own hundreds of years before him. Amazing man.

RIP

[pyx]

Jobs pushed the idea of different scalable fonts and WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get). His idea, all his own, and it changed computing forever.

After close to 35 years, I find myself weaning myself off a dependency on Word Processors and re-attempting a return to substantive writing. Computers are and have been absolutely terrific at TeX formatting for 35 or so years.

[nfldgirl]

Come to think of it, it was the Macintosh II SE...not an "Apple II SE." ... Get this! ...came with a 20 or 40 MB hard drive! L-O-L!!!! Again...thanks Steve! May God rest your soul.

[isthisnickcool]

In Newsweek 20 years ago I wrote that Jobs was one of those guys that "could see around the corner". That turned out to be an understatement.

RIP dude...

[optiguy]

Steve Jobs gives great commencement address

[newzjunkey]

RIP.

Here’s to the crazy ones. The rebels. The troublemakers. The ones who see things differently. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

-- Apple, Think Different ad copy

[roadcat]

And the ipad? Well, the GridPad and the EO were there long before the ipad.

You're grasping at false statements to back your claim. Those products are nothing like the iPad. The Apple Newton was out long before. And I have a Chalkboard that I use on my Apple II, I bought it in 1983. Long before the iPad. But it's not the same! The iPad is revolutionary. There were lots of failing pads in the past but nothing like this.

[Paradox]

That was the true Genius of Steve Jobs. In some ways, people give him too much credit, but the truth is, the guy was not a tech guru genius, but he had VISION, something that is sorely lacking these days. He knew how to surround himself with the right people, knew how to motivate them to do great things. He deserves his high standing.

(and I say that as someone who loathes the Apple fanboys)

[Solson]

RIP to a great American.

[steve86]

Had a Muslim father, married by a Buddhist monk, never knew that.

[Aqua225]

I agree with you roadcat.

Steve Jobs had a hand in almost every successful product out the doors (and a rare few that weren’t successful).

Much of the usability ideas came from him, and seamless functionality testing had his hand directly within it as well. Things didn’t ship till Steve said they could, which usually meant it had to meet his demanding specifications.

For someone to demote Steve Jobs to marketer status is to comment from a deep ignorance of Apple’s development model.

One can only hope that Tim Cook & the team Steve developed is as inspired as Steve Jobs was himself. It will definitely be a tough pair of shoes to fill.

[tall_tex]

I heard Rush today, he seemed disappointed that they were not introducing the I phone 5, I think they did but knew what was going on to give it the Iphone 4 S name thingey.

[bamahead]

[rdcbn]

Steve Jobs has changed the technology world as much as any one person in history

[Ditto]

Love to post that at DU. See how they feel about the “Death” tax now.

A guy as smart as he was surely has it wrapped up in trusts that will take care of his progeny for generations to come. Only the 'semi-rich' whose assets are tied to real property that is hard to transfer -- things like factories, land, or equipment -- get hit with the death tax. When the wealth is something like stock shares that can be passed to a trust with nothing more than a signature, the death tax is easily avoided. See 5 generations of Kennedys who still live off of Ol' Joe's wealth.

At any rate, RIP for Steve Jobs. He'll be missed.

A quote I have always loved.

"If someday they say of me that in my work I have contributed something to the welfare and happiness of my fellow man, I shall be satisfied."
-- George Westinghouse

Steve Jobs definitely contributed.

[Paradox]

Jobs pushed the idea of different scalable fonts and WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get). His idea, all his own, and it changed computing forever.

Not true, but he is a Giant on whose shoulders we all stand.

[Moonman62]

He was given a brilliant mind and incredible talent. A miracle he was not aborted;

He's lucky he was conceived before Roe vs. Wade.

[Aqua225]

Nice thought, but I doubt it. These things are planned months in advance (silk screening for the boards, cases, etc.).

Plus, the 4S really was a S upgrade, not worthy of a 5 moniker.

I suspect the 5 will add LTE, among other things. I am really surprised they didn’t add it this time. The competition is hammering them, and they leave VZW and S with 3G speeds until the 5 arrives, which is a distinct marketing disadvantage (even if ATT has a higher throughput, technically with HSPA+, the reality is you won’t get it in heavy use areas due the way HSPA+ works).

Anyhow, sorry to Steve go. I am a android user/kernel developer, and I like the way Apple has forced Google to innovate (and vice versa).

As semiconductor fabrication processes improved, and more computing power became available, there is no telling what new ideas Steve would have given us.