Steve Jobs 1955 - 2011

[Ben]

Many will be waking up to the extremely sad news of the passing of Steve Jobs. This thread is for anyone who would like to post their thoughts and condolences, links to interesting sites/stories, and anything else related to Steve.

[Ben]

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
--Steve Jobs, 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech

[gorilla]

It truly is a sad day for Apple fans and a massive loss to the company. I do wonder if this was part of the reason for the slightly subdued iPhone 4S announcement.

I suppose the question now is whether Apple can remain as focused without Jobs as they were with him? Will there be too many cooks (excuse the pun!) and too many "good" ideas that the company will try and develop? Will the board become a nightmare (HP anyone)?

If I was to name one Apple product that "changed my life" it would be the iPad. Not because it is new and shiny, but because of what it can do. Sure the iPods were a great range, but I had problems with mine and they come with iTunes which creates it's own problems. I adore my mac mini, but it's a PC and really (while working well) hasn't changed my life. The iPhone (while again being a great little device) was technically no better than other smartphones. So for me Jobs' biggest achievement was being able to make tablet computers a reality for millions of people around the world.

[Ben]

I think it's a sad day for computing. There are so many areas he has touched - right through to unlimited data plans on mobile networks right here in the UK! He took on the music industry, the film industry, the mobile industry. I just had no idea when he stepped down as CEO of Apple in August that he was so close to death - it all makes sense now, he would've given himself to that company until he died, and did, quite literally.

I needed a couple of iPod Nano's for the cars. Was just going to pick some up on the high street but I've ordered them from Apple online instead for the engraving: Steve Jobs 1955-2011.

Sad? Maybe. I think it's nice.

He actually replied to my email criticising Apple's inflexible 30% deduction on in-app purchasing and refusing to allow in-app payments via other means. What an absolute legend.

[Hands0n]

Steve, along with many of his (my) generation, were/are true visionaries born at precisely the right time to engender the technological revolution that pretty much started in the 1970s and brought us to where we are today. Without their vision, and altruism, none of what we take for granted today would be here. There was no need, they created it. There was no money up front, they just went into it for the thrill of creating from nothing. There are a few Steve Jobs left in this world, others have passed before. But it is unlikely that the world will see anything like these giants among men again, for at least for quite a while to come.

Steve has been a heavily criticised individual, lauded and carped at in equal amounts. He was no god but simply a driven man, and these people are difficult to understand, live with, work for. But one thing is for sure, it takes this kind of speciality in a person for them to rise above the rest and do things that are truly remarkable, phenomenal even. And so Steve brought Apple back from the brink of oblivion, turning them into one of the most successful and profitable companies in the world.

He goes to join others that have done similar works in history. RIP fella, you done your time and, damn, you done good.

[Ben]

Makes me teary! :'(

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/10/06/isaacson-shares-a-touching-preview-of-the-steve-jobs-biography/