Steve Jobs died!!

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

The homepage of Apple's website contained a full-page image of Jobs with the text, "Steve Jobs 1955-2011."

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.

Industry watchers called him a master innovator -- perhaps on a par with Thomas Edison -- changing the worlds of computing, recorded music and communications.

In 2004, he beat back an unusual form of pancreatic cancer, and in 2009 he was forced to get a liver transplant. After several years of failing health, Jobs announced on Aug. 24, 2011 that he was stepping down as Apple's chief executive.

"I have always said 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," Jobs wrote in his letter of resignation. "Unfortunately, that day has come."

Click Here for Pictures: Steve Jobs Through the Years

One of the world's most famous CEOs, Jobs remained stubbornly private about his personal life, refusing interviews and shielding his wife and their children from public view.
Steve Jobs in 60 Seconds Watch Video
Steve Jobs: Ethics of a Private Life Watch Video
Jobs Resigns as the CEO of Apple Watch Video

"He's never been a media person," said industry analyst Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, after Jobs resigned. "He's granted interviews in the context of product launches, when it benefits Apple, but you never see him talk about himself."

The highlights of Jobs's career trajectory are well-known: a prodigy who dropped out of Reed College in Oregon and, at 21, started Apple with Wozniak in his parents' garage. He was a multimillionaire by 25, appeared on the cover of Time magazine at 26, and was ousted at Apple at age 30, in 1984.

In the years that followed, he went into other businesses, founding NeXT computers and, in 1986, buying the computer graphics arm of Lucasfilm, Ltd., which became Pixar Animation Studios.

He was described as an exacting and sometimes fearsome leader, ordering up and rejecting multiple versions of new products until the final version was just right. He said the design and aesthetics of a device were as important as the hardware and software inside.

Click Here for Pictures: Apple's Iconic Products

In 1996, Apple, which had struggled without Jobs, brought him back by buying NeXT. He became CEO in 1997 and put the company on a remarkable upward path.

By 2001 the commercial music industry was on its knees because digital recordings, copied and shared online for free, made it unnecessary for millions of people to buy compact discs.

Jobs took advantage with the iPod -- essentially a pocket-sized computer hard drive with elegantly simple controls and a set of white earbuds so that one could listen to the hours of music one saved on it. He set up the iTunes online music store, and persuaded major recording labels to sell songs for 99 cents each. No longer did people have to go out and buy a CD if they liked one song from it. They bought a digital file and stored it in their iPod.

In 2007, he transformed the cell phone. Apple's iPhone, with its iconic touch screen, was a handheld computer, music player, messaging device, digital wallet and -- almost incidentally -- cell phone. Major competitors, such as BlackBerry, Nokia and Motorola, struggled after it appeared.

By 2010, Apple's new iPad began to cannibalize its original business, the personal computer. The iPad was a sleek tablet computer with a touch screen and almost no physical buttons. It could be used for almost anything software designers could conceive, from watching movies to taking pictures to leafing through a virtual book.

Personal Life

Jobs kept a close cadre of friends, Bajarin said, including John Lasseter of Pixar and Larry Ellison of Oracle, but beyond that, shared very little of his personal life with anyone.

But that personal life -- he was given up at birth for adoption, had an illegitimate child, was romantically linked with movie stars -- was full of intrigue for his fan base and Apple consumers.

Jobs and his wife, Laurene Powell, were married in a small ceremony in Yosemite National Park in 1991, lived in Woodside, Calif., and had three children: Reed Paul, Erin Sienna and Eve.

He admitted that when he was 23, he had a child out of wedlock with his high school girlfriend, Chris Ann Brennan. Their daughter, Lisa Brennan Jobs, was born in 1978.

He had a biological sister, Mona Simpson, the author of such well-known books as "Anywhere But Here." But he did not meet Simpson until they were adults and he was seeking out his birth parents. Simpson later wrote a book based on their relationship. She called it "A Regular Guy."
Steve Jobs in 60 Seconds Watch Video
Steve Jobs: Ethics of a Private Life Watch Video
Jobs Resigns as the CEO of Apple Watch Video

Fortune magazine reported that Jobs denied paternity of Lisa for years, at one point swearing in a court document that he was infertile and could not have children. According to the report, Chris Ann Brennan collected welfare for a time to support the child until Jobs later acknowledged Lisa as his daughter.

There were other personal details that emerged over the years, as well.

At Reed, Jobs became romantically involved with the singer Joan Baez, according to Elizabeth Holmes, a friend and classmate. In "The Second Coming of Steve Jobs," Holmes tells biographer Alan Deutschman that Jobs broke up with his serious girlfriend to "begin an affair with the charismatic singer-activist." Holmes confirmed the details to ABC News.

Jobs' Health and Apple's Health

Enigmatic and charismatic, Jobs said little about himself. But then his body began to fail him.

In 2004, he was forced to say publicly he had a rare form of pancreatic cancer. In 2009, it was revealed that he had quietly gone to a Memphis hospital for a liver transplant.

He took three medical leaves from Apple. He did not share details.

In 2009, sources said, members of Apple's board of directors had to persuade him to disclose more about his health as "a fiduciary issue," interwoven with the health of the company.

He was listed in March as 109th on the Forbes list of the world's billionaires, with a net worth of about $8.3 billion. After selling Pixar animation studios to The Walt Disney Company in 2006, he became a Disney board member and the company's largest shareholder. Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

Analysts said Apple performed well during Jobs' absence, partly because he was available for big decisions and partly because his chief lieutenant, Tim Cook, was the hands-on manager even when Jobs was there.

The company has a history of bouncing back. In January 2009, after he announced his second medical leave, Apple stock dropped to $78.20 per share. But it quickly recovered and became one of the most successful stocks on Wall Street. On one day in the summer of 2011, with the stock hitting the $400 level, Apple briefly passed ExxonMobil as the world's most valuable company.

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iaefebs said:

This is an old RUMOR... Steve Jobs is not dead......yet...

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thataintchicken said:

I met him a couple of times while I was working for Apple.
He seemed to be a nice guy -- very driven. He had his demons, but he also had a vision.

We all benefit from his ideas in one way or another. From Computers to Movies.
Sad to see someone leave us with so much left to offer.

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tonyolympia said:

I read the news on HBT for the iPhone.

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runningweird said:

well that sucks. time to buy stock.

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sudsmcgee said:

Really? I was thinking time to sell. <Shrug>

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JoeyChopps said:

Not to be an insensitive ahole but he probably had very little to do with the products it was probably a lot of unseen programmers that did the real work I hate that he died but I really hate that when people die others immortalize them beyond fact Chopps

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ReverseApacheMaster said:

I'm not an Apple hater, but it's a bit much to say he changed the world.

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IrregularPulse said:

Marketing genius for sure. Regardless, it's sad that any man dies at 56, regardless of worldly contributions.

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rhamilton said:

Now we really don't have any jobs.... (too soon?)

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zman said:

http://i.imgur.com/KmCzW.png

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passedpawn said:

I've been into micro-photography lately, looking at insects under microscopes. It's amazing how much complexity something like an ant has. So much more than you would expect since we only normally see them from afar.

People are like that too. It's easy to trivialize (or even make fun of) any person's life. But if you have the chance to look more closely you'll find that every person's story is complex, rich with history and events, and every death is the end of an epic life.

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rycov said:

thats not steve jobs

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IrregularPulse said:

You're joking right? That's the point. Someone, Ralph, who had a much more important impact on the human race died the same day as Steve Jobs, yet nobody is crying over him in the media because he's not famous for creating important things like phones and MP3 players. He's only helping cure disease.

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LVBen said:

What kind of computer did he use while he was curing diseases?

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IrregularPulse said:

Steve Jobs didn't invent the computer.

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rycov said:

but if it was an apple then he has a point

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