Steve Jobs has died

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http://www.apple.com/stevejobs/
1955 - 2011

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/steve-jobs-apple-ceo-dies/story?id=14383813

Quote:

"We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today," read a statement by Apple's board of directors. "Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts."

Thoughts? I have not been a fan of much of what Apple does (I actually prefer PCs), but love my iPod and certainly recognize the guy's vision and talent.

And you?

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Type: Discussion • Score: 18 • Views: 7,980 • Replies: 53

@jespah,

Yeah that sucks, big time. Sad

He certainly made Microsoft what it is today. (Seriously).

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@jespah,

I'm a mac person, rather by mistake - a computer I found in the Bargain Box of the Evening Outlook in the 1990's.

But never mind my questionable computer smarts -

Rest in Peace, Steve.

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@jespah,

I am very saddened by this. I've been an Apple and Steve Jobs fan since
1985 when I got my first Macintosh and haven't looked at a PC since.
He certainly changed the way we use music and cell phones or computers
for that matter - he was very innovative and visionary. Gone too soon at
56 years Sad

Today is a sad day for technology !

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@CalamityJane,

He was an unusual and interesting person on several levels. A visionary whose character and focus stood in stark contrast to that of his arch competitor, Bill Gates during the formative years of the industry they created. He saw success, failure and then multiple successes during an unusually prominient career that ended up touching nearly everyone, and at the same time, he managed to remain a private person. A life very well lived.

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@jespah,

“Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” RIP Steve.

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Quote of the day: "The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve's success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented." —President Obama tonight on the passing of Steve Jobs

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@CalamityJane,

CalamityJane wrote:

Quote of the day: "The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve's success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented." —President Obama tonight on the passing of Steve Jobs

I suppose according to Obama the other 75,000 people who have worked for Apple since its founding we just taking up space and sucking up revenue....if there was any doubt but that Obama is in his heart a conservative I think that we have now put that to bed...It is the conservatives who claim that individuals do great things alone, Liberals used to know that it takes a village to lift a man to greatness.

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@hawkeye10,

Quote:

On June 29, 2007, Apple Computers released its new touch screen smart phone called the iPhone. Who invented the iPhone? Well, over two hundred different patents were part of the design of the new iPhone, so pinpointing one inventor would be unfair. However, we can discuss the key personal who brought the iPhone into existence.
History of the iPhone

The first concept for an iPhone type device came about in 2000 when Apple worker John Casey sent some concept art around via internal email, he called it the Telipod - a telephone and iPod combination. However, this idea eventually evolved into the iPhone we know today.
It was Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs who directed Apple's engineers to develop a touch screen, mobile phone. Jobs at first was considering am Apple tablet computer, that desire eventually manifested in the iPad, and Apple had already produced a palm device with a touch screen, the Newton MessagePad.

Apple Phones

Apple's first smartphone was the ROKR E1, released on September 7, 2005. However, the ROKR was an Apple and Motorola collaboration and Apple was not happy with Motorola's contributions. Within a year, Apple discontinued support for the ROKR. On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs announced the new iPhone at the Macworld convention. On June 29, 2007, Apple began selling the new iPhone.
What Was So Special About The iPhone?

Apple's head of design, Jonathan Ive is heavily credited with the aesthetic design and look of the iPhone. The iPhone was the first smart phone that had no hard keypad for dialing, it was entirely a touchscreen device, and the iPhone's touchscreen technology was groundbreaking with multi-touch controls, more than select you could scroll and zoom as well.
The iPhone also introduced the accelerometer, a motion sensor that allowed you to turn the phone sideways and rotate the display. While it was the first device to have "apps" or software add-ons. It was the first smart phone to manage the apps market successfully.

Jonathan Ive

British designer, Jonathan Ive, (born February 1967) was also the principal designer of the iMac, titanium and aluminum PowerBook G4, MacBook, unibody MacBook Pro, iPod, iPhone, and iPad.

http://inventors.about.com/od/istartinventions/a/iPhone.htm

I'd say that Jobs was only slightly more responsible for the invention of the I-Phone than Al Gore was responsible for inventing the internet...Professor Obama gets it wrong again, situation normal.

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@jespah,

jespah wrote:

Thoughts? I have not been a fan of much of what Apple does (I actually prefer PCs), but love my iPod and certainly recognize the guy's vision and talent.

I think the Apple II was a decent computer, but things went downhill ever after. (Granted, they moved downhill in a very glitzy fashion.) That is to say, I was never a big Apple fan, and plainly fail to "get" the company's cult-like following.

That said, I always admired his 2005 commencement address in Stanford:

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Way too young to be gone. It's not that much of a surprise, though; his abrupt resignation recently because of health problems gave a strong hint that things were not well. A man in his position doesn't resign from a management position in a company he founded unless the health problem is serious.

My first computer was a Mac. Bought it second-hand from a couple living in my apartment building, who were "upgrading" to a PC. It's on that Mac that I started posting on Abuzz. The rest, as they say, is history.

RIP, Mr. Jobs.

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I was saddened to hear of this. My condolences to his family and friends.

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@trying2learn,

TED Talks profile on Steve Jobs:
http://www.ted.com/speakers/steve_jobs.html

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@jespah,

Steve Jobs wasn't the inventor that many people think of him as, what he was was a ruthless perfectionist whose exacting standards made the creations of others around him better.

I don't buy in to the cult of personality around him (mainly because his personality was so thoroughly rotten) but he made a company that undeniably has had more influence on our lives than any other company and he pushed several whole industries further with his perfectionist drive.

But even still, I cringe every time I hear people say he "invented" things like the iPod, iPhone etc. These are devices that Apple perfected and polished enough to go mainstream, and none of Steve's major contributions to the world were fundamental inventions of his or Apple. The computer, the mobile music player, the online music store, computer animation and all of Steve's successes are not concepts he invented, they are concepts he popularized by making them good enough for mainstream. His perfectionism was his greatest asset, throwing away multiple prototypes of the iPhone when another leader would have simply published them and iterated (remember the original kindle? a design cluster-****, and several generations later they are now taking usability and design cues from Apple's devices to improve them). His greatest talents were his gut and taste, letting him avoid design by committee.

He isn't the greatest innovator of our generation, he's the greatest business executive of our generation. He can't write code, he can't design, but he had a great feel for what would and wouldn't work and the drive to get people to get the extra mile out of their work. And what he was good at is special enough without simplifying his work into sound bytes that make him an inventor. He was no serious inventor, he was a pedantic, ruthless critic with nearly impeccable taste vetting the inventions of others. And what he was able to do that way is legacy enough without making him out to be a Da Vinci or Edison of our times (though Edison is an apt comparison in some ways, but that's a whole 'nother story).

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@Thomas,

Thomas wrote:

I think the Apple II was a decent computer, but things went downhill ever after. (Granted, they moved downhill in a very glitzy fashion.)

Linux neckbeard!

Quote:

That is to say, I was never a big Apple fan, and plainly fail to "get" the company's cult-like following.

IMO the same could be said for the cult-like hate they get. Irrational holy wars.

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@Robert Gentel,

Well you wont be to pleased with this. Nearly all media I've listened to today is lauding him as the inventor everything Apple came up with. He is being especially praised for the apps he invented in particular apps that can help people with disabilities. I've heard parents crying on the radio today on hearing of his death, parents who can now communicate with their children because of apps they apparently believe he invented.
The best one I heard today was, "The three most important and influential apples in history were Eves apple, Newtons apple and Steve Jobs apple. High praise indeed, to be compared with Newton.

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@eurocelticyankee,

Yeah, I get it on one level, they are trying to express something about the force of nature that he was and simply don't understand the process he worked under well enough to do it accurately.

They just don't understand that invention is only a small part of technology, and want it to all be more "magical" than it really is (which is hard work and high standards). Edison once said "Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration". The problem is that most people think it's all the 1% magic and ignore the 99% of just working harder than others.

So the hard work of hundreds of thousands of engineers is reduced to his "magic" and this managed to both credit him too much (for inspiration he didn't have) and not enough (for a relentless drive that is the real secret sauce).

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@Robert Gentel,

I get that, and agree on a certain level.

However, look at Apple without him, and look at Apple with him. No, he didn't do the hardest grunt work. No, he didn't create and invent much of anything. What he did do was collect all of the resources together under one roof that was actually capable of pulling off such inventions and grunt work and then pushed them to excel.

I'm not a huge fanboy. I have never owned a mac myself, though as a graphic designer I certainly have used them over the years. And even though I never waited in a line outside of one of Apple's unique stores, I was always excited to see what they would come up with next. 'They' being the organization that this man, through a solid vision and a force of will, first created in a garage and then re-strung together from the wreck that was left after his ouster.

So yes, he might not have done all the grunt work, he might not even have thought up 10% of what Apple has put out over the years. However he invented the culture that allowed the inventors to do their work. He pushed UX to the forefront of corporate thought and showed how important a field it actually is. There are very little interfaces in existence today (Droid and Windows 7 included) that didn't draw on his influence.

Credit him too much? I don't believe so. There would not have been hundreds of thousands of engineers laboring on a vision without the vision.

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@Questioner,

Questioner wrote:

I get that, and agree on a certain level.

However, look at Apple without him, and look at Apple with him.

I don't think you get what I'm saying then. I said that I think he's the greatest CEO of our generation, but that doesn't make him a great inventor. He was a decent inventor, with real inventions to his name.

But his inventions are tiny details and no the entire devices he is reported to have invented. Things like how a particular user interface should be are his kind of innovation, but he simply did not invent any of the devices categories that he's famous for. Many of us geeks were using those devices years before Apple made them good enough to go mainstream.

I happen to think that the polish is harder than the invention, but people like to reduce all that effort to some magical genius.

Quote:

Credit him too much? I don't believe so. There would not have been hundreds of thousands of engineers laboring on a vision without the vision.

Yes there would be. It would just be less polished than Apple's standards. None of the big picture visions were his or Apple's. Other people dreamed of them and were working on them, he simply dreamed up more polished versions of them and thusly had greater market impact with the same fundamental ideas that others were trying.

His legacy doesn't need the kind of overstatement that pretends without him we wouldn't have things like computers and smartphones, we'd just have less well designed computers and smartphones and they would have less mainstream impact as a result.

The difference that Steve makes is that maybe our grandmothers woudn't be listening to digital music and using tablets, relegating the vision to the geeks like me who were playing with these visions long before they were ready for mainstream (the iPhone was something like my 5th smartphone, the iPod was not my first digital music player and so on).

We'd have all the same things, they just wouldn't work as well. And that alone is legacy enough. If they didn't work as well they wouldn't have gone mainstream.

Bill Gates had the tablet vision long before Steve Jobs did and had engineers working on it a decade ago. Unfortunately Bill Gates lacks any understanding of design and usability and was never able to make the vision usable. Steve knew how to recognize when technology was ready for a vision and how to make it useful enough to change the world. That is much more real credit than pretending like he invented things, which is much easier in comparison (for every technology that wows there were dozens of people who thought of it first, but didn't execute it).

Invention is a serendipitous accident, perfectionism is hard work. In my opinion crediting him with innovation is to give him short shrift. What he actually did was harder, if less glamorous-sounding.

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@Robert Gentel,

I know what you mean and I agree it's not fair, in fact it's very unfair to see one man get all the praise while many who put time sweat and tears in to it go unrecognised, but isn't that the way it always is. I'm trying to think of an example, hmm maybe Oppenheimer who is considered the father, the creator of the atomic bomb, but in truth was just one of many scientists involved in the project, but he is remembered because he was, like Jobs the driving force.
Probably not a great example but I'm sure you get what I mean.

1 Reply

Steve Jobs has died

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