Steve Jobs Passed Away 11 Years Ago Today

[Motorola68000]

Apple wouldn't exist without a great many factors. Steve Wozniak's influence is probably the most understated, as he was the actual brains behind Apple's earliest products.

Poorly informed and simply provably NOT TRUE. Woz may have been a great influence of the first Apple Mac, but he was not involved at all in what saved Apple's bacon. That was provably Steve Jobs. Apple in its wisdom had a rift with Steve Jobs, and he left to form NeXT, as he wanted to make computers more business savvy and more usable. Woz was not part of that at all. Steve Jobs then liaised with Chuck Gesche as Chuck was developing what was then a new page description language which had major implications. That software was PostScript. Steve Jobs then set about creating his NeXT computer using display postscript, where vectored graphics were a major step forward, as was his NeXTStep OS, based on a Unix kernel.

Indeed Apple had to eat humble pie to get Steve Jobs back, and pay him $400m for his efforts, and where that was the turning point creating the Apple devices we know today, including iPhone, iPad, and all of the computer range.

Before that Apple were nearly bust.

So yes we owe Steve Jobs a lot of praise. Indeed the Internet itself owes a lot to Steve Jobs, as Tim Berners-Lee used one of Steve Jobs NeXT computer to create it.

 

[switz]

Steve's annual product introductions were a pleasure to hear and watch reflecting real animation and a true belief in the new product. The recent introductions have had the presenters looking like puppets with hidden stings doing manipulation of their arms and rather wooden expressions.

While the iPhone is a mature product, my MacStudio is a totally new device with innovative components that could barely be imagined back in the day.

Steve always said that he wanted Apple to design and build their own processors to have complete control and integration of the software and hardware for the ultimate user experience. The only missing link now is the cellular modem which still could happen.

Steve was a human with defects in character as we all are, but he was able to motivate folks to be the most creative electronics outfit on the planet at that time.

 

[Cameront9]

Poorly informed and simply provably NOT TRUE. Woz may have been a great influence of the first Apple Mac, but he was not involved at all in what saved Apple's bacon. That was provably Steve Jobs. Apple in its wisdom had a rift with Steve Jobs, and he left to form NeXT, as he wanted to make computers more business savvy and more usable. Woz was not part of that at all. Steve Jobs then liaised with Chuck Gesche as Chuck was developing what was then a new page description language which had major implications. That software was PostScript. Steve Jobs then set about creating his NeXT computer using display postscript, where vectored graphics were a major step forward, as was his NeXTStep OS, based on a Unix kernel.

Indeed Apple had to eat humble pie to get Steve Jobs back, and pay him $400m for his efforts, and where that was the turning point creating the Apple devices we know today, including iPhone, iPad, and all of the computer range.

Before that Apple were nearly bust.

So yes we owe Steve Jobs a lot of praise. Indeed the Internet itself owes a lot to Steve Jobs, as Tim Berners-Lee used one of Steve Jobs NeXT computer to create it.

Woz was barely involved with the creation of the Macintosh.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I like my iPhone and other Apple products but don’t put an awful lot of thought into how they became what they are and certainly don’t mourn a bloke who wasn’t a particularly nice person by many accounts. I remember the news of him dying and am surprised it’s so long ago as it doesn’t feel that way. Thanks to Apple for the products, I certainly pay enough for them lol.

 

[WWPD]

Remember when people in the audience gasped at swipe to unlock.

 

[mansplains]

Every year the world gets a bit more crazy I wonder what his viewpoint would have been on it all.

It feels like the world changed with Steve’s passing. I feel like if he would still be around the world wouldn’t be such a political mess controled by weird ideologies and very evil intentions. I miss him everyday.

I'm in the same boat. I usually couldn't care less what corpos think about state of affairs, moreso with ESG now. Steve passed during my "developmental" years so I missed the chance to really absorb who he was. Obviously from a distance, not like people who follow celebs and feel owed or like they have a relationship.

A touch of 'backward thinking' doesn't go amiss now and again.

Because respect for the death allows us to meditate on life, and put things in perspective. Every year we have the chance to do so with multiple people. Some are friends and family, some are just famous people we never met.

Just by reading today’s memorial post I thought how less fun technology has been for the past decade (at least, for me).

Attributes and behaviors of the perpetually miserable:

• Reflection's not allowed
• Forget root cause of issues
• Point fingers at things out of one's control
• Dismiss new ideas and resurgences of ideas that worked in the past as 'backward thinking'
• Hold an outsider complex where you don't need to feel uncomfortable, such as empathy for tragedy

 

[mansplains]

Now if everyone didn't hate Zuck so much we could finally get the AI Steve we need!

/s for anyone who thinks I'm simping for the big Z

 

[karranz]

apple’s value is higher than ever, but as true as that may be, is the fact that apple’s magic is fading away. I still remember that every keynote was life changing (or how he showed new OS features in detail, because he was actually involved in every detail of product development). Nowadays Keynotes are boring and business driven.
Steve would never had a bunch of different iPhones, he focused in making one, the best that apple can make and that usually was farther away that anyone can think. Miss you Steve, everyday.

 

[JosephAW]

There's very little of SJ ideology and innovation left at Apple, they've moved on. SJ would probably agree that's a good thing, he wouldn't want them to remain in the past.

 

[George Dawes]

Steve’s presentations were seminal

The original Mac , the iPhone , AirPlay , the iPad etc etc

Never to be forgotten , never to be bettered

 

[BornAgainMac]

“No amount of money ever bought a second of time”

Well, eating organic foods and high quality food and pure water and supplements can help buy you even more than a few seconds.

 

[erikkfi]

I wish I could see what Apple would be doing today if Jobs had been in charge all this time.

 

[chips99]

Rest In Peace, Steve.

 

[JoshNori]

Love you, Steve. You will always be missed.

 

[jvchappy]

I always watch the Pirates of Silicon Valley on the anniversary of his death. RIP Steve

 

[Mr. Dee]

Tim Cook must have a FileMaker Database with all these memorial tweets for Steve. Ironic, when Kara Swisher was trying to ask him direct questions about Steve, its like he hardly knew the guy. I think out of every one of the leadership people, Steve Jobs saw Tim Cook primarily as a really good numbers guy and knew SCM well. He also likely observed his loyalty the company and temperament not to f it up, which is why he gave him the position.

 

[nvmls]

They always said Steve had excellent taste , choosing Tim as his successor proves that to a tee

He chose Sculley also 😅

 

[brianvictor7]

I miss him. I'm 46 now and it is so hard to believe how quickly the time is now flying by. We really never do appreciate what we have until it is gone and no amount of reminding ourselves of this ever quite overcomes this human deficiency. But I am supremely thankful at least today that I got to live at the dawn of the age of techno-magic that Steve and others brought us. Hopefully it proves more a blessing than not as we inexorably fly into the future.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

He also likely observed his loyalty the company and temperament not to f it up, which is why he gave him the position.

One of the best comments I've read. Well said.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Second coming of Steve…. Get some books, educate yourself please. Wozniak has **** all to do with Apple’s rebirth after ‘97


Interestingly I wonder whether you visit graves of your family once a year to remember them or at least light a candle and look at their old photos? If so, why are you asking such superfluous question?

I think you failed to comprehend the key words in the post you quoted regarding Wozniak

"Apple's earliest products."

Not Apple's rebirth which you're focused on.

You're both talking about 2 very different generations of Apple. In each you're both correct and both not wrong.

 

[ZipZilla]

Let's move on from worshipping just one guy. Yes, he was very important. But there are tens of thousands of employees who work at Apple.

Let's not turn cultish in worshipping Jobs.

How about we all think and do what we want? RIP Steve

 

[DeepIn2U]

I think the last iPhone 4s or 5 was design by Steve Jobs.

Influenced direction NOT designed.

Jony Ive took inspiration and direction and designed, Jobs direction and added input. Hence the launch of iPhone 4 was stated by Jobs 'the precision of a Leica camera"

 

[DeepIn2U]

Lol. 11 years+ and Siri is still trash.

RIP Steve.

I took the day off today feeling sick (passed from a colleague).

yesterday at work 40 external visitors came into the office. Amongst them 2 had issues after connecting to our public wi-fi SSID using Chrome / Edge.

1 user had Pixel 6 Pro, used 'Hey Google, call Mack' (their IT rep) over cellular = failed to initiate the command or connect the call.

the other user had on iPhone, used 'Hey Siri, call Ramone' over cellular = call was made, answered and a tired Ramone answered'. I resolved the issue. THIS user informed Ramone he called to be 'pro-active'. Simple effective and efficient.

What was it that Steve stated about smartphone's at iPhone's inaugural launch? Something I missed being a BB user back then and a BES/BB SME (having used many other smartphones before).

The PHONE is the killer app. Still is today and still works THE most reliably.
Today still the iPhone kills in EVERY aspect, Siri faultered vs the competition, agreed. But the basic AI functions its still wins over the competition before the bells and whistles.

 

[EdT]

MacRumors used to have archives of its forum posts dating back to around 2001. There you could read about all the really stupid things that Apple was doing. Some are still relevant, most people still don’t like the actual Apple Mouse, and they didn’t like them then either. But it looks like MacRumors doesn’t have those forums available any more. Removing support for Adobe Flash animation, getting rid of built in CD drives, never actually providing BLURAY drives, memory limitations, gaming support (or lack of it) computer main hard drive Lack of options and keeping physical platter drives long after everyone else offered SSD are all things that people conveniently forget about when talking about Steve Jobs.

He was right about some of those choices, and by no means have I listed everything that caused a controversy. And some technology eventually made the issue superfluous, and I’m thinking about hard drives and CD/BluRay as standard equipment and not something that you needed to buy as an external and non-Apple component. And he did leave Apple in the 1990’s, some say that he left and some say that he was pushed. In the late 1990’s after Steve took over again, Apple became the powerful company that it is today because of decisions that Steve Job was behind. But he wasn’t perfect, not all of his choices were smart business moves, and everyone wasn’t constantly singing his praises.

Few companies have 2 farsighted CEO’s who follow one right after the other. Businesses are conservative and Steve Jobs was disruptive. He was right more than he was wrong but lots of egos where probably broken along the way.

Look at the major successions of computer related companies since the mid 80’s: Compaq and Digital are now just names and not a computer manufacturer, IBM is no longer synonymous with desktop computing, the Steve Ballmer era at Microsoft isn’t held up as an example of a good transition from founder to a new CEO…. But Apple has done very well under Tim Cook. Do I think Tim is the visionary that Jobs was? No. Do I think that Apple has managed this transition better than other companies have managed theirs? Yes.

 

[Steve686]

The guy had great vision. For sure. He was the head of a company that revolutionized and actually created some product markets.

Having said that, I wonder how much further along Apple would be in product development today if he wasn't so difficult to work with and fired or made many talented people leave Apple during his tenure. It's all subjective and impossible to know, of course. His difficult nature molded Apple but sometimes I wonder if it also held Apple back.