Smartphone war pauses as world mourns Steve Jobs

Phone war on hold

Google and Samsung have delayed the announcement of their new smartphones to honour Steve Jobs.

Source: Yahoo 7 News
AFP
October 8, 2011, 12:27 pm

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - The launch of a hot new Google smartphone was delayed as the world mourned the loss of legendary Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and sales began of the latest iPhone.

Unconfirmed word also spread that a private funeral was taking place for Jobs, who died Wednesday at the age of 56 after battling cancer. Apple has indicated that no public memorial is planned.

People touched by the death of the Apple co-founder have made pilgrimages to Apple stores, the company's Cupertino headquarters, and even his family's two-story brick home in an old section of the Silicon Valley city of Palo Alto.

Apple security and local police have discretely ringed the house, clearing the way for dark vehicles bearing flowers or friends to get through the barricaded intersection and into a driveway of the corner property.

On the far side of the slate-roofed house is an apricot orchard.

Jobs bought the neighboring property a long time back and knocked down the house there to put in a swing set for his children and an apricot orchard because he so loved the fruit, according to neighbors.

People, some with children, came to pay tribute to Jobs and a collection of orchids, roses and other flowers grew.

"I just wanted to know I could do something," Judith Sallot said of how she and others around the world sought ways to express their sense of loss since no public event is expected.

"People just want to do something," she explained.

Sallot, who recently turned 65 years old, confided that she was computer illiterate until she got an iPhone.

"I am computer savvy now," she said with a smile. "I feel so much better about myself, and it's because he made it easy."

Grim-faced people came and went, pausing to gaze thoughtfully at a growing shrine that included a classic white iPod with the words "Stay hungry" and "Stay foolish" written on it in black marker.

A pile of apples, each with one bite taken out in tribute to Apple's famous logo, was growing and heartfelt messages written in colored chalk coated the sidewalk.

On the other side of a low wooden-post fence lining the front yard, a small apple orchard laden with fruit stood in a sea of orange poppies.

Pictures of Jobs were tacked to the fence, along with messages including "Often imitated, never duplicated."

"It is sad, especially for the family," said a neighbor who asked only to be identified by her first name, Karelle. "He was part of the neighborhood."

As was the case with many of the others who stopped to leave notes, flowers, or other tributes to Jobs, Karelle snapped pictures with her iPhone.

Samsung and Google on Friday postponed a "Mobile Unpacked" press event planned for next week at an international wireless telecommunications industry conference in Southern California.

"Under the current circumstances, both parties have agreed that this is not the appropriate time for the announcement of a new product," Samsung said in a statement at its official blog.

"We will announce a new date and venue in due course," the South Korean consumer electronics titan promised.

Samsung was expected to unveil a Galaxy Nexus smartphone powered by a yet-to-be released version of Google-backed Android software and designed to challenge market-leading iPhone.

Postponing the launch was seen as a temporary truce of sorts in honor of Jobs, who died Wednesday at the age of 56 after battling cancer.

Apple on Friday began taking online pre-orders for an updated iPhone 4S that is to be available on October 14 in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Britain.

The iPhone 4S features a speedier processor, a "personal assistant" that responds to voice commands and a more powerful camera.

It remained to be seen whether the legions of people from around the world touched by the death of Jobs would buy the iPhone 4S in tribute to the man who altered lives with iPods, iPhones, iPads, and Macintosh computers.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.

How Steve Jobs spent his final weeks

With Time Running Short, Jobs Managed His Farewells

Source: Yahoo 7 News

• Companies:Apple Inc.

 

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CHARLES DUHIGG, On Thursday October 6, 2011, 9:25 pm EDT

 

Over the last few months, a steady stream of visitors to Palo Alto, Calif., called an old friend’s home number and asked if he was well enough to entertain visitors, perhaps for the last time.

In February, Steven P. Jobs had learned that, after years of fighting cancer, his time was becoming shorter. He quietly told a few acquaintances, and they, in turn, whispered to others. And so a pilgrimage began.

The calls trickled in at first. Just a few, then dozens, and in recent weeks, a nearly endless stream of people who wanted a few moments to say goodbye, according to people close to Mr. Jobs. Most were intercepted by his wife, Laurene. She would apologetically explain that he was too tired to receive many visitors. In his final weeks, he became so weak that it was hard for him to walk up the stairs of his own home anymore, she confided to one caller.

Some asked if they might try again tomorrow.

Sorry, she replied. He had only so much energy for farewells. The man who valued his privacy almost as much as his ability to leave his mark on the world had decided whom he most needed to see before he left.

Mr. Jobs spent his final weeks — as he had spent most of his life — in tight control of his choices. He invited a close friend, the physician Dean Ornish, a preventive health advocate, to join him for sushi at one of his favorite restaurants, Jin Sho in Palo Alto. He said goodbye to longtime colleagues including the venture capitalist John Doerr, the Apple board member Bill Campbell and the Disney chief executive Robert A. Iger. He offered Apple’s executives advice on unveiling the iPhone 4S, which occurred on Tuesday. He spoke to his biographer, Walter Isaacson. He started a new drug regime, and told some friends that there was reason for hope.

But, mostly, he spent time with his wife and children — who will now oversee a fortune of at least $6.5 billion, and, in addition to their grief, take on responsibility for tending to the legacy of someone who was as much a symbol as a man.

“Steve made choices,” Dr. Ornish said. “I once asked him if he was glad that he had kids, and he said, ‘It’s 10,000 times better than anything I’ve ever done.’ ”

“But for Steve, it was all about living life on his own terms and not wasting a moment with things he didn’t think were important. He was aware that his time on earth was limited. He wanted control of what he did with the choices that were left.”

In his final months, Mr. Jobs’s home — a large and comfortable but relatively modest brick house in a residential neighborhood — was surrounded by security guards. His driveway’s gate was flanked by two black S.U.V.’s.

On Thursday, as online eulogies multiplied and the walls of Apple stores in Taiwan, New York, Shanghai and Frankfurt were papered with hand-drawn cards, the S.U.V.’s were removed and the sidewalk at his home became a garland of bouquets, candles and a pile of apples, each with one bite carefully removed.

“Everyone always wanted a piece of Steve,” said one acquaintance who, in Mr. Jobs’s final weeks, was rebuffed when he sought an opportunity to say goodbye. “He created all these layers to protect himself from the fan boys and other peoples’ expectations and the distractions that have destroyed so many other companies.

“But once you’re gone, you belong to the world.”

Mr. Jobs’s biographer, Mr. Isaacson, whose book will be published in two weeks, asked him why so private a man had consented to the questions of someone writing a book. “I wanted my kids to know me,” Mr. Jobs replied, Mr. Isaacson wrote Thursday in an essay on Time.com. “I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did.”

Because of that privacy, little is known yet of what Mr. Jobs’s heirs will do with his wealth. Unlike many prominent business people, he has never disclosed plans to give large amounts to charity. His shares in Disney, which Mr. Jobs acquired when the entertainment company purchased his animated film company, Pixar, are worth about $4.4 billion. That is double the $2.1 billion value of his shares in Apple, perhaps surprising given that he is best known for the computer company he founded.

Mr. Jobs’s emphasis on secrecy, say acquaintances, led him to shy away from large public donations. At one point, Mr. Jobs was asked by the Microsoft founder Bill Gates to give a majority of his wealth to philanthropy alongside a number of prominent executives like Mr. Gates and Warren E. Buffett. But Mr. Jobs declined, according to a person with direct knowledge of Mr. Jobs’s decision.

Now that Mr. Jobs is gone, many people expect that attention will focus on his wife, Laurene Powell Jobs, who has largely avoided the spotlight, but is expected to oversee Mr. Jobs’s fortune. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Mrs. Powell Jobs worked in investment banking before founding a natural foods company. She then founded College Track, a program that pairs disadvantaged students with mentors who help them earn college degrees. That has led to some speculation in the philanthropic community that any large charitable contributions might go to education, though no one outside Mr. Jobs’s inner circle is thought to know of the plans.

Mr. Jobs himself never got a college degree. Despite leaving Reed College after six months, he was asked to give the 2005 commencement speech at Stanford.

In that address, delivered after Mr. Jobs was told he had cancer but before it was clear that it would ultimately claim his life, Mr. Jobs told his audience that “death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent.”

The benefit of death, he said, is you know not to waste life living someone else’s choices.
“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.”

In his final months, Mr. Jobs became even more dedicated to such sentiments. “Steve’s concerns these last few weeks were for people who depended on him: the people who worked for him at Apple and his four children and his wife,” said Mona Simpson, Mr. Jobs’s sister. “His tone was tenderly apologetic at the end. He felt terrible that he would have to leave us.”

As news of the seriousness of his illness became more widely known, Mr. Jobs was asked to attend farewell dinners and to accept various awards.

He turned down the offers. On the days that he was well enough to go to Apple’s offices, all he wanted afterward was to return home and have dinner with his family. When one acquaintance became too insistent on trying to send a gift to thank Mr. Jobs for his friendship, he was asked to stop calling. Mr. Jobs had other things to do before time ran out.

“He was very human,” Dr. Ornish said. “He was so much more of a real person than most people know. That’s what made him so great.”

Reporting was contributed by Julie Bosman, Quentin Hardy, Claire Cain Miller and Evelyn M. Rusli.

 

World mourns Steve Jobs

Source: Reuters

Fans' Apple HQ shrine to Jobs (01:26)

By Jennifer Saba

NEW YORK | Thu Oct 6, 2011 2:50pm EDT

(Reuters) - Outpourings of public grief and appreciation swept the globe on Thursday after the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
Jobs, who touched the daily lives of countless millions of people through the Macintosh computer, iPod, iPhone and iPad, died on Wednesday at age 56 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He stepped down as Apple chief executive in August.

Reaction in the stock market was muted as Apple shares quickly recovered from an initial 1.5 percent decline. The shares were up 1 percent to $382.15 at midday.

In New York City, an impromptu memorial made from flowers, candles and a dozen green and red apples was erected outside a 24-hour Apple store on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, with fans snapping photos of it on their iPhones.

"It was really sad news for us," said Daiichiro Tashiro, 25, visiting from Tokyo. "A lot of Japanese use the iPhone. We're here to thank him."

Tributes poured in both from ordinary people and from the pinnacles of the business and political worlds.

"He's the hero to everybody of this generation because he did something that I think is very hard, which is be both a dreamer and a doer," General Electric Co CEO Jeff Immelt told reporters in Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday.

"I wouldn't be able to run my business without Apple, without its software," said David Chiverton, who was leaving Apple's flagship Regent Street store in London. "I run a video production company. It's allowed me to have my dream business."

News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch said, "Steve Jobs was simply the greatest CEO of his generation."

At an Apple store in Sydney, lawyer George Raptis, who was five years old when he first used a Macintosh computer, spoke for almost everyone who has come into contact with Apple. "He's changed the face of computing," he said. "There will only ever be one Steve Jobs."

U.S. President Barack Obama remembered Jobs as a visionary. "Steve was among the greatest of American innovators -- brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it," Obama said in a statement.

Microsoft's Bill Gates, who once triumphed over Jobs but saw his legendary status overtaken by the Apple co-founder in recent years, said, "For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it's been an insanely great honor."

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, whose company competes with Apple's iPhone in the handset market, said, "The world lost a true visionary today. Steve's passion for simplicity and elegance leaves us all a legacy that will endure for generations."

When he stepped down as CEO in August, Jobs handed the reins to long-time operations chief Tim Cook. With a passion for minimalist design and a genius for marketing, Jobs laid the groundwork for the company to continue to flourish after his death, most analysts and investors say.

But Apple still faces challenges in the absence of the man who was its chief product designer, marketing guru and salesman nonpareil. Phones running Google's Android software are gaining share in the smartphone market, and there are questions about what Apple's next big product will be.

LEGENDARY ENTREPRENEUR

A college drop-out and the son of adoptive parents, Jobs changed the technology world in the late 1970s, when the Apple II became the first personal computer to gain a wide following. He did it again in 1984 with the Macintosh, which built on breakthrough technologies developed at Xerox Parc and elsewhere to create the personal computing experience as we know it today.

The rebel streak that was central to his persona got him tossed out of Apple in 1985, but he returned in 1997 and after a few years began the roll-out of a troika of products -- the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad -- that again upended the established order in major industries.

A diagnosis of a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004 initially cast only a mild shadow over Jobs and Apple, with the CEO asserting that the disease was treatable. But his health deteriorated rapidly over the past several years, and after two temporary leaves of absence he stepped down as CEO and became Apple's chairman in August.

Jobs's death came just one day after Cook presented a new iPhone at the kind of gala event that became Jobs's trademark. Perhaps coincidentally, the new device got lukewarm reviews, with many saying it wasn't a big enough improvement over the existing version of one of the most successful consumer products in history.

Apple paid homage to its visionary leader by changing its website to a big black-and-white photograph of him with the caption "Steve Jobs: 1955-2011."

On Google's home page, the same line appeared just below its search box. It was a link to the Apple site.

(Reporting by Jennifer Saba; additional reporting by Sinead Carew and Liana Baker in New York; Scott Malone in Columbus, Ohio; Sarah McBride in Cupertino, California; Poornima Gupta in San Francisco; Edwin Chan in Los Angeles; Matt Cowan in London; and Amy Pyett in Sydney; editing by John Wallace)

Steve Jobs dead at 56

"To Day We lost a the most of true visionary. My condolences to his family and whole Apple family too."

Source: Yahoo 7 News

Steve Jobs, the mind behind the iPhone, iPad and other devices that turned Apple Inc. into one of the world's most powerful companies, has died.

Jobs, 56, stepped down as Apple's CEO on August 24 after suffering from a rare form of pancreatic cancer. He handed the reins to current chief executive Tim Cook.

Jobs had been suffering various health issues following an operation for cancer in 2004 and a liver transplant in 2009. In January this year Apple announced he would be taking indeterminate medical leave of absence.

Apple released a statement on its website announcing Jobs' death and describing him as an amazing human being.

“Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius,” the statement said.
“Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor.

“Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.”

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The American entrepreneur had a devoted fan base after being credited with reinventing Apple Inc. as a power player in the tech scene. He was also deemed the heart and soul of the company that rivals Exxon Mobil as the most valuable in the United States.

He was considered one of the most legendary businessmen in American history, turning three separate industries on their head in the 35 years he was involved in the technology industry.

Apple are credited with the invention of personal computers with the launch of the Apple II in 1977. The iPod and iTunes then brought legal downloads into the mainstream in 2007 followed by the iPhone mobile device, which made the tech industry fall to its knees. The mobile phone market was never the same, with copycat products flooding the market - yet rarely competing.

The pinnacle of Jobs' career came with the development of the iPad. His vision to take personal computing to a new level made the touch-screen tablet a technological revolution.

A creative genius, he excelled at business by being a master salesman but always considered himself an artist. His elegance in design was revered, yet he was rarely seen in public wearing anything more than a black turtleneck, blue jeans and a three-day growth. Apple customers considered him superhuman, while he was often feared by the staff who worked for and against him.

His life started in San Francisco, where he was born to young parents and adopted out to Paul and Clara Jobs. The couple and their new son moved to Santa Clara Valley in 1960, which was to become the Silicon Valley, where Apple headquarters are located.

His career kicked off when he discovered his friend Steve Wozniak had been assembling small computers. Forming a partnership, they created Apple Computer in 1976 and like many Silicon Valley start-ups, built the company out of their parent's garage.

The creation of Apple I, with Jobs handling the sales and Wozniak taking care of the technical, made the pair rich and earned them a reputation for brilliance, arrogance, and the possibilities that come with the sheer force of will and persuasion. Though, It was with Apple II they made their name as a company to watch.

The Macintosh was invented 1984, and cemented the company as a big player in the tech scene. It was only a year later, Jobs was removed from his position by his friend, Apple CEO John Sculley, who he had earlier convinced to leave Pepsi and run Apple. The drastic move was put down to a clash on the future vision of the company and backed by the Apple board.

After this, Jobs told a group of university graduates: "What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating."

In a poetic twist, Jobs would return to the company as its saving grace in 1996.

During his hiatus from Apple, he went on to found NeXT, which set about making the next computer in Jobs' eyes. NeXT was never the commercial success that Apple was - yet it was here he concentrated on object-orientated software development. NeXT chose one of his models for its operating systems, proving to be more advanced than the developments being undertaken at Apple without Jobs.

Jobs also served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios and became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, following the acquisition of Pixar by Disney.

Just as Apple found itself in a shambles and on a downhill track, Jobs returned. He convinced then-CEO Gil Amelio to adopt NeXTStep as the future of Apple's operating system development. Apple was losing money, market share, and key employees at the time. It was to be Jobs' guidance which saved them from the brink of collapse.

He became the head of Apple once again in 1997, bringing the buzz back to his brainchild and creating a new following of loyal fans. He also became the brand's superstar.

In touching remarks in 2005, he envisioned how his last years at Apple would come to be his finest:
"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important."

Jobs leaves behind his wife, four children, two sisters, and 49,000 Apple employees.

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Steve Jobs dies

Source: Yahoo 7 News

October 6, 2011, 10:57 am CNET Staff CNET Australia

We mourn the loss of a tech visionary. After a long battle with cancer, Apple co-founder and Chairman Steve Jobs has died.

We mourn the loss of a tech visionary. After a long battle with cancer, Apple co-founder and Chairman Steve Jobs has died.

Apple co-founder and Chairman Steve Jobs died today, Apple said. He was 56.

Jobs had been suffering from various health issues following the seven-year anniversary of his surgery for a rare form of pancreatic cancer in August 2004. Apple announced in January that he would be taking an indeterminate medical leave of absence, with Jobs then stepping down from his role as CEO in late August.

Jobs had undergone a liver transplant in April 2009 during an earlier planned six-month leave of absence. He returned to work for a year and a half before his health forced him to take more time off. He told his employees in August, "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. Unfortunately, that day has come."

One of the most legendary businessmen in American history, Jobs turned three separate industries on their head in the 35 years he was involved in the technology industry.

Personal computing was invented with the launch of the Apple II in 1977. Legal digital music recordings were brought into the mainstream with the iPod and iTunes in the early 2000s, and mobile phones were never the same after the 2007 debut of the iPhone. Jobs played an instrumental role in the development of all three, and managed to find time to transform the art of computer-generated movie-making on the side.

The invention of the iPad in 2010, a touch-screen tablet computer his competitors flocked to reproduce, was the capstone of his career as a technologist. A conceptual hybrid of a touch-screen iPod and a slate computer, the 10-inch mobile device was Jobs' vision for a more personal computing device.

Jobs was considered brilliant yet brash. He valued elegance in design yet was almost never seen in public wearing anything but a black mock turtleneck, blue jeans, and a few days worth of stubble. A master salesman who considered himself an artist at heart, Jobs inspired both reverence and fear in those who worked for him and against him, and was adored by an army of loyal Apple customers who almost saw him as superhuman.

Jobs was born in San Francisco in 1955 to young parents who gave him up for adoption. Paul and Clara Jobs gave him his name, and moved out of the city in 1960 to the Santa Clara Valley, later to be known as Silicon Valley. Jobs grew up in Mountain View and Cupertino, where Apple's headquarters is located.

He attended Reed College in Oregon for a year but dropped out, although he sat in on some classes that interested him, such as calligraphy. After a brief stint at Atari working on video games, he spent time backpacking around India, furthering teenage experiments with psychedelic drugs and developing an interest in Buddhism, all of which would shape his work at Apple.

Back in California, Jobs' friend Steve Wozniak was learning the skills that would change both their lives. When Jobs discovered that Wozniak had been assembling relatively (for the time) small computers, he struck a partnership, and Apple Computer was founded in 1976 in the usual Silicon Valley fashion: setting up shop in the garage of one of the founder's parents.

Wozniak handled the technical end, creating the Apple I, while Jobs ran sales and distribution. The company sold a few hundred Apple Is, but found much greater success with the Apple II, which put the company on the map and is largely credited as having proven that regular people wanted computers.

It also made Jobs and Wozniak rich. Apple went public in 1980, and Jobs was well on his way to becoming one of the first tech industry celebrities, earning a reputation for brilliance, arrogance, and the sheer force of his will and persuasion, often jokingly referred to as his "reality-distortion field."
The debut of the Macintosh in 1984 left no doubt that Apple was a serious player in the computer industry, but Jobs only had a little more than a year left at the company he founded when the Mac was released in January 1984.

By 1985 Apple CEO John Sculley — who Jobs had convinced to leave Pepsi in 1983 and run Apple with the legendary line, "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?" — had developed his own ideas for the future of the company, and they differed from Jobs'. He removed Jobs from his position leading the Macintosh team, and Apple's board backed Sculley.

Jobs resigned from the company, later telling an audience of Stanford University graduates "what had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating." He would get the last laugh.

He went on to found NeXT, which set about making the next computer in Jobs' eyes. NeXT was never the commercial success that Apple was, but during those years, Jobs found three things that would help him architect his return.

The first was Pixar. Jobs snapped up the graphic-arts division of Lucasfilm in 1986, which would go on to produce Toy Story in 1995 and set the standard for computer-graphics films. After making a fortune from Pixar's IPO in 1995, Jobs eventually sold the company to Disney in 2006.

The second was object-oriented software development. NeXT chose this development model for its software operating systems, and it proved to be more advanced and more nimble than the operating system developments Apple was working on without Jobs.

The third was Laurene Powell, a Stanford MBA student who attended a talk on entrepreneurialism given by Jobs in 1989 at the university. The two wed in 1991 and eventually had three children; Reed, born in 1991, Erin, born in 1995, and Eve, born in 1998. Jobs has another daughter, Lisa, who was born 1978, but Jobs refused to acknowledge he was her father for the first few years of her life, eventually reconciling with Lisa and her mother, his high-school girlfriend Chris-Ann Brennan.

Jobs returned to Apple in 1996, having convinced then-CEO Gil Amelio to adopt NeXTStep as the future of Apple's operating system development. Apple was in a shambles at the time, losing money, market share, and key employees.

By 1997, Jobs was once again in charge of Apple. He immediately brought buzz back to the company, which pared down and reacquired a penchant for showstoppers, such as the 1998 introduction of the iMac; perhaps the first "Stevenote." His presentation skills at events such as Macworld would become legendary examples of showmanship and star power in the tech industry.
Jobs also set the company on the path to becoming a consumer-electronics powerhouse, creating and improving products such as the iPod, iTunes, and later, the iPhone and iPad. Apple is the most valuable publicly-traded company in the world, surpassing ExxonMobil?'s market capitalization in August. He did so in his own fashion, imposing his ideas and beliefs on his employees and their products in ways that left many a career in tatters. Jobs enforced a culture of secrecy at Apple and was an extremely demanding leader, terrorizing Apple employees when he returned to the company in the late 1990s with summary firings if he didn't like the answers they gave when questioned.

Jobs was an intensely private person. That quality put him and Apple at odds with government regulators and stockholders who demanded to know details about his ongoing health problems and his prognosis as the leader and alter ego of his company. It spurred a 2009 SEC probe into whether Apple's board had made misleading statements about his health.

In the years before he fell ill in 2008, Jobs seemed to soften a bit, perhaps due to his bout with a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004.

In 2005, his remarks to Stanford graduates included this line: "Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important."

Later, in 2007, he appeared onstage at the D: All Things Digital conference for a lengthy interview with bitter rival Bill Gates, exchanging mutual praise and prophetically quoting the Beatles: "You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead."

Jobs leaves behind his wife, four children, two sisters, and 49,000 Apple employees.

Via CNET