UPDATE: The Steve Jobs action figure has been officially cancelled. In Icons, the company responsible for the action figure, asserts they’ve done nothing wrong, but are backing down out of respect for Apple and the Jobs family. They will be refunding all preorders.

That Steve Jobs action figure is pretty cool, right? I mean, who wouldn’t want to have one? Apple apparently, and it looks like they don’t want you to have one either. According to the Telegraph, the company making the doll received a little letter from Apple, threatening legal action. The argument, it seems, is that Apple feels like it owns the rights to Steve Jobs. It’s worth noting that the Telegraph’s report of the legal trouble is cautiously worded and no sources are cited, so it might not be the real deal.

That being said, if it is the real deal and you want one of these puppies, you better sign up now. They aren’t due to start shipping until February and they already command a price of $100, a price that’s only going to skyrocket if the supply ends up limited. We’ll see if anything else comes to light. The discussion of who owns the rights to Steve Jobs could be a pretty interesting one.

(Telegraph via Gizmodo)

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Because nothing says that you really cherish the memory of someone than buying their likeness cast as a 12-inch model, in icons is planning to bring a Steve Jobs action figure to market. The pint-sized version of everyone’s favorite deceased tech visionary comes with a black turtleneck, blue jeans, New Balance sneakers, an apple (fruit), glasses, stool, and “one more thing” backdrop. I have to admit that this thing looks remarkably well made, but of all the cash-ins at the death of Jobs, this seems like the creepiest.

(in icons via BuzzFeed)

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The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has announced that they will be awarding a Grammy to Steve Jobs. Jobs will receive the Trustees Award for is contributions to the music scene, cited as having helped create products that changed the way people consume music — a summary that is actually true, rather than something we boast after someone respected has passed on. The award focuses on how the iPod and the iTunes Store as changed how music was distributed and bought, which, again, is actually true.

Back in 2002, Apple received a Technical Grammy Award for “contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field,” so the posthumous Jobs award isn’t the first time something Apple-related has pulled down a sweet, golden Grammy.

Though Jobs died in October, his death is still fresh on everyone’s minds, seeing as how he went out during his being at the height of tech media, not even having to live through a certain famous song lyric regarding the benefit of burning out as opposed to fading away.

We can only wonder if Jobs made enough of his impression on the company he left behind, and only time will tell if Apple will revolutionize music once again without him. Either way, he now has a Grammy for doing just that.

(Grammy.org via The Huffington Post)

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Time’s Person of the Year this year is officially “The Protester.” I can see what they’re getting at, but it does seem like something of a cop-out, right? I mean, “The Protester” is more like a Type-of-Person of the Year, or maybe the Class-Loadout of the Year. Besides that, Steve Jobs sure did spend a giant portion of the year dominating headlines. Of course, he might not have been a great person exactly, but that is up for debate. Also, let me remind you that Hitler (yes, that Hitler) was once Time’s Person of the Year, and Stalin was twice. They aren’t all heroes. On that note, as lame as “The Protester” might feel, there are way, way lamer ones in the past. Let’s take a look, shall we?

Starting from the beggining, here are some of the lamest, cop-outiest Person’s of the Year:

• 1950: The American Fighting-man
• 1956: The Hungarian Freedom Fighter
• 1960: American Scientists
• 1966: Baby Boomers
• 1969: The Middle Americans
• 1982: The Computer (Machine of the Year)
• 1988: The Endangered Earth (Planet of the Year)
• 2002: The Whistleblowers
• 2003: The American Soldier
• 2005: The Good Samaritans
• 2006: You

So, Time’s Person of the Year has never really been the arbiter of making complete sense. Of course, I’m not saying that “good samaritans” shouldn’t be thanked or anything. It’s just sort of, well, duh.

(via Boing Boing, Wikipedia)

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According to their source, which Business Insider says has provided reliable information in the past, the phone was dramatically different than the one that launched. First and foremost, the phone the source claims to have seen a 4-inch diagonal screen — wider than previous iPhones —  and a thinner form factor. The screen was allegedly an improvement over Apple’s already impressive Retina display. It was also meant to have an aluminum back, like an iPad 2, and use the “liquid metal” technology that Apple uses to make its colored iPods blue or red all the way through. The source also claims that the home button “was not a physical press button” and that the iPhone 5 packed a 10 megapixel camera.

The source also says that the rumor around Apple was that it was none other than Steve Jobs that spiked the project before it saw the light of day. Apparently Jobs was concerned about fracturing the iPhone market with the iPhone 5′s bigger screen — a complaint often levied against Android devices. The fear was that by having different screen sizes, the continuity between apps would be lost. Sort of like how iPhone apps look disappointing on the iPad.

While surprising, the claim that Jobs vetoed the final form of the phone at the 11th hour is not too surprising. A recent New Yorker article based off Jobs’ authorized biography portrayed the tech titan as a perfectionist that agonized over every detail. The article, for instance, mentions how Jobs spent weeks trying to choose a washing machine, and after being diagnosed with cancer demanded a choice of oxygen masks while in hospital. That Jobs would reverse course so late in a product’s development seems well within his character.Especially at a time when his ailing health may have kept him away from earlier iterations of the phone’s development.

In fact, it sounds a little too within his character, and the story a little too convenient. To me, the rumors fit the typical pattern of conspriacy theories that rely on hidden, mythical technology far advanced from what we have now. The claims are certainly attractive, though. For Apple fans and hungry consumers, it promises better, sexier products to come. For bloggers and journalists, rumors of a revoked phone could be a chance to save face. It wasn’t their our fault, it was Apple that pulled the rug out on the product they we were reporting on.

Unless someone at Apple produces this mystery phone, or it shows up decades later in one of the periodic dumps of Apple’s R&D models, I’m not buying it.

(via Business Insider)

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“One guy, who changed our world, and I said to Seth Meyers as we walked across 6th Ave, ‘Just look with me on this one block walk at how he changed the world around us. Look at how he changed the world.’ Not only did he change the world, but he gave us that spirit again that something was possible that you could look at a piece of plastic or glass and move your finger – that’s outlandish. You could make things bigger or smaller like that. ‘Oh the places you’ll go’ and oh the way you will change forever the music and television industries. So may he rest in peace, Steve Jobs, and the spirit he represents, are my nominee for Person of the Year.”

Along with Steve Jobs, actors Jessie Eisenberg and Seth Meyers nominated angry people for the award, referencing Occupy Wall Street, as well as the Tea Party. Meyers stated he thinks angry people should be the Person of the Year because they are right to be angry:

“I think I would join with Jesse and I do think that angry people are the Person of the Year because I think they’re right to be angry.”

Time’s Person of the Year will announced sometime in the middle of December.

(via CBS News)

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Before embarking, he’d looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life’s partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them.

Steve’s final words were:

OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.”

Steve Jobs’ sister Mona Simpson, novelist and English professor, in a moving and eloquent piece on the life and final days of her brother.

Jobs, who was raised by adopted parents, did not meet his biological sister Mona Simpson until later in life. However, it seems that the two made up for lost time becoming incredibly close. In an essay printed yesterday in the New York Times, Simpson recounted meeting her brother and paints an intimate portrait of the man most of us only knew through his products. While she includes some insights to Jobs the innovator and technology titan, she focuses on little moments with her brother, like this one:

I remember when he phoned the day he met Laurene. “There’s this beautiful woman and she’s really smart and she has this dog and I’m going to marry her.”

The article concludes with a deeply personal account of Jobs’ struggle with illness and then, finally, the last moments of his life.

Until about 2 in the afternoon, his wife could rouse him, to talk to his friends from Apple.

Then, after awhile, it was clear that he would no longer wake to us.

His breathing changed. It became severe, deliberate, purposeful. I could feel him counting his steps again, pushing farther than before.

This is what I learned: he was working at this, too. Death didn’t happen to Steve, he achieved it.

He told me, when he was saying goodbye and telling me he was sorry, so sorry we wouldn’t be able to be old together as we’d always planned, that he was going to a better place.

Dr. Fischer gave him a 50/50 chance of making it through the night.

He made it through the night, Laurene next to him on the bed sometimes jerked up when there was a longer pause between his breaths. She and I looked at each other, then he would heave a deep breath and begin again.

This had to be done. Even now, he had a stern, still handsome profile, the profile of an absolutist, a romantic. His breath indicated an arduous journey, some steep path, altitude.

He seemed to be climbing

But with that will, that work ethic, that strength, there was also sweet Steve’s capacity for wonderment, the artist’s belief in the ideal, the still more beautiful later.

Steve’s final words, hours earlier, were monosyllables, repeated three times.

Before embarking, he’d looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life’s partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them.

Steve’s final words were:

OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.

(New York Times via BuzzFeed)

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High profile businessmen and rich people tend to have their reported quirks. Money allows this sort of thing, but Steve Jobs wasn’t known for any kind of eccentricities that money allows, like having a diamond-plated iPad or something. He did, however, manage to avoid having a license plate on his Mercedes SL55 AMG. This wasn’t made possible because he cut some kind of deal with state government, but because of a loophole in the California vehicle laws that stated a new car has a maximum of six months to be without a license plate. Yes, this is going where you think it is: Steve Jobs cut a deal with a leasing company that allowed him to lease a new Mercedes SL55 AMG every six months so as to avoid having to slap a license plate on the back.

It wasn’t revealed why he didn’t want license plate numbers on his car — one can only assume he didn’t want to be tracked — but, you know, he had an iPhone. I’ll be here all night.

(iTWire via The Next Web)

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Isaacson said that Jobs wanted to make TV simpler, more elegant, and fully connected to Apple’s existing media infrastructure. The Washington Post quotes Isaacson quoting Jobs:

‘I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,’ [Steve Jobs] told me. ‘It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.’ No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. ‘It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.’

Rumors of an updated Apple TV have been swirling for some time, but perhaps some far grander could be the last “one more thing” Steve Jobs has in store for us. 

(Washington Post via Techmeme)

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During this down time, employees will be able to watch a live stream of what is being called a celebration of the technology innovator. The actual event itself will be held in an outdoor amphitheatre on Apple’s corporate campus. In the wake of Jobs’ death, there has already been a spontaneous outpouring of grief around the world in addition to a private funeral and a separate memorial service. Now it seems it’s the employees’ turn to raise a glass to their former employer.

(Reuters via TNW)

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(Mac Rumors via Geek.com)

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(Infographic World via Mashable)

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In a book due to release in a couple of weeks, entitled Steve Jobs, biographer Walter Isaacson explains the turtleneck’s origins. In the 1980s, Jobs spoke with Sony chairman Akio Morita about why everyone in the factories wore uniforms, to which Mortia explained that after the war, people didn’t have enough clothes so Sony had to give them something to wear. Eventually, the uniforms evolved into their own styles, and created a kind of bond amongst employees. Jobs wanted Apple employees to have a similar bond, so he contacted the designer of the Sony uniforms, Issey Miyake, and asked Miyake to make a vest for Apple employees. Jobs presented the vest, and Apple employees were not fond of it. “Oh man, did I get booed off the stage. Everybody hated the idea.” He grew to enjoy the idea of having a uniform for himself, however, both for the convenience of having a daily go-to outfit, and because it conveyed a signature style.

“So I asked Issey to make me some of his black turtlenecks that I liked, and he made me like a hundred of them.”

On a somewhat melancholic note in retrospect, Isaacson notes that Jobs noticed the surprise on Isaacson’s face when he told the story, so he showed all of the outfits sitting inside his closet, saying,

“That’s what I wear. I have enough to last for the rest of my life.”

(via Gawker)

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The death certificate of Steve Jobs shows that his cause of death is listed as respiratory arrest at around 3 pm on October 5, caused by a pancreatic tumor. He died in his home in Palo Alto, and his death certificate lists his occupation as “entrepreneur” in the area of “high tech.” There was no autopsy performed. On October 7, Jobs was buried at a non-denominational cemetery in Santa Clara. A few days before Jobs died, Apple contacted the the Palo Alto police department and notified them that Jobs was expected to die in the coming days. The police department was made aware so they could have patrols ready in case a large amount of mourners gathered at Jobs’ house.

In an internal email sent out by Tim Cook to Apple employees (seen below), it has been revealed that Apple will be holding an event to celebrate Jobs’ life, which will take place in on October 19 in the outdoor amphitheater on Apple’s Infinite Loop campus.

Team,

Like many of you, I have experienced the saddest days of my lifetime and shed many tears during the past week. But I’ve found some comfort in the extraordinary number of tributes and condolences from people all over the world who were touched by Steve and his genius. And I’ve found comfort in both telling and listening to stories about Steve.

Although many of our hearts are still heavy, we are planning a celebration of his life for Apple employees to take time to remember the incredible things Steve achieved in his life and the many ways he made our world a better place. The celebration will be held on Wednesday, October 19, at 10 a.m. in the outdoor amphitheater on the Infinite Loop campus. We’ll have more details on AppleWeb closer to the date, including arrangements for employees outside of Cupertino.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Tim

(via Bloomberg, 9to5Mac)

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It’s no secret that the late Steve Jobs loved simplicity and elegance, and probably cubes, too. After all, he brought out not only the ill-fated Apple Cube but the iller-fated NeXT Cube. However, his most famous cube is probably the above-ground portion of the flagship Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in New York, which became the site of a spontaneous memorial after Jobs’ passing.

We’ve talked on the site about what the death of Steve Jobs means, but it’s still strange to see such public displays of grief at — of all places — a high-end retail outlet. In truth, while these people surely feel sadness, they seem to be mourning Steve Jobs the character, the public figure. As such, perhaps it’s fitting that they express their loss at the place most connected to that persona.

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As the joke goes, I first learned about the passing of Steve Jobs on my iPhone. But I’m not much of an Apple devotee; it’s the first I’ve owned and that’s only been since this summer. I don’t have a MacBook — never have — and of all the various iterations of iPod devices, I’ve been gifted an original iPod Nano and an 80GB iPod Classic over the years.

The only money I’ve directly given to Apple in my lifetime has been through iTunes and perhaps the recent purchase of my iPhone, though I’m not positive how much of that actually trickled back to the corporate overlords. All of this is to say that I don’t have a huge investment in Apple and never have.

But the passing of Steve Jobs is not something anyone involved in the tech scene can ignore.

And that’s not because he was perfect. He had moments where he stumbled, where things didn’t go the way he wanted or planned and there were certainly some questionable ethics involved with Foxconn. The loss of the iPhone 4 prototype and subsequent police actions weren’t exactly glorious moments either.

We mourn for Steve Jobs because he was human. Because he had dreams, some of them realized and some of them not, but nobody lives to see everything they wished for accomplished. We are sad to see a visionary, someone who had ideas and thoughts for the future of the world we inhabit, gone. They say that Jim Henson was someone Steve Jobs looked up to and it makes me wonder if he didn’t mourn the same way for Henson.

He was not my hero, though he easily could have been. But I know how I felt when I first heard that Brian Jacques had passed and what went through my mind when someone told me about Dwayne McDuffie. So I can easily sympathize and feel torn up for the loss of a hero to so many. There’s a particular feeling, a void, when someone whose footprint in your life has been so large is suddenly removed. We’re often left with the hole, the personal crater where they once stood, to remind us of what we no longer have in our lives. So, for this reason, I mourn as well.

More specifically, I mourn for the loss of a dreamer. I may not have been counted among his converts, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t respect his ability or determination. As noted above, I’m an avid user of what few Apple products I do own and — though I recognize he did not design and build all of these things himself — I know that his particular flair will now be absent, though it may be emulated.

This final portion I direct toward anyone that has decided to antagonize, rather than sympathize with, those who are distraught over the passing of another human being.

At what point did we decide that we, as a people, are not allowed to praise the dead without also condemning them? Where was it written that we should always raise awareness that it is merely one person while thousands die elsewhere every single day? Both are horrible; both are unfortunate. Do not dictate to others how they should respond. It is unkind and uncouth.

And finally, to those who wonder at how someone can mourn for a man that stood as the figurehead for a corporation while also supporting the Occupy Wall Street movement, or anyone that thinks the mind a small enough space to only give ample thought to one thing at a time, let me say to you this: Life is complicated. It is messy. And we all have heroes.

They see me, Rollin

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Though this unaired Apple commercial narrated by Steve Jobs has been viewable on the Internet for some time, it suddenly holds a new level of significance after Jobs’ passing. The narration, music, and black and white visuals provide a somber backdrop for Jobs’ speech describing the innovative and unique minds in our society. The quote the commercial ends with, “The people who are craziest enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do” will surely gain a revived and new level of prominence now that Jobs is gone.

(via Viral Viral Videos)

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Steve Jobs is dead, and I’m more than a little choked up. I’m not the most stoic of people (when Dumbo goes to visit his mom in prison I go to pieces) so it’s really not that surprising. But, it turns out, that I am not alone. Thousands of tweets are pouring in, expressing their condolences. World leaders have stopped to say a few words.

And I’m wondering, “why?” When John Lennon died and thousands gathered in a days-long vigil, that made sense.When Abraham Lincoln died, his body was taken on a final tour of the country he helped reunite and was met with tens of thousands of mourners, and that made sense. But Jobs never recorded a hit song, or led a country. He was a businessman, and a salesman. I have never seen so much emotion poured out on a CEO before, and it really is something of a puzzle. I have given the matter some thought, and propose three possible answers.

The first is simple success and ubiquity. As many on Twitter observed, it’s more than likely that many people read of Jobs’ death on a device he helped create. Since the iPod’s launch in 2001 — a risky foray into music for a computer manufacturer, and trademark Jobs — Apple has managed to put a device in the pocket of just about everyone.

His company’s success spread Jobs’ persona, and some of his beliefs about design and the interaction between people and machines, to millions. Moreover, a computer and a music player are objects that you spend a lot of your time with, sometimes intimate times. Many develop personal relationships with their devices — no doubt another piece of Jobs’ legacy.

But it seems unfair to simply say that his success, or even the quality of his products, are the reason for amazing public mourning. In part because it makes all of us with sadness in our hearts sound rather petty, but also because Jobs didn’t design every Apple product or even make them himself. True, he had a vision for the company, but Johnny Ive and the engineers at Apple are the ones that made his dream a reality.

It may be then that it was not merely the objects, but the story of the man behind them that people find so compelling. The origins of Apple, which can be traced back to the magical pairing of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in a California garage, drips with the self-starting rags-to-riches narrative that truly moves people.

Incredibly, it’s a story that seems to be repeated throughout Jobs’ life. Half Syrian by birth and raised by his adoptive parents Paul and Clara Jobs, Steve would go on to drop out of college after a single year and make ends meet by returning bottles until getting a job at Atari. After founding Apple Computers with Wozniak in 1976, Jobs was ousted from the company in 1985 and founded a new one: NeXT. With Apple in a financial tailspin, he was brought back as CEO in 1996, and pushed out new products like the iMac and the iPod that helped restore Apple’s fortune.

What happened next you likely already know: Apple slowly built upon these successes with more mobile products, the iTunes music store — the first of its kind, in a world still struggling to understand purchasing digital media. Jobs didn’t just build a company out of nothing, he did it twice with the same company.

It’s a particularly American story, similar to that of Rockefeller or Carnagie, and one that certainly gives hope to the many creative souls struggling in these hard economic times. However, I believe there is something larger at work here that I think explains much about why Jobs has been such an intriguing character, and why we’re going to be talking about him long after his death.

In many ways, Jobs was the first of his breed. Now, we all take the idea of building a technology start-up company for granted. Instead of it being regarded as a wild gamble, it has become a sound business practice. Jobs was, if not the first, then one of the most public to do so. Moreover, the products he introduced — especially the original Macintosh in 1984 — were a culmination of what the entire community of geeks huddled around their Altairs and mainframes had been struggling to do.

Of that original crop of technology bigwigs that were born out of the silicon revolution, Steve Jobs has been the first to die. He headed the first bold startup, was the first whiz-kid to strike it rich with technology. The Zuckerburgs and everyone who follow him will all do so in Steve’s footsteps. Add to that his incredible life story, and his amazing products, and you have what we’re seeing today: Hundreds of people taking single bites out of apples and leaving them amidst candles and flowers outside of stores across the country.

In the comic strip Achewood, three characters discuss the death of Michael Jackson. The older and wiser of the three explains their grief this way:

“He was your Elvis, and when your Elvis dies, so does the private lie that someday you will be young once again, and feel at capricious intervals the weightlessness of a joy that is unchecked by the injuries of experience and failure.

In other words, you two died a bit today. Welcome to the only game in town.”

For the geeks, for the people making their living in technology, and the kids who grew up with computers, Steve Jobs was our Elvis.

(image via Jonathon Mak)

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With the passing of Steve Jobs, the Internet — nay, the world — has seen an outpouring of support usually reserved for the death of world leaders or beloved entertainers. Perhaps it’s the ubiquity of products like the iPod that have led to this reflective moment, or it might have been Jobs’ own story — as that of a maverick and a self-starter, rising to incredible heights from the company he founded in a garage.

While many are putting into words and images their emotions at this moment, like the incredible System 6 site design by BoingBoing seen above, it might be Steve’s own words from the commencement speech he gave at Stanford in 2005 that are the most fitting:

“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. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

Read on below to see what everyone else is saying about the tech titan’s death, and some incredible images in his memory.

“I’m truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs’ death. Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work. Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives. The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come. For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.”

-Bill Gates

“Rest in peace, Steve Jobs. From all of us at #Obama2012, thank you for the work you make possible every day—including ours.”

-@BarackObama

“I just feel lucky I had the chance to tell a kind man that I was sorry for being an asshole before it was too late.”

-Brian Lam, former Gizmodo editor on apologizing to Steve over that whole iPhone 4 thing

“I’m very sad to hear you left us, Steve. You were the only one keeping things interesting.”

-@Notch, creator of Minecraft

“Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world. I will miss you.”

-Mark Zuckerberg

“From the earliest days of Google, whenever Larry and I sought inspiration for vision and leadership, we needed to look no farther than Cupertino. Steve, your passion for excellence is felt by anyone who has ever touched an Apple product (including the macbook I am writing this on right now). And I have witnessed it in person the few times we have met.

On behalf of all of us at Google and more broadly in technology, you will be missed very much. My condolences to family, friends, and colleagues at Apple.”

-Sergey Brin, Google cofounder

“I am very, very sad to hear the news about Steve. He was a great man with incredible achievements and amazing brilliance. He always seemed to be able to say in very few words what you actually should have been thinking before you thought it. His focus on the user experience above all else has always been an inspiration to me. He was very kind to reach out to me as I became CEO of Google and spend time offering his advice and knowledge even though he was not at all well. My thoughts and Google’s are with his family and the whole Apple family.

-Larry Page, Google cofounder

“Michelle and I are saddened to learn of the passing of Steve Jobs. 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.

By building one of the planet’s most successful companies from his garage, he exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity. By making computers personal and putting the internet in our pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun. And by turning his talents to storytelling, he has brought joy to millions of children and grownups alike. Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.

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. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Steve’s wife Laurene, his family, and all those who loved him.”

-President Barack Obama, via the White House blog

“from garage kubricks everywhere, past present & future, goodnight steve.”

-@MattFraction, comic book writer

“Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. 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.”

-Tim Cook, CEO of Apple

A spontaneous memorial at the San Francisco Apple store, via @themattharris

“RIP Steve Jobs. Closest thing we had to Tony Stark.”

-@PattonOswalt

“He did what a CEO should: Hired and inspired great people; managed for the long term, not the quarter or the short-term stock price; made big bets and took big risks. He insisted on the highest product quality and on building things to delight and empower actual users, not intermediaries like corporate IT directors or wireless carriers. And he could sell. Man, he could sell.

As he liked to say, he lived at the intersection of technology and liberal arts.”

-Walter Mossberg

“In his final act of benevolent genius, Steve Jobs overshadows Sarah Palin. Rest in peace, you fucking stud.”

-@DaveHolmes

Last but certainly not least are these images of Steve Jobs playing with Photobooth in 2005, posted to Facebook by Mike Matas.

(title pic via Boing Boing)

Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple computers and icon of the consumer electronics industry, has died. His visionary leadership of the company he founded, and the products produced under his tenure, have created and defined new markets that have changed the very landscape of technology.

There was much speculation about Jobs’ health when, not two months ago, he stepped down as CEO of Apple. He’d held that position since 1996 when he returned to the company after being forced out in 1985. Though the founding of the company with Steve Wozniak is the stuff of Silicon Valley legend, it was his return that fostered a rebirth in the then floundering company. What followed were a series of fantastically successful and innovative products, such as the iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007, and the iPad in 2010. Under his leadership as CEO, the company has seen record profits and was briefly the most valuable company in the United States.

The spectre of Jobs’ ill health has hung over the company since 2004, when he announced that he had pancreatic cancer. He underwent a liver transplant in 2009, and took what would be the last of his leave of absences from the company in January 2011. In August of the same year, Jobs announced that he was no longer capable of fulfilling his duties as CEO, and that Tim Cook would take his place.

This evening, Apple released a statement saying that Jobs had died at the age of 56. The company has made an email address, rememberingsteve@apple.com, where the public is invited to share their memories and send condolences. Jobs is survived by four children and his wife Laurene.

(image and story via Apple)

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Perhaps seeking to one-up the guy that ran the Apple logo around Tokyo, Seedwell presents their own tribute to Steve Jobs, entitled “We Are All Steve.” Modeled after Jay-Z classic “What More Can I Say,” the song runs through Jobs’ career and lauds his maverick attitude. It’s alarmingly charming, and an almost poignant look at one of the great icons of the tech world.

(via BuzzFeed)

People around the world have expressed their feelings about Steve Jobs stepping down as CEO of Apple in different ways. Tech bloggers have written innumerable speculative treatises on the future of the company, and the twitterverse hase been abuzz with many a snarky comment. Joseph Tame, a UK native living in Japan, took a different approach. Tame decided to run a 13 mile outline of the Apple logo over the city of Tokyo, and mapped his progress using the GPS capabilities of his iPhone(s).

On his blog, Tame writes that his life has been vastly improved by Apple products produced under Jobs’ reign. He calls his iPhone a lifeline saying it allows him to accomplish things beyond his abilities. Whether that’s fanboy-talk or just a frank admission is hard to say, but Tame admits that he’s paid hefty cancelation fees to keep up with all the latest iPhone iterations.

This isn’t the first time Tame has painted pictures with his footsteps. His previous works include Hello Kitty, his own name, and a baby elephant.  Hopefully Steve gets the message.

(Joseph Tame via PC Mag)

Business Insider’s Chart of the Day shows us how Apple’s market cap took a turn for the better after the recently resigned Steve Jobs became CEO of the company. Oddly, Apple’s market cap began its ascent shortly after Jobs began his battle with pancreatic cancer. When Apple acquired Jobs back in 1996, their market cap was sitting at $3 billion; currently, Apple’s market cap is sitting pretty at $347 billion, only $2 billion less than the most valuable public company in the world, Exxon, having surpassed Exxon to become the most valuable public company in the world for a short while a couple of weeks ago. One can only wonder if the imminent release of the iPhone 5 will push Apple past Exxon and give them a permanent hold on the most valuable public company position.

(via Business Insider)

Team:

I am looking forward to the amazing opportunity of serving as CEO of the most innovative company in the world. Joining Apple was the best decision I’ve ever made and it’s been the privilege of a lifetime to work for Apple and Steve for over 13 years. I share Steve’s optimism for Apple’s bright future.

Steve has been an incredible leader and mentor to me, as well as to the entire executive team and our amazing employees. We are really looking forward to Steve’s ongoing guidance and inspiration as our Chairman.

I want you to be confident that Apple is not going to change. I cherish and celebrate Apple’s unique principles and values. Steve built a company and culture that is unlike any other in the world and we are going to stay true to that—it is in our DNA. We are going to continue to make the best products in the world that delight our customers and make our employees incredibly proud of what they do.

I love Apple and I am looking forward to diving into my new role. All of the incredible support from the Board, the executive team and many of you has been inspiring. I am confident our best years lie ahead of us and that together we will continue to make Apple the magical place that it is.

Tim

As Apple’s COO, Tim Cook has a proven track record attempting to better the company, from working to lower Apple’s prices, to making deals with suppliers, Cook has probably learned a thing or two from Steve Jobs, and hey, it’s not like Jobs is going too far as the new Chairman. Apple employees and fans most likely have nothing to worry about.

(via Ars Technica)

In typical Jobs fashion, the letter is scant on details. He simply says that he can “no longer meet [his] duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO” and recommends that Tim Cook, Apple’s COO, take his place. Though not mentioned in the letter, Jobs’ years-long struggle with pancreatic cancer could be a motivating factor in his decision.

The big question now is how Apple will fare without its charismatic captain, especially since Jobs and his famous showmanship have been front and center for nearly every major Apple product release. However, Jobs will not be leaving completely. His letter to the Apple Board of Directors requests that he remain an Apple employee and be made the board’s Chairman, a position which had not previously existed. It’s safe to say that while Steve Jobs may be stepping down, he’s certainly not bowing out.

From Apple:

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

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.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

 

Steve

(via NYT)

Steve Jobs and his buddies at Apple have just wound up their keynote presentation at WWDC 2011. The legendary Reality Distortion Field was at full power today as many new features were announced for the Mac Lion OS and iOS 5. Perhaps the most anticipated portion of today’s precedings was the announcement of iCloud, Apple’s new cloud service.

Jobs prefaced the iCloud announcement by saying that the tech landscape has moved into a post-PC world. From now on, he said, Apple will consider the computer as just another device — the same as an iPad or an iPhone. iCloud will take the place of the computer at the center of the so-called “digital lifestyle,” moving all our valuable data seamlessly between the devices we used to access it. Jobs stressed that iCloud is not an online drive for storage, but outlined a system that pushes and pulls data between all devices, including computers.

The phrase Jobs echoed throughout the entire announcement was, “it just works.” These features are intended to be seamless and fully integrated, so new users will have no problem picking them up, and existing users won’t have to adapt to them.

Read on below, for a look at we can expect with iCloud.

iCloud consist of nine core apps, many of which were already supported by Apple’s Mobile Me service. All these apps are free, as are the services. The core Mobile Me capability now rolled into iCloud include:

• You can now create and share calendars from any device. When you create an event, or a calendar, the cloud pushes it to every device.
• Calendar now supports calendar sharing; create a calendar, add whom you wish to share it with, and new events are automagically beamed to the cloud, and pushed down to all recipient devices.
• Changes to contacts in your address book on any device will be pushed to every other device.
• Mail will also take advantage of the cloud, syncing inboxes and folders across all devices.
• iCloud will provide 5gbs of storage for Mail, Calendar, and Contacts. This is a major change from Mobile Me, as iCloud is NOT simply a storage drive. Readers will recall, that with Mobile Me customers received 10 gb of iDisk space. There was no word on the status of this service during the announcement.

In addition to this core Mobile Me -style structure, iCloud will also support many new capabilities for the App store, iBooks, and back ups.

• The iOS App Store is now on the cloud. You can see a list of purchased items, and download them to any device.
• New App purchases will be pushed to your devices as well.
• iBooks is on the cloud: Purchases and bookmarks will sync between each device with iBooks.
• Your mobile devices will back up wirelessly on the cloud automatically. That backup will be pushed to new devices as well.
• Back ups will include most, but not all, of your mobile data: Purchased iTunes music, apps, and books.

Ever the showman, Steve Jobs broke down the following as the “final three” of the core apps in iCloud. These include the most speculated features of iCloud.

• Documents can now be pushed via the cloud through iWork. Documents and changes made on any device will be sent to the cloud and pushed down to each device.
• Pages, Numbers, and Keynote supported. The current version of iWork already in the hands of users has these capabilities. Presumably they will be switched on when iCloud goes live.
• Pictures will be synced device-wide through Photo Stream.
• Photo Stream takes photos taken with your devices, and uses iCloud to push them out to every other device.
• These photos will not be stored on iCloud. Rather, each mobile device will have access to them for 30 days. If you want a picture to permanently remain on your mobile device, simply move it into an album on that device.
• Computers will store all your photos. Mobile devices and iCloud will store the last 1,000 photos for 30 days. None of your pictures should be lost, since iCloud will push them out as soon as any of them connect to a WiFi network.
• Photo Stream will work with both PC and Mac. On Mac, the photos will be pushed into iPhoto. For PC users, they will appear in the MyPhotos folder.
• Photo Stream will also work with Apple TV.

Easily the most anticipated portion of the iTunes announcement centers around iTunes, and how iCloud will handle music. Apple has presented a somewhat surprising approach to the issue, in sharp contrast to competitors like Amazon and Google. The marriage of iTunes and iCloud takes two forms. Here’s what’s covered in the basic version:

• As with the App Store, all your previous purchases are now viewable in iTunes on any device.
• You can download any previously purchased iTunes song onto your device for no charge.
• New purchases, those made after the iCloud epcoh begins, will automatically be pushed between devices. This includes computers.
• They insist there will be no charge for multiple downloads; meaning that you can delete and re-download your songs at your leisure.
• There is a limit of ten devices that can be authorized to download iTunes songs from one account.
• This service is free.
• Access to previously purchased songs is part of iTunes 4.3, and is apparently available today in advance of the other iCloud features.

Obviously, many users have CDs that they have ripped and maybe perhaps a few tracks that they “accidentally” downloaded from Napster back in 2000, before they knew it was wrong. For users like you, Apple has a for-pay service built into iTunes. For $24.99 a year, users can access iTunes Match.

• iTunes Match is not a streaming service.
• Apple software will scan your music and find those tracks amongst the 18 million currently in the iTunes Store.
• They will then be treated as purchased music; you can download, delete and re-download. Sort of a “free upgrade.”
• You will not have to pay for each upgraded track; that cost is covered by your flat $24.99 fee.
• Apple claims that this service will be better, cheaper, and faster than its competitors.
• If your songs are not on the Apple store, Apple will let you upload those songs. The assumption was that this would be a comparably small number of songs, and there was no word on storage, or bandwidth restrictions.
• There was no mention of consequences of ending your subscription; it begs the question, will your matched songs still be available if you opt out of the plan.

Everything is speculative at this point, but the great hope for iCloud, as elucidated by John Gruber, is that it won’t be the new MobileMe, but rather the new iTunes: That is, that with iCloud, the previous model of PC-as-central-media-hub for Apple users will shift to “should shift to the cloud. iTunes, the desktop app, currently syncs the following things with iOS devices: audio, movies and TV shows, iBooks e-books, App Store apps, contacts, calendars, bookmarks, notes, and any sort of files shared between iOS apps. All of these things would be better served syncing over-the-air via the so-called cloud.” Will it live up to that? Well, it’s silly at this point to write more speculative blog posts about it; just tune into the keynote at 1pm ET/10am PT to find out.

As for that: As of posting, Apple has not yet made a live video stream available for the event, and it’s very possible that it won’t at all. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t follow WWDC 2011 as it happens:

Leo Laporte’s TWiT Live is always a good option for tech event coverage. You can watch the video here:

We’ll keep an eye out should a live video feed of the event, real or bootleg, emerge.

Update, 1:14pm ET: This live video feed is serviceable.

Update, 1:22pm: Not anymore :(

Meanwhile, here are some worthwhile WWDC liveblogs to follow:

• Engadget
• Ars Technica
• This Is My Next
• TechCrunch
• CNET
• Gizmodo
• MacRumors
• Telegraph
• Reuters
• BGR
• ZDNet

This morning, Apple put out a press release detailing some of what we’ll see at WWDC 2011, the developers’ conference which will take place from June 6 through June 10. While the iPhone 4 was announced at WWDC 2010, at this point, it’s being taken as gospel in the tech press that we will not see an iPhone 5/iPhone 4GS/whatever you want to call the next-gen iPhone at this year’s WWDC, and will have to wait for a late summer or fall reveal. But there’s still some potentially interesting stuff in store:

CUPERTINO, California—May 31, 2011—Apple® CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software – Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS® X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch®; and iCloud®, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.

The OS X Lion and iOS demos aren’t particularly surprising, since this is after all a developers’ conference, and developers need to know something about the operating systems they’re working with to build much of anything useful. The big question mark, though, is iCloud: Though its existence has been rumored for a long time, as Wired’s Charlie Sorrel points out, it is highly unusual for Apple to preannounce a product release. So what will we get? Streaming iTunes (finally), DropBox killer, or something else entirely?

(Apple via Wired)

On the heels of the furor over the iPhone’s unsecured location log, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the iPhone continues to store location data in the consolidated.db file even when location services are disabled on the phone. This is in direct opposition with previous statements from Apple, unrelated to this recent revelation, which claimed that users could opt out of all location gathering operations.

In their follow-up research to last week’s revelation about the consolidated.db location information, the WSJ found that deactivating location services from the iOS settings panel did not stop data from being logged. From their report:

The Journal disabled location services (which are on by default) and immediately recorded the data that had initially been gathered by the phone. The Journal then carried the phone to new locations and observed the data. Over the span of several hours as the phone was moved, it continued to collect location data from new places.

The WSJ says that these findings have been confirmed by independent researcher Ashkan Soltani and various online postings. Their report also bolsters the original claim made by the U.K. researchers which publicized the location log to the effect that the devices are using call-tower triangulation and not GPS to determine position, meaning only an approximate location is logged. The U.K. researchers also asserted that the location log was not being transmitted off the user’s computer or mobile device. This, coupled with the WSJ’s tests, seem to indicate that the location log is completely separate from the location data that is transmitted to Apple which users can control.

This story has a bit of a twist, however, as an email allegedly from Steve Jobs has surfaced on the location tracking issue.

Though the validity of the email cannot be verified, Jobs has been known to glibly respond to user emails. From MacRumors:

Q: Steve,

Could you please explain the necessity of the passive location-tracking tool embedded in my iPhone? It’s kind of unnerving knowing that my exact location is being recorded at all times. Maybe you could shed some light on this for me before I switch to a Droid. They don’t track me.

A: Oh yes they do. We don’t track anyone. The info circulating around is false.

Sent from my iPhone

If legitimate, this lends credence to the belief that Apple is not itself doing anything with the location data. It may even support the rumor that the consolidated.db is actually a case of flawed coding, and is simply failing to delete old location information. The Next Web notes in their coverage that Google’s Android devices do store location and transmit location information, but far less than the data being stored on iOS devices.

Without a direct comment from Apple about the consolidated.db issue — and Apple hates giving direct comment about anything bad unless it’s absolutely pushed to the brink — all of this is little more than speculation. This discovery that users can do nothing to stop the storing of information will only add to the mounting privacy concerns. Hopefully, Apple will come forward with an explanation or, better yet, a fix.

Update: Apple releases a Q&A explaining the situation.

(WSJ, MacRumors via TNW, image via Buzz Bishop)

For the first time ever, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has agreed to participate in an authorized biography which will presumably not get its author’s publisher banned from Apple Stores. To be titled iSteve: The Book of Jobs, the book will be penned by Walter Isaacson and is set to hit stores in early 2012.

So why did Jobs agree to do this now, and with this particular biographer? Fortune reporter Philip Elmer-DeWitt, who was previously edited by Isaacson, hypothesizes:

The news came as no surprise to anyone who has worked with Isaacson. If there is one thread that runs through his long career in journalism and public service, it’s his talent for spotting the most influential people in any room and finding a way to get close to them.

…

The Jobs book will be his fourth major biography. In addition to Kissinger: A Biography (1992) he has written Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003) and Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007). His most recent book is American Sketches: Great Leaders, Creative Thinkers, and Heroes of a Hurricane (2009).

Isaacson has reportedly been given “unprecedented access” not only to Jobs but to his family, past and current colleagues, and childhood setting, so this promises to contain previously unreported information on Jobs, albeit from a source he has publicly smiled upon.

(via MacRumors, Fortune)