Known for his trademark look of jeans paired with a black turtleneck, Steven P. Jobs, the visionary co-founder of Apple Inc., died Oct. 5, 2011 at the age of 56.
Apple announced Jobs’ death Wednesday evening. Family, friends and worldwide Apple fans are mourning his death.
“I have always said that 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,” Jobs said in a letter released by Apple.
And many in the MU community have called that day and now the day of Jobs’ death a loss.
“It’s a huge loss for the world," MU strategic communications associate professor Margaret Duffy said in an email. "I was very sad to lose a person whose imagination and aesthetic changed our relationship with technology."
Mentioned later in the article is 2008-2009 Reynolds Fellow Jane Stevens:
“He made technology beautiful, simple, with a dash of whimsy and so, so functional," said Jane Stevens, former World Company Media Strategies Director and former RJI fellow, in an email. "He injected a gorgeous sense of design into computers and phones and music-listening devices when competitors seemed to have had little sense of design or care about how people used them, or had difficulty using them. He made technology fun! Apple was all about what you could DO with the technology, not just about the technology itself."
Comments
Treacly
Sorry I can't join you in the fanboy dance. These statements are more akin to cult affirmations than news.
Jobs helped create some excellent technology. He stole some also (GUI) in the great American tradition of usurping and commercializing someone else's invention. I have no problem with that. Xerox let the fox into the henhouse and he stole off with the plumpest hen in the roost.
Surprised that this experienced and sophisticated group of journos have nothing to say at the ridiculous move Apple made to claim a 30% "share" of news-linked revenue transmitted on their devices. This was hooted down and eliminated, of course. But Jobs made a bid to grab nearly a third of the revenue generated by news orgs, an astounding arrogance that turned me off AAPL for good.
Also was not impressed with Jobs' sneering response to those wanting to access Flash on Apple devices - that they should go elsewhere to see "porn." Lots of large and small news orgs capture or link to Flash video, and were cut out by this boneheaded move. Porn had nothing to do with it.
Then there is the....censorship. Random and anonymous 'censors' in the app skunkworks would spike things - such as political cartoons by Pulitzer-prize winning artists. Major fail. Embarrassing.
How about the Apple-prompted search of private homes (twice) when iPhones went missing. I am unaware of any other U.S. corporation dictating to police what and whom to search, and accompanying them on the search of private homes. To think of corporate employees serving as unsworn, unidentified adjuncts to police agencies is a civil rights nightmare and a constitutional crisis. It marked a new low in the arrogant and entitled tone that Jobs set for Apple, and should have been mentioned in his obit.
I would hope that journalists would lead the way in offering nuanced views of Jobs, or any prominent person, in obits. JFK and MLK come to mind as leaders who have been portrayed in multi-dimensional ways that neither mask the truth nor disrespect their achievements. Puzzled as to why this did not take place for Jobs, and disappointed that his many young fans were offered no help understanding the man they mourn, and the company he built.
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