RAJ NONGTHOMBAM: Jobs Takes iWay To Heaven

An iCon Who Revolutionized Mobile Communications, Music, Movies And Modern Culture, Made Technology Beautiful, Ended The Reign of Personal Computers, And Changed Our Lives

Chidanand Rajghatta TNN

At 56, Loses Battle Against Cancer
Washington: Steve Jobs, who brought joy to the world by simplifying computers and phones, logged out of life on Wednesday following an enervating seven-year battle with pancreatic cancer. The founder of Apple Inc and tech visionary is being mourned worldwide by millions whose lives he uniquely touched. He was just 56.
    A gizmo-God to geeks and gearheads, but also worshipped by Luddites for introducing beautiful form, elegant function and simplicity to workday electronics, Jobs died peacefully surrounded by his family, including his wife of 20 years and three children.
    Presidents, CEOs and other luminaries sent in glowing tributes, but a timeless sentiment came from an Applehead who tweeted, “Life is smoother since we can touch instead of push.”
    It was a reference to the feather-light, touch-driven operating process Jobs introduced that changed the look and feel of today’s devices, brought aesthetics to electronics, and made it accessible to all. Another compared him to Gutenberg, the inventor of the movable type, while yet another called him the “Michelangelo of our times”.
    President Obama summoned his trademark eloquence in a tribute, calling Jobs “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”.
APPLE OF OUR i 1976: Steve Wozniak & Steve Jobs start Apple 1984: Macintosh PC debuts 1985: Jobs leaves Apple 1986: Founds Pixar Animation Studios 1997:Rejoins Apple as interim CEO 1998: iMac desktop computer unveiled 2001: iPod unveiled 2007: iPhone launched 2010: Apple begins selling iPadAug 9, 2011: Apple briefly becomes world’s
most valuable company Aug 24: Jobs steps down as Apple CEO Oct 5: Jobs dies after battle with cancer
    No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there... Yet death is the destination we all share... Death is very likely the single biggest invention of life. It’s life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.
    STEVE JOBS | 1955-2011 WORLD WIDE WOE

Three apples have changed the world. The one offered to Adam, the one that fell on Newton, and the one of Steve Jobs ONLINE CHAIN MAIL

For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honour. I will miss Steve immensely
BILL GATES | MICROSOFT FOUNDER

Simply the greatest CEO of his generation
  RUPERT MURDOCH | CEO, NEWSCORP

The greatest inventor since Thomas Edison
  STEVEN SPIELBERG | FILM-MAKER

Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for showing what you build can change the world. I will miss you
  MARK ZUCKERBERG | FACEBOOK FOUNDER & CEO

The Michelangelo of the computer era. He demonstrated that genius does not need an expensive, elite education
  N R NARAYANA MURTHY | INFOSYS FOUNDER It’s a ‘tech 21-gun salute’

America is gutted by Steve Jobs’ death, and the outpouring of sadness and veneration surpassed that given to any hero or icon in the modern era. Even Jobs’ great peer, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, was stricken by the passing of his sometime rival. “For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honour. I will miss Steve immensely,” Gates said in a statement, recalling that they have been colleagues, competitors and friends. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who wasn’t born when Jobs introduced the first Apple computer wrote: “Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world. The founders of Google and Yahoo issued similar statements in an outpouring that one industry writer compared to a ‘’technological 21-gun salute.’’

    Reams are being written and hours are being broadcast about what Steve Jobs brought into our lives, but someone put it in just one word: joy. Adults glowed with childlike happiness at owning an Apple device, a lineup that included Mac computers, iPods, iPhones, and iPads. Millions lined up overnight before Apple stores to receive new products.
    If India introduced the world’s cheapest tablet computer for $35 (ironically on the day of his death), the inspiration was Steve Jobs.
    About Gates, Jobs once joked, “He’d be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.’’ Now, it is Jobs who has gone off to a place beyond the ashram, having changed the world.