I for one often work late into the early hours of the morning, sitting either side of my macbook and iphone, tapping away on my little white pieces of technology that have become so integrated into my life and so iconic within their time. Today, in the early hours of the morning it was through this very technology that I learned the news of the creator's untimely passing. In the words of Obama, "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." Steve Jobs personified Apple's identity, he was the charismatic figurehead whose trademark black turtleneck, jeans, sneakers and glasses combination portended evolution and revolution at Apple's keynotes. Upon learning of his fate in early 2011 stocks fell, as everybody speculated "can Apple survive without Steve Jobs?" as not since Walt Disney has a CEO ever so wholly represented their company. We will never hear Steve Jobs utter "one more thing" at a Stevenotes, but forever his "one more thing" will be known as his unequivocal legacy. Steve Jobs created a culture; that enabled his death to 'trend' on twitter within a matter of seconds, that allowed mourners to converge together at 24 hour Apple stores around the globe and facilitated moving dedications and obituaries from Mark Zuckerburg to Obama, from the Washington Post to the Guardian to post online and reach an audience of millions instantaneously. Steve Jobs has infiltrated the means in which we not only listen to music but create it, the methods of not only fast computing but transportable computing, the manners in which consumer technology outpaces business technology. Steve Jobs turned Apple from just a fruit, to a umbrella term for everybody thinking outside the box. Apple as a company paralleled Job's life, Steve's calligraphy course at college is why we have a multitude of fonts available at our fingertips, Steve's perception of film is where "entertainment for the whole family" began and his continual zest for innovation, the spectacular and the modern is why every single one of us comes into contact with either an Apple product or a rival mock production every single day. Steve Jobs maybe valued life higher than anyone, following his first pancreatic cancer scare in 2004, which spawned the emotional speech at Stanford I've posted below. It is Steve Jobs doing what he does best, animatedly selling an ideology, saying what he believes, knowing the rest of us want to believe in it too. He will forever be an inspiration to so many. He will always be missed.
