Steven Paul Jobs 1955-2011

Steve Jobs is one of the most legendary names in computing history

Steve Jobs co-founded Apple Computer, Inc. in 1976 with Steve Wozniak, Ronald Wayne and Mike Markkula in Cupertino, California. Jobs led Apple to be one of the world’s leading high tech companies with immensely popular products such as Macintosh computers, Powerbook laptops, iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad.

In 1986 Jobs bought the digital graphics department of George Lucas’s Lucasfilm Limited and converted it into Pixar Animation Studios. Under Jobs’ management Pixar has produced several successful animated feature films such as Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars and Up. Every Pixar film is among the fifty highest grossing animated films of all time.

Steve Jobs is a holder of over 300 US patents or patent applications as the primary inventor or co-inventor.

Steven Paul Jobs was born February 24, 1955 in San Francisco and died
October 5, 2011 in Palo Alto at the age of 56.

The Famous Apple 1984 Commercial That Made Advertising History

Remember the legendary TV-commercial that introduced Apple Macintosh computers to the world in 1984?  It was broadcasted only once on US daytime television on January 22nd during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII.

Super Bowl audience and TV viewers all over the world had never seen an ad like the 1984. The Apple commercial benefited from the free publicity worth millions of dollars as most the US news programs re-broadcasted it that night. This must have been the world’s first viral commercial in that respect!

The 1984 commercial has since been regarded as a master piece in advertising history. Advertising Age magazine named it the ‘Commercial of the Decade‘ and it is still considered as one of the most influential commercials of all time.  The production budget, as well as the cost for the advertising time slot in Super Bowl were both around the million dollar mark which was unheard of at that time.

The 1984 commercial was directed by Ridley Scott who had just finished filming Blade Runner; and it was inspired by George Orwell’s book titled 1984. The George Orwell estate as the rights holder for the novel considered Apple’s TV commercial as copyright infringement and sent an ultimatum to Apple in April. The legendary 1984 Apple commercial was never televised as a commercial after that.

The digital world will never be the same without Steve Jobs.

R.I.P.

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My fondest Apple memory is when I started my computing career (struggle) with the legendary Powerbook 100. I got it as a test drive for a weekend from the shop. When I picked it up I asked for the manual to which the shopkeeper replied: “You don’t need one.” WOW! This was something new, I thought. No manual? How does that work out?

As it turned out it worked great! The Powerbook was so intuitive and easy to use that during that weekend I designed my first business card and asked the shop guy to print it out.  I still have the card.

Eventually I didn’t end up buying the Powerbook 100, but a bit later I got the awesome 165c which had a colour screen and everything! All my friends were amazed at the thing. Now, that was a mean machine!

What is your best Apple memory? 

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