Yesterday evening Apple posted a brief obituary for Steve Jobs, who leaves an enormous legacy behind as well as his wife Laurene Powell and their three children. Jobs was instrumental in the creation of the Mac, the LaserWriter, the iPod, the iPhone, the iTunes Store, the iPad, and a bunch of other cool stuff when he wasn’t busy running Pixar and making the rest of us feel like lazy slouches. His 2005 Stanford Commencement Address is also worth checking out again.
His death at the age of only 56 has prompted grieving fans to gather at Apple stores and has caused a huge increase in pre-orders of two books about Jobs at Amazon.com. Pre-orders of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (out November 21st) have increased 41,800%, while pre-orders of I, Steve: Steve Jobs in His Own Words by George Beahm (out November 8th) have increased 34,825%, prompting several younger people on the internet to ask, “What’s a book?”
For some of the most interesting reactions to the news so far, check out the pictures after the jump. I don’t have any snarky jokes to make here. iCan’t.
[Sources: Apple, WIRED, TheNextWeb, Reuters, TheFrogman, @DaveHolmes, @FriedmanJon, Buzzfeed, WilliamWilkinson, JoshuaHicks, Nerdcore, jmak, XKCD, DeanTrippe]
Original (non-cropped) version of this image available here.
Here are the Westboro douchebags posting insults about Steve Jobs from their iPhone.
The chair reserved for Jobs at yesterday’s Apple keynote. I hope they keep reserving one for him.
One of the impromptu memorials left at the 5th Avenue Apple Store in New York City.
