Will Champion
Will Champion performing Viva la Vida with Coldplay
Background information
Born	(1978-07-31) 31 July 1978 (age 33) Southampton, England
Genres	Alternative rock
Occupations	Drummer, percusionist, musician
Instruments	vocals, piano, violin, guitar, percussion, bass, banjo, keyboard, chimes, recorder, resonator, timpani, glockenspiel, vibraphone, gong
Years active	1995-present
Labels	Parlophone, Capitol
Associated acts	Coldplay
Notable instruments
Drums

William "Will" Champion (born 31 July 1978) is an English musician and the drummer of rock band Coldplay.

Early life[link]

William Champion was born in Southampton, Hampshire, England, on 31 July 1978 and was brought up in Highfield, Southampton, where his father, Timothy Champion, was a professor of archaeology. As a youth, his musical influences included Tom Waits, Nick Cave and traditional Irish folk music. He grew up playing guitar, but also had experience on the piano, bass, and tin whistle. Before Will joined Coldplay, he performed in a band called Fat Hamster. He went to primary school at Portswood Primary School, his secondary school was Cantell Maths and Computing College and he went to college at Peter Symonds College. He went to church at Highfield church, Highfield, Southampton.

Coldplay[link]

Champion was the last of the four band members to join the ensemble on 31 July 1997 (Also his birthday). He took up the position as drummer with no prior experience, but quickly adjusted to fill the role.^[1]

In 1999, lead singer Chris Martin sacked Champion, but the band asked him to return soon after.^[2]

In Coldplay, he is often regarded as the rationality of the group. They say of him "Will does have a very sensible head on his shoulder and when it comes to making band decisions he's really good at putting valid points across and keeping everyone focused. He frequently has the casting vote and his decision can sometimes override the consensus!"^[3] As Chris Martin has said in multiple interviews, "We [Coldplay] are all just working for Will Champion."

During the Viva la Vida Tour Champion sang and performed an acoustic version of the song "Death Will Never Conquer". A version of the song was included on Coldplay's live album LeftRightLeftRightLeft. He has also performed lead vocals on a live version of "Til Kingdom Come" and the Life in Technicolor II b-side "The Goldrush".

Other projects[link]

In Autumn 2004, Champion and Coldplay bassist Guy Berryman guested on A-ha keyboardist, Magne Furuholmen's first solo album, Past Perfect Future Tense.

Personal life[link]

Champion's mother, Sara, a Doctor of Prehistoric Archaeology, died from cancer in 2000. The album Parachutes was dedicated to her.^[4]

Champion was the first Coldplay member to marry: He married Marianne Dark, a teacher, in 2003. Their first child, a girl named Ava, was born on 28 April 2006. On 7 May 2008, Marianne gave birth to fraternal twins Juno and Rex.^[5]

Equipment[link]

Champion currently uses a Yamaha drum kit^[6] with Zildjian cymbals.^[7]

Notes[link]

• Roach, Martin (2003). Coldplay: The Scientist. Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-9810-8.

References[link]

Guy Berryman
Background information
Born	(1978-04-12) 12 April 1978 (age 34) Kirkcaldy, Scotland
Genres	Alternative rock
Occupations	Bassist, Musician, producer
Instruments	Bass guitar, double bass, piano, keyboards, guitar, vocals, drums, mandolin, percussion santoor, trumpet, french horn, cello
Years active	1995–present
Associated acts	Coldplay, Apparatjik
Notable instruments
Fender Precision Bass Fender Jazz Bass

Guy Rupert Berryman (born 12 April 1978, in Kirkcaldy, Scotland) is a Scottish musician and producer known as the bassist for the groups Coldplay and Apparatjik. Berryman is left-handed but plays the bass right-handed.

Coldplay[link]

Berryman started an engineering degree at University College London. Soon after, he dropped out of his engineering course and switched to a seven-year architecture program at The Bartlett.^[1] He dropped out of his architecture degree after one year to focus on playing bass with Coldplay. While his bandmates were still continuing their degrees, Berryman worked as a barman in a local London pub.

During the Twisted Logic Tour for the promotion of Coldplay's third album, X&Y, Berryman took candid pictures of the band with disposable cameras and threw them to the audience.^[2]

Personal life[link]

Berryman was educated at an independent school in Scotland, The Edinburgh Academy, and Kent, at Kent College Canterbury, before attending University College London. In 2004, Berryman married Joanna, his childhood sweetheart,^[3] in a low key ceremony in the City of Westminster. They have one daughter, Nico, born on 17 September 2006.^[4][5] In March 2007, Coldplay's spokesman confirmed that Guy and Joanna separated after three years of marriage. They are now divorced, but see each other frequently for the wellbeing of their daughter Nico.^[6]

Berryman used to run a clothing shop called Jezebell in London, which has closed due to debt with running the business. The opening of the store was attended by bandmates Jonny Buckland and Will Champion, and their partners.

Berryman is an avid marathon runner and likes to run in the nearest parks or around the neighborhoods of the hotels whenever the band is touring. He also has an interest in photography, fashion and electronic gadgets.^[2] He is a fan of his local football team Raith Rovers F.C.

Berryman owns a vintage retro style juke box and collects Motown and Stax 7" singles to play on it. He jokes that he knows "every secondhand vinyl shop in every major U.S. city". Berryman once said to have been starstruck by the late James Brown in concert.^[2]

According to an article released by MSN UK in April 2008, Berryman has an estimated wealth of £25 million.^[7]

On 7 June 2010, The Sun reported that Berryman and his brother Mark would be forming a company for antiques.^[8]

Other musical projects[link]

Berryman playing the bass during Coldplay's 2008 Viva la Vida Tour in Milan

In 2004, Guy (and Will Champion) collaborated with Magne Furuholmen of a-ha, Guy's big musical hero,^[9] on his solo album Past Perfect Future Tense playing the song Kryptonite.

In 2008, Berryman participated to the Movie Soundtheme of Umi no Shanghai. He also played the bass guitar in Furuholmen's A Dot of Black in the Blue of Your Bliss.

In the same year he collaborated with Magne Furuholmen, Jonas Bjerre (of Mew) and Martin Terefe under the band name of Apparatjik for the theme to the BBC2 series, Amazon.^[10] The theme is available along with exclusive tracks from various other artists on the Survival International charity album, Songs for Survival. Apparatjik has recently announced on their Twitter and Facebook pages that a new track called "Electric Eye" will be available on 30 November, as a free download on their website. Apparatjik made their very first live performance at the eleventh edition of club transmediale, an annual festival in Berlin, due to take place between 28 January and 7 February 2010. This first ever performance of Apparatjik took place inside a specially constructed cube at the WMF on Monday, 1 February 2010.[1] On the same day, they released of their debut album, titled We Are Here.

In 2010 and 2011, Berryman worked with The Pierces and Coldplay's producer Rik Simpson in the production of The Pierces' new album You and I.

Non-musical credits[link]

Berryman was credited with providing photographs for the inner sleeve of the album Foot of the Mountain, released by Norwegian pop band a-ha in 2009.^[11]

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Guy Berryman

• Coldplay's official website
• Apparatjik's Official website (Curated by the supergroup themselves, designed by Aspire Design Studios)

Chris Martin
Chris Martin playing the guitar during Coldplay's Viva la Vida Tour in 2008.
Background information
Birth name	Christopher Anthony John Martin
Born	(1977-03-02) 2 March 1977 (age 35) Exeter, Devon, England
Genres	Alternative rock, art rock, post-Britpop
Occupations	Musician, producer
Instruments	Vocals, piano, guitar, mandolin, clarinet, trumpet, harmonica, bass, organ, glockenspiel, Keyboards
Years active	1996–present
Labels	Parlophone, Capitol
Associated acts	Coldplay
Website	Coldplay.com

Christopher Anthony John "Chris" Martin (2 March 1977) is an English singer-songwriter, who is the lead vocalist, pianist and rhythm guitarist of the band Coldplay. He is well known by fans for his distinctive tenor voice. He is married to actress Gwyneth Paltrow.

Early life[link]

Chris Martin was born in Exeter, Devon and is the eldest of five children. His father, Anthony Martin, is a retired accountant, and his mother, Alison Martin, is a music teacher.^[1][2] Martin started his education at the pre-preparatory Hylton School and then went on to preparatory Exeter Cathedral School.^[3] It was at the prep school that Martin formed his first band, The Rocking Honkies, with Nick Repton & Iwan Gronow. Their debut performance was met with boos from the crowd.^[4] After Exeter Cathedral, Martin boarded at Sherborne School, a boys' independent school in Dorset. He also met future Coldplay manager Phil Harvey at the school.^[5] Martin continued his studies at University College London, staying at Ramsay Hall where he read Ancient World Studies and graduated with First Class honours in Greek and Latin.^[2][6] It is here he met future Coldplay bandmates Jonny Buckland, Will Champion and Guy Berryman.^[7]

Recording career[link]

Coldplay[link]

While studying at University College London, Martin met Jonny Buckland, Will Champion and Guy Berryman. In January 1998, they formed the rock band Coldplay. The band has had internationally recognised fame and success since their debut album, Parachutes, in 2000. Since then, they have released several further albums/EPs including: A Rush of Blood to the Head, Live 2003, X&Y, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, Prospekt's March, LeftRightLeftRightLeft and Mylo Xyloto.

Solo work[link]

Martin sitting at his piano for a 2005 concert

As a solo artist, Martin has written songs for a variety of acts including Embrace ("Gravity") and Jamelia ("See It in a Boy's Eyes", co-written with Coldplay producer Rik Simpson). Martin has also collaborated with Ron Sexsmith, Faultline, The Streets, and Ian McCulloch. He also sang a part of the vocals for the Band Aid 20 single, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" at the end of 2004. In 2005, Martin collaborated with Nelly Furtado on the track "All Good Things (Come to an End)", for her 2006 album, Loose. The two were once rumoured to be a couple, after they both performed at Glastonbury in 2002. Furtado joked about the situation, saying that "Yeah, he's my boyfriend — he just doesn't know it yet".^[8]

Martin's fascination with hip hop was shown in mid-2006 when he collaborated with rapper Jay-Z for the rapper's comeback album Kingdom Come after the two met earlier in the year. Martin put some chords together for a song known as "Beach Chair" and sent them to Jay-Z who enlisted the help of hip hop producer Dr. Dre to mix it (contrary to popular opinion it was Coldplay producer Rik Simpson and not Dre who conceived and performed the drum beats). The song was performed on 27 September 2006 by the two during Jay-Z's European tour at Royal Albert Hall. In 2007, Martin appeared on a track titled "Part of the Plan" for Swizz Beatz' debut solo album One Man Band Man. Martin has also worked on a solo collaboration with Kanye West, with whom he shared an impromptu jam session during a 2006 concert at Abbey Road Studios.^[9] He performed the chorus of "Homecoming", from West's album Graduation.

Influences[link]

Martin's and Coldplay's main influence is the Scottish rock band Travis, with Martin crediting the band for the creation of his own group.^[10] U2 has been another important influence on Martin both musically and politically,^[11] on whom he wrote for Rolling Stone magazine's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time",^[12] in the section on U2, saying: "I don't buy weekend tickets to Ireland and hang out in front of their gates, but U2 are the only band whose entire catalogue I know by heart. The first song on The Unforgettable Fire, "A Sort of Homecoming", I know backward and forward – it's so rousing, brilliant, and beautiful. It's one of the first songs I played to my unborn baby." Martin also comments on Bono's effect on his own charity and political involvement he is even known to joke with friends referring to himself as "Crono".^[11]

Martin is very vocal about his love for Norwegian new wave/Synthpop band a-ha. In 2005 he stated the following in an interview: "I found myself in Amsterdam the other day and I put a-ha's first record on. I just remembered how much I loved it. It's incredible songwriting. Everyone asks what inspired us, what we've been trying to steal from and what we listened to as we were growing up – the first band I ever loved was a-ha."^[13] Martin has also performed live together with Magne Furuholmen of a-ha. In November 2011, he stated that "back when we didn't have any hits of our own we used to play a-ha songs."^[14]

He also is known to be a fan of artists such as English alternative rock bands Oasis & Muse,^[15] Irish pop group Westlife,^[16] English band Radiohead, British pop groups Girls Aloud^[17][18] and Take That,^[19] and Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire. Solo artists Martin likes include Leona Lewis,^[20] Noel Gallagher, Kylie Minogue,^[21] Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and Hank Williams.^[15]

Coldplay performed R.E.M.'s "Nightswimming" with Michael Stipe on their Austin City Limits performance. During the show, Martin called "Nightswimming" "the greatest song ever written".^[22]

Other endeavours[link]

Martin playing "Trouble" on his piano during a concert in Brazil, February 2007

Martin and Coldplay guitarist Jon Buckland made cameo appearances in the film Shaun of the Dead as supporters of the fictional charity ZombAid.^[23] Martin has a second cameo in this film as a Zombie.^[23] In 2006 Martin had a cameo role in the second series episode four of the Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant created comedy Extras. He also appears singing in the closing credits of the 2009 film Brüno alongside Bono, Sting, Slash, Snoop Dogg, and Elton John.^[24] Martin also played one gig with the "Sid James Experience".

Martin has been particularly outspoken on issues of fair trade and has campaigned for Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign. He traveled to Ghana and Haiti to meet farmers and view the effects of unfair trade practices.^[25] When performing he usually has variations of "Make Trade Fair", "MTF" or an equal sign written on the back of his left hand and the letters "MTF" can be seen emblazoned on his piano. ^[26]

He was a vocal critic of President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. Martin was a strong supporter of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, most notably during his acceptance speech for the 2004 Grammy Awards Record of the Year, accepting for "Clocks". Martin also supported the Democratic Party candidate for President in 2008, giving a shout-out to Barack Obama at the end of a performance of "Yellow" on 25 October 2008 episode of Saturday Night Live.^[27]

On 1 April 2006, The Guardian reported that Martin was backing the British Conservative Party leader David Cameron and had written a new theme song for the party titled "Talk to David".^[28][29] This was later revealed to be an April Fool's joke. Whilst touring Australia in March 2009, Martin and the rest of Coldplay were the opening act at the Sound Relief benefit concert at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Sydney, for the bushfires and floods in Victoria and Queensland.

Personal life[link]

Martin met American actress Gwyneth Paltrow in 2002 backstage at a Coldplay gig after the death of the actress's father, Bruce Paltrow. The couple married a year later on 5 December 2003.^[30] Their daughter, Apple Blythe Alison Martin, was born on 14 May 2004 in London.^[31] Their second child, Moses Bruce Anthony Martin, was born on 8 April 2006 in New York City.^[32] Simon Pegg and Martin's bandmate Jonny Buckland are Apple's godfathers.^[33][34] Martin is a longtime friend of Pegg, having met him in 2001, and appears in Shaun of the Dead,^[23] one of Pegg's movies.

Martin does not smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol.^[35]

Martin was raised as a Catholic but has since lapsed. In a 2005 Rolling Stone magazine interview, Martin said of his religious views: "I definitely believe in God. How can you look at anything and not be overwhelmed by the miraculousness of it?"^[36] In the same interview he spoke of going through a period of spiritual confusion, stating "I went through a weird patch, starting when I was about sixteen to twenty-two, of getting God, religion, superstition, judgement all confused".^[36] However, in a 2008 interview he stated:

"I'm always trying to work out what 'He' or 'She' is. I don't know if it's Allah or Jesus or Mohammed or Zeus. But I'd go for Zeus."^[37]

Following said interview, he released a text message declaring himself an "alltheist", a word of his invention meaning that he believes in "everything".^[37]

Martin often suffers from insomnia and has undergone sleep therapy.^[38] He has said in interviews that ideas for songs most often come to him at night, and that he also often has nightmares about performances going wrong.^[38]

Martin is a supporter of the Liberal Democrats.^[39]

In a 2012 interview with the British tabloid Daily Mail, Chris Martin revealed that he has had tinnitus for the past ten years and he developed it from listening to loud music when he was a teenager. He brings strong awareness to this condition and warns youngsters to avoid the same fate, while also protecting his own children's hearing with 'Peltor Kid' headphones.

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

Films[link]

Solo discography[link]

See Coldplay discography for his work with said group.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Chris Martin

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Chris Martin

• Coldplay.com
• Chris Martin at the Internet Movie Database

Steve Jobs
Jobs holding a white iPhone 4 at Worldwide Developers Conference 2010
Born	Steven Paul Jobs (1955-02-24)February 24, 1955[1][2] San Francisco, California, U.S.[1][2]
Died	October 5, 2011(2011-10-05) (aged 56)[2] Palo Alto, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Pancreatic cancer
Nationality	American
Ethnicity	Syrian, German[3]
Alma mater	Reed College (dropped out)
Occupation	Co-founder, Chairman and CEO, Apple Inc. Co-founder and CEO, Pixar Co-founder and CEO, NeXT Inc.
Years active	1974–2011
Board member of	The Walt Disney Company[4] Apple Inc.
Religion	Zen Buddhism
Spouse	Laurene Powell (1991–2011, his death)
Children	Lisa Brennan-Jobs Reed Erin Eve
Relatives	Mona Simpson (sister)
Signature

Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs (/ˈdʒɒbz/; February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011)^[5][6] was an American businessman, designer and inventor. He is best known as the co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Through Apple, he was widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution^[7][8] and for his influential career in the computer and consumer electronics fields. Jobs also co-founded and served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, when Disney acquired Pixar.

In the late 1970s, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak engineered one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC's mouse-driven graphical user interface, which led to the creation of the Apple Lisa and, one year later, the Macintosh. During this period he also led efforts that would begin the desktop publishing revolution, notably through the introduction of the LaserWriter and the associated PageMaker software.^[9]

After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, Jobs left Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher-education and business markets. In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm, which was spun off as Pixar.^[10] He was credited in Toy Story (1995) as an executive producer. He remained CEO and majority shareholder at 50.1 percent until its acquisition by The Walt Disney Company in 2006,^[11] making Jobs Disney's largest individual shareholder at seven percent and a member of Disney's Board of Directors.^[12][13]

After difficulties developing a new Mac operating system, Apple purchased NeXT in 1996 in order to use NeXTSTEP as the basis for what became Mac OS X.^[14] As part of the deal Jobs was named Apple advisor. As Apple floundered, Jobs took control of the company and was named "interim CEO" in 1997, or as he jokingly referred to it, "iCEO". Under his leadership, Apple was saved from near bankruptcy, and became profitable by 1998.^[15][16] Over the next decade, Jobs oversaw the development of the iMac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone, and iPad, and on the services side, the company's Apple Retail Stores, iTunes Store and the App Store.^[17] The success of these products and services, providing several years of stable financial returns, propelled Apple to become the world's most valuable publicly traded company in 2011.^[18] The reinvigoration of the company is regarded by many commentators as one of the greatest turnarounds in business history.^[19][20][21]

In 2003, Jobs was diagnosed with a pancreas neuroendocrine tumor. Though it was initially treated, he reported a hormone imbalance, underwent a liver transplant in 2009, and appeared progressively thinner as his health declined.^[22] On medical leave for most of 2011, Jobs resigned as Apple CEO in August that year and was elected Chairman of the Board. He died of respiratory arrest related to his metastatic tumor on October 5, 2011.

Jobs has received a number of honors and public recognition for his influence in the technology and music industries. He has widely been referred to as "legendary", a "futurist" or simply "visionary",^{[23][24][25][26]} and has been described as the "Father of the Digital Revolution",^[27] a "master of innovation",^[28][29] and a "design perfectionist".^[30][31]

Early life and education[link]

Steven Paul Jobs was born in San Francisco on February 24, 1955 to two university students, Joanne Carole Schieble and Syrian-born Abdulfattah "John" Jandali (Arabic: عبدالفتاح جندلي‎), who were both unmarried at the time.^[32] Jandali, who was teaching in Wisconsin when Steve was born in 1955, said he had no choice but to put the baby up for adoption because his girlfriend's family objected to their relationship.^[33] The baby was adopted at birth by Paul Reinhold Jobs (1922–1993) and Clara Jobs (1924–1986), an Armenian-American^[3] whose maiden name was Hagopian.^[34] Later, when asked about his "adoptive parents," Jobs replied emphatically that Paul and Clara Jobs "were my parents."^[35] He stated in his authorized biography that they "were my parents 1,000%."^[36] Unknown to him, his biological parents would subsequently marry (December 1955), have a second child Mona Simpson in 1957, and divorce in 1962.^[36]

The Jobs family moved from San Francisco to Mountain View, California when Steve was five years old.^[1][2] The parents later adopted a daughter, Patti. Paul was a machinist for a company that made lasers, and taught his son rudimentary electronics and how to work with his hands.^[1] The father showed Steve how to work on electronics in the family garage, demonstrating to his son how to take apart and rebuild electronics such as radios and televisions. As a result, Steve became interested in and developed a hobby of technical tinkering.^[37]

Clara was an accountant^[35] who taught him to read before he went to school.^[1] Clara Jobs had been a payroll clerk for Varian Associates, one of the first high-tech firms in what became known as Silicon Valley.^[38]

Jobs's youth was riddled with frustrations over formal schooling. At Monta Loma Elementary school in Mountain View, he was a prankster whose fourth-grade teacher needed to bribe him to study. Jobs tested so well, however, that administrators wanted to skip him ahead to high school—a proposal his parents declined.^[39]

Jobs then attended Cupertino Junior High and Homestead High School in Cupertino, California.^[2] At Homestead, Jobs became friends with Bill Fernandez, a neighbor who shared the same interests in electronics. Fernandez introduced Jobs to another, older computer whiz kid, Stephen Wozniak (also known as "Woz"). In 1969 Woz started building a little computer board with Fernandez that they named “The Cream Soda Computer”, which they showed to Jobs; he seemed really interested.^[40] Jobs frequented after-school lectures at the Hewlett-Packard Company in Palo Alto, California, and was later hired there, working with Wozniak as a summer employee.^[41]

Following high school graduation in 1972, Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Reed was an expensive college which Paul and Clara could ill afford. They were spending much of their life savings on their son’s higher education.^[40] Jobs dropped out of college after six months and spent the next 18 months dropping in on creative classes, including a course on calligraphy.^[42] He continued auditing classes at Reed while sleeping on the floor in friends' dorm rooms, returning Coke bottles for food money, and getting weekly free meals at the local Hare Krishna temple.^[43] Jobs later said, "If I had never dropped in on that single calligraphy course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts."^[43]

Early career[link]

This section may be in need of reorganization to comply with Wikipedia's layout guidelines. Please help by editing the article to make improvements to the overall structure. (March 2012)

Homebrew Computer Club Newsletter, September 1976

In 1974, Jobs took a job as a technician at Atari, Inc. in Los Gatos, California.^[44] He traveled to India in mid-1974^[45] to visit Neem Karoli Baba^[46] at his Kainchi Ashram with a Reed College friend (and, later, an early Apple employee), Daniel Kottke, in search of spiritual enlightenment. When they got to the Neem Karoli ashram, it was almost deserted as Neem Karoli Baba had died in September 1973.^[44] Then they made a long trek up a dry riverbed to an ashram of Hariakhan Baba. In India, they spent a lot of time on bus rides from Delhi to Uttar Pradesh and back, then up to Himachal Pradesh and back.^[44]

After staying for seven months, Jobs left India^[47] and returned to the US ahead of Daniel Kottke.^[44] Jobs had changed his appearance; his head was shaved and he wore traditional Indian clothing.^[48][49] During this time, Jobs experimented with psychedelics, later calling his LSD experiences "one of the two or three most important things [he had] done in [his] life".^[50] He also became a serious practitioner of Zen Buddhism, engaged in lengthy meditation retreats at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the oldest Sōtō Zen monastery in the US.^[51] He considered taking up monastic residence at Eihei-ji in Japan, and maintained a lifelong appreciation for Zen.^[52] Jobs would later say that people around him who did not share his countercultural roots could not fully relate to his thinking.^[50]

Jobs then returned to Atari, and was assigned to create a circuit board for the arcade video game Breakout. According to Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, Atari offered $100 for each chip that was eliminated in the machine. At that time, Jobs had little specialized knowledge of circuit board design and made a deal with Wozniak to split the fee evenly between them if Wozniak could minimize the number of chips. Much to the amazement of Atari engineers, Wozniak reduced the number of chips by 50, a design so tight that it was impossible to reproduce on an assembly line.^{[further explanation needed]} According to Wozniak, Jobs told him that Atari gave them only $700 (instead of the offered $5,000), and that Wozniak's share was thus $350.^[53] Wozniak did not learn about the actual bonus until ten years later, but said that if Jobs had told him about it and had said he needed the money, Wozniak would have given it to him.^[54]

In the early 1970s, Jobs and Wozniak were drawn to technology like a magnet. Wozniak had designed a low-cost digital "blue box" to generate the necessary tones to manipulate the telephone network, allowing free long-distance calls. Jobs decided that they could make money selling it. The clandestine sales of the illegal "blue boxes" went well, and perhaps planted the seed in Jobs's mind that electronics could be fun and profitable.^[55]

In 1976, Jobs and Wozniak formed their own business, which they named “Apple Computer Company” in remembrance of a happy summer Jobs had spent picking apples. At first they started off selling circuit boards, but eventually they produced a complete computer prototype.^[56] Jobs began attending meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club with Wozniak in 1975.^[2] He greatly admired Edwin H. Land, the inventor of instant photography and founder of Polaroid Corporation, and would explicitly model his own career after that of Land's.^[57][58]

Career[link]

Apple Computer[link]

Home of Paul and Clara Jobs, on Crist Drive in Los Altos, California. Steve Jobs formed Apple Computer in its garage with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in 1976. Wayne stayed only a short time, leaving Jobs and Wozniak as the primary co-founders of the company.

Jobs and Steve Wozniak met in 1971, when their mutual friend, Bill Fernandez, introduced 21-year-old Wozniak to 16-year-old Jobs. In 1976, Wozniak invented the Apple I computer. Jobs, Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple computer in the garage of Jobs's parents in order to sell it.^[59] They received funding from a then-semi-retired Intel product-marketing manager and engineer Mike Markkula.^[60]

In 1978, Apple recruited Mike Scott from National Semiconductor to serve as CEO for what turned out to be several turbulent years. In 1983, Jobs lured John Sculley away from Pepsi-Cola to serve as Apple's CEO, asking, "Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?"^[61]

In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC's mouse-driven graphical user interface, which led to the creation of the Apple Lisa. One year later, Apple employee Jef Raskin invented the Macintosh.^[62][63]

The following year, Apple aired a Super Bowl television commercial titled "1984". At Apple's annual shareholders meeting on January 24, 1984, an emotional Jobs introduced the Macintosh to a wildly enthusiastic audience; Andy Hertzfeld described the scene as "pandemonium".^[64]

Apple logo in 1977, created by Rob Janoff with the rainbow color theme used until 1998.

While Jobs was a persuasive and charismatic director for Apple, some of his employees from that time described him as an erratic and temperamental manager. Disappointing sales caused a deterioration in Jobs's working relationship with Sculley and it eventually became a power struggle between Jobs and Sculley.^[65] Jobs kept meetings running past midnight, sent out lengthy faxes, then called new meetings at 7:00 am.^[66]

Sculley learned that Jobs—believing Sculley to be "bad for Apple" and the wrong person to lead the company—had been attempting to organize a boardroom coup, and on May 24, 1985, called a board meeting to resolve the matter.^[65] Apple's board of directors sided with Sculley and removed Jobs from his managerial duties as head of the Macintosh division.^[67][68] Jobs resigned from Apple five months later^[65] and founded NeXT Inc. the same year.^[66][69]

In a speech Jobs gave at Stanford University in 2005, he said being fired from Apple was the best thing that could have happened to him; "The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life." And he added, "I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it."^[43][70][71]

NeXT Computer[link]

A NeXTstation with the original keyboard, mouse and the NeXT MegaPixel monitor

After leaving Apple, Jobs founded NeXT Computer in 1985, with $7 million. A year later, Jobs was running out of money, and with no product on the horizon, he appealed for venture capital. Eventually, he attracted the attention of billionaire Ross Perot who invested heavily in the company.^[72] NeXT workstations were first released in 1990, priced at $9,999. Like the Apple Lisa, the NeXT workstation was technologically advanced, but was largely dismissed as cost-prohibitive by the educational sector for which it was designed.^[73] The NeXT workstation was known for its technical strengths, chief among them its object-oriented software development system. Jobs marketed NeXT products to the financial, scientific, and academic community, highlighting its innovative, experimental new technologies, such as the Mach kernel, the digital signal processor chip, and the built-in Ethernet port. Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web on a NeXT computer at CERN.^[74]

The revised, second-generation NeXTcube was released in 1990, also. Jobs touted it as the first "interpersonal" computer that would replace the personal computer. With its innovative NeXTMail multimedia email system, NeXTcube could share voice, image, graphics, and video in email for the first time. "Interpersonal computing is going to revolutionize human communications and groupwork", Jobs told reporters.^[75] Jobs ran NeXT with an obsession for aesthetic perfection, as evidenced by the development of and attention to NeXTcube's magnesium case.^[76] This put considerable strain on NeXT's hardware division, and in 1993, after having sold only 50,000 machines, NeXT transitioned fully to software development with the release of NeXTSTEP/Intel.^[77] The company reported its first profit of $1.03 million in 1994.^[72] In 1996, NeXT Software, Inc. released WebObjects, a framework for Web application development. After NeXT was acquired by Apple Inc. in 1997, WebObjects was used to build and run the Apple Store,^[77] MobileMe services, and the iTunes Store.

Pixar and Disney[link]

In 1986, Jobs bought The Graphics Group (later renamed Pixar) from Lucasfilm's computer graphics division for the price of $10 million, $5 million of which was given to the company as capital.^[78]

The first film produced by the partnership, Toy Story, with Jobs credited as executive producer,^[79] brought fame and critical acclaim to the studio when it was released in 1995. Over the next 15 years, under Pixar's creative chief John Lasseter, the company produced box-office hits A Bug's Life (1998); Toy Story 2 (1999); Monsters, Inc. (2001); Finding Nemo (2003); The Incredibles (2004); Cars (2006); Ratatouille (2007); WALL-E (2008); Up (2009); and Toy Story 3 (2010). Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up and Toy Story 3 each received the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, an award introduced in 2001.^[80]

Steve Jobs on computer graphics Steve Jobs on computer graphics. Interview excerpt from 1995.[81]

In the years 2003 and 2004, as Pixar's contract with Disney was running out, Jobs and Disney chief executive Michael Eisner tried but failed to negotiate a new partnership,^[82] and in early 2004, Jobs announced that Pixar would seek a new partner to distribute its films after its contract with Disney expired.

In October 2005, Bob Iger replaced Eisner at Disney, and Iger quickly worked to patch up relations with Jobs and Pixar. On January 24, 2006, Jobs and Iger announced that Disney had agreed to purchase Pixar in an all-stock transaction worth $7.4 billion. When the deal closed, Jobs became The Walt Disney Company's largest single shareholder with approximately seven percent of the company's stock.^[12] Jobs's holdings in Disney far exceeded those of Eisner, who holds 1.7 percent, and of Disney family member Roy E. Disney, who until his 2009 death held about one percent of the company's stock and whose criticisms of Eisner — especially that he soured Disney's relationship with Pixar — accelerated Eisner's ousting. Jobs joined the company's board of directors upon completion of the merger and also helped oversee Disney and Pixar's combined animation businesses from a seat on a special six-person steering committee.^[83] Upon Jobs's death his shares in Disney were transferred to the Steven P. Jobs Trust led by Laurene Jobs.^[84]

Return to Apple[link]

Logo for the Think Different campaign designed by TBWA\Chiat\Day and initiated by Jobs after his return to Apple Computer in 1997.

In 1996, Apple announced that it would buy NeXT for $427 million. The deal was finalized in late 1996,^[85] bringing Jobs back to the company he co-founded. Jobs became de facto chief after then-CEO Gil Amelio was ousted in July 1997. He was formally named interim chief executive in September.^[86] In March 1998, to concentrate Apple's efforts on returning to profitability, Jobs terminated a number of projects, such as Newton, Cyberdog, and OpenDoc. In the coming months, many employees developed a fear of encountering Jobs while riding in the elevator, "afraid that they might not have a job when the doors opened. The reality was that Jobs's summary executions were rare, but a handful of victims was enough to terrorize a whole company."^[87] Jobs also changed the licensing program for Macintosh clones, making it too costly for the manufacturers to continue making machines.

With the purchase of NeXT, much of the company's technology found its way into Apple products, most notably NeXTSTEP, which evolved into Mac OS X. Under Jobs's guidance, the company increased sales significantly with the introduction of the iMac and other new products; since then, appealing designs and powerful branding have worked well for Apple. At the 2000 Macworld Expo, Jobs officially dropped the "interim" modifier from his title at Apple and became permanent CEO.^[88] Jobs quipped at the time that he would be using the title "iCEO".^[89]

Jobs on stage at Macworld Conference & Expo, San Francisco, January 11, 2005

The company subsequently branched out, introducing and improving upon other digital appliances. With the introduction of the iPod portable music player, iTunes digital music software, and the iTunes Store, the company made forays into consumer electronics and music distribution. On June 29, 2007, Apple entered the cellular phone business with the introduction of the iPhone, a multi-touch display cell phone, which also included the features of an iPod and, with its own mobile browser, revolutionized the mobile browsing scene. While stimulating innovation, Jobs also reminded his employees that "real artists ship".^[90]

Jobs was both admired and criticized for his consummate skill at persuasion and salesmanship, which has been dubbed the "reality distortion field" and was particularly evident during his keynote speeches (colloquially known as "Stevenotes") at Macworld Expos and at Apple Worldwide Developers Conferences. In 2005, Jobs responded to criticism of Apple's poor recycling programs for e-waste in the US by lashing out at environmental and other advocates at Apple's Annual Meeting in Cupertino in April. A few weeks later, Apple announced it would take back iPods for free at its retail stores. The Computer TakeBack Campaign responded by flying a banner from a plane over the Stanford University graduation at which Jobs was the commencement speaker.^[43] The banner read "Steve, don't be a mini-player—recycle all e-waste".

In 2006, he further expanded Apple's recycling programs to any US customer who buys a new Mac. This program includes shipping and "environmentally friendly disposal" of their old systems.^[91]

Resignation[link]

In August 2011, Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple, but remained with the company as chairman of the company's board.^[92][93] Hours after the announcement, Apple Inc. (AAPL) shares dropped five percent in after-hours trading.^[94] This relatively small drop, when considering the importance of Jobs to Apple, was associated with the fact that his health had been in the news for several years, and he had been on medical leave since January 2011.^[95] It was believed, according to Forbes, that the impact would be felt in a negative way beyond Apple, including at The Walt Disney Company where Jobs served as director.^[96] In after-hours trading on the day of the announcement, Walt Disney Co. (DIS) shares dropped 1.5 percent.^[97]

Business life[link]

Wealth[link]

Jobs earned only $1 a year as CEO of Apple,^[98] Jobs held 5.426 million Apple shares worth $2.1 billion, as well as 138 million shares in Disney (which he received in exchange for Disney's acquisition of Pixar) worth $4.4 billion.^[99][100] Jobs quipped that the $1 per annum he was paid by Apple was based on attending one meeting for 50 cents while the other 50 cents was based on his performance.^[101] Forbes estimated his net wealth at $8.3 billion in 2010, making him the 42nd wealthiest American.^[102]

Stock options backdating issue[link]

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates at the fifth D: All Things Digital conference (D5) in 2007

In 2001, Jobs was granted stock options in the amount of 7.5 million shares of Apple with an exercise price of $18.30. It was alleged that the options had been backdated, and that the exercise price should have been $21.10. It was further alleged that Jobs had thereby incurred taxable income of $20,000,000 that he did not report, and that Apple overstated its earnings by that same amount. As a result, Jobs potentially faced a number of criminal charges and civil penalties. The case was the subject of active criminal and civil government investigations,^[103] though an independent internal Apple investigation completed on December 29, 2006, found that Jobs was unaware of these issues and that the options granted to him were returned without being exercised in 2003.^[104]

On July 1, 2008, a $7-billion class action suit was filed against several members of the Apple Board of Directors for revenue lost due to the alleged securities fraud.^[105][106]

Management style[link]

Jobs was a demanding perfectionist^[107][108] who always aspired to position his businesses and their products at the forefront of the information technology industry by foreseeing and setting trends, at least in innovation and style. He summed up that self-concept at the end of his keynote speech at the Macworld Conference and Expo in January 2007, by quoting ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky

There's an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love. 'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.' And we've always tried to do that at Apple. Since the very very beginning. And we always will.^[109]

Steve Jobs announcing the transition to Intel processors in 2005.

Much was made of Jobs's aggressive and demanding personality. Fortune wrote that he was "considered one of Silicon Valley's leading egomaniacs".^[110] Commentaries on his temperamental style can be found in Michael Moritz's The Little Kingdom, The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, by Alan Deutschman; and iCon: Steve Jobs, by Jeffrey S. Young & William L. Simon. In 1993, Jobs made Fortune's list of America's Toughest Bosses in regard to his leadership of NeXT.

NeXT Cofounder Dan'l Lewin was quoted in Fortune as saying of that period, "The highs were unbelievable ... But the lows were unimaginable", to which Jobs's office replied that his personality had changed since then.^[111]

In 2005, Jobs banned all books published by John Wiley & Sons from Apple Stores in response to their publishing an unauthorized biography, iCon: Steve Jobs.^[112] In its 2010 annual earnings report, Wiley said it had "closed a deal ... to make its titles available for the iPad."^[113] Jef Raskin, a former colleague, once said that Jobs "would have made an excellent king of France", alluding to Jobs's compelling and larger-than-life persona.^[114] Floyd Norman said that at Pixar, Jobs was a "mature, mellow individual" and never interfered with the creative process of the filmmakers.^[115]

Jobs had a public war of words with Dell Computer CEO Michael Dell, starting in 1987 when Jobs first criticized Dell for making "un-innovative beige boxes".^[116] On October 6, 1997, in a Gartner Symposium, when Michael Dell was asked what he would do if he ran then-troubled Apple Computer, he said "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders."^[117] In 2006, Jobs sent an email to all employees when Apple's market capitalization rose above Dell's. The email read:

Team, it turned out that Michael Dell wasn't perfect at predicting the future. Based on today's stock market close, Apple is worth more than Dell. Stocks go up and down, and things may be different tomorrow, but I thought it was worth a moment of reflection today. Steve.^[118]

Jobs was also a board member at Gap Inc. from 1999 to 2002.^[119]

Reality distortion field[link]

Apple's Bud Tribble coined the term "reality distortion field" in 1981, to describe Jobs's charisma and its effects on the developers working on the Macintosh project.^[120] Tribble claimed that the term came from Star Trek.^[120] Since then the term has also been used to refer to perceptions of Jobs's keynote speeches.^[121]

The RDF was said by Andy Hertzfeld to be Steve Jobs's ability to convince himself and others to believe almost anything, using a mix of charm, charisma, bravado, hyperbole, marketing, appeasement, and persistence. Although the subject of criticism, Jobs's so-called reality distortion field was also recognized as creating a sense that the impossible was possible. Once the term became widely known, it was often used in the technology press to describe Jobs's sway over the public, particularly regarding new product announcements.^[122][123]

Inventions and designs[link]

His design sense was greatly influenced by the Buddhism which he experienced in India while on a seven-month spiritual journey.^[124] His sense of intuition was also influenced by the spiritual people with whom he studied.^[124]

As of October 9, 2011 (2011 -10-09)^[update], Jobs is listed as either primary inventor or co-inventor in 342 United States patents or patent applications related to a range of technologies from actual computer and portable devices to user interfaces (including touch-based), speakers, keyboards, power adapters, staircases, clasps, sleeves, lanyards and packages. Most of these are design patents (specific product designs) as opposed to utility patents (inventions).^[125][126] He has 43 issued US patents on inventions.^[127] The patent on the Mac OS X Dock user interface with "magnification" feature was issued the day before he died.^[128]

Applying his Triple F Model to Apple under Steve Jobs, Anand Kurian opines that Job's contribution in the area of pure ‘Function’ are less significant, but that his contribution in the areas of ‘Functionality’ and ‘Form’ are major and substantial.^[129]

Apple I Computer[link]

The first significant invention that Steve Jobs was involved in was the Apple I which came along in 1976. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who was at the time working for HP, scraped together some cash for printed circuit boards. Then they planned to sell the machine as a kit for $666.66. A store called the Byte Shop ordered 50 fully assembled devices, and sold them all.^[130] The Apple’s first computer was for hobbyists and engineers so it was made in small numbers.^[131]

Apple II Computer[link]

During 1976, Steve Wozniak began work on the Apple II, and left HP to join Apple computer. In March 1977, Apple Computer moved from Jobs's garage to an office in Cupertino. Apple Computer delivered its first Apple II system, for US$1295 in April 1977.^[132] Steve Jobs once said the Apple II could be described as an "appliance" computer. The Apple II was the first computer to be enclosed in plastic.^[133] Jobs insisted that molded plastic was essential to the computer as a consumer item. The Apple II was “elegantly styled" and it became compared to an "overgrown pocket calculator".^[134]

Ten months after its introduction, Apple Computer began work on an enhanced Apple II with custom chips, code-named Annie, in 1978. At the same year, they began work on a supercomputer named Lisa; it featured a bit-sliced architecture. After two and a half years, 50,000 Apple II units had been sold until 1979. Nearly one-third of Canadians credited the Apple II as the first personal computer which having the most impact on society.^[135]

The Macintosh Computer[link]

The Macintosh was introduced in January 1984. The computer had no “Mac” name on the front, but rather just the Apple logo.^[130] The Macintosh have a friendly appearance since it was meant to be easy to use. The disk drive is below the display, the Macintosh was taller, narrower, more symmetrical, and far more suggestive of a face. The Macintosh was identified as a computer that ordinary people could understand.^[136]

The NeXT Computer[link]

After Jobs was forced out of Apple in 1985, he started a company that built workstation computers. The NeXT Computer was introduced in 1989. Sir Tim Berners-Lee created the world’s first web browser on the NeXT Computer. The NeXT Computer was the basis for today’s Macintosh OS X and iPhone operating system (iOS).^[137]

iMac[link]

Apple iMac was introduced in 1998 and its innovative design was directly the result of Jobs's return to Apple. Apple boasted "the back of our computer looks better than the front of anyone else's".^[138] Described as "cartoonlike" the first iMac, clad in Bondi Blue plastic, was unlike any personal computer that came before. In 1999, Apple introduced Graphite gray Apple iMac and since has switched to all-white. Design ideas were intended to create a connection with the user such as the handle and a breathing light effect when the computer went to sleep..^[139] The Apple iMac sold for $1,299 at that time. There was some technical revolutions for iMac too. The USB ports being the only device inputs on the iMac. So the iMac’s success helped popularize the interface among third party peripheral makers, which is evidenced by the fact that many early USB peripherals were made of translucent plastic to match the iMac design.^[140]

iPod[link]

The first generation of iPod was released October 23, 2001. The major innovation of the iPod was its small size achieved by using a 1.8" hard drive compared to the 2.5" drives common to players at that time. The capacity of the first generation iPod ranged from 5G to 10 Gigabytes.^[141] The iPod sold for US$399 and more than 100,000 iPods were sold before the end of 2001. The introduction of the iPod resulted in Apple becoming a major player in the music industry.^[142] Also, the iPod’s success prepared the way for the iTunes music store and the iPhone.^[131] After the 1st generation of iPod, Apple released the hard drive-based iPod classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, video-capable iPod Nano, screenless iPod Shuffle in the following years.^[142]

iPhone[link]

Jobs began work on the first iPhone in 2005 and the first iPhone was released on June 29, 2007. The iPhone created such a sensation that a survey indicated six out of ten Americans were aware of its release. Time magazine declared it "Invention of the Year" for 2007.^[143] The Apple iPhone is a small device with multimedia capabilities and functions as a quad-band touch screen smartphone.^[144] A year later, the iPhone 3G was released in July 2008 with the key feature was support for GPS, 3G data and quad-band UMTS/HSDPA. In June 2009, the iPhone 3GS, added voice control, a better camera, and a faster processor was introduced by Phil Schiller.^[145] iPhone 4 was thinner than previous models, had a five megapixel camera which can record videos in 720p HD, and added a secondary front facing camera for video calls.^[146] A major feature of the iPhone 4S, introduced in October 2011, was Siri, which is a virtual assistant that is capable of voice recognition.^[143]

Philanthropy[link]

Arik Hesseldahl of BusinessWeek magazine stated that "Jobs isn't widely known for his association with philanthropic causes", compared to Bill Gates's efforts.^[147] In contrast to Gates, Jobs did not sign the Giving Pledge of Warren Buffett which challenged the world’s richest billionaires to give at least half their wealth to charity.^[148] In an interview with Playboy in 1985, Jobs said in respect to money that “the challenges are to figure out how to live with it and to reinvest it back into the world which means either giving it away or using it to express your concerns or values.”^[149] Jobs also added that when he has some time we would start a public foundation but for now he does charitable acts privately.^[150]

After resuming control of Apple in 1997, Jobs eliminated all corporate philanthropy programs initially.^[151] Jobs’s friends told The New York Times that he felt that expanding Apple would have done more good than giving money to charity.^[152] Later, under Jobs, Apple signed to participate in Product Red program, producing red versions of devices to give profits from sales to charity. Apple has gone on to become the largest contributor to the charity since its initial involvement with it. The chief of the Product Red project, singer Bono cited Jobs saying there was "nothing better than the chance to save lives," when he initially approached Apple with the invitation to participate in the program.^[153] Through its sales, Apple has been the largest contributor to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, according to Bono.^[154]

Personal life[link]

Jobs's birth parents met at the University of Wisconsin. Abdulfattah "John" Jandali, a Syrian Muslim,^[155] taught there. Joanne Carole Schieble was his student; they were the same age because Jandali had "gotten his PhD really young." ^{[156][157][158]} Schieble had a career as a speech language pathologist. Jandali taught political science at the University of Nevada in the 1960s, and then made his career in the food and beverage industry, and since 2006, has been a vice president at a casino in Reno, Nevada.^[159][160] In December 1955, ten months after giving up their baby boy, Schieble and Jandali married. In 1957 they had a daughter, Mona. They divorced in 1962, and Jandali lost touch with his daughter.^[161] Her mother remarried and had Mona take the surname of her stepfather, so she became known as Mona Simpson.^[157]

In the 1980s, Jobs found his birth mother, Joanne Schieble Simpson, who told him he had a biological sister, Mona Simpson. They met for the first time in 1985^[161] and became close friends. The siblings kept their relationship secret until 1986, when Mona introduced him at a party for her first book.^[35]

After deciding to search for their father, Simpson found Jandali managing a coffee shop. Without knowing who his son had become, Jandali told Mona that he had previously managed a popular restaurant in the Silicon Valley where "Even Steve Jobs used to eat there. Yeah, he was a great tipper." In a taped interview with his biographer Walter Isaacson, aired on 60 Minutes,^[162] Jobs said: "When I was looking for my biological mother, obviously, you know, I was looking for my biological father at the same time, and I learned a little bit about him and I didn't like what I learned. I asked her to not tell him that we ever met...not tell him anything about me."^[163] Jobs was in occasional touch with his mother Joanne Simpson,^[151][164] who lives in a nursing home in Los Angeles.^[157] When speaking about his biological parents, Jobs stated: "They were my sperm and egg bank. That's not harsh, it's just the way it was, a sperm bank thing, nothing more."^[36] Jandali stated in an interview with the The Sun in August 2011, that his efforts to contact Jobs were unsuccessful. Jandali mailed in his medical history after Jobs's pancreatic disorder was made public that year.^{[165][166][167]}

In her eulogy to Jobs at his memorial service, Mona Simpson stated:

I grew up as an only child, with a single mother. Because we were poor and because I knew my father had emigrated from Syria, I imagined he looked like Omar Sharif. I hoped he would be rich and kind and would come into our lives (and our not yet furnished apartment) and help us. Later, after I'd met my father, I tried to believe he'd changed his number and left no forwarding address because he was an idealistic revolutionary, plotting a new world for the Arab people. Even as a feminist, my whole life I'd been waiting for a man to love, who could love me. For decades, I'd thought that man would be my father. When I was 25, I met that man and he was my brother.^[161]

Jobs's first child, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, was born in 1978, the daughter of his longtime partner Chris Ann Brennan, a Bay Area painter.^[151] For two years, she raised their daughter on welfare while Jobs denied paternity by claiming he was sterile; he later acknowledged Lisa as his daughter.^[151] Jobs later married Laurene Powell on March 18, 1991, in a ceremony at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park. Presiding over the wedding was Kobun Chino Otogawa, a Zen Buddhist monk. Their son, Reed, was born September 1991, followed by daughters Erin in August 1995, and Eve in 1998.^[168] The family lives in Palo Alto, California.^[169]

Jobs demonstrating the iPhone 4 to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on June 23, 2010

In the unauthorized biography, The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, author Alan Deutschman reports that Jobs once dated Joan Baez. Deutschman quotes Elizabeth Holmes, a friend of Jobs from his time at Reed College, as saying she "believed that Steve became the lover of Joan Baez in large measure because Baez had been the lover of Bob Dylan" (Dylan was the Apple icon's favorite musician). In another unauthorized biography, iCon: Steve Jobs by Jeffrey S. Young & William L. Simon, the authors suggest that Jobs might have married Baez, but her age at the time (41) meant it was unlikely the couple could have children.

Jobs was also a fan of The Beatles. He referred to them on multiple occasions at Keynotes and also was interviewed on a showing of a Paul McCartney concert. When asked about his business model on 60 Minutes, he replied:

My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each other's negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts. Great things in business are never done by one person, they are done by a team of people.^[170]

In 1982, Jobs bought an apartment in The San Remo, an apartment building in New York City with a politically progressive reputation, where Demi Moore, Steven Spielberg, Steve Martin, and Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, daughter of Rita Hayworth, also had apartments. With the help of I.M. Pei, Jobs spent years renovating his apartment in the top two floors of the building's north tower, only to sell it almost two decades later to U2 singer Bono. Jobs never moved in.^[171][172]

In 1984, Jobs purchased the Jackling House, a 17,000-square-foot (1,600 m²), 14-bedroom Spanish Colonial mansion designed by George Washington Smith in Woodside, California. Although it reportedly remained in an almost unfurnished state, Jobs lived in the mansion for almost ten years. According to reports, he kept a 1966 BMW R60/2 motorcycle in the living room, and let Bill Clinton use it in 1998. From the early 1990s, Jobs lived in a house in the Old Palo Alto neighborhood of Palo Alto. President Clinton dined with Jobs and 14 Silicon Valley CEOs there on August 7, 1996, at a meal catered by Greens Restaurant.^[173][174] Clinton returned the favor and Jobs, who was a Democratic donor, slept in the Lincoln bedroom of the White House.^[175]

Jobs allowed Jackling House to fall into a state of disrepair, planning to demolish the house and build a smaller home on the property; but he met with complaints from local preservationists over his plans. In June 2004, the Woodside Town Council gave Jobs approval to demolish the mansion, on the condition that he advertise the property for a year to see if someone would move it to another location and restore it. A number of people expressed interest, including several with experience in restoring old property, but no agreements to that effect were reached. Later that same year, a local preservationist group began seeking legal action to prevent demolition. In January 2007, Jobs was denied the right to demolish the property, by a court decision.^[176] The court decision was overturned on appeal in March 2010, and the mansion was demolished beginning in February 2011.^[177]

Jobs usually wore a black long-sleeved mock turtleneck made by Issey Miyake (that was sometimes reported to be made by St. Croix), Levi's 501 blue jeans, and New Balance 991 sneakers.^[178][179] Jobs told Walter Isaacson "...he came to like the idea of having a uniform for himself, both because of its daily convenience (the rationale he claimed) and its ability to convey a signature style." ^[180] He was a pescetarian.^[181]

Jobs's car was a silver Mercedes-Benz SL 55 AMG, which did not display its license plates, as he took advantage of a California law which gives a maximum of six months for new vehicles to receive plates; Jobs leased a new SL every six months.^[182]

In a 2011 interview with biographer Walter Isaacson, Jobs revealed at one point he met with U.S. President Barack Obama, complained of the nation's shortage of software engineers, and told Mr. Obama that he was "headed for a one-term presidency." Jobs proposed that any foreign student who got an engineering degree at a U.S. university should automatically be offered a green card. After the meeting, Jobs commented, "The president is very smart, but he kept explaining to us reasons why things can't get done.... It infuriates me." ^[183]

Jobs contributed to a number of political candidates and causes during his life, giving $209,000 to Democrats, $45,700 to associated special interests and $1,000 to a Republican.^[184]

Health issues[link]

Jobs addressing concerns about his health in 2008.

In October 2003, Jobs was diagnosed with cancer,^[185] and in mid-2004, he announced to his employees that he had a cancerous tumor in his pancreas.^[186] The prognosis for pancreatic cancer is usually very poor;^[187] Jobs stated that he had a rare, far less aggressive type known as islet cell neuroendocrine tumor.^[186] Despite his diagnosis, Jobs resisted his doctors' recommendations for mainstream medical intervention for nine months,^[151] instead consuming a special alternative medicine diet in an attempt to thwart the disease. According to Harvard researcher Dr. Ramzi Amir, his choice of alternative treatment "led to an unnecessarily early death."^[185] According to Jobs's biographer, Walter Isaacson, "for nine months he refused to undergo surgery for his pancreatic cancer – a decision he later regretted as his health declined."^[188] "Instead, he tried a vegan diet, acupuncture, herbal remedies and other treatments he found online, and even consulted a psychic. He also was influenced by a doctor who ran a clinic that advised juice fasts, bowel cleansings and other unproven approaches, before finally having surgery in July 2004."^[189] He eventually underwent a pancreaticoduodenectomy (or "Whipple procedure") in July 2004, that appeared to successfully remove the tumor.^{[190][191][192]} Jobs apparently did not receive chemotherapy or radiation therapy.^[186][193] During Jobs's absence, Tim Cook, head of worldwide sales and operations at Apple, ran the company.^[186]

In early August 2006, Jobs delivered the keynote for Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference. His "thin, almost gaunt" appearance and unusually "listless" delivery,^[194][195] together with his choice to delegate significant portions of his keynote to other presenters, inspired a flurry of media and Internet speculation about his health.^[196] In contrast, according to an Ars Technica journal report, Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) attendees who saw Jobs in person said he "looked fine".^[197] Following the keynote, an Apple spokesperson said that "Steve's health is robust."^[198]

Two years later, similar concerns followed Jobs's 2008 WWDC keynote address.^[199] Apple officials stated Jobs was victim to a "common bug" and was taking antibiotics,^[200] while others surmised his cachectic appearance was due to the Whipple procedure.^[193] During a July conference call discussing Apple earnings, participants responded to repeated questions about Jobs's health by insisting that it was a "private matter". Others, however, voiced the opinion that shareholders had a right to know more, given Jobs's hands-on approach to running his company.^[201][202] The New York Times published an article based on an off-the-record phone conversation with Jobs, noting that "While his health problems amounted to a good deal more than 'a common bug', they weren't life-threatening and he doesn't have a recurrence of cancer."^[203]

On August 28, 2008, Bloomberg mistakenly published a 2500-word obituary of Jobs in its corporate news service, containing blank spaces for his age and cause of death. (News carriers customarily stockpile up-to-date obituaries to facilitate news delivery in the event of a well-known figure's death.) Although the error was promptly rectified, many news carriers and blogs reported on it,^[204] intensifying rumors concerning Jobs's health.^[205] Jobs responded at Apple's September 2008 Let's Rock keynote by quoting Mark Twain: "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."^[206] At a subsequent media event, Jobs concluded his presentation with a slide reading "110/70", referring to his blood pressure, stating he would not address further questions about his health.^[207]

On December 16, 2008, Apple announced that marketing vice-president Phil Schiller would deliver the company's final keynote address at the Macworld Conference and Expo 2009, again reviving questions about Jobs's health.^[208][209] In a statement given on January 5, 2009, on Apple.com,^[210] Jobs said that he had been suffering from a "hormone imbalance" for several months.^[211]

On January 14, 2009, in an internal Apple memo, Jobs wrote that in the previous week he had "learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought", and announced a six-month leave of absence until the end of June 2009, to allow him to better focus on his health. Tim Cook, who previously acted as CEO in Jobs's 2004 absence, became acting CEO of Apple,^[212] with Jobs still involved with "major strategic decisions."^[212]

In April 2009, Jobs underwent a liver transplant at Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute in Memphis, Tennessee.^[213][214] Jobs's prognosis was described as "excellent".^[213]

On January 17, 2011, a year and a half after Jobs returned from his liver transplant, Apple announced that he had been granted a medical leave of absence. Jobs announced his leave in a letter to employees, stating his decision was made "so he could focus on his health". As during his 2009 medical leave, Apple announced that Tim Cook would run day-to-day operations and that Jobs would continue to be involved in major strategic decisions at the company.^[215][216] Despite the leave, he made appearances at the iPad 2 launch event (March 2), the WWDC keynote introducing iCloud (June 6), and before the Cupertino city council (June 7).^[217]

Jobs announced his resignation as Apple's CEO on August 24, 2011. "Unfortunately, that day has come," wrote Jobs, for he could "no longer meet [his] duties and expectations as Apple's CEO". Jobs became chairman of the board and named Tim Cook his successor.^[218][219] Jobs had worked for Apple until the day before his death.^[220]

Death[link]

Flags flying at half-staff outside Apple HQ in Cupertino, on the evening of Steve Jobs's death.

Memorial candles and iPads to Steve Jobs outside the Apple Store in Palo Alto California shortly after his death

Jobs died at his California home around 3 p.m. on October 5, 2011, due to complications from a relapse of his previously treated islet-cell neuroendocrine pancreatic cancer,^{[2][221][222]} resulting in respiratory arrest.^[223] He had lost consciousness the day before, and died with his wife, children and sister at his side.^[224]