BY: ABBY HUGHEY

Jobs was adopted at birth by Paul and Clara Jobs. Paul worked as a mechanic and as a result, taught Steve how to take apart and put together electronics such as radios and televisions. This was how Steve obtained an early love for technical tinkering. In elementary school, school officials recommended Jobs skip two grades on account of his test scores, but his parents opted for skipping just one. In high school, Jobs lived next to a boy named Bill who shared a similar love of electronics. He eventually introduced Jobs to a computer whiz named Wozniak who he had created a computer with called the “Cream Soda Computer.”

Jobs adoptive family didn’t have much money. Following his high school graduation he enrolled in Reed College, however, his adoptive parents could not afford it so he was forced to drop out. He instead spent his time in creative classes and auditing classes at Reed while sleeping on the floor of friend’s dorm rooms, returning coke bottles for food money, and getting weekly free meals at the local Hare Krishna temple.

Jobs started his technological career working for Atari with his soon to be partner “Wozniak.” They worked as early pioneer manufactures of personal computers and later teamed up to design games for the brand.

Steve Jobs founded “NeXT” which was a high end computer company. The software of NeXT was amazing but not popular among consumers and sold poorly. The technology used on NeXT was later transferred to the Apple company to be used on Macs and iPhones.

In 1986, Jobs bought what was once called “The Graphics Group” or better known now as Pixar. Pixar was originally intended to become a high- end graphic hardware developer but soon transformed into the masterminds behind the animation films we know and love today. Jobs sold Pixar to Disney in Jobs negotiated Disney and Pixar to collaborate on a number of films including Toy Story.

What started as just a friendship turned into a team of masterminds. Jobs was the marketing half who held the enthusiasm and the energy of the pair. Wozniak was the control. He obtained the talent and self-taught engineering. Together they were unstoppable. The partnership began when Wozniak created boxes that allowed him to make long-distance calls for free and Jobs handled selling and distributing several hundred of the invention. When the two founded Apple, Jobs and Wozniak were only 21 and 26 respectively but the corporation proved to be one of the fastest growing companies in the United States.

Named after Job’s favorite fruit, the logo was meant to be a play on words. The bite taken out of the apple reflecting “bytes.” In 1984, a power struggle resulted in Jobs leaving the company. He didn’t return as CEO of the company until Job’s visionary attitude is what made Apple so different. Jobs was a visionary. His idea of personal computers was what made him able to revolutionize the computer hardware and software industry. Before apple, the public eye saw computers as mainframe servers that took up entire floors.

Spontaneous Generosity: When a single mom and secretary was late, Jobs demanded to know why. When she replied that her car wouldn’t stop he threw her keys to a new Jaguar and said “Here, don’t be late.” Never Settles for Less: When the first prototype to the ipod was made, engineers brought it to Jobs for the stamp of approval. Jobs promptly rejected it and decided it was too large. When engineers claimed it was virtually impossible to make the design any slimmer, Jobs took the prototype walked over to the fish tank and threw it in. When the electronic hit the bottom, bubbles emerged. Steve pointed out “Those are air bubbles. That means there’s space in there. Make it smaller. Simple design: Mike Evangelist had 3 weeks to prepare the ideas for a DVD-burning program that would eventually become iDVD. They came up with extensive designs and mark ups of how the program would look. However, when Steve came in he didn’t look at any of their work and simply drew a rectangle on the white board. After he said “Here’s the new application, it’s got one window. You drag your video into the window. Then you click the button that says BURN. That’s it. That’s what we’re going to make.” It’s this simplicity in design that made Apple so popular.

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