[Mary]

Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO at Apple, the company he co-founded at age 21 and turned into an international business icon, known for its tremendous profits and elegantly designed devices like the iPhone, iPad and Mac computers.

Quote

Letter from Steve Jobs

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

[Mary]

celebs react on Steve Jobs' resignation:

Arnold Schwarzenegger tweeted: "Steve Jobs is one of California’s greatest innovators. Very few achieved his impact over the last 50 years and probably the next 100 years.”

Alyssa Milano paid tribute by quoting the mastermind: "I want to put a ding in the universe. –Steve Jobs #quote."

Glee star Harry Shum, Jr. tweeted that he met Steve once and said: " Steve Jobs is also one of the few people that I fully got star struck and geeked out when I met him.”

In 2004, Jobs announced to his employees that he had pancreatic cancer. He apparently had the tumor removed, but his health has been in question ever since. He's been pretty private about it, but he addressed it in the letter saying he made the decision "so he could focus on his health."

[Mary]

Aside from being the face of Apple, Steve Jobs is a pretty interesting character. Here are a few things you might not know.

He dated singer Joan Baez: A college friend of Steve Jobs' claims that he dated the 60s folk singer. She says she "believed that Steve became the lover of Joan Baez in large measure because Baez had been the lover of Bob Dylan." I'm not sure what that means, but I'm on the brink of picturing a Jobs-Baez-Dylan menage a trois, so I'm going to move on. He was allegedly going to marry Baez, but her age at the time (41) concerned him.

He copied the Beatles: At least their business model. Jobs said: "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 not done by one person, they are done by a team of people."


He didn't go to college: Jobs went to Reed College for one semester and then dropped out. Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg were also college dropouts. I guess when you're a computer genius, you don’t really need a degree.

He loved doing LSD: Jobs lists using LSD as "one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life." Start multibillion dollar computer company and do LSD. Sounds like a hell of a bucket list.

He's a Zen Buddhist: Can you be both a Buddhist and a billionaire? Steve Jobs is. He even considered joining a monastery and becoming a monk. His guru married him and his wife.