Steven Paul Jobs was born in San Francisco to Joanne Carole Schieble and Syrian Abdulfattah John Jandali and adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs. He attended the Cupertino Middle School followed by high school at Homestead H.S. in the same town of Cupertino. He spent his childhood in the South Bay area, a region that would later become known as Silicon Valley. During high school Jobs held a summer job at the Hewlett-Packard Company in Palo Alto prior to attending college. His original association with Steven Wozniak began as a result of attending lectures and working at HP.

Although he attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon, Steve Jobs never graduated, having only spent about six months at college. He returned to California in 1974 and began attending meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club with his friend Wozniak. At the same time he took a job at Atari to save money for a spiritual retreat to India. While working there he discovered that a popular whistle recreated the tones needed to make long distance phone calls with AT&T. Jobs convinced Wozniak to go into business with him to create "blue boxes" and sell them to people wishing to make free long distance phone calls.

Jobs ended up backpacking through India but returned to work with Atari. He continued to work with Wozniak on other projects and finally convinced him to market a computer Wozniak had built for himself. On April 1, 1976, Apple Inc. was born. Although the business started with printed circuit boards, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs eventually created their first personal computer, the Apple I, and sold it for $666.66. They later followed it with the Apple II, a large success for their business. Apple Inc. began selling shares in December of 1980.

As the company grew, so did its merchandise and the hugely successful Macintosh was introduced to the public in 1984 and became the first personal computer with a graphical user interface (GUI) through which individuals could interact with the items on the screen. As Apple grew even more, Jobs experienced tension with the board and the struggles led to Jobs leaving Apple in May of 1985.

Steve Jobs went on to create the company called NeXT in 1986. Although it began as a company designed around aesthetic interpersonal computing, it later focused more on software development. NeXT ended up playing a major role in the development of email and the world wide web.

Apple bought NeXT in 1996 and reinstated Jobs as the Chief Executive Officer. His current annual salary is $1, but he receives executive gifts from the board that give better tax advantages than does his salary. He is well known for his work ethic as well as his rumored temper, but has consistently helped to grow Apple from a company bordering on bankruptcy in the 1990s to a very successful company today. Steve Jobs has helped establish the new electronic divisions and personally helped to create the ipod, iphone, and other personal devices.



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