Steve Jobs, the Apple tech titan Steve Jobs was born on 24th February, 1955, in the city of San Francisco, and grew up in a farming area that was already turning into the world centre of computer technology, Silicon Valley. As a teenager, Steve was interested in computers. Once he phoned William Hewlett, president of Hewlett-Packard, to ask for some computer parts he needed for a school project. He got them, along with an offer of a summer job at HP. In 1971, he met and quickly became friends with Stephen Wozniak, also known as Woz. Woz got the idea of designing his own computer, which was really only a circuit board ( 集成电路板 ) . Steve saw that many people were interested in his friend’s work, so he suggested they sell the board to them. Apple Computer was born. Steve and Woz spent their first year in business assembling (组装) the boards in Steve’s garage and driving to local computer stores to try and sell them. Meanwhile, Woz worked on a new computer, the Apple II, which he finished in 1977. The Apple II was much more advanced (先进的) than anything the market had ever seen. Thousands of people bought the Apple II. The company grew very fast and went public three years later, on 12th December 1980. That day Steve Jobs, only 25 years old, was worth (身价) more than $200 million. There are quite a few interesting facts about this “tech titan”: Steve bought his Woodside house in 1984 and lived there throughout the 1990s. The house was famous for its enormous (巨大的) size and for its total lack of furniture. Steve was such a perfectionist that he could never make a decision on what to buy and so bought nothing. As a bachelor he only had a mattress, some pictures on the walls and a very expensive stereo system, but no furniture. He did not sleep on a bed for years even though he was a multi-millionaire (千万富翁) . At Woodside the kitchen was the only room that was fully furnished. 2010, the year before he died, Jobs gave himself a salary of $1 per year. He had about 5.5 million shares of Apple’s stock (股份) , but he never sold a share. When he died the front page of the website of Apple.com displayed a picture of the late Steve Jobs, and the second page contained this tribute to the industry leader: Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who’ve been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve lost a dear friend and inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.