Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs was today posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Joe Biden. When announcing recipients earlier this week, The White House said that Jobs' inventions changed the way the world communicates.
Steve Jobs (d. 2011) was the co-founder, chief executive, and chair of Apple, Inc., CEO of Pixar and held a leading role at the Walt Disney Company. His vision, imagination and creativity led to inventions that have, and continue to, change the way the world communicates, as well as transforming the computer, music, film and wireless industries.
Apple CEO Tim Cook recognized Jobs' award on Twitter, and said that he was a "visionary" who saw the world for "what it could be."
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor in the United States, and it is given to those who have "made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors."
Today, Steve was awarded the Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor. He was a visionary who challenged us to see the world not for what it is, but for what it could be. We cherish his memory and we’ll continue building on his legacy. pic.twitter.com/G6cbBdGzvY — Tim Cook (@tim_cook) July 7, 2022
Jobs was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom alongside Simone Biles, Sister Simone Campbell, Julieta García, Gabrielle Giffords, Fred Gray, Father Alexander Karloutsos, Khizr Khan, Sandra Lindsay, John McCain (posthumous), Diane Nash, Megan Rapinoe, Alan Simpson, Richard Trumka (posthumous), Wilma Vaught, Denzel Washington, and Raúl Yzaguirre.
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Top Rated Comments
Do you watch television? Are you enslaved to entertainment channeled into your home?
Do you eat fast food? Are you enslaved to quick, delicious, cheap meals (that aren't necessarily the most healthy)?
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We make our own choices. If people choose to use and consume certain aspects our age, that is their choice. Steve isn't responsible for *forcing* anybody to do anything, not like true slaves were.
More fitting companies for your description would be Microsoft, Google and Facebook where they actually strategized how to limit choice for consumers by putting their products everywhere. Need a PC? Most PC manufacturers were forced through licensing to use Microsoft Windows, thereby taking choice away from consumers.
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Steve instilled some very important principles into Apple, such as limiting the scope of product lines (the number 3 was a magic number), and putting a strong focus on a customer-first strategy.
With 17 recipients the whole thing is quite long, so you can either choose to watch the whole thing or you can use the following to just watch the bits about Jobs to make it go quicker.
Laurene Powell Jobs (who later receives the medal on behalf of Steve Jobs) is announced at 0:43 and walks in at 0:54
Biden first mentions Jobs at 25:20
Jobs is awarded the medal at 39:42
Maybe someone might later rip and edit it to make a more Jobs-specific version, if they haven’t already.
EDIT: The video has been shortened slightly since yesterday and so these times have changed accordingly.