Steve Jobs' memorial service: 6 highlights
Apple shares video of the private ceremony held in honor of its visionary co-founder — featuring a performance by Coldplay and a rousing speech by Al Gore

A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
Apple drew back the curtains Monday on the private memorial service the company held last week for its late co-founder, Steve Jobs. The service, which was attended by Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Bono, and Google's Larry Page, had been closed to the public and the media until Apple posted an 81-minute video of the event, titled "Celebrating Steve," on its website. Here, six highlights from the ceremony:
1. New CEO Tim Cook kicked things off
Jobs' successor was the first to speak before the crowd of thousands gathered outside the company's Cupertino headquarters, says the Associated Press. Cook said the past two weeks had the been the saddest of his life. "But I know Steve," he said. "Steve would have wanted this cloud to lift for Apple and our focus to return to the work that he loved so much." Cook also revealed some of the final advice Jobs gave him: "To never ask what he would do, just do what's right."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
2. The crowd heard from Jobs one last time
Early in the service, Cook introduced an audio recording of Apple's 1997 "Think Different" commercial, which featured Richard Dreyfuss narrating — "Here's to the crazy ones… Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do" — over a montage of images of Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Jim Henson. In the audio played at the service, however, the words "were spoken by the man who wrote them: Steve Jobs," says Lori Preuitt at NBC Bay Area. The moment "seemed to bring down the house."
3. Al Gore rallied Apple's employees
"You have helped, in important ways, to create the joy and love that people associate with what Apple does," the former vice president, who sits on Apple's board of directors, told the gathered employees. He encouraged them to keep focusing "on the creativity and passion that lives inside the insanely great products that you design, engineer, manufacture, and market."
4. iPod designer Jonathan Ive stole the show
Ive shared "deeply personal memories of Jobs" that had the audience both laughing and crying, says Darren Franich at Entertainment Weekly. The iPod designer revealed what Jobs was like in boardroom brainstorming meetings, saying that sometimes his ideas were "dopey" and even "truly dreadful." But "sometimes they took the air from the room… bold, crazy, magnificent ideas, or quiet simple ones which, in their subtlety, their detail, were utterly profound." Ive also divulged how finicky Jobs was as a travel companion. After checking into a hotel, like clockwork Jobs would phone Ive each time to say, "Hey Jony, this hotel sucks. Let's go."
5. Norah Jones moved the crowd
The Grammy-winning blues singer singer took the stage with her piano to perform "The Nearness of You" and "Painter's Song," both from her album Come Away With Me. She also told the crowd that Jobs was a Bob Dylan fan, says Scott Shetler at Pop Crush, and launched into a rendition of Dylan's "Forever Young."
6. And Coldplay cracked a joke
Frontman Chris Martin began by telling the crowd, "We played this song for Steve 10 years ago. He said it was shit. He said we'd never make it." The band then launched into a performance of its first hit single, "Yellow." Martin also shared a story about when Jobs personally fixed his broken laptop, and thanked Martin for putting the band's song in an iTunes commercial. The group then played that song, "Viva la Vida," followed by its hits "Fix You" and "Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall."
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
-
Today’s political cartoons — September 29, 2023
Friday's cartoons - Biden's dog bite incident, the government shutdown and more
By The Week Staff Published
-
'A teetering democracy of gerontocrats?'
Instant opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass Published
-
Every 'Saw' film, ranked
The Explainer The highs and lows of the gory horror soap opera
By Brendan Morrow Published