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Millions around the globe — and especially in New York — paid tribute to Apple founder Steve Jobs yesterday, leaving bitten apples, electronic tributes and heartfelt notes at impromptu shrines to the technology guru whose inventions changed how the world works.
Admirers laid computer keyboards, candles, and apples carved with the words “Thank you,” “Think Different” and “Love from the Big Apple.”
At the Midtown Apple flagship store, a graphic designer who has used Macs since the ’90s laid a poster he made showing Jobs’ face surrounded by clouds and the original Apple insignia.
“I came not just because I work on Macs but because this man was such a nice person,” said Effie Latif, 50. “Even when he was sick, he was working for the company, was so dedicated. This person is not related to me, but I feel it.
“Today, I’m sad.”
Nearby, a Apple acolyte from Brooklyn laid four roses — following a tradition from his native Russia — at the massive memorial, which attracted a stream of mourners.
“I’m sad and disappointed because this man changed everything,” Ivan Guryev said. “He changed us. It was my first idea to come here because I thought I should honor him.”
The 23-year-old, who mostly spoke Russian, had to use his iPhone to look up the word “honor.”
Similarly moving scenes played out around the world.
Outside Apple Stores in Tokyo, fans laid iPads and iPhones showing the image of a flickering candle.
In Italy, a Naples pizza maker created a pie shaped as the company’s logo.
And in China, one young man drove for an hour to present a bouquet of white lilies to staff at a Shanghai store.
Outside Jobs’ home in Palo Alto, Calif., a group of people stood in the rain near a makeshift shrine.
But the most stunning tribute of all was that word of Jobs’ death Thursday spread almost instantly to all corners of the Earth on devices he had invented.
At one point, Twitter seized up under the flood of Jobs-related posts, and analysts have predicted that the news will break traffic records.
In China, users posted nearly 35 million online tributes to Jobs Thursday.
Outside the Apple Store in SoHo, people scrawled messages on empty boxes they got when they bought Apple products.
“I have no doubt that without Steve Jobs my life would be a lot harder. His products have inspired me,” said Tom Reynolds, 37, of the East Village. “Everyone copied his ideas. He pushed us all forward and changed the world, and that’s testament to a true genius. I hope his legacy lives on.”
Even Jobs’ signature look became a must-have.
The makers of his $174 black cotton mock turtlenecks — which, when paired with jeans, became his uniform — were flying off shelves nationwide.
“The man made quite an impact, even outside of computers,” said St. Croix founder Bernhard Brenner, 72, who sold Jobs about 12 of the shirts a year.
But the fate of Jobs’ $8.3 billion fortune is not as clear-cut as any of his sharp gizmos.
Along with Laurene Powell, his wife of 20 years, and their three children, the Jobs family tree is a knot of tangled relationships.
It includes a forgotten father, a long-lost sister, a stepmother and a love child born in 1978 who had been raised on welfare until a court-ordered blood test proved she was his daughter.
He reconciled with that daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, now 33, in 1985, shortly after he was fired from Apple.
It’s unclear how his fortune could be split and how much, if any, might go to charity.