Today is Steve Jobs Day: get into your black turtleneck!
Today has been declared "Steve Jobs Day," by a growing online movement. Apple fans are being encouraged to dress in black turtlenecks ( blue jeans optional) like the Apple founder as part of a worldwide tribute. Meetups are planned round the world , including one in Glasgow.
Steve in his traditional turtleneck
Steve Jobs Day is the brainchild of five women working for a digital advertising agency in Atlanta, Georgia. It was originally planned as a thank-you to Jobs , who dramatically changed the computer, telecommunications, music and movie industries. In the wake of his death last week from complications from pancreatic cancer, the event has become a memorial.
"We join with the rest of the world in saying goodbye to an amazing innovator," the organisers wrote on their website. They make it clear that neither Apple nor the Jobs estate has endorsed the project.
Friday is also the day when queues are expected at Apple stores as the new iPhone 4S is introduced . At one Silicon Valley Apple store there was muted enthusiasm for Jobs Day, the local paper, the San Jose Mercury News, reported. "I heard about it, but I'm not crazy enough to show up in a black turtle neck," said Jeff Simoneau, who still plans to pick up his new iPhone 4S then.
According to the event's Facebook page, more than 23,000 people from around the world say they plan to honour Jobs in some way on the day, including tributes at a factory in Fremont, California, , where the first Macintosh computers were built.
Attendees will share stories about Jobs during the two-hour event, which begins at 11:30 a.m. inside the lobby . Apart from the Glasgow meetup - outside the Buchanan Street Apple store fron 6am to 8am - meet-ups are planned in Moscow, Minsk, Belarus, Brussels, New York City, Mumbai and Manila, in the Philippines, and many more according to the Jobs Day website. That is http://stevejobsday2011.com.
The tributes have arisen even as Apple has rebuffed pleas for an official public memorial.
Jobs Day organisers are inviting people to postTwitter or Facebook messages about how Apple products have impacted their lives and how Jobs inspired them.
They're also encouraging people to wear black turtlenecks to work or school and to post photos of themselves on social media sites.
If you're planning to dress the part on Jobs Day, though, be warned: The official seller of black turtlenecks to Jobs has sold out.
The website for St. Croix Collections says the shirt Jobs made famous -- model 1990c -- sold out after died. Jobs told biographer Walter Isaacson that he owned about 100 of the "techno-cotton" mock turtlenecks, which sell for $175 apiece. The company has been donating $20 from each sale to cancer research since Jobs' death and says sales have doubled. St. Croix's website says new orders will be shipped by Nov. 7. "So maybe you can get one by the time the iPhone 5 is released," joked the Mercury News.