The October 17 issue of Time Magazine has Steve Jobs on its cover, and has a number of excellent tributes to Jobs within its pages – including a brief one from Walter Isaacson, the author of the soon-to-released authorized biography of Jobs.

The issue also features some wonderful photos of Jobs over the years. If you’re a fan of Steve Jobs or at all interested in him, this is a great issue of Time to pick up, as a printed or digital keepsake.

Here are just a few of the quotes and figures in this issue that caught my eye:

– This is the 7th time Jobs has been on the cover of Time – a number the editor says ‘puts him in the category of presidents and other world leaders’.

– The editor’s note also says:

Over the years, we’ve done our best to track the life of a man who changed all our lives irreversibly and for the better.

– When he heard the news of Jobs’ death, Time’s editor called Isaacson, and two hours later Isaacson had sent a ‘poignant, insightful appreciation of Steve’s life, including his memories of his final days’. Isaacson had unprecedented access to Jobs for his authorized biography – including more than 40 interviews over two years.

– Isaacson says of Jobs in his piece for this issue:

He revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. You might even add a seventh: retailing, which Jobs did not quite revolutionize but did reimagine.

– The opening of a piece titled ‘The Inventor of the Future’ Lev Grossman and Harry McCracken:

Steve Jobs remade the world as completely as any single human ever has, but he had no business doing it. … Jobs’ expertise was less in computers than it was in the humans who used them.

And here are some of the superb photos of Steve Jobs you’ll find in this issue:

The cover of the issue:

Jobs at Pixar:

At his home office:

And on the Inventor of the Future article:

My favorite is the one used at the top of this post.

I’m not sure when the October 17 print issue will hit the streets (maybe it already has) but I do know that you can get the iPad edition right now in the App Store.

Here’s an App Store link for Time Magazine for iPad; the app is free and the October 17 issue (and all single issues) is priced at $4.99.