Hello everybody, as I'm sure you already know that the biggest story of the week was the death of a dreamer and an innovator.
At first it was going to be either Amanda Knox experiencing freedom again after four years of hell in Italy, or former Alaska governor Sarah Palin finally putting those rumors to bed saying she's not running for President after all, but they were overshadowed when Steve Jobs, the former Apple CEO who brought us the Macintosh and anything that starts with a lowercase "i" (iPod, iPhone, iPad) died Wednesday at only 56 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. The news of his death has turned Apple Stores all around the world into makeshift memorials for him.
Now this comes just a day after his successor Tim Cook introduced not the iPhone 5 as speculated, but the iPhone 4S, which will include a new feature called Siri. Siri acts like a personal assistant; ask your iPhone what it'll do like give directions or look for nearby restaurants or set up a meeting on your calendar and it shall be received.
It was yet another idea brought to us by Jobs, who started Apple Computers at the garage of his house in California in the mid-'70s. That would be followed by the Apple II later on, and for tech heads everywhere, it was the must-have computer.
But it would be the flagship Macintosh that finally put Apple on the map for all times. The Ridley Scott-directed commercial aired only once during Super Bowl XVIII in 1984, and even though it didn't show the product, it would turn the big game into the ultimate advertising showcase we know of today.
Jobs' ego and drive to succeed pretty much caught up to him, and his own company gave him the pink slip the following year. Instead of heading to the unemployment line, Steve would later start up NeXT Computer and later the Pixar animation studio; the latter introducing us to the "Toy Story" franchise, "Cars", and "Finding Nemo" among others.
In the mid-'90s, Jobs was back at the company he began, picking up where he left off. But at the turn of the century came what would be his magnum opus: the iPod.
Okay, prior to that, the Diamond Rio was the first portable mp3 player; but it became just a memory when the iPod family of products hit in 2001. With the introduction of the iTunes store a few years later, buying music on CDs (though vinyl and now cassette sales are slowly picking up again) would be so passe.
Then in 2007, Apple decided to go into the mobile phone business with the iPhone, infusing the iPod into it. But Steve thought you can do something else than just listen to music and make or take calls on it, so the App Store was created; its success would lead into the iPod Touch, making it an all-in-one: media player, game player, and pocket computer. But the iPhone would apparently face stiff competition with new lines of Android phones to come.
And last year, Jobs eradicated the stink of the previous Newton (its only mainstream exposure was this scene in "Under Siege 2") by reinventing the tablet computer with the iPad; the iPad 2 with the same features of the iPhone and current iPod Touch would follow suit a few months ago, leaving rival tablets by Blackberry and even HP in the dust. And apparently enough...Jobs introduced that even on medical leave.
Failing health forced him to step down as Apple CEO in August, though his last public appearance was in June when he proposed a new headquarters of his company to the Cupertino, California city council. The last photo taken of him in late August showed a gaunt, frail Steve being helped into a car by his assistant near his Palo Alto home.
Even though we've never known the man personally, we have used his products at many points in our lives. Me? I remember when my first computer was an Apple IIe, though it wasn't at home, but at Mrs. Lowe's classroom at Barnette School in 1986. Its sole purpose at the time? Playing educational games, though I was a bit too old for the Oregon Trail or Carmen Sandiego. And yes, the monitor was of a creamed spinach color.
Then in 1991 when I entered middle school in South Dakota, I graduated to the IIgs, and even created a calendar from it. And with the Internet about to head into high gear a few years later, the computer lab at West Valley High School would be chock full of Macintosh Performas with something called Netscape in every one of them. I originally thought about getting one of those babies myself, but decided to settle for a PC instead.
But the only things Apple I've owned were the 5th Generation iPod (the one with video of course), the iPod Touch in 2009 (which became the main iPod after the previous one crapped out on me), and just recently thanks to my dividend money, the iPad 2. So yes, the spirit of Steve Jobs has lived in me for those 25 years.
And speaking of the iPad...it appears that more and more schools worldwide are dumping those bulky textbooks in favor of them. Pretty soon, carrying 30 lb. backpacks will go in the way of...well, the Newton (or the HP TouchPad).
To all of us, Steve Jobs was everything and then some. When it came to imagination, he was our Walt Disney or John Lennon. When it came to innovation, he was our Thomas Edison or Henry Ford. When it came to dreaming, he was our Martin Luther King Jr. or Jim Henson. And when it came to selling, he was our Ron Popeil. His motto was "Think Different", and thanks to him, we all did.
Steve was creative to the core alright, and now Apple's core is nothing but hollow. And even in heaven, he'll always give us just "one more thing." So long and stay strong.
