After getting over the initial shock and sadness of hearing about the death of Steve Jobs, I am trying to figure out how to describe the impact that he has had on my life. Yes, he is a celebrity; I didn’t really “know” him. But I can’t help but wonder where I would be, and where my loved ones would be, without the innovations and inspiration of Steve Jobs. Much of what I have learned on growing up and throughout my lifetime, has been a product of Apple Computer and the late Steve Jobs.
1985 -Elementary School
Even in our small community, our local school system had Apple II’s in the computer lab, and one AppleIIGS with a 3 ½” floppy drive that all the kids flocked to first. After school, the lab was open but you had to pay .50 cents to use a computer. Most kids would play games or use Print Shop to make banners on the Image Writer II printer.
“The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it into a nationwide communications network. We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people–as remarkable as the telephone.”
- Steve Jobs Playboy interview, 1985
1988 – Junior High School
When I was in Junior High School, my Dad bought what I considered our family’s first real computer (which I begged him for), a Macintosh Classic. I was in heaven with technology in our home and could get creative with school projects with the Mac. The purchase of the Mac in my childhood home eventually lead to a new business and career in graphic design for my Dad. Later he purchased a Macintosh SE30, and then a Power Mac in the early 90’s. Around the same time, my high school had a lab full of Apple IIE’s for school work and, of course, Oregon Trail.
1995 – College
In college, my boyfriend (husband now) came home from a computer sale in the cities with our first computer. It was a Macintosh IIVX, which later became a bomb for Apple, but a start to something big for us. As my husband was attending college, he had work-study in the computer lab, and supported the Macs and PC’s. The knowledge that he learned from working on our Mac at home, set him apart from others he worked with at the time, which eventually landed him a full-time job at the college. Little did we know that the purchase of the $700 Mac IIVX would turn into a career focused on technology (with an emphasis on Macs) today.
2003 – Young & Married
Late one Saturday night, I won a bid on eBay for an iMac with OSX 10.2 and was so thrilled because it came with a bonus. The extra was a 5GB iPod, which most people had not even heard of in 2003. It had a fire wire connection only (the only supported format for iPods at the time) and a mechanical spin wheel that had to be rotated manually compared to the touch screen that we have now. This iMac came with iTunes software and it became our entertainment hub. Our shelves of dusty CD’s later became 28.5 days of MP3’s and music at our fingertips.
2006 – Starting a Family
Our next Mac adventure was in the kitchen. We purchased a Mac Mini with a Core 2 Duo Processor and 4GB of memory and connected it to a flat screen TV in our kitchen. Instead of having to sit in our office with a desktop computer, the Mac Mini gave us technology for looking up recipes or catching up on TV while prepping food. It was perfect for our family at the time and it came with the iLife Suite. iLife was my first introduction to blogging and self-publishing on the web. Being a new mom, I had a lot of sharing to do, so I started a blog on iWeb and started sharing pictures through iPhoto. I was officially a blogger but I didn’t really know it yet.
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
- Steve Jobs at Stanford University commencement address, June 2005.
Today – Living Life
Today the Apple products that my family uses on a regular basis include two iPhone 4’s , an Apple TV and a MacBook. The Apple TV has helped us make the transition from basic cable to no cable- just internet TV, easy. We can access our stored movies, Netflix, YouTube, Vimeo, iPhotos, iTune music and more (including some of our favorite Pixar movies like Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and Incredibles) with just a couple clicks of a remote. We can even synch music and podcasts from our iPhone to the Apple TV. The iPhone brings the whole Apple experience together, anywhere, and with an app for anything.
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. … Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”
- Steve Jobs at Stanford University commencement address, June 2005.
Most people today know of Steve Jobs because of the iPhone or iTunes. But his recent innovations are just the icing on the cake to what Steve has brought to the world over the past thirty-five years. As a creative and techy person, I can’t help but ponder, “What if…?” What if Steve Jobs gave up, the first time, second time, or 100th time?” What would I be doing? Where would I be? Or where would that put my husband, my Dad, friends, co-workers, and millions of other people? What about all the kids who are accelerating their learning with iPads?
Steve Jobs was a man who did not give up. As a person who was adopted, didn’t finish college, got fired from his job as CEO, and lost millions of dollars with failed products, some may say he had the odds stacked against him. None of that stopped him. His products changed my life. His legacy will live on. And I will continue to proudly be a Machead.
Jackie,
You are spot on with this blog post. The Apple IIE introduced a generation of kids to school computers and the expectation that computers were something to be in our homes. I created my high school graduation party invitations on a Mac. I am not a Machead, but I can still appreciate all of the great ideas that Apple and Steve Jobs have brought to the world. This is a real life “Little Engine That Could” story and know that our lives will continually be impacted with these products, as we still haven’t seen all of their full potential.
I will never forget my first experience with a computer. I was filing names and addresses into my brothers Commodore as I was building up a mailing list for the recording studio. After loading about 500 names, it crashed. When I went downtown looking for a better computer, the PC salesmen advised I get a Mac. (I had told him I wanted to do music and creative stuff also). I didn’t know what a Mac was, hardly knew what a computer was. Went to the cities and came back with the infamous Mac Classic. I was so amazed by what it could do I spent all winter just fooling around with it. Thirty some years later with well over a dozen Macs, I am now a photoshop guru, Quark quirk, Final Cut Pro junkie, Soundtrack Pro audio file and too many more too mention. It became my life and Steve Jobs made it all possible.
Nice post Jackie.
I too was shocked and saddened by the news. He really was an enigma, and the world has lost a great innovator.
My very first computer was a Tandy Radio Shack in the early/mid 80′s. We saved to a cassette tape, although it never worked. When I graduated from high school in 1990, my dream technology to take with me to college was an electric typewriter with a memory storage. It was very nice, but I remember spending hours typing papers into the memory and just as many hours searching character by character in a small one directional window to find/fix mistakes. Then in 1994 or 1995 I think Steve invested in a brand “NEW” home computer, which I like to tell people that I said ” Why would we need that?”. And here we are.