My good friend Dan suggested that we have some sort of gathering of our friends, with our Macs and iPads to reminisce about the fruits of Steve Jobs' labor. It felt silly for a moment, I mean it's not like I actually knew Steve Jobs. Then I thought about how much Apple's products had really changed my life.
I got my first Mac in 2009, at Elle Phillip's recommendation, a tool that would be integral to my personal metamorphosis. What a difference it is to have devices that will work as hard as you do. Tools that were crafted with the same care as you would craft things. My work in the last two years is a testament to that synergy.
In the last two years I've written close to a million words (I'm almost there) toward my books, rendered hundreds of hand drawn images, communicated with dozens of colleagues and peers, and done hours and hours of tireless research. My iPad and my Macs helped make those things possible by being incredible tools that redefined my workspace and my workflow.
Steve Jobs is responsible for the company that provided me those tools.
I remember vividly the day my iPad arrived at my home. I'd wanted such a device since there'd been even a hint of them, outside the boundaries of science fiction, back around the turn of the century. Steve and Apple understood what it would take to make such a device "Magical" for me. It wasn't the screen or the user experience delivered by iOS on a tablet, it was the 10 hours of battery life that would allow me to go anywhere I wanted and generate text and images without worrying about finding a outlet.
There are a great many people who do not understand Apple as a company or the type of person Steve Jobs was. The more callous of those folks make jokes about cult-like behavior on the part of their customers and Steve's own ability to warp reality. I think that if all you do is surf the Net, check email and play games, one can appreciate a Mac.
If your work ethic is such that you generate thousands of words of text and/or hundreds of thousands of pixels worth of visual content in a year, you'll come to more than appreciate a Mac. You'll depend on it. When you push your own limits as a creative person, you need tools that have no limits.
For me, Steve Jobs and company provided. I am hopeful that he's planted a seed at Apple that will allow them to continue to provide folks like me with the tools we need. I think for the foreseeable future, his legacy is secure.
-- Sent from my Tech Envy Generator, using the BlogPress App, edited on my MacBook Pro
I read something really great yesterday, about the choice of PC or Mac, and they said the difference in a mac is seeing What a machine can do, as opposed to How it can do it. Mac's aren't built to be fussed with, only used. After years of fighting with machines about how to do what I want them to, I'm glad I converted.
ReplyDeleteI was actually installing an all-mac network when I heard the news. :-(
As always, you articulate with finesse. I've been a loyal mac-user since 1995... just before the iMac "bubble" machines were released, and I purchased one of their first-generation laptops. I still have it even though it's long since run its course with life. Even in the days when friends, family and co-workers would argue with me about my choice of computer I just had to defend Steve Jobs and his creations, innovation and creativity. My fear now is that we'll see a slowdown of progress in the way of personal computing devices, but not for a while. I have a feeling he has left us with more even if we don't know about them yet. My heart goes out to his family for losing him at such a young age.
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