One More Thing… Thank You & RIP Steve Jobs

Back in 1983/4 my friend showed me his Apple IIe and I was blown away. In 1986 I was super stoked to get a Macintosh Plus. No more hand written reports or worse using a type writer and relying on Wite-out to correct my bad typing. The world thanks to Steve Jobs and Apple is very different now.

I have been an Apple fan as long as I’ve used computers and I’m unashamed to admit I’ve purchased a vast majority of their computers and mobile devices. When the Macintosh II came out, Apple’s first color computer, I knew the world of digital imaging would be in my future. I didn’t now how exactly, but I knew it would happen. Photoshop did not exist in September 1988 when I paid over $5000 for the Mac II, but as I saw software develop in the months and years after that enabled the editing of photos I was enthralled. Sadly scanners were equally expensive back then, but I relied on scanning my photos using an HP scanner in my college computer lab. It took ~15 minutes to scan a 4×6 print at a resolution of 1600×1200 (a giant file at the time) and to share it I had to use dial up at home or bike to campus to use the earliest form of the Internet. It was a super exciting time. It was so obvious things were changing in radical ways. I had no idea how it would turn out exactly, but Steve seemed to have a master vision that kept Apple users on their toes waiting for the next development.

Since that time so much has changed. Steve Jobs without any doubt has influenced my life laying the groundwork for my interests and career aspirations. Would I have been able to do the things I’ve done to date with out Apple or Steve Jobs… likely, but not with as much passion. Steve Jobs kept me on my toes always thinking about the next big evolution in computing, content creation and publishing channels.

A Crowd Photographs the First Apple iPhone - MacWorld Expo 2007

I never met Steve Jobs, but I came close while at the 2008 MacWorld Expo. It was the year following the release of the iPhone and he was on the convention floor at the Apple booth. He was busy catching up on email on his iPhone. I never had any interest in interrupting him, but I did want to get a “I saw Steve Jobs! photo”. I had my dSLR with me which stuck out like a sore thumb and every time I raised it to take his photo one of his handlers would casually move between us blocking my view. I had to eventually shoot from my hip as I walked by to get his photo. I suppose it added to the adventure of it all.

Steve Jobs Checking His iPhone at the 2008 MacWorld Convention

I will certainly miss Steve Jobs not because I ever knew him, but because of how he made me think about the next big thing with each big announcement. The computers and gadgets were a means to an end… self publishing, photo editing, podcasting, webcasting/video conferencing, app development and so on. I will also miss hearing his catch phrase delivered only as he could say it:

One More Thing…

One final note, if you have yet to see this then I highly recommend setting some time aside to watch Steve’s Stanford commencement speech from 2005

Rest in peace Steve and thank you.

[tags]Apple, technology, Steve Jobs[/tags]