After a lengthy seven year struggle with pancreatic cancer, Apple co-founder and "iVisionary", Steve Jobs has died. He was 56.
Though statements since the announcement of his death have claimed Jobs as the great inventor of our era, one fact remains adamant amongst the sea of historical speculation running rampant in the press; Jobs innovated a culture and society towards computer integration more than any of his contemporaries.
Take a look around, his reach is patently clear in today's society and his cultural impact from the devices he's championed to the marketing platforms which promoted them strike deeply.
Although he is not personally responsible for developing the technologies which have evolved computer systems and software for user ease, he is personally responsible for sailing a technologically savvy industry towards the user's experience and the common consumer.
In that effort Jobs revolutionized a substantial amount of modern society through Apple.
He helped change the way our children learn, helped angle the ways in which we communicate and spread information, he helped change how musicians record and produce their works, and in turn helped change how we receive that music in our possession and ears, he helped mobilize computers, brought elegance and stylistic aesthetic to a bland beige industry, and furthermore brought convenience to computers for those lacking the technical skills required to operate a code based operating system.
His reach was enormous at the helm of Apple, and his impact ever so tantamount to society at large.
Yet where do we find ourselves now without his guise upon the horizon of technology? Has the innovation revolution of the computer industry died with his passing?
That can't be answered yet, for that answer will take time to reveal itself.
But what is clear are the things stated above and below.
Jobs' philosophy of developing technologies ahead of industry brought about an amazing revolution of society by innovating a single industry which branched into countless more.
In 1991 I entered the public educational system of California at Eastwood Elementary in Westminster. Though I can't recall the name of our librarian that also taught us basic computer skills, I do recall the machine we learned them on. It was a black screened 8-bit pixilation box that cast 16 colors for my eyes, a machine known as the Apple IIE.
On those machines we learned the fundamentals of typing, basic mathematical and grammatical skills through educational software, and the experience of utilizing a technology which in time became the birth right to my generation and fundamental for our access to the world, Generation D. The digital generation.
The next machine I got my hands on at a computer class for children offered by Golden West College was no Windows based platform either, the year was 1992.
That machine, the little box of wonders known as the Macintosh LC II, brought to my attention a certain revelation through its operation system, System 7. With the right attitude towards innovation simple yet tedious processes can be minimized to even simpler processes sans tediousness.
Even to this day the Windows operation system does not utilize drag-and-drop executable functionality, which Mac OS has for decades.
Instead, a file associated to an executable function, such as a Word document, requires a double-click to open (unless you select it and tap your enter key). Either way, since the early '90s Mac users have been able to click-and-hold such a file drag it over the executable program and drop, opening the file (you could even eject a floppy disc by dropping its icon into the trash bin). Another example to exemplify the simplicity of this functionality, take a .mov file you just exported from Final Cut, select it, then drag and drop it onto the iDvd icon floating within the taskbar and the application will open and begin the process of burning your dvd.
This is Steve Jobs' legacy. The innovation of a single industry bringing about a revolution for society. The likes of which he has no equal save for Henry Ford at best. No man is more responsible for changes in the technologies we utilize on a daily basis, than Jobs. Though he did not engineer nor develop the operating systems for his companies' product himself, his vision and attitude led the company towards developing those products.
And the list goes on. Ironically so in certain cases.
Although Mac users don't have to worry much about the threat of viruses (probably because of a lack of interest on behalf of those that develop them), no Apple nor Mac user had to fear for Y2K. Apple always used four digit figures to define a year.
Through the LISA system and early Macintosh operating systems, the graphical user interface became a viable and industry standard OS platform, putting user friendliness and ease of accessibility ahead of everything else.
The original 1984 Macintosh brought about the commercialized convenience of the all-in-one computer system complete with hardware and monitor encased in a single box, mouse, and keyboard. My first home computer, a mid-'90s Compaq Presario, looked remarkably similar to the Macintosh II.
Around the turn of the century when Intel kept cramming more transistors into their processors for higher clock speeds, yielding better performance but less power efficiency; Apple in conjunction with PowerPC and IBM developed the G3 processor which utilized backside cache doubling performance with the same clock speed when compared to its Pentium II contemporary, famously benchmarked by Byte Magazine. The chip also significantly increased power efficiency as a result of backside cache.
Upon the eve of elegance for the PC industry which the iMac and iBook models chimed in, Apple offered the first legacy free PC, a testament to Jobs' philosophy of leading the curve rather than following it.
I'll never forget the first time I had an iMac in front of me. The colors were cool, at the time all computers cases came finished in the same industry standard bland and dull beige, black, or gray. The iMac design, sleek and curved, had no rival on the market in terms of style. Due to the opacity of the acrylic you could even peer into the machine and see the hardware.
Load up any third party computer manufacturer or online computer store and see what cases look like today, style and elegance (though some are quite gaudy) now reign supreme for the hardware hobbyist.
But looks alone aren't everything when talking computers.
For it seemed completely useless outside of itself, and incompatible with ever device I had to plug into a computer. The machine didn't even have an internal 3.5 floppy drive, coming equipped only with an internal compact disc drive. At a time when most burners looked like DVD players today (and cost about as much as a bluray player).
However, at the time I was a teenager and failed to see as Jobs did how fundamental Universal Serial Bus ports would become in the next millennium and how affordable and universal writeable CDs would become as well.
Today virtually every device I plug into my computer is through a USB connection, including my Microsoft Sidewinder joystick (which luckily came with a USB adaptor considering the joystick came stock with a serial port connector). From my keyboards, to my mice, external hard drives (my current motherboard lacks an external SATA port), flash drives, even my headsets all use USB (though my 5.1 surround sound headset does require the plugs you'd imagine, it is powered through a USB connector).
To which the keyboards I own also have USB connections embedded within themselves. A standard feature of the original iMac keyboard circa 1998.
It furthermore allowed for the development of cross-platform peripheral devices that can universally plug into Mac OS machines or Windows based machines.
As for writeable CDs. I have around 170 albums in my car since my tape deck doesn't work and I don't enjoy radio receiver iPod-transmitting devices. Only two of those CDs came in album cases, and I keep them all stacked up in the CD spindles the once blank CDs shipped in.
I have countless CDs which I've used to backup files and program downloads, video games, and just about any digital file I could burn onto them for safe keeping.
They allowed for me to share the 1,200 pictures I took in Germany with the my fellow exchange students, and also allowed for one of them to share with us a video he edited showcasing our time in Europe.
No floppy disc has the space to do any of that.
For the clam shell iBook, it championed a technology which no laptop nor mobile device is without these days, wireless capabilities. Those colorful portable machines released in 1999.
And even 10 years after Apple heralded a legacy free attitude towards their PC products, the policy remains a fundamental engineering aspect. Equipped with a single USB port, a single 3.5mm headphone jack, and a Mini DisplayPort; the MacBook Air line of laptops utilized BlueTooth technology for its peripheral compatibility upon launch. Though a stretch in 2008, the compatibility of the Air line has been further broadened through the implementation of the Thunderbolt interface.
Always ahead of the industry curve, the MacBook Air offered solid state hard drives upon the line's release, an option more easily available through third-party companies and a can-do warranty-voiding tinker's attitude if you buy a mainstream Windows based computer.
This is what Steve Jobs accomplished through his life's work at Apple and the legacy which he shall leave behind in death, thinking ahead. As Apple once marketed itself, to, Think Different.
Steve Jobs is survived by his wife Laurene Powell, his son Reed Paul, and daughters Lisa Nicole Brennan-Jobs, Erin Sienna and Eve.
His death marks the end to an extraordinary era of iNnovation.
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