Yesterday we lost a leader in innovation as Steve Jobs passed away. I am not going to upload the official statement from Apple since it has spread through the net like Wild Fire. I will just share with you how Apple’s innovation has shaped this us here at NAF.
My first experience with Apple was the Apple IIc. In the 80′s this thing was amazing. It could play games, teach, make art, and you could make your own programs with BASIC. It was awesome for the time and it opened me up to a new world of computers.
The first Mac I ever owned was a fluke. I spent the summer at my grand parents house and my grandfather would let me play games on his Amiga. Since I had a knack for the thing we went to the store to buy me a computer. With all the selection available i went for the little all in one sitting on the shelf by itself at Office Depot. It was an Apple Macintosh Performa 550. The specs were amazing at the time. 33mhz Motorola processor with 5 megs of RAM. had a 156 Meg hard drive. But best of all, it had 14.4 Modem built in. I was able to see the internet!
I was hooked on Apple. And it was strange fruit. Constantly belittled by my friends for supporting a dying system that couldn’t play Doom (it finally came out 2 years later), I found solace in a little program called photoshop that my mom’s boyfriend gave me. Yeah I couldn’t Frag Cyber Demons but I could take my friends face and have it coming out of a donkeys asshole.
In 97 everything changed. Steve Jobs came back to Apple. And with his return everything changed. The entire line was refreshed and cool looking. We could use PC accessories on our Macs. Mac OS X was the most advanced operating system on the planet. With the switch to Intel chips, we could run Windows on our Macs (not that we wanted to, but we could.).
The philosophy of simplicity he had turned cellphones in to smart phones. Blackberry might have been first, but Apple brought the touchscreen and an OS that was easy to use and pretty to look at. The iPod killed the CD industry making digital the standard format. As time went on more and more of my friends were using polished aluminum laptops with glowing white apple logos. Today the entire NAF crew uses MacBooks, from Lauren’s white little plastic 13″ to Hydra’s 17″ Macbook Pro. We are easily able to communicate ideas, share files, and get our shows and ideas out to our audience with little tech know how.
We have Steve to thank for that. I don’t know how the future will be without him. As long as the company remembers his ideals I think we will be using Apple products for years to come.
Rest In Peace.
