What better way to communicate the ways in which Apple products have entered not only our lives but our lexicon. The main question now, with the passing of Steve Jobs and his visionary approach to design and technology, is whether Apple’s future will be as bright without Jobs somewhere in the picture.
My first computer, some 30 years ago, was an Apple IIe. By today’s standards it was incredibly kludgy. A black & white monitor, a single drive for those 5 1/4″ floppy disks, no hard disc, no mouse, and less RAM than in the simplest of today’s calculators. And operating it meant that the user had to type in precise commands to accomplish anything. No GUI interface in those days, and only one way to do any given operation. But it was cutting edge at the time. My kids got their first taste of programming with Logo, sort of an electronic version of an Etch-a-Sketch, where the user commanded a cursor shaped like a turtle using simple typed commands to create pictures.
I’ve been largely a PC user since then, price-driven, and also because of the greater availability of programs for the casual user. But once the iPad hit the market, I began to lust after my dream computer — one as fully functional as my PC but more intuitive and not dependent upon a mouse, track ball or touch pad. Apple is nearly there, what with the latest version of their touch pad. I’ve been saying that when it’s released, I’ll be standing outside the Apple store along with the twenty-somethings.
PCs have made computers financially accessible to a wide range of people. But the features, the sheer elegance of Apple’s designs, are drawing me ever closer. I gave up the desktop model with my current PC, and now that we have an Apple store closer than an hour and a half away, well, the siren is singing her song. I’m only wondering how long I’ll have to wait…and how soon iPads will incorporate flash.
More Light Than Heat 