Friday, October 07, 2011

[Apple]

As many of you have known, Steve Jobs have passed away on the October 5th 2011, due to pancreatic cancer. 

I may have not have owned any Apple products over the years, and I don't particularly like the iPhone. But, I have always respected Steve Jobs who have revolutionized the tech industry. When news of his demise swarmed the internet, I felt a part of me just wither away.


Steve Jobs, like many of the technology entrepreneurs have always been my heroes. To name a couple, Bill Gates - Microsoft, Larry Page and Sergey Brin - Google, Thomas J. Watson - IBM.

They were the ones who totally changed the landscape of electronics. Flipped our entire perspective on the world. The introduction of GUI (Graphical User Interface), the internet, could computing. Many, in fact all of the things we have now would not have been possible without these people.

Steve Jobs, while his company did not exactly innovate in technology, they did an excellent job at putting all the pieces together. Yes, they did not innovate in the sense that they did not create the technology itself, but take it from other upon themselves and improved on it. Multi-input Capacitive Touchscreens has been researched before they integrate it into their device.

The best example would be the iPhone.
It is strange thinking that there was nothing like it before. Before the era of the iPhone, the closest thing to a smartphone is a PDA or a Windows Mobile Phone. The touch screen is resistive which makes it hard to interact on, the operating system is outdated and the GUI is outdated. Those were not made for touch use. iPhone came and revolutionize it did. Never had the world seen a phone with such performance and ease of use.

It really saddens me that such a technological visionary had passed away at such a young age. It's too soon. 

One of the other phenomenal points about Steve is his presentation. He enunciate his words at the perfect timing, have a really good flow with the presentation and makes everything look really really good. Many have studied his ways of presentation but rarely have anyone pull it off so perfectly. Of course, it comes with hours and hours of hardwork on Steve's part, to practice and perfect the presentation.

If you haven't watched any of his Keynotes before, now's a good time.

I feel a tinge of bitterness knowing that future generations would never be able to experience this age of technological innovations anymore.


The 80s is probably the start of everything. The 50s is the discovery, 60s, innovation, 70s improvement, 80s, consumer market, 90s, speeding up innovation, 20s, crazy decade.

It is just one of those historical moments that people will look back in the past and say,

"That was when it all started."

How often do we get to be a part of important history? Anyone who has studied history before would definitely had a point in history that they want to go back to in order to experience it. This is it now, this is the birth of a new age. It makes me cringe at the sight of people not knowing the value of this era.

I am a student of computer engineering. Sometimes, it is hard to understand certain technical decisions when you're not there to understand the problem. We are simply learning the solutions to a problem we cannot see. I find that strangely scary to me. I want to have a fundamental understanding on the building blocks of technology.

It is true that people will get smarter, and do incredible things using electronics. But in the future, no one will truly understand the entire system anymore as we would simply be building upon other's work.

Well, I guess we just have to keep learning to keep up with today's pace!

Labels: apple, history, steve jobs, technology, thinking

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