There are moments that occur in all our lives that we never forget and today will be one of mine for when I heard the news that Steve Jobs had sadly passed away it really shook me up and it seems I’m not alone with colleagues entering the office as I type this asking if I’ve “heard the news”. They don’t need to say anymore, that’s how big an impact he made. We all have regrets in life and one of mine is that I didn’t make the switch from PC to Mac earlier. One of Steve’s greatest attributes was his visionary skill at coming up with products and then convincing us we needed them and I thank him for this. Take the iPhone. All my colleagues and friends had then but I didn’t see the point and soldiered on with my Sony Ericcson. It wasn’t until I actually held an iPhone and started to use it that I started to “get it”. Same with my MacBook. Sure I’ve known Apple products since the 80s when I worked for an Apple dealer for a bit (and one of my first questions I asked is how do I turn this thing on/ off and I also LOVED the Mac Classic sat on my desk as it was so different). But it was only after talking to other folks who had MacBooks and were using them for their day job that I decided to do more digging and now I’ll never go back to a PC (sure the journey with Mac OS hasn’t been smooth, but let’s face it when I look back on my journey with Windows since Windows runtime for Pagemaker Windows isn’t perfect). Then the very device I was watching when I heard the news – the iPad. We’ve all seen tablets come and go and I’ve tried a few in the past and mostly hated them. But the iPad is different and it took someone with vision and drive (and sure a lot of money as the sceptics didn’t see how something that been tried and failed before could work again). The only reason I bought one was to use as a portable external monitor. Now I’ve got one I hardy get to use it as Lucas is either watching content on it or we’re looking at photos or browsing the web on it as it’s just right for this kind of thing, something we’d only ever done (not easily looking back) through a PC. We’ve all got gadgets, gizmos and labour saving devices that we’ve all gone out and bought after being seduced by the sales pitch and most of them end up sitting in a cupboard (how many of you have got a bread machine sitting in the cupboard or one of those gravity fed car wash gizmos where you can supposedly wash your car with a single bucket of water – never could get mine to work). But how many Apple devices have I got sat collecting dust? None. So sorry I was late to the party Steve but now I do “get it”. You really were a visionary and inspiration to me and the world is a worse place for you not being here but hey what a legacy you’ve left behind, something very few get to achieve in a life – changing the world. God bless you and your family and if I ever do make it to the Pearly gates I hope to see St. Peter using an iPad.

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