Jordan Bickham
Staff Writer
Everyone has heard of Apple, one of the biggest companies in technology today. With Macs, iPhone, iPods, and even iPads rampant amongst people of all ages, one does not have to go far to see how Apple has impacted our lives.
But Apple didn’t begin as one would think, with the first Apple computer being created in a basement by co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in the late 1970’s, Apple did not start off as a big business. While it did not begin grandly, the company has grown into a 21st century icon for technological advances.
When Steve Jobs died Oct. 5 from pancreatic cancer, the world was stunned. Many have taken time to reflect on some of the greatest inventions from the company he helped build, starting with the most recent addition, the iPhone 4S.
“It [iPhone 4S] has a new camera and also a new shape since it’s a different model of the iPhone. And because of the new A5 dual chip, its a whole lot faster and there are like no lags at all, which is pretty awesome,” said sophomore J.P. Goyne who recently received his pre-ordered iPhone 4S.
Another unique aspect of the new model iPhone is a voice command application called Siri.
“Siri is awesome, you can talk to your iPhone and it does basically everything you tell it to do, like call someone, look something up, or answer a question you have,” Goyne said.
As Apple advertised “your wish is its command,” making Siri groundbreaking in technological advancements.
Other Apple products are popular at CHS such as varying models of Mac computers, iPods, and the new iPad. Take it from conceptual physics and aero science teacher Bill Montana who owns an Apple computer, an iPhone and an iPod.
“One of the cool things is that Apple products are all interconnected through a service called MobileMe. And so my contacts, my calendar, my appointments, emails, everything is on every device I have. Set an appointment on your mac and you can get it on your phone and vice versa,” Montana said.
Montana has been using Apple products since he graduated from high school, and still uses them in his everyday life.
“I started using Apple computers probably in 1980-81 after I graduated from high school. The first computer I worked with was an Apple. Back then, it was the only computer. Now technically that’s not true, there were a couple of others, but it was the easiest to use and the cheapest. It was groundbreaking technology of that time,” Montana said.
Apple began primarily creating just computers, beginning in 1976 and has been innovated to being one of the biggest names in computer companies.
“I’ve had my home Mac since fifth grade, and for a long time, my favorite feature was Photobooth. My friends and I could entertain ourselves for hours by making videos and taking pictures. But I also really like iPhoto because I can keep all my pictures organized there, edit them and use them however I want,” sophomore Ali Martinez said.
While the Mac is fun to use for entertainment and great for organization, it is also useful for school work with its variety of different applications and helpful software.
“Macs are really easy to use, I use it a lot for homework, such as making a movie on iMovie. The software is always being updated and each update is easy to figure out and always helps, I really like it,” Martinez said.
Most recently Apple’s popularity has continued with the Macbook Pro line of Macintosh portable computers that was introduced in January 2006. Along with new computer models came improved Apple software such as Mac OS.
“It makes more sense [Mac OS], it’s easier to use and it doesn’t require you to think like a left-brained programmer. At one point [Apple] said that it’s the computer for the rest of us and it does not force you to think sequentially. Whereas the Windows operating system, definitely made you think a certain way,” Montana said. “You had to go through certain steps through a certain order to get stuff done, but with Mac OS, you can do it that way if you want to, but you can do it other ways too. Its very flexible.”
Along with Macs came the new idea of the iPod and easily downloadable music on iTunes that was launched in 2003 that included 200,000 songs for 99 cents each. iTunes was a great success with one million songs being sold within the store’s first week.
“The consumers don’t know what they want until you tell them what they want, is Steve Jobs’ philosophy. And nobody knew they wanted an iPod until we had iPods and it was like ‘of course, this makes perfect sense.’ Nobody knew they wanted to buy their music online until we had iTunes,” Montana said.
iTunes is one of Apple’s greatest creations and contains music from the most popular music of the time to small indie bands. iTunes is also easily accessible from almost any mobile device, making it simpler than ever to download music.
“My favorite feature on my iPod is probably being able to get to the iTunes store on it. I usually have my iPod with me, and if I like a song I hear, I can go look it up easily and get it right then,” Martinez said.
Chemistry teacher Sally Urquhart agrees with how amazing the idea of easily accessible music and small iPods with lots of space were.
“He [Steve Jobs] streamlined the process of music downloads. He paid royalties. The iPod was so different from what I had been using, which was a Sony Walkman,” Urqhart said. “It’s so much smaller and I can pack so much more on it. I have days worth of music on it, and it still has lots and lots of memory left.”
Not only did he create inventions that changed everything, but he also reinvented ideas to make them easier to use and simpler to understand.
“One of the things Steve Jobs did was took existing ideas and reworked them and made them overall more user friendly,” Urquhart said.
Many people believe Jobs made complex inventions simpler, so everyone could use them to go about their life, making the products appeal to a large audience.
“Apple is unique because they care about making products compatible and helpful with people’s everyday lives, which I think Steve Jobs was a huge part of,” Martinez said.
While Jobs was the co-founder of Apple, it was not the only company he played a huge part in. In 1986, Jobs bought the animation company, Pixar, sparking the creation of some of the best films of the late 20th century, beginning with Toy Story trilogy in 1995, ending with the third one in 2011 that is the highest-grossing animated film of all time worldwide.
“I cannot pick a favorite, but they have impacted me since I have grown up with them. I watched a lot of them this past summer and they still always touch your heart since they are so sweet and meaningful,” Martinez said.
Steve Jobs was an incredible inventor and was the backbone of two world-impacting company. Jobs influenced people all over the world with his unique, groundbreaking products that changed how people go about their daily lives and gave us a glimpse into future technological advances in the near future.
“Apple has redefined or reinvented every category that they are in, or actually have created new categories,” Montana said. “I admired how he [Jobs] could think outside the box, and I really, really admire his salesmanship. There’s been very few, if any, that could sale us something we didn’t even know we needed.”
