Mike and his Apple

"The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve's success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented."

—President Obama on the passing of Steve Jobs



Ever since I knew him, Mike loved Apple. He was always an early adopter of whatever new device came out. Even when he had no money to spare, he manged to find enough to buy the latest laptop, operating system, or whatever new gizmo came next -- iPods, iTV, iWhatever-you-can-think-of, and finally..... at long last he got his iPhone.

At the time we lived in Manhattan -- and the flagship store on 5th avenue was a favorite hangout of Mike's. He would go there before we had a steady place to live, just so he could use their free wi-fi and sit amongst his favorite products. When Apple finally announced the long-awaited iPhone, Mike could not wait. He went down there early that day and stood in line for about 4 hours just so he could say he was the first person he knew to get one. In all the absurdity I even turned on the world news that night to watch the coverage of all the people going into the Apple store. Being New York, they of course were filming the 5th avenue store -- infamously recognizable as the big glass cube. So who do I see? Yes, that's right, just as they were filming, I see Mike walking into the store, giving out high-fives to all the apple employees who were there cheering everyone in. It was crazy.

I have to admit that because of Mike's Apple stuff I did grow to understand why people go gaga for Apple. The stuff is just neat. And it does neat stuff. And no one else's stuff does the same neat stuff as good as, or as easy as, Apple. They are always first. But that was because of Steve Jobs....

He was one of Mike's biggest heroes. To him, the genius of Apple was more than a cool product that did what you wanted. It was also in the design -- being a designer himself, Mike appreciated and recognized the complexity in the simple designs that Apple created. A phone with only 1 button? Who thought of that before Apple? A portable device that is as smaller than my hand, but can hold my entire CD collection? Again, who thought of this first? And besides, Apple is cool.

Every time there was a new product launch, Mike would watch the live stream of Steve Jobs' keynote presentations. He would then call me up, usually while I was at work, to tell me about what it is they were coming out with. By the time I came home, he would have the details in all the specs and all the cool stuff it did, and then would try to convince me why he needed to buy it.

He was just as excited for the iPad to come out as he was for the iPhone. He knew what the rumors were, but eagerly awaited for the keynote for it. It is one of the things that sticks in my head about that day.... they announced the release of the iPad on January 27, 2010.

I'd like to think that now Mike is able to finally meet his hero.

Thank you Steve for what you gave the world -- more than just technology, you gave us a sense of wonder and a unique way to view our surroundings, and I am quite sure it will never be the same again. And the today the world is just a little bit darker for those that are left.

The day he got his iPhone