It’s just a phone.

Seriously. I know that. You know that. The Blackberry loving fans out there that want nothing but know that.

And yet I’m a little down today.

I never met the man, never fantasized about meeting him, although I would always love to be invited to one of their keynotes one day. But I can say that Steve Jobs affected me. My journey with Mac roducts started recently. 2005 is when I think I bought my first Macbook Pro. My first Apple machine.

I had just started this site and was attending e3 and wanted something to edit footage on and all the PC programs I had been using seemed like a hassle. The Macbook Pro otherwise was like a dream.

Everything was simple and easy and understandable for a PC guy like me who regularly ripped open his tower to add memory, replace parts, adjust power supplies and play around in the BIOS or Registry.

But no more! I could just enjoy the computer and I did.

Then the next biggie was the iPhone, it was like a Mac in my hand. And it was awesome. By that point I was sold hook, line, and sinker. And every year since then I’ve sold my iPhone, jailbroken and unlocked to get enough money to buy the newest. People are always amazed when I tell them I can sell my year old phone for usually its unsubsidized retail value or at least more than what I paid. I just let them know that’s how magical the phone is.

But it is just a phone, right? Steve Jobs was a brilliant dude and from all accounts was either a dick or an awesome guy. So why does his passing affect me?

I can only reason that maybe, just maybe its because I’ve accomplished a lot I’ve been proud of over the last few years. Much of it through a computer that made things as easy as possible and in some ways helped me to be as innovative as I could. So in some ways, Steve’s vision helped my vision and because of that I mourn the world losing him.

Visionaries show us what we are capable of by being capable of it themselves. They push us to be as good as them.

And in current tech history, no one was as capable as Steve.

iThankYou