Those Apple Gadgets

Steve Job was famous for developing products for people even before they knew they would want them. With his passing, there is no lack of tributes in all forms of media about this great visionary.

My first close encounter with wanting an Apples gadget arose when I discovered a discarded walkman in my daughter's room a couple of years ago. The Sony walkman was of course not an Apples product. However I was thrilled that I could possibly put the walkman in a cloth bag, sling the bag across my shoulder and thus listening to music whilst doing housework. It then struck me that I could buy or borrow audio books in CD form and listen to them using the walkman whilst doing the mundane chores. It was only when I carelessly asked my son to look out for audio books in the library that he introduced to me the I-Pod and the amazing world that it opened up for me. He taught me how to download music, BBC podcasts and loads and loads of free talks, lectures and audio books found in the net. So I borrowed his I-pod and was careful not to spoil it whilst marvelling at its sleekness when compared to the plate like walkman. Of course my clumsiness with technology caused me great anguish when I accidentally wiped out an entire of his music collection. Anyway that was a good enough reason for him to get the latest version and let his foolish mum take over the old one. To this day that I-Pod is the thing that is in closest contact with me literally. In retrospect however that product was what I already knew I wanted.

What about the I-Pad then? Well I have ever seen my grandniece playing with it like a toy and marvelled at the beautiful photographs that a friend flashed across the I-Pad screen of the shots she took on a holiday. It was just a big version of the I-Phone which I thought I could do without. That was until a couple of days ago when my husband walked away with an I-Pad from the lucky draw at his company's D&D. Since I would have more time to play with it, it is destined to be MY TOY. I left it in the box for a couple of days. Surprised at my lack of enthusiasm, my daughter demonstrated a few things availbale, one of which is reading books from the tablet. I watched in stupor as the picture of an empty bookshelf flashed the screen. When she downloaded a couple of books in minutes, the books appeared on the shelf one by one, buidling a virtual library!. Then she showed me some other amazing features. Now, now this will really be a new toy which I have not had for a long long while.

Yes in my own little world, Steve Job has brought quite a lot of thrills that suspend boredom that often accompanies aging. Indeed he did know what I needed even before I knew it.