Bye, Steve

I wanted a Sony MiniDisc. I wanted a Sony MiniDisc, because I wanted to be able to listen to music and not carry around that UFO-shaped monstrosity of a Discman I had. I was sure of it. I wanted that Sony MiniDisc, because the older kids had it, and I was in the seventh grade, and I wanted to look older. I wanted a MiniDisc until I saw that kid walk into the classroom with those beautiful white earphones. A shiny, bright white cable that caught my eye as soon as he walked in. I asked him if he'd bought new headphones, and he, knowing perhaps that what his hands held was quite expensive, took something out of his pocket slowly. It was white, as white as the earphones, and glossy. It was shiny, it was smooth, and it was so different. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen. The kid said: "My dad bought it for me in the States. It's called an iPod." And as he showed the entire class how the click-wheel worked, how it didn't have an ON/OFF button, and how its buttons were comfortably placed around the wheel, I realized I didn't want the Sony MiniDisc anymore.
My parents bought me my first iPod about a year later. It was a silver 6GB iPod Mini. I fell in love with it almost immediately. As I opened its big white box, I felt the smell I would later learn emanates from every new Apple product. It's one of those things that just adds to their beauty. After I got my first iPod, there was no turning back: I was now a Mac geek. I started to investigate about Macintosh. I realized my dad had an old Lisa down in his basement. And I met, figuratively, of course, Steve Jobs.
Over the years, what followed was me getting more and more Mac products, and consequentially, getting more and more interested in the world of Apple. In Steve. I started watching the keynotes. It was magical, it was simply magical. The way this man spoke, moved, and generally made the audience feel absolutely safe in this dark environment was a mystery. Steve Jobs was a genius, undoubtedly, but he's rarely given credit as an amazing speaker.
Today, I write this on my MacBook (my second one), while my iPad 2 is charging, and my girlfriend plays some game on my iPod Touch. I read the news of Steve's passing on that very same iPad, and I didn't believe it until I saw the Apple webpage. Many people don't understand why when many of us felt shivers when we saw the picture of him and the numbers "1955 - 2011" written below. I can't explain it either, but mainly I'd say it's because of that feeling I've gotten from every single Apple product I've held ever since that boy walked into class almost eight years ago. Apple products, Steve's creations, are not only beautiful, they don't just look pretty and work nicely. They are just right. They are the result of the vision of a man who understood that the products you give to people must be perfect. There has never been a mediocre Apple product. From the glossy glass screens to the A5 chips, Apple products are just right, and that is why the world seems just a little bit darker without Steve. Because his ideas were not the ideas of a CEO, but the ideas of a visionary. Because, roughly eight years after the iPod kid, I have seen him change the way we understand technology and the world around us. Steve did not invent the mp3 player, he invented the iPod. He did not invent the smartphone, he invented the iPhone. He did not invent the tablet, he invented the iPad. Steve reinvented the way we saw the world, and set a path for generations to come. For that, and for Pixar, and for the Newton, and for so many things I couldn't write about today, I say in the most simple way, because, through his inventions I found out that was how he liked things: "Thanks, Steve, and bye."

Note to Tim Cook: You got some BIG sneakers to fill in, Mister.