A tribute to Apple's Steve Jobs

Folks,

Below is an article written by my colleague, Meena Lakshana Ramadas, sometimes in 2014.

The copy below was unedited. Of course, what was published in the next day was an extremely edited version; and in my personal opinion, did not do her justice.

I am extremely fond of her piece – it was finely written, and I am now sharing it with you for your own reading. Enjoy!

Note: please credit my friend Meena Lakshana if you would like to quote from the piece of work shown below.

Wozniak: Apple will always be under Jobs's shadow and rightfully so.

By Meena Lakshana

In the rose-tinted days of the 1970s, a passionate college student met a high-school student in sun-drenched California before both founded the monolith that is now known as Apple.

Steve Wozniak, a Hewlett Packard employee at the time, saw the same essence radiating from Steve Jobs, a compelling wordsmith that could set imaginations ablaze.

Both were young, free-spirited with a kooky sense of humour (both had a penchant for pranks) but little did they know, their passion for electronics and making a difference in the world would revolutionise the way in which humans communicate and absorb information.
Wozniak, now no longer with Apple, paid homage to Jobs, saying the world could not have been luckier to have him during his rather short life.

Jobs passed away in 2011 after battling cancer for years. 

"The world is so lucky to have somebody like that to run a company like Apple and set so many good directions," he said while speaking at the Leadership Energy Summit Asia 2014 here.

"His (Jobs) little fine-tuning made a huge difference in the quality of products.
"He understands a lot of things at a higher level-what's going on, what a product means than what its specifications are," said Wozniak.

However, Wozniak said Jobs did not immediately turn out to be the success that he was, saying there were many failures that Jobs experienced before reaching the zenith of success.

"He had failure, failure, failure executing so he probably would have had failure without that great product," said Wozniak, referring to the company's pioneer products such as the successful Apple II. 

In that way, Wozniak said he was an integral part of Apple the way Jobs were.
"We both needed each other," he added. 

Wozniak himself is a kind of wunderkid, designing computer systems at 11 years old when most adolescents were satisfied by "talking about girls and drugs."

His father, an engineer, encouraged his son's pursuits, providing transistors and other materials for Wozniak to experiment with.

Wozniak also counted influential, inspiring teachers in school who pushed him to pursue his passion.

Wozniak said Apple would continue to live in the shadows of Jobs and rightfully so.
"Yes thankfully, we're in the shadow of Steve Jobs and we believe that we'll be there forever," said Wozniak.

"He's the leader that Apple aspires to be," he added.

He said the future is not bleak for Apple, despite certain analysts' prediction that the company has hit a plateau in the innovation department, saying the company's recent unveiling of the iOS8, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 and venturing into mobile payments indicate a promising future.

However, he conceded that Apple was a tad late by hopping on the larger screen bandwagon, and should have released phones with the feature three years ago.

"That's ridiculous. A lot of people say Apple is not innovative, they are just improving products, they are not making big strides in the world like other companies such as Samsung," he said.

"But you have to wait a couple of years until the pipeline that was associated with (Jobs) is through before the new management can be judged," he added.

Wozniak said the next frontier for technological advancement is Artificial Intelligence (AI), the humanising of machines, with companies like Google, IBM and Microsoft already ahead of the curve.

He said the social ramifications-the increasing intrusion of technology into our private spheres-is inevitable and should not be viewed negatively, but merely a sign of evolving human interaction over mediums.

"How do we make machines more like a human friend? Like it knows my heart and soul. It cares about me," he said.

"It knows me better than my human friends, so get out of my life humans. It's already happening," he added.

He also said smartphones and tablets will continue to shape human interaction, and it will only get more personal over smaller devices.

However, Wozniak was cautious about the viability of wearable gadgets, saying its notable feature was also its downfall.

"When I wear the little iPod nano watch, I think this would be a great smartphone but the first ones have turned me off and I'm not sure that the small screen is going to satisfy me," he added. 

Having built a legacy of being the co-founder of Apple, does Wozniak have any regrets?
No, he said, adding he believes that life is too short and precious to worry on things that should have been.

"I came up with this formula for happiness in my 20s and its Happiness equals more smiles minus frowns," he said. 

"Try to do things that make you smile, have a lot of good fun and entertainment.
"I am not going to have frowns," he added.

END