Dear Editor,
My dad cried when Steve Jobs died. Granted, he cries about a lot of things—including car ads and really clean rooms—but something struck me when he called to tell me that news. Steve Jobs was a lousy father and an impossible boss, but he meant something to my dad. Maybe it was the memory of when he bought the Apple Lisa in 1983 and it took his breath away, or when he Facetimed me for the first time from an airport in Korea. I can’t explain why he cried, but I get it. In a weird way, I have a connection to Steve Jobs too.
We can all get lost marveling at what technology can do, and I think we all feel a little weird about it. It’s weird because marveling is a response reserved for art. Maybe I feel connected to Steve Jobs because he’s the only artisan we know of in Silicon Valley. It’s funny to imagine how the world might have forgiven him his many vices if they had defined him as an artist.
I think he was.
The revamped design of iOS7 has some people concerned about the future of Apple. But, honestly, I’m not worried; a man as driven as Steve Jobs doesn’t leave a legacy that dies in a year. Having used iOS7 for two weeks now, I can already see Jobs’ fingerprints in the simple color palette, the layers, and the bold efficiency of space. Google and Microsoft will follow suit. Just wait; in a year skeuomorphism will be dead.
Whittaker Dunn’14
