Recollecting my thoughts over the past few days since the news.

On Oct 5th, I remember waiting up (as I’ve done for a few years now) for Apple’s “Let’s talk iPhone” event. There had been rumours that Steve Jobs might be there and I hoped to “catch” it on the live blogging. After about an hour and a half, I learnt about the new iPhone 4 S and went to sleep. In the morning on the way to work, I was still undecided about getting the phone and after watching the video of the new phone on the iPad, I had pretty much made up my mind. Oct 28th for Singapore!

The day went by pretty uneventfully. There was meetings and even chatted a bit about the new phone with a few colleagues, there’s considerably fewer Apple fans in my current workplace compared to previous but it’s still fun to talk about something new from Apple with people who care.

On Oct 6th, it was another typical day, reading news on the iPad on the cab to work. Opened up Tweetdeck and a feeling of dread came over me as I learnt the news about an hour after it had broke on the net. I headed straight up to the office, checked Apple’s website to be sure and there was the man himself and a tribute to his work. We had truly lost a visionary and creative genius.

I’m not a Apple user from Day 1. As a kid, I’ve seen the Mac in use and never really got into it. MS-Dos, Windows were the windows into the PC world. I got into programming on DOS /Windows,Unix (HP-UX) and discovered Linux soon after. Apple didn’t really enter my life till quite late when I got my first iPod Nano. It changed my life from then on with a simple concept of being a work of art serving music.

When the iPhone got released, most people were still using candy bar phones from Ericsson or Nokia. It was not until the iPhone 3GS that I experienced queuing up for the first time for an Apple device. Unboxing it was a change that now has seen me not purchase any Microsoft product since 2009. When I look back at how Microsoft squandered their lead especially in Smartphones, it’s amazing how Steve Jobs created a new product category that has dominated smartphone usage.

For the past year or so, I’ve been toggling between Windows 7 and Mac OS X. Even as a long time computer user, I definitely have come to see how his vision has changed how computing should be and how product development should be done. I am truly saddened by the loss of a visionary and someone who has innovated and touched everyone with his dedication.

From his Stanford commencement speech in 2005:

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

…

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.