Last Wednesday evening, I was off the grid and with my family, as I like to do many evenings,

when I got a call on my iPhone. It was from a reporter Erica Murphy, whom I've mentioned quite a few

times before on the show. She often calls me when there is breaking news on the iOS side,

and we play a little game to see if I can guess why she was calling. This time I was not even close. She broke the news to me

of Steve Jobs' passing and was looking for my thoughts. Later that evening I was thinking,

why is it that a reporter is calling me, asking me for my thoughts on Steve's jobs passing? I did not

actually know the man. I had never had the pleasure of speaking with him,

or even just shaking his hand. The closest sight come to him was about three feet away,

walking past him at Macworld a few years ago. A moment he no doubt gave never another second's

thought, but for me, that was something very special and still very vivid in my mind.

But again, I thought, why was I being contacted minutes after his death by a reporter?

Well, obviously, it has to do with this show, which has been a big part of my life for the past

four and a half years. And I began to think back to how it was that Steve Jobs

touched my life, like the first time I touched an Apple II back around 1980 at a computer user

group on Long Island, or the time a couple of years later when I volunteered at a teen center to

help other teens learn about computers and teach them how to use Apple Twos. Then there was the first

Mac I had access to at

a co-op job in 1987, Cincinnati Electronics. There is the Mac that sits above my desk right now.

An old Mac is more of a decoration. There's the grape IMac in my basement and the strawberry

one I helped my mom set up. There is the original titaniumMac in my basement and the strawberry one I helped my mom set up.

There is the original titanium power book I purchased and brought into my job at Vectron breaking the no Apple rule.

Plus the EMac and the original iPod 5 gig that my wife still uses today after 10 years old.

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