I know Steve Jobs is dead

I am, very nearly, an OG nerd.  I never soldered anything but I did build PC's from parts back in the day.  Back when Compuserve was the only tech support available.  When you pretty much had to figure it out yourself or just not do it.  Back when WordPerfect had an on-hold DJ.  The first computer I ever used was a TRS-80.  I saved programs on cassette tapes.  My first PC was in IBM PC-AT.  An 80286 processor with 1mb of ram and a 30meg hard drive (actually had a 40mb hard drive with 2 partitions b/c you couldn't have a drive larger than 30mb).  I remember calling tech support to figure out a problem and when I described my computer the tech responded by saying "that's pretty much the dream machine!"  All computers ran DOS, no fancy graphics unless they were inside a game – who out there remembers a company called Microprose that came out with the first games that had killer graphics?  When I wasn't doing AutoCAD for my boss, I played games on that 21-inch Taxan Tube monitor!  Later, I ran an advance copy of something called Windows 386.

In the midst of all of this I never did use a Mac.  I looked at one once and the window-specific menus just baffled me.  The user interface was just a bit too cutesy: I'll leave that crap to the artists and their fancy layout programs.  I was aware that there was a cult of mac and that Jobs & Woz were at the center of it but there wasn't much in the way of Macintosh in "real" corporate computing in the middle 90's when I was doing and learning IT for a living.  I wasn't much of an ipod guy either.  Had an early iPod shuffle – that white stick looking thing.  At this point, Jobs was out of Apple.  He had started Next computers and Pixar.  I had a child in 97 so I was very familiar with Pixar and I was in IT so I was familiar with Next.  Next computers never really amounted to much and I don't think I ever saw one outside of a trade show but Pixar did some amazing stuff.  I met the news in 1997 that Jobs was going back to Apple with a shrug.  Could care less.  Didn't have an iMac – thought they looked cute with all of their colors but I'm a PC guy.  You can have a pc in whatever color you want as long as it's beige.

Things started change around 2005 for me.  Back then I was still doing a bit of web design and I had a customer who demanded we test out his website in Safari – the Apple web browser.  Reluctantly I set off to MicroCenter to buy the cheapest Mac I could find.  That was a "Mac Mini".  A delightful little box that was plugged in and in use long enough to test the website after which it was relegated to the shelf.  I remember being impressed with the design of the box and the software but had no practical use for it.  

The real turning point between me and Apple came when I set off to do what I was calling "Manassas Next".  I was, at that point, in elected office in the midst of the immigration mess and I was sick to death of talking about it.  I felt the city needed a new narrative so I set out to make it happen by cobbling together a legislative agenda and a website/video to support that agenda.  In order to make my movie I purchased a video camera (with actual tape) and started shooting.  The problem came when I wanted to edit all of that video.  The video tools on the PC were horrific.  They crashed, were a huge pain in the neck and too damn complicated.  It occurred to me that I did have a Mac sitting on the shelf and they were supposed to be great at that stuff.  I hooked that beastie up and, sho 'nuff, I was off to the races in about an hour.  I also bought a Macbook Pro to help out with the task.  With those 2 computers I produced all of the Manassas Next video – about an hours worth.  The Macbook became the computer I orchestrated my personal life around.  All my pictures, music, video, etc.  The Macbook was also an elegant looking thing.  PC laptops had keys that fell off, hinges that broke, etc but with the MacBook everything was just so.  The fit and finish were without peer.

That attention to detail left an impression on me and I remember reading an interview with Jobs where he talked about the packaging for the iMac.  The packaging.  The CEO of the company was interested in the packaging.  He didn't like the way it was just a box with a computer.  To him, even the experience of opening the box should be meaningful.  he had the packaging so that when you opened the box you saw the built-in handle peaking through the top of the foam.  Picking it up and out was very intuitive.  Jobs said of the iMac that "the back of our computer looks better than the front of anyone else's."  He was deeply involved in the look and feel of everything that came out of Apple.  Every detail.  Nothing was too small or big.  The shading under an icon or the text.  He was all about customer experience.  He told his engineers that the new (well, new then) iPod was too big.  It needed to be smaller.  They told him they couldn't do it.  He threw the prototype into an aquarium and bubbles came out = "air", he said.  "There's air in there, make it smaller".

So, when I received my new iPhone 6+ yesterday I very carefully opened the  box.  Looking at each and every detail.  The box is pretty much the same as the other iPhone boxes.  I ordered the plus version of the iPhone so I could have the bigger screen and use the zoom mode so I can

read the damn thing when I forget my glasses!  My first impression is that it is large.  But not too large.  It's sleeker looking than my iPhone 5.  Elegant.  I picked it up and thought the edges were a bit thin but I liked it.  I flipped it over and, if there was ever any doubt, I knew Steve was really dead.  There it was, protruding from the back of the phone was a ring around the camera lense.  Like a huge zit on a supermodels face.  It bothers me.  It's like someone spray painted a van Gogh.  I admit this might be a bit silly but it bugs me.  I think about it even when I'm not looking at it.  Such a feature would have been unthinkable when Jobs was alive.  Not tolerated.  It really is design malpractice.  Steve rolled over when that thing saw the light of day.  It's a compromise he wouldn't have made.