It might be too late to make a post about the death of [RIP]Steve Jobs or do those online tributes for him or what have you. So I won’t. What I’m gonna do now is talk about some of his works and innovations and how such creations “extended” or actually “amputated” today’s society.
Steve Jobs left us with a rather complex legacy. His creations such as the Mac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone, and iPad served as a revolutionary achievement in the world technological inventions. His passion for simplistic yet sophisticatedly creative designs inspired a lot of friends and rivals to further develop other gadgets and softwares i.e. Google’s Android, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, etc. People loved him, his company, and his creations. Who wouldn’t?
Let us, however, set aside our amusement of his creations or our griefs because of his death and have a glimpse of what his innovations bring about into our society. For according to Marshall McLuhan, as innovations extend man’s capacity in performing different kinds of tasks, they also amputate some of man’s capabilities. True this.
The launch of iTunes rekindled the heart of the music industry as it somehow solved the problem of music piracy. As we are all familiar of, people prefer to illegally download free music tracks from the internet through the use of Bearshare, Limewire, etc. With iTunes, music tracks ranging from classical to modern from various artists can now be purchased online legally. For a moment there we all thought that this was for the best of the music industry. Let’s think again.
The development of iTunes indeed helped in minimizing music piracy. However, it overshadowed the existence of traditional music sales (traditional albums, music stores, etc.) as it offered musicians and music lovers all over the world with an easier means of purchasing music tracks. Did iTunes actually help the music industry? Or is it a giant competitor waiting for its time to devour the traditional music industry? Your thoughts.
I could actually swear that this image wouldn’t make sense to children nowadays.
Unless I show them this.
Back then, we had our cassette players, CD players, and MP3 players. But now, as Apple continues to offer more technological advancements, Apple’s iPod is now the standard for portable music and video playing. There’s actually nothing wrong here. I appreciate how Apple revolutionizes something to make it more classy, useful, and even more entertaining. It’s just sad that children won’t ever experience using a pencil to rewind a cassette tape anymore.
Lemme rephrase – classy, useful, entertaining, and f*cking awesome.
Let me now introduce you to Alexa – THE personal secretary. Back then, male bosses would dream about having a secretary very inspiring such as her. But now, we’re about to say goodbye to her. She’s about to be replaced by..
Yep. Siri. Apple is about to make life extremely easier for us. With this new feature of the iPhone 4s, you can now send messages, schedule meetings, make phone calls, look for directions, and even know how to cook by using just your own voice. The iPhone 4s will recognize it’s owner’s voice and perform operations without the need for the owner’s touch. Goodbye, Alexa – if you know what I mean.
These are just some of my own observations. These are neither criticisms nor praises for Apple or even Steve Jobs. Just something to ponder on, my dear friends.
