Great Job, Steve

I t's fitting that I should be writing this editorial on my iPad since this week's column is about the passing of Steve Jobs.

We don't comment very often on events outside our community, but the loss of an entrepreneur like Jobs is something that touches people everywhere for many different reasons.

If you're roughly Jobs' age (mid 50s), it's sad to note the death of a contemporary and it makes you appreciate being healthy and alive.

If you were born in the 1950s like I was, you would have been in your 20s when Apple made its debut and you would have been a witness to its rise in the personal computer industry and later, telephones.

To me, following Jobs' creations was like reading chapter after chapter of a book I couldn't put down. Every turn of the page, there was a new twist in the plot that featured the brightest young computer geeks coming out with the latest cutting-edge technology to place under your fingertips.

Apple and its rivals epitomized the energy of free enterprise and innovation, driven as they were to be the first one in a consumer market that changed at the speed of light on a whole new frontier.

Of course that intense competition had many sides, one of which I covered as a rookie business reporter for the Everett Herald: the legal battle of PC operating software pitting Apple against Microsoft.

I didn't become an "i" convert until the iPhone came out. But even though I didn't personally buy into the Mac cult when it came to computers, I always admired Jobs' approach to the development of Apple's products.

As the company's visionary, he chose to marry form and function. For him, as for many of those who reject the straightjacket of mediocrity, it was as much about esthetics as it was about the efficiency and freedom the products offered to their users.

In many instances, Apple set the standards that other companies followed or simply knocked off, particularly with the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

I think this is one of the reasons why Jobs' death was mourned almost as intensely as the passing of someone like George Harrison or John Lennon. These and other artistic and entrepreneurial heroes of our time gave us something that made a difference in our lives, made our lives easier, more meaningful or more fun.

I'm not sure what I would do without my iPad (which I won in drawing at a newspaper convention a year ago): I check email, write stories, search the Internet, watch movies, stream music for the coffee shop, Skype my brother in Australia, pay my bills online and with all that haven't even scratched the surface of the little tablet's potential.

As long as there's Wifi, I can be anywhere to stay connected. Such mobility gives me and millions of other fans of Apple's iconic products freedom of movement and, with the expansion of cell phone networks and broadband, the ability to live and function in a town the size and relative remoteness of Waitsburg.

And that means others can too, bringing new residents, energy and investment into rural communities everywhere.

Apple will doubtlessly continue on its trajectory of innovation and success. Its principals have long known Jobs was in ill health and worked on a succession plan. As a sign the world has confidence in the company's future, its share price barely dropped when Jobs' passing was announced.

But for those of us who somewhat measured their years by Apple's product rollouts starting with the Apple Macintosh in the early 1989s, we will forever associate progress in technology and in our own lives with the mind and free spirit of Steve Jobs.