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Beautiful. One thing though, I believe the OP is mistaken when he implies that Steve Jobs didn't affect how computers work on the inside: "On the one hand, I c

Beautiful. One thing though, I believe the OP is mistaken when he implies that Steve Jobs didn't affect how computers work on the inside: "On the one hand, I can imagine where the computing world would be without the work that Jobs did and the people he inspired: probably a bit less shiny, a bit more beige, a bit more square. Deep inside, though, our devices would still work the same way and do the same things." Ultimately, computer architectures serve real world use cases. Innovation in use cases results in innovation in architectures. There are countless new technologies that exist because of the products that Apple invented.

solarexplorer 14y ago
Example?
- Retric 14y ago
  Not the OP but I assume he ment something like HTML was created using a NEXT machine http://inventors.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=inventors&cdn=money&tm=8&f=10&su=p284.13.342.ip_&tt=2&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.w3.org/MarkUp/tims_editor http://inventors.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sd...
- guptaneil 14y ago
  The entire ultrabook category can be credited the Macbook Air. The iPhone drove the creation of the modern smartphone market. Before 2007, only businessmen carried Blackberries. Now pre-teens have smartphones. There's a really powerful image NBC posted comparing the Papal Conclave in 2005 and 2013[1] that tells the whole story. Similarly, the iPad is driving the tablet market. And that's just 3 recent consumer-facing categories. The list goes on as you dig deeper or farther back. If you're using Chrome, guess who started Webkit? 1: https://twitter.com/neilgupta/status/312317589432971264 https://twitter.com/neilgupta/status/312317589432971264 Edit: I should have said, guess who popularized Webkit. We can debate semantics on whether forking KHTML to Webkit makes Apple the author of Webkit or not, but I think we can agree Apple popularized it.
  - TheCoelacanth 14y ago
    > If you're using Chrome, guess who started Webkit? The developers of KDE. Webkit comes from a fork of KHTML, the engine used for Konqueror. Apple came to the picture 3 years later.
  - ajross 14y ago
    The macbook air is just a small laptop. In what way is making things smaller an Apple technology? Laptops have been getting steadily smaller for decades now. The iPhone may have created a market, but that was because of how it worked. The question was whether anything Jobs did influenced the technology of the device. The iPhone was an early (but not the first) user of capacitive touchscreens, but virtually everything else in the device was an off-the-shelf part. And FWIW: I know who started WebKit. It wasn't Apple. :)
    - guptaneil 14y ago
      Apple pressured Intel to design the smaller chipsets that made the Macbook Air, and subsequently other ultrabooks, possible. Without Apple's influence, we might not have ultrabooks. Similarly, Apple pressured Corning to make Gorilla Glass. I would also argue the iPhone's UI has heavily influenced modern smartphone OS's to be more user friendly. I'll cede the WebKit point, though I do think we can credit Apple for popularizing it.
      - solarexplorer 14y ago
        Sure, Intel had to offer something to Apple to make them switch from PowerPC to x86. But you could also argue that Intel's ultra efficient CPUs and chipsets are actually a result of the competition from companies like Transmeta. It's not at all obvious that without Apple there would be no utra efficent CPUs. (But without Apple we might well live in a world full of ugly netbooks.)
        guptaneil 14y ago
        > It's not at all obvious that without Apple there would be no utra efficent CPUs. That's a very slippery argument. It's pretty obvious that without Darwin, there still would have eventually been a theory of evolution (as seen be Alfred Wallace's work), but Darwin gets credit for being first. Similarly, it's not at all obvious that without Dennis Ritchie, there would be no C. I'm sure eventually somebody would have created a similar language, but Ritchie made it happen first, so he deserves credit. Sure, Intel may have eventually come up with ultra-efficient CPUs without Apple, but the point is that Apple helped make it happen. To be clear, I'm not comparing a CPU design to the works of Darwin or Ritchie. I'm simply saying that arguing that an invention would have occurred even without the inventor could be said for anything.
- mturmon 14y ago
  I'll take you way back and go with desktop publishing, which was pretty much kicked off with Apple's LaserWriter, which integrated PostScript and the laser printer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaserWriter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaserWriter). You could dispute any given example, because there's always a precursor (even if only visible in hindsight, http://booksofnote.blogspot.com/2012/10/kafka-and-his-precursors.html http://booksofnote.blogspot.com/2012/10/kafka-and-his-precur...).
  - ajross 14y ago
    Still missing the point I think. The argument was that Jobs didn't influence any of the funamental technology. PostScript was a rendering language from Adobe, and really not the first path-based rasterizer, but could broadly be called "technology" I guess. Laser printing was a technology. Integrating them by putting a computer running PostScript into a box containing a laser printer is not a technological development in any real sense. That's not saying it doesn't have value. But it's not the kind of thing JBQ was talking about.
    - mturmon 14y ago
      Disagree, but not arguing, because as I said, there's always a precursor.

solarexplorer 14y ago

Example?

Retric 14y ago
Not the OP but I assume he ment something like HTML was created using a NEXT machine http://inventors.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=inventors&cdn=money&tm=8&f=10&su=p284.13.342.ip_&tt=2&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.w3.org/MarkUp/tims_editor http://inventors.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sd...
guptaneil 14y ago
The entire ultrabook category can be credited the Macbook Air. The iPhone drove the creation of the modern smartphone market. Before 2007, only businessmen carried Blackberries. Now pre-teens have smartphones. There's a really powerful image NBC posted comparing the Papal Conclave in 2005 and 2013[1] that tells the whole story. Similarly, the iPad is driving the tablet market. And that's just 3 recent consumer-facing categories. The list goes on as you dig deeper or farther back. If you're using Chrome, guess who started Webkit? 1: https://twitter.com/neilgupta/status/312317589432971264 https://twitter.com/neilgupta/status/312317589432971264 Edit: I should have said, guess who popularized Webkit. We can debate semantics on whether forking KHTML to Webkit makes Apple the author of Webkit or not, but I think we can agree Apple popularized it.
- TheCoelacanth 14y ago
  > If you're using Chrome, guess who started Webkit? The developers of KDE. Webkit comes from a fork of KHTML, the engine used for Konqueror. Apple came to the picture 3 years later.
- ajross 14y ago
  The macbook air is just a small laptop. In what way is making things smaller an Apple technology? Laptops have been getting steadily smaller for decades now. The iPhone may have created a market, but that was because of how it worked. The question was whether anything Jobs did influenced the technology of the device. The iPhone was an early (but not the first) user of capacitive touchscreens, but virtually everything else in the device was an off-the-shelf part. And FWIW: I know who started WebKit. It wasn't Apple. :)
  - guptaneil 14y ago
    Apple pressured Intel to design the smaller chipsets that made the Macbook Air, and subsequently other ultrabooks, possible. Without Apple's influence, we might not have ultrabooks. Similarly, Apple pressured Corning to make Gorilla Glass. I would also argue the iPhone's UI has heavily influenced modern smartphone OS's to be more user friendly. I'll cede the WebKit point, though I do think we can credit Apple for popularizing it.
    - solarexplorer 14y ago
      Sure, Intel had to offer something to Apple to make them switch from PowerPC to x86. But you could also argue that Intel's ultra efficient CPUs and chipsets are actually a result of the competition from companies like Transmeta. It's not at all obvious that without Apple there would be no utra efficent CPUs. (But without Apple we might well live in a world full of ugly netbooks.)
      - guptaneil 14y ago
        > It's not at all obvious that without Apple there would be no utra efficent CPUs. That's a very slippery argument. It's pretty obvious that without Darwin, there still would have eventually been a theory of evolution (as seen be Alfred Wallace's work), but Darwin gets credit for being first. Similarly, it's not at all obvious that without Dennis Ritchie, there would be no C. I'm sure eventually somebody would have created a similar language, but Ritchie made it happen first, so he deserves credit. Sure, Intel may have eventually come up with ultra-efficient CPUs without Apple, but the point is that Apple helped make it happen. To be clear, I'm not comparing a CPU design to the works of Darwin or Ritchie. I'm simply saying that arguing that an invention would have occurred even without the inventor could be said for anything.
mturmon 14y ago
I'll take you way back and go with desktop publishing, which was pretty much kicked off with Apple's LaserWriter, which integrated PostScript and the laser printer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaserWriter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaserWriter). You could dispute any given example, because there's always a precursor (even if only visible in hindsight, http://booksofnote.blogspot.com/2012/10/kafka-and-his-precursors.html http://booksofnote.blogspot.com/2012/10/kafka-and-his-precur...).
- ajross 14y ago
  Still missing the point I think. The argument was that Jobs didn't influence any of the funamental technology. PostScript was a rendering language from Adobe, and really not the first path-based rasterizer, but could broadly be called "technology" I guess. Laser printing was a technology. Integrating them by putting a computer running PostScript into a box containing a laser printer is not a technological development in any real sense. That's not saying it doesn't have value. But it's not the kind of thing JBQ was talking about.
  - mturmon 14y ago
    Disagree, but not arguing, because as I said, there's always a precursor.