Steve Jobs Dies at 56

As you’ve no doubt heard, Steve Jobs, one of the driving forces at Apple and arguably the defining force of technology for the past decade, has died at 56. The cause of death has not been announced, but is likely due to complications from his pancreatic cancer.

We’ll leave the speculation about Apple’s future and other reporting to the other blogs on this: we simply want to take a moment to remember the man. In fact, your editor would like to put aside the magisterial voice for a moment and talk about how Steve Jobs’ vision has helped me achieve mine.

In my day-to-day life, I’m an independent filmmaker, with four films under my belt and a fifth currently in process. But none of it would have been possible without Apple, or Jobs’ unique insight into what people want.

Ten years ago, professional editing systems were incredibly expensive, well beyond the reach of a teenager who wanted to cut together his movies. One of Jobs’ ideas was to introduce video editing software to cater to low-budget filmmakers and students, as well as people who wanted to put together home movies.

I can’t tell you how crucial that’s been for me as an artist: the ability to use my own tools on my own time has been invaluable. I’ve owned a series of Macs over the course of a decade because of this, and because his products worked and were cost-effective.

And I know that’s a narrow niche: millions more bought iPods, billions more shopped at the iTunes Store, the iPhone and iPad were major hits that revolutionized, and in the case of the iPad, opened up their markets. Because of Apple, technology now is unrecognizable from what we thought it would be. But my point is: Jobs didn’t just come up with new products to sell. He enabled dreams, whether it was for low-budget filmmakers, or for musicians trying to get their songs out to a wider public, or for fine artists who needed imaging tools that suited their mindset.

Steve Jobs was many things, but how he saw technology has affected all of us, directly. I can think of no finer tribute than to acknowledge that, one way or another, this man has altered our lives.

Namaste, Mr. Jobs.