Tech Leaders and Influencers Explain How Apple Changed Their Lives

Apple products are highly-regarded for their quality, ease-of-use, incredible resale value, intelligent software, and much more. Because of those sentiments, we previously posed the question to tech leaders and influencers “Why did you switch from a Windows PC to a Mac?” We received thoughtful responses from musicians to app developers, and bloggers to CEOs, that echoed the aforementioned beliefs about the superior caliber of Macs. But what about all Apple products?

Surely the iPhone, iPad, and other Apple devices have changed users’ lives for the better too. That’s why I’ve raised a new question to  leaders and influencers in the field of technology, “How have Apple products changed your life for the better?” See their responses below.

Aaron Ho, Host

From my perspective, Apple is on a secret mission to produce products that simplify our lives. AirDrop and the recently released AirPods are two products that come to mind. What is AirDrop? Well, AirDrop is a wireless service found on iOS and Mac products allow users to transfer files without going through email, the cloud or physical drive. I haven’t found an easier method of sharing files, photos, locations and links between Apple products.

Apple’s product ecology is built around simplicity. Their products aren’t meant for tinkerers but rather people who just want something to work. Apple products are built like Lego blocks, every product can easily “click” into a different Apple device. Apple’s recently released AirPods have simplified my audio needs in the last few months. Prior to the AirPods, I was constantly pairing/re-pairing wireless headphones between multiple iPhones, an iPad and MacBook Pro. In addition to the wireless headphones, I had to keep a couple pairs of regular, wired headphones just in case the wireless headphones died while I was working.

The Apple AirPods have replaced all the headphones in my laptop bag. I can easily switch the Apple AirPods from an iPhone to my iPad without going through the settings app. The process is foolproof and quick (as quick as accessing the flashlight on an iPhone). AirDrop and AirPods are two great examples of how Apple’s products have simplified how I work everyday.

Twitter / Website

Brian Pendergraft, Attorney

I use my Apple MacBook Pro to run my modern law practice.  The majority of the legal profession has not switched to Mac.  Like the law itself, the legal profession is slow to change.  Many lawyer applications only have a Windows version.  In addition, once a law firm is running on one system, it costs time and money to make the switch.

When I started my own practice in 2015, I decided to think different.  My firm’s advantage would be the ability embrace rapidly changing technology.  The foundation for my firm’s technological advantage would start with Apple products.

I can safely say, that the reliability, speed, and usability of the MacBook Pro and other Apple products have increased my firm’s overall productivity in both its legal and digital marketing efforts.  On the legal side, court pleadings are drafted faster, e-mails are responded to quicker, and trial presentations slideshows run smoother.  On the digital marketing side, I have been able to create and edit videos and images, build websites, and run multiple apps seamlessly.

Apple products make this lawyer’s life much easier.

Twitter / Website

D.J. Yellets, Fine Art Portrait Photographer

I’m a fine art portrait photographer who also teaches photographers creative techniques to hone their craft. As a photographer, Apple products have such a huge impact on my day-to-day work and seamlessly integrate into every facet of my life. The P3 Retina display on my 5K iMac is such a beautiful way of showcasing what my camera has to offer. The wide color gamut mixed with the high resolution makes editing so much nicer and tethering my camera to my iMac makes for a powerful WOW factor when showing my images to clients.

The ability to send my photos to the cloud using the Photos app and have it instantly sync across my iMac, iPad and iPhone was (and still is) a game changer. Having the ability to take my photography with me to show clients on location makes my life easier and helps them understand what I’m going for during the shoot.

Another impact Apple has had on my life was when I started using my iPad as a portfolio that can be updated easily without having to wait for prints to get back from the lab. Without Apple, I’d have to go back to using Windows and that drop in quality of life just isn’t worth it.

Twitter / Website

Tracey Vance, Marketing Manager

I kicked off my career as an iOS app developer; honestly speaking, this was the only vacancy in that company. I started using iOS devices just because I had to, but in a couple of weeks, this compulsion became my passion.

I started taking interest in different iOS app development projects that allowed me to use different Apple devices. I was so eager to unleash the heights Apple can reach in terms of delivering quality devices and was amazed every single time. From iPhone to Apple TV to Apple Watch, I used every single device. This made me lose my interest in devices with other operating systems and got my own collection of iOS devices.

Being an avid user of Whatsapp, Spotify, Instagram, Uber, Twitch, Snapchat and many more, the App Store has dramatically changed how I communicate, how I retrieve information, how I pass time, and how I travel, in short it has actually changed how I lead my life. Currently I am transforming my house to a smart home with Apple’s HomeKit, so I could integrate every room with Siri, I’ve already installed a couple of smart sockets for the initiation of my smart home plan.

It is my firm belief that Apple’s line of products does not just focus on the appeal of hardware, but on the power, user-friendliness, and utility of software too.

Twitter / Website

Diane Hamilton, Software Developer

Apple products have changed our lives for the better both personally and professionally.

My husband Kevin and I are the publishers of the popular Mac app Home Inventory, an Apple Mac App Store Editors’ Choice. Apple’s open development environment and App Store market place allowed us to leave our 20+year careers building software for other companies to start our own software development company bringing to market consumer productivity apps that come from ideas for solving challenges in our own home.

On a personal level, the consumer apps available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac have improved our lives immensely. Our own app Home Inventory helps us protect our financial well being in case of the unexpected, while giving us access to all the important information about our belongings without the paper clutter of user manuals, warranties, receipts, and more. 1Password is a life-saver and time-saver both personally and professionally with secure and seamless access to authentication information. Apps like Paprika Recipe Manager which stores all your favorite recipes on your iPad or iPhone makes cooking a breeze without digging through cookbooks or searching the web.

Our 8-yr old son uses his iPhone to create his own videos using iMovie and music using Garage Band. When he was just 3 we created an iOS app to help him learn shapes and colors, which is still available today.

As you can see, Apple products have changed our little world in a major way and allowed us to help improve others around the world as well.

Twitter / Website

Molly Cavanaugh, Musician

Technology has essentially made my career possible. I am able to record and edit my own music using software on my MacBook Pro. I also use my MacBook to maintain my website and social media, to book shows, and to keep in touch with fellow musicians for projects. I’m able to use my MacBook Pro in my music lessons as well – the recording software on my device allows for me to provide visuals of sound waves for my students. This is so important in a generation that requires multi-sense stimulation.

Twitter / Website

Matthew Arnold Stern, Author

I’m a Senior Principal Technical Writer at Kofax in Irvine, California. I’ve been in the computer industry since 1983. I have spoken at technical writing conferences and won awards in International STC competitions, and the Macintosh played an important role at the start of my career. My first technical writing job out of college was at Haba Systems, makers of one of the first third-party apps for the original Macintosh. Although my first computer was a Commodore 64, a 512K Macintosh was the one that made me a full-time technical writer.

I didn’t use another Apple product until I got an iPod Nano for completing a project at work. That was the start of our current run of Apple products. I have a MacBook Pro, our entire family has iPhones, and my wife got an Apple Watch after admiring mine for a while. I recently completed two novels with Scrivener for Mac and iOS. Apple products are an important part of my work and personal lives.

Twitter / Website

Eagan Heath, SEO

Eagan Heath runs an SEO optimization agency in Madison, WI. Here he lists a few of his favorite Apple product perks and features.

• A lovely aesthetic and tactile experience every time I open my MacBook Pro.
• Very few windows jumping in front of what I’m trying to do (in contrast to Windows), and minimal notifications interrupting me.
• Pleasing gestures while navigating between apps like Apple News and Safari.
• iCal syncs with all my other calendars (Facebook, Google, local event calendars) and I receive notifications when it’s time to leave for appointments.
• I rip audiobooks and albums into iTunes, then transfer to iPhone for easy listening on the go.
• Shared grocery and shopping lists in our household.
• The ability to text or even answer calls from my laptop.
• Documents and apps backed up in iCloud.
• Being able to easily open articles I queued up on laptop on my phone or vice versa.
• I could be wrong on this one, but I swear I only have to connect to new Wi-Fi networks on one device and the other one already knows the password.

Twitter / Website

Dan Nainan, Comedian

I couldn’t believe my good fortune when my agent scheduled me to audition for an Apple commercial. In the acting world, getting an Apple commercial is kind of the Holy Grail. Of course I wore what I thought might impress the casting director, and I sauntered into the office without a care in the world, because I knew that there was no way I was going to get this major national commercial.

I was shocked to find that I had to sign four copies of a nondisclosure agreement and release, which is unheard of for a first audition. Of course it’s normal to have to sign a bunch of papers when you go on set to actually shoot a commercial, but on the first audition? That’s unheard of!  Talk about paranoid! As a matter fact, come to think of it, I may have to hunt you down if you’ve just read about this nondisclosure agreement…The Apple audition was specifically for Apple’s extremely successful and popular “Get a Mac” campaign. You are no doubt familiar with these commercials, which featured Justin Long as “Mac” and John Hodgman as “PC”.

At the audition, I was ushered into the room with three other geeky looking dudes. Somebody wrapped an extension cord around us, and the director told us that we had to pretend that we were a four-pack of cheap PCs, and that one of us whom he designated was going to die, and the others had to react. He said “Action!” and the designated guy slumped over, and the other three of us tried to act surprised, disgusted, whatever. My “acting” consisted of turning to stare at the guy who was slumped over. I noticed that the director was staring at me intently, and I was a little bit uncomfortable.

Imagine my of utter shock and disbelief when my agent called the next day and said “You got it!” At first, I had no idea what he was talking about, so I asked him “What did I get?” and he said “The Apple commercial, you got the role!” I asked him when the callback (second audition) was, and he said that there was no callback – that they had cast everyone from the first audition. That absolutely blew my mind. Anthony told me that they were going to get back to me with a shoot date, and even when I got the date, I was still only about 50 percent convinced that it was real.

The costume fitting took place one day before the shoot. The fitting took place at Broadway Stages in Brooklyn, and I took the subway.

I put on a suit, and the costume person’s choice of a pair of really, really geeky looking glasses that made me look like a nerd (or more accurately, even more of a nerd than I already am.) I was to wear a suit of bubble wrap over my regular suit. The idea was that I was supposed to be a cheap PC, protected by bubble wrap, in case the user accidentally pulled on the power cord and cause the computer to fall to the floor. Of course, the answer to that problem was Apple’s genius MagSafe power connector, which is connected magnetically and releases in case somebody yanks on the power cord by accident. The prop team had made a jacket and pants out of bubble wrap, but the director didn’t like the seam between the jacket and pants. He said that he wanted them to make a one piece jumpsuit out of bubble wrap instead. I was thinking, “Yeah right!” but the prop guys just nodded as if it were going to be a walk in the park to make a jumpsuit out of bubble wrap in time for the shoot. Needless to say, I went home, extremely excited about what was going to happen.

I took the subway again of course, and I saw the set for the first time. It was truly incredible. It was beautiful, but extremely simple – very much like Apple’s products. Just a plain white paper background. When you think about it, part of the genius of the “Get a Mac” campaign was the simplicity. Instead of the expense of elaborate sets and locations, Apple just had two guys, Justin Long and John Hodgman and the bit players like myself filmed on a plain white background. Apple would film four of these in one day, whereas normal commercial shoots can take a full day or more.

I noticed that no one, from the actors to the directors to the stagehands, had anything but Mac computers and iPhones.  So I thought it best that I leave my non-iPhone and Windows PC in my backpack for the whole day. Here’s a little-known piece of trivia – John Hodgman, the nerdy looking guy who plays PC and all the Mac commercials, is actually a Mac user!

I spent the better part of my day eating, reading the newspaper and talking with the other actors.  It came time for my commercial, and I was dressed in my suit of bubble wrap.  Justin Long and John Hodgman came up and introduced themselves, and were extremely gracious and humble.  How often do you see major stars introduce themselves to the nobodies on a shoot?

Filming the spot itself took about an hour and a half at most.  After thanking everybody profusely, I had no idea whether they were going to run my spot, and I decided that since it wasn’t that entertaining or funny, they probably wouldn’t. Steve Jobs himself decided which commercials were going to run, of course.

Imagine my surprise when I was lying by a pool in Chennai, India, where I was on tour, and opened an e-mail from my sister, who said that she had just seen my commercial on the NFL opener.  I started to get calls and e-mails from friends left and right, saying they had seen the commercial on Letterman, movie awards, a bunch of shows and every NFL game.  I couldn’t believe my good fortune!

My friends kind of made fun of me, because they said that I didn’t have any lines. The joke was on them. What they didn’t realize that if you are recognizable and shown even for a couple of seconds, you make the same pay as actors with lines, with residuals.

Twitter / Website

It’s clear that Apple products have created many positive outcomes for its users, including composing beautiful music, impressing clients, creating full-time web-development careers, and most importantly, making everyday tasks easier. Apple products work together in a way that makes technology accessible, fun, and easy. It’s not difficult to see how Apple products have, quite literally, changed lives.

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