IF you show your kids one of the very first iMacs (you can still find them for peanuts on eBay, or in second-hand computer shops), they will probably laugh.

After all, by today’s standards, the first iMac looks bulky, plasticky, and is woefully underpowered.

But back in 1998, when the machine was announced, it changed the computer industry.

Steve Jobs, who died on October 5 aged 56, had returned to Apple in 1997, as the company looked certain to go under.

He ruthlessly slashed the product line and asked his engineers to produce something revolutionary: a simple consumer computer designed for the internet.

The result was the iMac. It was stylish, reasonably priced (although not cheap) and it ditched the floppy disk drive, while including new-fangled stuff such as USB ports.

It looked nothing like any other computer of its time. People loved it.

The iMac’s success laid the foundations for Apple’s renaissance. The products that followed – the iBook, iPod, iPhone and iPad – sold in ever greater numbers, at ever lower prices.

Apple changed. In 1997 it was still a niche company for arty types. Now it’s one of the biggest brands in the world, making consumer electronics that have become all-pervasive in modern society.

The driving force behind all this was Steve Jobs. He created shiny gadgets that put the internet, a lifetime of music, a camera and a world of games into your pocket at an affordable price.

But his legacy goes deeper than that.

Although a wealthy man, he believed in a handful of simple truths: follow your heart, trust your instincts and do what you love, because life’s too short to do anything else.

Giles Turnbull

BROWSING AROUND ... STEVE JOBS TRIBUTES

Apple’s page: www.apple.com/stevejobs

Tech writer Walt Mossberg: http://allthingsd.com/20111005/the-steve-jobs-i-knew/

THING OF THE WEEK

Turn a typewriter into a USB keyboard

www.usbtypewriter.com