I am writing this on a Mac. There was a point, I must admit, that I thought I would never use apple stuff: I was always a PC kind of guy. I think I got this from my brothers, who were always tinkering around with computers, opening them up to install new hardware and so on. You can’t really tinker with a Mac. That, and the fact that you were virtually dictated to by Apple over what you could and could not do with the machines, lead me to believe that Macs were for numpties.

That was, of course, before I had started to use any apple products. Lyn swears by them – so much so that you could say that she is a member of the so-called ‘Cult of Apple’. When I moved in with her, I brought my PC down, but that recently gave up the goose so Lyn gave me the Mac we recovered from the thieves. It was like a revolution: no more crashing, no more waiting an hour for it to boot; just a sleek, stable computer. I’m still getting used to it, of course, and I still don’t know what half the buttons on my desktop do, but I love not having to worry about my computer or whether it will suddenly hang. I now think that it is what I needed all along: I’m converted! Mind you, I seem to recall my brother Luke using an apple laptop last Christmas, so even my brothers aren’t immune to their lure.

For Lyn, however, the case is slightly different. Apple was the company that gave her her freedom and independence. Using her Ipad, watching her face light up, brings her so much joy that I sometimes worry that she loves it more than she loves me. To think that the man who gave her that, who created so much wonderful inspiring technology, is no longer with us is very sad indeed. I don’t know much about Steve Jobs other than what Lyn has told me; I know he was a visionary and a maverick, and despite the fact tat he insisted on retaining too much control over his computers, I know the world has lost a great man.