The MagicianThe revolution that Steve Jobs led is only just beginning【】When it came to(当提及……；但谈及……；后面一般接主题) putting on a show, nobody else in the computer industry, or any other industry for that matter, could match （比得上……；比赛，竞赛；匹配；对手；火柴） Steve Jobs. His product launches产品发布会, （at which he would stand alone on a black stage and produce as if by magic an “incredible adj. 难以置信的，惊人的” new electronic gadget (小器具)in front of an amazed crowd, ）were the performances of a master showman. All computers do is fetch vi. 拿；取物；获取 and work with numbers, he once explained, but do it fast enough and “the results appear to be magic”. Mr Jobs, who died recently aged 56, spent his life packaging that magic into elegantly designed, easy-to-use products. The reaction to his death, with people leaving candles and flowers outside Apple stores and politicians n. 政治家，政客 singing praises v. 赞扬；歌颂 on the internet, is proof n. 证明；证据；校样；考验；验证；实验 that Mr Jobs had become something much more significant than just a clever money-maker. He stood out in three ways——as a technologist, as a corporate (公司的)leader and as somebody who was able to make people love what had previously been impersonal没有人情味的；客观的；非个人的, functional gadgets. Strangely adv. 奇怪地；奇妙地；不可思议地, it is this last quality that may have the deepest effect on the way people live. The era of personal technology is in many ways just beginning. As a technologist, Mr Jobs was different because he was not an engineer-and that was his great strength. Instead he was keenly adv. 敏锐地；强烈地；锐利地 interested in product design and aesthetics (美学), and in making advanced technology simple to use. He repeatedly took an existing but half-formed idea-the mouse-driven computer, the digital music player, the smartphone n. 智能, the tablet computer(平板电脑)-and showed the rest of the industry how to do it properly. Rival firms竞争公司；竞争商行 competed with each other to follow where he led. In the process he brought about great changes in computing, music, telecoms n. 电信，远距通信；电讯 and the news business that were painful for existing firms but welcomed by millions of consumers. Within the wider business world, a man who liked to see himself as a hippy (嬉皮士), permanently in revolt n. 反抗；叛乱；反感vt. 使反感；使恶心against big companies, ended up being hailed n. 冰雹；致敬；一阵 by many of those corporate giants as one of the greatest chief executives of his time. That was partly due to his talents n. 人才；才干，天赋（talent的复数）: showmanship n. 表演技巧；吸引观众的窍门, strategic vision, an astonishing attention to detail and a dictatorial adj. 独裁的，专政的；专横傲慢的 management style which many bosses must have envied v. 羡慕；嫉妒（envy的过去式和过去分词. But most of all it was the extraordinary trajectory (轨迹)of his life. His fall from grace n. 优雅；恩惠；魅力；慈悲） 堕落；失宠；误入歧途 in the 1980s, followed by vt. 然后，随后；续集 his return to Apple in 1996 after a period in the wilderness 在野的；荒原；离开政界的, is an inspiration to any businessperson whose career has taken a turn for the worse. The way in which Mr Jobs revived v. 使复活，使恢复 the failing company he had co-founded and turned it into the world’s biggest tech firm (bigger even than Bill Gates’s Microsoft, the company that had x Apple so dramatically in the 1980s), sounds like something from a Hollywood movie. But what was perhaps most astonishing about Mr Jobs was the absolute loyalty he managed to inspire in customers. Many Apple users feel themselves to be part of a community, with Mr Jobs as its leader. And there was indeed a personal link. Apple’s products were designed to accord with the boss’s tastes and to meet his extremely high standards. Every iPhone or MacBook has his fingerprints all over it. His great achievement was to combine an emotional spark with computer technology, and make the resulting v. 致使（result的ing形式）；产生 product feel personal. And that is what put Mr Jobs on the right side of history, as technological innovation (创新)has moved into consumer electronics over the past decade. As our special report in this issue (printed before Mr Jobs’s death) explains, innovation used to spill over from militaryn. 军队；军人adj. 军事的；军人的；适于战争的 and corporate公司的 团队的 法人的 laboratories to the consumer market, but lately this process has gone into reverse n. 背面；相反；倒退；失败. Many people’s homes now have more powerful, and more flexible, devices than their offices do; consumer gadgets and online services are smarter and easier to use than most companies’ systems. Familiar consumer products are being adopted by businesses, government and the armed forces. Companies are employing in-house versions of Facebook and creating their own “app stores” to deliver software to employees. Doctors use tablet n. 碑；药片；写字板；小块 computers 平板电脑 平板计算机 for their work in hospitals. Meanwhile, the number of consumers hungry for such gadgets continues to swell. Apple’s products are now being snapped up 抢购；购下 in Delhi and Dalian just as in Dublin and Dallas. Mr Jobs had a reputation as a control freak (怪人), and his critics complained that the products and systems he desi。