Spring Forward To Technology

Back in the day, a business associate of my father’s was given a prototype of Apple’s first computer for his own personal use. It was a futuristic gift from a young man associated with none other than Steve Jobs. The odd box was not a typewriter and not a phone. Since these were the two best tools businessmen used what was the point?
To understand this point of view, courtesy of the 1970s, you have to appreciate that there were no fax machines, cell phones or cable television. As a young girl, the only computer generated device I knew of was the Pong game that held the rapt attention of everyone in the waiting area of Macayo’s.
The canny restaurateur Woody Johnson had put one of these addictive machines just outside the bar area where parents could grab a quick margarita while letting their kids be digitally babysat. The Arcadia Macayo’s was located next to a Thrifty drug store that is now part of Scottsdale Fashion Square. It was a hip place, where you had to kinda dress up before being seen. Besides, anyone who could brag to their friends about mastering Pong at Macayo’s was definitely an A-Lister.
The mysterious Pong machine was so popular that I can remember many nights that we would race through the front doors of Macayo’s with sweaty quarters palmed in our hands only to find a long line of equally excited kids ahead of us. Truth be told, a lot of big kids played Pong at Macayo’s much to the chagrin of my sister and I.
I’m still amazed how much that Pong game portended the future. Today, I am a digital magazine publisher with the largest subscription audience in the Valley.
We work in the pixel world with bytes of information and connectivity on devices that live in our pockets and handbags. I communicate via video with clients around the world and Skype my own child living in New York. I text my mother while marketing and see the first steps taken by our newest member of the family while getting my car washed. It is a marvelous time of technology that keeps me connected. Businesses that make heavy use of communication software and technologies may want to consider how something like Microsoft Teams Direct Routing could benefit their operations with guaranteed call quality and more.
I’m loving Snapchat and find myself sharing life with others in the most digital way. I now think my staff is not working if they don’t have their phones on their desks and two desktop screens blinking away. The workplace is just one of the areas that have benefitted from new technology. Everything is now stored on a tiny microchip as opposed to masses of filing cabinets and new systems such as voip phones system are making communication within business easier than ever!
It’s a long way from those first magic boxes with odd names such as the Apple Lisa and Pong. But for me, it is just a memory away with new avenues of wonderment yet to come.
From the Heart…