To know where we are going, we have to know where we’ve been.
I’m sure everyone reading this has seen this ad before, but damn, it’s still so cool:
In contrast, the company’s 1985 Super Bowl ad was a real fall from grace:
Macintosh Office is a story for a different time, but that ad wasn’t a great start to things.
The Steve Jobs Archive has a new email out today:1
When photographer Norman Seeff arrived at Apple’s offices in January 1984, he didn’t know what to expect. An editor at Rolling Stone had told him only that this was a “weird company” full of hippies making computers. Now Seeff, along with reporter Steven Levy, was covering these “whiz kids” as they prepared to launch their latest product—a new machine called Macintosh.
The atmosphere inside the office was a world away from the power suits and perms typical of 1980s corporate America. An expensive Bӧsendorfer grand piano sat in the lobby; employees often played it during breaks. Nearby stood a first-generation Sony CD player hooked up to a gigantic pair of speakers. There were scooters. Pets. Babies. Everyone wore jeans; some even had bare feet.
“It looked like a commune,” says Seeff. “It was so alive.”
I love this photo:
Top to bottom, from left: Rony Sebok, Susan Kare, Andy Hertzfeld, Bill Atkinson, Owen Densmore, Jerome Coonen, Bruce Horn, Steve Capps, Larry Kenyon, Donn Denman, Tracie Kenyon and Patti Kenyon.
Dan Moren, writing over at Macworld:
Forty years. In the world of technology, where many devices seem to evaporate after only a matter of months, lasting for a decade is an accomplishment—but four of them? It’s nearly unheard of.
And yet today marks the 40th anniversary of the Macintosh. While it has certainly seen its ups and downs over the intervening years, it’s a device that has nevertheless been in constant production since the day Apple co-founder Steve Jobs first took the wraps off it back in 1984.
In that time, it’s run on four different processor architectures and two major operating systems, making it a bit of a computer of Theseus. It’s seen challengers rise and fall, and been threatened with extinction more than once, and yet for all of that has emerged in recent years revitalized and stronger than ever.
Jason Snell has a big feature over at The Verge today:
This week, I asked Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, the same question I asked Jobs for the Mac’s 20th anniversary and Schiller for the Mac’s 30th: as Apple adds yet more platforms and priorities, what does the Mac’s future look like?
No surprise, Joswiak gave me pretty much the same answer: “The Mac is the foundation of Apple… and today 40 years later it remains a critical part of our business,” he said. “The Mac will always be part of Apple. It’s a product that runs deep within the company, and defines who we are.”
This video from the January 1984 Boston Computer Society meeting is really special:
The machine was actually introduced a few days before at Apple’s annual shareholders meeting, but the Boston Computer video is of higher quality, and includes a panel made up of Steve Capps, Andy Hertzfeld, Randy Wigginton, Bill Atkinson, Bruce Horn, Burrell Smith, Owen Densmore and Rony Sebok, taking questions from the audience. There’s a spicy one about the Apple III in there that’s a lot of fun.
Jonathan Zufi has put together something really special to mark today:
To celebrate this milestone, mac40th.com showcases every Macintosh desktop and portable Apple has ever made with hundreds of the photos taken as part of the work creating the coffee table book ICONIC: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation (3rd edition now available up to date as of the end of 2023). The site also includes photos taken by Kevin Taylor, Forest McMullin and others (including video) that I’ve collected over the past 14 years.
The site is easy to use: you’ll see a continuous stream of random Macs – just keep clicking ‘Show me more Macs’ and that’s what you’ll get. If you’re a hard core Mac fan, this site should keep you busy for a very long time. If you see any mislabelled products, don’t be shy.
Steve Levy, writing at Wired, got to speak with a bunch of folks at Apple:
Before our video conference ends, I pop a final question: Will Apple be selling Macintoshes 40 years from now?
“It’s hard to imagine there being an Apple and not having a Mac,” says [Greg] Joswiak. “It is in our blood — it’s a product that defines who we are.” [Craig] Federighi takes a shot at explaining why, in an industry where the standard is ephemeral, the machine that Steve Jobs introduced might be immortal. “The Mac has been able to absorb and integrate the industry’s innovations,” he says. “With each major technology wave, from graphical computing to the internet to even creating tools for mobile, the Mac has taken potential and turned it into intuitive creative tools for the rest of us. With seemingly disruptive waves like spatial computing and AI, the Mac will renew itself over and over.”
In April 1984, the first issue of Macworld went on sale, with Steve Jobs on the cover:
The entire thing is safe and sound over on the Internet Archive, and I suggest you spend some time flipping through it. Andrew Fluegelman’s feature on the making of the machine starts on page 126 and includes writing from Andy Hertzfeld, Joanna Hoffman, Bill Atkinson, Chris Espinosa, Susan Kare, Burrell Smith and more.
Today marks the Mac’s 40th anniversary. Joe Rossignol at MacRumors found the company’s original press release for the machine, and it’s a real gem:
Apple Computer today unveiled its much-anticipated Macintosh computer, a sophisticated, affordably priced personal computer designed for business people, professionals and students in a broad range of fields. Macintosh is available in all dealerships now. Based on the advanced, 32-bit architecture developed for Apple’s Lisa computer, Macintosh combines extraordinary computing power with exceptional ease of use–in a unit that is smaller and lighter than most transportable computers. The suggested retail price for Macintosh is $2,495, which during the introductory period also includes a word-processing program and graphics package.
Macintosh, along with three powerful new Lisa 2 computers, forms the basis of the Apple 32 SuperMicro family of computers. All systems in the family run Macintosh software.
Like Apple’s ground-breaking Lisa computer, Macintosh uses its built-in user-interface software and high-resolution display to simulate the actual desk-top working environment–complete with built-in notepads, file folders, a calculator and other office tools. Every Macintosh computer contains 64 kilobytes of read-only memory (ROM), built-in Lisa Technology and 128 kilobytes of random-access memory (RAM) that support these desk-top tools.
The press release goes on to talk about the Mac’s user interface, which wasn’t Apple’s first GUI. That achievement belonged to the Lisa:
Users tell Macintosh what to do simply by moving a “mouse”–a small pointing device–to select among functions listed in menus and represented by pictorial symbols on the screen. Users are no longer forced to memorize the numerous and confusing keyboard commands of conventional computers. The result is radical ease of use and a significant reduction in learning time. In effect, the Macintosh is a desk-top appliance offering users increased utility and creativity with simplicity.
“We believe that Lisa Technology represents the future direction of all personal computers,” said Steven P. Jobs, Chairman of the Board of Apple. “Macintosh makes this technology available for the first time to a broad audience–at a price and size unavailable from any other manufacturer. By virtue of the large amount of software written for them, the Apple II and the IBM PC became the personal-computer industry’s first two standards. We expect Macintosh to become the third industry standard.”
The Lisa would be dead within a few years of this, and while the Apple II would live on until 1993, the Mac would be the one to take on the PC, both in homes and in the workplace:
Macintosh is aimed at a broad group of business people, professionals and college students. These people perform tasks that are similar in one important respect: they all involve working at a desk and transforming information and ideas into memos, reports, budgets, plans and analyses.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that while there are 25 million of these “knowledge workers” in the United States alone, only 5 percent currently use desk-top computers. Apple market research indicates that the majority are unable or unwilling to invest the 20 to 40 hours it takes to master conventional computers and the additional three to 10 hours’ learning time required for each new application program.
Macintosh, by contrast, typically takes only a few hours to learn. Its operation mirrors the activities that are carried on by people at their desks. Papers can be shuffled on screen, documents revised or discarded, charts drawn–all with a few simple commands executed with the mouse. Several documents can be displayed on screen simultaneously, in “windows” that can be moved, expanded or shrunk. All applications, from financial-planning tools to graphics programs, are based on the same set of intuitive operations. This means that numbers, words and pictures can be easily .. cut” from memos, charts or graphs and “pasted” into other documents–even those created in separate application programs produced by different software companies.
“Macintosh easily fits on a desk, both in terms of its style of operation and its physical design,” said Jobs. “It takes up about the same amount of desk space as a piece of paper. With Macintosh, the computer is an aid to spontaneity and originality, not an obstacle. It allows ideas and relationships to be viewed in new ways. Macintosh enhances not just productivity, but also creativity.”
40 years on that last bit from Jobs really jumps out of me. Let me quote it again:
“With Macintosh, the computer is an aid to spontaneity and originality, not an obstacle. It allows ideas and relationships to be viewed in new ways. Macintosh enhances not just productivity, but also creativity.”
That still defines the Mac today, four decades after it was introduced. This is why I fell in love with the Mac in the first place way back at my high school newspaper, and why I still love it today.
Jason and Myke did something fun this week on Upgrade:
Celebrating 40 years of the Mac, we’ve gathered an all-star panel of longtime Mac users to pick the best Macs, Mac software, and Mac accessories, as well as induct a few events or devices into the Mac Hall of Shame.
It was a blast to be on the panel, joining my pals Dan Moren, John Gruber, John Siracusa and Shelly Brisbin to honor the Mac as it enters its next decade.
There’s been a lot of news about HEY’s new calendar app being rejected by App Store Review. In a lengthy X thread discussing the issue, David Heinemeier Hansson revealed that HEY has resubmitted the app to Apple, this time with some built-in content that seems awfully familiar:
You’re going to love our “make it do something” implementation (and hopefully @appstore will too!). If you don’t have a HEY account, you can use the calendar to explore Apple’s history. Check this out: pic.twitter.com/j8cXnfOsaf
— DHH (@dhh) January 8, 2024
He goes on:
This is essentially a digital version of the 2024 Apple History Calendar that raised over $40,000 on Kickstarter. Apple has a rich history that lots of people want to relive, and we’re giving them that inside the beautiful HEY Calendar app. For free! https://t.co/gPdfrlj35q
— DHH (@dhh) January 8, 2024
For each of my three Kickstarters, I’ve included digital versions of the highlighted dates for people to import into their calendar apps.
Here’s HEY’s included calendar data:
…and some of the work I’ve done over the years:
To be clear, from these screenshots, it doesn’t seem like HEY copied my direct work or research, and I only came across this after someone sent me a link to DHH’s tweets.
(Also: I think Apple’s rejection of HEY’s app is silly, just as it was last time, despite the company’s history.)
It’s a real bummer to feel like I’ve been ripped off by a much bigger company, seeing them pitch something I’ve worked hard on as a free feature in their app. There’s some irony there.
Update: On January 9, Apple approved Hey Calendar, complete with the demo data.
Some sad Apple Retail news broke this afternoon. Here’s Joe Rossignol:
“After many years of serving customers at our stores in the Bay Area, we plan to close our store at Infinite Loop,” an Apple spokesperson said, in a statement shared with MacRumors. “All of our valued team members will have the opportunity to continue their roles with Apple. We look forward to welcoming our customers at our nearby Apple Park Visitor Center and other locations, on Apple.com, and the Apple Store app.”
For years, this location was known as “The Company Store,” and was a place for employees and users alike to pick up merchandise with Apple’s branding on it. I visited the store way back in 2007 when I was training to be a Mac Genius, and it was something special. Since its reopening in 2015, it’s been a fairly typical Apple Store, with the addition of some t-shirts and the lack of a Genius Bar.
In both of its incarnations, the Infinite Loop location was a neat place to visit, but was very clearly just the first floor of a very busy office building, complete with a shortage of parking. For the picky enthusiast, the Apple Park Visitor Center has been a much better place to visit since it first opened in the fall of 2017.