512 Pixels reader Brian sent me a screenshot they took way back on Mac OS X 10.0, showing that Apple’s current struggle with transparent user interface elements isn’t anything new:
Category: Apple History
A History of AppleWorks⇢
I know this puts me in a very specific age bracket, but I did almost of all my writing in high school in AppleWorks 6 and still miss it.
macOS Icon History⇢
Basic Apple Guy’s impressive project pairs nicely with mine.
Original Sealed iPod Sells at Auction⇢
The perfect $40,264 gift for the music lover in your life.
MacSurfer Returns⇢
I’ve been in this racket long enough to see plenty of other websites, podcasts, and commentators come and go.
One of those names from the past is MacSurfer, an old-school link aggregation website keeping up with news from across the Apple ecosystem. Back in the day, getting a link on Macsurfer’s Headline News would mean serious traffic for a younger version of me.
While I first knew about MacSurfer in 2005 or so, I was a decade late; the site started back in 1995 WHEN I WAS JUST NINE YEARS OLD. Sadly, it was shuttered in 2020 due to revenue issues, but weirdly, the site seemed to spring back to life this week. Eric Schwarz was able to chat with its new owner, Ken Turner:
‘It Comes from Apple Computer’
I recently stumbled across a promotional document for the Lisa, dating back to 1983. It’s a real gem:
Revisit eWorld, Via the Web⇢
3 Billion iPhones
In January 2007, I was on a trip visiting family in rural North Carolina during the week of Macworld Expo. When I got back to my aunt’s house after a day of visiting folks, I waited as her sloooooow Internet connection loaded apple.com.
What I saw blew my mind. The iPhone had been rumored, but seeing those original web pages was really something.
Here’s what that site said:
iPhone combines three products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching — into one small and lightweight handheld device. iPhone also introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting you control everything with just your fingers. So it ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, completely redefining what you can do on a mobile phone.
Macintosh: The Design Solution for Engineering & Architecture⇢
Look, YouTube keeps serving me these ancient and weird Apple videos, so I’m going to keep sharing them here.
I mean, when is the last time you saw a lizard standing atop a beige Mac as a plane flies overhead?
Microsoft’s Mac Lab⇢
In a group chat earlier, a buddy of mine brought up Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit and I had a flashback to this 2006 blog post by David Weiss:
I’m going to write a little bit more about what I do to help MacBU ship great software and provide some color around what’s it’s like to work on Mac software at Microsoft. Often when we have press events or special visits from our MVPs I’ll give them a tour of the Mac Lab and explain what we do. They’ve always found it very interesting and so I thought I’d share a virtual tour of our Mac Lab.
Apple Reseller Training: The Power Macintosh⇢
If you were an Apple Reseller in 1994 and were curious about Apple’s move to the RISC-based PowerPC platform, this video was for you:
Apple Seminar: The Power Macintosh⇢
If you were a professional Mac user in 1994 and were curious about Apple’s move to the RISC-based PowerPC platform, this video was for you: