Category: Apple History

This month, in my Apple History column at iMore:

When I was in high school, I worked at the student newspaper, laying out pages on a 1998 Power Macintosh G3 All-in-One.

I’m of the mindset that this machine—dubbed the “Molar Mac” for its tooth-like appearance—is historically important, as it helped reintroduce the Mac community to AIOs that mattered. It’s also the closest in design to Apple’s perhaps most significant AIO of the 1990s: The original iMac, with its translucent plastic and swooping curves. The Molar Mac has largely been forgotten, set out to pasture with a bunch of other old Macs that no one really remembers. But it paved the way for something great.

Continue reading ⇢

Apple has recycled other names — iBook and MacBook come to mind — but this example is the most confusing, by far.

Continue reading ⇢

This article is written by my friend Thomas Brand, who blogs at EggFreckles.net.

---

Apple released four distinct Newton form factors containing eight different models between August 1993 and February 1998. Each form factor was an evolutionary step forward for the platform, and introduced design considerations and features that were different from past and subsequent models. Choosing a Newton requires understanding each models benefits and weaknesses and applying that knowledge towards selecting the Newton that best meets your requirements.

Continue reading ⇢

A friend of mine recently gave me a stack of old Apple documents, and included were scripts for three Apple-approved radio ads pushing the Apple IIc for the holiday season of 1984.

The three ads — titled 20 Gifts, Christmas Card and Perfect Present — extol the virtues of the machine, including its compatibility with programs written for the IIe. Dealers also promised easy credit and help with the purchase of accessories such as a modem or mouse.

Continue reading ⇢

This month at iMore, I took a look at the introduction of the iTunes Music Store, and how the idea of streaming music has changed in the decade since Apple first started selling music.

Continue reading ⇢

Ten years ago this month, at WWDC 2005, Apple brought podcasting to iTunes.

The feature launched on June 28, 2005, three weeks after the keynote. Here’s the Apple PR Machine:

Apple today announced it is taking Podcasting mainstream by building everything users need to discover, subscribe, manage and listen to Podcasts right into iTunes 4.9, the latest version of its award winning digital music software and online music store. iTunes users can now easily subscribe to over 3,000 free Podcasts and have each new episode automatically delivered over the Internet to their computer and iPod.

Continue reading ⇢

Sharon Noguchi at the San Jose Mercury News:

A South Bay recycling firm is looking for a woman who, in early April, dropped off boxes of electronics that she had cleaned out from her house after her husband died. About two weeks later, the firm, Clean Bay Area, discovered inside one of the boxes a rare find: a vintage Apple I, one of only about 200 first-generation desktop computers put together by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne in 1976.

Continue reading ⇢

Yours truly, over on iMore:

Like many people, the iPhone has replaced many consumer electronics in my home.

I no longer own a point-and-shoot camera, camcorder, voice recorder or dedicated music player. My iPhone is all of those items — plus more — in one, sleek, powerful and pocketable device.

In 2001, of course, the iPhone wasn’t a thing yet, and many people had a whole shelf full of various dedicated devices. That year, Steve Jobs introduced the “Digital Hub” strategy, a cohesive plan to take all of those devices and make them more useful through the power of software.

Continue reading ⇢

In the Brushed Metal Diaries, we take a look at one of Apple’s most unique — and most hated — user interface paradigms.

An Intro to iSync

For most Mac users in the early 2000s, the word “sync” conjured up visions of iPods and USB cables. However, while an Apple smartphone was years away, in 2002, Apple introduced a tool to sync contacts and calendar events to mobile phones: iSync.

Just check out all this brushed metal:

Continue reading ⇢

Turns out, the PowerPC G3 chips that powered Macs for years are still powering hardware, albeit in space:

The RAD750 is a radiation-hardened single board computer manufactured by BAE Systems Electronics, Intelligence & Support. The successor of the RAD6000, the RAD750 is for use in high radiation environments experienced on board satellites and spacecraft. The RAD750 was released in 2001, with the first units launched into space in 2005.

As Thomas Brand points out, the RAD750 can be found in all sorts of cool missions include the Deep Impact comet chaser, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Kepler space telescope and Mars Curiosity rover.

Continue reading ⇢

With iOS and OS X on an annual release cycle, some Apple watchers have expressed a desire for a “Snow Leopard” moment this year.

But what does that phrase even mean? How does it apply today, six years after Mac OS X Snow Leopard was announced?

No New Features

Released in 2009, Mac OS X Snow Leopard will best be remembered by this slide at its announcement:

That “0 new features” slide doesn’t tell the whole story, however.

Continue reading ⇢

“Smorgasbord” being a navigation item on this site sums up everything wrong with Apple in 1994.

Continue reading ⇢