512 pixels don’t go as far as they used to.
via Six Colors
Category: Apple History
Docklings⇢
My friend Thomas Brand rounds out yesterday’s article on control interactions within MacOS and OS X with a feature I totally overlooked.
The Control Strip
The original Macintosh shipped with a very simple control panel that allowed users to adjust their computer’s volume, mouse tracking speed and desktop background, among other things:
Today, System Preferences is a bloated mess compared to Susan Kare’s 1984 masterpiece:
However, the history from the original Macintosh Control Panel to Maverick’s System Preferences isn’t a linear one.
In 1994, with the System 7.1-running PowerBook 500 series of notebooks and the Duo 280c, 1 Apple introduced the Control Strip, which can be seen in the lower left of this screenshot:
The Macintosh II⇢
True story: I was going to write up the history of the Macintosh II, but then ran across this artcle by Benj Edwards.
If you want to understand why Apple went off the rails in the 90s, reading up on this machine isn’t a bad place to start.
Rhapsody Resource Page⇢
Holy moly, this is a great website.
The QuickTake 100 turns 20⇢
Stewart Wolpin at Mashable:
First unveiled at the Tokyo MacWorld Expo on February 17, 1994, the QuickTake 100 went on sale 20 years ago from yesterday — June 20, 1994. It was priced at $749 and initiated the age of consumer digital photography.
One reason why the QuickTake 100 is not often mentioned as an Apple breakthrough — other than the fact that Jobs’ himself had nothing to do with it — was that it’s one of the few non-computer products Apple produced and one Apple itself didn’t design.
⌘⇢
Tom Chatfield:
Graphical use interfaces had existed before, but they had never commanded a general affection to match the eagerness of early adopters. Much like a good map, Kare’s designs helped transform this by providing something beyond information: a human elegance echoing the Mac’s intuitive philosophy of design.
The Apple QuickTake 200
Back in the 90s, Apple made digital cameras. The QuickTake 200 was the best — and last — of the three models the company sold. For sale less than a year in 1997, the $600 camera shot 640x480 images at f/2.0 to f/8.
Apple’s lost future⇢
The Verge has put together the motherload of old, weird Apple prototype photos.
On Apple’s online store⇢
Seth Fiegerman:
Steve Jobs glanced at the sheet of paper with Apple’s future on it and promptly flicked it away onto the table. Then he uttered one of his trademark criticisms to Eddy Cue, the manager who had handed it to him.
“This sucks,” Jobs said.
Woz, on BASIC⇢
Steve Wozniak, on Gizmodo:
In 1967 or 1968, as a senior in high school, our electronics teacher (the best teacher of my life in many teaching regards) arranged for me to go to a company in Sunnyvale (Sylvania) to program a computer because I already knew all the electronics in class at school. Mr. McCollum did this for students with electronics abilities every year, finding local companies with engineers and projects that would let high school students come and and get some experience. I learned and programmed in FORTRAN on this IBM computer.
Don’t Use It⇢
Well, I have a new favorite Apple support document:
How come I shouldn’t use System 6.0.6 on ANY Macintosh? And why should I use System 6.0.7 only on newer Macintosh computers?
System 6.0.6 has compatibility problems with the new Macintosh computers. System 6.0.6 was pulled from production and replaced by System 6.0.7. There are a few versions of System 6.0.6 floating around that were sent out before the software was pulled from production.