Category: Apple

I stumbled across this Time article from 1983, about Steve Jobs and his young company, Apple Computer. Here’s a bit about the origins of the Apple // computer:

“Steve didn’t do one circuit, design or piece of code,” says Wozniak, who was widely regarded as the true technological wizard in Jobs’ corporate Oz. “He’s not really been into computers, and to this day he has never gone through a computer manual. But it never crossed my mind to sell computers. It was Steve who said, ‘Let’s hold them up in the air and sell a few.’ ”

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I’ve been a notebook user ever since my first Mac - a 1GHz Titanium PowerBook G4, until about 18 months ago, when I bought a 20-inch aluminum iMac as my main machine. It’s a beast of a computer, but I still need to be portable from time to time.

I’ve also always been a fan of smaller notebooks, but never used anything under 15-inches across, until I bought a 12-inch PowerBook a while back. I loved that machine, but I really wanted something small enough to toss in my bag and ride my bike somewhere without the weight of a PowerBook.

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Apple has announced the beta of Safari 4 with lots of new features. Including one that seems to be borrowed from Google’s Chrome browser:

Thanks to Top Sites, you can enjoy a stunning, at-a-glance preview of your favorite websites without lifting a finger. Safari 4 Beta tracks the sites you browse and ranks your favorites, presenting up to 24 thumbnails on a single page. You can even customize the display by pinning a favorite site to a specific location in the grid. That locks it into position, so you know just where to find it every time you open Top Sites.

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After leaving MobileMe, I learned about Foxmarks, which touted itself as a great way to sync Safari bookmarks across Macs, but I found it less than stable, especially on my work machine. So after some head scratching, I am now using my Dropbox account to sync Safari’s history and bookmarks across my Macs.

The process is actually very simple - just make sure Safari is closed before you start. Here’s how to do it:

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In the world of podcasts, there are many choices, especially when it comes to shows centered around technology (and even more so centered on Apple technology), but very few of these podcasts would ever talk about the Macintosh Quadra 660AV, the Apple Lisa, or the Performa 5200.

That’s just one reason the RetroMacCast ( iTunes Link) stands out. Each week, James and John sit down and discuss Apple news, unique eBay auctions (like a pallet of Color Classics and PowerBook Duos), and the “Retro Mac of the Week.”

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Macworld’s Jason Snell recently test-drove a MSI Wind running OS X. In his two pages of ponderings on the little notebook, Snell does something that I found surprising: comparing the Wind to Apple’s MacBook Air:

While the Wind is not a terrible laptop, it most definitely feels cheap. Apple’s Aluminum-clad laptops all feel solid, and even the white plastic MacBook feels sturdy. The Wind’s plastic skin feels thinner and more flexible, especially on the bottom—it feels more like what you’d find in a clock radio or other cheap consumer appliance.

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I love retro computing, and I like well-done mods. RetroMacCast forum member option8 loves both, it seems. The hardware hacker has put a Mac mini inside a Apple Disk II case. Check out that link for photos.

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Apple announced today that the 20-inch Cinema Display has been discontinued. Apple killed off the 23-inch display when the 24-inch LED Cinema Display (the shiny, Mini DisplayPort-bearing one) hit stores, so now the only other display Apple ships is the beastly 30-inch.

Time will tell what this means. New Macs are imminent, and Apple has announced that Mini DisplayPort is the new standard for the Macintosh family, so maybe the 20-inch was just due to be buried.

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From The Gadgeteer’s interview with Marisa Giancarla, who is developing an e-book reader for the Newton OS:

I have not seen the iPhone SDK so I don’t know how it compares development-wise to the Newton, but the lack of pen and ink support and handwriting recognition still haven’t been reached on the iPhone. There is a natural draw to try and compare the two, both being handheld computing devices from the same company, but they are still quite different. I would love to see a tablet device from Apple, then at least the hardware features would be comparable.

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Yummy.

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iPhone and Mac developer Craig Hockenberry:

I’ll pass on a small reminder that an Apple employee gave me during Macworld: the App Store has only been live for a little over six months. Last month’s 25 year anniversary of the Mac should also remind us that this new market for our products is still in its infancy. Yes, it’s a wild ride at the moment, but if you think about your costs, customers and revenue streams, I think you’ll enjoy a very long journey.

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Apple’s MobileMe service has several limitations, but one got removed this week: iDisk file sharing:

We’re pleased to announce that you can now use your MobileMe iDisk to share files with others simply and easily. Instead of attaching a large document to an email and hoping it’s not too big to be received, you can place the file in your iDisk and use the new Share File command in the iDisk web app. It lets you send your friends, family, or colleagues a link they can click to download the file directly. You can password protect the link if you choose to and even set how long it will be available.

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