512 Pixels

This MacBook Pro is very different from the one without a Touch Bar: it has a second fan, exhaust vents and the speakers don’t line up with the grilles on either side of the keyboard.

In the wake of this morning’s news, I thought it would be worthwhile to talk a little bit about how Apple treats its past.

There’s no doubt that Steve Jobs didn’t like to look back. He donated Apple’s historical library to Stanford:

“The Apple collections, gathered by Apple’s impressive library and archival staff, reflect what amounts to the Apple crusade, as led by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Mike Markkula and John Sculley,” said Michael A. Keller, Stanford university librarian, director of Academic Information Resources and publisher of HighWire Press. “Stanford is proud to have received this well-organized and complete record of the Apple story to date.”

The collections, which have been managed by records management and library staff at Apple since the mid-1980s, were intended for an Apple museum that was never built. They already have been moved to Stanford and will be housed and maintained for research use in the department of special collections in Green Library. Inventories and finding aids for researchers will be prepared during the coming year.

In addition to the museum collection, Apple is giving Stanford historical materials from the recently closed Apple corporate library in Cupertino. These include book and periodical collections about Apple computers and software, user group newsletters, artifacts, press releases and speeches. Records from the Apple Library Users Group and the Apple Library of Tomorrow program also are part of the gift.

Then there’s this, from 1990:

Steve Jobs: pic.twitter.com/AdSX3IJADh

— Ben Thompson (@benthompson) November 15, 2016

This Jobs quote adorns the wall outside of Apple’s Town Hall:

If you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go so something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.

Like many things however, this view of the world is changing in the post-Jobs Apple.

In 2014, Apple celebrated the Mac’s 30th birthday. There was the 40 Years in 40 Seconds video, and in the most recent event, a PowerBook 170 was one of many vintage notebooks included in the presentation. Old iPhones routinely get made into graphics for keynotes. Phil Schiller has denied rumors that Campus 2 will include a public museum, but I have heard multiple times that an internal library of old software and some hardware has been rebuilt in recent years.

The point is that while nostalgia was not part of Jobs’ DNA, it has resurfaced in Apple’s. The company is changing, and part of that includes things like this new book.

Some find it troubling or uncomfortable, but I don’t think it is. A photo book of Macs and iPhones isn’t what is keeping Apple from releasing a Mac Pro. A promo video including the iBook G3 didn’t force the company to remove MagSafe from its new notebooks.

Apple can continue to push ahead, even as it allows itself the occasional glance in the rearview mirror. The company has an amazing history, and it’s okay to be proud of it.

This week on Connected, Federico and I talk about Apple’s new book, the Touch Bar’s potential and Snapchat possibly paving the way for future Apple glasses.

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I’m happy to announce that I’m going to be doing some writing over at MacStories. Up first, a look at some weird “in-between” Macs Apple has released over the last couple of decades:

Every transition in technology brings a period of time in which less-than-optimal decisions have to be made. Price, features and timelines are always at war with one another.

It’s the first time the G4 Cube has been written about on MacStories. I know my strengths.

John Vorhees at MacStories:

In connection with announcement, Jony Ive was interviewed by Japanese design website Casa Brutus. Ive describes the motivation behind the creation of Designed by Apple in California, but also has a lot to say about Apple’s design process.

The opening of this kbase article reads like a sad poem:

The Power Mac G4 computer screen is black. The boot tone is not present, the drive does not operate, the fan is running, and LED is lit.

This article is a rare one, in that it wasn’t originally mean for the public, as Apple states:

This article covers repair procedures for authorized service providers on selected Apple products, but we have published them in the Knowledge Base for the general public for educational purposes.

At this time, there are a limited number of repairs that a customer can perform and these are covered under the customer installable parts program http://www.info.apple.com/installparts. If you have not been authorized to perform these procedures, please contact Apple (800-APL-CARE in the USA) or your local authorized service provider to schedule a repair.

This part follows, and is in red (!) text on Apple’s website:

DANGER! This procedure exposes you to high voltages that can result in death or serious injury. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS PROCEDURE IF YOU HAVE NOT BEEN CERTIFIED AS AN APPLE-AUTHORIZED TECHNICIAN.

Welp.

Apple has announced a new product I did not see coming:

Apple today announced the release of a new hardbound book chronicling 20 years of Apple’s design, expressed through 450 photographs of past and current Apple products. “Designed by Apple in California,” which covers products from 1998’s iMac to 2015’s Apple Pencil, also documents the materials and techniques used by Apple’s design team over two decades of innovation.

I’m more into this stuff than almost anyone, and I find this odd. Even after last year’s “40 Years in 40 Seconds” video, something this retrospective feels weird.

Especially this bit:

The book is dedicated to the memory of Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs wasn’t one to look back. In fact, he donated Apple’s internal historical collection to Stanford upon his return to the company.

(Then again, Apple says the project has been in the works for eight years. Wild.)

Make no mistake, I will be buying one of these tomorrow, but I can’t help but wonder what’s behind it. Jony Ive’s fingerprints are all over this, and he’s quoted heavily in the press release. Is this his farewell tour, or just a project he wanted to get out the door now that Campus 2 is almost done?

Apple has been more in touch with its history in the last few years, but this is different. It’s Ive’s history.

I just wish it covered more than Ive’s hits of the last two decades. If you want a book like this that spans all of Apple’s history, check out Iconic.

This guest post is written by Thomas Brand. You know he can be trusted because his blog looks like a Newton.

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In an era where Apple continues to sell last year’s MacBook Pro, and the Mac Pro has not been updated in over one thousand days, I am reminded of a Mac that Apple brought back from the grave to meet the needs of desktop publishing professionals reluctant to upgrade.

The Power Macintosh G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors 2003) was Released on June 23, 2003, alongside the new Power Macintosh G5. It replaced the six month old Power Mac G4 (FireWire 800) that came before it.

Unlike its successor, the Power Macintosh G4 (MDD 2003) lacked a G5 processor, aluminum enclosure and USB 2.0. Unlike its predecessor, the Power Macintosh G4 (MDD 2003) lacked FireWire 800, AirPort Extreme and built-in Bluetooth.

It came in two CPU configurations, single or dual 1.25 GHz; with 256 MB of DDR RAM and a 12X Combo Drive. Hard disk capacity started at 80 GBs; with Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar preinstalled.

But what made the Power Macintosh G4 (MDD 2003) special wasn’t its specs, rather the fact it could boot into Mac OS 9.

That’s becuase the Power Macintosh G4 (MDD 2003) wasn’t a new computer. It was a year old design Apple brought back from the dead.

It was reanimated to appease desktop publishing professionals who could not yet make the transition to Mac OS X. Their excuse, QuarkXPress.

At the time, QuarkXPress was the industry standard desktop publishing platform.¹ Version 5 had been released less than a year earlier but only ran on Mac OS 9 and Windows. When asked for an update Quark CEO Fred Ebrahimi was quick to respond, taunting users to switch to Windows if they didn’t like it, saying, “The Macintosh platform is shrinking and anyone dissatisfied with Quark’s Mac commitment should “switch to something else.

Most desktop publishing professionals switched, but instead of Windows they choose Adobe InDesign; Adobe’s competing page layout program that ran on Mac OS X.

Apple helped switchers by offering discounts on Adobe’s Design software when purchasing a new Power Mac or PowerBook, but there were still plenty of desktop publishing professionals who felt stranded.

Instead of turning them away, Apple offered the Power Macintosh G4 (MDD 2003) as a lifeboat; a discounted $1,299 Macintosh that could keep running QuarkXpress. Discontinued on June 9, 2004, the Power Macintosh G4 (MDD 2003) was the last Mac that could boot into Mac OS 9.

Today Apple continues to sell old Macs from years past in an effort to meet missing price points. But not since the Power Macintosh G4 (MDD 2003) has it resurrected a discontinued computer to appease customers. By keeping the Mac Pro 2013 alive maybe it doesn’t have to. After all isn’t a half dead Mac Pro better than no Mac Pro at all?

I have a little project to announce soon. It — and very occasional other goodies — get sent out via the newsletter. Go check it out.

Emails are sporadic at best; I won’t be noisy in your inbox. I respect your privacy. I won’t sell your email address or harvest your organs.

Want to see what having a Touch Bar is like without driving to an Apple Store or spending a bunch of money? Daniel Jalkut has you covered with a new app.

(Warning: It will make you really want to touch your Mac’s screen.)

The review embargo for the new MacBook Pros just dropped. Let’s see what people have to say.

Jason Snell at Six Colors was impressed with the personality present in Apple’s design:

But what really surprised me were the animations. The Touch Bar is an animated interface through and through. Items don’t just fade in and out, but also slide smoothly back and forth. The arrow pointing from the Touch Bar to the Touch ID sensor during a request for an unlock grows and shrinks, practically begging you to put your finger down. There’s a lot more personality here than I expected.

Apple’s best products have some whimsy baked in.

Christina Warren thinks the Touch Bar needs some time to mature:

In the end, real story with the MacBook Pro is the Touch Bar. It’s somewhat useful, but it’s still so undersupported for apps beyond Apple’s that, at least for right now, the Touch Bar is not reason enough to get a new MacBook Pro. Particularly if you’re already satisfied with the performance of your existing machine. If you need a new MacBook Pro and you can’t wait for the Kaby Lake refreshes already rumored, the benefits of the internal specs matched with the cool-factor of the Touch Bar make this a good Mac. For everyone else this is a gimmick on a very good, way too expensive laptop.

I think that’s fair. Apple’s apps have an unfair advantage right now, but I expect the utility of the Touch Bar will only get better as it sees wider adoption.

However, as Jacob Kastrenakes at The Verge points out, even Apple’s apps need some work:

The Touch Bar gets worse when Apple tries to do too much with it. In Pages, for example, the Touch Bar displays at least five types of buttons: one that slides out with a keyboard, one that pops up new formatting options, two that drill down into scrollable menus, one that drills down into a static menu, and several more that are just toggles.

I wasn’t shocked to read that Apple’s first-party applications aren’t fully consistent. Many of Apple’s apps have their own teams — sometimes in remote locations — and I can imagine they approached things all slightly differently. Hell, Logic isn’t even supported yet, while Final Cut Pro has rich support already.

All of these reviews have a slightly different take on the Touch Bar. According to an interview with Steven Levy, Apple’s Phil Schiller was expecting that:

We care about the feedback but we know that the fundamental difference on where their opinions are coming is between those who had a chance to use it and those who haven’t. There are people who want us to innovate faster and when we do there’s people who say, ‘Whoa, whoa, you’re going too fast.’ That’s just a balance in the world.

There’s always something for a critic to beat up on anybody’s notebook, because you have to make choices. I know our team made very smart choices and this is the best notebook that can be made with the greatest technology.

I haven’t used it yet, but my gut says the Touch Bar has the potential to add a lot to the Mac experience. It’s important to remember that this is the first step. Once third-party developers get to spend time with it, and once the hardware is available to desktop users then it will have the opportunity to truly change how we interact with our Macs.

It’s going to take some time for the dust to settle.

Until then, it seems like a nice addition to the more expensive MacBook Pros. Mine doesn’t have it, and I think I am okay with my choice … for now.

I recently sat in on a recording of The Incomparable to talk about The Right Stuff:

The epic film about the early days of the space race, 1983’s “The Right Stuff,” is on the launch pad this week. What does the film say about modern mythmaking? Can you have too much Chuck Yeager? Is this peak Dennis Quaid? Why do astronauts have to be test pilots instead of demolition-derby drivers? We’ll figure it out. Let’s light this candle!