512 Pixels

It’s better to be a pirate than join the navy.

Happy 40th, Apple.

Lot of people wave their hands and complain about Apple’s lineup in the late 90s, but Riccardo Mori has done the hard work of listing all of the various Macintosh models that were for sale in 1996:

In a nutshell: there was some level of organisation in what many have called the chaos of Macs available back then, and despite the long list of Mac models, the families and form factors were just a few; one of the main causes that generated confusion in the Macintosh product line was the frequent rebranding, and the progressive meaninglessness of the Performa line as the consumer choice versus the Power Macintosh as synonymous of ‘Pro’ machine.

Sorry if I just spammed your RSS reader; I am doing a little behind-the-scenes stuff tonight and it was inevitable. Here’s a cool GIF.

Apple:

Safari is the best way to see the sites on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Safari Technology Preview gives you an early look at upcoming web technologies in OS X and iOS including the latest layout technologies, visual effects, and developer tools so you can provide input on how they are implemented and deliver a best-in-class user experience on all Apple devices.

As Jason Snell points out, Apple previously released “nightly builds” of WebKit, but this new program looks to offer a more structured testing platform.

Apple:

The Podcast Producer service can support different methods of authentication depending on the version of Mac OS X Server. This article explains how to enable or disable specific authentication methods in different versions of Mac OS X 10.5 Server.

You may be asking yourself, “What the hell is Podcast Producer?” I’ve got you covered:

Podcast Producer is a complete, end-to-end solution for encoding, publishing, and distributing high-quality podcasts. Ideal for employee training, university lectures, presentations — or whatever audio or video podcasts your organization requires — Podcast Producer simplifies the process of recording content, encoding, and publishing podcasts for playback in iTunes and on iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV.

Back in February, I wondered if a smaller Smart Keyboard could be any good. Jason Snell has gotten some time with the 9.7-inch iPad Pro and its keyboard. Here’s what he writes:

Since the new-model Smart Keyboard must double as a cover for the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, it’s necessarily scaled down from its 12.9-inch equivalent. The larger Smart Keyboard is 12 inches wide, enough space for a full-sized set of keys. The new, smaller model is only 9.4 inches wide, and that 2.6 inches of lost space does take a toll.

He does end up saying that the Smart Keyboard is totally usable, however. My guess is that if you’re a hardcore touch typist on the Mac, that this won’t be shockingly more comfortable than other, previous iPad keyboard cases. I’m jut glad that it’s not the dumpster fire I had feared it may be.

This month, in my column over at iMore:

This month’s old Mac is the weird cousin of the iMac G4 we looked at in February. Introduced only months after the iMac G4, the eMac mashed up old ideas with new tech: It retained the all-in-one design defined by the iMac G3, but it shipped with a larger 17-inch CRT display and used the same G4 chipset found in the LCD-equipped iMacs.

Priced at $999, it looked like a great deal — but you couldn’t just walk into a store and pick one up when it launched in April 2002. You see, the eMac wasn’t for the average user: It was for the education market.

This week on Connected, Federico and I talk about Apple’s new push into content, iOS 9.3 woes and the purpose of beta testing.

My thanks to our sponsors this week:

• PDFpenPro, from Smile: The All-Purpose PDF Editing Tool
• Ministry of Supply: Menswear made smarter. Use ‘connected’ for 15% off your first purchase.

Horace Dediu:

In Apple’s first 40 years it shipped 1,591,092,250 computers.

This shipment total is higher than any other computer company in its first 40 years. Actually there are no PC makers that are 40 years old. One computer maker (IBM) is older but they only sold PCs for 24 years and what they still sell they don’t sell in high numbers.

The tiny iPod shuffle was introduced as a “One More Thing” back in 2005 at the same Macworld where the Mac mini showed up. It was designed to push further into the low-end market than the iPod mini had done, but that’s a story for another time.

The first Shuffle was built like a glorified USB thumb drive. This new player was smaller than a pack of chewing gum, and built around the concept of shuffling your music. There was no need for a screen or a true clickwheel. If you wanted to listen to music in order, the switch on the back could be set to continuous playback. iTunes could even autofill the device’s 512MB or 1GB of flash storage from music in your library.

The second-generation Shuffle was a big departure for the tiny device. The first generation sold 10 million units, and 2006’s model capitalized on what made the first one great. As you can see, it’s much smaller. The real trick was that this iPod shuffle was a wearable. Gone was the lanyard; in its place, a simple clip. To reduce the size, Apple ditched the USB plug, replacing it with a Dock that synced data via the headphone port.

In 2009, Apple revamped the Shuffle again, but I think they went too far. The company ditched the physical controls, relying instead on in-line controls on the built-in earbuds. Apple also bundled VoiceOver, allowing the iPod to read out information about what’s playing and giving users the ability to choose between playlists.

This device didn’t go over well. It was confusing to use, leading Apple to publish a 4-minute video tour walking users through the controls and features.

Thankfully, logic won out, and the current iPod shuffle is more or less a smaller version of the 2nd-gen model. VoiceOver is still on board, but the familiar ring of buttons is back.

Unlike a lot of Apple products I talk about, the Shuffle is still around. $49 will get you a 2GB player in a range of six colors. It’s been for sale for 6 years without a revision, but if you’re looking for something to work out with or take on a run and don’t want to take your phone, it’s hard to beat something that weighs less than half an ounce.

This fortnight on Liftoff, Jason and I take a tour of the space stations that have graced Low-Earth orbit over the decades.

My thanks to our sponsor, Luminos, which is a fantastic astronomy app, 10 years in the making! Now with an Apple Watch app for skygazing!

Interact empowers you and your contacts to get more done in less time, with features like group management, one-tap contact creation, and easy communication.

Interact works directly with your iOS Contacts accounts, adding features not available in the built-in iPhone and iPad Contacts app, like:

• Group management. Create and manage membership in groups.
• Capture contact information from plain text anywhere with the system with the Contact Scratchpad. The Scratchpad automatically recognizes phone numbers, emails, addresses and much more to easily turn an email signature or other block of text into a complete contact record.
• Send group emails and messages with attachments from photos or files from Dropbox, iCloud Drive, Google Drive or any other iOS document provider.

And best of all, since Interact works directly with iOS Contacts, any done in Interact is immediately reflected throughout iOS wherever contacts are used.

Get Interact on the App Store today!