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Jason Snell has a big feature over at The Verge today:

This week, I asked Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, the same question I asked Jobs for the Mac’s 20th anniversary and Schiller for the Mac’s 30th: as Apple adds yet more platforms and priorities, what does the Mac’s future look like?

No surprise, Joswiak gave me pretty much the same answer: “The Mac is the foundation of Apple… and today 40 years later it remains a critical part of our business,” he said. “The Mac will always be part of Apple. It’s a product that runs deep within the company, and defines who we are.”

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This video from the January 1984 Boston Computer Society meeting is really special:

The machine was actually introduced a few days before at Apple’s annual shareholders meeting, but the Boston Computer video is of higher quality, and includes a panel made up of Steve Capps, Andy Hertzfeld, Randy Wigginton, Bill Atkinson, Bruce Horn, Burrell Smith, Owen Densmore and Rony Sebok, taking questions from the audience. There’s a spicy one about the Apple III in there that’s a lot of fun.

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Jonathan Zufi has put together something really special to mark today:

To celebrate this milestone, mac40th.com showcases every Macintosh desktop and portable Apple has ever made with hundreds of the photos taken as part of the work creating the coffee table book ICONIC: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation (3rd edition now available up to date as of the end of 2023). The site also includes photos taken by Kevin Taylor, Forest McMullin and others (including video) that I’ve collected over the past 14 years.

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Steve Levy, writing at Wired, got to speak with a bunch of folks at Apple:

Before our video conference ends, I pop a final question: Will Apple be selling Macintoshes 40 years from now?

“It’s hard to imagine there being an Apple and not having a Mac,” says [Greg] Joswiak. “It is in our blood — it’s a product that defines who we are.” [Craig] Federighi takes a shot at explaining why, in an industry where the standard is ephemeral, the machine that Steve Jobs introduced might be immortal. “The Mac has been able to absorb and integrate the industry’s innovations,” he says. “With each major technology wave, from graphical computing to the internet to even creating tools for mobile, the Mac has taken potential and turned it into intuitive creative tools for the rest of us. With seemingly disruptive waves like spatial computing and AI, the Mac will renew itself over and over.”

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In April 1984, the first issue of Macworld went on sale, with Steve Jobs on the cover:

The entire thing is safe and sound over on the Internet Archive, and I suggest you spend some time flipping through it. Andrew Fluegelman’s feature on the making of the machine starts on page 126 and includes writing from Andy Hertzfeld, Joanna Hoffman, Bill Atkinson, Chris Espinosa, Susan Kare, Burrell Smith and more.

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Today marks the Mac’s 40th anniversary. Joe Rossignol at MacRumors found the company’s original press release for the machine, and it’s a real gem:

Apple Computer today unveiled its much-anticipated Macintosh computer, a sophisticated, affordably priced personal computer designed for business people, professionals and students in a broad range of fields. Macintosh is available in all dealerships now. Based on the advanced, 32-bit architecture developed for Apple’s Lisa computer, Macintosh combines extraordinary computing power with exceptional ease of use–in a unit that is smaller and lighter than most transportable computers. The suggested retail price for Macintosh is $2,495, which during the introductory period also includes a word-processing program and graphics package.

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With iOS 17.3, Apple has (optionally) made it more difficult for someone with your iPhone and PIN to lock you out of your Apple ID:

Stolen Device Protection adds a layer of security when your iPhone is away from familiar locations, such as home or work, and helps protect your accounts and personal information in case your iPhone is ever stolen.

This extra security comes in two forms:

• Face ID or Touch ID biometric authentication: Some actions such as accessing stored passwords and credit cards require a single biometric authentication with Face ID or Touch ID — with no passcode alternative or fallback — so that only you can access these features.
• Security Delay: Some security actions such as changing your Apple ID password also require you to wait an hour and then perform a second Face ID or Touch ID authentication.

This comes almost a year after Joanna Stern and Nicole Nguyen reported on the issue, which was eye-opening to many of us. I instantly turned this on, and you should too.

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TLDR: I have joined David Smith’s company and will be working with him on his portfolio of apps, including Widgetsmith, Pedometer++, Sleep++ and more.¹

This isn’t changing anything I do at Relay or here on 512 Pixels, but it is important to me to disclose this change in my working life.

Year of the Long Now

Later this year, Relay will turn 10 years old and this blog will turn 16. In July, it will be 9 years since I left my job to go indie.

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Jason and Myke did something fun this week on Upgrade:

Celebrating 40 years of the Mac, we’ve gathered an all-star panel of longtime Mac users to pick the best Macs, Mac software, and Mac accessories, as well as induct a few events or devices into the Mac Hall of Shame.

It was a blast to be on the panel, joining my pals Dan Moren, John Gruber, John Siracusa and Shelly Brisbin to honor the Mac as it enters its next decade.

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What happens when you are afraid a member of a spaceflight crew is going to do something really stupid? You lock the hatch, apparently. This story is wild.

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I can’t think of another first-party Apple app that has had a weirder rollout than this thing.

Especially given the fact that it seems to crash at launch.

The app has been updated again and the CarPlay version has been removed.

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Unite 5 for macOS takes your web experience to the next level, transforming websites into feature-rich Mac apps. Powered by a completely redesigned WebKit browser, Unite 5 offers a more immersive and customizable browsing experience.

What sets Unite 5 apart? We’ve gone beyond just app conversion. Our new intricate link-forwarding rules give you unparalleled control over web interactions, making your web apps smarter and more integrated than ever before.

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