History

A love letter to an old-school Macintosh

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Ian Bogost, The Atlantic:

Everything about this computer is loud: The groan of the power supply is loud. The hum of the cooling fan is loud. The whir of the hard disk is loud. The clack of the mechanical keyboard is loud. It’s so loud I can barely think, the kind of noise I usually associate with an airline cabin: whoom, whoom, whoom, whoom.

This is the experience a computer user would have had every time she booted up her Macintosh SE, a popular all-in-one computer sold by Apple from 1987 to 1990. By today’s standards the machine is a dinosaur. It boasts a nine-inch black-and-white display. Mine came with a hard disk that offers 20 megabytes of storage, but some lacked even that luxury. And the computer still would have cost a fortune: The version I have retailed for $3,900, or about $8,400 in 2019 dollars.

And:

The original Macintosh was an adorable dwarf of a computer. About the size of a full-grown pug, its small footprint, built-in handle, and light weight made it easy to transport and stow. Perched on a single, wide paw, the machine looks perky and attentive, as if it’s there to serve you, rather than you it.

Though the Macintosh SE was a speed-demon compared to the original 128K Macintosh, compared to any modern computing device, the performance was relatively the same.

This article was written on a Macintosh SE and, if old school is your thing, it’s kind of glorious.

Steve Jobs talks Apple’s DNA

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This is from Apple’s iPad 2 rollout, on March 2, 2011. Steve Jobs was on medical leave, came back for this event. Steve’s talk was interesting in and of itself, but as I watched to the end, I couldn’t help but feel an emotional appreciation in his voice.

Miss him.

Farewell then, iTunes, and thanks for saving the music industry from itself

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John Naughton, The Guardian:

The advent of the compact disc in the early 1980s meant that recorded music went from being analogue to digital. But CD music files were vast – a single CD came in at about 700MB.

And:

In 1993, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany came up with a way of shrinking audio files by a factor of 10 or more, so that a three-minute music track could be reduced to 3MB without much perceptible loss in quality. They called their new standard MP3.

And:

In 1999, a teenage geek named Shawn Fanning created a neat software system that enabled internet users who had MP3 tracks on their PCs not only to find others with similar assets but also to exchange these tracks with one another. Fanning called his file-sharing system Napster, released it on the internet and in the process changed the world.

Nice little look back at the market forces that made the music industry ripe for disruption. Enter Steve Jobs and Apple. And iTunes of course.

A look back at how Steve Jobs turned the music industry upside down

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This is an old article, appearing on the 10-year anniversary of the iTunes Music Store, but given the big changes Apple has announced for macOS Catalina, including a complete iTunes revamp, seemed appropriate.

A great read. Here’s a taste:

In its first week, iTunes sold one million downloads and soon became not only the top online music retailer but, displacing Walmart and Best Buy, the top music retailer. In a way, the service hastened the revolution that record executives feared the most – it shifted the business from expensive, high-revenue CDs to cheap, low-revenue singles. But there was no choice. There would always be online music thieves, but most consumers simply needed an easy, legal way to download songs. This was how fans would buy music in the future, whether the record industry liked it or not.

Jobs had incredible vision. Not sure anyone else could have pulled this off.

The inside story behind the birth of the spreadsheet

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Came across this link on Jason Snell’s excellent Six Colors this morning.

It’s a story that appeared way back in 1984, a retelling of a seminal moment in computing history, the birth of the spreadsheet in the late ’70s.

A great read, especially if you are interested in the history of Apple. VisiCalc, the spreadsheet that started it all, came to life on an Apple II.

Apple’s cassette from 1984: A Guided Tour of Macintosh and A Guided Tour of MacWrite & MacPaint

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[VIDEO] Every original Mac shipped with this cassette (see the video embedded in the main Loop post). So weird to think about it now, a cassette tape as guided tour, but this is the real deal.

I remember it like it was yesterday. I drove home from the computer store at warp speed, my brand new Macintosh in tow. Unpacked everything, amazed at the novelty of it all, thrilled to get started. MacWrite, MacPaint, the ImageWriter printer, and glacially slow floppy disks.

I was hooked from day one. Changed my life.

History of the music biz, in one graphic

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The thing that strikes me, absolutely, is that moment, right in the middle, where the music industry hit its height, and Napster stepped in.

I do think Napster was inevitable, and not the cause of the falloff. The availability of MP3 files over the internet made sharing possible, and piracy an obvious result.

The birth of MacStories

Written by

Federico Viticci:

Later this week on Saturday, April 20, MacStories will turn 10 years old.

It was Monday, April 20, 2009 when, fresh out of a job from which I had gotten fired, I decided to publish the first official post on my self-hosted blog after a few weeks of running a free WordPress.com website. I was 21. My English was terrible and, at the time, MacStories was written in two languages, English and Italian – probably to hide my discomfort as a non-native English speaker.

And:

For the first year, I poured my life into writing MacStories every day and trying to establish my name by reaching out to as many app makers, fellow bloggers, and readers as possible. My girlfriend can confirm this – I was working 15-hour days, including Christmas or my birthday, just to make MacStories happen.

Take a few minutes to read Federico’s story. As a fan, both of Federico and all that MacStories brings to the community, I found this retelling of a ten year look back to be inspiring.

Congratulations, Federico, and to all the rest of the MacStories team, both past and present.

Lessons learned working at Apple and with Steve Jobs

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Guy Kawasaki was an Apple Evangelist back in the day. These are a few of his capsule takeaways from two stints with Steve Jobs and Apple, one from 1983 to 1987, and another from 1995 to 1997.

Terrific, bite-sized read.

Apple promotional walk down memory lane

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[VIDEO] Harry McCracken, writing for FastCompany (back in 2015), came across this Apple promotional video that was likely created back in 1984, a look back on the very beginnings of Apple.

Part of the video’s charm is the way it treats the origins of the Apple I and Apple II as ancient history, even though even the Apple I had been introduced only eight years earlier. Woz explains that he designed the Apple I because he wanted a computer himself. “Steve went a little further,” he adds. “Steve saw it as a product which you can actually deliver, sell, and someone else can use.”

A quote from Steve in the video:

Every few days, Woz would say, ‘God, I’ve made an incredible breakthrough. I’ve saved a few chips here and there.’ I remember this iterative process of watching him get to this incredible stage, and then figure out a way to take another few parts out, and add three more features. And it kept getting better and better and better.

So much to love about this video. One particular comment:

If you watch the video as obsessively as I did, you’ll spot amazing little tidbits–almost like Easter eggs that its producers unwittingly hid away for us 21st-century tech aficionados to discover. Here, for instance, are images of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak wearing watches that you might mistake for Apple Watches, if you didn’t know the photos were a few decades old.

I remember noticing SteveJ’s watch when the Apple Watch first became a thing. Posted this time travel reference.

Anyway, enjoy the video, embedded in the main Loop post.

Steve Jobs and the upside down Apple logo

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Last week, I tweeted a pic showing an old Apple laptop. As was the case with all old Mac laptops, the Apple logo was upside down when open.

With a bit of help from Sérgio Miranda, I went down a bit of a rabbit hole to learn more.

From the linked Joe Moreno blog post:

The design group noticed that users constantly tried to open the laptop from the wrong end. Steve Jobs always focused on providing the best possible user experience and believed that it was more important to satisfy the user than the onlooker.

An interesting problem, one of competing interests. Should the user see the right side up logo, so they know which side to open? Or is it more important for the brand that the world see a right side up logo?

Obviously, Steve started with one opinion and then, when he returned to Apple, he flipped his decision. Possibly driven by shows that started putting stickers over the logo so the Apple would look “right” on screen.

Interesting bit of Apple history.

Apple’s legendary Clarus the dogcow

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[VIDEO] This really takes me back. Clarus was one of the elements that really showed the difference between Apple and the rest of the gray, gray world. I miss that particular brand of quirkiness.

Stephen Hackett does a nice job bringing this history to life in the video embedded in the main Loop post.

Moof!

Would Apple be remarkably different if Steve Jobs were still alive?

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This Reddit thread is provocative, but thoughtful. Rare to see a discussion like this not devolve into opposing, trolling camps.

I value perspective on Steve because he made so many dents in the universe and had such strong vision. Lessons (both positive and negative) worth holding onto.

Jean-Louis Gassée tells the tale of Be vs. NeXT, and Steve Jobs’ return

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If you’ve not followed along, long-time Apple exec Jean-Louis Gassée has been writing his memoirs, 50 years in tech.

In the latest episode, Jean-Louis digs into the series of events leading up to porting his company’s OS to the Mac, with the lure of selling the company to Apple. And the parallel path of Steve Jobs and NeXT leading to the same end.

Riveting and important piece of Apple history, from someone who was in the room early on, and then in the room at this important juncture.

Good stuff.

Kermit praising the Mac

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[VIDEO] For some reason, this video (embedded in main Loop post) surfaced on Reddit. Maybe someone reminiscing about Macworld Expo?

No matter, this was fun. See if you recognize the voice.

Ten years ago, Apple said goodbye to Macworld but set the stage for the future

Written by

Stephen Hackett, MacStories:

In January 2009, Apple took to the stage at Macworld Expo one final time. The company announced the change a few weeks before the show. Phil Schiller would deliver the keynote. News of Steve Jobs’ medical leave would break just weeks later, one day before the keynote.

And:

Apple leaving Macworld Expo was the beginning of the end. The show struggled for a couple of years after this, and 2014 would be the last year of the trade show.

I loved the Apple-centric Macworld Expo. The January 2009 expo definitely marked the end of an era.

At the same time, Apple pulled the plug on another relationship. Sad.

Jean-Louis Gassée: A short Steve anecdote and the heart wrenching birth of Be

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This is another entry in Jean-Louis’ terrific 50 Years in Tech memoir.

One bit that struck me:

As described in the Firing Frankness Monday Note, my exit arrangement with Apple involved staying another six months or so as a ”minister without portfolio”. As I pondered my next move, I got a pair of phone calls from Steve Jobs. First, he asked me how it felt to be fired, a smirking question that I deserved given that I was instrumental in his own dismissal. A few days later, another call. This time, Jobs offered to talk because “we could do great things together”. I declined. As discussed before, I knew I didn’t have the emotional strength to work for the charismatic NeXT founder.

The whole thing is worth reading. Makes me hungry for the next entry in the series, even though I know how this part ends.

The secret history of iPhone

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[VIDEO] Rene Ritchie:

On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs put sneaker to stage for what was the most incredible keynote presentation of his life.

Great turn of phrase, Rene. This video is a terrific look back at the birth of iPhone, with some excellent weaving of elements to tell the story. Video embedded in main Loop post.

Is the Macintosh a milestone? Infoworld op-ed from 1984

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Steven Sinofsky tweeted screen shots from a 1984 Infoworld article, digging into this new-fangled Macintosh and Steve Jobs comparison of the Mac to the telephone, in terms of potential ubiquity and importance.

Follow the thread, check all the images. Terrific.

Steve Jobs introducing the weirdest Mac of all time: the Apple Developer Transition Kit

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Even if you don’t have a single bit of developer in you, this is a fascinating look at an Apple product that never made the official catalog.

A taste, from the beginning of Stephen Hackett’s MacStories writeup:

In his keynote introducing the switch to Intel, Steve Jobs introduced the weirdest Mac of all time: the Apple Developer Transition Kit.

After announcing the change, Jobs revealed a secret. The Mac he had been using to demo software all morning actually had a 3.6 GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor inside.

Needless to say, the crowd went wild.

Great read.

Every product Apple has made so far

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This is a timeline showing every product Apple has ever made. Well, mostly.

One nit to pick is the QuickTake Camara, introduced as the QuickTake 100, followed by the QuickTake 150 and then, the QuickTake 200. The pic says QuickTake 100, but shows the 200. Just a nit. Any others?

This was a fun graphic for me, especially when I think about Steve Jobs’ personal timeline, especially what the product line looked like just before he returned to Apple, back in 1997. The QuickTake was one of those products Steve left on the cutting room floor.

An Open Letter to iPhone Owners from Steve Jobs (Sept 6, 2007)

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This blast from the past surfaced to the top of Reddit’s Apple forum yesterday. Note that the letter appeared in all the major Apple news sources of the day, published as written.

The letter was posted on September 6, 2007. The iPhone was officially released on June 29, 2007.

Not making a particular point here, just found this fascinating.

To all iPhone customers:

I have received hundreds of emails from iPhone customers who are upset about Apple dropping the price of iPhone by $200 two months after it went on sale. After reading every one of these emails, I have some observations and conclusions.

First, I am sure that we are making the correct decision to lower the price of the 8GB iPhone from $599 to $399, and that now is the right time to do it. iPhone is a breakthrough product, and we have the chance to ‘go for it’ this holiday season. iPhone is so far ahead of the competition, and now it will be affordable by even more customers. It benefits both Apple and every iPhone user to get as many new customers as possible in the iPhone ‘tent’. We strongly believe the $399 price will help us do just that this holiday season.

Second, being in technology for 30+ years I can attest to the fact that the technology road is bumpy. There is always change and improvement, and there is always someone who bought a product before a particular cutoff date and misses the new price or the new operating system or the new whatever. This is life in the technology lane. If you always wait for the next price cut or to buy the new improved model, you’ll never buy any technology product because there is always something better and less expensive on the horizon. The good news is that if you buy products from companies that support them well, like Apple tries to do, you will receive years of useful and satisfying service from them even as newer models are introduced.

Third, even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone, and even though the technology road is bumpy, we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these.

Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. Details are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple’s website next week. Stay tuned.

We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers. We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple.

Steve Jobs Apple CEO

The story of the birth of Apple, told as a manga

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I bought this book the second I heard about it. I think it was the cover that really drew me in.

Check it for yourself:

If the art style appeals to you, check out the book. It’s only $2.99, but it’s also only available on Amazon’s Kindle Store (you can read it in the Kindle app on your iOS device).

The story is oddly told and, in some places, almost incomprehensible, but it is also charming and made me laugh more than once. To me, this had the feel of a story translated from one language to another, with all the exaggerated elements of an often-told and well-loved legend.

If you’re cool with all that, I think it’s $2.99 well spent.