Apple Matters

Mac Pro on the Chopping Block?

2011-11-02T15:58:00+00:00

If you read Apple Insider you've heard the rumor, the next product to be jettisoned by Apple will be the Mac Pro. The main culprit, as was the case with the Xserve, is slow sales. Which all makes perfect sense but doesn't address the deeper question of…

Siri Streamlines Halloween (toon)

2011-10-28T12:43:01+00:00

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Steve Jobs: Hero or Fiend?

2011-10-26T13:25:00+00:00

The reaction to the death of Steve Jobs has been predictable, specials on TV, magazine covers and moments of silence. Not really surprising, mass mourning is part of being famous. The flip side of the adulation is that people are going to hate…

Tim Cooks first big day (toon)

2011-10-20T13:29:00+00:00

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How Badly is Timothy Cook Effed?

2011-10-18T16:07:00+00:00

Tim Cook is in the uncomfortable position of replacing Steve Jobs . You're thinking that Tim gets to run one of the coolest companies in the world, makes so much dough that his weekly paycheck has to be extra long to hold all the zeroes and sets…

August 11, 1955: Steve Wozniak Born

2011-08-11T12:00:00+00:00

Steve Jobs had the marketing savvy but Steve Wozniak had the technical skills. Interested in technology at an early age Woz, as Steve Wozniak is popularly known, would go on to design the Apple I, the Apple II and a very slick, and very popular disk drive.

August 10, 2004: iTunes Hits Million Song Catalogue Mark

2011-08-10T12:02:00+00:00

When Apple first released iTunes at the 2001 MacWorld San Francisco people saw the program as both a useful addition to the Mac software library and an admission that Apple felt it had missed the boat on the music swapping revolution.

When the iPod came out… ]]>

August 9, 1987: HyperCard Released

2011-08-09T12:09:00+00:00

Apple has overlooked a lot of potential hits over the years but one of the biggest mistakes was HyperCard.

It was a new way of managing information that relied on a note card metaphor. Users could enter information on the virtual note card and link… ]]>

August 8, 2005: iTunes Is a Hit in Japan

2011-08-08T12:06:00+00:00

iTunes rolled out in the United States in XXXX. Japan was a different matter. Apple was able to reach a deal with the music providers in the land of the Rising Sun until the second half of 2005.

When iTunes was introduced in the United States… ]]>

August 7, 1997: Bill Gates Appears at MacWorld

2011-08-07T12:00:00+00:00

Gather a herd of Mac lovers in a centralized location, get Steve Jobs to do the keynote and you have a recipe for a lot of "boos," at least if the presentation also includes an appearance by Bill Gates on a giant video screen.

Bill Gates… ]]>

August 6, 1997: Apple Board Shakeup

2011-08-06T12:04:00+00:00

Looking at the list of Apple Presidents over the years, you'll note quite a bit of change. Starting with Michael Scott the position then went to Mike Markkula. Markkula was succeeded by John Scully who was followed by Michael Spindler and Gil Amelio. Finally, Steve Jobs returned… ]]>

August 5, 1997: The Return of ChiatDay

2011-08-05T12:00:00+00:00

When Steve Jobs was ousted from Apple, Chiat\Day soon followed. Obviously, feeling the move was a mistake Steve took out an ad saying that Apple had made a huge blunder by axing Chiat\Day.

In full control of Apple for the first time Steve quickly switched the… ]]>

August 4, 1997: Think Different Campaign Revealed

2011-08-04T12:37:00+00:00

What do John Lennon, Picasso, Albert Einstein, Muhammad Ali and Ted Turner all have in common? They were all featured as people who, ungrammatically, "Thought Different" in Apple first marketing campaign post Steve Jobs return.

Te campaign attempted to make the Mac the computer of choice… ]]>

August 3, 1993: Newton Debuts

2011-08-03T11:27:00+00:00

Apple was counting on the Newton to replace the Mac as the company's primary source of income. Then President John Sculley had thrown all his weight behind the project and the engineers who worked on the device read like a cast of Apple All-Stars.

The Newton… ]]>

August 2, 2005: Mighty Mouse Released

2011-08-02T12:00:00+00:00

The debate about the one button mouse raged for years. Proponents claimed that the one button mouse was easier for novices to use and cited early Apple research to back up their claims. Those that disagreed said the single button mouse was too limited and in the… ]]>

August 1, 1997: The Definitive Boston MacWorld

2011-08-01T12:35:00+00:00

At one time MacWorld Boston was the summer edition of MacWorld. New product introductions, vendor booths, the whole Apple MacWorld feel but on the East Coast and in the middle of summer.

Alas, a Boston MacWorld is but a fond memory for Bostonians, the annual gathering… ]]>

July 31, 1982: Lisa Works for the First Time

2011-07-31T12:34:00+00:00

The Mac's roots are often traced to Xerox PARC. The deepest roots undoubtably tap into the desktop metaphor Apple employees first saw on at the PARC demonstration but the biggest influence on the Mac was the Lisa.

The Lisa had a lot of problems, everything from… ]]>

July 30, 1979: Lisa Project Gets Rolling

2011-07-30T09:19:00+00:00

Trip Hawkins (of Electronic Arts fame) and Steve Jobs were looking for a machine that would be better than the Apple II. They came up with a rather boring and conventional machine that was tagetted to ship in 1981.

The machine was supposed to sell for… ]]>

July 29, 1993: Apple Introduces AV series of Computers

2011-07-29T11:19:00+00:00

In the current computing climate the notion that you can get video from a source onto you computer is a given. That wasn't always the case. Apple pioneered the easy video import video market with their line of AV computers. The line consisted of the Mac 660AV… ]]>

July 28, 1945: As We May Think Published in Atlantic Monthly

2011-07-28T11:08:00+00:00

Vannevar Bush was a prescient guy, and an individual whose influence on computers was vast but remains underrated. Bush had this to say about computers:

" Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a… ]]>

July 26, 2005: Last iBook Introduced

2011-07-26T11:07:00+00:00

When the first iBook was introduced it was clearly aimed at consumers, everything from the funky shape to the impossible to miss colors screamed that this was not a laptop aimed at the professional.

The intervening years saw the looks transform from play doh flouresccent… ]]>

July 25, 1992: Woz Starts Teaching

2011-07-25T19:07:00+00:00

If you're ever in the market for a Silicon Valley hero you could do a lot worse than picking Steve Wozniak as your model for the ideal silicon valley millionaire.

Woz was not only a great engineer, he also gave something back to community that many… ]]>

July 24, 2000: Steve Jobs Predicts iMovie Will Be Bigger than Desktop Publishing

2011-07-24T10:25:01+00:00

iMovie is a the ultimate example of once prohibitively expensive media democratized for the average person. Credit Glen Reid for the truly clever programming but credit Steve Jobs with the passion for bringing low cost video editing to the masses.

How convinced was Steve Jobs… ]]>

July 23, 1981: Steve Jobs Perfectionism Is Displayed on the Original Mac Project

2011-07-23T05:19:00+00:00

Steve Jobs has a many enviable qualities. His attention to detail, his ability to grasp what people actually want, his management style and presentation skills are all things that many CEO's envy.

Anything, taken to the extreme, can yield less than desirable results. Steve's insistence that… ]]>

July 22, 1997: OS 8 Rolls Out

2011-07-22T14:24:00+00:00

Mac OS 8 was interesting for more than OS advances. It was interesting because the OS was supposed to be the first apperance of the all new operating system Copland but even more interesting because it effectively voided most of the contracts the clone makers had with… ]]>

July 21, 1999: WiFi Introduced…By Apple

2011-07-21T14:24:00+00:00

The iMac was a huge success for Apple. With a homerun like that, the question naturally arises "How can we repeat that with a laptop?" Apple's answer was the iBook. The machine had several shortcomings: it was heavy, the styling was questionable and the price was considered… ]]>

July 20, 1982: Hertzfeld Listens to Alan Kay

2011-07-20T14:24:00+00:00

The programmer behind a lot of what was good about the original Macintosh was Andy Herzfeld. While Herzfeld had a rebel streak and couldn't abide corporate politics he was also smart enough to appreciate good ideas when he heard them.

Herzfeld heard many good ideas when… ]]>

July 19, 2000: Cube Introduced

2011-07-19T14:23:00+00:00

The G4 cube was hailed by the media as a design breakthrough. There is little wonder why, the small form factor and convection cooling made the cube a desirable computer for anyone who valued form and silent computing while still demanding near top of the line performance.

July 17, 2002: Apple Kills iTools

2011-07-17T20:12:00+00:00

If you were using iTools, Apple's suite of web enhancements used to help lure people into buying Mac OS 8, you got a nasty bit of news when you checked your iTools account.

"Today we announced .Mac, pronounced "Dot Mac," that replaces the Apple iTools service.… ]]>

July 16, 1994: A Mac Does DOS

2011-07-16T12:26:00+00:00

A Macintosh booting into Windows seems passe since the release of Boot Camp. Perhaps surprisingly, Boot Camp it isn't the first dual boot solution Apple offered. That honor goes to the LC 630 DOS caompatible.

The Mac side of the machine was powered by a 33MHz… ]]>

July 15, 1985: Aldus PageMaker Completed!

2011-07-15T12:27:00+00:00

Most people with a bent for technology are aware how Xerox influenced Apple's development of the GUI. What many tech geeks are unaware of is how Kodak made the Mac a viable business.

Sales of the nascent Mac had been in line with expectations for the… ]]>

July 14, 2002: Apple Previews Jaguar

2011-07-14T11:00:00+00:00

In the great cavalcade of cat names the first one that really mattered was Jaguar, the code name for OS 10.2. The first iteration of OS X was code named Cheetah and offered as a beta version for $29.99. The second iteration was Puma and retailed for… ]]>

July 13, 1994: PowerBook 150 Introduced

2011-07-13T12:27:01+00:00

One of the first low cost PowerBooks introduced was the PowerBook 150. The price was nice but Apple made it clear that this wasn't the top of the line model, or even close.

The PowerBook 150 lacked, for the time, the ever useful ADB port and… ]]>

July 12, 1981: Mac Business Plan Goes Gold

2011-07-12T12:28:00+00:00

The Mac's first business plan under the leadership of Steve Jobs was crudely produced but full of ambitious sales targets. Macs, the plan plainly stated, would cost $1500, ship in 1982 and sell over 2 million units in less than three years.

The plan was… ]]>

July 11, 2004: iTunes Hits 100 Million Songs Sold Mark

2011-07-11T12:28:00+00:00

On July 11 Kevin Britten, a resident of Hays Kansas, did something wholly unremarkable, he downloaded a song from iTunes.

While downloading a song from iTunes requires very little effort Kevin was richly rewarded for his purchase of "Somersault (Dangermouse remix)." Not only did Kevin get… ]]>

July 10, 1981: Michael Scott Leaves Apple

2011-07-10T11:31:01+00:00

Apple's first President, Michael Scott, had lost any real power shortly after Black Wednesday. Yet former, President Scott stayed on the payroll in no small part because Apple was about to stage a second offering of stock.

With Apple's second successful stock sale completed, the sole… ]]>

July 9, 1997: Dr. Gil Amelio Resigns

2011-07-09T11:10:01+00:00

When someone asks, "Who saved Apple?" the knee jerk reaction is to give all the credit to Steve Jobs. That answer leaves out a crucial part of the equation: who brought Steve back?

The answer to the second question is: Dr. Gil Amelio. Dr.Amelio had taken… ]]>

July 8, 2004: Apple Stops Taking Orders for the iMac

2011-07-08T07:13:00+00:00

The iMac, since its introduction, has been Apple's flagship product. The iMac generally features Apple's pro line chip at a consumer friendly price and, to top it all off, an integrated monitor. In short, the iMac has always been Apple's most compelling computer for consumers.

Unfortunately,… ]]>

July 7, 2001: G4 Cube Discontinued

2011-07-07T06:12:01+00:00

The Power Mac G4 Cube was widely hailed as a great computer, pundits couldn't stop gushing about the convection cooled, positively tiny tissue box design. The cube design smacked of originality in every area, whether it was the vertical slot loading media drive or the clever way… ]]>

July 6, 2000: Goodbye Hockey Puck, Hello Pro Mouse

2011-07-06T05:12:00+00:00

The original iMac brought a lot of nice things with it, increased market share, stylish looks and renewed profitability. With the good came some bad, in this case the hockey puck mouse. While some users loved the translucent puck, the vast majority found it too light, too… ]]>