Apple fans celebrate 25 years of Mac
Long before fish swam in Macquariums, hipsters got Apple logo tattoos and thousands camped out for days to get into computer store openings, there was a machine. Saturday marks the 25th anniversary of the original Macintosh, the first personal computer to draw masses, introduce the mouse and incorporate a graphical user interface, relying on images instead of text. The Apple Inc. watershed product entered American consciousness amid fanfare, with a $1.5 million commercial, made by Ridley Scott, wowing audiences during Super Bowl XVIII. The piece’s title, “1984,” invoked author George Orwell’s message and stood as a warning against conformity. Two days after the ad ran, the Macintosh became available and life, as people knew it, changed. No longer were computers viewed as toys with which to play primitive games or as untouchable tools reserved for degreed engineers. We began to think different.
The Mac, which retailed for $2,495 was about 14 inches tall and took up about the same amount of desk space as a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 paper. It was smaller and lighter than most of the so called “portable” machines. The entire system could be slipped into an optional ($99) padded carrying case to be hoisted over your shoulder or placed under an airline seat. The case and computer together weighed 22 pounds. The original Macintosh machine had a 9 inch screen with 128k of RAM, an internal floppy drive, and came with keyboard and a single-button mouse. Apple previously released computers with a graphical user interface (GUI), like the Apple Lisa, that cost far more than the original Macintosh. Years after the launch of the first Macintosh by Apple, they later launched the iMac in 1998. It is now hard to find a working 25-year old Macintosh. Many have suffered a “bit rot,” which is when the memory chips inside the machine decay, leading to a gradual loss of functionality.
Source: CNN, PC World
Comments(46)
Long live the Mac
Just realised, that ipod company also made computers before it made ipods.
@2 Their ipods are better than their computers, even though you can't replace an ipod's battery without technical knowledege.
@2 steve
In 2008 Apple Macintosh was 3.26 percent of the worldwide market for personal computers. In comparison, Apple's ipod was 71 percent of all mp3 player sales. So it is not surprising that you didn't realise that Apple were a computer company first as computers are not the product they are most famous for now.
http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2008/04/24/mac-q1-2008-market-share-3-26-percent-worldwide-6-26-percent-in-the-us.aspx
http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/05/ipod-loses-mark.html
Aaaaah…good times. Remembered my youth!
Atari, Amiga, TRS even Canon had some input back then … the good ol’ days for the 30+ ers
Never lowered myself to a Mac though!
Apple may have been the first to get a mouse out, but in the late 70’s in a little country called England folks were already programming in Basic on a a home computer made by the Acorn company, called the Acorn Atom. Admittedly, a 2k memory, no maths chip as standard it was a basic PC, but add 10k and a maths chip and it was a good machine. Shame the folks at Acorn didn’t get the recognition they deserved, perhaps if they had started in the US they would be as big as Apple now. Still, congrats to Apple for going the distance.
I once had one of them old mac. but never used it much.
remember those big connected scrap paper people used to use for the computers?
25 years of overpriced electronics and the sheep that buy them.
@ 2 + @9
Really? People still write that?? That material is as old as apple!!
Bought my first 128K Mac for $2,495 plus tax 25 years ago. Then moved onto Apple Lisa which was sold for $10K with a beefy 512K of memory. The IBM PC users then laughed at us being sissy and wimpy in this graphical user interface with a stupid mouse and icons. Now look at what we are doing with the Windows operating system…clicks, icons and a mouse.
enjoy paying twice as much for a stupid logo. I swear, I can bring you my trashcan with the apple logo and youd probably end up buying it. Iam not blaming apple though, they are in it for the money . I paid 320 dollars for my netbook not even a week ago, if apple were to release something similar it would end up costing 200% more and you guys would eat it up.
I love my mac's
They're easily the most iconic computers ever (with maybe Atari in second place), so I suppose they have been granted a fashion status. But hell! (with games aside) they're nice to use and just..work! So I don't mind paying for that
. I'll always own a PC and a Mac.
Thank You for introducing the windowed GUI to the bigger public..
Bit rot? Crap quality… same then as today.
My C64 and Toshiba T3200 still run like a dream… an old dream.
I am a Mac, not a PC. They are the coolest icon on the planet. And most innovative. Watch any programme on tv and what do you see when a computer is in shot… that lovely little apple logo? If you do see a PC it's always the baddies, the uncool who have them. They just work. Even when they do go wrong, I still love 'em. Hey, no viruses either! I'd pay extra for that any day. Have brought both my children up on them now, and they love them too, along with their equally iconic iPods and iPhones.
As a tribute, there should be a whole bunch of apps uploaded!
Ole!
** Hot News from Cupertino, Apple HQ **
Apple release the MacBook Wheel :-
http://www.theonion.com/content/vide/apple_introduces_revolutionary
Enjoy
)
Apple Macs: $2495. ALWAYS.
Btw Bill Gates called, he says thx for "helping" early with the GUI and the first few mils of his $60bn fortune. Yoink!
"We don’t know how to make a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk" ~ Steve Jobs
Translation
"We can sell you ipods/iphones for 200-400 dollars, why would we want to make an affordable netbook for the same price."
Apple could easily make an affordable netbook/notebook if they really wanted to, but they wont, because they love to overprice their stuff. Take a look at Amazon's most popular items under the laptop section, numbers 1 to 5 on the list are netbooks that cost under 400 dollars.
keep paying twice for the same performance and looking like a cork sniffing arty farty girl by buying a mac.
in before 'you are too poor to buy a mac', 'you are not as cool as me because movie stars use mac', b4llshqt comments ;p
lalala
January 25th, 2009 | 14:30
..it doesn't matter how much preformance there is, if the OS prevents you from using it.
John
January 25th, 2009 | 14:26
The reason he called it 'a piece of junk' is because the current netbooks are underpowered, small cramped keyboards, tiny screens.. It's not something you associate with 'quality'.. And, when you look at the sales for notebooks; the top 25 notebook sales in the hollidays where either netbooks or MacBooks, it's not like they're losing out; other manufacturers do, Apple doesn't.
Really 25 years isn't that long for a religion to be around, is it? Hasn't even Scientology been around longer, not to mention being both cheaper and far less nutty (this being a relative thing, of course) in it's practices?
By the way, the iMessiah ain't looking too hot lately, it's like someone slashed his portrait of Dorian Grey and shrunk his centuries old collection of black turtlenecks. I guess that's what you get for making a deal with the iDevil (played by Bill Gates, of course).
Ah, the Mac, toss the latest crap into a fancy box (if you think the Mac was at all unique in it's day you are sadly mistaken, call it "innovative" even though others were doing it both better and first, charge way too much for it, and wait for the iDiots to show up at your doorstep with dollars in their hands, stupidity in their heads, and a pathetic belief that buying Apple products somehow makes them "Cool".
Well, I've been using PC for 20 + years and it is what it is. Some of them are better then the others. I have CAD software on it and that's only reason why I didn't completely switch to Mac. But come on people, if somebody put in front of you Mac and PC laptop… what you will chose? Without thinking I will pick up Mac Pro laptop, install boot camp and then I will enjoy OS X and Windows XP on one greatly design laptop. As the matter of fact, I saved some money and in a 3 weeks when new Map pro comes out I'll purchase it. Battery will last 8 hours. Did you hear that? 8 hours!!!!! Find me laptop with same performance that last that long. The bottom line is, if you have money buy it if you don't use cheap PC laptop and deal with it, don't complain about Apple just because you cant' afford one and keep telling it's overpriced. If you think you can build better laptop then do it and charge as much as you want. If it's better I'll be the first one to buy it from you. Thanks.
@asdasd
enjoy paying twice as much for a stupid logo. I swear, I can bring you my trashcan with the apple logo and youd probably end up buying it. Iam not blaming apple though, they are in it for the money . I paid 320 dollars for my netbook not even a week ago, if apple were to release something similar it would end up costing 200% more and you guys would eat it up.
Too bad your netbook doesn't have grammar and spell checking ;( Guess you get what you pay for.
I agreed fully with Zio… the only reason i have a pc laptop (and pc) is because i can't afford the Mac… if i were to have the money to get whatever computer, hell i choose mac… simple as that… u get what u paid for with mac and pc
The 128K Mac was overpriced. But I could not do line command or anything then and now. The Mac did allow me to start using a computer without learning all the programming stuff. The serial, network (AppleTalk) and other interfaces were all built into that little box. It was easy to haul the computer around. Remember that was before the laptop and netbook era. I know the Mac always has a fashion statement built into the price. Yes the Mac users can be fanatic at times. Yes you pay more for the look, logo, and intangibles. Like I stated earlier…go back and find those ads and articles in the early 80's about how silly, stupid, and unmanly it was to use this graphical user interface and (gasp!), with this device called a mouse.
Calpa
January 25th, 2009 | 14:35
it just proves you are a noob who doesnt know anything about running a pc properly. i have been using xp for years, why dont i have the problems you allegedly have?
stable, clean, fast, half the price. how does crysis play on your mac btw….?
mac users are lazy people in general. i got this friend who has the latest macbook, aluminium thing and she always asks ME to find out how he can do stuff on it. cant be bothered to google himself. if she wasnt a hot girl who shows me stuff on msn, i would say f u to her, but ya.
i never owned a mac,ipod or anything from apple but i think some mac critics are a little to harsh. Find me an afordable pc with regsitered ram like macs use?Well really that's the only thing i like about macs…(oh and the old motorola processor pitty they went intel)
Amateurs unite. Buy a Mac = Buy a Kia… No one buys neither, and for a good reason- major suckage.
@3
Have you ever used a mac computer?!
If not, try one. They work as smooth as any other Apple equipment. AT LEAST MINE DOES…
Hey! What happened to the mighty Sinclair ZX80?
I heard macs are great for gaming….o wait, they only have calculator :/
Their first computer was actually good. The one and only time they did something better than others
That's right. My calculator comes with a 512Mb graphics card.
Computers are only as good as the person using it. If you are an experienced user you will have an awesome computer, if you are a novice user you will always have problems. Whether it be Mac or PC, it all depends on the experience of the user.
Gee I have a working 128k Mac I bought when they were first released for my father so he could make the fonts big enough to see. If working Macs are hard to find I wonder what mine is worth? $25?
i wonder if apple will launch a new iconic commercial at this Superbowl to commemorate the occasion…
btw: whats this about bit rot? does this happen to newer computers also??
Well I got one that is working great, I got it in an action for about 5$ wite manuals and original floppy discs and it stands prodly besides my Atari 2600, NES sytem and a old Amiga 500 and some other old retro stuff. Why I dont know but I think its soon time to add a old CRT TV becurse in a couple of years I wont have anything that can take a analog signal.
And just to spice things up, here's a link to watch the entier "Pirates Of Silicon Valley entire movie" movie online:
http://www.teenwag.com/showvideo/4294
Enjoy
I still have a working Apple II, like old! No HDD no mouse, no up and down keys! Screen is Green Phosphorous and plugs into the box/keyboard combo with an RCA connection! Has a Joystick AND i still have games for it! Microsofts Decathlon and Swashbuckler! As for this bit rot…Well i spose mebe this thing has got valves or summink cos i have never opened it!
love live HP (not their customer service though).
Amiga was king.
Currently sifting through my RSS feeds and downloading to my hearts content on a 12 year old pimped G4 – cost a fortune when I got it but running 10.4 Tiger (still supported by apple). My monitor blew up three years ago so I now have the 32" LCD TV as a screen. If it had been a PC I would have either binned it 5 years ago or given it to charity