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Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host,

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Speaker 2: Jonathan Strickland.

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Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the

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Speaker 1: tech are you? It is time for another classic episode,

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Speaker 1: and for the last two Fridays we have been publishing

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Speaker 1: reruns from twenty seventeen of The McIntosh Story. It's a

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Speaker 1: three part series.

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Speaker 2: So this is the conclusion as of twenty seventeen of

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Speaker 2: the Macintosh Story. So if you missed parts one and two,

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Speaker 2: you can look back at the last two fridays and

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Speaker 2: catch up. The original publication date for this episode was

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Speaker 2: June ninth, twenty seventeen. So let's listen to The Macintosh

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Speaker 2: Story Part three.

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Speaker 1: So if you don't remember, Part one of this series

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Speaker 1: covered the people responsible for launching the first macin Tosh,

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Speaker 1: which came out in nineteen eighty four. The second part

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Speaker 1: largely focused on the Mac from about nineteen eighty five

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Speaker 1: up through the point where Steve Jobs returned to Apple.

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Speaker 1: So between nineteen eighty five and nineteen ninety seven, Steve

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Speaker 1: Jobs was effectively forced out of the company he had

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Speaker 1: co founded, and then in nineteen ninety seven he returned

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Speaker 1: to Apple. So this third part we're going to pick

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Speaker 1: back up right around that time, which requires me to

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Speaker 1: do a little backtracking just so that we're all on

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Speaker 1: the same page.

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Speaker 3: So it's nineteen ninety seven.

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Speaker 1: The Apple CEO at the time at the beginning of

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety seven was Gil Emilio, and he was in

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Speaker 1: charge during the time where Apple started looking at developing

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Speaker 1: the next generation of operating systems. It had been developing

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Speaker 1: operating systems in house, tried to develop a brand new

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Speaker 1: operating system for the power PC microchip as a partner ship.

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Speaker 3: With Motorola and IBM.

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Speaker 1: It became known as the Aim Projects because it was Apple, IBM,

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Speaker 1: and Motorola and it was meant to be a competitor

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Speaker 1: to Intel and the Windows operating system.

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Speaker 3: And how well that partnership was working, they.

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Speaker 1: Were looking at acquiring a company in order to get

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Speaker 1: a new operating system on board, and they were looking

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Speaker 1: at two different companies that were each founded by a

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Speaker 1: different former member of the Apple team.

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Speaker 3: One of those two companies was called Next.

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Speaker 1: Next was a company that Steve Jobs founded after he

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Speaker 1: had left Apple. He was trying to create a new

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Speaker 1: computer standard, a new type of computer for the educational industry,

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Speaker 1: and Next was the computer system he developed. It was

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Speaker 1: not really a super success. It was modest in its successes.

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Speaker 1: It was a very expensive machine. Again, like many of

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Speaker 1: the stories I've told about the Macintosh, not only was

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Speaker 1: it expensive, but it was hard to get developers to

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Speaker 1: make software for it.

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Speaker 3: So it was not a bad idea.

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Speaker 1: It just didn't have a lot of support and it

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Speaker 1: was really expensive, so it didn't get a huge number

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Speaker 1: of purchases out there.

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Speaker 3: Well.

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Speaker 1: Apple acquired Next, and as a result they also kind

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Speaker 1: of acquired Steve Jobs.

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Speaker 3: He came along with the company.

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Speaker 1: Jobs would then convince the Board of directors that Emilio

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Speaker 1: needed to go. I mean, he had led the charge

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Speaker 1: about acquiring Next, but he had also made some decisions

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Speaker 1: that Steve Jobs viewed as being incredibly negative for the

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Speaker 1: health of Apple as a company. Apple stocks were at

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Speaker 1: a twelve year low when gill Emilio was CEO. The

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Speaker 1: board agreed with Steve Jobs and removed gill Emilio from

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Speaker 1: the position of CEO, and then Steve Jobs essentially became

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Speaker 1: the CEO of Apple, although originally he was just called

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Speaker 1: the interim CEO. He would later become the permanent CEO,

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Speaker 1: but in the meantime he was the interim CEO, which

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Speaker 1: would mean that he was just keeping the seat warm

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Speaker 1: for somebody else. It just turned out he was keeping

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Speaker 1: the seat warm for himself. He didn't turn the company

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Speaker 1: around instantly, but he did get to work right away.

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Speaker 1: The day after he was named interim CEO of Apple,

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Speaker 1: he launched a new project that would really pay off

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Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety eight, and that was the iMac. He

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Speaker 1: started that the day after September sixteenth, nineteen ninety seven.

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Speaker 1: He started that iMac project, So he didn't waste any

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Speaker 1: time once he stepped into that role. Now, nineteen ninety

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Speaker 1: seven was also the year that Apple decided to rename

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Speaker 1: the operating system for the Macintosh. If you remember in

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Speaker 1: our last episode, they had started calling the operating system

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Speaker 1: a pretty simple name. The name was System. So the

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Speaker 1: first mac operating system was just System one point zero.

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Speaker 1: The last version of System using this naming style was

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Speaker 1: System seven point five point five or seven dot five

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Speaker 1: dot five if you prefer. Starting with version seven dot six,

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Speaker 1: they decided to rename it and they went with macOS eight. Now,

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Speaker 1: what's more, this version of the opering system wasn't compatible

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Speaker 1: with the Mac Plus. It was the first of the

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Speaker 1: operating systems that Apple had designed that would not work

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Speaker 1: on the old Mac Plus computer. If you remember, Macplus

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Speaker 1: was the longest lived Macintosh on the market. It had

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Speaker 1: been developed by Apple and manufactured for four years. That's

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Speaker 1: a long time in the computer business to keep making

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Speaker 1: the same model of computer. But they had stopped making

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Speaker 1: mac Pluss for a long time. They just continued to

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Speaker 1: support it by developing operating systems that could still run

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Speaker 1: on a Macplus. Just would update your Macplus to the

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Speaker 1: latest operating system and you're good to go.

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Speaker 3: Well, Mac OS eight was the first.

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Speaker 1: Operating system that would not run on a Macplus. So

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Speaker 1: this was sort of the mark of Macplus marching into

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Speaker 1: the sunset. It was over. It was an obsolete form

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Speaker 1: at that point. You could run old stuff on it,

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Speaker 1: but you couldn't run anything new on it.

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Speaker 3: Now you might wonder why.

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Speaker 1: They changed the name of the operating system from system

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Speaker 1: to macOS, and I'll explain that in just a minute.

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Speaker 1: But another thing that Apple discontinued continued at this point

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Speaker 1: was its licensing program, or at least it really changed

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Speaker 1: that licensing program that had been rather disastrous for Apple

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Speaker 1: over the last couple of years. So what had happened

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Speaker 1: was Apple had, before Steed Jobs came back on board,

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Speaker 1: Apple had started to license out its technology to other

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Speaker 1: computer manufacturers, which meant that other companies could make computers

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Speaker 1: that were Mac compatible. Essentially, they were called Mac clones,

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Speaker 1: and there were several companies that were doing this, and

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Speaker 1: they were making cheaper versions of Macintosh hardware. It was

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Speaker 1: in a totally different form factor. It didn't look the

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Speaker 1: way a Macintosh looked, but it ran Macintosh operating systems

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Speaker 1: and programs. So you could go out and buy a

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Speaker 1: clone from one of these companies that was fully licensed.

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Speaker 1: They were not breaking the law or anything, and you

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Speaker 1: could run that Mac operating system and software on your

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Speaker 1: Mac clone for much less money than it would cost

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Speaker 1: for you to buy an official Macintosh, which meant that

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Speaker 1: ultimately Apple was undercutting its own sales. Why would you

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Speaker 1: go out and buy an official Apple Mac if you

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Speaker 1: could get a comparable system for much less money somewhere else.

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Speaker 1: Steve Jobs didn't really care for this. He thought it

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Speaker 1: was a terrible idea, and so he wanted to renegotiate

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Speaker 1: all those licensing agreements. So once the term was coming up,

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Speaker 1: you wanted to renegotiate where the royalty fees would be

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Speaker 1: much higher, so that every sale of a Mac clone

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Speaker 1: would guarantee Apple a certain percentage of the revenue. Now,

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Speaker 1: of course, that doesn't make the manufacturing companies all that

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Speaker 1: eager to sign a new agreement. It means cutting into

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Speaker 1: their profit margin, and it would mean that they would

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Speaker 1: have to start raising the prices of their computers to

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Speaker 1: regain that lost profit margin. But that would mean that

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Speaker 1: the higher priced computers would be in direct competition with

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Speaker 1: the Apple computers.

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Speaker 3: It would just mean a lot.

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Speaker 1: Of tough decisions on the part of these licensed companies.

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Speaker 1: So there was a lot of resistance on that, and

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Speaker 1: that's when Steve Jobs decided to really make a move.

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Speaker 1: You see, the agreement that they Apple had with these

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Speaker 1: clone companies was that they could continue to make clones

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Speaker 1: of Mac computers as long as they were in the

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Speaker 1: System seven range. If they were in that System seven range,

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Speaker 1: then you could continue to make Mac clones. But once

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Speaker 1: they renamed the operating system from System to macOS, that

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Speaker 1: part of the agreement no longer was valid because it

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Speaker 1: was a different operating system at least in name, and

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Speaker 1: that's what the agreement had said, that as long as

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Speaker 1: it was system, they could continue to make them. It

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Speaker 1: meant that all the macclone companies could not make the

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Speaker 1: most up to date version of the Macintosh, they couldn't

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Speaker 1: include the latest version of the operating system without paying

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Speaker 1: another hefty license fee, and as a result, one by

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Speaker 1: one these licensed companies began to get out of the

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Speaker 1: macclone business, until by the middle of nineteen ninety eight none.

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Speaker 3: Of them were doing it anymore.

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Speaker 1: So within about a year, Steve Jobs stopped this cloning

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Speaker 1: program that was going on from its predecessor. Now that

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Speaker 1: in full was a pretty good decision, at least from

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Speaker 1: a sales perspective for Apple. Back in nineteen ninety five,

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Speaker 1: Apple had sold four and a half million Max, so

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Speaker 1: at four and a half million Max nineteen ninety five,

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Speaker 1: but then it started this clone program where it began

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Speaker 1: to license the technology to competitors, and in nineteen ninety

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Speaker 1: six sales of Max dropped to four million units, so

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Speaker 1: five hundred thousand units fewer than the year before. Now,

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Speaker 1: you never want to see the number go down when

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Speaker 1: you are in a company, you always want that graph

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Speaker 1: to go up into the right, not down into the right.

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Speaker 1: That's a bad graph if you're in a sales department.

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Speaker 1: It was worse the following year, in ninety seven, the

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Speaker 1: writing was on the wall because sales had dropped to

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Speaker 1: two point eight million units. So two point eight million

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Speaker 1: from four point five is awful.

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Speaker 3: Now.

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Speaker 1: To be fair, there were other mitigating factors that were

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Speaker 1: also affecting this. For example, Microsoft launched Windows ninety five,

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Speaker 1: and that really affected sales at the end of ninety

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Speaker 1: and throughout ninety six and ninety seven. It was a

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Speaker 1: very powerful operating system. It was much friendlier than previous

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Speaker 1: versions of Windows. People said, oh, this is more like

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Speaker 1: what I expect from Apple, and so people began to

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Speaker 1: become more happy with Microsoft's approach to a graphic user

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Speaker 1: interface or guey operating system. So there were other factors

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Speaker 1: besides the fact that there were cheaper clones on the

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Speaker 1: market than Apple computers. But all of this together meant

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Speaker 1: that getting rid of that clone program just made sense.

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Speaker 1: And that's exactly what Steve Jobs was able to do

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Speaker 1: through this renegotiation process and then by changing the operating

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Speaker 1: system name.

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Speaker 3: Now I'm going to keep talking about Steve.

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Speaker 1: Jobs because his history and mac history are so closely

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Speaker 1: tied together. Remember, the Macintosh started not as one of

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Speaker 1: Steve Jobs's projects. It was an Apple project, but it

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Speaker 1: wasn't headed by Steve Jobs. It wasn't until Steve Jobs

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Speaker 1: was removed from a Lisa project, and then he decided

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Speaker 1: to get involved with the McIntosh project. But from that

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Speaker 1: point forward, the Macintosh was really affected by Steve Jobs.

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Speaker 1: Even when he was away from the company, a lot

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Speaker 1: of his decisions would end up finding their way into

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Speaker 1: the Macintosh generation after generation. He made some more big

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Speaker 1: changes to Apple.

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Speaker 3: In nineteen ninety eight.

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Speaker 1: For one thing, Steve Jobs shut down the Newton project.

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Speaker 1: The Newton was a personal digital assistant that had become

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Speaker 1: the butt of a lot of jokes thanks to ah inconsistent,

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Speaker 1: let's say, imperfect design and implementation. It had a handwriting

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Speaker 1: recognition feature that frequently did not work very well and

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Speaker 1: was made fun of on The Simpsons. Among other things.

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Speaker 1: Steve Jobs also decided to streamline the product lines in

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Speaker 1: the computer and printer divisions. He started to eliminate some

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Speaker 1: of the types of computers they were selling. He thought

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Speaker 1: that they needed to refocus and start selling a more

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Speaker 1: narrow band of computers and make sure that they got

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Speaker 1: that right, as opposed to selling a wide variety of

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Speaker 1: computers that are of varying degrees of quality. Now, one

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Speaker 1: of the lines of computers that survived this process was

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Speaker 1: the Mac. He decided that the Mac had some value

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Speaker 1: to it. It did not need to be completely done

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Speaker 1: away with or replaced with some other name. He wanted

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Speaker 1: to reinvigorate it, but not to completely scrap it and

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Speaker 1: start over. So the biggest jump for Apple was the

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Speaker 1: introduction of the iMac. This was a new attempt for

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Speaker 1: Apple to push into the consumer market in a really

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Speaker 1: big way, and the basic iMac was a pretty decent

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Speaker 1: machine for its era. It had a two hundred and

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Speaker 1: thirty three megahertz G three CPU, had thirty two megabytes

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Speaker 1: of RAM, a four gigabyte hard drive, a CD ROM drive,

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Speaker 1: and an Ati Rage two CS graphics card with two

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Speaker 1: whole megabytes of video memory. Now, Apple originally stated that

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Speaker 1: the iMac could support up to one hundred and twenty

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Speaker 1: eight megabytes of RAM, which users could upgrade. So this

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Speaker 1: was one of the times where you could actually boost

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Speaker 1: the performance of your machine by adding in extra memory

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Speaker 1: to the device yourself, something that Apple would eventually get

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Speaker 1: away from to the point where if you wanted anything upgraded,

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Speaker 1: you're really stuck. Often you don't have an option at

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Speaker 1: all unless you just go out and buy a new computer.

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Speaker 1: Which I mean, if you're selling computers, if that's the

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Speaker 1: business you're in, if you could convince your users to

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Speaker 1: just buy a new computer every time they needed something

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Speaker 1: a little more powerful, that's lucrative.

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Speaker 3: If there's enough people who will actually do it.

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Speaker 1: Well, the iMac you could upgrade, and again, Apple originally

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Speaker 1: said that you could upgrade up to one hundred and

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Speaker 1: twenty eight megabytes of RAM, but people found out that

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Speaker 1: you could actually upgrade it beyond that, depending upon on

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Speaker 1: the RAM you bought, because not all RAM chips were compatible,

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Speaker 1: but some were, and in fact, some users found out

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Speaker 1: that depending upon the chip they bought, they could get

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Speaker 1: up to five hundred and twelve megabyte modules working on

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Speaker 1: an iMac, which meant that you could get a maximum

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Speaker 1: amount of RAM of around a gigabyte. Now, that was

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Speaker 1: pretty impressive by nineteen ninety eight standards. The computer and

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Speaker 1: display of the iMac were paired together, so the computer

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Speaker 1: and display were one big unit that you would plug

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Speaker 1: a keyboard and mouse into and it looked a lot

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Speaker 1: like a television set. The display was a fifteen inch display.

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Speaker 1: It did not have the basic one anyway, did not

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Speaker 1: have a floppy disk drive. In fact, this marked a

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Speaker 1: trend for Apple where it began to get away from

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Speaker 1: including floppy drives in their computers, and eventually other computer

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Speaker 1: manufacturers began to follow suit and stopped including floppy drives

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Speaker 1: in their machines. So this was the beginning of the

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Speaker 1: end for the floppy disk drive as a storage media.

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Speaker 1: It began to go into obsolescence. But the display on

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Speaker 1: the iMac was a cathode ray tube display a CRT.

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Speaker 1: I talked a lot about CRTs in the History of

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Speaker 1: TV podcasts, So if you want to know how a

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Speaker 1: cathode ray tube works, listen to my History of Television

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Speaker 1: podcasts because I talk about in detail there. But the

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Speaker 1: thing to remember is that these machines are take up

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Speaker 1: a lot of space. So these are those big, clunky

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Speaker 1: TVs from yesterday that you might have seen, not like

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Speaker 1: flat screens. Those are you know, either LCD or LED

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Speaker 1: or plasma displays. But the original IMAX for CRTs, so

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Speaker 1: they were a little hefty. As a result, they could

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Speaker 1: support a resolution originally anyway of oneenty twenty four by

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Speaker 1: seven sixty eight or ten twenty four by seven sixty

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Speaker 1: eight if you prefer now. Later in nineteen ninety eight,

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Speaker 1: Apple introduced an updated version of the iMac that had

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Speaker 1: better graphics card with more video memory, and the most

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Speaker 1: recent version of the Mac operating system, which was at

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Speaker 1: that point macversion Mac OS version eight point five.

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Speaker 3: And on top of the iMac.

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Speaker 1: Apple also introduced new power books in their laptop lineup,

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Speaker 1: which included a curvy laptop that was called the Wall

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Speaker 1: Street power Book. And I this every now and then

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Speaker 1: Apple would come out with a product that I just

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Speaker 1: don't get the esthetics. If you don't know what a

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Speaker 1: Wall Street PowerBook looks like, do an image search on

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Speaker 1: Apple Wall Street power Book. Because this thing just does

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Speaker 1: not appeal to me. It was kind of funky. It

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Speaker 1: also suffered from a design flaw. In the early models,

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Speaker 1: the hinges were a little weak, which meant that once

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Speaker 1: they wore out, the laptop screen wouldn't stay in place anymore.

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Speaker 1: It would start to fall over, which is pretty inconvenient

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Speaker 1: for a laptop. So it wasn't the best product to

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Speaker 1: ever come out of Apple. The Wall Street line also

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Speaker 1: had a few other issues. For one thing, it was

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Speaker 1: noticeably slower than the desktop powermas that were coming out

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Speaker 1: at the time. And you'd expect that to a point.

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Speaker 1: But when you're selling these laptops at a premium price

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Speaker 1: and you're saying this is the field version of the

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Speaker 1: desktops that you can get for your basic home setup,

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Speaker 1: it's not great when it works significantly slower than the

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Speaker 1: desktop version. All Right, So we've come up to our

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Speaker 1: first little break here. Now after the break, we're going

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Speaker 1: to talk more about some interesting developments from Apple, including

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Speaker 1: some changes in port systems, as well as some interesting

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Speaker 1: esthetic choices to really set Apple apart from the herd.

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Speaker 1: But before we get into that, let's take a quick

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Speaker 1: break to thank our sponsor.

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Speaker 3: All right. So around this time.

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Speaker 1: Apple introduced a new protocol that really took a large

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Speaker 1: part in the Macintosh from that point forward, and that

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Speaker 1: was FireWire.

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Speaker 3: Now, originally you had to.

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Speaker 1: Get FireWire expansion cards so that you could get a

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Speaker 1: FireWire port in your mac but over time, FireWire would

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Speaker 1: become a standard port in the Macintosh lines for several years. Now,

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Speaker 1: if you don't know what FireWire is because it's largely

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Speaker 1: been replaced at this stage. It is a protocol, a

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Speaker 1: technology for moving data from one device to another, and

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Speaker 1: it's meant to move a large amount of data in

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Speaker 1: a small amount of time. So it's really essentially similar

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Speaker 1: to other types of ports that you would find on computers,

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Speaker 1: like Scuzzy ports back in the day, or us B

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Speaker 1: ports or USBC today used to be three point zero

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Speaker 1: style ports.

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Speaker 3: Now.

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Speaker 1: At the time, FireWire was a big advance from Scuzzy,

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Speaker 1: at least your basic Scuzzy. Unless you were using top

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Speaker 1: of the line Scuzzy ports with the best cables that

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Speaker 1: money could buy, you weren't maxing out your speeds that high.

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Speaker 1: In fact, Scuzzy Ultra had about a ten megabytes per

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Speaker 1: second top speed for data transfers, which is not bad

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Speaker 1: except if you're trying to transfer very large files let's

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Speaker 1: say video files are very high quality audio files.

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Speaker 3: That was a little slow.

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Speaker 1: And remember that the macline of computers was frequently being

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Speaker 1: used by video producers audio producers for a lot of

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Speaker 1: creative applications like that, as opposed to your productivity software,

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Speaker 1: which was typically viewed as a Windows machine duty Max

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Speaker 1: were taking on all these really high end and very

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Speaker 1: demanding applications when it comes to audio and video production,

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Speaker 1: so they needed something that would allow you to transfer

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Speaker 1: data at faster speeds.

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Speaker 3: Now, firewires initial.

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Speaker 1: Capabilities stretched up to the four hundred megabits per second range.

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Speaker 1: Now megabits versus megabytes very different.

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Speaker 3: Right.

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Speaker 1: A bit is one single unit of information, it's either

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Speaker 1: a zero or a one.

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Speaker 3: A byte is.

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Speaker 1: Eight of those collectively, So four hundred megabits is equivalent

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Speaker 1: to around fifty megabytes per second, but that's like five

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Speaker 1: times faster than Scuzy Ultra was. So Apple was looking

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Speaker 1: at reinventing data transfers from device to device using the

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Speaker 1: FireWire as their primary protocol, and also over time they

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Speaker 1: had the plan and they implemented this to increase the

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Speaker 1: capability of FireWire to move at greater and greater speeds,

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Speaker 1: so over the generations of the technology, it could move

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Speaker 1: more information in a shorter amount of time, so it

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Speaker 1: would become a standard port on max from about two

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Speaker 1: thousand and one to two thousand and eight and God's

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Speaker 1: development in the late nineties, but really got wide rollout

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Speaker 1: by about two thousand and one and over the next

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Speaker 1: seven years, it was standard on almost every Mac that

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Speaker 1: came out from Apple. Also, in nineteen ninety eight, Apple

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Speaker 1: discontinued quite a few machines from their lineup. They officially

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Speaker 1: stopped supporting all of the Motorola processor MAX that preceded

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Speaker 1: the switch to the power PC microchip. Now, remember Motorola

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Speaker 1: still had involvement in developing the power PC chips, but

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Speaker 1: the chips that were in Macintosh computers prior to power

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Speaker 1: PC chips were all Motorola chips. So at that point

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Speaker 1: Apple said, well, we're not going to support those anymore.

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Speaker 1: Everything is going to now depend upon this power PC

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Speaker 1: microchip because that's what we're putting in our MAX from

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Speaker 1: this point forward. They also discontinued support for the Apple

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Speaker 1: two line, which is pretty incredible that they had supported

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Speaker 1: Apple two all the way up to.

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Speaker 3: Nineteen ninety eight.

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Speaker 1: Now, they had discontinued manufacturing the Apple two long before that,

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Speaker 1: but they continued to support it all the way until

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight when they officially ended support. That really

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Speaker 1: tells you how long that Apple two's life was, because

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Speaker 1: remember that was introduced. Apple two came out like in

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Speaker 1: the late seventies, early eighties. So the fact that it

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Speaker 1: lasted all the way to nineteen ninety eight and at

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Speaker 1: least some capacity in Apple support was amazing. So it

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Speaker 1: was really the last hurrah for the Apple two. I

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Speaker 1: still love the Apple two, and I wouldn't mind finding

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Speaker 1: one just to mess around with one, but I doubt

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Speaker 1: that I could easily find one in good working order

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Speaker 1: at this stage. I wish I could, because I loved

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Speaker 1: the Apple two. Now, the following year, nineteen ninety nine,

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Speaker 1: Apple released some new Imax. Like the previous episodes, I'm

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Speaker 1: not going to cover every single model Apple released, which

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Speaker 1: would just make this episode incredibly dull. But one thing

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Speaker 1: I want to mention is nineteen ninety nine because the

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Speaker 1: Imax came out in a selection of new colors. It

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Speaker 1: wasn't just this beige computer that had been kind of

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Speaker 1: Apple's trademark ever since the old Apple two days. You

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Speaker 1: could get a selection of different colors which included blue, purple, orange, green,

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Speaker 1: or red, but Apple called them different names.

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Speaker 3: You could get an iMac.

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Speaker 1: And blueberry, grape, tangerine, lime, and strawberry.

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Speaker 3: And I gotta be honest with.

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Speaker 1: You guys, even though I'm the dude from tech stuff

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Speaker 1: who from the beginning has been accused of having an

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Speaker 1: anti Mac bias. And even though these machines are woefully

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Speaker 1: outdated by today's standards, I really still big the designs

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Speaker 1: of these early Imax, these nineteen ninety nine Imax and

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Speaker 1: these bright colors.

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Speaker 3: They're really appealing to me. I would love to have

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Speaker 3: one in grape or lime.

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Speaker 1: So I guess this episode is ultimately a Jonathan wish

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Speaker 1: list of old computers that are obsolete, that are no

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00:25:16,320 --> 00:25:20,080
Speaker 1: longer supported, that don't run any useful operating system or

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00:25:20,119 --> 00:25:22,520
Speaker 1: software at this point, but I still kind of want

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Speaker 1: so the Apple two and a nineteen ninety nine iMac

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Speaker 1: are on that list. There's just something really appealing about

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Speaker 1: those vibrant color schemes. So look up nineteen ninety nine

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Speaker 1: imas to get a look at what these these brightly

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Speaker 1: colored machines look like back in the day, and maybe

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00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:41,080
Speaker 1: you'll agree that they're They've got a certain appeal to them.

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Speaker 1: They are big, clunky machines because these are not flat

439
00:25:43,880 --> 00:25:46,120
Speaker 1: panel displays. These are still CRT.

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Speaker 3: Machines, but I don't know, they just seem kind of

441
00:25:49,640 --> 00:25:51,800
Speaker 3: friendly to me. Now.

442
00:25:51,880 --> 00:25:56,080
Speaker 1: Apple also introduced a desktop tower style computer called the

443
00:25:56,160 --> 00:25:58,120
Speaker 1: Yosemite PowerMac G three.

444
00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:00,119
Speaker 3: Some people refer to this one.

445
00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:04,040
Speaker 1: As the Smurf, and the reason they do that is

446
00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:08,760
Speaker 1: the case was blue, it also had white accents, and

447
00:26:08,800 --> 00:26:13,160
Speaker 1: it had sort of a transparent cover over the white aspects.

448
00:26:13,280 --> 00:26:16,960
Speaker 1: The design included a drawbridge like door that could fold

449
00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:19,200
Speaker 1: down to the right of the computer that would allow

450
00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:23,919
Speaker 1: you to add expansions to the actual motherboard, and you

451
00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:26,639
Speaker 1: could even open the computer while it was working, like

452
00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:29,400
Speaker 1: you could have the computer on and open it up

453
00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:31,640
Speaker 1: and it would still run because all the modules were

454
00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:36,040
Speaker 1: still connected to that hinged door. It's kind of neat,

455
00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:38,960
Speaker 1: not really any point of doing that, but it's neat

456
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:42,919
Speaker 1: that you could do it. Apple offered a three hundred

457
00:26:42,920 --> 00:26:47,840
Speaker 1: megahertz version initially in this Yosemite computer, but by June

458
00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:51,120
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine, so within a few months of introducing it,

459
00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:54,639
Speaker 1: they discontinued the three hundred megahertz version and instead relied

460
00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:57,160
Speaker 1: on a more powerful four hundred and fifty megahertz model.

461
00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:03,040
Speaker 1: They also used a similar design for their Power Machine

462
00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:06,000
Speaker 1: like this was for their high end users who were

463
00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:08,800
Speaker 1: hoping to use it for like video production and that

464
00:27:08,920 --> 00:27:13,240
Speaker 1: sort of stuff. This was Apple's PowerMac G four, and

465
00:27:13,320 --> 00:27:18,879
Speaker 1: the US government initially called this computer this desktop personal computer,

466
00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:22,040
Speaker 1: high end personal computer, but still a personal computer. They

467
00:27:22,080 --> 00:27:25,840
Speaker 1: called it a supercomputer. Now why did they call a

468
00:27:25,920 --> 00:27:29,800
Speaker 1: personal computer a supercomputer. Well, this was the first Mac

469
00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:34,200
Speaker 1: that could perform one billion floating operations per second, or

470
00:27:34,280 --> 00:27:38,400
Speaker 1: otherwise known as a gigaflop, and at the time, gigaflop

471
00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:41,800
Speaker 1: was considered a capability that was in the supercomputer range.

472
00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:46,680
Speaker 1: So the US government said, technically, this PowerMac is a supercomputer.

473
00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:50,760
Speaker 1: The case was essentially identical to the Yosemite tower I

474
00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:54,159
Speaker 1: just described, only this one was white, graphite gray and

475
00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:56,919
Speaker 1: had silver accents. And I guess this was meant to

476
00:27:56,920 --> 00:27:59,440
Speaker 1: make it look more professional and business like and less

477
00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:01,639
Speaker 1: sort of sleek and fun.

478
00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:03,480
Speaker 3: I suppose it still.

479
00:28:03,359 --> 00:28:06,200
Speaker 1: Was a very nice design. The top level Max in

480
00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:09,359
Speaker 1: this model line introduced a new type of motherboard called

481
00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:12,840
Speaker 1: the saw tooth, which allowed for a more powerful machine overall.

482
00:28:12,880 --> 00:28:15,879
Speaker 1: You could fit more memory, you could fit a faster processor,

483
00:28:15,920 --> 00:28:19,720
Speaker 1: you could fit a better graphics card to it, so

484
00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:22,840
Speaker 1: it was a more powerful machine overall. But there were

485
00:28:23,119 --> 00:28:27,080
Speaker 1: various lines in this G four model, so the entry

486
00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:30,320
Speaker 1: level did not have this saw tooth motherboard. It was

487
00:28:30,359 --> 00:28:34,000
Speaker 1: only the higher end models that did. The entry level

488
00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:37,879
Speaker 1: had a motherboard that was modeled after the Yosemite design,

489
00:28:38,120 --> 00:28:41,440
Speaker 1: so it had a slightly less powerful approach. Now, this

490
00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:44,200
Speaker 1: was a particularly potent machine. If you've got the top

491
00:28:44,200 --> 00:28:48,720
Speaker 1: of the line G four power Mac, then you had

492
00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:52,880
Speaker 1: a machine that was comparable or actually faster than a

493
00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:57,000
Speaker 1: pen Tum three processor computer from the IBM compatible lines,

494
00:28:57,840 --> 00:29:00,720
Speaker 1: and PENDM three's were known to be screaming back in

495
00:29:00,760 --> 00:29:03,600
Speaker 1: the day. Today they're slow as a snail, but back

496
00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:05,760
Speaker 1: in the day that was cutting edge if you were

497
00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:11,400
Speaker 1: going the Intel Slash Windows route. So the Apple computers

498
00:29:11,400 --> 00:29:14,000
Speaker 1: were no slouch. They could go head to head with

499
00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:20,719
Speaker 1: the fastest machines coming out from Intel's side. But Apple

500
00:29:20,760 --> 00:29:26,560
Speaker 1: did do something that was kinda lousy to their customers

501
00:29:26,600 --> 00:29:30,400
Speaker 1: when they introduced this PowerMac G four, and it was

502
00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:33,760
Speaker 1: all because of a supply chain issue. We're going to

503
00:29:33,840 --> 00:29:35,840
Speaker 1: take a quick break, but we will be back with

504
00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:38,720
Speaker 1: more about the Macintosh story in just a moment.

505
00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:49,480
Speaker 3: So one of the.

506
00:29:49,360 --> 00:29:53,520
Speaker 1: Things that computer manufacturers in general have run into are

507
00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:57,240
Speaker 1: these supply chain problems where one element or maybe more

508
00:29:57,240 --> 00:30:00,040
Speaker 1: than one element in some cases, is being held.

509
00:29:59,880 --> 00:30:01,080
Speaker 3: Up up by the.

510
00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:07,800
Speaker 1: Suppliers of the specific components that are going into the computer.

511
00:30:08,200 --> 00:30:14,200
Speaker 1: In this case, it was the microprocessors. Apple was finding

512
00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:19,520
Speaker 1: that Motorola could not supply five hundred megahertz processors at

513
00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:23,960
Speaker 1: the rate that Apple needed them, which was unfortunate because

514
00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:26,840
Speaker 1: Apple had a bunch of orders for five hundred megahertz

515
00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:31,160
Speaker 1: PowerMac G four computers. So Apple did something that a

516
00:30:31,160 --> 00:30:34,720
Speaker 1: lot of people found a bit questionable. The company scaled

517
00:30:34,760 --> 00:30:38,560
Speaker 1: back all their models by fifty megaherts, so instead of

518
00:30:38,600 --> 00:30:41,680
Speaker 1: selling a five hundred megahertz machine as their top machine,

519
00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:44,280
Speaker 1: they went with a four hundred and fifty megahertz machine

520
00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:47,480
Speaker 1: as their top machine. This refers to the processor speed,

521
00:30:48,280 --> 00:30:53,360
Speaker 1: so how fast is the CPU inside the powermax four

522
00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:56,360
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty mega hurts? Obviously fifty mega hurts slower

523
00:30:56,400 --> 00:31:00,440
Speaker 1: than a five hundred megahertz machine. And then four hundred

524
00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:02,239
Speaker 1: and fifty mega hurtz machines were scaled back to four

525
00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:05,000
Speaker 1: hundred megahurts, so on and so forth, so everything took

526
00:31:05,320 --> 00:31:07,760
Speaker 1: like a half step back from where it was supposed

527
00:31:07,800 --> 00:31:12,719
Speaker 1: to be. But Apple did not change the prices of

528
00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:15,240
Speaker 1: their models, so the top model was still the same

529
00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:18,640
Speaker 1: price even though it had a less powerful processor than

530
00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:22,840
Speaker 1: what was originally planned. And Apple customers got a tiny

531
00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:26,520
Speaker 1: bit peeved about this, understandably so that they were paying

532
00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:29,760
Speaker 1: a premium price for something that was less powerful than

533
00:31:29,800 --> 00:31:33,200
Speaker 1: what they were promised. So this was a pretty nasty

534
00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:36,239
Speaker 1: little situation for Apple. Fortunately the company was able to

535
00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:38,960
Speaker 1: rectify things in like a week, but it still was

536
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:42,120
Speaker 1: a rough week over at Apple Computers due to this

537
00:31:42,160 --> 00:31:46,720
Speaker 1: little kerfuffle. And yeah, so people who talk about Apple

538
00:31:46,760 --> 00:31:51,200
Speaker 1: being a company that sets a premium price, it's stuff

539
00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:56,160
Speaker 1: like this particular incident that reinforces that idea. Now, the

540
00:31:56,200 --> 00:31:58,960
Speaker 1: Wall Street power Book ended up taking a bow. In

541
00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:02,680
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine, they discontinued the Wall Street and decided

542
00:32:02,720 --> 00:32:05,400
Speaker 1: to launch a new model of power Book that was

543
00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:09,280
Speaker 1: code named Lombard. And this was the first power book

544
00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:12,920
Speaker 1: Mac to have a USB port on it, so it

545
00:32:12,960 --> 00:32:15,480
Speaker 1: was revolutionary at the time, and it was the fastest

546
00:32:15,560 --> 00:32:19,840
Speaker 1: laptop line at the time of its debut, not fastest

547
00:32:19,880 --> 00:32:24,240
Speaker 1: for Apple. The PowerBook Mac that was code named Lombard

548
00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:28,480
Speaker 1: was the fastest laptop on the market period when it

549
00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:33,920
Speaker 1: came out. It also had a bronze translucent keyboard which

550
00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:36,800
Speaker 1: I think actually looks more brown than bronze and was

551
00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:41,920
Speaker 1: in my mind, really unattractive. That's my own personal perspective

552
00:32:41,920 --> 00:32:44,880
Speaker 1: on it. Maybe that's that anti Mac bias kicking in again.

553
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:49,120
Speaker 1: But the specs were really impressive, even though I found

554
00:32:49,120 --> 00:32:53,800
Speaker 1: the esthetic to be not terribly attractive. Taking a page

555
00:32:53,880 --> 00:32:56,480
Speaker 1: from their success with the iMac, Apple also introduced a

556
00:32:56,560 --> 00:33:00,760
Speaker 1: laptop for the education market called the iBook. This was

557
00:33:00,800 --> 00:33:05,040
Speaker 1: a bit chunkier and more rugged than their PowerBook line.

558
00:33:05,120 --> 00:33:07,680
Speaker 1: It was less powerful, didn't need to be as powerful

559
00:33:07,720 --> 00:33:10,760
Speaker 1: as the power Book, but it still had a lot

560
00:33:10,760 --> 00:33:12,880
Speaker 1: of curved lines in the design. I kind of dig

561
00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:16,840
Speaker 1: the eyebook. It does look a little unwieldy, especially compared

562
00:33:16,840 --> 00:33:21,080
Speaker 1: to the laptops that Apple produces today, but it has

563
00:33:21,120 --> 00:33:22,800
Speaker 1: again a kind of a friendly look to it.

564
00:33:22,840 --> 00:33:24,520
Speaker 3: I think. Now.

565
00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:26,920
Speaker 1: One thing that really helped Apple out at this time,

566
00:33:27,320 --> 00:33:30,360
Speaker 1: something that was completely outside of Apple's.

567
00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:34,400
Speaker 3: Control, was a little thing called the Y two K scare.

568
00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:38,720
Speaker 1: And you may, oh, my drugs not remember what this

569
00:33:38,880 --> 00:33:42,200
Speaker 1: was about things changing so scory and people like to forget,

570
00:33:42,760 --> 00:33:44,840
Speaker 1: But the Y two K bug or the y two

571
00:33:44,960 --> 00:33:50,480
Speaker 1: K scare was all about how some lazy computer programmers

572
00:33:50,480 --> 00:33:54,360
Speaker 1: and computer scientists had really made a terrible design decision

573
00:33:54,520 --> 00:33:57,360
Speaker 1: that frightened the pants off a whole bunch of people

574
00:33:57,400 --> 00:33:58,800
Speaker 1: back in the late nineties.

575
00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:00,720
Speaker 3: So here's that's what it was all about.

576
00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:02,600
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you a quick summary because I

577
00:34:02,600 --> 00:34:03,640
Speaker 1: could do a full episode.

578
00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:05,960
Speaker 3: In fact, I have done a full episode about Y

579
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:06,360
Speaker 3: two K.

580
00:34:08,760 --> 00:34:11,680
Speaker 1: The problem was that programmers were a little lazy back

581
00:34:11,680 --> 00:34:16,640
Speaker 1: in the day, and when some programmers were designing various architectures,

582
00:34:16,880 --> 00:34:19,920
Speaker 1: they took a shortcut when it came to designating years,

583
00:34:20,400 --> 00:34:24,959
Speaker 1: and they used a two digit method of designating the year.

584
00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:29,160
Speaker 1: So if you put eight nine as the two digits,

585
00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:32,880
Speaker 1: then the computer knew you meant nineteen eighty nine. But

586
00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:36,360
Speaker 1: you're probably already spotting the problem, which is that once

587
00:34:36,440 --> 00:34:38,600
Speaker 1: you got to nineteen ninety nine, you're going.

588
00:34:38,560 --> 00:34:39,720
Speaker 3: To roll over to two thousand.

589
00:34:40,520 --> 00:34:43,400
Speaker 1: But computers only had two digits to tell what the

590
00:34:43,480 --> 00:34:46,000
Speaker 1: year was going to be, so ninety nine to zero

591
00:34:46,120 --> 00:34:50,040
Speaker 1: zero could be interpreted as nineteen hundred instead of two thousand,

592
00:34:50,400 --> 00:34:53,560
Speaker 1: and a lot of different computer processes could screw up.

593
00:34:53,600 --> 00:34:56,960
Speaker 1: As a result, you had things that were pretty easy

594
00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:02,160
Speaker 1: to imagine going haywire, like a financial software that is

595
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:05,920
Speaker 1: calculating stuff like interest, Well, if it rolls back one

596
00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:07,200
Speaker 1: hundred years, that's really going.

597
00:35:07,120 --> 00:35:07,879
Speaker 3: To mess things up.

598
00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:10,600
Speaker 1: But people were worried about all sorts of stuff, like

599
00:35:10,840 --> 00:35:14,399
Speaker 1: computers just stop maybe they could stop working, and not

600
00:35:14,440 --> 00:35:16,799
Speaker 1: just computers, but other devices too that were working on

601
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:20,319
Speaker 1: microchips that had this kind of architecture. So people were

602
00:35:20,320 --> 00:35:23,239
Speaker 1: worried about getting stuck in elevators or what would happen

603
00:35:23,320 --> 00:35:23,920
Speaker 1: on a plane.

604
00:35:24,719 --> 00:35:25,960
Speaker 3: Well, Apple didn't have.

605
00:35:25,920 --> 00:35:30,319
Speaker 1: To worry about this because their programmers didn't use that

606
00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:34,719
Speaker 1: convention when they were designating years, so they didn't have

607
00:35:34,719 --> 00:35:38,360
Speaker 1: to worry about running out of time with two digits.

608
00:35:40,640 --> 00:35:44,680
Speaker 1: So with time continuing to pass as it does and

609
00:35:44,719 --> 00:35:47,319
Speaker 1: two thousand coming along, people began to think, well, maybe

610
00:35:47,360 --> 00:35:50,600
Speaker 1: we should get Apple computers because they don't suffer the

611
00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:58,719
Speaker 1: same weakness as other computers that have this two digit problem. So, yeah,

612
00:35:59,080 --> 00:36:02,279
Speaker 1: it doesn't do you any good if your computer thinks

613
00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:04,839
Speaker 1: it's nineteen hundred and suddenly decides to put on an

614
00:36:05,040 --> 00:36:08,400
Speaker 1: Edwardian suit and start talking about the latest George Bernard

615
00:36:08,480 --> 00:36:11,080
Speaker 1: Shaw play. That doesn't help you out if you want

616
00:36:11,120 --> 00:36:14,480
Speaker 1: to do some modern computing. And the macOS didn't have

617
00:36:14,520 --> 00:36:17,360
Speaker 1: that issue. So people started to look at Macintosh computers

618
00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:21,799
Speaker 1: and sales increased for Apple. Now, whether or not that

619
00:36:21,840 --> 00:36:23,799
Speaker 1: had anything to do with the y two K bug

620
00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:26,200
Speaker 1: is hard to say because there's so many other variables

621
00:36:26,239 --> 00:36:29,799
Speaker 1: that play here, but it's probably something that factored into

622
00:36:29,920 --> 00:36:32,120
Speaker 1: at least a few people's decision to switch over to

623
00:36:32,160 --> 00:36:34,239
Speaker 1: the Macintosh platform because.

624
00:36:33,960 --> 00:36:37,439
Speaker 3: It was y two K proof. In fact, power PC.

625
00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:40,240
Speaker 1: Max, not the old Motorola ones, but the power Pc

626
00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:44,000
Speaker 1: Max actually allow computers to keep good time up to

627
00:36:44,040 --> 00:36:47,720
Speaker 1: the year twenty nine and forty, so we're good for now.

628
00:36:48,280 --> 00:36:50,680
Speaker 1: Even if you're using an obsolete Mac you don't have

629
00:36:50,719 --> 00:36:54,000
Speaker 1: to worry about the operating system suddenly thinking it's nineteen hundred,

630
00:36:54,040 --> 00:36:57,000
Speaker 1: because it's going to keep on chugging along until the

631
00:36:57,000 --> 00:36:59,600
Speaker 1: hardware breaks. Because I guarantee you that hardware will break

632
00:36:59,640 --> 00:37:02,760
Speaker 1: before the year twenty nine and forty, and if it doesn't,

633
00:37:03,360 --> 00:37:06,319
Speaker 1: I'm guessing you won't be around. That's not a you know,

634
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:09,840
Speaker 1: that's not a slam against you. It's just I'm recording

635
00:37:09,840 --> 00:37:12,000
Speaker 1: this in twenty seventeen, and I don't think people in

636
00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:13,480
Speaker 1: the year twenty thousand are still.

637
00:37:13,280 --> 00:37:15,880
Speaker 3: Listening to tech stuff. If you are, thanks for listening.

638
00:37:16,160 --> 00:37:16,760
Speaker 3: You're awesome.

639
00:37:18,280 --> 00:37:20,000
Speaker 1: Now, In case you were curious, the world did not

640
00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:24,280
Speaker 1: end in two thousand spoiler alert. But Apple did introduce

641
00:37:24,320 --> 00:37:27,719
Speaker 1: some new stuff that year, like the Cube. This was

642
00:37:27,760 --> 00:37:31,000
Speaker 1: a desktop computer that was shaped like a cube. It

643
00:37:31,040 --> 00:37:33,960
Speaker 1: was five hundred and eighty one cubic inches and it

644
00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:37,080
Speaker 1: was a really powerful machine for its time. This was

645
00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:41,160
Speaker 1: also the year that Apple previewed the macOS ten using

646
00:37:41,160 --> 00:37:44,440
Speaker 1: the Roman numeral for ten, which is an X. Now

647
00:37:44,480 --> 00:37:47,719
Speaker 1: that led me, the ignorant person that I was at

648
00:37:47,719 --> 00:37:51,320
Speaker 1: the time, to call it MACOSX, which got lots of

649
00:37:51,360 --> 00:37:54,759
Speaker 1: people laughing at me for calling it mac OSX. But

650
00:37:54,800 --> 00:37:56,680
Speaker 1: if you're gonna be using a bunch of letters in

651
00:37:56,719 --> 00:37:59,440
Speaker 1: the name of your product, don't use a Roman numeral

652
00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:01,840
Speaker 1: to design its operating system number.

653
00:38:02,239 --> 00:38:03,239
Speaker 3: So it's macOS ten.

654
00:38:04,680 --> 00:38:08,520
Speaker 1: And sometimes I still say MACOSX because sometimes I just

655
00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:13,040
Speaker 1: like to have a little fun at my own expense. Now,

656
00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:15,680
Speaker 1: moving ahead to two thousand and one, Apple again boosted

657
00:38:15,680 --> 00:38:16,240
Speaker 1: the power.

658
00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:18,359
Speaker 3: Of its various computers. Nothing new there.

659
00:38:18,440 --> 00:38:21,080
Speaker 1: Pretty much every year Apple would update its line of

660
00:38:21,160 --> 00:38:25,680
Speaker 1: existing computers and increase their abilities by putting in more

661
00:38:25,719 --> 00:38:28,959
Speaker 1: powerful processors, putting in more memory, giving it a few

662
00:38:29,080 --> 00:38:31,520
Speaker 1: different ports, so again I'm not going to cover all

663
00:38:31,560 --> 00:38:33,400
Speaker 1: of those changes, so I'm just going to cover the big,

664
00:38:33,560 --> 00:38:37,520
Speaker 1: big differences. They also introduced some new color schemes in

665
00:38:37,560 --> 00:38:40,600
Speaker 1: their iMac line, so you could buy the Blue Dalmatian

666
00:38:40,960 --> 00:38:44,680
Speaker 1: or flower Power. These actually had designs, not just a

667
00:38:44,800 --> 00:38:47,919
Speaker 1: solid color. They actually had you know, designs on them

668
00:38:48,239 --> 00:38:51,560
Speaker 1: that I find almost but not quite completely unappealing.

669
00:38:51,719 --> 00:38:53,080
Speaker 3: So I don't want either of those.

670
00:38:53,120 --> 00:38:54,920
Speaker 1: If anyone's listening and they want to get me the

671
00:38:55,280 --> 00:38:57,960
Speaker 1: wish list of items I've talked about, like Apple Two's

672
00:38:58,080 --> 00:39:02,719
Speaker 1: and the iMac you know, lime or the iMac Grape,

673
00:39:02,840 --> 00:39:05,120
Speaker 1: that's cool, but don't get me a blue Dalmati or

674
00:39:05,160 --> 00:39:05,760
Speaker 1: flower Power.

675
00:39:05,800 --> 00:39:08,840
Speaker 3: I don't need them. They're just not for me.

676
00:39:09,400 --> 00:39:13,160
Speaker 1: The company also released a lighter, more powerful iBook sometimes

677
00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:17,520
Speaker 1: called the Ice Book, and Apple created the quicksilver version

678
00:39:17,640 --> 00:39:21,400
Speaker 1: of its PowerMac G four line, And they also opened

679
00:39:21,480 --> 00:39:24,640
Speaker 1: up their first two Apple stores in two thousand and one.

680
00:39:24,680 --> 00:39:26,799
Speaker 1: Now there's hundreds of the things, but back in two

681
00:39:26,840 --> 00:39:28,320
Speaker 1: thousand and one they were brand new.

682
00:39:28,520 --> 00:39:29,640
Speaker 3: It was the first time.

683
00:39:29,680 --> 00:39:33,080
Speaker 1: Apple had opened up a retail space of its own,

684
00:39:33,440 --> 00:39:35,880
Speaker 1: and of course that ends up being a popular destination

685
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:38,520
Speaker 1: for people all around the world. There are Apple stores

686
00:39:38,520 --> 00:39:42,680
Speaker 1: that get crowds of tourists because they are particularly interesting

687
00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:47,120
Speaker 1: in their design and layout. Oh. That's also the year

688
00:39:47,560 --> 00:39:51,400
Speaker 1: Apple launched the next product to help define the company

689
00:39:51,600 --> 00:39:53,040
Speaker 1: as its new identity.

690
00:39:54,040 --> 00:39:56,120
Speaker 3: That would be the iPod.

691
00:39:56,640 --> 00:39:59,360
Speaker 1: But we talked about the iPod in our History of

692
00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:01,360
Speaker 1: MP three P podcast, so I'm not going to.

693
00:40:01,360 --> 00:40:03,640
Speaker 3: Cover it here, but just to say that two thousand.

694
00:40:03,320 --> 00:40:05,840
Speaker 1: And one marked a real turning point in Apple's history,

695
00:40:06,239 --> 00:40:09,680
Speaker 1: because that was the moment when Apple began to really

696
00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:15,840
Speaker 1: expand beyond personal computers and printers and workstations. They began

697
00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:19,279
Speaker 1: to get into personal electronics in a serious way. The

698
00:40:19,320 --> 00:40:22,200
Speaker 1: Newton was kind of a failure, but the iPod was

699
00:40:22,239 --> 00:40:26,040
Speaker 1: totally the opposite. iPod was a runaway success, particularly once

700
00:40:26,080 --> 00:40:28,799
Speaker 1: you got a couple of generations in and really took

701
00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:33,960
Speaker 1: off once iTunes became a real player in the data

702
00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:38,160
Speaker 1: management or music management space. Now, two thousand and two

703
00:40:38,840 --> 00:40:42,040
Speaker 1: was more of the same, with tweaked computer designs, some

704
00:40:42,120 --> 00:40:45,600
Speaker 1: boosted performance, and not much else. Apple did create a

705
00:40:45,640 --> 00:40:48,600
Speaker 1: new line of macs for educational institutions. They called it

706
00:40:48,640 --> 00:40:53,200
Speaker 1: the eMac E for Education. It was housed in an

707
00:40:53,200 --> 00:40:58,160
Speaker 1: iMac like CRT style case, the stream was flat, it

708
00:40:58,239 --> 00:41:00,800
Speaker 1: wasn't curved, but it still was a cathode ray tube

709
00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:03,600
Speaker 1: that was providing the actual image that you saw in there,

710
00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:07,080
Speaker 1: so big bulky case, in fact, really big and bulky.

711
00:41:07,120 --> 00:41:11,560
Speaker 1: The basic model weighed fifty pounds, but it cost a

712
00:41:11,600 --> 00:41:14,240
Speaker 1: little less than one thousand bucks, So Apple was really

713
00:41:14,280 --> 00:41:18,080
Speaker 1: trying to price these computers in a way where education

714
00:41:18,200 --> 00:41:20,640
Speaker 1: systems would be able to shell out the bucks to

715
00:41:20,719 --> 00:41:24,400
Speaker 1: buy them, because again Max were pretty expensive and a

716
00:41:24,400 --> 00:41:27,239
Speaker 1: lot of education systems just didn't have the budget to

717
00:41:27,360 --> 00:41:31,160
Speaker 1: buy Macintosh computers. So this was Apple's attempt to kind

718
00:41:31,160 --> 00:41:35,680
Speaker 1: of get into that market with a slightly less powerful computer.

719
00:41:37,160 --> 00:41:40,480
Speaker 1: In two thousand and three, Apple began introducing Max that

720
00:41:40,520 --> 00:41:43,520
Speaker 1: were no longer backwards compatible with the old classic Mac

721
00:41:43,640 --> 00:41:46,440
Speaker 1: operating system, and this began the March of Obsolescens for

722
00:41:46,480 --> 00:41:50,560
Speaker 1: those old OS builds. The company continued its trend of

723
00:41:50,680 --> 00:41:55,440
Speaker 1: updating machines, but again there were no major revolutions that happened.

724
00:41:55,440 --> 00:41:58,560
Speaker 1: In two thousand and three, Apple did introduce the PowerMac

725
00:41:58,680 --> 00:42:04,279
Speaker 1: G five with the IBM power Pc nine seventy CPU

726
00:42:04,560 --> 00:42:07,040
Speaker 1: that gave the Mac a processor speed of between one

727
00:42:07,080 --> 00:42:09,759
Speaker 1: point six to two point zero gigahertz, depending upon the

728
00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:14,000
Speaker 1: model that you bought. This computer generated so much heat

729
00:42:14,400 --> 00:42:19,080
Speaker 1: that it required nine cooling fans to manage it. Nine

730
00:42:19,200 --> 00:42:22,120
Speaker 1: fans inside of this computer so that it would not overheat.

731
00:42:22,360 --> 00:42:24,520
Speaker 1: The case was also made out of aluminum, which is

732
00:42:24,520 --> 00:42:27,680
Speaker 1: a very effective conductor of heat. Which is good because

733
00:42:27,960 --> 00:42:30,360
Speaker 1: a lot of heat gets generated inside the machine, it

734
00:42:30,440 --> 00:42:33,360
Speaker 1: transfers out to the case, and the case transfers it

735
00:42:33,400 --> 00:42:36,600
Speaker 1: out to the air around it. But yeah, these machines

736
00:42:36,640 --> 00:42:41,759
Speaker 1: got pretty toasty. Well, we've got one last section to

737
00:42:41,800 --> 00:42:44,759
Speaker 1: go through to talk about the history of the Macintosh

738
00:42:44,800 --> 00:42:47,279
Speaker 1: and get up to present day. But before I jump

739
00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:50,680
Speaker 1: into that, let's take another quick break to thank our sponsor.

740
00:42:59,560 --> 00:43:01,359
Speaker 3: Jumping out into two thousand.

741
00:43:01,040 --> 00:43:03,960
Speaker 1: And four, the big news that year for Apple was

742
00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:08,240
Speaker 1: a redesign of the iMac Now. The older CRT versions

743
00:43:08,239 --> 00:43:12,640
Speaker 1: were replaced that year with a new flat panel display version.

744
00:43:13,400 --> 00:43:16,440
Speaker 1: The computer was in the same housing as the display,

745
00:43:16,880 --> 00:43:18,880
Speaker 1: with an optical drive to the right of the screen

746
00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:22,480
Speaker 1: and all the ports helpfully on the back of the

747
00:43:22,560 --> 00:43:25,759
Speaker 1: darn thing. I hated that design decision, by the way,

748
00:43:25,800 --> 00:43:28,200
Speaker 1: to have all the ports on this computer on the back.

749
00:43:28,239 --> 00:43:31,759
Speaker 1: I understand it was necessary for the layout for the motherboard,

750
00:43:32,360 --> 00:43:34,880
Speaker 1: but man, it was so irritating to have to plug

751
00:43:34,920 --> 00:43:37,480
Speaker 1: everything into the back of the machine in order to

752
00:43:37,520 --> 00:43:40,680
Speaker 1: use it, including stuff like your mouse and your keyboard,

753
00:43:40,719 --> 00:43:43,520
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. But this looked like a flat

754
00:43:43,560 --> 00:43:47,719
Speaker 1: panel television on a stand. The entire computer was housed

755
00:43:47,880 --> 00:43:52,080
Speaker 1: inside of this thing. Big dramatic change from those big,

756
00:43:52,120 --> 00:43:57,880
Speaker 1: bulky CRT sets of the iMac before, and a totally

757
00:43:57,960 --> 00:44:01,440
Speaker 1: new design, brand new aesthetic move for Apple, and it

758
00:44:01,520 --> 00:44:05,120
Speaker 1: kind of started Apple down the pathway of that smooth

759
00:44:05,280 --> 00:44:08,880
Speaker 1: white two thousand and one ish aesthetic that they became

760
00:44:09,000 --> 00:44:12,200
Speaker 1: known for. A lot of Apple's products would end up

761
00:44:12,239 --> 00:44:16,840
Speaker 1: following that same sort of design philosophy, but this was

762
00:44:16,880 --> 00:44:19,399
Speaker 1: one of the earliest ones. And I actually had an

763
00:44:19,440 --> 00:44:22,760
Speaker 1: iMac in this style, although it wasn't a two thousand

764
00:44:22,800 --> 00:44:24,839
Speaker 1: and four iMac it was a bit later. It might

765
00:44:24,840 --> 00:44:27,040
Speaker 1: have been as ley as two thousand and six, but

766
00:44:28,719 --> 00:44:30,880
Speaker 1: I definitely had one of these max. It was the

767
00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:33,560
Speaker 1: only Mac I've ever owned. I liked it just fine.

768
00:44:34,040 --> 00:44:37,359
Speaker 1: I just never bought another one.

769
00:44:37,600 --> 00:44:38,760
Speaker 3: So kind of cool.

770
00:44:39,360 --> 00:44:42,080
Speaker 1: This two thousand and one ish approach very different from

771
00:44:42,120 --> 00:44:46,200
Speaker 1: the lollipop colorful approach of the crt Imax from just

772
00:44:46,239 --> 00:44:49,000
Speaker 1: a few years earlier. And in two thousand and five

773
00:44:49,040 --> 00:44:51,600
Speaker 1: we got the Mac Mini. Now by we, I mean

774
00:44:51,640 --> 00:44:55,120
Speaker 1: the general Wei. I never owned Mac Minie, but this

775
00:44:55,280 --> 00:44:58,600
Speaker 1: was a really cool idea too. This was a desktop

776
00:44:58,600 --> 00:45:01,760
Speaker 1: computer in miniature, and it didn't have a built in display.

777
00:45:01,800 --> 00:45:04,160
Speaker 1: There was no display that came along with it. But

778
00:45:04,239 --> 00:45:07,200
Speaker 1: you would get this tiny little computer, and I mean

779
00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:10,160
Speaker 1: it was tiny. It was six and a half inches

780
00:45:10,239 --> 00:45:13,319
Speaker 1: per side and two inches tall and that was the

781
00:45:13,320 --> 00:45:15,759
Speaker 1: whole desktop and you would just connect that to an

782
00:45:15,760 --> 00:45:20,840
Speaker 1: existing display using whichever port you needed. And it was

783
00:45:20,920 --> 00:45:23,800
Speaker 1: bargain priced, at least as far as Apple is concerned.

784
00:45:23,840 --> 00:45:26,480
Speaker 1: It was on sale for four hundred and ninety nine dollars.

785
00:45:27,000 --> 00:45:30,400
Speaker 1: That's dirt cheap with Apple. So it gave people the

786
00:45:30,440 --> 00:45:33,280
Speaker 1: opportunity to own a Mac as long as they already

787
00:45:33,320 --> 00:45:36,080
Speaker 1: had a display, or they didn't mind buying a display

788
00:45:36,320 --> 00:45:39,120
Speaker 1: and a keyboard and all that other stuff, or a

789
00:45:39,160 --> 00:45:41,840
Speaker 1: bargain price compared to the other Macs that were on

790
00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:45,239
Speaker 1: the market at that same time. One drawback to this

791
00:45:45,400 --> 00:45:49,120
Speaker 1: design was that you couldn't expand it. You couldn't add

792
00:45:49,160 --> 00:45:52,320
Speaker 1: more memory or change it in any meaningful way, because

793
00:45:52,360 --> 00:45:55,120
Speaker 1: it was so small and everything was packed so tightly

794
00:45:55,160 --> 00:45:57,920
Speaker 1: together that there was no room to expand it at all,

795
00:45:58,880 --> 00:46:00,800
Speaker 1: so if you bought one, you were pretty much stuck

796
00:46:00,840 --> 00:46:04,200
Speaker 1: with the initial specs that it came out with. That

797
00:46:04,320 --> 00:46:07,480
Speaker 1: same year, Steve Jobs made a big announcement, so this

798
00:46:07,520 --> 00:46:10,080
Speaker 1: is again two thousand and five. He said that future

799
00:46:10,120 --> 00:46:13,239
Speaker 1: Max would move away from power Pc chips that had

800
00:46:13,239 --> 00:46:16,279
Speaker 1: provided Mac processing power for the last decade or so,

801
00:46:16,600 --> 00:46:21,120
Speaker 1: and instead Apple would make a move to Intel. Intel

802
00:46:21,120 --> 00:46:25,799
Speaker 1: would supply the future CPUs to all Macintosh computers that

803
00:46:25,800 --> 00:46:30,040
Speaker 1: would be released after that point. Those first Mac Intel's

804
00:46:30,200 --> 00:46:33,920
Speaker 1: would not go on sale until the following year, and

805
00:46:33,920 --> 00:46:37,080
Speaker 1: it worried a lot of Mac users because not all

806
00:46:37,120 --> 00:46:44,200
Speaker 1: software is compatible with various microprocessor architecture. So if you

807
00:46:44,239 --> 00:46:48,279
Speaker 1: have operating system and software that was designed to work

808
00:46:48,280 --> 00:46:51,400
Speaker 1: on the power Pc platform, it might not work on

809
00:46:51,440 --> 00:46:54,960
Speaker 1: the Intel platform. And if those programs are important to

810
00:46:55,080 --> 00:46:58,880
Speaker 1: you and your business or whatever you're using your Mac for,

811
00:46:59,400 --> 00:47:02,960
Speaker 1: then upgrade to a new Macintosh could be harmful to you.

812
00:47:03,440 --> 00:47:06,000
Speaker 1: So for example, here at how Stuff Works, we use

813
00:47:06,080 --> 00:47:08,480
Speaker 1: very specific editing suites.

814
00:47:08,160 --> 00:47:12,160
Speaker 3: For our video and audio stuff like this podcast and

815
00:47:12,440 --> 00:47:13,240
Speaker 3: video series.

816
00:47:14,120 --> 00:47:16,719
Speaker 1: We use very specific types of software for that on

817
00:47:16,800 --> 00:47:20,040
Speaker 1: Macintosh computers. If we were to upgrade to a new

818
00:47:20,120 --> 00:47:24,359
Speaker 1: processor that could not run those old programs, we would

819
00:47:24,400 --> 00:47:27,239
Speaker 1: be kind of stuck. Now, Apple's solution for this was

820
00:47:27,320 --> 00:47:32,759
Speaker 1: to release a power PC emulator. It's called Rosetta, named

821
00:47:32,800 --> 00:47:35,120
Speaker 1: after the Rosetta stone, which of course was used to

822
00:47:35,120 --> 00:47:39,240
Speaker 1: help translate hiro glyphics back in the day. So Rosetta

823
00:47:39,400 --> 00:47:42,440
Speaker 1: was an emulator, which means it's a program that simulates

824
00:47:42,760 --> 00:47:47,320
Speaker 1: another type of technology, in this case another type of microprocessor,

825
00:47:47,400 --> 00:47:51,400
Speaker 1: the power PC style microprocessor, and this would allow you

826
00:47:51,440 --> 00:47:55,919
Speaker 1: to continue to use some of that legacy software even

827
00:47:55,960 --> 00:47:59,879
Speaker 1: on these Intel powered machines. Also in two thousand and five,

828
00:48:00,000 --> 00:48:01,280
Speaker 1: Apple introduced.

829
00:48:01,400 --> 00:48:06,600
Speaker 3: The Mighty Mouse. You can't see this audio listeners, but.

830
00:48:06,560 --> 00:48:11,839
Speaker 1: I'm making a very unimpressed face into the webcam I'm

831
00:48:11,920 --> 00:48:15,279
Speaker 1: using for the Twitch stream of this episode. Remember you

832
00:48:15,360 --> 00:48:17,880
Speaker 1: can always go to twitch dot tv slash tech stuff

833
00:48:17,880 --> 00:48:20,880
Speaker 1: if you want to watch an episode live as I

834
00:48:20,960 --> 00:48:23,719
Speaker 1: record it. Well, the Mighty Mouse was a mouse that

835
00:48:23,760 --> 00:48:27,640
Speaker 1: had more than just one button capability. The Macintosh was

836
00:48:27,680 --> 00:48:30,560
Speaker 1: famous for shipping with a mouse that only had one button,

837
00:48:30,600 --> 00:48:33,440
Speaker 1: and if you wanted other types of functionality, You had

838
00:48:33,480 --> 00:48:36,080
Speaker 1: to hold down a key on the keyboard while pressing

839
00:48:36,120 --> 00:48:40,120
Speaker 1: down on the button. The Mighty Mouse actually had ability

840
00:48:40,160 --> 00:48:42,799
Speaker 1: to use the left side of the mouse or the

841
00:48:42,880 --> 00:48:45,799
Speaker 1: right side of the mouse, or you could squeeze both

842
00:48:45,880 --> 00:48:50,479
Speaker 1: sides and create three different types of controls with this mouse,

843
00:48:50,560 --> 00:48:53,160
Speaker 1: or three different types of commands with one mouse.

844
00:48:53,520 --> 00:48:55,960
Speaker 3: So it still felt like one button, but.

845
00:48:56,040 --> 00:48:58,160
Speaker 1: You could press the left side of the button down,

846
00:48:58,400 --> 00:48:59,920
Speaker 1: or press the right side of the button down, or

847
00:49:00,040 --> 00:49:02,840
Speaker 1: squeeze it, and that would allow you to execute different

848
00:49:02,880 --> 00:49:06,600
Speaker 1: commands in various programs. Why not just make a mouse

849
00:49:06,719 --> 00:49:10,200
Speaker 1: with extra buttons, with each button dedicated to a specific function.

850
00:49:11,120 --> 00:49:12,400
Speaker 3: Because Johnny Ive.

851
00:49:12,600 --> 00:49:16,320
Speaker 1: Who's a chief designer over at Apple, and Steve Jobs

852
00:49:16,600 --> 00:49:20,799
Speaker 1: hate buttons, I guess they just don't like them. They

853
00:49:20,880 --> 00:49:25,240
Speaker 1: like the aesthetic of a smooth, buttonless type of device,

854
00:49:25,840 --> 00:49:30,759
Speaker 1: even if it means that they are stressing form over functionality. Now,

855
00:49:30,800 --> 00:49:33,759
Speaker 1: maybe again that's my anti Mac bias, but I like

856
00:49:34,040 --> 00:49:38,600
Speaker 1: functionality over form. I want something to work first and

857
00:49:38,680 --> 00:49:41,280
Speaker 1: then look nice. I don't want it to look nice

858
00:49:41,480 --> 00:49:45,200
Speaker 1: and then just work. Okay, but that just shows the

859
00:49:45,280 --> 00:49:50,000
Speaker 1: difference of approach I take to technology than Apple takes.

860
00:49:50,200 --> 00:49:51,280
Speaker 3: Now, Apple would.

861
00:49:51,120 --> 00:49:55,440
Speaker 1: Argue that they value both equal, that something needs to

862
00:49:55,480 --> 00:49:59,080
Speaker 1: look amazing and work perfectly. I would argue the Mighty

863
00:49:59,080 --> 00:50:02,680
Speaker 1: Mouse does not white achieve that. That's my own personal

864
00:50:02,719 --> 00:50:06,480
Speaker 1: opinion as someone who had a Mighty Mouse and an

865
00:50:06,560 --> 00:50:11,600
Speaker 1: iMac and I despise that mouse a lot, but again

866
00:50:12,280 --> 00:50:15,040
Speaker 1: antimac bias, so don't pay too much attention to me.

867
00:50:17,040 --> 00:50:20,680
Speaker 1: The company also began to ship dual core Power Max

868
00:50:20,760 --> 00:50:24,440
Speaker 1: at this time, using dual core processors. This is part

869
00:50:24,480 --> 00:50:26,759
Speaker 1: of a new era in computing at this point where

870
00:50:26,760 --> 00:50:29,359
Speaker 1: we started to see these multicore processors find their way

871
00:50:29,360 --> 00:50:32,760
Speaker 1: into consumer computers. Now, I'll likely do a full episode

872
00:50:32,800 --> 00:50:36,240
Speaker 1: about what multicore core processors are and how they work

873
00:50:36,280 --> 00:50:38,840
Speaker 1: and why it's important at a later date. I've covered

874
00:50:38,840 --> 00:50:41,719
Speaker 1: it a little bit in previous Tech Stuff podcasts, but

875
00:50:42,440 --> 00:50:44,200
Speaker 1: just know that it would take a full episode to

876
00:50:44,239 --> 00:50:47,160
Speaker 1: really explain this. But it was a big advance for

877
00:50:47,280 --> 00:50:48,720
Speaker 1: Macintosh computers at the time.

878
00:50:49,560 --> 00:50:50,120
Speaker 3: Now, in two.

879
00:50:49,960 --> 00:50:52,799
Speaker 1: Thousand and six, the first Intel Max started to hit

880
00:50:52,840 --> 00:50:55,719
Speaker 1: store shelves, and the biggest drawback for Mac users was

881
00:50:55,719 --> 00:51:00,440
Speaker 1: that these machines wouldn't support any classic macOS applications. So

882
00:51:00,520 --> 00:51:02,719
Speaker 1: if you had those legacy apps you depended on, you

883
00:51:02,760 --> 00:51:06,239
Speaker 1: couldn't run them on those machines. You had to keep

884
00:51:06,280 --> 00:51:08,000
Speaker 1: an older Mac around, or you had to create an

885
00:51:08,040 --> 00:51:11,360
Speaker 1: emulator to run them. And that's the problem in general

886
00:51:11,400 --> 00:51:14,239
Speaker 1: with legacy systems. As the hardware gets faster, sometimes you

887
00:51:14,320 --> 00:51:17,800
Speaker 1: lose support for older software, and that's still a problem

888
00:51:17,880 --> 00:51:21,600
Speaker 1: if you really depend on that older software to do something.

889
00:51:21,680 --> 00:51:24,040
Speaker 1: Like I said before, with audio and video production here

890
00:51:24,080 --> 00:51:26,880
Speaker 1: at how stuff works, that could be an issue. Anyone

891
00:51:26,920 --> 00:51:31,200
Speaker 1: who used garage Band with Macintosh computers knows that the

892
00:51:31,719 --> 00:51:35,200
Speaker 1: various evolutions of the garage Band software and the changes

893
00:51:35,239 --> 00:51:38,360
Speaker 1: to the Mac operating system in Mac processors meant that

894
00:51:38,760 --> 00:51:41,560
Speaker 1: sometimes you would end up losing features that you thought

895
00:51:41,640 --> 00:51:45,240
Speaker 1: were absolutely important for you, and you had to stick

896
00:51:45,280 --> 00:51:49,640
Speaker 1: with older, obsolete machines just to get stuff done. The

897
00:51:49,680 --> 00:51:53,720
Speaker 1: company also introduced a new line in laptops. They called

898
00:51:53,719 --> 00:51:56,680
Speaker 1: this new line the MacBook Pro, which of course you

899
00:51:56,719 --> 00:52:01,000
Speaker 1: can still find today. These are higher end Mac laptops,

900
00:52:01,000 --> 00:52:03,920
Speaker 1: so these are meant for power users. They're more expensive,

901
00:52:03,960 --> 00:52:08,120
Speaker 1: they have more features, they're they've got faster processors. It's

902
00:52:08,239 --> 00:52:13,000
Speaker 1: essentially you know your sports vehicle version of the Macintosh laptops.

903
00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:17,359
Speaker 1: People really hated this name when it first came out.

904
00:52:17,400 --> 00:52:22,239
Speaker 1: The MacBook Pro was replacing the old PowerBook line, and

905
00:52:22,280 --> 00:52:26,040
Speaker 1: people really liked PowerBook and they hated the name MacBook.

906
00:52:26,520 --> 00:52:29,200
Speaker 1: But today MacBook is standard, and I think most people

907
00:52:29,239 --> 00:52:31,839
Speaker 1: probably don't even remember the old power Books, and they

908
00:52:31,840 --> 00:52:34,080
Speaker 1: probably don't remember that they put up a fuss when

909
00:52:34,120 --> 00:52:37,920
Speaker 1: it went from PowerBook to MacBook. The moral of that

910
00:52:38,040 --> 00:52:44,960
Speaker 1: story is people hate change, whether it's good, bad, or indifferent. Now,

911
00:52:45,040 --> 00:52:49,000
Speaker 1: nothing of real significance happened in the Macintosh history in

912
00:52:49,000 --> 00:52:51,560
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven, other than Apple making flat screen

913
00:52:51,680 --> 00:52:54,759
Speaker 1: Imax and brushed aluminum instead of white plastic.

914
00:52:55,280 --> 00:52:57,680
Speaker 3: So let's skip ahead to two thousand and eight.

915
00:52:57,800 --> 00:52:59,640
Speaker 1: I'm not going to spend time on a year where

916
00:53:00,120 --> 00:53:03,600
Speaker 1: not really anything happened. Now, this was the year that

917
00:53:03,640 --> 00:53:07,160
Speaker 1: Steve Jobs introduced the MacBook Air, which was a big

918
00:53:07,239 --> 00:53:10,719
Speaker 1: deal in a small package. It was the thinnest MacBook

919
00:53:10,880 --> 00:53:12,800
Speaker 1: at that point, and at.

920
00:53:12,840 --> 00:53:13,520
Speaker 3: It was amazing.

921
00:53:13,520 --> 00:53:15,799
Speaker 1: It was three quarters of an inch thick, which is

922
00:53:15,880 --> 00:53:19,440
Speaker 1: incredibly thin for a laptop, especially one as powerful as

923
00:53:19,480 --> 00:53:22,560
Speaker 1: the MacBook Air, and it weighed in at three pounds.

924
00:53:22,880 --> 00:53:25,560
Speaker 1: It had no optical drive, so you couldn't insert any

925
00:53:25,680 --> 00:53:28,439
Speaker 1: kind of CD or DVD into it. But it did

926
00:53:28,480 --> 00:53:31,800
Speaker 1: have a sweet aluminum body, and it had one port

927
00:53:32,000 --> 00:53:34,800
Speaker 1: on it, which was a single USB two point zero

928
00:53:34,800 --> 00:53:37,799
Speaker 1: connector port, and that was behind a little door. You

929
00:53:37,840 --> 00:53:40,760
Speaker 1: had to open the little door to access this port

930
00:53:41,239 --> 00:53:46,000
Speaker 1: because ports, I guess, spoiled the computer's lines otherwise. Also,

931
00:53:47,239 --> 00:53:48,920
Speaker 1: if you wanted to add more ports, it would have

932
00:53:48,960 --> 00:53:52,480
Speaker 1: meant having to create a thicker version of the MacBook Air,

933
00:53:52,520 --> 00:53:54,879
Speaker 1: which was not what Steve Jobs had in mind when

934
00:53:54,920 --> 00:53:58,200
Speaker 1: he actually, you know, when he launched this project to

935
00:53:58,280 --> 00:54:03,439
Speaker 1: create a super thin MacBook, so it ended up having

936
00:54:03,600 --> 00:54:06,600
Speaker 1: just one port. From that point forward, Max and their

937
00:54:06,680 --> 00:54:10,279
Speaker 1: various lines received regular updates and a refresh to their appearances,

938
00:54:10,880 --> 00:54:16,319
Speaker 1: but that was mostly it. Right, the future MacBooks would

939
00:54:16,400 --> 00:54:20,080
Speaker 1: largely follow simple trends in that you'd get.

940
00:54:19,920 --> 00:54:25,280
Speaker 3: Faster processors, better graphics. Ports would change.

941
00:54:25,440 --> 00:54:30,600
Speaker 1: Eventually you would get better resolution on your displays as well.

942
00:54:31,400 --> 00:54:34,760
Speaker 1: They'd get more expensive, they'd get thinner, and they'd get lighter.

943
00:54:35,040 --> 00:54:38,560
Speaker 1: But that's pretty much the trend. There wasn't anything really

944
00:54:38,640 --> 00:54:43,279
Speaker 1: revolutionary after this point, nothing that jumped completely out of

945
00:54:43,320 --> 00:54:45,840
Speaker 1: the line of what you would come to expect from Apple.

946
00:54:47,080 --> 00:54:50,319
Speaker 1: There were a couple of exceptions, a couple standouts. The

947
00:54:50,360 --> 00:54:52,920
Speaker 1: MacBook Pro in twenty twelve came in a model with

948
00:54:53,000 --> 00:54:56,279
Speaker 1: a retina display that was the first MacBook Pro to

949
00:54:56,600 --> 00:54:59,680
Speaker 1: actually have a retina display that's similar to the display

950
00:54:59,680 --> 00:55:02,960
Speaker 1: you find in iPhones of that time, is a very

951
00:55:03,000 --> 00:55:08,520
Speaker 1: high definition, high resolution display. And in twenty thirteen, Apple

952
00:55:08,600 --> 00:55:13,120
Speaker 1: introduced a cylindrical case for a new Mac Pro, so

953
00:55:13,360 --> 00:55:16,120
Speaker 1: you suddenly had a tower that was a cylinder instead

954
00:55:16,120 --> 00:55:20,319
Speaker 1: of a rectangle style, which was what was common at

955
00:55:20,320 --> 00:55:23,319
Speaker 1: the time. And the cylinder was gorgeous. It looks like

956
00:55:23,760 --> 00:55:26,920
Speaker 1: it belongs in some sort of science fiction film. It's

957
00:55:27,040 --> 00:55:31,120
Speaker 1: kind of a high tech supercomputer sort of look to it.

958
00:55:32,160 --> 00:55:34,440
Speaker 1: And this Mac Pro was really meant to work as

959
00:55:34,440 --> 00:55:37,759
Speaker 1: a server or a workstation. It wasn't necessarily meant to

960
00:55:37,800 --> 00:55:41,960
Speaker 1: be your own personal computer. They were pretty darn expensive

961
00:55:42,000 --> 00:55:45,320
Speaker 1: when they came out, and it was a really unique

962
00:55:45,440 --> 00:55:48,520
Speaker 1: esthetic something that stood out. However, I can tell you

963
00:55:48,560 --> 00:55:50,280
Speaker 1: that some of the video team here at how Stuff

964
00:55:50,320 --> 00:55:53,920
Speaker 1: Works have a few strong opinions about the performance of

965
00:55:53,960 --> 00:55:57,560
Speaker 1: this specific model of the MacPro, and they are not

966
00:55:58,480 --> 00:56:02,520
Speaker 1: entirely positive. May just be our own experiences with them,

967
00:56:02,960 --> 00:56:08,120
Speaker 1: but something that they found somewhat frustrating is a good

968
00:56:08,120 --> 00:56:11,760
Speaker 1: word searching for a word that wouldn't be too harsh.

969
00:56:11,840 --> 00:56:12,960
Speaker 3: Frustrating is a good one.

970
00:56:14,040 --> 00:56:16,360
Speaker 1: But this was another example of Apple taking a dramatic

971
00:56:16,400 --> 00:56:19,400
Speaker 1: departure from the general esthetics that were prevalent in personal

972
00:56:19,400 --> 00:56:21,719
Speaker 1: computers at the time and trying to make it their own.

973
00:56:22,880 --> 00:56:26,440
Speaker 1: One thing else I need to mention before we conclude, really,

974
00:56:28,880 --> 00:56:33,720
Speaker 1: obviously a moment that really changed the direction of Apple

975
00:56:33,960 --> 00:56:38,440
Speaker 1: overall and the Mac in particular, was the death of

976
00:56:38,520 --> 00:56:39,280
Speaker 1: Steve Jobs.

977
00:56:39,320 --> 00:56:41,320
Speaker 3: He passed away in twenty eleven.

978
00:56:41,400 --> 00:56:44,399
Speaker 1: We did an episode called One More Thing all about

979
00:56:44,440 --> 00:56:47,880
Speaker 1: Steve Jobs where we talked about this, and this obviously

980
00:56:47,920 --> 00:56:51,120
Speaker 1: had a monumental impact on the company as a whole.

981
00:56:51,640 --> 00:56:56,240
Speaker 1: He had already stepped down as CEO earlier before his passing,

982
00:56:56,880 --> 00:57:00,680
Speaker 1: but he was still very much a president set Apple

983
00:57:01,520 --> 00:57:04,520
Speaker 1: up until a couple of months before his death, and

984
00:57:04,560 --> 00:57:06,680
Speaker 1: he had handed the reins over to Tim Cook to

985
00:57:06,680 --> 00:57:10,240
Speaker 1: become the new CEO. But it had been Jobs, along

986
00:57:10,280 --> 00:57:14,399
Speaker 1: with a top tier level of designers like Johnny Ive,

987
00:57:14,640 --> 00:57:18,680
Speaker 1: who had really set the direction of Apple and the

988
00:57:19,200 --> 00:57:23,200
Speaker 1: esthetic direction for products like the Macintosh computer line and

989
00:57:23,280 --> 00:57:27,480
Speaker 1: the MAX that followed. It would be another couple of

990
00:57:27,560 --> 00:57:31,160
Speaker 1: years before Jobs's direct influence would no longer be a

991
00:57:31,200 --> 00:57:34,680
Speaker 1: major factor in MAX. And this is largely because the

992
00:57:34,680 --> 00:57:37,120
Speaker 1: products that launch on any given year have been in

993
00:57:37,160 --> 00:57:40,919
Speaker 1: development for a while behind the scenes. So while Steve

994
00:57:40,960 --> 00:57:43,440
Speaker 1: Jobs passed away in twenty eleven, it would be another

995
00:57:43,520 --> 00:57:46,720
Speaker 1: year or two before his direct influence was no longer

996
00:57:48,320 --> 00:57:53,320
Speaker 1: a living component of the MAX that followed. But this

997
00:57:53,440 --> 00:57:57,560
Speaker 1: did mean that Apple started having to produce computers without

998
00:57:57,640 --> 00:58:02,440
Speaker 1: that guidance from Steve Jobs himself, and that some people

999
00:58:02,640 --> 00:58:06,520
Speaker 1: ended up pointing out as being an issue. Some people

1000
00:58:06,600 --> 00:58:10,520
Speaker 1: say that the changes to the macline post Steve Jobs

1001
00:58:10,520 --> 00:58:16,120
Speaker 1: haven't been terribly inspirational or innovative. Others have said that

1002
00:58:16,280 --> 00:58:20,960
Speaker 1: been more frustrating as Apple has continued to change things up.

1003
00:58:21,040 --> 00:58:23,640
Speaker 1: Remember in two thousand and eight they stopped making FireWire

1004
00:58:24,280 --> 00:58:27,560
Speaker 1: a standard on all Macintosh computers.

1005
00:58:28,400 --> 00:58:30,320
Speaker 3: By a couple of years.

1006
00:58:30,200 --> 00:58:33,960
Speaker 1: Later, they started moving toward well, actually really this year

1007
00:58:34,000 --> 00:58:36,400
Speaker 1: they started moving in last year they started moving toward

1008
00:58:36,800 --> 00:58:42,600
Speaker 1: USB s ports and abandoning things like the thunderbolt connectors.

1009
00:58:43,360 --> 00:58:47,120
Speaker 1: So there have been changes, a lot of them have

1010
00:58:47,200 --> 00:58:50,960
Speaker 1: been changes that some Apple users have been very upset

1011
00:58:51,000 --> 00:58:55,240
Speaker 1: about because they feel like Apple is ignoring consumer needs

1012
00:58:56,080 --> 00:58:59,960
Speaker 1: and is instead demanding that consumers follow in the footsteps

1013
00:59:00,160 --> 00:59:03,400
Speaker 1: that they are forging, which is mixing metaphors.

1014
00:59:03,440 --> 00:59:04,120
Speaker 3: But never mind it.

1015
00:59:04,160 --> 00:59:06,840
Speaker 1: But I would say that that's been Apple's history all along.

1016
00:59:07,720 --> 00:59:11,800
Speaker 1: Apple has made very strong decisions to go in certain

1017
00:59:11,840 --> 00:59:18,320
Speaker 1: directions that require users to follow suit or they get

1018
00:59:18,400 --> 00:59:22,919
Speaker 1: left behind. That's the history of Apple. It might be frustrating,

1019
00:59:23,520 --> 00:59:26,280
Speaker 1: but it's not out of character. It is something that

1020
00:59:26,440 --> 00:59:30,280
Speaker 1: has been part of the company culture from the earliest days,

1021
00:59:30,320 --> 00:59:32,240
Speaker 1: I would argue.

1022
00:59:32,400 --> 00:59:36,200
Speaker 2: And that concludes the three part Macintosh story as of

1023
00:59:36,680 --> 00:59:40,840
Speaker 2: June ninth, twenty seventeen. I'll have to check and see

1024
00:59:40,920 --> 00:59:44,000
Speaker 2: if I've done updates since then, because clearly a lot

1025
00:59:44,040 --> 00:59:47,040
Speaker 2: can happen in six years seven years, so we will

1026
00:59:47,400 --> 00:59:49,400
Speaker 2: look and see what kind of updates we can do.

1027
00:59:49,520 --> 00:59:52,920
Speaker 2: Maybe it could be a shorter episode, because a lot

1028
00:59:52,960 --> 00:59:57,440
Speaker 2: of the really traumatic stuff happened all the way through

1029
00:59:57,480 --> 01:00:00,280
Speaker 2: its early years, right with the formation of of the

1030
01:00:00,320 --> 01:00:02,880
Speaker 2: Macintosh in the first place, and a lot of the

1031
01:00:02,880 --> 01:00:06,400
Speaker 2: things that have happened since then have been largely iterative.

1032
01:00:06,680 --> 01:00:10,200
Speaker 2: Although you could argue that Apple developing its own processors

1033
01:00:10,240 --> 01:00:13,480
Speaker 2: is a huge part that we should touch on, So

1034
01:00:13,520 --> 01:00:15,640
Speaker 2: maybe I will do an update in the near future.

1035
01:00:16,000 --> 01:00:18,280
Speaker 2: In the meantime, I hope you're all well and I'll

1036
01:00:18,320 --> 01:00:27,480
Speaker 2: talk to you again really soon. Tech Stuff is an

1037
01:00:27,480 --> 01:00:33,000
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio production. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

1038
01:00:33,160 --> 01:00:39,840
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.