WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: The Macintosh Story Part 3 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:11.000 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:14.640 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:15.880 Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:18.759 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:22.480 tech are you? It is time for another classic episode, 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:25.880 and for the last two Fridays we have been publishing 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:29.960 reruns from twenty seventeen of The McIntosh Story. It's a 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:31.160 three part series. 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:34.599 So this is the conclusion as of twenty seventeen of 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:37.520 the Macintosh Story. So if you missed parts one and two, 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:40.760 you can look back at the last two fridays and 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:44.960 catch up. The original publication date for this episode was 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:49.360 June ninth, twenty seventeen. So let's listen to The Macintosh 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:50.760 Story Part three. 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:55.600 So if you don't remember, Part one of this series 0:00:56.560 --> 0:01:00.400 covered the people responsible for launching the first macin Tosh, 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:04.280 which came out in nineteen eighty four. The second part 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:08.000 largely focused on the Mac from about nineteen eighty five 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:11.720 up through the point where Steve Jobs returned to Apple. 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:15.240 So between nineteen eighty five and nineteen ninety seven, Steve 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:18.959 Jobs was effectively forced out of the company he had 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:22.480 co founded, and then in nineteen ninety seven he returned 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:25.440 to Apple. So this third part we're going to pick 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:28.319 back up right around that time, which requires me to 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:30.600 do a little backtracking just so that we're all on 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:32.039 the same page. 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:34.279 So it's nineteen ninety seven. 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:38.520 The Apple CEO at the time at the beginning of 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:43.200 nineteen ninety seven was Gil Emilio, and he was in 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:47.200 charge during the time where Apple started looking at developing 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:50.800 the next generation of operating systems. It had been developing 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:54.440 operating systems in house, tried to develop a brand new 0:01:54.480 --> 0:02:00.560 operating system for the power PC microchip as a partner ship. 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:02.240 With Motorola and IBM. 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:07.680 It became known as the Aim Projects because it was Apple, IBM, 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:10.560 and Motorola and it was meant to be a competitor 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:13.320 to Intel and the Windows operating system. 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:17.120 And how well that partnership was working, they. 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:20.680 Were looking at acquiring a company in order to get 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:23.880 a new operating system on board, and they were looking 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:26.480 at two different companies that were each founded by a 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:29.960 different former member of the Apple team. 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:33.160 One of those two companies was called Next. 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:37.000 Next was a company that Steve Jobs founded after he 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:41.079 had left Apple. He was trying to create a new 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:46.080 computer standard, a new type of computer for the educational industry, 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:50.480 and Next was the computer system he developed. It was 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:55.000 not really a super success. It was modest in its successes. 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:58.680 It was a very expensive machine. Again, like many of 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:01.600 the stories I've told about the Macintosh, not only was 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:04.160 it expensive, but it was hard to get developers to 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:05.639 make software for it. 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:09.239 So it was not a bad idea. 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:10.880 It just didn't have a lot of support and it 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:15.200 was really expensive, so it didn't get a huge number 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:17.720 of purchases out there. 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:18.800 Well. 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:24.040 Apple acquired Next, and as a result they also kind 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:25.359 of acquired Steve Jobs. 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:28.320 He came along with the company. 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:32.360 Jobs would then convince the Board of directors that Emilio 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:35.360 needed to go. I mean, he had led the charge 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:39.480 about acquiring Next, but he had also made some decisions 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:44.760 that Steve Jobs viewed as being incredibly negative for the 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:47.840 health of Apple as a company. Apple stocks were at 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:52.360 a twelve year low when gill Emilio was CEO. The 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:56.520 board agreed with Steve Jobs and removed gill Emilio from 0:03:56.560 --> 0:04:00.720 the position of CEO, and then Steve Jobs essentially became 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:03.880 the CEO of Apple, although originally he was just called 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:07.720 the interim CEO. He would later become the permanent CEO, 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:11.520 but in the meantime he was the interim CEO, which 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:14.160 would mean that he was just keeping the seat warm 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:17.000 for somebody else. It just turned out he was keeping 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:21.960 the seat warm for himself. He didn't turn the company 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:25.800 around instantly, but he did get to work right away. 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:29.520 The day after he was named interim CEO of Apple, 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:32.880 he launched a new project that would really pay off 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:36.520 in nineteen ninety eight, and that was the iMac. He 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:41.279 started that the day after September sixteenth, nineteen ninety seven. 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:44.680 He started that iMac project, So he didn't waste any 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:48.119 time once he stepped into that role. Now, nineteen ninety 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:50.840 seven was also the year that Apple decided to rename 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:54.480 the operating system for the Macintosh. If you remember in 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:57.800 our last episode, they had started calling the operating system 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:01.719 a pretty simple name. The name was System. So the 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:05.480 first mac operating system was just System one point zero. 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:09.960 The last version of System using this naming style was 0:05:10.240 --> 0:05:13.760 System seven point five point five or seven dot five 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:17.800 dot five if you prefer. Starting with version seven dot six, 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:23.400 they decided to rename it and they went with macOS eight. Now, 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:26.400 what's more, this version of the opering system wasn't compatible 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:29.640 with the Mac Plus. It was the first of the 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:33.200 operating systems that Apple had designed that would not work 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:37.640 on the old Mac Plus computer. If you remember, Macplus 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:41.360 was the longest lived Macintosh on the market. It had 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:45.200 been developed by Apple and manufactured for four years. That's 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:48.000 a long time in the computer business to keep making 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:53.240 the same model of computer. But they had stopped making 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:55.640 mac Pluss for a long time. They just continued to 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:59.080 support it by developing operating systems that could still run 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:02.080 on a Macplus. Just would update your Macplus to the 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:03.680 latest operating system and you're good to go. 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:06.039 Well, Mac OS eight was the first. 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:09.599 Operating system that would not run on a Macplus. So 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:12.920 this was sort of the mark of Macplus marching into 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:17.360 the sunset. It was over. It was an obsolete form 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:20.359 at that point. You could run old stuff on it, 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:21.880 but you couldn't run anything new on it. 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:25.120 Now you might wonder why. 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:27.679 They changed the name of the operating system from system 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:30.839 to macOS, and I'll explain that in just a minute. 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:34.600 But another thing that Apple discontinued continued at this point 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:38.520 was its licensing program, or at least it really changed 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:42.000 that licensing program that had been rather disastrous for Apple 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:45.159 over the last couple of years. So what had happened 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:48.800 was Apple had, before Steed Jobs came back on board, 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:52.760 Apple had started to license out its technology to other 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:57.120 computer manufacturers, which meant that other companies could make computers 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:00.599 that were Mac compatible. Essentially, they were called Mac clones, 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:03.320 and there were several companies that were doing this, and 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:08.400 they were making cheaper versions of Macintosh hardware. It was 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:11.160 in a totally different form factor. It didn't look the 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:15.120 way a Macintosh looked, but it ran Macintosh operating systems 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:18.520 and programs. So you could go out and buy a 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:21.640 clone from one of these companies that was fully licensed. 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:24.600 They were not breaking the law or anything, and you 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:28.080 could run that Mac operating system and software on your 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:31.520 Mac clone for much less money than it would cost 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:33.680 for you to buy an official Macintosh, which meant that 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:38.480 ultimately Apple was undercutting its own sales. Why would you 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:41.840 go out and buy an official Apple Mac if you 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:46.080 could get a comparable system for much less money somewhere else. 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:48.600 Steve Jobs didn't really care for this. He thought it 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:52.040 was a terrible idea, and so he wanted to renegotiate 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:55.600 all those licensing agreements. So once the term was coming up, 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:58.560 you wanted to renegotiate where the royalty fees would be 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:02.880 much higher, so that every sale of a Mac clone 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:07.640 would guarantee Apple a certain percentage of the revenue. Now, 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:10.760 of course, that doesn't make the manufacturing companies all that 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:13.680 eager to sign a new agreement. It means cutting into 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:16.080 their profit margin, and it would mean that they would 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:18.840 have to start raising the prices of their computers to 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:22.400 regain that lost profit margin. But that would mean that 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:25.280 the higher priced computers would be in direct competition with 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:26.360 the Apple computers. 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:28.680 It would just mean a lot. 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:32.320 Of tough decisions on the part of these licensed companies. 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:35.520 So there was a lot of resistance on that, and 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:38.120 that's when Steve Jobs decided to really make a move. 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:42.160 You see, the agreement that they Apple had with these 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:46.000 clone companies was that they could continue to make clones 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:49.680 of Mac computers as long as they were in the 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:54.960 System seven range. If they were in that System seven range, 0:08:55.679 --> 0:09:00.480 then you could continue to make Mac clones. But once 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:05.600 they renamed the operating system from System to macOS, that 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:08.560 part of the agreement no longer was valid because it 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:11.440 was a different operating system at least in name, and 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:13.400 that's what the agreement had said, that as long as 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:16.560 it was system, they could continue to make them. It 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:20.600 meant that all the macclone companies could not make the 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:24.720 most up to date version of the Macintosh, they couldn't 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:28.760 include the latest version of the operating system without paying 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:32.000 another hefty license fee, and as a result, one by 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:35.679 one these licensed companies began to get out of the 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:39.680 macclone business, until by the middle of nineteen ninety eight none. 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:40.640 Of them were doing it anymore. 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:47.480 So within about a year, Steve Jobs stopped this cloning 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:52.680 program that was going on from its predecessor. Now that 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:55.839 in full was a pretty good decision, at least from 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:58.760 a sales perspective for Apple. Back in nineteen ninety five, 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:03.520 Apple had sold four and a half million Max, so 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:05.559 at four and a half million Max nineteen ninety five, 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:08.280 but then it started this clone program where it began 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:13.480 to license the technology to competitors, and in nineteen ninety 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:17.120 six sales of Max dropped to four million units, so 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:20.480 five hundred thousand units fewer than the year before. Now, 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:23.600 you never want to see the number go down when 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:26.800 you are in a company, you always want that graph 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:29.960 to go up into the right, not down into the right. 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:33.640 That's a bad graph if you're in a sales department. 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:38.599 It was worse the following year, in ninety seven, the 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:40.560 writing was on the wall because sales had dropped to 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:45.360 two point eight million units. So two point eight million 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:48.280 from four point five is awful. 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:48.800 Now. 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:52.360 To be fair, there were other mitigating factors that were 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:56.880 also affecting this. For example, Microsoft launched Windows ninety five, 0:10:57.480 --> 0:10:59.920 and that really affected sales at the end of ninety 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:02.800 and throughout ninety six and ninety seven. It was a 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:07.280 very powerful operating system. It was much friendlier than previous 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:10.280 versions of Windows. People said, oh, this is more like 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:13.920 what I expect from Apple, and so people began to 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:22.120 become more happy with Microsoft's approach to a graphic user 0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:26.720 interface or guey operating system. So there were other factors 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:29.680 besides the fact that there were cheaper clones on the 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:34.400 market than Apple computers. But all of this together meant 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:38.880 that getting rid of that clone program just made sense. 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:41.360 And that's exactly what Steve Jobs was able to do 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:45.320 through this renegotiation process and then by changing the operating 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:45.920 system name. 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:49.920 Now I'm going to keep talking about Steve. 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:54.520 Jobs because his history and mac history are so closely 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:58.680 tied together. Remember, the Macintosh started not as one of 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:02.240 Steve Jobs's projects. It was an Apple project, but it 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:05.079 wasn't headed by Steve Jobs. It wasn't until Steve Jobs 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:09.640 was removed from a Lisa project, and then he decided 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:11.880 to get involved with the McIntosh project. But from that 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:15.600 point forward, the Macintosh was really affected by Steve Jobs. 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:17.600 Even when he was away from the company, a lot 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:20.840 of his decisions would end up finding their way into 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:26.840 the Macintosh generation after generation. He made some more big 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:27.720 changes to Apple. 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:29.240 In nineteen ninety eight. 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:32.880 For one thing, Steve Jobs shut down the Newton project. 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:36.000 The Newton was a personal digital assistant that had become 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:39.120 the butt of a lot of jokes thanks to ah inconsistent, 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:44.000 let's say, imperfect design and implementation. It had a handwriting 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:47.280 recognition feature that frequently did not work very well and 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.160 was made fun of on The Simpsons. Among other things. 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:53.920 Steve Jobs also decided to streamline the product lines in 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:57.000 the computer and printer divisions. He started to eliminate some 0:12:57.160 --> 0:13:00.680 of the types of computers they were selling. He thought 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:03.720 that they needed to refocus and start selling a more 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:06.760 narrow band of computers and make sure that they got 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:10.120 that right, as opposed to selling a wide variety of 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:15.280 computers that are of varying degrees of quality. Now, one 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:19.440 of the lines of computers that survived this process was 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:22.959 the Mac. He decided that the Mac had some value 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:25.240 to it. It did not need to be completely done 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:28.400 away with or replaced with some other name. He wanted 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:33.760 to reinvigorate it, but not to completely scrap it and 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:37.160 start over. So the biggest jump for Apple was the 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:40.560 introduction of the iMac. This was a new attempt for 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:43.080 Apple to push into the consumer market in a really 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:46.560 big way, and the basic iMac was a pretty decent 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:48.800 machine for its era. It had a two hundred and 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:53.079 thirty three megahertz G three CPU, had thirty two megabytes 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:57.480 of RAM, a four gigabyte hard drive, a CD ROM drive, 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:01.760 and an Ati Rage two CS graphics card with two 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:07.200 whole megabytes of video memory. Now, Apple originally stated that 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:09.320 the iMac could support up to one hundred and twenty 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:13.280 eight megabytes of RAM, which users could upgrade. So this 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:16.600 was one of the times where you could actually boost 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:21.160 the performance of your machine by adding in extra memory 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:24.640 to the device yourself, something that Apple would eventually get 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:27.720 away from to the point where if you wanted anything upgraded, 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:31.320 you're really stuck. Often you don't have an option at 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:34.400 all unless you just go out and buy a new computer. 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:37.160 Which I mean, if you're selling computers, if that's the 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:40.080 business you're in, if you could convince your users to 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:42.320 just buy a new computer every time they needed something 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:45.160 a little more powerful, that's lucrative. 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:47.640 If there's enough people who will actually do it. 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:52.880 Well, the iMac you could upgrade, and again, Apple originally 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:54.760 said that you could upgrade up to one hundred and 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:57.080 twenty eight megabytes of RAM, but people found out that 0:14:57.280 --> 0:15:00.120 you could actually upgrade it beyond that, depending upon on 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:03.360 the RAM you bought, because not all RAM chips were compatible, 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:06.680 but some were, and in fact, some users found out 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:09.040 that depending upon the chip they bought, they could get 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:12.480 up to five hundred and twelve megabyte modules working on 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:15.480 an iMac, which meant that you could get a maximum 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:18.080 amount of RAM of around a gigabyte. Now, that was 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:23.640 pretty impressive by nineteen ninety eight standards. The computer and 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:27.760 display of the iMac were paired together, so the computer 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:30.400 and display were one big unit that you would plug 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:34.440 a keyboard and mouse into and it looked a lot 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:38.600 like a television set. The display was a fifteen inch display. 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:41.680 It did not have the basic one anyway, did not 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.080 have a floppy disk drive. In fact, this marked a 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:46.640 trend for Apple where it began to get away from 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:51.400 including floppy drives in their computers, and eventually other computer 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:55.120 manufacturers began to follow suit and stopped including floppy drives 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:57.560 in their machines. So this was the beginning of the 0:15:57.680 --> 0:15:59.960 end for the floppy disk drive as a storage media. 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:05.120 It began to go into obsolescence. But the display on 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:09.000 the iMac was a cathode ray tube display a CRT. 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:12.880 I talked a lot about CRTs in the History of 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:15.280 TV podcasts, So if you want to know how a 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:19.160 cathode ray tube works, listen to my History of Television 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:22.840 podcasts because I talk about in detail there. But the 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:26.120 thing to remember is that these machines are take up 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:28.320 a lot of space. So these are those big, clunky 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:32.600 TVs from yesterday that you might have seen, not like 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:35.560 flat screens. Those are you know, either LCD or LED 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:40.360 or plasma displays. But the original IMAX for CRTs, so 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:44.320 they were a little hefty. As a result, they could 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:48.480 support a resolution originally anyway of oneenty twenty four by 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:51.360 seven sixty eight or ten twenty four by seven sixty 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:55.200 eight if you prefer now. Later in nineteen ninety eight, 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:58.160 Apple introduced an updated version of the iMac that had 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:01.440 better graphics card with more video memory, and the most 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:04.080 recent version of the Mac operating system, which was at 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:07.520 that point macversion Mac OS version eight point five. 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:10.720 And on top of the iMac. 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:14.240 Apple also introduced new power books in their laptop lineup, 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:18.760 which included a curvy laptop that was called the Wall 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:24.439 Street power Book. And I this every now and then 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:26.920 Apple would come out with a product that I just 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:29.800 don't get the esthetics. If you don't know what a 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:34.360 Wall Street PowerBook looks like, do an image search on 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:39.280 Apple Wall Street power Book. Because this thing just does 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:42.600 not appeal to me. It was kind of funky. It 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:45.840 also suffered from a design flaw. In the early models, 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:49.840 the hinges were a little weak, which meant that once 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:53.919 they wore out, the laptop screen wouldn't stay in place anymore. 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:57.160 It would start to fall over, which is pretty inconvenient 0:17:57.240 --> 0:18:00.480 for a laptop. So it wasn't the best product to 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:03.400 ever come out of Apple. The Wall Street line also 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:06.600 had a few other issues. For one thing, it was 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:10.800 noticeably slower than the desktop powermas that were coming out 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:13.640 at the time. And you'd expect that to a point. 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:17.760 But when you're selling these laptops at a premium price 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:20.359 and you're saying this is the field version of the 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:25.240 desktops that you can get for your basic home setup, 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:30.280 it's not great when it works significantly slower than the 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:34.880 desktop version. All Right, So we've come up to our 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:38.159 first little break here. Now after the break, we're going 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:43.360 to talk more about some interesting developments from Apple, including 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:47.960 some changes in port systems, as well as some interesting 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:51.560 esthetic choices to really set Apple apart from the herd. 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:54.280 But before we get into that, let's take a quick 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:56.200 break to thank our sponsor. 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:07.680 All right. So around this time. 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:13.840 Apple introduced a new protocol that really took a large 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:17.480 part in the Macintosh from that point forward, and that 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:18.840 was FireWire. 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:21.680 Now, originally you had to. 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:24.080 Get FireWire expansion cards so that you could get a 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:28.440 FireWire port in your mac but over time, FireWire would 0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:35.520 become a standard port in the Macintosh lines for several years. Now, 0:19:35.560 --> 0:19:38.720 if you don't know what FireWire is because it's largely 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:43.879 been replaced at this stage. It is a protocol, a 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:47.760 technology for moving data from one device to another, and 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:50.080 it's meant to move a large amount of data in 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:54.760 a small amount of time. So it's really essentially similar 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:57.520 to other types of ports that you would find on computers, 0:19:57.560 --> 0:20:00.119 like Scuzzy ports back in the day, or us B 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:04.440 ports or USBC today used to be three point zero 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:05.199 style ports. 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:06.800 Now. 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:11.560 At the time, FireWire was a big advance from Scuzzy, 0:20:11.680 --> 0:20:14.320 at least your basic Scuzzy. Unless you were using top 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:19.479 of the line Scuzzy ports with the best cables that 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:24.359 money could buy, you weren't maxing out your speeds that high. 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:29.400 In fact, Scuzzy Ultra had about a ten megabytes per 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:34.399 second top speed for data transfers, which is not bad 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:38.040 except if you're trying to transfer very large files let's 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:41.360 say video files are very high quality audio files. 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:43.320 That was a little slow. 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:49.600 And remember that the macline of computers was frequently being 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:53.800 used by video producers audio producers for a lot of 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:58.760 creative applications like that, as opposed to your productivity software, 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:03.359 which was typically viewed as a Windows machine duty Max 0:21:03.400 --> 0:21:07.320 were taking on all these really high end and very 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:10.920 demanding applications when it comes to audio and video production, 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:14.360 so they needed something that would allow you to transfer 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:15.920 data at faster speeds. 0:21:16.400 --> 0:21:18.240 Now, firewires initial. 0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:21.879 Capabilities stretched up to the four hundred megabits per second range. 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:25.159 Now megabits versus megabytes very different. 0:21:25.280 --> 0:21:25.440 Right. 0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:29.400 A bit is one single unit of information, it's either 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:30.320 a zero or a one. 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:31.280 A byte is. 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:35.080 Eight of those collectively, So four hundred megabits is equivalent 0:21:35.119 --> 0:21:38.320 to around fifty megabytes per second, but that's like five 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:43.199 times faster than Scuzy Ultra was. So Apple was looking 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:49.800 at reinventing data transfers from device to device using the 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:55.240 FireWire as their primary protocol, and also over time they 0:21:55.280 --> 0:21:58.600 had the plan and they implemented this to increase the 0:21:58.640 --> 0:22:02.200 capability of FireWire to move at greater and greater speeds, 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:05.240 so over the generations of the technology, it could move 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:10.080 more information in a shorter amount of time, so it 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:12.880 would become a standard port on max from about two 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:15.200 thousand and one to two thousand and eight and God's 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:18.320 development in the late nineties, but really got wide rollout 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:20.680 by about two thousand and one and over the next 0:22:20.680 --> 0:22:24.439 seven years, it was standard on almost every Mac that 0:22:24.520 --> 0:22:28.960 came out from Apple. Also, in nineteen ninety eight, Apple 0:22:29.040 --> 0:22:32.480 discontinued quite a few machines from their lineup. They officially 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:37.000 stopped supporting all of the Motorola processor MAX that preceded 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:40.520 the switch to the power PC microchip. Now, remember Motorola 0:22:40.600 --> 0:22:45.840 still had involvement in developing the power PC chips, but 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:49.439 the chips that were in Macintosh computers prior to power 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:54.200 PC chips were all Motorola chips. So at that point 0:22:54.280 --> 0:22:57.120 Apple said, well, we're not going to support those anymore. 0:22:58.240 --> 0:23:00.760 Everything is going to now depend upon this power PC 0:23:00.920 --> 0:23:03.280 microchip because that's what we're putting in our MAX from 0:23:03.480 --> 0:23:08.000 this point forward. They also discontinued support for the Apple 0:23:08.080 --> 0:23:11.200 two line, which is pretty incredible that they had supported 0:23:11.240 --> 0:23:13.080 Apple two all the way up to. 0:23:13.119 --> 0:23:14.280 Nineteen ninety eight. 0:23:14.480 --> 0:23:18.479 Now, they had discontinued manufacturing the Apple two long before that, 0:23:19.000 --> 0:23:21.919 but they continued to support it all the way until 0:23:22.080 --> 0:23:25.680 nineteen ninety eight when they officially ended support. That really 0:23:25.720 --> 0:23:28.800 tells you how long that Apple two's life was, because 0:23:28.840 --> 0:23:31.800 remember that was introduced. Apple two came out like in 0:23:31.840 --> 0:23:34.680 the late seventies, early eighties. So the fact that it 0:23:34.760 --> 0:23:36.560 lasted all the way to nineteen ninety eight and at 0:23:36.680 --> 0:23:41.840 least some capacity in Apple support was amazing. So it 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:44.520 was really the last hurrah for the Apple two. I 0:23:44.560 --> 0:23:47.720 still love the Apple two, and I wouldn't mind finding 0:23:47.760 --> 0:23:51.560 one just to mess around with one, but I doubt 0:23:51.560 --> 0:23:54.880 that I could easily find one in good working order 0:23:55.119 --> 0:23:57.840 at this stage. I wish I could, because I loved 0:23:57.920 --> 0:24:01.200 the Apple two. Now, the following year, nineteen ninety nine, 0:24:01.280 --> 0:24:06.440 Apple released some new Imax. Like the previous episodes, I'm 0:24:06.520 --> 0:24:09.320 not going to cover every single model Apple released, which 0:24:09.440 --> 0:24:12.320 would just make this episode incredibly dull. But one thing 0:24:12.359 --> 0:24:16.280 I want to mention is nineteen ninety nine because the 0:24:16.359 --> 0:24:20.639 Imax came out in a selection of new colors. It 0:24:20.680 --> 0:24:23.960 wasn't just this beige computer that had been kind of 0:24:24.000 --> 0:24:29.280 Apple's trademark ever since the old Apple two days. You 0:24:29.280 --> 0:24:34.520 could get a selection of different colors which included blue, purple, orange, green, 0:24:34.680 --> 0:24:37.840 or red, but Apple called them different names. 0:24:37.880 --> 0:24:39.920 You could get an iMac. 0:24:39.680 --> 0:24:44.520 And blueberry, grape, tangerine, lime, and strawberry. 0:24:44.840 --> 0:24:45.760 And I gotta be honest with. 0:24:45.760 --> 0:24:48.919 You guys, even though I'm the dude from tech stuff 0:24:48.920 --> 0:24:51.680 who from the beginning has been accused of having an 0:24:51.680 --> 0:24:56.800 anti Mac bias. And even though these machines are woefully 0:24:56.920 --> 0:25:01.320 outdated by today's standards, I really still big the designs 0:25:01.560 --> 0:25:04.760 of these early Imax, these nineteen ninety nine Imax and 0:25:04.800 --> 0:25:05.880 these bright colors. 0:25:06.119 --> 0:25:09.600 They're really appealing to me. I would love to have 0:25:09.640 --> 0:25:10.920 one in grape or lime. 0:25:11.640 --> 0:25:13.880 So I guess this episode is ultimately a Jonathan wish 0:25:13.880 --> 0:25:16.240 list of old computers that are obsolete, that are no 0:25:16.320 --> 0:25:20.080 longer supported, that don't run any useful operating system or 0:25:20.119 --> 0:25:22.520 software at this point, but I still kind of want 0:25:22.560 --> 0:25:25.360 so the Apple two and a nineteen ninety nine iMac 0:25:25.440 --> 0:25:28.800 are on that list. There's just something really appealing about 0:25:28.800 --> 0:25:32.240 those vibrant color schemes. So look up nineteen ninety nine 0:25:32.440 --> 0:25:35.760 imas to get a look at what these these brightly 0:25:35.800 --> 0:25:38.640 colored machines look like back in the day, and maybe 0:25:38.680 --> 0:25:41.080 you'll agree that they're They've got a certain appeal to them. 0:25:41.280 --> 0:25:43.840 They are big, clunky machines because these are not flat 0:25:43.880 --> 0:25:46.120 panel displays. These are still CRT. 0:25:46.320 --> 0:25:49.639 Machines, but I don't know, they just seem kind of 0:25:49.640 --> 0:25:51.800 friendly to me. Now. 0:25:51.880 --> 0:25:56.080 Apple also introduced a desktop tower style computer called the 0:25:56.160 --> 0:25:58.120 Yosemite PowerMac G three. 0:25:58.680 --> 0:26:00.119 Some people refer to this one. 0:26:00.160 --> 0:26:04.040 As the Smurf, and the reason they do that is 0:26:04.080 --> 0:26:08.760 the case was blue, it also had white accents, and 0:26:08.800 --> 0:26:13.160 it had sort of a transparent cover over the white aspects. 0:26:13.280 --> 0:26:16.960 The design included a drawbridge like door that could fold 0:26:17.040 --> 0:26:19.200 down to the right of the computer that would allow 0:26:19.200 --> 0:26:23.919 you to add expansions to the actual motherboard, and you 0:26:23.960 --> 0:26:26.639 could even open the computer while it was working, like 0:26:26.720 --> 0:26:29.400 you could have the computer on and open it up 0:26:29.440 --> 0:26:31.640 and it would still run because all the modules were 0:26:31.800 --> 0:26:36.040 still connected to that hinged door. It's kind of neat, 0:26:36.080 --> 0:26:38.960 not really any point of doing that, but it's neat 0:26:38.960 --> 0:26:42.919 that you could do it. Apple offered a three hundred 0:26:42.920 --> 0:26:47.840 megahertz version initially in this Yosemite computer, but by June 0:26:47.880 --> 0:26:51.120 nineteen ninety nine, so within a few months of introducing it, 0:26:51.400 --> 0:26:54.639 they discontinued the three hundred megahertz version and instead relied 0:26:54.680 --> 0:26:57.160 on a more powerful four hundred and fifty megahertz model. 0:26:58.880 --> 0:27:03.040 They also used a similar design for their Power Machine 0:27:03.080 --> 0:27:06.000 like this was for their high end users who were 0:27:06.200 --> 0:27:08.800 hoping to use it for like video production and that 0:27:08.920 --> 0:27:13.240 sort of stuff. This was Apple's PowerMac G four, and 0:27:13.320 --> 0:27:18.879 the US government initially called this computer this desktop personal computer, 0:27:19.240 --> 0:27:22.040 high end personal computer, but still a personal computer. They 0:27:22.080 --> 0:27:25.840 called it a supercomputer. Now why did they call a 0:27:25.920 --> 0:27:29.800 personal computer a supercomputer. Well, this was the first Mac 0:27:29.880 --> 0:27:34.200 that could perform one billion floating operations per second, or 0:27:34.280 --> 0:27:38.400 otherwise known as a gigaflop, and at the time, gigaflop 0:27:38.480 --> 0:27:41.800 was considered a capability that was in the supercomputer range. 0:27:41.880 --> 0:27:46.680 So the US government said, technically, this PowerMac is a supercomputer. 0:27:47.400 --> 0:27:50.760 The case was essentially identical to the Yosemite tower I 0:27:50.960 --> 0:27:54.159 just described, only this one was white, graphite gray and 0:27:54.240 --> 0:27:56.919 had silver accents. And I guess this was meant to 0:27:56.920 --> 0:27:59.440 make it look more professional and business like and less 0:27:59.440 --> 0:28:01.639 sort of sleek and fun. 0:28:02.040 --> 0:28:03.480 I suppose it still. 0:28:03.359 --> 0:28:06.200 Was a very nice design. The top level Max in 0:28:06.240 --> 0:28:09.359 this model line introduced a new type of motherboard called 0:28:09.400 --> 0:28:12.840 the saw tooth, which allowed for a more powerful machine overall. 0:28:12.880 --> 0:28:15.879 You could fit more memory, you could fit a faster processor, 0:28:15.920 --> 0:28:19.720 you could fit a better graphics card to it, so 0:28:19.920 --> 0:28:22.840 it was a more powerful machine overall. But there were 0:28:23.119 --> 0:28:27.080 various lines in this G four model, so the entry 0:28:27.160 --> 0:28:30.320 level did not have this saw tooth motherboard. It was 0:28:30.359 --> 0:28:34.000 only the higher end models that did. The entry level 0:28:34.280 --> 0:28:37.879 had a motherboard that was modeled after the Yosemite design, 0:28:38.120 --> 0:28:41.440 so it had a slightly less powerful approach. Now, this 0:28:41.600 --> 0:28:44.200 was a particularly potent machine. If you've got the top 0:28:44.200 --> 0:28:48.720 of the line G four power Mac, then you had 0:28:48.720 --> 0:28:52.880 a machine that was comparable or actually faster than a 0:28:52.960 --> 0:28:57.000 pen Tum three processor computer from the IBM compatible lines, 0:28:57.840 --> 0:29:00.720 and PENDM three's were known to be screaming back in 0:29:00.760 --> 0:29:03.600 the day. Today they're slow as a snail, but back 0:29:03.640 --> 0:29:05.760 in the day that was cutting edge if you were 0:29:05.800 --> 0:29:11.400 going the Intel Slash Windows route. So the Apple computers 0:29:11.400 --> 0:29:14.000 were no slouch. They could go head to head with 0:29:14.240 --> 0:29:20.719 the fastest machines coming out from Intel's side. But Apple 0:29:20.760 --> 0:29:26.560 did do something that was kinda lousy to their customers 0:29:26.600 --> 0:29:30.400 when they introduced this PowerMac G four, and it was 0:29:30.440 --> 0:29:33.760 all because of a supply chain issue. We're going to 0:29:33.840 --> 0:29:35.840 take a quick break, but we will be back with 0:29:35.920 --> 0:29:38.720 more about the Macintosh story in just a moment. 0:29:48.760 --> 0:29:49.480 So one of the. 0:29:49.360 --> 0:29:53.520 Things that computer manufacturers in general have run into are 0:29:53.560 --> 0:29:57.240 these supply chain problems where one element or maybe more 0:29:57.240 --> 0:30:00.040 than one element in some cases, is being held. 0:29:59.880 --> 0:30:01.080 Up up by the. 0:30:03.280 --> 0:30:07.800 Suppliers of the specific components that are going into the computer. 0:30:08.200 --> 0:30:14.200 In this case, it was the microprocessors. Apple was finding 0:30:14.240 --> 0:30:19.520 that Motorola could not supply five hundred megahertz processors at 0:30:19.600 --> 0:30:23.960 the rate that Apple needed them, which was unfortunate because 0:30:24.000 --> 0:30:26.840 Apple had a bunch of orders for five hundred megahertz 0:30:27.360 --> 0:30:31.160 PowerMac G four computers. So Apple did something that a 0:30:31.160 --> 0:30:34.720 lot of people found a bit questionable. The company scaled 0:30:34.760 --> 0:30:38.560 back all their models by fifty megaherts, so instead of 0:30:38.600 --> 0:30:41.680 selling a five hundred megahertz machine as their top machine, 0:30:41.720 --> 0:30:44.280 they went with a four hundred and fifty megahertz machine 0:30:44.280 --> 0:30:47.480 as their top machine. This refers to the processor speed, 0:30:48.280 --> 0:30:53.360 so how fast is the CPU inside the powermax four 0:30:53.440 --> 0:30:56.360 hundred and fifty mega hurts? Obviously fifty mega hurts slower 0:30:56.400 --> 0:31:00.440 than a five hundred megahertz machine. And then four hundred 0:31:00.440 --> 0:31:02.239 and fifty mega hurtz machines were scaled back to four 0:31:02.320 --> 0:31:05.000 hundred megahurts, so on and so forth, so everything took 0:31:05.320 --> 0:31:07.760 like a half step back from where it was supposed 0:31:07.800 --> 0:31:12.719 to be. But Apple did not change the prices of 0:31:12.760 --> 0:31:15.240 their models, so the top model was still the same 0:31:15.280 --> 0:31:18.640 price even though it had a less powerful processor than 0:31:18.760 --> 0:31:22.840 what was originally planned. And Apple customers got a tiny 0:31:22.920 --> 0:31:26.520 bit peeved about this, understandably so that they were paying 0:31:26.560 --> 0:31:29.760 a premium price for something that was less powerful than 0:31:29.800 --> 0:31:33.200 what they were promised. So this was a pretty nasty 0:31:33.200 --> 0:31:36.239 little situation for Apple. Fortunately the company was able to 0:31:36.240 --> 0:31:38.960 rectify things in like a week, but it still was 0:31:39.000 --> 0:31:42.120 a rough week over at Apple Computers due to this 0:31:42.160 --> 0:31:46.720 little kerfuffle. And yeah, so people who talk about Apple 0:31:46.760 --> 0:31:51.200 being a company that sets a premium price, it's stuff 0:31:51.320 --> 0:31:56.160 like this particular incident that reinforces that idea. Now, the 0:31:56.200 --> 0:31:58.960 Wall Street power Book ended up taking a bow. In 0:31:59.040 --> 0:32:02.680 nineteen ninety nine, they discontinued the Wall Street and decided 0:32:02.720 --> 0:32:05.400 to launch a new model of power Book that was 0:32:05.440 --> 0:32:09.280 code named Lombard. And this was the first power book 0:32:09.320 --> 0:32:12.920 Mac to have a USB port on it, so it 0:32:12.960 --> 0:32:15.480 was revolutionary at the time, and it was the fastest 0:32:15.560 --> 0:32:19.840 laptop line at the time of its debut, not fastest 0:32:19.880 --> 0:32:24.240 for Apple. The PowerBook Mac that was code named Lombard 0:32:24.680 --> 0:32:28.480 was the fastest laptop on the market period when it 0:32:28.520 --> 0:32:33.920 came out. It also had a bronze translucent keyboard which 0:32:34.000 --> 0:32:36.800 I think actually looks more brown than bronze and was 0:32:37.120 --> 0:32:41.920 in my mind, really unattractive. That's my own personal perspective 0:32:41.920 --> 0:32:44.880 on it. Maybe that's that anti Mac bias kicking in again. 0:32:46.000 --> 0:32:49.120 But the specs were really impressive, even though I found 0:32:49.120 --> 0:32:53.800 the esthetic to be not terribly attractive. Taking a page 0:32:53.880 --> 0:32:56.480 from their success with the iMac, Apple also introduced a 0:32:56.560 --> 0:33:00.760 laptop for the education market called the iBook. This was 0:33:00.800 --> 0:33:05.040 a bit chunkier and more rugged than their PowerBook line. 0:33:05.120 --> 0:33:07.680 It was less powerful, didn't need to be as powerful 0:33:07.720 --> 0:33:10.760 as the power Book, but it still had a lot 0:33:10.760 --> 0:33:12.880 of curved lines in the design. I kind of dig 0:33:12.960 --> 0:33:16.840 the eyebook. It does look a little unwieldy, especially compared 0:33:16.840 --> 0:33:21.080 to the laptops that Apple produces today, but it has 0:33:21.120 --> 0:33:22.800 again a kind of a friendly look to it. 0:33:22.840 --> 0:33:24.520 I think. Now. 0:33:24.520 --> 0:33:26.920 One thing that really helped Apple out at this time, 0:33:27.320 --> 0:33:30.360 something that was completely outside of Apple's. 0:33:29.920 --> 0:33:34.400 Control, was a little thing called the Y two K scare. 0:33:35.200 --> 0:33:38.720 And you may, oh, my drugs not remember what this 0:33:38.880 --> 0:33:42.200 was about things changing so scory and people like to forget, 0:33:42.760 --> 0:33:44.840 But the Y two K bug or the y two 0:33:44.960 --> 0:33:50.480 K scare was all about how some lazy computer programmers 0:33:50.480 --> 0:33:54.360 and computer scientists had really made a terrible design decision 0:33:54.520 --> 0:33:57.360 that frightened the pants off a whole bunch of people 0:33:57.400 --> 0:33:58.800 back in the late nineties. 0:33:59.560 --> 0:34:00.720 So here's that's what it was all about. 0:34:00.760 --> 0:34:02.600 I'm going to give you a quick summary because I 0:34:02.600 --> 0:34:03.640 could do a full episode. 0:34:03.680 --> 0:34:05.960 In fact, I have done a full episode about Y 0:34:06.000 --> 0:34:06.360 two K. 0:34:08.760 --> 0:34:11.680 The problem was that programmers were a little lazy back 0:34:11.680 --> 0:34:16.640 in the day, and when some programmers were designing various architectures, 0:34:16.880 --> 0:34:19.920 they took a shortcut when it came to designating years, 0:34:20.400 --> 0:34:24.959 and they used a two digit method of designating the year. 0:34:25.320 --> 0:34:29.160 So if you put eight nine as the two digits, 0:34:29.280 --> 0:34:32.880 then the computer knew you meant nineteen eighty nine. But 0:34:32.960 --> 0:34:36.360 you're probably already spotting the problem, which is that once 0:34:36.440 --> 0:34:38.600 you got to nineteen ninety nine, you're going. 0:34:38.560 --> 0:34:39.720 To roll over to two thousand. 0:34:40.520 --> 0:34:43.400 But computers only had two digits to tell what the 0:34:43.480 --> 0:34:46.000 year was going to be, so ninety nine to zero 0:34:46.120 --> 0:34:50.040 zero could be interpreted as nineteen hundred instead of two thousand, 0:34:50.400 --> 0:34:53.560 and a lot of different computer processes could screw up. 0:34:53.600 --> 0:34:56.960 As a result, you had things that were pretty easy 0:34:57.000 --> 0:35:02.160 to imagine going haywire, like a financial software that is 0:35:03.000 --> 0:35:05.920 calculating stuff like interest, Well, if it rolls back one 0:35:06.000 --> 0:35:07.200 hundred years, that's really going. 0:35:07.120 --> 0:35:07.879 To mess things up. 0:35:08.520 --> 0:35:10.600 But people were worried about all sorts of stuff, like 0:35:10.840 --> 0:35:14.399 computers just stop maybe they could stop working, and not 0:35:14.440 --> 0:35:16.799 just computers, but other devices too that were working on 0:35:16.840 --> 0:35:20.319 microchips that had this kind of architecture. So people were 0:35:20.320 --> 0:35:23.239 worried about getting stuck in elevators or what would happen 0:35:23.320 --> 0:35:23.920 on a plane. 0:35:24.719 --> 0:35:25.960 Well, Apple didn't have. 0:35:25.920 --> 0:35:30.319 To worry about this because their programmers didn't use that 0:35:30.800 --> 0:35:34.719 convention when they were designating years, so they didn't have 0:35:34.719 --> 0:35:38.360 to worry about running out of time with two digits. 0:35:40.640 --> 0:35:44.680 So with time continuing to pass as it does and 0:35:44.719 --> 0:35:47.319 two thousand coming along, people began to think, well, maybe 0:35:47.360 --> 0:35:50.600 we should get Apple computers because they don't suffer the 0:35:50.640 --> 0:35:58.719 same weakness as other computers that have this two digit problem. So, yeah, 0:35:59.080 --> 0:36:02.279 it doesn't do you any good if your computer thinks 0:36:02.320 --> 0:36:04.839 it's nineteen hundred and suddenly decides to put on an 0:36:05.040 --> 0:36:08.400 Edwardian suit and start talking about the latest George Bernard 0:36:08.480 --> 0:36:11.080 Shaw play. That doesn't help you out if you want 0:36:11.120 --> 0:36:14.480 to do some modern computing. And the macOS didn't have 0:36:14.520 --> 0:36:17.360 that issue. So people started to look at Macintosh computers 0:36:17.400 --> 0:36:21.799 and sales increased for Apple. Now, whether or not that 0:36:21.840 --> 0:36:23.799 had anything to do with the y two K bug 0:36:23.880 --> 0:36:26.200 is hard to say because there's so many other variables 0:36:26.239 --> 0:36:29.799 that play here, but it's probably something that factored into 0:36:29.920 --> 0:36:32.120 at least a few people's decision to switch over to 0:36:32.160 --> 0:36:34.239 the Macintosh platform because. 0:36:33.960 --> 0:36:37.439 It was y two K proof. In fact, power PC. 0:36:37.360 --> 0:36:40.240 Max, not the old Motorola ones, but the power Pc 0:36:40.400 --> 0:36:44.000 Max actually allow computers to keep good time up to 0:36:44.040 --> 0:36:47.720 the year twenty nine and forty, so we're good for now. 0:36:48.280 --> 0:36:50.680 Even if you're using an obsolete Mac you don't have 0:36:50.719 --> 0:36:54.000 to worry about the operating system suddenly thinking it's nineteen hundred, 0:36:54.040 --> 0:36:57.000 because it's going to keep on chugging along until the 0:36:57.000 --> 0:36:59.600 hardware breaks. Because I guarantee you that hardware will break 0:36:59.640 --> 0:37:02.760 before the year twenty nine and forty, and if it doesn't, 0:37:03.360 --> 0:37:06.319 I'm guessing you won't be around. That's not a you know, 0:37:07.000 --> 0:37:09.840 that's not a slam against you. It's just I'm recording 0:37:09.840 --> 0:37:12.000 this in twenty seventeen, and I don't think people in 0:37:12.000 --> 0:37:13.480 the year twenty thousand are still. 0:37:13.280 --> 0:37:15.880 Listening to tech stuff. If you are, thanks for listening. 0:37:16.160 --> 0:37:16.760 You're awesome. 0:37:18.280 --> 0:37:20.000 Now, In case you were curious, the world did not 0:37:20.200 --> 0:37:24.280 end in two thousand spoiler alert. But Apple did introduce 0:37:24.320 --> 0:37:27.719 some new stuff that year, like the Cube. This was 0:37:27.760 --> 0:37:31.000 a desktop computer that was shaped like a cube. It 0:37:31.040 --> 0:37:33.960 was five hundred and eighty one cubic inches and it 0:37:34.000 --> 0:37:37.080 was a really powerful machine for its time. This was 0:37:37.160 --> 0:37:41.160 also the year that Apple previewed the macOS ten using 0:37:41.160 --> 0:37:44.440 the Roman numeral for ten, which is an X. Now 0:37:44.480 --> 0:37:47.719 that led me, the ignorant person that I was at 0:37:47.719 --> 0:37:51.320 the time, to call it MACOSX, which got lots of 0:37:51.360 --> 0:37:54.759 people laughing at me for calling it mac OSX. But 0:37:54.800 --> 0:37:56.680 if you're gonna be using a bunch of letters in 0:37:56.719 --> 0:37:59.440 the name of your product, don't use a Roman numeral 0:37:59.480 --> 0:38:01.840 to design its operating system number. 0:38:02.239 --> 0:38:03.239 So it's macOS ten. 0:38:04.680 --> 0:38:08.520 And sometimes I still say MACOSX because sometimes I just 0:38:08.920 --> 0:38:13.040 like to have a little fun at my own expense. Now, 0:38:13.360 --> 0:38:15.680 moving ahead to two thousand and one, Apple again boosted 0:38:15.680 --> 0:38:16.240 the power. 0:38:16.040 --> 0:38:18.359 Of its various computers. Nothing new there. 0:38:18.440 --> 0:38:21.080 Pretty much every year Apple would update its line of 0:38:21.160 --> 0:38:25.680 existing computers and increase their abilities by putting in more 0:38:25.719 --> 0:38:28.959 powerful processors, putting in more memory, giving it a few 0:38:29.080 --> 0:38:31.520 different ports, so again I'm not going to cover all 0:38:31.560 --> 0:38:33.400 of those changes, so I'm just going to cover the big, 0:38:33.560 --> 0:38:37.520 big differences. They also introduced some new color schemes in 0:38:37.560 --> 0:38:40.600 their iMac line, so you could buy the Blue Dalmatian 0:38:40.960 --> 0:38:44.680 or flower Power. These actually had designs, not just a 0:38:44.800 --> 0:38:47.919 solid color. They actually had you know, designs on them 0:38:48.239 --> 0:38:51.560 that I find almost but not quite completely unappealing. 0:38:51.719 --> 0:38:53.080 So I don't want either of those. 0:38:53.120 --> 0:38:54.920 If anyone's listening and they want to get me the 0:38:55.280 --> 0:38:57.960 wish list of items I've talked about, like Apple Two's 0:38:58.080 --> 0:39:02.719 and the iMac you know, lime or the iMac Grape, 0:39:02.840 --> 0:39:05.120 that's cool, but don't get me a blue Dalmati or 0:39:05.160 --> 0:39:05.760 flower Power. 0:39:05.800 --> 0:39:08.840 I don't need them. They're just not for me. 0:39:09.400 --> 0:39:13.160 The company also released a lighter, more powerful iBook sometimes 0:39:13.200 --> 0:39:17.520 called the Ice Book, and Apple created the quicksilver version 0:39:17.640 --> 0:39:21.400 of its PowerMac G four line, And they also opened 0:39:21.480 --> 0:39:24.640 up their first two Apple stores in two thousand and one. 0:39:24.680 --> 0:39:26.799 Now there's hundreds of the things, but back in two 0:39:26.840 --> 0:39:28.320 thousand and one they were brand new. 0:39:28.520 --> 0:39:29.640 It was the first time. 0:39:29.680 --> 0:39:33.080 Apple had opened up a retail space of its own, 0:39:33.440 --> 0:39:35.880 and of course that ends up being a popular destination 0:39:36.000 --> 0:39:38.520 for people all around the world. There are Apple stores 0:39:38.520 --> 0:39:42.680 that get crowds of tourists because they are particularly interesting 0:39:42.760 --> 0:39:47.120 in their design and layout. Oh. That's also the year 0:39:47.560 --> 0:39:51.400 Apple launched the next product to help define the company 0:39:51.600 --> 0:39:53.040 as its new identity. 0:39:54.040 --> 0:39:56.120 That would be the iPod. 0:39:56.640 --> 0:39:59.360 But we talked about the iPod in our History of 0:39:59.480 --> 0:40:01.360 MP three P podcast, so I'm not going to. 0:40:01.360 --> 0:40:03.640 Cover it here, but just to say that two thousand. 0:40:03.320 --> 0:40:05.840 And one marked a real turning point in Apple's history, 0:40:06.239 --> 0:40:09.680 because that was the moment when Apple began to really 0:40:09.800 --> 0:40:15.840 expand beyond personal computers and printers and workstations. They began 0:40:15.880 --> 0:40:19.279 to get into personal electronics in a serious way. The 0:40:19.320 --> 0:40:22.200 Newton was kind of a failure, but the iPod was 0:40:22.239 --> 0:40:26.040 totally the opposite. iPod was a runaway success, particularly once 0:40:26.080 --> 0:40:28.799 you got a couple of generations in and really took 0:40:28.800 --> 0:40:33.960 off once iTunes became a real player in the data 0:40:34.040 --> 0:40:38.160 management or music management space. Now, two thousand and two 0:40:38.840 --> 0:40:42.040 was more of the same, with tweaked computer designs, some 0:40:42.120 --> 0:40:45.600 boosted performance, and not much else. Apple did create a 0:40:45.640 --> 0:40:48.600 new line of macs for educational institutions. They called it 0:40:48.640 --> 0:40:53.200 the eMac E for Education. It was housed in an 0:40:53.200 --> 0:40:58.160 iMac like CRT style case, the stream was flat, it 0:40:58.239 --> 0:41:00.800 wasn't curved, but it still was a cathode ray tube 0:41:00.800 --> 0:41:03.600 that was providing the actual image that you saw in there, 0:41:03.680 --> 0:41:07.080 so big bulky case, in fact, really big and bulky. 0:41:07.120 --> 0:41:11.560 The basic model weighed fifty pounds, but it cost a 0:41:11.600 --> 0:41:14.240 little less than one thousand bucks, So Apple was really 0:41:14.280 --> 0:41:18.080 trying to price these computers in a way where education 0:41:18.200 --> 0:41:20.640 systems would be able to shell out the bucks to 0:41:20.719 --> 0:41:24.400 buy them, because again Max were pretty expensive and a 0:41:24.400 --> 0:41:27.239 lot of education systems just didn't have the budget to 0:41:27.360 --> 0:41:31.160 buy Macintosh computers. So this was Apple's attempt to kind 0:41:31.160 --> 0:41:35.680 of get into that market with a slightly less powerful computer. 0:41:37.160 --> 0:41:40.480 In two thousand and three, Apple began introducing Max that 0:41:40.520 --> 0:41:43.520 were no longer backwards compatible with the old classic Mac 0:41:43.640 --> 0:41:46.440 operating system, and this began the March of Obsolescens for 0:41:46.480 --> 0:41:50.560 those old OS builds. The company continued its trend of 0:41:50.680 --> 0:41:55.440 updating machines, but again there were no major revolutions that happened. 0:41:55.440 --> 0:41:58.560 In two thousand and three, Apple did introduce the PowerMac 0:41:58.680 --> 0:42:04.279 G five with the IBM power Pc nine seventy CPU 0:42:04.560 --> 0:42:07.040 that gave the Mac a processor speed of between one 0:42:07.080 --> 0:42:09.759 point six to two point zero gigahertz, depending upon the 0:42:09.800 --> 0:42:14.000 model that you bought. This computer generated so much heat 0:42:14.400 --> 0:42:19.080 that it required nine cooling fans to manage it. Nine 0:42:19.200 --> 0:42:22.120 fans inside of this computer so that it would not overheat. 0:42:22.360 --> 0:42:24.520 The case was also made out of aluminum, which is 0:42:24.520 --> 0:42:27.680 a very effective conductor of heat. Which is good because 0:42:27.960 --> 0:42:30.360 a lot of heat gets generated inside the machine, it 0:42:30.440 --> 0:42:33.360 transfers out to the case, and the case transfers it 0:42:33.400 --> 0:42:36.600 out to the air around it. But yeah, these machines 0:42:36.640 --> 0:42:41.759 got pretty toasty. Well, we've got one last section to 0:42:41.800 --> 0:42:44.759 go through to talk about the history of the Macintosh 0:42:44.800 --> 0:42:47.279 and get up to present day. But before I jump 0:42:47.320 --> 0:42:50.680 into that, let's take another quick break to thank our sponsor. 0:42:59.560 --> 0:43:01.359 Jumping out into two thousand. 0:43:01.040 --> 0:43:03.960 And four, the big news that year for Apple was 0:43:04.000 --> 0:43:08.240 a redesign of the iMac Now. The older CRT versions 0:43:08.239 --> 0:43:12.640 were replaced that year with a new flat panel display version. 0:43:13.400 --> 0:43:16.440 The computer was in the same housing as the display, 0:43:16.880 --> 0:43:18.880 with an optical drive to the right of the screen 0:43:18.960 --> 0:43:22.480 and all the ports helpfully on the back of the 0:43:22.560 --> 0:43:25.759 darn thing. I hated that design decision, by the way, 0:43:25.800 --> 0:43:28.200 to have all the ports on this computer on the back. 0:43:28.239 --> 0:43:31.759 I understand it was necessary for the layout for the motherboard, 0:43:32.360 --> 0:43:34.880 but man, it was so irritating to have to plug 0:43:34.920 --> 0:43:37.480 everything into the back of the machine in order to 0:43:37.520 --> 0:43:40.680 use it, including stuff like your mouse and your keyboard, 0:43:40.719 --> 0:43:43.520 that kind of thing. But this looked like a flat 0:43:43.560 --> 0:43:47.719 panel television on a stand. The entire computer was housed 0:43:47.880 --> 0:43:52.080 inside of this thing. Big dramatic change from those big, 0:43:52.120 --> 0:43:57.880 bulky CRT sets of the iMac before, and a totally 0:43:57.960 --> 0:44:01.440 new design, brand new aesthetic move for Apple, and it 0:44:01.520 --> 0:44:05.120 kind of started Apple down the pathway of that smooth 0:44:05.280 --> 0:44:08.880 white two thousand and one ish aesthetic that they became 0:44:09.000 --> 0:44:12.200 known for. A lot of Apple's products would end up 0:44:12.239 --> 0:44:16.840 following that same sort of design philosophy, but this was 0:44:16.880 --> 0:44:19.399 one of the earliest ones. And I actually had an 0:44:19.440 --> 0:44:22.760 iMac in this style, although it wasn't a two thousand 0:44:22.800 --> 0:44:24.839 and four iMac it was a bit later. It might 0:44:24.840 --> 0:44:27.040 have been as ley as two thousand and six, but 0:44:28.719 --> 0:44:30.880 I definitely had one of these max. It was the 0:44:30.880 --> 0:44:33.560 only Mac I've ever owned. I liked it just fine. 0:44:34.040 --> 0:44:37.359 I just never bought another one. 0:44:37.600 --> 0:44:38.760 So kind of cool. 0:44:39.360 --> 0:44:42.080 This two thousand and one ish approach very different from 0:44:42.120 --> 0:44:46.200 the lollipop colorful approach of the crt Imax from just 0:44:46.239 --> 0:44:49.000 a few years earlier. And in two thousand and five 0:44:49.040 --> 0:44:51.600 we got the Mac Mini. Now by we, I mean 0:44:51.640 --> 0:44:55.120 the general Wei. I never owned Mac Minie, but this 0:44:55.280 --> 0:44:58.600 was a really cool idea too. This was a desktop 0:44:58.600 --> 0:45:01.760 computer in miniature, and it didn't have a built in display. 0:45:01.800 --> 0:45:04.160 There was no display that came along with it. But 0:45:04.239 --> 0:45:07.200 you would get this tiny little computer, and I mean 0:45:07.280 --> 0:45:10.160 it was tiny. It was six and a half inches 0:45:10.239 --> 0:45:13.319 per side and two inches tall and that was the 0:45:13.320 --> 0:45:15.759 whole desktop and you would just connect that to an 0:45:15.760 --> 0:45:20.840 existing display using whichever port you needed. And it was 0:45:20.920 --> 0:45:23.800 bargain priced, at least as far as Apple is concerned. 0:45:23.840 --> 0:45:26.480 It was on sale for four hundred and ninety nine dollars. 0:45:27.000 --> 0:45:30.400 That's dirt cheap with Apple. So it gave people the 0:45:30.440 --> 0:45:33.280 opportunity to own a Mac as long as they already 0:45:33.320 --> 0:45:36.080 had a display, or they didn't mind buying a display 0:45:36.320 --> 0:45:39.120 and a keyboard and all that other stuff, or a 0:45:39.160 --> 0:45:41.840 bargain price compared to the other Macs that were on 0:45:41.880 --> 0:45:45.239 the market at that same time. One drawback to this 0:45:45.400 --> 0:45:49.120 design was that you couldn't expand it. You couldn't add 0:45:49.160 --> 0:45:52.320 more memory or change it in any meaningful way, because 0:45:52.360 --> 0:45:55.120 it was so small and everything was packed so tightly 0:45:55.160 --> 0:45:57.920 together that there was no room to expand it at all, 0:45:58.880 --> 0:46:00.800 so if you bought one, you were pretty much stuck 0:46:00.840 --> 0:46:04.200 with the initial specs that it came out with. That 0:46:04.320 --> 0:46:07.480 same year, Steve Jobs made a big announcement, so this 0:46:07.520 --> 0:46:10.080 is again two thousand and five. He said that future 0:46:10.120 --> 0:46:13.239 Max would move away from power Pc chips that had 0:46:13.239 --> 0:46:16.279 provided Mac processing power for the last decade or so, 0:46:16.600 --> 0:46:21.120 and instead Apple would make a move to Intel. Intel 0:46:21.120 --> 0:46:25.799 would supply the future CPUs to all Macintosh computers that 0:46:25.800 --> 0:46:30.040 would be released after that point. Those first Mac Intel's 0:46:30.200 --> 0:46:33.920 would not go on sale until the following year, and 0:46:33.920 --> 0:46:37.080 it worried a lot of Mac users because not all 0:46:37.120 --> 0:46:44.200 software is compatible with various microprocessor architecture. So if you 0:46:44.239 --> 0:46:48.279 have operating system and software that was designed to work 0:46:48.280 --> 0:46:51.400 on the power Pc platform, it might not work on 0:46:51.440 --> 0:46:54.960 the Intel platform. And if those programs are important to 0:46:55.080 --> 0:46:58.880 you and your business or whatever you're using your Mac for, 0:46:59.400 --> 0:47:02.960 then upgrade to a new Macintosh could be harmful to you. 0:47:03.440 --> 0:47:06.000 So for example, here at how Stuff Works, we use 0:47:06.080 --> 0:47:08.480 very specific editing suites. 0:47:08.160 --> 0:47:12.160 For our video and audio stuff like this podcast and 0:47:12.440 --> 0:47:13.240 video series. 0:47:14.120 --> 0:47:16.719 We use very specific types of software for that on 0:47:16.800 --> 0:47:20.040 Macintosh computers. If we were to upgrade to a new 0:47:20.120 --> 0:47:24.359 processor that could not run those old programs, we would 0:47:24.400 --> 0:47:27.239 be kind of stuck. Now, Apple's solution for this was 0:47:27.320 --> 0:47:32.759 to release a power PC emulator. It's called Rosetta, named 0:47:32.800 --> 0:47:35.120 after the Rosetta stone, which of course was used to 0:47:35.120 --> 0:47:39.240 help translate hiro glyphics back in the day. So Rosetta 0:47:39.400 --> 0:47:42.440 was an emulator, which means it's a program that simulates 0:47:42.760 --> 0:47:47.320 another type of technology, in this case another type of microprocessor, 0:47:47.400 --> 0:47:51.400 the power PC style microprocessor, and this would allow you 0:47:51.440 --> 0:47:55.919 to continue to use some of that legacy software even 0:47:55.960 --> 0:47:59.879 on these Intel powered machines. Also in two thousand and five, 0:48:00.000 --> 0:48:01.280 Apple introduced. 0:48:01.400 --> 0:48:06.600 The Mighty Mouse. You can't see this audio listeners, but. 0:48:06.560 --> 0:48:11.839 I'm making a very unimpressed face into the webcam I'm 0:48:11.920 --> 0:48:15.279 using for the Twitch stream of this episode. Remember you 0:48:15.360 --> 0:48:17.880 can always go to twitch dot tv slash tech stuff 0:48:17.880 --> 0:48:20.880 if you want to watch an episode live as I 0:48:20.960 --> 0:48:23.719 record it. Well, the Mighty Mouse was a mouse that 0:48:23.760 --> 0:48:27.640 had more than just one button capability. The Macintosh was 0:48:27.680 --> 0:48:30.560 famous for shipping with a mouse that only had one button, 0:48:30.600 --> 0:48:33.440 and if you wanted other types of functionality, You had 0:48:33.480 --> 0:48:36.080 to hold down a key on the keyboard while pressing 0:48:36.120 --> 0:48:40.120 down on the button. The Mighty Mouse actually had ability 0:48:40.160 --> 0:48:42.799 to use the left side of the mouse or the 0:48:42.880 --> 0:48:45.799 right side of the mouse, or you could squeeze both 0:48:45.880 --> 0:48:50.479 sides and create three different types of controls with this mouse, 0:48:50.560 --> 0:48:53.160 or three different types of commands with one mouse. 0:48:53.520 --> 0:48:55.960 So it still felt like one button, but. 0:48:56.040 --> 0:48:58.160 You could press the left side of the button down, 0:48:58.400 --> 0:48:59.920 or press the right side of the button down, or 0:49:00.040 --> 0:49:02.840 squeeze it, and that would allow you to execute different 0:49:02.880 --> 0:49:06.600 commands in various programs. Why not just make a mouse 0:49:06.719 --> 0:49:10.200 with extra buttons, with each button dedicated to a specific function. 0:49:11.120 --> 0:49:12.400 Because Johnny Ive. 0:49:12.600 --> 0:49:16.320 Who's a chief designer over at Apple, and Steve Jobs 0:49:16.600 --> 0:49:20.799 hate buttons, I guess they just don't like them. They 0:49:20.880 --> 0:49:25.240 like the aesthetic of a smooth, buttonless type of device, 0:49:25.840 --> 0:49:30.759 even if it means that they are stressing form over functionality. Now, 0:49:30.800 --> 0:49:33.759 maybe again that's my anti Mac bias, but I like 0:49:34.040 --> 0:49:38.600 functionality over form. I want something to work first and 0:49:38.680 --> 0:49:41.280 then look nice. I don't want it to look nice 0:49:41.480 --> 0:49:45.200 and then just work. Okay, but that just shows the 0:49:45.280 --> 0:49:50.000 difference of approach I take to technology than Apple takes. 0:49:50.200 --> 0:49:51.280 Now, Apple would. 0:49:51.120 --> 0:49:55.440 Argue that they value both equal, that something needs to 0:49:55.480 --> 0:49:59.080 look amazing and work perfectly. I would argue the Mighty 0:49:59.080 --> 0:50:02.680 Mouse does not white achieve that. That's my own personal 0:50:02.719 --> 0:50:06.480 opinion as someone who had a Mighty Mouse and an 0:50:06.560 --> 0:50:11.600 iMac and I despise that mouse a lot, but again 0:50:12.280 --> 0:50:15.040 antimac bias, so don't pay too much attention to me. 0:50:17.040 --> 0:50:20.680 The company also began to ship dual core Power Max 0:50:20.760 --> 0:50:24.440 at this time, using dual core processors. This is part 0:50:24.480 --> 0:50:26.759 of a new era in computing at this point where 0:50:26.760 --> 0:50:29.359 we started to see these multicore processors find their way 0:50:29.360 --> 0:50:32.760 into consumer computers. Now, I'll likely do a full episode 0:50:32.800 --> 0:50:36.240 about what multicore core processors are and how they work 0:50:36.280 --> 0:50:38.840 and why it's important at a later date. I've covered 0:50:38.840 --> 0:50:41.719 it a little bit in previous Tech Stuff podcasts, but 0:50:42.440 --> 0:50:44.200 just know that it would take a full episode to 0:50:44.239 --> 0:50:47.160 really explain this. But it was a big advance for 0:50:47.280 --> 0:50:48.720 Macintosh computers at the time. 0:50:49.560 --> 0:50:50.120 Now, in two. 0:50:49.960 --> 0:50:52.799 Thousand and six, the first Intel Max started to hit 0:50:52.840 --> 0:50:55.719 store shelves, and the biggest drawback for Mac users was 0:50:55.719 --> 0:51:00.440 that these machines wouldn't support any classic macOS applications. So 0:51:00.520 --> 0:51:02.719 if you had those legacy apps you depended on, you 0:51:02.760 --> 0:51:06.239 couldn't run them on those machines. You had to keep 0:51:06.280 --> 0:51:08.000 an older Mac around, or you had to create an 0:51:08.040 --> 0:51:11.360 emulator to run them. And that's the problem in general 0:51:11.400 --> 0:51:14.239 with legacy systems. As the hardware gets faster, sometimes you 0:51:14.320 --> 0:51:17.800 lose support for older software, and that's still a problem 0:51:17.880 --> 0:51:21.600 if you really depend on that older software to do something. 0:51:21.680 --> 0:51:24.040 Like I said before, with audio and video production here 0:51:24.080 --> 0:51:26.880 at how stuff works, that could be an issue. Anyone 0:51:26.920 --> 0:51:31.200 who used garage Band with Macintosh computers knows that the 0:51:31.719 --> 0:51:35.200 various evolutions of the garage Band software and the changes 0:51:35.239 --> 0:51:38.360 to the Mac operating system in Mac processors meant that 0:51:38.760 --> 0:51:41.560 sometimes you would end up losing features that you thought 0:51:41.640 --> 0:51:45.240 were absolutely important for you, and you had to stick 0:51:45.280 --> 0:51:49.640 with older, obsolete machines just to get stuff done. The 0:51:49.680 --> 0:51:53.720 company also introduced a new line in laptops. They called 0:51:53.719 --> 0:51:56.680 this new line the MacBook Pro, which of course you 0:51:56.719 --> 0:52:01.000 can still find today. These are higher end Mac laptops, 0:52:01.000 --> 0:52:03.920 so these are meant for power users. They're more expensive, 0:52:03.960 --> 0:52:08.120 they have more features, they're they've got faster processors. It's 0:52:08.239 --> 0:52:13.000 essentially you know your sports vehicle version of the Macintosh laptops. 0:52:14.000 --> 0:52:17.359 People really hated this name when it first came out. 0:52:17.400 --> 0:52:22.239 The MacBook Pro was replacing the old PowerBook line, and 0:52:22.280 --> 0:52:26.040 people really liked PowerBook and they hated the name MacBook. 0:52:26.520 --> 0:52:29.200 But today MacBook is standard, and I think most people 0:52:29.239 --> 0:52:31.839 probably don't even remember the old power Books, and they 0:52:31.840 --> 0:52:34.080 probably don't remember that they put up a fuss when 0:52:34.120 --> 0:52:37.920 it went from PowerBook to MacBook. The moral of that 0:52:38.040 --> 0:52:44.960 story is people hate change, whether it's good, bad, or indifferent. Now, 0:52:45.040 --> 0:52:49.000 nothing of real significance happened in the Macintosh history in 0:52:49.000 --> 0:52:51.560 two thousand and seven, other than Apple making flat screen 0:52:51.680 --> 0:52:54.759 Imax and brushed aluminum instead of white plastic. 0:52:55.280 --> 0:52:57.680 So let's skip ahead to two thousand and eight. 0:52:57.800 --> 0:52:59.640 I'm not going to spend time on a year where 0:53:00.120 --> 0:53:03.600 not really anything happened. Now, this was the year that 0:53:03.640 --> 0:53:07.160 Steve Jobs introduced the MacBook Air, which was a big 0:53:07.239 --> 0:53:10.719 deal in a small package. It was the thinnest MacBook 0:53:10.880 --> 0:53:12.800 at that point, and at. 0:53:12.840 --> 0:53:13.520 It was amazing. 0:53:13.520 --> 0:53:15.799 It was three quarters of an inch thick, which is 0:53:15.880 --> 0:53:19.440 incredibly thin for a laptop, especially one as powerful as 0:53:19.480 --> 0:53:22.560 the MacBook Air, and it weighed in at three pounds. 0:53:22.880 --> 0:53:25.560 It had no optical drive, so you couldn't insert any 0:53:25.680 --> 0:53:28.439 kind of CD or DVD into it. But it did 0:53:28.480 --> 0:53:31.800 have a sweet aluminum body, and it had one port 0:53:32.000 --> 0:53:34.800 on it, which was a single USB two point zero 0:53:34.800 --> 0:53:37.799 connector port, and that was behind a little door. You 0:53:37.840 --> 0:53:40.760 had to open the little door to access this port 0:53:41.239 --> 0:53:46.000 because ports, I guess, spoiled the computer's lines otherwise. Also, 0:53:47.239 --> 0:53:48.920 if you wanted to add more ports, it would have 0:53:48.960 --> 0:53:52.480 meant having to create a thicker version of the MacBook Air, 0:53:52.520 --> 0:53:54.879 which was not what Steve Jobs had in mind when 0:53:54.920 --> 0:53:58.200 he actually, you know, when he launched this project to 0:53:58.280 --> 0:54:03.439 create a super thin MacBook, so it ended up having 0:54:03.600 --> 0:54:06.600 just one port. From that point forward, Max and their 0:54:06.680 --> 0:54:10.279 various lines received regular updates and a refresh to their appearances, 0:54:10.880 --> 0:54:16.319 but that was mostly it. Right, the future MacBooks would 0:54:16.400 --> 0:54:20.080 largely follow simple trends in that you'd get. 0:54:19.920 --> 0:54:25.280 Faster processors, better graphics. Ports would change. 0:54:25.440 --> 0:54:30.600 Eventually you would get better resolution on your displays as well. 0:54:31.400 --> 0:54:34.760 They'd get more expensive, they'd get thinner, and they'd get lighter. 0:54:35.040 --> 0:54:38.560 But that's pretty much the trend. There wasn't anything really 0:54:38.640 --> 0:54:43.279 revolutionary after this point, nothing that jumped completely out of 0:54:43.320 --> 0:54:45.840 the line of what you would come to expect from Apple. 0:54:47.080 --> 0:54:50.319 There were a couple of exceptions, a couple standouts. The 0:54:50.360 --> 0:54:52.920 MacBook Pro in twenty twelve came in a model with 0:54:53.000 --> 0:54:56.279 a retina display that was the first MacBook Pro to 0:54:56.600 --> 0:54:59.680 actually have a retina display that's similar to the display 0:54:59.680 --> 0:55:02.960 you find in iPhones of that time, is a very 0:55:03.000 --> 0:55:08.520 high definition, high resolution display. And in twenty thirteen, Apple 0:55:08.600 --> 0:55:13.120 introduced a cylindrical case for a new Mac Pro, so 0:55:13.360 --> 0:55:16.120 you suddenly had a tower that was a cylinder instead 0:55:16.120 --> 0:55:20.319 of a rectangle style, which was what was common at 0:55:20.320 --> 0:55:23.319 the time. And the cylinder was gorgeous. It looks like 0:55:23.760 --> 0:55:26.920 it belongs in some sort of science fiction film. It's 0:55:27.040 --> 0:55:31.120 kind of a high tech supercomputer sort of look to it. 0:55:32.160 --> 0:55:34.440 And this Mac Pro was really meant to work as 0:55:34.440 --> 0:55:37.759 a server or a workstation. It wasn't necessarily meant to 0:55:37.800 --> 0:55:41.960 be your own personal computer. They were pretty darn expensive 0:55:42.000 --> 0:55:45.320 when they came out, and it was a really unique 0:55:45.440 --> 0:55:48.520 esthetic something that stood out. However, I can tell you 0:55:48.560 --> 0:55:50.280 that some of the video team here at how Stuff 0:55:50.320 --> 0:55:53.920 Works have a few strong opinions about the performance of 0:55:53.960 --> 0:55:57.560 this specific model of the MacPro, and they are not 0:55:58.480 --> 0:56:02.520 entirely positive. May just be our own experiences with them, 0:56:02.960 --> 0:56:08.120 but something that they found somewhat frustrating is a good 0:56:08.120 --> 0:56:11.760 word searching for a word that wouldn't be too harsh. 0:56:11.840 --> 0:56:12.960 Frustrating is a good one. 0:56:14.040 --> 0:56:16.360 But this was another example of Apple taking a dramatic 0:56:16.400 --> 0:56:19.400 departure from the general esthetics that were prevalent in personal 0:56:19.400 --> 0:56:21.719 computers at the time and trying to make it their own. 0:56:22.880 --> 0:56:26.440 One thing else I need to mention before we conclude, really, 0:56:28.880 --> 0:56:33.720 obviously a moment that really changed the direction of Apple 0:56:33.960 --> 0:56:38.440 overall and the Mac in particular, was the death of 0:56:38.520 --> 0:56:39.280 Steve Jobs. 0:56:39.320 --> 0:56:41.320 He passed away in twenty eleven. 0:56:41.400 --> 0:56:44.399 We did an episode called One More Thing all about 0:56:44.440 --> 0:56:47.880 Steve Jobs where we talked about this, and this obviously 0:56:47.920 --> 0:56:51.120 had a monumental impact on the company as a whole. 0:56:51.640 --> 0:56:56.240 He had already stepped down as CEO earlier before his passing, 0:56:56.880 --> 0:57:00.680 but he was still very much a president set Apple 0:57:01.520 --> 0:57:04.520 up until a couple of months before his death, and 0:57:04.560 --> 0:57:06.680 he had handed the reins over to Tim Cook to 0:57:06.680 --> 0:57:10.240 become the new CEO. But it had been Jobs, along 0:57:10.280 --> 0:57:14.399 with a top tier level of designers like Johnny Ive, 0:57:14.640 --> 0:57:18.680 who had really set the direction of Apple and the 0:57:19.200 --> 0:57:23.200 esthetic direction for products like the Macintosh computer line and 0:57:23.280 --> 0:57:27.480 the MAX that followed. It would be another couple of 0:57:27.560 --> 0:57:31.160 years before Jobs's direct influence would no longer be a 0:57:31.200 --> 0:57:34.680 major factor in MAX. And this is largely because the 0:57:34.680 --> 0:57:37.120 products that launch on any given year have been in 0:57:37.160 --> 0:57:40.919 development for a while behind the scenes. So while Steve 0:57:40.960 --> 0:57:43.440 Jobs passed away in twenty eleven, it would be another 0:57:43.520 --> 0:57:46.720 year or two before his direct influence was no longer 0:57:48.320 --> 0:57:53.320 a living component of the MAX that followed. But this 0:57:53.440 --> 0:57:57.560 did mean that Apple started having to produce computers without 0:57:57.640 --> 0:58:02.440 that guidance from Steve Jobs himself, and that some people 0:58:02.640 --> 0:58:06.520 ended up pointing out as being an issue. Some people 0:58:06.600 --> 0:58:10.520 say that the changes to the macline post Steve Jobs 0:58:10.520 --> 0:58:16.120 haven't been terribly inspirational or innovative. Others have said that 0:58:16.280 --> 0:58:20.960 been more frustrating as Apple has continued to change things up. 0:58:21.040 --> 0:58:23.640 Remember in two thousand and eight they stopped making FireWire 0:58:24.280 --> 0:58:27.560 a standard on all Macintosh computers. 0:58:28.400 --> 0:58:30.320 By a couple of years. 0:58:30.200 --> 0:58:33.960 Later, they started moving toward well, actually really this year 0:58:34.000 --> 0:58:36.400 they started moving in last year they started moving toward 0:58:36.800 --> 0:58:42.600 USB s ports and abandoning things like the thunderbolt connectors. 0:58:43.360 --> 0:58:47.120 So there have been changes, a lot of them have 0:58:47.200 --> 0:58:50.960 been changes that some Apple users have been very upset 0:58:51.000 --> 0:58:55.240 about because they feel like Apple is ignoring consumer needs 0:58:56.080 --> 0:58:59.960 and is instead demanding that consumers follow in the footsteps 0:59:00.160 --> 0:59:03.400 that they are forging, which is mixing metaphors. 0:59:03.440 --> 0:59:04.120 But never mind it. 0:59:04.160 --> 0:59:06.840 But I would say that that's been Apple's history all along. 0:59:07.720 --> 0:59:11.800 Apple has made very strong decisions to go in certain 0:59:11.840 --> 0:59:18.320 directions that require users to follow suit or they get 0:59:18.400 --> 0:59:22.919 left behind. That's the history of Apple. It might be frustrating, 0:59:23.520 --> 0:59:26.280 but it's not out of character. It is something that 0:59:26.440 --> 0:59:30.280 has been part of the company culture from the earliest days, 0:59:30.320 --> 0:59:32.240 I would argue. 0:59:32.400 --> 0:59:36.200 And that concludes the three part Macintosh story as of 0:59:36.680 --> 0:59:40.840 June ninth, twenty seventeen. I'll have to check and see 0:59:40.920 --> 0:59:44.000 if I've done updates since then, because clearly a lot 0:59:44.040 --> 0:59:47.040 can happen in six years seven years, so we will 0:59:47.400 --> 0:59:49.400 look and see what kind of updates we can do. 0:59:49.520 --> 0:59:52.920 Maybe it could be a shorter episode, because a lot 0:59:52.960 --> 0:59:57.440 of the really traumatic stuff happened all the way through 0:59:57.480 --> 1:00:00.280 its early years, right with the formation of of the 1:00:00.320 --> 1:00:02.880 Macintosh in the first place, and a lot of the 1:00:02.880 --> 1:00:06.400 things that have happened since then have been largely iterative. 1:00:06.680 --> 1:00:10.200 Although you could argue that Apple developing its own processors 1:00:10.240 --> 1:00:13.480 is a huge part that we should touch on, So 1:00:13.520 --> 1:00:15.640 maybe I will do an update in the near future. 1:00:16.000 --> 1:00:18.280 In the meantime, I hope you're all well and I'll 1:00:18.320 --> 1:00:27.480 talk to you again really soon. Tech Stuff is an 1:00:27.480 --> 1:00:33.000 iHeartRadio production. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 1:00:33.160 --> 1:00:39.840 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.