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Speaker 1: Technology with tech Stuff from dot com. Hey thereon Welcome

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Speaker 1: to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland, senior writer

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Speaker 1: for how Stuff Works dot com. And today we're gonna

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Speaker 1: try and wrap up the grand saga that is the

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Speaker 1: history of the Macintosh computer. This is part three of

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Speaker 1: that series, and it's going to be a little shorter

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Speaker 1: than parts one and two, because, honestly, once we get

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Speaker 1: toward the end of this saga, really all that I

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Speaker 1: would be saying is how the next generation of the

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Speaker 1: Macintosh is x amount more powerful than the last generation,

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Speaker 1: and just kind of being a specs podcast, and that's

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Speaker 1: not really interesting to me. I really want to talk

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Speaker 1: about the big innovations, the big changes, the big design

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Speaker 1: implementations that have happened throughout the course of Apple's line

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Speaker 1: of Macintosh computers, rather than just be a laundry list

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Speaker 1: of all the specifications of every mac that has ever

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Speaker 1: ever come out. That would just be boring and I

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Speaker 1: don't want to do that. So if you don't remember,

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Speaker 1: Part one of this series covered the people responsible for

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Speaker 1: launching the first Macintosh, which came out in nineteen eighty four.

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Speaker 1: The second part largely focused on the mac from about

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five up through the point where Steve Jobs

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Speaker 1: returned to Apple. So between five and nine 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 seven he returned to Apple.

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Speaker 1: So this third part we're going to pick back up

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Speaker 1: right around that time, which requires me to do a

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

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Speaker 1: the same page. So it's nineteen seven. Uh. The Apple

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Speaker 1: CEO at the time, at the big getting of was

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Speaker 1: Gil Emilio, and he was in charge during the time

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Speaker 1: where Apple started looking at developing the next generation of

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Speaker 1: operating systems. It had been developing operating systems in house,

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Speaker 1: trying to develop a brand new operating system for the

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Speaker 1: power PC microchip as a a partnership with Motorola and IBM.

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Speaker 1: It became known as the AIM project because it was Apple, UH,

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Speaker 1: IBM and Motorola, and it was meant to be a

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Speaker 1: competitor to Intel and the Windows operating system. And how

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Speaker 1: well that partnership was working, UH, they were looking at

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Speaker 1: acquiring a company in order to get a new operating

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Speaker 1: system on board, and they were looking at two different

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Speaker 1: companies that were each founded by a different former member

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Speaker 1: of the Apple team. One of those two companies was

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Speaker 1: called Next. Next was a company that Steve Jobs founded

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Speaker 1: after he had left Apple. Uh. He was trying to

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Speaker 1: create a new computer standard, a new type of computer

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Speaker 1: for the educational industry, and Next was the computer system

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Speaker 1: he developed. It was not really a super success. It

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Speaker 1: was modest in its successes. It was a very expensive machine. Again,

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Speaker 1: like many of the stories I've told about the Macintosh,

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Speaker 1: not only was it expensive, but it was hard to

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Speaker 1: get developers to make software for it. So it was

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Speaker 1: not a bad idea. It just didn't have a lot

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Speaker 1: of support and it was really expensive, so it didn't

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Speaker 1: get a huge number of of of purchases out there. 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. He came along with the the company.

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Speaker 1: Jobs would then convince the board of directors that Amelio

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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 of made some

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

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

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Speaker 1: at a twelve year low when Gil Emilio was CEO.

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Speaker 1: The board agreed with Steve Jobs and removed Gil Emilio

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

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

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Speaker 1: called 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: at and that was the iMac uh. He started that

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Speaker 1: the day at September seven. He started that iMac project,

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Speaker 1: so he didn't waste any time once he stepped into

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Speaker 1: that role. Now was also the year that Apple decided

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Speaker 1: to rename the operating system for the Macintosh. If you

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Speaker 1: remember in our last episode, they had started calling the

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Speaker 1: operating system a pretty simple name. The name was System,

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Speaker 1: So the first mac operating system was just System one

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Speaker 1: point oh. The last version of System using this naming

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Speaker 1: style was System seven point five point five or seven

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Speaker 1: dot five dot five. Of you prefer starting with version

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Speaker 1: seven dot six, they decided to rename it and they

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Speaker 1: went with Mac OS eight. Now, what's more, this version

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Speaker 1: of the operating system wasn't compatible with the Mac Plus.

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Speaker 1: It was the first of the operating systems that Apple

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Speaker 1: had designed that would not work on the old Mac

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Speaker 1: Plus computer. If you remember, Mac Plus was the longest

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Speaker 1: lived Macintosh on the market. It had been developed by

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Speaker 1: Apple and manufactured for four years. That's a long time

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Speaker 1: in the computer business to keep making the same model

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Speaker 1: of computer. But the they had stopped making Mac Plus

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Speaker 1: is for a long time. They just continued to support

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

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Speaker 1: a Mac Plus. You just would update your Mac Plus

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

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Speaker 1: Mac OS eight was the first operating system that would

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Speaker 1: not run on a Mac Plus. So this was sort

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Speaker 1: of the mark of Mac Plus marching into the sunset.

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Speaker 1: It was over. It was an obsolete form at that point.

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Speaker 1: You could run old stuff on it, but you couldn't

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Speaker 1: run anything new on it. 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 mac OS 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 it's licensing program, or at least it really change

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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 Steve 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 they were not breaking the law or anything,

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Speaker 1: and you could run that Mac operating system and software

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Speaker 1: on your Mac clone for much less money than it

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Speaker 1: would cost for you to buy an official Macintosh, which

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Speaker 1: meant that ultimately Apple was undercutting its own sales. Why

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Speaker 1: why would you go out and buy an official Apple

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Speaker 1: Mac if you could get a comparable system for much

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Speaker 1: less money somewhere else. Steve Jobs didn't really care for this.

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Speaker 1: He thought it was a terrible idea, and so he

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Speaker 1: wanted to renegotiate all those licensing agreements. So once the

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Speaker 1: term was coming up, you wanted to renegotiate where the

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Speaker 1: royalty fees would be much higher, so that every sale

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Speaker 1: of a macclone would guarantee Apple a certain percentage of

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Speaker 1: the revenue. Now, of course, that doesn't make the manufacturing

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Speaker 1: companies all that eager to sign a new agreement. It

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Speaker 1: means cutting into their profit margin, and it would mean

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Speaker 1: that they would have to start raising the prices of

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Speaker 1: their computers to regain that lost profit margin. But that

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Speaker 1: would mean that the higher price computers would be in

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Speaker 1: direct competition with the Apple computers. It would just mean

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Speaker 1: a lot of tough decisions on the part of these

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Speaker 1: licensed companies. So there was a lot of resistance on that,

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Speaker 1: and 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 mac os

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Speaker 1: that probably 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 most the latest version of the operating system

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Speaker 1: without paying another hefty license fee, and as a result,

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Speaker 1: one by one these licensed companies began to get out

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Speaker 1: of the macclone business, until by the middle of nineteen

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Speaker 1: none of them were doing it anymore. So within about

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Speaker 1: a year Steve Jobs stopped this cloning program that was

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Speaker 1: going on from his predecessor. Now that, in in full

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

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Speaker 1: perspective for Apple. Back in Apple had sold four and

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Speaker 1: a half million MAX. So at four and a half

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Speaker 1: million MAX, but then it started this clone program where

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Speaker 1: it began to license the technology to competitors, and in

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Speaker 1: nine sales of MAX dropped to four million units, so

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Speaker 1: five units fewer than a year before. Now, you never

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Speaker 1: want to see the number go down. When you are

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

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Speaker 1: 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 nine, and 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 now. To be fair,

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Speaker 1: there were other mitigating factors that were also affecting this.

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Speaker 1: For example, Microsoft launched Windows five and that really affected

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Speaker 1: sales at the end of ninety five and throughout ninety

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Speaker 1: six and ninety seven. It was a very powerful operating system.

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Speaker 1: It was much friendlier than previous versions of Windows. People said, oh,

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Speaker 1: this is more like what I expect from Apple, and

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Speaker 1: so people began to become more uh happy with Microsoft's

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Speaker 1: approach to a graphic user interface or gooey operating system.

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Speaker 1: So there were other factors besides the fact that there

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Speaker 1: were cheaper clones on the market than Apple computers. But

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Speaker 1: all of this together meant that UH getting rid of

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Speaker 1: that clone program made sense, and that's exactly what Steve

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Speaker 1: Jobs was able to do through this renegotiation process. And

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Speaker 1: then by changing the operating system name. Now I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: keep talking about Steve Jobs because his history and mac

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Speaker 1: history are so closely tied together. Remember, the Macintosh started

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Speaker 1: not as one of Steve jobs as projects. It was

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Speaker 1: an Apple project, but it wasn't headed by Steve Jobs.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't until Steve Jobs was removed from a Lisa project,

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Speaker 1: and then he decided to get involved with the Macintosh project.

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Speaker 1: But from that point forward, the Macintosh was really affected

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Speaker 1: by Steve Jobs. Even when he was away from the company,

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Speaker 1: a lot of his decisions would end up finding their

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Speaker 1: way into the Macintosh generation after generation. He made some

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Speaker 1: more big changes to Apple. In n For one thing,

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Speaker 1: Steve Jobs shut down the Newton project. The Newton was

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Speaker 1: a personal digital assistant that had become the butt of

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Speaker 1: a lot of jokes thanks to uh inconsistent, let's say,

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Speaker 1: imperfect design and implementation. It had a handwriting recognition feature

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Speaker 1: that frequently did not work very well and was made

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Speaker 1: fun of on The Simpsons. Among other things, Steve Jobs

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Speaker 1: also decided to streamline the product lines in the computer

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

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

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Speaker 1: needed to refocus and start selling a more narrow band

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Speaker 1: of computers and make sure that they got that right

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

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: It did not need to be completely done away with

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Speaker 1: or replaced with some other name. He wanted to reinvigorate it,

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Speaker 1: but not to UH to completely scrap it and start over.

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Speaker 1: So the biggest jump for Apple was the introduction of

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Speaker 1: the iMac. This was a new attempt for Apple to

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Speaker 1: push into the consumer market in a really big way,

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Speaker 1: and the basic iMac was a pretty decent machine for

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Speaker 1: its era. It had a two hundred thirty three Mega

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Speaker 1: Hurts G three CPU, had thirty two megabytes of RAM,

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Speaker 1: a four gigabyte hard drive, a CD ROM drive, and

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Speaker 1: an a t I rage to see graphics card with

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Speaker 1: two hold megabytes of video memory. Now, Apple originally stated

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Speaker 1: that the iMac could support up to a hundred twenty

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

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: 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. If there's enough people

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Speaker 1: who will actually do it. Well, the iMac you could upgrade,

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Speaker 1: and again, Apple originally said that you could upgrade up

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Speaker 1: to a hundred megabytes RAM, but people found out that

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

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Speaker 1: 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 standards. The computer and display of the

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

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Speaker 1: one big unit that you would plug a keyboard and

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Speaker 1: mouse into, and it looked a lot like a television set.

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Speaker 1: The display was a fifteen inch display. Uh, it did

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

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

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Speaker 1: Apple where it began to get away from including floppy

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Speaker 1: drives in their computers, and eventually other computer manufacturers began

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Speaker 1: to follow suit and stopped including floppy drives in their machines.

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Speaker 1: So this was the beginning of the end for the

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Speaker 1: floppy disk drive as a storage medium. It began to

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Speaker 1: go into obsolescence. But the display on the iMac was

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Speaker 1: a cathode ray tube display, a CRT UM. I talked

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Speaker 1: a lot about c r t s in the History

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

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

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Speaker 1: Television podcasts because I talked about in detail there. But

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: like flat screens. Those are you know, either l c

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Speaker 1: D or l E ED or plasma displays. But the

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Speaker 1: original IMAX for CRT s, so they were a little

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Speaker 1: hefty as a result. Uh they could support a resolution

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Speaker 1: originally anyway of one thousand four by seven or seven

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Speaker 1: sixty eight if you prefer now. Later in Apple introduced

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Speaker 1: an updated version of the iMac that had better graphics

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Speaker 1: card with more video memory, and the most recent version

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Speaker 1: of the Mac operating system, which was at that point

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Speaker 1: Mac version Mac OS version eight point five. And on

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Speaker 1: top of the iMac, Apple also introduced new power books

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Speaker 1: in their laptop lineup, which included a curvy laptop that

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Speaker 1: was called the Wall Street power Book. And I this

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Speaker 1: every now and then Apple would come out with a

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Speaker 1: product that I just don't get the aesthetics. If you

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Speaker 1: don't know what a Wall Street power Book looks like,

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Speaker 1: do an image search on Apple Wall Street power Book.

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Speaker 1: Because this thing just does not appeal to me. It

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Speaker 1: was kind of funky and also suffered from a design

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Speaker 1: flaw in The early models of the Hinges were a

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Speaker 1: little weak, which meant that once they wore out, the

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Speaker 1: laptop screen wouldn't stay in place anymore would start to

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Speaker 1: fall over, which is pretty inconvenient for a laptop. So

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Speaker 1: it wasn't the best product to ever come out of Apple.

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Speaker 1: The Wall Street line also had a few other issues.

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Speaker 1: For one thing, it was it was noticeably slower than

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Speaker 1: the desktop Power Max that were coming out at the time.

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Speaker 1: And you'd expect that to a point. But when you're

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Speaker 1: selling these laptops at a premium price and you're saying

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Speaker 1: this is the field version of the desktops that you

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Speaker 1: can get for your for your your basic home set up,

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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. Alright, So we've come up to our first

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

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

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Speaker 1: changes in ports systems, as well as some interesting aesthetic

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

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

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Speaker 1: to thank our sponsor. 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. Uh Now, originally you had to get FireWire

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

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

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Speaker 1: a standard port in the Macintosh. Lines for several years. Uh.

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

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Speaker 1: it's largely been replaced at this stage. Uh. It is

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Speaker 1: a protocol, a technology for moving data from one device

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Speaker 1: to another, and it's meant to move a large amount

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Speaker 1: of data in a small amount of time. So it's

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Speaker 1: really essentially similar to other types of ports that you

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Speaker 1: would find on computers, like Scuzzy ports back in the day,

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Speaker 1: or USB ports or USBC today USB three point oh

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Speaker 1: style ports. Now, at the time, FireWire was a big

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Speaker 1: advance from Scuzzy, at least your basic Guzzy. Unless you

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Speaker 1: were using top of the line Scuzzy ports with the

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Speaker 1: best cables that money could buy, you weren't maxing out

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Speaker 1: your speeds that high. In fact, Scuzzy Ultra had about

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Speaker 1: ten megabytes per second top speed for data transfers, which

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Speaker 1: is not bad except if you're trying to transfer very

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Speaker 1: large files. Let's let's say video files are very high

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Speaker 1: quality audio files. That was a little slow. And remember

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Speaker 1: that the Mac line of computers was frequently being used

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

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

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Speaker 1: was typically viewed as a Windows machine. Duty Max. We're

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: at faster speeds. Now, FireWire's initial capabilities stretched up to

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Speaker 1: the four megabits per second range. Now, megabits versus megabytes

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Speaker 1: very different. Right, A bit is one single unit of information.

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Speaker 1: It's either a zero or a one. A byte is

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Speaker 1: eight of those collectively, So foreigner megabits is equivalent to

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

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Speaker 1: faster than Scuzzy trub was. So Apple was looking at

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Speaker 1: re inventing 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 can 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 one to two thousand eight, and God's development in

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Speaker 1: the late nineties, but really got wide rollout by about

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Speaker 1: two thousand one, and over the next seven years, it

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Speaker 1: was standard on almost every map that came out from Apple.

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Speaker 1: Also in Apple discontinued quite a few machines from their lineup.

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Speaker 1: They officially stopped supporting all of the motor Rola processor

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Speaker 1: MAX that preceded the switch to the power PC microchip. Now,

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Speaker 1: remember to Rolla still had UH involvement in developing the

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Speaker 1: power PC chips, but the chips that were in Macintosh

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Speaker 1: computers prior to power pc chips were all Motorola chips.

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Speaker 1: So at that point Apple said, well, we're not going

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Speaker 1: to support those anymore. Uh, everything is gonna now depend

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Speaker 1: upon this power PC microchip because that's what we're putting

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Speaker 1: in our MAX from this point forward. They also discontinued

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Speaker 1: support for the Apple two line, which is pretty incredible

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Speaker 1: that they had supported Apple two all the way up

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Speaker 1: to nine. Now, they had discontinued manufacturing the Apple two

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Speaker 1: long before that, but they continued to support it all

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Speaker 1: the way until when they officially ended support. Uh that

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: it lasted all the way to and at least some

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Speaker 1: capacity in Apple support was amazing, So it's really the

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Speaker 1: last hurrah for the Apple too. I still love the

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Speaker 1: Apple too, and I wouldn't mind finding one just to

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Speaker 1: mess around with one, but uh that I doubt that

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

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

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Speaker 1: Apple too. Now, the following year, Apple released some new Imax. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Like the previous episodes, I'm not going to cover every

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Speaker 1: single model Apple released, which would just make this episode

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Speaker 1: incredibly dull. But one thing I want to mention is

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: You 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. You could

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Speaker 1: get an iMac and blueberry, grape, tangerine, lime, and strawberry.

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Speaker 1: And I gotta be honest with you guys, even though

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Speaker 1: I'm the dude from tech stuff who from the beginning

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Speaker 1: has been accused of having an anti Mac bias and

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Speaker 1: even though these machines are woefully outdated by today's standards,

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Speaker 1: I really still dig the designs of these early Imax,

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Speaker 1: these nineteen nine Imax and these bright colors. They're really

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Speaker 1: appealing to me. Uh, I would love to have one

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Speaker 1: in grape or lime. So I guess this episode is

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Speaker 1: ultimately a Jonathan which list of old computers that are obsolete,

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Speaker 1: that are no longer supported, that don't run any useful

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Speaker 1: operating system or software at this point, but I still

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Speaker 1: kind of one. So the Apple two and a nineteen

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

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Speaker 1: about those vibrant color schemes. So look up ninete Imax

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

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Speaker 1: machines look like back in the day, and maybe you'll

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Speaker 1: 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

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Speaker 1: panel displays. These are still CRT machines, But I don't know,

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Speaker 1: they just seemed kind of friendly to me. Now. Apple

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Speaker 1: also introduced a desktop tower style computer called the Yosemite

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Speaker 1: Power MACG three. Some people refer to this one as

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Speaker 1: the Smurf, and the reason they do that is the

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00:26:24,080 --> 00:26:28,639
Speaker 1: case was uh blue. It also had white accents, and

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Speaker 1: it had sort of a transparent cover over the white aspects.

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Speaker 1: The design included a drawbridge like door that could fold

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Speaker 1: down to the right of the computer that would allow

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Speaker 1: you to add expansions to the actual motherboard, and you

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Speaker 1: could even open the computer while it was working, Like

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Speaker 1: you could have the computer on and open it up

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Speaker 1: and it would still run because all the modules were

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00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:55,280
Speaker 1: still connected to that hinged door. Um, it's kind of neat,

428
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Speaker 1: not really any point of doing that, but it's neat

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Speaker 1: that you could do it. Apple offered a three hundred

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Speaker 1: Mega Hurts version initially in this Yosemite computer, but by

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Speaker 1: June so within a few months of introducing it, they

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Speaker 1: discontinued the three hundred Mega Hurts version and instead relied

433
00:27:14,520 --> 00:27:17,040
Speaker 1: on a more powerful four hundred fifty Mega Hurts model.

434
00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:22,800
Speaker 1: They also used a similar design for their power Machine,

435
00:27:22,920 --> 00:27:25,840
Speaker 1: like this was for their high end users who were

436
00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:28,679
Speaker 1: hoping to use it for like video production and that

437
00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:32,320
Speaker 1: sort of stuff. This was Apple's power Mac G four,

438
00:27:33,040 --> 00:27:37,679
Speaker 1: and the US government initially called this computer this desktop

439
00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:41,280
Speaker 1: personal computer, high end personal computer but still a personal computer.

440
00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:45,359
Speaker 1: They called it a supercomputer. Now, why did they call

441
00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:49,320
Speaker 1: a personal computer a supercomputer. Well, this was the first

442
00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:53,680
Speaker 1: Mac that could perform one billion floating operations per second,

443
00:27:53,880 --> 00:27:56,840
Speaker 1: or otherwise known as a giga flop, and at the

444
00:27:56,880 --> 00:28:00,399
Speaker 1: time gigga flop was considered a capability was in the

445
00:28:00,440 --> 00:28:04,600
Speaker 1: supercomputer range, so the US government said, technically, this power

446
00:28:04,640 --> 00:28:09,280
Speaker 1: Mac is a supercomputer. The case was essentially identical to

447
00:28:09,320 --> 00:28:12,760
Speaker 1: the Yosemite tower I just described, only this one was white,

448
00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:16,280
Speaker 1: graphite gray and had silver accents. And I guess this

449
00:28:16,359 --> 00:28:18,520
Speaker 1: was meant to make it look more professional and business

450
00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:22,480
Speaker 1: like and less sort of sleek and fun. I suppose

451
00:28:22,760 --> 00:28:25,720
Speaker 1: it still was a very nice design. The top level

452
00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:27,960
Speaker 1: Max in this model line introduced a new type of

453
00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:31,480
Speaker 1: motherboard called the saw tooth, which allowed for a more

454
00:28:31,520 --> 00:28:34,400
Speaker 1: powerful machine overall. You could fit more memory, you could

455
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:38,160
Speaker 1: fit a faster processor, you could fit a better graphics

456
00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:41,760
Speaker 1: card to it, so it was a more powerful machine overall.

457
00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:46,040
Speaker 1: But there were various lines in this G four model,

458
00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:49,760
Speaker 1: so the entry level did not have this saw tooth motherboard.

459
00:28:49,960 --> 00:28:53,040
Speaker 1: It was only the higher end models that did. The

460
00:28:53,200 --> 00:28:56,200
Speaker 1: entry level had a motherboard that was modeled after the

461
00:28:56,280 --> 00:29:00,000
Speaker 1: Yosemite design, so it had a slightly less powerful approach,

462
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:03,480
Speaker 1: which now this was a particularly potent machine. If you've

463
00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:07,480
Speaker 1: got the top of the line G four power Mac,

464
00:29:07,760 --> 00:29:11,280
Speaker 1: then you had a machine that was comparable or actually

465
00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:15,880
Speaker 1: faster than a PENTTHEUM three processor computer from the IBM

466
00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:19,760
Speaker 1: compatible lines and Pathium three's were known to be screaming

467
00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:22,760
Speaker 1: fast back in the day. Today they're slow as a snail,

468
00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:25,320
Speaker 1: But back in the day that was cutting edge if

469
00:29:25,360 --> 00:29:30,200
Speaker 1: you were going the Intel slash Windows route. So the

470
00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:33,160
Speaker 1: Apple computers were no slouch. They could go head to

471
00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:38,960
Speaker 1: head with the the fastest machines coming out from Intel's side.

472
00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:44,880
Speaker 1: But Apple did do something that was kind of lu

473
00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:48,040
Speaker 1: zy to their customers when they introduced this power Mac

474
00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:50,880
Speaker 1: G four, and uh it was all because of a

475
00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:56,000
Speaker 1: supply chain issue. So one of the things that computer

476
00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:59,440
Speaker 1: manufacturers in general have run into are these supply chain

477
00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:02,920
Speaker 1: problem where one element, or maybe more than one element

478
00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:08,080
Speaker 1: in some cases, is being held up by the the

479
00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:12,240
Speaker 1: the suppliers of the specific components that are going into

480
00:30:12,280 --> 00:30:18,240
Speaker 1: the computer. In this case, it was the microprocessors. Apple

481
00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:22,200
Speaker 1: was finding that Motorola could not supply five hundred Mega

482
00:30:22,280 --> 00:30:27,080
Speaker 1: hurts processors at the rate that Apple needed them. Which

483
00:30:27,120 --> 00:30:30,520
Speaker 1: was unfortunate because Apple had a bunch of orders for

484
00:30:30,640 --> 00:30:35,080
Speaker 1: five hundred Mega Hurts Power MACG four computers. So Apple

485
00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:38,080
Speaker 1: did something that a lot of people found a bit questionable.

486
00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:42,600
Speaker 1: The company scaled back all their models by fifty Mega Hurts,

487
00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:45,520
Speaker 1: so instead of selling a five hundred Mega Hurts machine

488
00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:47,880
Speaker 1: as their top machine, they went with a four hundred

489
00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:50,840
Speaker 1: fifty Mega Hurts machine as their top machine. This refers

490
00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:55,360
Speaker 1: to the processor speed, so how fast is the CPU

491
00:30:55,600 --> 00:31:00,000
Speaker 1: inside the Powermax four or fifty Mega Hurts. Obviously fifty

492
00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:02,920
Speaker 1: mega Hurts slower than a five hundred Mega Hurts machine.

493
00:31:04,440 --> 00:31:06,800
Speaker 1: And then the four fifty Mega Hurts machines were scaled

494
00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:09,040
Speaker 1: back to four hundred Mega Hurts, so on and so forth,

495
00:31:09,080 --> 00:31:12,120
Speaker 1: so everything took like a half step back from where

496
00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:15,840
Speaker 1: it was supposed to be. But Apple did not change

497
00:31:15,920 --> 00:31:19,520
Speaker 1: the prices of their models, so the top model was

498
00:31:19,560 --> 00:31:22,120
Speaker 1: still the same price, even though it had a less

499
00:31:22,120 --> 00:31:26,760
Speaker 1: powerful processor than what was originally planned. And Apple customers

500
00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:30,800
Speaker 1: got a tiny bit peeved about this, understandably so that

501
00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:33,800
Speaker 1: they were paying a premium price for something that was

502
00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:36,560
Speaker 1: less powerful than what they were promised. So this was

503
00:31:36,600 --> 00:31:40,680
Speaker 1: a pretty nasty little situation. For Apple. Fortunately the company

504
00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:43,360
Speaker 1: was able to rectify things in like a week, but

505
00:31:43,440 --> 00:31:46,080
Speaker 1: it still was a rough week over at Apple Computers

506
00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:50,440
Speaker 1: due to this little kerfuffle. And um, yeah, so people

507
00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:54,200
Speaker 1: who talk about Apple being a company that that sets

508
00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:57,920
Speaker 1: a premium price, it's stuff like this particular incident that

509
00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:02,960
Speaker 1: reinforces that idea. Now, the Wall Street power Book ended

510
00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:06,720
Speaker 1: up taking a bow. In nine, they discontinued the Wall

511
00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:09,840
Speaker 1: Street and decided to launch a new model of power

512
00:32:09,880 --> 00:32:13,440
Speaker 1: Book that was code named Lombard. And this was the

513
00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:16,760
Speaker 1: first power book Mac to have a USB port on it,

514
00:32:17,320 --> 00:32:19,760
Speaker 1: so it was revolutionary at the time, and it was

515
00:32:19,800 --> 00:32:23,000
Speaker 1: the fastest laptop line at the time of its debut,

516
00:32:23,440 --> 00:32:27,880
Speaker 1: not not fastest for Apple. The power Book Mac that

517
00:32:27,960 --> 00:32:31,400
Speaker 1: was code named Lombard was the fastest laptop on the

518
00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:36,520
Speaker 1: market period when it came out. Uh. It also had

519
00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:40,080
Speaker 1: a bronze translucent keyboard, which I think actually looks more

520
00:32:40,160 --> 00:32:44,840
Speaker 1: brown than bronze and was in my mind really unattractive.

521
00:32:45,160 --> 00:32:47,800
Speaker 1: That's my own personal perspective on it. Maybe that's that

522
00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:52,440
Speaker 1: anti Mac bias kicking in again. But the specs were

523
00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:55,000
Speaker 1: really impressive, even though I found the aesthetic to be

524
00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:59,720
Speaker 1: not terribly attractive. Taking a page from their success with

525
00:32:59,800 --> 00:33:02,760
Speaker 1: the Mac, Apple also introduced a laptop for the education

526
00:33:02,800 --> 00:33:07,400
Speaker 1: market called the Eyebook. This was a bit chunkier and

527
00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:11,160
Speaker 1: more rugged than their power Book line. It was less powerful,

528
00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:14,600
Speaker 1: didn't need to be as powerful as the power Book. Uh,

529
00:33:14,640 --> 00:33:16,560
Speaker 1: but it's still had a lot of curved lines in

530
00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:18,760
Speaker 1: the design. I kind of dig the Eyebook. It does

531
00:33:18,800 --> 00:33:23,320
Speaker 1: look a little unwieldy, especially compared to the laptops that

532
00:33:23,440 --> 00:33:26,760
Speaker 1: Apple produces today, but it has again a kind of

533
00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:29,840
Speaker 1: a friendly look to it. I think. Now. One thing

534
00:33:29,880 --> 00:33:32,719
Speaker 1: that really helped Apple out at this time something that

535
00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:36,680
Speaker 1: was completely outside of Apple's control. It was a little

536
00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:41,040
Speaker 1: thing called the Y two K scare. And you may

537
00:33:41,280 --> 00:33:44,560
Speaker 1: owe my drugs not remember what this was about. Things

538
00:33:44,640 --> 00:33:48,120
Speaker 1: changing so scory and people like to forget. But the

539
00:33:48,280 --> 00:33:50,479
Speaker 1: Y two K bug or the Y two K Scare

540
00:33:50,640 --> 00:33:55,960
Speaker 1: was all about how some lazy computer programmers and computer

541
00:33:56,000 --> 00:34:00,360
Speaker 1: scientists had really made a terrible design decision that frightened

542
00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:02,680
Speaker 1: the pants off a whole bunch of people back in

543
00:34:02,760 --> 00:34:05,640
Speaker 1: the late nineties. So here's what it was all about.

544
00:34:05,680 --> 00:34:07,760
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you a quick summary because I could

545
00:34:07,760 --> 00:34:09,640
Speaker 1: do a full episode. In fact, I have done a

546
00:34:09,640 --> 00:34:14,440
Speaker 1: full episode about Y two K. The problem was that

547
00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:17,960
Speaker 1: programmers were a little lazy back in the day, and

548
00:34:18,160 --> 00:34:22,279
Speaker 1: when some programmers were designing various architectures, they took a

549
00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:25,919
Speaker 1: shortcut when it came to designating years, and they used

550
00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:30,719
Speaker 1: a two digit method of designating the year. So if

551
00:34:30,760 --> 00:34:34,440
Speaker 1: you put eight nine as the two digits, then the

552
00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:38,960
Speaker 1: computer knew you met nineteen nine. But you're probably already

553
00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:41,799
Speaker 1: spotting the problem, which is that once you got to

554
00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:44,760
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine, you're gonna roll over to two thousand.

555
00:34:45,440 --> 00:34:48,279
Speaker 1: But computers only had two digit digits to tell what

556
00:34:48,320 --> 00:34:51,680
Speaker 1: the year was going to be, so zero zero could

557
00:34:51,680 --> 00:34:55,440
Speaker 1: be interpreted as nineteen hundred instead of two thousand, and

558
00:34:55,480 --> 00:34:58,719
Speaker 1: a lot of different computer processes could screw up. As

559
00:34:58,719 --> 00:35:02,000
Speaker 1: a result, you had things that were pretty easy to

560
00:35:02,120 --> 00:35:07,120
Speaker 1: imagine going haywire, like like, uh, financial software that is

561
00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:10,880
Speaker 1: calculating stuff like interest, Well, if it rolls back a

562
00:35:10,920 --> 00:35:13,560
Speaker 1: hundred years, that's really going to mess things up. But

563
00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:16,360
Speaker 1: people were worried about all sorts of stuff, like computers

564
00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:20,040
Speaker 1: just stop maybe they could stop working, and not just computers,

565
00:35:20,040 --> 00:35:22,719
Speaker 1: but other devices too that we're working on. Microchips that

566
00:35:22,800 --> 00:35:25,759
Speaker 1: had this kind of architecture, so people were worried about

567
00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:29,879
Speaker 1: getting stuck in elevators or what would happen on a plane. Well,

568
00:35:30,040 --> 00:35:34,000
Speaker 1: Apple didn't have to worry about this because there programmers

569
00:35:34,160 --> 00:35:39,120
Speaker 1: didn't use that convention when they were designating years, so

570
00:35:39,160 --> 00:35:41,520
Speaker 1: they didn't have to worry about running out of time

571
00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:47,960
Speaker 1: with two digits. Uh So, with time continuing to pass

572
00:35:48,400 --> 00:35:51,520
Speaker 1: as it does and two thousand coming along, people began

573
00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:54,480
Speaker 1: to think, well, maybe we should get Apple computers because

574
00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:57,960
Speaker 1: they don't suffer the same weakness as other computers that

575
00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:04,480
Speaker 1: have this two digit problem. So, uh, yeah, it doesn't

576
00:36:04,520 --> 00:36:07,840
Speaker 1: do you any good if your computer thinks it's nineteen

577
00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:10,839
Speaker 1: hundred and suddenly decides to put on an Edwardian suit

578
00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:14,600
Speaker 1: and start talking about the latest George Bernard Shaw play.

579
00:36:14,680 --> 00:36:16,239
Speaker 1: That doesn't help you out if you want to do

580
00:36:16,320 --> 00:36:19,960
Speaker 1: some modern computing. And the mac Os didn't have that issue,

581
00:36:20,080 --> 00:36:22,960
Speaker 1: so people started to look at Macintosh computers and sales

582
00:36:23,560 --> 00:36:26,960
Speaker 1: uh increased or Apple. Now, whether or not that had

583
00:36:27,040 --> 00:36:28,920
Speaker 1: anything to do with the Y two K bug is

584
00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:31,239
Speaker 1: hard to say because there's so many other variables that

585
00:36:31,320 --> 00:36:35,000
Speaker 1: play here, but it's probably something that factored into at

586
00:36:35,040 --> 00:36:37,160
Speaker 1: least a few people's decision to switch over to the

587
00:36:37,239 --> 00:36:41,080
Speaker 1: Macintosh platform because it was why two K proof. In fact,

588
00:36:41,320 --> 00:36:44,600
Speaker 1: power PC Max not the old Motorola ones, but the

589
00:36:44,600 --> 00:36:48,640
Speaker 1: power Pc Max actually allow computers to keep good time

590
00:36:48,719 --> 00:36:52,000
Speaker 1: up to the year twenty nine thousand ninety, So we're

591
00:36:52,040 --> 00:36:55,000
Speaker 1: good for now. Even if you're using an obsolete mac

592
00:36:55,239 --> 00:36:57,600
Speaker 1: you don't have to worry about the operating system suddenly

593
00:36:57,680 --> 00:37:00,440
Speaker 1: thinking it's nineteen hundred, because it's gonna keep on chugging

594
00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:03,520
Speaker 1: along until the hardware breaks. Because I guarantee you that

595
00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:06,759
Speaker 1: hardware will break before the year twenty nine thousand ninety.

596
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:09,760
Speaker 1: And if it doesn't, I'm guessing you won't be around.

597
00:37:10,120 --> 00:37:13,319
Speaker 1: That's not a you know, that's not a slam against you.

598
00:37:13,719 --> 00:37:16,600
Speaker 1: It's just i'm recording this in and I don't think

599
00:37:16,600 --> 00:37:18,640
Speaker 1: people in the year twenty thousand are still listening to

600
00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:23,399
Speaker 1: tech stuff. If you are, thanks for listening. You're awesome now.

601
00:37:23,400 --> 00:37:25,319
Speaker 1: In case you were curious, the world did not end

602
00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:29,360
Speaker 1: in two thousand spoiler alert. But Apple did introduce some

603
00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:32,799
Speaker 1: new stuff that year, like the Cube. This was a

604
00:37:32,840 --> 00:37:36,080
Speaker 1: desktop computer that was shaped like a cube. It was

605
00:37:36,239 --> 00:37:40,000
Speaker 1: five one cubic inches and it was a really powerful

606
00:37:40,040 --> 00:37:42,880
Speaker 1: machine for its time. This was also the year that

607
00:37:42,920 --> 00:37:47,000
Speaker 1: Apple previewed the mac OS ten using the Roman numeral

608
00:37:47,080 --> 00:37:50,080
Speaker 1: for ten, which is an X. Now that led me,

609
00:37:50,520 --> 00:37:53,320
Speaker 1: the ignorant person that I was at the time, to

610
00:37:53,440 --> 00:37:56,560
Speaker 1: call it mac os X, which got lots of people

611
00:37:56,760 --> 00:37:59,719
Speaker 1: laughing at me for calling it mac os X. But

612
00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:01,160
Speaker 1: if you are going to be using a bunch of

613
00:38:01,239 --> 00:38:03,520
Speaker 1: letters in the name of your product, don't use a

614
00:38:03,600 --> 00:38:07,480
Speaker 1: Roman numeral to designate its operating system number. So it's

615
00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:11,480
Speaker 1: macOS ten. Uh. And sometimes I still say mac OSX

616
00:38:11,600 --> 00:38:15,239
Speaker 1: because sometimes I just like to have a little fun

617
00:38:15,239 --> 00:38:19,520
Speaker 1: at my own expense. Now, moving ahead to two thousand one,

618
00:38:19,560 --> 00:38:22,760
Speaker 1: Apple again boosted the power of its various computers. Nothing

619
00:38:22,840 --> 00:38:25,600
Speaker 1: new there. Pretty much every year Apple would update its

620
00:38:25,640 --> 00:38:30,360
Speaker 1: line of existing computers and increase their abilities by putting

621
00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:33,560
Speaker 1: in more powerful processors, putting in more memory, giving it

622
00:38:33,560 --> 00:38:35,840
Speaker 1: a few different ports. So again I'm not going to

623
00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:37,919
Speaker 1: cover all of those changes. I'm just going to cover

624
00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:41,600
Speaker 1: the big, big differences. Uh. They also introduced some new

625
00:38:41,640 --> 00:38:44,359
Speaker 1: color schemes in their iMac lines, so you could buy

626
00:38:44,440 --> 00:38:48,960
Speaker 1: the Blue Dalmatian or Flower Power. These actually had designs,

627
00:38:49,040 --> 00:38:51,799
Speaker 1: not just a solid color. They actually had you know,

628
00:38:51,880 --> 00:38:55,360
Speaker 1: designs on them that I find almost but not quite

629
00:38:55,400 --> 00:38:58,200
Speaker 1: completely unappealing. So I don't want either of those. If

630
00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:00,520
Speaker 1: anyone's listening and they want to get me the which

631
00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:03,160
Speaker 1: list of items I've talked about, like Apple two's and

632
00:39:03,600 --> 00:39:08,320
Speaker 1: the iMac you know lime or the iMac grape. That's cool,

633
00:39:08,520 --> 00:39:10,720
Speaker 1: but don't get me a blue Dalmatian or flower Power.

634
00:39:10,800 --> 00:39:13,839
Speaker 1: I don't need them. Um, They're just not for me.

635
00:39:14,360 --> 00:39:18,120
Speaker 1: The company also released a lighter, more powerful eyebook sometimes

636
00:39:18,160 --> 00:39:22,480
Speaker 1: called the ice Book, and Apple created the quicksilver version

637
00:39:22,560 --> 00:39:25,560
Speaker 1: of its power Mac G four line. And they also

638
00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:29,600
Speaker 1: opened up their first two Apple stores in two thousand one.

639
00:39:29,640 --> 00:39:31,759
Speaker 1: Now there's hundreds of the things, but back in two

640
00:39:31,800 --> 00:39:34,080
Speaker 1: thousand one they were brand new. It was the first

641
00:39:34,120 --> 00:39:37,440
Speaker 1: time Apple had opened up a retail space of its own,

642
00:39:38,400 --> 00:39:40,880
Speaker 1: and of course that ends up being a popular destination

643
00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:43,080
Speaker 1: for people all around the world. There's there are Apple

644
00:39:43,160 --> 00:39:46,640
Speaker 1: stores that get crowds of tourists because they are particularly

645
00:39:47,080 --> 00:39:52,080
Speaker 1: interesting in their design and layout. Oh, that's also your

646
00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:56,320
Speaker 1: Apple launched the next product to help defind the company

647
00:39:56,560 --> 00:40:01,680
Speaker 1: as its new identity. That would be the iPod. But

648
00:40:01,840 --> 00:40:04,640
Speaker 1: we talked about the iPod in our History of MP

649
00:40:04,719 --> 00:40:06,879
Speaker 1: three players podcast. So I'm not going to cover it here,

650
00:40:06,960 --> 00:40:08,920
Speaker 1: but just to say that two thousand one marked a

651
00:40:08,960 --> 00:40:12,040
Speaker 1: real turning point in Apple's history, because that was the

652
00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:17,280
Speaker 1: moment when Apple began to really expand beyond personal computers

653
00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:21,920
Speaker 1: and printers and workstations. They began to get into personal

654
00:40:21,960 --> 00:40:25,560
Speaker 1: electronics in a serious way. The Newton was kind of

655
00:40:25,600 --> 00:40:28,600
Speaker 1: a failure, but the iPod was totally the opposite. iPod

656
00:40:28,719 --> 00:40:31,600
Speaker 1: was a runaway success, particularly once you've got a couple

657
00:40:31,600 --> 00:40:35,720
Speaker 1: of generations in and really took off once iTunes became

658
00:40:36,040 --> 00:40:39,520
Speaker 1: a real player in the in the data management or

659
00:40:39,640 --> 00:40:44,440
Speaker 1: music management space. Now two it was more of the

660
00:40:44,480 --> 00:40:48,440
Speaker 1: same with tweaked computer designs, some boosted performance, and not

661
00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:51,480
Speaker 1: much else. Apple did create a new line of MAX

662
00:40:51,520 --> 00:40:56,280
Speaker 1: for educational institutions. They called it the eMac E for education.

663
00:40:57,120 --> 00:41:01,200
Speaker 1: It was housed in an iMac like CRT style case. Uh,

664
00:41:01,280 --> 00:41:04,319
Speaker 1: the stream was flat, it wasn't curve, but it still

665
00:41:04,480 --> 00:41:07,240
Speaker 1: was a cathode ray tube that was providing the actual

666
00:41:07,360 --> 00:41:10,319
Speaker 1: image that you saw in there. So big bulky case

667
00:41:10,360 --> 00:41:14,000
Speaker 1: in fact, really big and bulky. The basic model weighed

668
00:41:14,040 --> 00:41:17,239
Speaker 1: fifty pounds, but it cost a little less than a

669
00:41:17,280 --> 00:41:20,600
Speaker 1: thousand bucks, So Apple was really trying to price these

670
00:41:20,640 --> 00:41:24,120
Speaker 1: computers in a way where education systems would be able

671
00:41:24,200 --> 00:41:27,400
Speaker 1: to shell out the bucks to buy them, because again

672
00:41:27,800 --> 00:41:30,600
Speaker 1: Max were pretty expensive and a lot of education systems

673
00:41:30,680 --> 00:41:34,319
Speaker 1: just didn't have the budget to buy Macintosh computers. So

674
00:41:34,520 --> 00:41:36,840
Speaker 1: this was Apple's attempt to kind of get into that

675
00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:43,080
Speaker 1: market with a slightly less powerful computer. In two thousand three,

676
00:41:43,320 --> 00:41:47,000
Speaker 1: Apple began introducing Max that were no longer backwards compatible

677
00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:50,040
Speaker 1: with the old classic Mac operating system, and this began

678
00:41:50,080 --> 00:41:53,920
Speaker 1: the March of obsolescence for those old OS builds. The

679
00:41:53,960 --> 00:41:58,120
Speaker 1: company continued its trend of updating machines, but again there

680
00:41:58,120 --> 00:42:01,520
Speaker 1: were no major revolutions that happened. In two thousand three,

681
00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:05,319
Speaker 1: Apple did introduce the power Mac G five with the

682
00:42:05,840 --> 00:42:10,400
Speaker 1: IBM power Pc NV CPU that gave the Mac a

683
00:42:10,480 --> 00:42:13,239
Speaker 1: processor speed of between one point six to two point

684
00:42:13,280 --> 00:42:15,680
Speaker 1: oh giga hurts, depending upon the model that you bought.

685
00:42:16,440 --> 00:42:20,920
Speaker 1: This computer generated so much heat that it required nine

686
00:42:21,440 --> 00:42:25,239
Speaker 1: cooling fans to manage it. Nine fans inside of this

687
00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:27,840
Speaker 1: computer so that it would not overheat. The case was

688
00:42:27,880 --> 00:42:30,400
Speaker 1: also made out of aluminum, which is a very effective

689
00:42:30,400 --> 00:42:33,200
Speaker 1: conductor of heat, which is good because a lot of

690
00:42:33,280 --> 00:42:36,360
Speaker 1: heat gets generated inside the machine, it transfers out to

691
00:42:36,400 --> 00:42:39,080
Speaker 1: the case, and the case transfers it out to the

692
00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:44,839
Speaker 1: air around it. But yeah, these machines got pretty toasty. Well,

693
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:47,640
Speaker 1: we've got one last section to go through to talk

694
00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:50,319
Speaker 1: about the history of the Macintosh and get up to

695
00:42:50,360 --> 00:42:53,120
Speaker 1: present day. But before I jump into that, let's take

696
00:42:53,120 --> 00:43:04,040
Speaker 1: another quick break to thank our sponsor. Jumping into two

697
00:43:04,040 --> 00:43:07,400
Speaker 1: thousand four, the big news that year for Apple was

698
00:43:07,440 --> 00:43:11,640
Speaker 1: a redesign of the iMac. Now. The older CRT versions

699
00:43:11,680 --> 00:43:16,040
Speaker 1: were replaced that year with a new flat panel display version.

700
00:43:16,840 --> 00:43:19,800
Speaker 1: The computer was in the same housing as the display,

701
00:43:20,280 --> 00:43:22,320
Speaker 1: with an optical drive to the right of the screen

702
00:43:22,360 --> 00:43:25,840
Speaker 1: and all the ports helpfully on the back of the

703
00:43:25,960 --> 00:43:29,200
Speaker 1: darn thing. I hated that design decision, by the way,

704
00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:31,600
Speaker 1: to have all the ports on this computer on the back.

705
00:43:31,640 --> 00:43:35,200
Speaker 1: I understand it was necessary for the layout for the motherboard,

706
00:43:35,800 --> 00:43:38,280
Speaker 1: but man, it was so irritating to have to plug

707
00:43:38,320 --> 00:43:40,880
Speaker 1: everything into the back of the machine in order to

708
00:43:40,960 --> 00:43:44,120
Speaker 1: use it, including stuff like your mouse and your keyboard

709
00:43:44,160 --> 00:43:46,920
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. But this looked like a flat

710
00:43:46,920 --> 00:43:51,080
Speaker 1: panel television on a stand. The entire computer was housed

711
00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:55,479
Speaker 1: inside of this thing, big, dramatic change from those big,

712
00:43:55,520 --> 00:44:01,240
Speaker 1: bulky CRT sets of the iMac before, and a totally

713
00:44:01,360 --> 00:44:04,840
Speaker 1: new design, brand new aesthetic move for Apple, and it

714
00:44:04,960 --> 00:44:08,560
Speaker 1: kind of started Apple down the pathway of that smooth

715
00:44:08,680 --> 00:44:12,959
Speaker 1: white two thousand one ish aesthetic that they became known for.

716
00:44:13,640 --> 00:44:16,160
Speaker 1: A lot of Apple's products would end up following that

717
00:44:16,320 --> 00:44:20,520
Speaker 1: same sort of design philosophy, but this was one of

718
00:44:20,520 --> 00:44:23,640
Speaker 1: the earliest ones. And I actually had an iMac in

719
00:44:23,719 --> 00:44:26,800
Speaker 1: this style, although it wasn't a two thousand four iMac.

720
00:44:26,880 --> 00:44:28,600
Speaker 1: It was a bit later. It might have been as

721
00:44:28,640 --> 00:44:33,040
Speaker 1: late as two thousand six, but um, I definitely had

722
00:44:33,080 --> 00:44:35,520
Speaker 1: one of these. Max was the only Mac I've ever owned.

723
00:44:35,760 --> 00:44:38,839
Speaker 1: I liked it just fine. I just never bought another one.

724
00:44:39,400 --> 00:44:44,200
Speaker 1: Um so kind of cool. This two thousand one ish

725
00:44:44,239 --> 00:44:48,160
Speaker 1: approach very different from the lollipop colorful approach of the

726
00:44:48,160 --> 00:44:51,600
Speaker 1: CRT Imax from just a few years earlier. And in

727
00:44:51,600 --> 00:44:54,520
Speaker 1: two thousand five, we got the Mac Mini. Now by we,

728
00:44:54,760 --> 00:44:57,719
Speaker 1: I mean the general we I never owned a Mac Mini,

729
00:44:57,920 --> 00:45:01,360
Speaker 1: but this was a really cool idea too. This was

730
00:45:01,400 --> 00:45:04,400
Speaker 1: a desktop computer in miniature, and it didn't have a

731
00:45:04,400 --> 00:45:07,080
Speaker 1: built in display. There was no display that came along

732
00:45:07,120 --> 00:45:10,120
Speaker 1: with it, but you would get this tiny little computer,

733
00:45:10,239 --> 00:45:12,759
Speaker 1: and I mean it was tiny. It was six and

734
00:45:12,760 --> 00:45:16,360
Speaker 1: a half inches per side and two inches tall and

735
00:45:16,400 --> 00:45:18,720
Speaker 1: that was the whole desktop. And he would just connect

736
00:45:18,760 --> 00:45:22,840
Speaker 1: that to an existing display using whichever port you needed.

737
00:45:23,320 --> 00:45:25,960
Speaker 1: And uh it was bargain priced, at least as far

738
00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:29,840
Speaker 1: as Apple is concerned. It was on sale for four dollars.

739
00:45:30,400 --> 00:45:33,720
Speaker 1: That's dirt cheap with Apple. Uh. So it gave people

740
00:45:33,719 --> 00:45:36,400
Speaker 1: the opportunity to own a Mac as long as they

741
00:45:36,400 --> 00:45:38,879
Speaker 1: already had a display, or they didn't mind buying a

742
00:45:38,880 --> 00:45:42,280
Speaker 1: display and a keyboard and all that other stuff for

743
00:45:42,400 --> 00:45:45,160
Speaker 1: a bargain price compared to the other Max that were

744
00:45:45,160 --> 00:45:48,520
Speaker 1: on the market at that same time. One drawback to

745
00:45:48,560 --> 00:45:51,960
Speaker 1: this design was that you couldn't expand it. You couldn't

746
00:45:52,280 --> 00:45:55,120
Speaker 1: add more memory or or change it in any meaningful

747
00:45:55,160 --> 00:45:58,000
Speaker 1: way because it was so small and everything was packed

748
00:45:58,040 --> 00:46:00,600
Speaker 1: so tightly together that there was no room to expand

749
00:46:00,640 --> 00:46:03,359
Speaker 1: it at all. So if you bought one, you were

750
00:46:03,400 --> 00:46:06,319
Speaker 1: pretty much stuck with the initial specs that it came

751
00:46:06,320 --> 00:46:10,560
Speaker 1: out with. That same year, Steve Jobs made a big announcement,

752
00:46:10,600 --> 00:46:13,040
Speaker 1: so this is again two thousand five. He said that

753
00:46:13,120 --> 00:46:16,480
Speaker 1: future Max would move away from power pc chips that

754
00:46:16,520 --> 00:46:19,640
Speaker 1: had provided Mac processing power for the last decade or so,

755
00:46:20,000 --> 00:46:24,520
Speaker 1: and instead Apple would make a move to Intel. Intel

756
00:46:24,560 --> 00:46:29,200
Speaker 1: would supply the future CPUs to all Macintosh computers that

757
00:46:29,239 --> 00:46:33,400
Speaker 1: would be released after that point. Those first Mac Intel's

758
00:46:33,600 --> 00:46:37,319
Speaker 1: would not go on sale until the following year, and

759
00:46:37,360 --> 00:46:40,440
Speaker 1: that worried a lot of Mac users because not all

760
00:46:40,520 --> 00:46:47,480
Speaker 1: software is compatible with various uh microprocessor architecture. So if

761
00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:51,440
Speaker 1: you have operating system and software that was designed to

762
00:46:51,440 --> 00:46:54,720
Speaker 1: work on the power Pc platform, it might not work

763
00:46:54,760 --> 00:46:58,239
Speaker 1: on the Intel platform. And if those programs are important

764
00:46:58,280 --> 00:47:00,920
Speaker 1: to you and your business or or what you know,

765
00:47:00,960 --> 00:47:04,279
Speaker 1: whatever you're using your Mac for, then upgrading to a

766
00:47:04,280 --> 00:47:07,640
Speaker 1: new Macintosh could be harmful to you. So, for example,

767
00:47:07,680 --> 00:47:10,880
Speaker 1: here at how Stuff Works, we use very specific editing

768
00:47:10,920 --> 00:47:15,360
Speaker 1: suites for our video and audio stuff like this podcast

769
00:47:15,480 --> 00:47:19,520
Speaker 1: and video series. We use very specific types of software

770
00:47:19,520 --> 00:47:22,800
Speaker 1: for that on Macintosh computers. If we were to upgrade

771
00:47:22,880 --> 00:47:26,960
Speaker 1: to a new processor that could not run those old programs,

772
00:47:27,440 --> 00:47:30,120
Speaker 1: we would be kind of stuck. Now, Apple solution for

773
00:47:30,160 --> 00:47:35,400
Speaker 1: this was to release a power Pc emulator. It's called Rosetta,

774
00:47:35,960 --> 00:47:38,439
Speaker 1: named after the Rosetta stone, which of course was used

775
00:47:38,440 --> 00:47:41,960
Speaker 1: to help translate Hiero glyphics back in the day. So

776
00:47:42,000 --> 00:47:44,800
Speaker 1: the Rosetta was an emulator, which means it's a program

777
00:47:44,840 --> 00:47:49,280
Speaker 1: that simulates another type of technology, in this case another

778
00:47:49,440 --> 00:47:54,040
Speaker 1: type of microprocessor, the power PC style microprocessor, and this

779
00:47:54,120 --> 00:47:57,759
Speaker 1: would allow you to continue to use some of that

780
00:47:57,880 --> 00:48:02,440
Speaker 1: legacy software even on these in TELL powered machines. Also

781
00:48:02,480 --> 00:48:08,040
Speaker 1: in two thousand five, Apple introduced the Mighty Mouse. You

782
00:48:08,120 --> 00:48:12,040
Speaker 1: can't see this audio listeners, but I'm making a very

783
00:48:13,040 --> 00:48:16,320
Speaker 1: unimpressed face into the webcam I'm using for the Twitch

784
00:48:16,520 --> 00:48:19,400
Speaker 1: stream of this episode. Remember, you can always go to

785
00:48:19,440 --> 00:48:21,799
Speaker 1: twitch dot tv, slash techt stuff if you want to

786
00:48:21,840 --> 00:48:25,800
Speaker 1: watch an episode live as I recorded. Well, the Mighty

787
00:48:25,840 --> 00:48:28,359
Speaker 1: Mouse was a mouse that had more than just one

788
00:48:28,400 --> 00:48:32,400
Speaker 1: button capability. The Macintosh was famous for shipping with a

789
00:48:32,440 --> 00:48:34,640
Speaker 1: mouse that only had one button, and if you wanted

790
00:48:34,760 --> 00:48:37,920
Speaker 1: other types of functionality, you had to hold down a

791
00:48:38,040 --> 00:48:40,200
Speaker 1: key on the keyboard while pressing down on the button.

792
00:48:41,120 --> 00:48:44,680
Speaker 1: The Mighty Mouse actually had ability to use the left

793
00:48:44,760 --> 00:48:47,280
Speaker 1: side of the mouse or the right side of the mouse,

794
00:48:48,000 --> 00:48:51,880
Speaker 1: or you could squeeze both sides and create three different

795
00:48:52,040 --> 00:48:54,960
Speaker 1: types of controls with this mouse, or three different types

796
00:48:55,000 --> 00:48:57,960
Speaker 1: of commands with one mouse. So it still felt like

797
00:48:58,120 --> 00:49:00,800
Speaker 1: one button, but you could us the left side of

798
00:49:00,840 --> 00:49:02,800
Speaker 1: the button down, or press the right side of the

799
00:49:02,840 --> 00:49:05,040
Speaker 1: button down, or squeeze it, and that would allow you

800
00:49:05,040 --> 00:49:09,239
Speaker 1: to execute different commands in various programs. Why not just

801
00:49:09,360 --> 00:49:12,600
Speaker 1: make a mouse with extra buttons, with each button dedicated

802
00:49:12,640 --> 00:49:17,200
Speaker 1: to a specific function. Because Johnny I've who's a chief

803
00:49:17,239 --> 00:49:21,279
Speaker 1: designer over at Apple, and Steve Jobs hate buttons. I

804
00:49:21,360 --> 00:49:25,040
Speaker 1: guess they just don't like them. They like the ascetic

805
00:49:25,400 --> 00:49:30,040
Speaker 1: of a smooth, buttonless type of device, even if it

806
00:49:30,080 --> 00:49:34,439
Speaker 1: means that they are stressing form over functionality. Now, maybe

807
00:49:34,480 --> 00:49:38,600
Speaker 1: again that's my anti Mac bias, but I like functionality

808
00:49:38,640 --> 00:49:42,239
Speaker 1: over form. I want something to work first and then

809
00:49:42,400 --> 00:49:45,000
Speaker 1: look nice. I don't want it to look nice and

810
00:49:45,040 --> 00:49:49,160
Speaker 1: then just work. Okay, but that just shows the difference

811
00:49:49,440 --> 00:49:53,799
Speaker 1: of approach I take to technology than Apple takes. Now,

812
00:49:53,880 --> 00:49:58,440
Speaker 1: Apple would argue that they value both equal, that something

813
00:49:58,480 --> 00:50:02,120
Speaker 1: needs to look amazing and work perfectly. I would argue

814
00:50:02,120 --> 00:50:05,600
Speaker 1: the Mighty Mouse does not quite achieve that. That's my

815
00:50:05,640 --> 00:50:08,000
Speaker 1: own personal opinion as someone who had a Mighty Mouse

816
00:50:08,440 --> 00:50:13,640
Speaker 1: and a and iMac and I despise that mouse a lot.

817
00:50:14,560 --> 00:50:17,879
Speaker 1: But again, anti Mac bias, So don't pay too much

818
00:50:17,880 --> 00:50:22,720
Speaker 1: attention to me. The company also began to ship dual

819
00:50:22,840 --> 00:50:26,720
Speaker 1: core Power Max at this time, using dual core processors.

820
00:50:27,400 --> 00:50:29,520
Speaker 1: This is part of a new era in computing at

821
00:50:29,520 --> 00:50:31,640
Speaker 1: this point where we started to see these multi core

822
00:50:31,719 --> 00:50:35,080
Speaker 1: processors find their way into consumer computers. Now I'll likely

823
00:50:35,120 --> 00:50:38,480
Speaker 1: do a full episode about what multi core core processors

824
00:50:38,520 --> 00:50:40,839
Speaker 1: are and how they work and why it's important at

825
00:50:40,880 --> 00:50:43,040
Speaker 1: a later date. I've covered it a little bit in

826
00:50:43,120 --> 00:50:46,640
Speaker 1: previous tech Stuff podcasts, but just know that it would

827
00:50:46,680 --> 00:50:49,080
Speaker 1: take a full episode to really explain this. But it

828
00:50:49,200 --> 00:50:53,120
Speaker 1: was a big advance for Macintosh computers at the time. Now,

829
00:50:53,120 --> 00:50:55,960
Speaker 1: in two thousand six, the first Intel Max started to

830
00:50:56,040 --> 00:50:58,960
Speaker 1: hit store shelves, and the biggest drawback for Mac users

831
00:50:59,040 --> 00:51:03,760
Speaker 1: was that these machines wouldn't support any classic mac Os applications.

832
00:51:03,800 --> 00:51:05,880
Speaker 1: So if you had those legacy apps you depended on,

833
00:51:06,040 --> 00:51:09,480
Speaker 1: you couldn't run them on those machines. You had to

834
00:51:09,520 --> 00:51:11,319
Speaker 1: keep an older Mac around or you had to create

835
00:51:11,320 --> 00:51:14,400
Speaker 1: an emulator to run them. And that's the problem in

836
00:51:14,440 --> 00:51:17,520
Speaker 1: general with legacy systems is the hardware gets faster, sometimes

837
00:51:17,560 --> 00:51:20,840
Speaker 1: you lose support for older software, and that's still a

838
00:51:20,880 --> 00:51:23,840
Speaker 1: problem if you really depend on that older software to

839
00:51:24,400 --> 00:51:27,320
Speaker 1: do something. Like I said before, with audio and video production.

840
00:51:27,360 --> 00:51:29,080
Speaker 1: Here at how stuff works, that could be an issue.

841
00:51:29,880 --> 00:51:34,399
Speaker 1: Anyone who used garage Band with Macintosh computers knows that

842
00:51:34,440 --> 00:51:38,160
Speaker 1: the various evolutions of the garage band software and the

843
00:51:38,280 --> 00:51:41,680
Speaker 1: changes to the Mac operating system and Mac processors meant

844
00:51:41,719 --> 00:51:44,719
Speaker 1: that sometimes you would end up losing features that you

845
00:51:44,800 --> 00:51:48,360
Speaker 1: thought were absolutely important for you, and you had to

846
00:51:48,400 --> 00:51:51,440
Speaker 1: stick with older, obsolete machines just to get stuff done.

847
00:51:52,960 --> 00:51:56,839
Speaker 1: The company also introduced a new line in laptops. They

848
00:51:56,840 --> 00:52:00,000
Speaker 1: called this new line the MacBook Pro, which of course

849
00:52:00,040 --> 00:52:04,400
Speaker 1: you can still find today. These are higher end Mac laptops,

850
00:52:04,400 --> 00:52:07,320
Speaker 1: so these are meant for power users. They're more expensive,

851
00:52:07,360 --> 00:52:11,359
Speaker 1: they have more features there, they've got faster processors. Uh.

852
00:52:11,360 --> 00:52:15,000
Speaker 1: It's essentially, you know, they're your sports vehicle version of

853
00:52:15,040 --> 00:52:20,120
Speaker 1: the Macintosh laptops. People really hated this name when it

854
00:52:20,160 --> 00:52:24,080
Speaker 1: first came out. The MacBook Pro was replacing the old

855
00:52:24,200 --> 00:52:27,640
Speaker 1: power Book line, and people really liked power Book and

856
00:52:27,640 --> 00:52:31,800
Speaker 1: they hated the name MacBook. But today MacBook is standard,

857
00:52:31,800 --> 00:52:33,799
Speaker 1: and I think most people probably don't even remember the

858
00:52:33,800 --> 00:52:36,359
Speaker 1: old power Books, and they probably don't remember that they

859
00:52:36,400 --> 00:52:38,799
Speaker 1: put up a fuss when it went from power book

860
00:52:38,840 --> 00:52:43,640
Speaker 1: to MacBook. The moral of that story is people hate change,

861
00:52:44,239 --> 00:52:49,279
Speaker 1: whether it's good, bad, or indifferent. Now, nothing of real

862
00:52:49,320 --> 00:52:53,240
Speaker 1: significance happened in the Macintosh history in two thousand seven,

863
00:52:53,239 --> 00:52:56,839
Speaker 1: other than Apple making flat screen Imax and brushed aluminum

864
00:52:56,880 --> 00:53:00,480
Speaker 1: instead of white plastic. So let's skip ahead to two

865
00:53:00,520 --> 00:53:02,440
Speaker 1: thousand and eight. I'm not going to spend time on

866
00:53:02,440 --> 00:53:06,239
Speaker 1: a year where not really anything happened. Now, this was

867
00:53:06,280 --> 00:53:09,719
Speaker 1: the year that Steve Jobs introduced the MacBook Air, which

868
00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:12,719
Speaker 1: was a big deal in a small package. It was

869
00:53:12,800 --> 00:53:16,920
Speaker 1: the thinnest MacBook at that point, and at it was amazing.

870
00:53:16,960 --> 00:53:19,200
Speaker 1: It was three quarters of an inch thick, which is

871
00:53:19,280 --> 00:53:22,880
Speaker 1: incredibly thin for a laptop, especially one as powerful as

872
00:53:22,880 --> 00:53:25,960
Speaker 1: the MacBook Air, and it weighed in at three pounds.

873
00:53:26,280 --> 00:53:29,000
Speaker 1: It had no optical drive, so you couldn't insert any

874
00:53:29,080 --> 00:53:31,839
Speaker 1: kind of c D or DVD into it, but did

875
00:53:31,880 --> 00:53:35,120
Speaker 1: have a sweet aluminum body. And it had one port

876
00:53:35,440 --> 00:53:38,000
Speaker 1: on it, which was a single USB two point oh

877
00:53:38,200 --> 00:53:41,200
Speaker 1: connector port, and that was behind a little door. You

878
00:53:41,239 --> 00:53:44,120
Speaker 1: had to open the little door to access this port

879
00:53:44,680 --> 00:53:49,680
Speaker 1: because ports, I guess spoiled the computer's lines otherwise. Also,

880
00:53:50,680 --> 00:53:52,360
Speaker 1: if you want to add more ports, it would have

881
00:53:52,400 --> 00:53:55,839
Speaker 1: meant having to create a thicker version of the backbook Air,

882
00:53:55,960 --> 00:53:58,319
Speaker 1: which was not what Steve Jobs had in mind when

883
00:53:58,320 --> 00:54:01,600
Speaker 1: he actually, you know, when he launched this project to

884
00:54:01,719 --> 00:54:06,880
Speaker 1: create a super thin MacBook. So it ended up having

885
00:54:06,920 --> 00:54:10,000
Speaker 1: just one port. From that point forward, Max and their

886
00:54:10,080 --> 00:54:13,680
Speaker 1: various lines received regular updates and a refresh to their appearances.

887
00:54:14,320 --> 00:54:19,760
Speaker 1: But that was mostly it. Right the future MacBooks would

888
00:54:19,800 --> 00:54:24,480
Speaker 1: largely follow simple trends in that you'd get faster processors,

889
00:54:24,840 --> 00:54:30,759
Speaker 1: better graphics. Uh, ports would change eventually, you would get

890
00:54:31,239 --> 00:54:36,120
Speaker 1: better resolution on your displays as well. They'd get more expensive,

891
00:54:36,360 --> 00:54:39,080
Speaker 1: they'd get thinner, and they get lighter. But that's pretty

892
00:54:39,160 --> 00:54:44,160
Speaker 1: much the trend. There wasn't anything really revolutionary after this point,

893
00:54:44,200 --> 00:54:47,560
Speaker 1: nothing that jumped completely out of the line of what

894
00:54:47,600 --> 00:54:51,080
Speaker 1: you would come to expect from Apple. There were a

895
00:54:51,120 --> 00:54:54,359
Speaker 1: couple of exceptions, a couple of standouts. The MacBook Pro

896
00:54:54,440 --> 00:54:56,560
Speaker 1: in two thousand twelve came in a model with a

897
00:54:56,600 --> 00:55:00,400
Speaker 1: retina display that was the first MacBook Pro to actually

898
00:55:00,400 --> 00:55:03,319
Speaker 1: have a retina display that's similar to the display you

899
00:55:03,360 --> 00:55:07,719
Speaker 1: find in iPhones of that time. It's a very high definition,

900
00:55:08,040 --> 00:55:12,520
Speaker 1: high resolution display. And in two thousand thirteen, Apple introduced

901
00:55:12,520 --> 00:55:16,840
Speaker 1: a cylindrical case for a new Mac Pro, so you

902
00:55:16,880 --> 00:55:19,759
Speaker 1: suddenly had a tower that was a cylinder instead of

903
00:55:19,960 --> 00:55:24,080
Speaker 1: a rectangle style, which was what was common at the time.

904
00:55:24,480 --> 00:55:27,880
Speaker 1: And the cylinder was gorgeous. It looks like it belongs

905
00:55:27,920 --> 00:55:30,719
Speaker 1: in some sort of science fiction film. It's kind of

906
00:55:30,760 --> 00:55:35,839
Speaker 1: a high tech supercomputer sort of look to it. And

907
00:55:35,960 --> 00:55:38,640
Speaker 1: this MacPro was really meant to work as a server

908
00:55:38,920 --> 00:55:42,080
Speaker 1: or a workstation. It wasn't necessarily meant to be your

909
00:55:42,320 --> 00:55:45,680
Speaker 1: own personal computer. They were pretty darn expensive when they

910
00:55:45,719 --> 00:55:49,280
Speaker 1: came out, um, and it was a really unique aesthetic

911
00:55:49,360 --> 00:55:52,080
Speaker 1: something that stood out. However, I can tell you that

912
00:55:52,120 --> 00:55:54,000
Speaker 1: some of the video team here at How Stuff Works

913
00:55:54,000 --> 00:55:57,600
Speaker 1: have a few strong opinions about the performance of this

914
00:55:57,800 --> 00:56:01,080
Speaker 1: specific model of the Mac row and they are not

915
00:56:01,880 --> 00:56:05,960
Speaker 1: entirely positive. May just be our own experiences with them,

916
00:56:06,360 --> 00:56:11,480
Speaker 1: but something that they found somewhat frustrating is a good

917
00:56:11,520 --> 00:56:15,160
Speaker 1: words trying searching for a word that wouldn't be too harsh.

918
00:56:15,280 --> 00:56:18,600
Speaker 1: Frustrating is a good one. But this was another example

919
00:56:18,640 --> 00:56:21,600
Speaker 1: of Apple taking a dramatic departure from the general esthetics

920
00:56:21,680 --> 00:56:23,840
Speaker 1: that were prevalent in personal computers at the time, and

921
00:56:23,880 --> 00:56:27,200
Speaker 1: trying to make it their own. M One thing else

922
00:56:27,280 --> 00:56:32,840
Speaker 1: I need to mention before we conclude, really uh. Obviously,

923
00:56:33,400 --> 00:56:38,080
Speaker 1: a moment that really changed the direction of Apple overall

924
00:56:38,239 --> 00:56:42,720
Speaker 1: and the mac in particular was the death of Steve Jobs.

925
00:56:42,719 --> 00:56:45,520
Speaker 1: He passed away in two thousand eleven. We did an

926
00:56:45,600 --> 00:56:48,799
Speaker 1: episode called One More Thing all about Steve Jobs where

927
00:56:48,800 --> 00:56:52,839
Speaker 1: we talked about this, and this obviously had a monumental

928
00:56:52,880 --> 00:56:55,640
Speaker 1: impact on the company as a whole. He had already

929
00:56:55,640 --> 00:57:01,640
Speaker 1: stepped down as CEO earlier before his passing, but he

930
00:57:01,719 --> 00:57:05,400
Speaker 1: was still very much a presence at Apple up until

931
00:57:05,440 --> 00:57:08,200
Speaker 1: a couple of months before his death, and he had

932
00:57:08,239 --> 00:57:10,520
Speaker 1: handed the reins over to Tim Cook to become the

933
00:57:10,520 --> 00:57:14,239
Speaker 1: new CEO. But it had been Jobs, along with a

934
00:57:14,320 --> 00:57:18,479
Speaker 1: top tier level of designers like Johnny I've who had

935
00:57:18,560 --> 00:57:23,040
Speaker 1: really set the direction of Apple and the the aesthetic

936
00:57:23,080 --> 00:57:26,720
Speaker 1: direction for products like the Macintosh computer line and the

937
00:57:27,160 --> 00:57:31,280
Speaker 1: MAX that followed. It would be another couple of years

938
00:57:31,320 --> 00:57:34,600
Speaker 1: before Jobs is direct influence would no longer be a

939
00:57:34,640 --> 00:57:38,040
Speaker 1: major factor in MAX, and this is largely because the

940
00:57:38,080 --> 00:57:40,520
Speaker 1: products that launch on any given year have been in

941
00:57:40,560 --> 00:57:44,320
Speaker 1: development for a while behind the scenes. So while Steve

942
00:57:44,400 --> 00:57:46,560
Speaker 1: Jobs passed away in two thousand eleven. It would be

943
00:57:46,560 --> 00:57:49,600
Speaker 1: another year or two before his direct influence was no

944
00:57:49,680 --> 00:57:56,560
Speaker 1: longer a living component of the max that followed. But

945
00:57:56,680 --> 00:58:00,280
Speaker 1: this did mean that Apple started having to produce computers

946
00:58:00,400 --> 00:58:05,200
Speaker 1: without that guidance from Steve Jobs himself, and that uh

947
00:58:05,280 --> 00:58:09,440
Speaker 1: some people ended up pointing out as being a an issue.

948
00:58:09,520 --> 00:58:12,600
Speaker 1: Some people say that the changes to the Mac line

949
00:58:12,760 --> 00:58:19,120
Speaker 1: post Steve Jobs haven't been terribly inspirational or innovative. Others

950
00:58:19,120 --> 00:58:22,600
Speaker 1: have said that been more frustrating as Apple has continued

951
00:58:22,640 --> 00:58:25,440
Speaker 1: to change things up. Remember in two thousand and eight

952
00:58:25,520 --> 00:58:30,960
Speaker 1: they stopped making FireWire a standard on all Macintosh computers.

953
00:58:31,840 --> 00:58:35,880
Speaker 1: By a couple of years later they started moving toward well,

954
00:58:36,240 --> 00:58:38,720
Speaker 1: actually really this year they started moving in last year

955
00:58:38,760 --> 00:58:43,680
Speaker 1: they started moving towards USBC ports and abandoning things like

956
00:58:43,800 --> 00:58:50,160
Speaker 1: the thunderbolt connectors. So there have been changes. A lot

957
00:58:50,240 --> 00:58:53,400
Speaker 1: of them have been changes that some Apple users have

958
00:58:53,480 --> 00:58:56,880
Speaker 1: been very upset about because they feel like Apple is

959
00:58:56,920 --> 00:59:02,200
Speaker 1: ignoring consumer needs uh and as instead demanding that consumers

960
00:59:02,240 --> 00:59:05,920
Speaker 1: follow in the footsteps that they are forging, which is

961
00:59:05,960 --> 00:59:08,200
Speaker 1: mixing metaphors. But never mind it. But I would say

962
00:59:08,280 --> 00:59:12,040
Speaker 1: that that's been Apple's history all along Apple has made

963
00:59:12,760 --> 00:59:18,280
Speaker 1: very strong decisions to go in certain directions that require

964
00:59:18,480 --> 00:59:23,640
Speaker 1: users to follow suit or they get left behind. That's

965
00:59:23,680 --> 00:59:27,400
Speaker 1: the history of Apple. It might be frustrating, but it's

966
00:59:27,560 --> 00:59:30,280
Speaker 1: not out of character. It is something that has been

967
00:59:30,360 --> 00:59:33,800
Speaker 1: part of the company culture from the earliest days. I

968
00:59:33,800 --> 00:59:40,000
Speaker 1: would argue, now, ultimately you can start classifying Max by

969
00:59:40,000 --> 00:59:44,240
Speaker 1: their specs and they're disappearing ports. Uh. But again, it

970
00:59:44,280 --> 00:59:46,560
Speaker 1: would just turn into a laundry list at this point,

971
00:59:46,600 --> 00:59:48,680
Speaker 1: so we're really going to leave off here. I will

972
00:59:48,720 --> 00:59:54,960
Speaker 1: say that Macintosh computers continue to be really powerful machines.

973
00:59:55,640 --> 00:59:59,240
Speaker 1: They're really beautiful machines. The aesthetic design on them tends

974
00:59:59,280 --> 01:00:02,920
Speaker 1: to be top not much, and they're really expensive machines.

975
01:00:03,000 --> 01:00:05,880
Speaker 1: And you might argue whether or not the expense is justified,

976
01:00:06,000 --> 01:00:09,760
Speaker 1: but that's outside the scope of my own episode. And

977
01:00:09,840 --> 01:00:12,640
Speaker 1: this kind of brings us to a close on the

978
01:00:12,680 --> 01:00:16,880
Speaker 1: Macintosh saga, keeping in mind that will probably see more

979
01:00:16,960 --> 01:00:19,800
Speaker 1: changes to the line in the near future. Maybe we'll

980
01:00:19,840 --> 01:00:22,680
Speaker 1: even see some dramatic departures from what we've seen before,

981
01:00:22,720 --> 01:00:26,920
Speaker 1: maybe introduction of new models of Macintosh computers. But I

982
01:00:26,960 --> 01:00:30,040
Speaker 1: can't predict the future because I don't work for Apple

983
01:00:30,480 --> 01:00:33,240
Speaker 1: and they won't let me in the building. Now. What

984
01:00:33,280 --> 01:00:35,480
Speaker 1: I really hope to do in the future is look

985
01:00:35,520 --> 01:00:38,960
Speaker 1: at some other Apple products stuff for other episodes. I

986
01:00:38,960 --> 01:00:41,680
Speaker 1: would love to do a full episode on their Flying

987
01:00:41,800 --> 01:00:46,520
Speaker 1: Saucer headquarters building, which should be opening up really soon

988
01:00:47,080 --> 01:00:51,440
Speaker 1: and looks phenomenal from the photos I've seen. Apple. If

989
01:00:51,520 --> 01:00:54,120
Speaker 1: you want to invite me out to see your headquarters,

990
01:00:54,800 --> 01:00:57,480
Speaker 1: I would love to check it out because it looks

991
01:00:57,640 --> 01:01:01,520
Speaker 1: phenomenal and I wouldn't mind getting lost in the Flying

992
01:01:01,560 --> 01:01:04,520
Speaker 1: Saucer for a while, But I expect that invitation will

993
01:01:04,560 --> 01:01:07,240
Speaker 1: get lost in the mail. In the meantime, If you

994
01:01:07,280 --> 01:01:10,080
Speaker 1: guys have any suggestions for future episodes of tech Stuff,

995
01:01:10,360 --> 01:01:12,680
Speaker 1: why don't you send a message to me. You can

996
01:01:12,680 --> 01:01:16,000
Speaker 1: send me an email. The address for the show is

997
01:01:16,360 --> 01:01:20,680
Speaker 1: text Stuff at how stuff works dot com, or you

998
01:01:20,720 --> 01:01:23,240
Speaker 1: can drop me a line on Twitter or Facebook. The

999
01:01:23,280 --> 01:01:25,320
Speaker 1: handle for the show at both of those is text

1000
01:01:25,320 --> 01:01:28,479
Speaker 1: Stuff H s W. And let me know if there's

1001
01:01:28,480 --> 01:01:30,280
Speaker 1: a subject you want me to cover, or someone you

1002
01:01:30,320 --> 01:01:32,160
Speaker 1: want me to interview, or even a guest you want

1003
01:01:32,200 --> 01:01:34,680
Speaker 1: me to have on as sort of a guest host

1004
01:01:34,840 --> 01:01:38,360
Speaker 1: to talk with me, send me a note, and as always,

1005
01:01:38,400 --> 01:01:41,360
Speaker 1: you can go to twitch, dot tv, slash tech stuff

1006
01:01:41,360 --> 01:01:43,800
Speaker 1: to see me record these shows live. There is a

1007
01:01:43,840 --> 01:01:48,200
Speaker 1: schedule up on the websites, and sometimes I even stick

1008
01:01:48,280 --> 01:01:50,120
Speaker 1: to it. I got a little bit of a late

1009
01:01:50,160 --> 01:01:52,760
Speaker 1: start today, so big kudos for those of you watching

1010
01:01:52,800 --> 01:01:56,120
Speaker 1: live right now. And that's all for me. I'll talk

1011
01:01:56,160 --> 01:02:05,560
Speaker 1: to you again really soon. For more on this and

1012
01:02:05,600 --> 01:02:17,960
Speaker 1: thousands of other topics is at how stuff works dot com.

1013
01:02:12,640 --> 01:02:13,760
Speaker 1: Wh