WEBVTT - The Macintosh Story Part 1 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:07.240 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:14.080 stuff works dot Com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:17.840 I am your host, Jonathan Strickland, senior writer or how 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:22.000 stuff works dot Com, covering all things technology and how 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:25.960 they relate to us and how we relate to them, etcetera, etcetera. 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:27.880 And I've covered a lot of kind of dark and 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:31.319 gloomy topics over the last couple of months. I've tried 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:33.559 to change them up with some more fun stuff here 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:36.360 and there. But I really wanted to look at a 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:39.159 piece of technology that had been around for a while 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:42.400 that we are familiar with, but maybe you don't all 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:46.080 know the backstory too. And this time I thought I'd 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:50.479 look at the Macintosh computer. The Macintosh came out in 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:54.080 and we'll talk about its debut towards the end of 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:56.560 this podcast, because we're really looking at the early stages, 0:00:57.120 --> 0:01:00.680 what was happening back when they were first talking about 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:04.000 starting the Macintosh project over at Apple, and kind of 0:01:04.040 --> 0:01:07.720 explaining the thought process that went into the formation of 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:12.440 that computer. Uh, maybe in later episodes I'll continue to 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:16.000 trace the evolution of the Macintosh, but it's a pretty 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:19.160 interesting story. Just the beginning alone is an interesting story, 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:22.160 and you have to put yourself in the mindset of 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:26.240 the early nineties, really the late seventies and early eighties, 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:29.000 and what was going on at that time, and the 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:32.520 really the birth of the personal computer industry as a whole, 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:35.160 because it was brand new back in the late seventies 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:38.080 early eighties. Now, I know a lot of my listeners 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.640 are younger than I am. That's awesome. I'm glad you 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:44.480 guys enjoy the show. I will be talking a lot 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:47.440 about the seventies and eighties. I know it sounds like 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:49.880 ancient history to some of you, but that's when I 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:54.360 grew up, So just be nice. I'm old and my 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:57.760 feelings are easily hurt. All right, All that's all the way. 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:02.480 Let us dive into the world old of the Macintosh. 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:05.600 You know what I do for a living? Or as 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:09.200 my favorite character from cinema, Quint from Jaws, would say, 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:12.720 you all know me, you know what I do for 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:16.760 a living. I don't just talk about technology. I have 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:20.560 to backtrack fifteen years before the thing began, just to 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:22.840 tell you all the stuff that happened before the beginning thing. 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:25.840 So we're gonna talk about some history of Apple first 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:31.560 leading up into the launch of the Macintosh project. So 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:37.680 let's begin with the date of April one, ninety six, 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:43.760 April Fools Day, nineteen seventy six. That was when to 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:48.079 Steve's one known as Steve Jobs and the other known 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:53.120 as Steve Wozniak, decided in a garage to form a 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:56.480 very special relationship with one another to become partners in 0:02:56.520 --> 0:02:59.880 a brand new company that would be called Apple Computers. 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:04.200 That garage was in Coopertino, California, and that's where Apple 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:07.840 Computers was born on April first, nineteen seventy six. Now, 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:10.960 the actual story, of course, starts a little earlier than that. 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:14.600 Wozniak and Jobs originally met in nineteen seventy one through 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:18.720 a mutual friend named l Bill Fernandez, and the two 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:20.360 of them found that they shared a couple of really 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:25.960 big interests in common. They both loved technology, and they 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:31.560 both loved mischief. They really loved pulling pranks. Uh. Steve 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:34.680 Wozniak had come from a phone freaking background, and if 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:37.320 you want to know what phone freaking is, freaking is 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:40.640 spelled with a pH. I did a full episode about 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:42.920 phone freaking in the past, so you can search the 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:47.440 text off archives in short, it involves manipulating the phone system. 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:50.680 It's kind of like hacking, but for telephones. And it 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:53.680 was all about being able to make long distance calls 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:57.280 for free by fooling the phone system that you were 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:02.040 some sort of administrative tone. You know, you could actually 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:06.520 produce a sound a tone using a device. One of 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:09.480 the early ones was a whistle from Captain Crunch Cereal 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:13.640 and make long distance calls for free. Well, Steve Wozniak 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:15.200 was a guy who was interested in this. He was 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:17.279 interested in the way that the phone system worked, and 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:19.680 he also kind of liked the idea of pulling a 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:22.720 fast one on people. Uh. In fact, there's a great 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:25.600 story about jobs in Wozniak making a call to the 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:30.839 Vatican this way and they at least reportedly nearly got 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:33.680 the Pope on the phone, but he didn't pick up 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:36.400 because it turned out his fridge was running, so he 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:41.680 went out to catch it. Anyway, the two joined the 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:45.479 Homebrew Computer Club in the mid seventies. This was a 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:49.920 big club in California, primarily where people who were enthusiasts 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:53.960 of computers would get together start building kits from scratch, 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:59.080 trying to make their own computers. Wozniak took inspiration from 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:02.880 an early it called the Altear. So, yeah, this was 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:04.800 a computer that you would get all the parts for, 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:07.040 but you would have to put it together yourself. It 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:09.560 wasn't something you bought straight on the box, although there 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:11.480 were companies that would do that for you, where they 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:13.880 put it together and you would just buy the completed 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:19.120 all tear. That's not what Wozniak was interested in. Wassniac 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:23.120 decided he wanted to make his own computer. So he thought, well, 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:27.560 what if I made a typewriter interface, which was innovative, 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:29.920 no one had done that with a personal computer yet. 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:32.360 And what if instead of just a bunch of lights 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:36.440 that would indicate the results, I created a display, or 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:40.000 I allowed this computer to connect to a display and 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:43.040 show things on a monitor. And so he used a 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:45.640 television set, just an old TV set that he could 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:50.960 wire to his computer, and thus the Apple one was born. 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:54.880 It was a brand new idea. The Apple one computer 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:59.719 was a far cry from the personal computers that would follow. 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:04.240 It was really a hobbyist computer. Uh. Steve Jobs was 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:07.000 able to go to a retailer and convince the retailer, 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:09.160 why don't you put in an order for these Apple 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:11.840 one computers because they're gonna be a hot ticket item. 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:14.400 People are really interested in computers, and now they can 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:17.400 finally get their hands on one. Steve Jobs is a 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:19.280 great salesman, or was a great salesman, and he was 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:21.599 able to convince the retailer to put in an order, 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:23.919 which was the only way they could actually afford to 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:27.279 build the Apple computer. So they couldn't they couldn't deliver 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:30.320 upon the order until they had managed to secure the order, 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:32.479 and then once they did, they started building these things. 0:06:32.760 --> 0:06:34.800 But even then they had to cut some corners, so 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:37.200 the original Apple one didn't have a case. It was 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:41.240 all just naked hardware and you had to build your 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:43.680 own case for it, or just have all these different 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:46.880 pieces wired together, but without any sort of protective covering 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:50.240 around it. Still, it was enough to get people's interests 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:53.559 and it was enough to finance Apple computers in those 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:58.760 early days. They decided, immediately after they made about two 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:01.320 hundred of these, they were only two of the Apple 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:04.600 one computers ever in existence, that they were gonna go 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:06.679 onto the next step, which was to build a more 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:12.040 fully functional, self contained personal computer, and they decided to 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:15.880 incorporate the company on in January and nineteen seventy seven. 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:19.240 Now in April n seven, they were able to debut 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:24.880 the Apple two computer. This one had originally tape based storage. 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:28.360 So you know cassette tapes. Maybe some of you know 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:31.560 what cassette tapes are. Well, we also use those to 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:35.000 store computer data back in the day. But that's what 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:38.320 the original Apple two computer used as its storage system 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:43.240 was cassette tapes. Those are not ideal because obviously the 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:46.040 tape is stored on reels, so if you're trying to 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:48.640 find a specific piece of information, you have to scan 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:51.200 through the reel till you get to it. Uh, and 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:54.440 this just takes up time. Eventually they would switch over 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:57.160 to five and a quarter inch disk drives, and if 0:07:57.200 --> 0:07:58.600 you don't know what a five and a quarter inch 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:03.400 disc is, you really miss doubt the big black, flimsy disks. 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:06.080 And if you told people they were floppy disks and 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:08.280 they weren't familiar with the concept, there was a good 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:09.920 chance they would fold it in half and put it 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:12.360 in their pocket and thus ruin the disc For all time. 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:15.000 It was still a form of magnetic storage. It was 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:18.000 just in a disc form rather than a tape form. 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:20.400 Once they were able to do that, they were able 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:24.680 to speed things up considerably. The most advanced version of 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:27.320 the Apple two when it was first coming out, had 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:33.720 a stunning amount of memory, sixty four whole kilobytes of memory. 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:36.200 That seems like nothing now, and I guess you could 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:39.760 argue it is nothing now, but at the time it was, 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:44.000 it was really innovative. The monitor resolution was also kind 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:46.120 of funny. When you look at today's monitors, you know, 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:48.560 you look at the ultra high definition displays that we 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:52.120 have today, four K displays, you look at the retina displays, 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:56.600 They're amazing. That's not how things started. The original Apple 0:08:56.720 --> 0:09:03.960 To monitor had a resolution of two picks sles by pixels. Yeah, 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:07.040 the original monitor had so few pixels you could, if 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:13.080 you were determined, count them all. That's pretty amazing now. 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:15.800 If it weren't for the fact that someone actually made 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:20.160 some useful productivity software, the Apple Too probably never would 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:24.360 have gone anywhere. It was a good idea, but you 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:26.880 had to have a killer app to convince people, hey, 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:29.360 this is something worth buying. And the first real killer 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:33.920 app for the Apple Too was one called VisiCalc VISCUC 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:38.000 was essentially a spreadsheet program It was an application that 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.880 was like something you would see an Excel or Lotus 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:44.000 one to three. Uh. It was new. It was a 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:46.200 brand new idea. I mean, people just didn't have access 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:48.800 to that. They had to do all their factoring on 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:52.920 paper and then they would transfer that over into whatever 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:56.280 format they needed. This would allow them to do that virtually. 0:09:56.720 --> 0:10:00.160 You could create your cells, you could create your formula is, 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:04.960 and so this was a huge demonstration of how powerful 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:08.720 and useful personal computers could be. It seems pretty silly 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:11.040 now to think about it, but at the time this 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:14.040 was truly new. So it was the thing that helped 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:17.920 really convince people that the Apple two computer was the 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:20.440 way to go. It was an advantage over some of 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:22.800 the other personal computers that were starting to debut around 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:25.880 that time, things like the Commodore sixty four, the Texas 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:29.240 Instruments computers. Now I can talk a lot about the 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:34.480 Apple Too a lot. My dad owned an Apple Too. Technically, 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:37.480 it was an Apple to E. He purchased it. He 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:42.240 wrote a book on typewriters, sold the book, use the 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:44.360 money from that book to buy the Apple to E, 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:47.480 and then use that to write other books. So my 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:50.319 dad's an author. If you did not know. He writes 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:54.640 all sorts of books, science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, children's literature. 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:57.600 If you want to check out his stuff, his name 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:01.360 is Brad Strickland. But yeah, those early books he wrote 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:03.439 he wrote on an Apple to e, which meant he 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:06.880 stored them all on floppy disks. He could store about 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:12.040 a chapter per floppy discs, so each book would be fifteen, sixteen, 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:15.800 maybe even twenty floppy disks in size. We had entire 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:19.280 sleeves of these floppy discs that represented the books that 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:22.679 my dad had written. In fact, I had dinner with 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:25.600 him very recently and he tells me he still has 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:28.040 all of those. We don't have a computer that can 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:29.959 read them because we don't have an Apple to e 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:34.040 disc drive and emulator to read off of these things. 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:36.920 But he still has the discs now. I use the 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:38.719 Apple to E mostly to play games because I have 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:42.480 my priority straight. I played a lot of Ultima on 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:46.080 the Apple to E. Love my Ultimate series. I thought 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:48.400 it was awesome. Now. While the Apple Too and its 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:51.679 variants began to earn some serious cash for Apple, they 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:56.280 were very successful comparatively speaking, the founders were already looking 0:11:56.320 --> 0:12:00.800 at what comes next. It wasn't just about let rest 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:03.760 on our laurels. Now that we've made a personal computer, 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:06.559 we've made it a success. We've managed to make a 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:12.440 mark on this brand new, fledgling industry. So the logical 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:15.720 successor for the Apple Too would be the Apple three, 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:18.800 And in fact, that's what the company began to develop. 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:21.400 People began to work on the successor, and they began 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:24.280 to work on the Apple three computer. Uh it would 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:28.280 eventually debut. It was faster, more capable than the Apple Too, 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:31.560 and it was meant to be primarily a business machine, 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:35.320 not a personal computer. And it had built in five 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:38.280 and a quarter inch disk drives as opposed to the 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:40.960 external disk drives that you would have to connect to 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:45.640 your Apple to computer back in those days. And it 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:48.760 had an integrated high resolution graphics chip. But it didn't 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:51.880 sell very well. If you are thinking I've never really 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:53.959 heard of the Apple three, I've heard of the Apple Too. 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:56.160 The reason for that is it just was a failure 0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:59.480 at the market. It wasn't a total flop, but they 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:03.400 didn't sell nearly as well as Apple was hoping. The 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:07.160 reasons for that, well, there are quite a few. Bye 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:10.960 IBM had entered the personal computer picture. So you had 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:15.280 a saturated market. Not only did you have the Apple machines, Commodore, 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:19.040 you had Texas instrument, you had other devices that were 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:21.600 starting to come out to IBM got into the game, 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:26.680 and IBM had a huge name in business technology, so 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:31.840 IBM was able to leverage that and move forward creating 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:35.080 these business machines and dominating that market. This was the 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:41.160 beginning of the IBM and IBM compatible era of personal computing. 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:44.800 So Apple three just couldn't really keep up. It was 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:49.360 a more expensive machine and it was not as well 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:52.000 supported as the Apple two was. In other words, there 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:55.520 weren't as many people developing software for the Apple three 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:58.360 as they had been for the Apple too. And meanwhile 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:02.760 IBM was catching up a lot of ground. So even 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:05.720 though you had the Apple three team and Apple, some 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:08.960 of the other folks there were already thinking about the 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:12.400 step beyond, where do we go beyond just creating the 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:16.040 next version of this particular personal computer. What can we 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:19.120 do to really innovate and push what personal computing is 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:23.760 all about. So one of those people who was really 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:26.440 concerned with this was Steve Jobs. He really wanted to 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:30.680 look at a way of branching out from this traditional approach. 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:34.480 So while there was a team working on the Apple three, 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:39.080 Steve Jobs began to look at another project that got 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:44.120 started around nine. Now this was not the Macintosh. Instead, 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:49.040 it was called Lisa. Lisa was a different project that 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:51.760 was taking form at the same time as the Macintosh 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:59.080 project within Apple. Lisa was a different a different kind 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:01.920 of computer mob All Jobs really wanted to take a direct, 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:05.240 dramatic step away from the early PC. Those early PCs 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:08.480 were all text based. That meant that you would get 0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:10.720 a command prompt and you would have to type in 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:13.360 a command and a file extension or a file and 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.360 its extension in order to have something happen. You had 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:21.240 to navigate directories through actual text commands and you would 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:23.760 get a text result, So you have to read through 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:27.960 everything there. There was no graphic representation of what you 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:30.720 were working on. It was all text based and it 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:35.240 was such a wonderful time, my friends. I loved this 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:38.440 time because I actually learned all the different commands and 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:42.000 I can very speedily get through any system because I 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:46.160 understood how they worked, and uh, it didn't require any 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:49.800 overlay on top of the basic system which would slow 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:54.160 things down. But then I'm a computer geek. Even though 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:56.760 I'm an English literature geek, I'm also a computer geek. 0:15:56.880 --> 0:15:59.320 And a lot of people are not computer geeks. And 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:02.760 in fact, there were a lot of technology enthusiasts who 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:06.240 were worried that if we stayed in that realm of 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:13.680 text based architecture, it would keep people from adopting computers. 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:17.440 The mainstream would never latch onto it because it was 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:23.520 too hard to use. So Jobs thought perhaps they could 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:27.600 create a better system for consumers, and he wanted to 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:31.480 move towards a graphic user interface or a gooey. Now, 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:34.560 he was not the first person to think about the 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:38.680 gooey that. Really one of the earliest would be Douglas Inglebart. 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:41.720 Douglas Inglebart had been working on early versions of a 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:45.440 graphic user interface since the nineteen sixties, and we're almost 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:49.000 at nineteen eighty at this point of the story. We're 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:51.920 beyond night as of right now. Just in case I 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:56.240 confused you at that moment, Inglebart also designed a mouse 0:16:56.680 --> 0:17:00.520 as a navigational tool to help with graphic user interfaces. 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:03.520 So before that you would just use a keyboard or 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:08.359 a data pad, something along those lines. Angle Bart said, well, 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:11.480 if we can represent information as graphics and we can 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:15.639 create an interface that allows you to drag and click 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:19.000 and point and select things, that would make it a 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:24.160 much more intuitive interface and allow people to understand more 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:28.840 easily how to navigate through the computer angle. Bart would 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:33.679 then take on this information and bring it forward. He 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:36.840 had started his work at s r I International, but 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:41.720 then continued his work at a research and development place 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:45.960 called Xerox Park Park as p A r C. So 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:49.440 there's a research and development brand of of Zerox. There's 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:52.800 branch of Xerox, I should say, and Xerox Park. A 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:55.399 lot of very innovative stuff came out of there, and 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:57.639 I think I've done a couple of episodes that at 0:17:57.680 --> 0:17:59.879 least relate to Xerox Park, but maybe I need to 0:17:59.880 --> 0:18:03.560 do a full one about what the organization was and 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:06.120 the things that came out of Xerox Park because it's 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:10.040 pretty fascinating. Well, Steve Jobs said he knew about Xerox 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:13.080 Park and he wanted to learn more about the stuff 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:16.040 that they were developing, so he asked Xerox, hey can 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:18.080 we come and take a look, and some folks from 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:21.720 Apple come over and check out what's happening. At Xerox Park. 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:25.280 I realized that this is all mostly proprietary, hush hush 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:27.000 stuff that you don't want to get out there. But 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:31.359 come on, we're buddies, right, And Xerox said, essentially, show 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:35.000 me the money. So here's what happened. They struck a deal. 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:38.160 Apple said, tell you what we'll do. We will sell 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:42.800 you up to one thousand shares of Apple stock at 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:46.040 ten dollars a share, which was a huge discount at 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:48.920 what Apple stock was trading for at the time. So 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:52.000 I said, if you, if you want, you can buy 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:54.439 up to a hundred thousand dollars at ten bucks to share. 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:57.879 In return, all we want is three days time at 0:18:57.960 --> 0:19:03.600 Xerox park. And zero said, you're on MR and this 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:07.560 was the deal of the century, and let me explain 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:11.320 to you why. So let's make a couple of assumptions here. 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:15.200 Let's assume that Xerox opted to buy all one hundred 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:18.320 thousand dollars one hundred thousand rather of those shares at 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:21.120 ten bucks to share. And let's also assume that Xerox 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:24.640 has held onto all one hundred thousand of those shares 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:33.360 since then. Since nine Uh, that's impressive. First of all, 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:35.440 a hundred thousand shares at ten bucks a share, that's 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:37.560 a million bucks. That's not a small amount of money. 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:42.520 That's a good chunk of change, but it's peanuts compared 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:45.520 to what it's worth now. So you might have heard. 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:48.880 Apple's done pretty well for itself over the years, so 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:53.760 well that the company has split its stock four times 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:57.040 since it's first started becoming a publicly traded company. Now, 0:19:57.080 --> 0:20:00.760 that means that they would uh ex span the number 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:02.879 of shares that they had out in the market, and 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:06.160 that increases the value of the company as a result, 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:09.679 And it means that if you own shares after the split, 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:13.040 you own more shares. How much more depends upon the 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:18.280 nature of the split. So in in two thousand and 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:21.560 in two thousand five, Apple split with a two for 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:26.080 one share split stock split, which meant that you would 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:29.160 get two shares for every instead of just one share. 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:32.080 So if you owned one share of Apple stock after 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:34.119 one of those splits, you would own two shares, and 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:35.880 then after the next split you own four, and after 0:20:35.920 --> 0:20:38.200 the next split you own eight. It's a great way 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:43.919 to keep seeing value from your shares. Well. The fourth 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:46.359 time that they split was in two thousand fourteen and 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:49.040 that was a real doozy. That was a seven till 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:52.520 one split, so for every share you owned, you would 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:58.360 get seven shares, an enormous return. So one thousand, let's 0:20:58.400 --> 0:21:00.199 go back to zeros here one d thou and that 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:02.959 they get nineteen nine at doubles to two hundred thousand, 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:06.399 Then it doubles to four hundred thousand to eight hundred thousand. 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:08.960 Then you get the seven to one split, which means 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:13.000 that you get up to five million, six hundred thousand 0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:19.240 shares of Apple's stock. So for one hundred thousand, they 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:21.720 now have five million, six hundred thousand, assuming that they 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:24.560 bought all one hundred thousand and that they held onto 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:28.240 it for that long. If in fact Xerox still has 0:21:28.280 --> 0:21:31.240 those one hundred thousand shares that they bought for ten 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:33.600 bucks a share back in the day, they are sitting 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:38.120 pretty because today, assuming that the price hasn't changed dramatically, 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:41.320 I checked it before, why did anything else? This morning? 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:44.640 I looked at Apple's trading price. Stocks were trading at 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:48.280 one hundred forty six dollars fifty three cents per share, 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:51.840 So the share price is more than ten times what 0:21:52.000 --> 0:21:54.920 it was when Xerox bought it. And because of the splits, 0:21:55.600 --> 0:21:59.280 they now own five point six million stocks, not a 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:02.680 hundred thousand stocks. So you multiply those two numbers together, 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:05.000 the five point six million and a hundred forty six 0:22:05.040 --> 0:22:08.880 point fifty three dollars, and you factor in how much 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:13.840 it's actually worth today. That one million dollar investment would 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:17.439 now be worth eight hundred twenty million, five hundred sixty 0:22:17.480 --> 0:22:23.119 eight thousand dollars. So a million dollar investment returns almost 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:27.200 a billion dollars today. Again, that's assuming all of those 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:32.000 other factors fall into place for a three day tour. 0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:38.040 A three day tour, we'll find out if Dylan keeps 0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:43.080 that or cuts it, but the life people understand anyway. 0:22:43.520 --> 0:22:47.200 You could argue also that without this visit to Xerox, 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:52.159 jobs and Apple would have been way behind on innovation. 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:56.560 They would not have allowed Apple to transform into a 0:22:56.600 --> 0:23:00.560 company that would eventually grow to be worth as much 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:04.880 as it was as it is today. So you could say, yeah, 0:23:05.000 --> 0:23:08.800 Xerox made a huge return on its investment, assuming all 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:13.000 those other factors are true. But Apple really benefited from 0:23:13.040 --> 0:23:15.080 this too. It wasn't like it's a one sided thing. 0:23:16.720 --> 0:23:21.320 So Apple was able to redefine again what a personal 0:23:21.359 --> 0:23:25.800 computer is all about because of the stuff they learned 0:23:26.040 --> 0:23:30.639 from this visit. This was a machine that they saw. 0:23:31.040 --> 0:23:33.640 The Xerox Alto was a machine they saw on this visit. 0:23:33.680 --> 0:23:37.720 This was a machine that incorporated Inglebart's ideas about the graphics, 0:23:37.840 --> 0:23:41.640 user interface, and the computer mouse. It was a system 0:23:41.680 --> 0:23:44.720 that wasn't available for purchase. You could not buy one 0:23:44.720 --> 0:23:46.960 of these as just a member of the general public. 0:23:47.000 --> 0:23:48.639