In 1979, the Apple II Plus was a badass piece of hardware, and the Apple Graphics Tablet was a flashy accessory. At $650US, it let users sketch with a wired stylus. Measuring 3/4 in x 15 1/2 in x 15 3/4 in, the Graphics Tablet was eventually discontinued when the FCC discovered that it caused radio frequency interference problems.

Sure, the wired stylus is a kludge, as is the general design (don't look at the back), but remember that 1979 was 5 years before the first Macintosh was released and computer mice became ubiquitous.

Edible Apple has some additional photos and an old ad promoting the tablet and Utopia software. Go and check out an interesting piece of Apple history -- complete with vintage scotch tape!

Here's a great video assembled by applemctom that presents the history of Apple (more or less) in two minutes. There are some huge leaps in time and some obvious errors (Apple Mac II? MacIntosh?), but that's OK. It isn't easy to cram decades of history into 120 seconds.

There's much nostalgia for old-timers like me, as the Pippin and Newton make an appearance. Though I still use my Newt, I've never had the pleasure of a face-to-face meeting with a Pippin. The dark days described in the video (the early 90's after Steve left) is exactly when I started using Macs in earnest. It's amazing that I stayed a customer after bloodying my hands on a 7100's beastly innards.

The video ends with the introduction of the iPhone, so don't expect to see anything beyond that. Still, it's a bit of fun. Check it out.

A few months ago, we provided details of an auction that featured a Mac that had been given to Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry by Apple. If you missed your chance to pick up that prime item, now you have an opportunity to own an Apple that is even more rare: an Apple-1 (also known as the Apple I) that's currently on auction on eBay.

The starting bid for the Apple-1 is US$50,000. What do you get with your winning bid? A non-working Apple 1 motherboard, the original shipping box (with the return address being the home of Steve Jobs' parents), and the original manual, complete with schematics on how to take the motherboard and build a workable computer out of it.

There's also a tape interface card, used to load or save software from cassette tapes. The card comes with a manual and a cassette with a typed label that says "BASIC" on it.

If you're a fan of Steve Jobs, you'll want two of the items that are included. The first is a letter signed by Steve Jobs that explains how to connect a keyboard and monitor to the computer, and telling the buyer (someone who wanted to be a dealer) when dealer applications would be available. The second is a hand-typed invoice for the computer, showing "Steven" as the salesman for the machine.

The original full-page advertisement for Apple was included with each Apple-1. This features the original Apple "Isaac Newton" logo that was designed by the third founder of Apple, Ronald Wayne. Wayne also wrote the Apple-1 manual. Finally, you'll get a photograph of every other owner of this computer. The existing owner has a picture of himself, the computer, and Steve Wozniak that he's including.

If you're the successful bidder, you are asked to travel to Roseville, California to pick it up due to the irreplaceable nature of the Apple-1. A gallery of the photos included in the auction can be viewed below. And remember, this could be the perfect holiday gift for that special someone...

Our friends at Cult of Mac commented on the possibility, floated on CNBC, that Apple will eventually overthrow Microsoft as the most valuable company in the technological world. If you think about it, Apple's stock was worth an unstable $25 dollars a share at this time 10 years ago -- today, it's worth $202 a share and shows no signs of decline. CNBC reports that Microsoft isn't really growing, but Apple continues to gain value and market share every day. From that, you could logically deduce that Apple will surpass Microsoft... but there are still a few points to make.

Apple has a long way to go before they're really ahead of Microsoft by most metrics. I suppose it's possible that the company's worth could surpass Microsoft within the 2 years that CNBC predicts, but as far as actual market share... I hope not. Here's why:

If Apple grows that quickly, we're going to see the effects of gravity bring them back down a bit. That kind of growth would be great for the brand but not necessarily the customer. We're already seeing record highs at the Genius Bars and not enough experienced staff to handle the demand. Calling AppleCare is usually a chore, not a pleasure.

Then again, any tech support call isn't fun, but long wait times make it even more frustrating. Using the example of Microsoft, getting too big too fast degrades your ability to offer quality service. It doesn't mean that their products are horrible, it means that you have to bring in more people to fill the gap -- people who aren't necessarily the most qualified to help. Will this sort of thing happen with Apple? I hope not. If their growth continues at its current rate, they better have a very good plan to avoid the Microsoft effect.

In my opinion, Apple does well as the underdog: they constantly have to adapt to the changing markets and make themselves more appealing than the competitor. If you look at Apple's top-dog aspects (iPod and iPhone), we begin to see things that aren't so awesome: the lack of a subscription service, the restrictive iPhone platform, not to mention the App Store approval process. In some ways, they get to the top of the mountain and then stop trying. Apple doesn't figure out where to go after they reach the summit, they simply find a different mountain and start climbing. They spent a couple years with the iPod, then a couple years with the iPhone... now we're gonna be seeing a couple years of the iTablet (or iSlate or iPad, you get the point).

If I'm not mistaken, it's really been a while since they've done anything innovative with the computer. Sure, the iTablet could bring innovation, but that's another mountain -- as were the iPod and iPhone. I'd love to see the company get back to the personal computer and do something that would change how we look at Apple. When I mention Apple at the moment, I hear the response, "Oh, they make the iPhone, right?" 4 years ago, that was the iPod. Soon enough, it will be a new piece of sexy hardware that Jonathan Ive designed.

Maybe two mountains will collide with the iTablet. Maybe it will really be the computer innovation that we've been missing. Maybe it will put Apple ahead of Microsoft in value, but let's hope that the Apple brand continues its reputation for great products, service and innovation.

Folklore.org is a tremendous repository of Apple history and lore. Check it out if you haven't; you'll find some entertaining and incredible stories.

I'm reminded of Folklore whenever a story emerges describing Apple from behind the scenes, like this interview with id Software's co-founder John Carmack. Speaking with Kotaku, John describes the ups and downs of working with Apple:

"I'll be invited up on stage for a keynote one month and then I'll say something they don't like and I can be blacklisted for six months."

We suspect such a public revelation won't get you back on stage anytime soon, John. Or maybe not, as he's now got "a man on the inside." Former id coworker Graeme Devine now works at Apple's iPhone Game Technologies division. However, the most interesting part of this interview confirms, in a small way, what I've always suspected: Apple begrudgingly promotes the iPod touch and iPhone as gaming platforms.

"At the highest level of Apple, in their heart of hearts," Carmack said, "they're not proud of the iPhone being a game machine, they wish it was something else." I have no way of backing this up, but I've long suspected that Steve Jobs in particular has no interest in the world of gaming. They're certainly pushing the iPod touch as a gaming device, but I'm sure it's through tightly-clenched teeth.

Jesus Diaz over at Gizmodo had a fascinating exposé in a post late last week that provided a look into some of the thinking of Steve Jobs back in 1997. As Diaz relates, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and his friend Steve Jobs were on a beach in Hawaii in '97 when Ellison, under the influence of a few margaritas, floated the idea of buying Apple to bring Jobs back into power at the company he had co-founded with Steve Wozniak.

Jobs declined, although Ellison had funding all lined up to allow The Steve to make a hostile takeover of the company. He told Ellison that a takeover would make people think he was greedy, just wanting to make money out of Apple. Ellison later stated that "He (Jobs) explained to me that with the moral high ground, he thought he could make decisions more easily and more gracefully."

Diaz went on to conjecture that it was more than decision-making that went into Steve's refusal to push his way back into power; it was love. As Diaz notes,

"Steve wanted to be wanted. He knew he was loved by the public and the press. After all, everyone likes the story of a legend coming back-to see him succeed or, better yet for Hollywood drama, fail. More importantly, the company was his company. He didn't have to buy it! That was absolutely preposterous, he probably thought at the time. He knew he was going to return as King once again, acclaimed by his troops and his people, so why spend any money?"

Since his return to Apple, Steve Jobs has, of course, brought the company from the brink of extinction into profitability and recognition. Whether or not he would have been equally successful as a result of a hostile takeover is a great plot for an alternative universe sci-fi novel, but it adds a lot to the legend of Steve Jobs to know that he was able to regain control of the company through a combination of connections, persuasion, and his love for his company.

The rest is history. As Ellison stated in an interview in Fortune, "The difference between me and Steve is that I'm willing to live with the best the world can provide-with Steve that's not always good enough." That difference explains why Apple continues to amaze us with their products, why Steve Jobs is so important to the company, and why Jobs was the hands-down choice for Fortune's CEO of the Decade.

[via Digg]

As Dave Caolo told TUAW readers a few days ago, Fortune named Apple CEO Steve Jobs "CEO of the Decade" for his phenomenal leadership at Apple and how he has remade four industries (music, movies, mobile telephones, and computing) in the past ten years.

Part of the Fortune article was a collection of rarely seen photographs of Steve Jobs. From the early days with Steve Wozniak, to his recent battles with pancreatic cancer, the photos chronicle the life of the iconic CEO.

Two of my personal favorites in the gallery are a photo taken in 1982 of Jobs and the Mac team having a working lunch as they hammer out the design of the first-generation Mac, and another of a barefoot Jobs meeting with Bill Gates at the Jobs home in Palo Alto to talk about the future of computing for Fortune.

The entire set of posts, along with the photos and video, are a fascinating look into the many successes and few failures of the engimatic Mr. Jobs. If you have a chance, take a look at it this weekend.

This is a cool interview over at Cult of Mac -- you've heard of Steve Jobs of course, you know who Jonathan Ive is, you might have heard of Rob Janoff, but do you know Ken Segall's name? He's a former creative director from TBWA\Chiat\Day, and he has two claims to Apple fame: he worked on the "Think Different" campaign, and he's responsible for coming up with the one letter that may have defined the modern-day Apple as we know it. That's right, he named the iMac.

The writeup is fascinating, even if you get the sense that we're looking through the lens of history, and things may not happened quite as stylishly as they seem. Jobs apparently showed the Bondi Blue iMac to the ad team, and while he originally "hated" the name, he obviously came around -- though Segall apparently never got the satisfaction of official approval.

He closes with an interesting sentiment about the company, too: at Apple, it's always about moving forward to the next big thing, and everything is product-centered, not number-driven. Segall says he was around for a few Jobs "flare-ups," but if there was a fit thrown, it was always in trying to keep the company moving forward as quickly as possible.

Interesting stuff. It's quite a legacy, too -- the iMac was originally called so because it was a Mac that connected to the Internet, but obviously since then, the i has become symbolic of many other things, all the way up to iLife, the iPod, and the iPhone. You tend to forget, after all of the millions of dollars and the culture and promotion, that it all came from the head of a guy in a conference room looking at a computer Jobs just pulled the cloth off of.

I'm beginning to think that some other writers on the Mac beat are reading my mind.

About two weeks ago, one of my consulting clients was asking if there was any way that she'd be able to upgrade to Snow Leopard and still be able to run two legacy applications in Classic, one of which was HyperCard. Being the forward-looking guy I am, I suggested that we just move the data from her old HyperCard stack over to Bento (simple), and then see if we could find a replacement for the other application into which her employees could re-enter the old data.

Yesterday I was looking at posts over on the venerable Mac website TidBITS, and blogger/author Matt Neuburg had written a post about SheepShaver. This oddly-named application is a PowerPC Mac emulator, one of several that are available for both Mac and Windows. Neuburg does a good job of explaining the process of getting a ROM image, then using a Mac OS 9 installer CD to get SheepShaver up and running.

Matt pointed out a website, E-Maculation, that is dedicated to Mac emulators and how to get them up and running. While my client loved the solution I was able to provide to her, running Classic under Snow Leopard might be a better (and more fun!) solution for other Mac users. If you're up to the challenge and fun of setting up SheepShaver on a Snow Leopard Mac, be sure to take a look at both Matt's post and the E-Maculation website.

In the meantime, I'm going to go put my aluminum foil hat to make sure that Matt stops reading my mind.

[via TidBITS]

Out with the old, in with the new. This week's hardware releases were met with new additions to Apple's vintage and obsolete hardware lists. The following have been added, and I'm sad to say that I'm still using the Dual Ethernet Airport Base Station:

• iBook G4 (Early 2004)
• iBook G4 (14" Early 2004)
• eMac (USB 2.0)
• Apple Cinema Display ADC
• Apple Studio Display 15" ADC
• Apple Studio Display 17" LCD
• Apple Studio Display 17" ADC
• Power Mac G4 (QuickSilver 2002)
• Macintosh Server G4 (QuickSilver 2002)
• PowerBook G4 (DVI)
• iBook (14.1 LCD 16 VRAM)
• iBook (16 VRAM)
• AirPort Base Station (Dual Ethernet)

I've also got a 20" G4 iMac and my wife uses at 14" iBook, both of which were previously added to the list. Supported or not, they're still useful -- check out this Macintosh Classic being used as a window display.

Back in 1994 my employer had several SE/30's connected via LocalTalk, and we thought that was the baddest thing on the planet. Not to mention late-night games of Maelstrom and Glider Pro. Oh, memories.

[Via HardMac]

One of my favorite podcasts is Stuff You Should Know [iTunes link]. Hosts Josh and Chuck (call him "Chuckers") are smart, funny and professional.* There's an article on the show's companion site this week that explores 5 myths about Apple. I encourage you to go and read it, but here are some highlights.

"Apple is going out of business." If we had a dollar, nay, a penny for every time we heard that, we'd all be eating caviar in the South of France. While the funeral dirge may have been warranted in the '90s when Gil was building beige boxes, things have been going swimmingly since Steve returned with the iMac in tow.

That doesn't stop pundits from making claims of Apple's demise, however. But they're greatly exaggerated.

Myth number four on their list is that Apple can't survive without Steve Jobs. This has been a hot topic since Steve took medical leave and opinions are as numerous as stars in the galaxy. Our take in a nutshell: Apple will be just fine without Steve.

We won't spoil the rest of the list for you, so go ahead and check it out.

*Maybe I'll get a shout-out on an upcoming show for this post. What do you say, guys?

The New York Times has posted about a new project that our own Mr. Jobs has taken on: he's now helping out Disney Stores with their retail business. You have to hand it to Disney, no matter what you think of the Mouse House -- when they have a problem with part of the business, they bring in the experts. First they have Pixar's John Lasseter come in and take over animation (and they're about to release what looks like the best 2D movie in ages), and now they've got Steve Jobs himself sprucing up their retail spaces. Sounds like they're making the store more interactive (walking by some displays with certain products will create an audiovisual reaction), and taking some of the tech as well (employees will be able to check out items on mobile units, and control certain displays in the store with iPhones).

They also borrowed another page from Jobs' playbook: they've apparently created a prototype store (just like Apple did way back when), not only to test out what everything might look like, but to give a charge to executives and investors who get a tour. Sounds interesting, but then again, it makes sense. What else is an Apple Store, but a toy shop for big kids?

[via MacUser]

The New York Times Bits Blog is reporting that Michael Tchao, a member of the team that brought the Apple Newton MessagePad to market, is going back to work for Apple after a 15-year absence. In Tchao's new job as Vice President of Product Marketing, he'll be reporting to Apple Senior V.P. of Product Marketing Phil Schiller.

For the past 7 years, Tchao has been General Manager of Nike's Techlab, which has been responsible for the Nike + iPod line as well as the online integration that makes nikeplus.com so powerful.

If you wanted to start doing a bit of speculating, it's interesting to note that Tchao was part of the team that was responsible for Apple's first tablet computer. Of course, the Newton platform wasn't exactly a huge success during its 5 years of life, owing primarily to its high price and (at least in the first versions) less-than-stellar handwriting recognition. Tchao wasn't in a marketing position at the time as the General Manager of Product Planning and Strategy for Apple's Personal Interactive Electronics group, and most of the marketing fumbles of the Newton era can be laid at the feet of the Apple execs in charge at the time.

Tchao certainly has the street cred as a tablet computing expert, with 5 patents to his name during his time with the Newton team. Although we don't know for sure at this time if Tchao has been tapped to resurrect tablet computing at Apple, his background both at Apple and Nike Techlab shows that he not only has the technical background to shepherd a new product to market, but the marketing savvy as well.

Welcome back, Mr. Tchao!

[via Mashable]

An email this morning from Harry McCracken at Technologizer.com pointed the way to a trip down memory lane. Harry was letting us know that Technologizer blogger Benj Edwards had written a 20th anniversary teardown post about the first truly mobile Mac -- the Mac Portable.

Why is this a trip down memory lane for me in particular? I actually owned one of these beasts for a few years. They were ridiculously expensive at the time -- US$7,300 for a 16 lb. (7.25 kg) monochrome screen machine with 1 MB of RAM, a floppy disk drive, and a 40 MB hard disk -- but since I was a developer at the time I was able to get a substantial discount and bought it for about $4,000.

I recall taking my Portable to meetings back in the day, and people were absolutely fascinated by it. Of course, about two years later it would be replaced by the much lighter (5.1 lb. / 2.3 kg) PowerBook 100, which was the first of what we consider to be the truly "laptop" Macs.

Definitely take a look at the Technologizer post if you get a chance. Benj does a step-by-step teardown, describes what you're seeing in each photo, and notes what items on the Portable made it such a technological wonder in the late 1980s. I won't spoil things for you, but be sure to look at the last page of the teardown for a comparison Edwards does between the Portable and the iPhone. We've come a long way in just 20 years.

Update: OK, we have to hand it to all of you -- you have successfully pointed out that this Mac's model number isn't consistent with a Mac Plus, but instead with a 128K original Mac. We took that key fact back to the auction house that is listing this machine, and they did their own due diligence to come up with the following explanation:

We've gotten several inquires about this by the fantastically loyal and knowledgeable Mac community. After further investigating the item, here's the information:

Firstly, this Macintosh was, indeed, presented to Gene Roddenberry by Apple. There is no doubt about this.

The conflict between the photo and the serial number is as follows. This computer, given by Apple to Mr. Roddenberry, is an early production Macintosh 128 (#776), which was then upgraded by Apple for Gene to a Macintosh Plus-thus the model number / serial number / panel that "belongs to" a Macintosh Plus. The 0001 led us to mistakenly believe that it was the first one off the line.

Again, the provenance of the item is perfect and it did belong to Mr. Roddenberry. I apologize for any confusion.

So, that's the story as we understand it. The headline has been adjusted to match the new information, and in turn we apologize for the error.

----

How would you like to own the first Macintosh Plus computer? By first, I mean the one with serial number F4200NUM0001, the Mac that was given by Apple to Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. As you'll remember, a Mac Plus (presumably not this one) was used by Scotty in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

Profiles in History, an auction house with a storied history of selling amazing Hollywood memorabilia, will be auctioning off the Mac Plus at their October 8-9 auction. While most of the attention will probably be focused on the Michael Jackson glove from the 1984 Victory Tour, Apple aficionados are invited to put in bids on this piece of Apple history.

Here's the description of the Mac Plus from Profiles in History:

This is the very first Macintosh Plus 1Mb personal computer to come off the assembly line at Apple Computer in Fresno, California. It was presented to Gene Roddenberry as a gift by Apple Computer, Inc. and bears the serial number F4200NUM0001. The Macintosh Plus was a revelation among personal computers when it came on the market in 1986. With 1 Mb RAM (upgradeable to 4Mb), it supported the double-sided floppy disk format and was the first Mac with a SCSI port for fast data transfer to and from an external hard drive.

The Macintosh was the first mass produced computer to utilize the mouse and the Macintosh Plus was the longest-lived Macintosh with production until 1990. It features the beige-colored case with 9 in. display, 3.5 in. floppy drive and includes the short keyboard, external floppy drive, mouse and Apple logo deluxe padded carrying case. An incredible artifact with a wonderful association between the visionary computer designer/manufacturer and legendary Star Trek creator. Accompanied by a signed letter of provenance from Gene Roddenberry's son, Rod.

The Mac Plus is expected to sell for $1000 - $1200, less than half of its original purchase price. A closeup photo of the computer showed definite signs of use, including the lovely sludge that tends to build up on keyboards and mice after years of handling. For a view of the Mac Plus in all of its beige (Pantone 453) glory, read on.