History

Old school Apple story, posted on Folklore.org by Andy Hertzfeld:

In 1980, a company called Franklin Computer produced a clone of the Apple II called the Franklin Ace, designed to run the same software. They copied almost every detail of the Apple II, including all of its ROM based software and all the documentation, and sold it at a lower price than Apple. We even found a place in the manual where they forgot to change “Apple” to “Ace”. Apple was infuriated, and sued Franklin. They eventually won, and forced Franklin to withdraw the Ace from the market.

Even though Apple won the case, it was pretty scary for a while, and it wasn’t clear until the end that the judge would rule in Apple’s favor.

This is where our story starts. Follow the link to see what Apple did to prevent someone from copying the Macintosh ROM. Damn clever.

This is a terrific collection of artifacts up for auction.

My favorites:

• Apple Computer Inc check signed by Steve Jobs and Woz, dated 1976, with an address of 770 Welch Road (adjacent to Stanford campus)
• Steven Jobs, Vice President, Apple business card
• Another Steve Jobs business card, this one for Pixar, with a @next.com email address

Lots more. A fun browse through early Apple/tech history.

Check out that business card, with the embossed Apple logo (just to the left of the word Apple), the old school name (Apple dropped the word “computer” from its name back in 2007), and Steve’s title (Vice President, Operations). I tweeted a still frame of the card here.

Even more interestingly, jump to about 1:23 in to see a floor plan for that Stevens Creek address. Amazing to see how small Apple was back then.

The auction will close on March 17th. Bidding does not yet appear to be open, but here’s a link to the auction calendar page, on the chance you’d like to own this piece of history yourself.

First things first, though Apple did poke its head above the $3T market cap level, as of this writing, Apple’s market cap sits at $2.81 trillion.

But I digress.

The core of the linked article is a list of the five products that made Apple what it is today. Before you follow the link, try to guess what those five products are.

No spoilers, but there is one product I definitely see as missing from the list. Should be a list of at least seven, if not more.

Have you worked up your list, checked out the headline linked list? Here are the two I’d add:

• AirPods
• LaserWriter

Any you’d add?

Christian Martinez, Los Angeles Times:

On Tuesday, John Moran Auctioneers will auction off a functioning Apple-1 computer hand-built by Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs and others in a Los Altos, Calif., garage in 1976. The system was the rock upon which the trillion-dollar Apple empire was built.

And:

The unit is dubbed the “Chaffey College Apple-1″ because its first owner was identified as a Chaffey professor. It was unearthed from the Rancho Cucamonga home of a former Chaffey student who had purchased it from the professor for $650 in 1977.

The student, who wishes to remain anonymous until after the sale, held on to the computer for the next four decades.

Fascinating that the Apple 1 has become a collectible holy grail. Guessing this has to do with Apple rising from being doomed to one of the biggest companies in the world, changing the world several times over, redefining marketplaces with products like iPod, iPhone, iMac, and Apple Watch, to name a few.

Worth following the headline link to check out the picture of the computer, in its original Byte Shop, koa-wood case.

Even better, follow this link to the auction itself and put in a bid.

Sanjiv Sathiah, NotebookCheck:

A lot has rightly been written about the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips found in Apple’s new MacBook Pro models. However, while the spotlight is rightly on them now, their origins date back to a decision made in 2008 under the leadership of Apple co-founder, the late Steve Jobs and his team, which included Tony Fadell.

Solid read, capped off by this tweet.

Came across this on Reddit over the weekend. Officially, it is titled, “Obtaining service for your Apple product after an expired warranty”. But dig in, start scrolling.

This is a fantastic dive into a deep rabbit hole of obscure Apple products, like the Tape Backup 40SC, the External SCSI Hard Drive, the StyleWriter, and the UniDisk, just to name a few.

Enjoy, especially as you wait for this afternoon’s Apple Event and the new goodies Apple has up its sleeve.

If you missed the “Celebrating Steve” video Apple posted on their home page yesterday, here it is…

Steve Jobs died 10 years ago today. The world still mourns. Here are some shared bits of appreciation:

Start off by going to Apple’s front page, check out the short film, “Celebrating Steve” and scroll down for the “Statement from the Jobs family”.

That pic of Steve slouched in an office chair, about 4 seconds in, struck me as familiar. Was that Susan Kare’s chair?

From this appreciation piece Jony Ive wrote for yesterday’s Wall Street Journal:

My memories of that brutal, heartbreaking day 10 years ago are scattered and random. I cannot remember driving down to his house. I do remember a hazy October sky and shoes that were too tight. I remember afterwards Tim and I sat quietly in the garden together for a long time.

And:

Steve’s last words to me were that he would miss talking together. I was sitting on the floor next to his bed, my back against the wall.

After he died, I walked out into the garden. I remember the sound of the latch on the wooden door as I gently pulled it closed.

It’s a beautifully written piece, worth reading in full.

A few more bits, embedded below. First, there’s the Think Different commercial with Steve narrating (as opposed to the Richard Dreyfus narration we’re more familiar with).

And, below that, there’s the dedication, back in 2014, of the new Steve Jobs Theater.

Miss you, Steve.

Roger Cheng, CNET:

Mention Steve Jobs and most people will picture him in his trademark blue jeans and black mock turtleneck, on stage at one of Apple’s events, an iPhone in hand. But for me, the name recalls the memory of the original black and silver iPhone leaving Jobs’ hand, sailing through the air and hitting the floor with a clack.

Follow the headline link, read the anecdote. Steve died 10 years ago tomorrow. The feeds are full of reminiscence.

The video below was posted earlier this year. It tells an interesting story, but what made me post it was this comment from Woz himself, sent out this morning (and shared with permission):

I am primarily honored by many of the good comments that describe me well. Some of this video is incorrect or my version is different, but it’s largely on the mark. I got what I wanted (respect of engineers) and Jobs got what he wanted, notoriety, and the power to create good products. Jobs failed every time he tried to create a computer but his own Apple II came with the iPod, much later.

Enjoy…

Steven Levy, Wired:

During a panel discussion afterward, the interviewer asked a provocative question. “This might be crazy,” she began, “but is there any connection between the world of the counterculture and psychedelics, and Pixar?”

The panelists on stage—Ed Catmull and John Lasseter, both central to Pixar’s development—fell into an uncomfortable silence. Drugs and the counterculture are edgy subjects for employees of a Disney division beloved by generations of children. Finally, Lasseter said, “Is Alvy Ray Smith in the audience?”

And:

Yet, despite a healthy ego and a raconteur’s élan, after Lasseter’s callout—and some laughter in the room—Smith stayed in his seat and said nothing.

Call it restraint. “As far as history goes, I feel like he got shafted, both in Pixar history and in computer graphics history in general,” says Pam Kerwin, a former Pixar colleague. “Everything that you currently use in Photoshop right now basically came from Alvy.” Even self-­driving cars and augmented reality, “which are all about image processing, machine vision … Alvy and his colleagues brought all that stuff into the world.”

Three reasons to follow the headline link and drink up this article:

• It’s written by Steve Levy, Apple critic and tech writer, author of one of my all-time favorite books, Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything. He can write.

• This is an interesting look at a critical stage in computer graphics history.

• Some Steve Jobs anecdotes, told by someone who regularly butted heads with him.

Apple, from August 24th, 2011:

Apple’s Board of Directors today announced that Steve Jobs has resigned as Chief Executive Officer, and the Board has named Tim Cook, previously Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, as the company’s new CEO. Jobs has been elected Chairman of the Board and Cook will join the Board, effective immediately.

And:

“Steve’s extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world’s most innovative and valuable technology company,” said Art Levinson, Chairman of Genentech, on behalf of Apple’s Board. “Steve has made countless contributions to Apple’s success, and he has attracted and inspired Apple’s immensely creative employees and world class executive team. In his new role as Chairman of the Board, Steve will continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration.”

Hard to believe it’s been ten years already. Sigh.

That’s a lot of cheddar. Worth it, no doubt.

The handwritten part:

Julian, Your generation is the first to grow up with computers. Go change the world! steven jobs, 1980

Interestingly, it was also signed by Apple’s angel investor and former CEO, Mike Markkula.

Who was Julian?

“Julian” was a teenager at the time, son of entrepreneur Mike Brewer who had negotiated exclusive distribution rights for Apple products in the UK and later became the first Managing Director of Apple Computer (UK) Ltd. Julian recalls, “I was sitting in my bedroom writing games on my Apple II when Dad called me down to meet some guests. To my amazement it was Steve Jobs and Mike Markkula. I had the manual with me and only later understood how rare it was for Jobs to sign anything, let alone to write an inscription like this. He got on well with Dad, so I feel the inscription was made with care.”

The winning bidder was Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, who also bought David Gilmour’s black Strat back in January 2019.

Follow the headline link for a zoomable image and more background on this historic document.

This is a fascinating read, filled with backstory, and accompanied by a series of excellent close-up shots of some old school Macintosh chips, including the infrared mouse chip, the real time clock chip / parameter ram, and an early Apple sound chip.

Best bit:

Steve would regularly hold “all hands” meetings in the central atrium of the Bandley 3 building. This was a large open tiled area that later also housed the Bosendorfer piano, the BMW motorcycle, and some video games. There Steve would, among other things, exhort us to work harder. During one exchange someone said to him, “Steve, at some point we need to go home and do our laundry and pay our credit card bills”. He immediately responded saying he would have a washer/dryer installed by Monday if we wanted it, and he didn’t understand the credit card thing because he just deposited a bunch of money (I think he said something like ~$35K) in his credit card at the start of the year and never had to worry about it. The thing was – he appeared dead serious about his responses. Either that or he could deadpan so well that he fooled all of us. Steve would use the all-hand meetings to laud team members he thought were “great”. This would frequently involve very publicly handing out what we called “the grey envelopes”, containing usually some form of monetary remuneration. But Steve had an innate uncanny ability to sense whatever it was that would most motivate a subordinate – be it cash, recognition, flattery, fear – whatever.

Great read.

Saeki Kentaro, NHK World:

When it came to Kyoto, Oshima Hiroshi was Steve Jobs’ man. Oshima worked as a chauffeur and a tour guide for Jobs on four trips, the last in 2010, just one year before the Apple founder’s death. Jobs would arrive with a vague idea of what he wanted to see but left the specifics to Oshima.

Follow the link, read the story. Some fascinating insight into Steve and his love of Japan.

This is a long-running thread (see the date of each question) on early days at Apple and Woz. Here’s how it opens:

My obsession with computers began in 1973 at the age of 13. Since there were no “personal computers” for sale, I wanted to make my own. To learn how, I started attending Homebrew Computer Club meetings. Since I was unable to drive, I asked if anyone lived near me that could give me a lift to the meetings. A really nice guy came up and said he lived close and could give me a ride. I answered, “Great! What’s your name?” His answer: “Steve. But my friends call me Woz”.

A fascinating bit of Apple history.

Parker Ortolani, 9to5Mac:

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been 14 years since Apple shipped the first iPhones. On this day in 2007, Apple Stores across the United States hosted the “iPhone World Premiere,” and life was never the same. Looking back on that day, it’s clear that it marked a turning point. It was the beginning of a revolution in basically every single industry.

This is a fantastic article, sure to prompt huge waves of nostalgia in folks old enough to remember the huge power of that original launch.

Don’t miss Gary Allen’s incredible Flickr album, especially the pics of Steve Jobs at the bottom of the page.

But scroll, scroll, scroll. There’s so much richness here, including some fantastic videos from back in the day. Great job pulling this together by Parker Ortolani.