January 26, 2014
This is not the video we published this past Friday. That one was about five minutes long. This one is Steve Jobs presenting to a much more technical audience, the Boston Computer Society.
The video is about an hour and thirty six minutes long. It includes Steve talking about the Mac technology, then doing his “pull the Mac out of the bag” demo. But there’s so much more. There’s the 1984 commercial, along with a series of other commercials that ran at the time. There’s a slide show showing the Mac culture and marketing plans. There’s Steve pitching low cost networking, printing, compatibility with mainframes, file servers, and even Unix compatibility. Fascinating.
The story of how the presentation and this video came to be is also fascinating. Follow the headline link to read all about it.
This presentation, at Apple’s annual shareholder meeting on January 24, is the stuff of tech-history legend. What’s not so well remembered: Jobs did it all twice, in less than a week. Six days after unveiling the Mac at the Flint Center on the De Anza College campus near the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., he performed his show all over again at the monthly general meeting of the Boston Computer Society. His host, Jonathan Rotenberg, was a 20-year-old student at Brown University who’d co-founded the BCS in 1977 at the age of 13.
Over at YouTube, you can watch the Cupertino presentation, along with a sort of a rough draft held as part of an Apple sales meeting in Hawaii in the fall of 1983. As for the BCS version, all 90 minutes of it are there in the video at the top of this post, available for the first time in their entirety since they were shot on January 30, 1984.
The Cupertino and Boston demos may have been based in part on the same script, but the audience, atmosphere and bonus materials were different. In Cupertino, Jobs spoke before investors, towards the end of a meeting which also included dreary matters such as an analysis of Apple’s cash flow. In Boston, he presented to the kind of people who Apple hoped would buy Macs. You didn’t even have to pay the BCS’s $24 annual membership fee to get in, which meant that the meeting was the closest thing the computer had to a launch event intended for the general public.
Here’s the video. Big thanks to Cristofer Cruz for his help with the embed code.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Samson’s Resolv RXA 2-Way Active Studio Reference Monitors deliver the sonic elements that are essential to any studio setup. Featuring Samson’s newly developed Air Displacement Ribbon Tweeters, these monitors produce smooth, natural mixes that will sound great on any system. Sold individually in 5-inch and 6-inch models, Resolv RXA monitors can be used in pairs to provide precise stereo imaging for recording, mixing, mastering and other multimedia applications.
I talked to a few people at NAMM about these and they all liked them. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to check them out for myself.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Samson’s BT30 30-Pin Bluetooth Adapter transforms Apple 30-pin dock audio players, including select Samson Expedition Series Portable PAs, into Bluetooth-enabled receivers capable of streaming music wirelessly from smart phones, tablets and laptops. Ultra-convenient and easy-to-use, the BT30 lets you enjoy the latest in audio playback technology without sacrificing the useful accessories you’ve grown accustomed to for playing music, such as older iHomes, PA systems and more.
Not a bad idea. I have a few of these older speaker docking stations myself.
Written by Dave Mark
I’d definitely like to take one of these for a spin. There have been a number of times when I was on the road, my iPhone was running low on charge, and I didn’t have the right cable on hand.
My only concern is durability. Both ends of the cable are open to the elements and the cable will be riding around in your pocket, picking up all manner of little gunky bits and debris. Still, a terrific idea.
Written by Dave Mark
This guy picks the hot topics of the day and embeds them in short little songs. He writes up to 100 songs a day. He’s found a loophole in the system and he ekes out a living doing this.
This is a tough call. What he creates is his music, so hard for me to say he shouldn’t be doing this. And he’s pretty consistent, so you know what you are getting when you listen to his stuff. Just feels a little bit slimy to me.
Question is, is he taking money from other musicians? Certainly anyone who buys one of his songs knows what they are getting before they pay. Interesting.
Written by Dave Mark
Tired of the usual suspects, stock photo sites with no grit, no edge? Check out this list. There’s some good material on these alternative sites. Pass this along.
January 24, 2014
I just got done watching the ABC News one-on-one interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook. Though Craig Federighi and Bud Tribble were both there, this really was an interview with Tim Cook.
The interview opened up with this quote from Steve Jobs, a quote which is prominently displayed at Apple’s One Infinite Loop headquarters:
“If you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it too long. Just figure out what’s next.”
Muir started with a focus on the new Mac Pro, stressing the fact that the Mac Pro is manufactured in Austin, Texas. Tim mentioned that the Mac Pro was just the start, in terms of on-shore manufacturing, briefly touching on the sapphire glass effort starting up in Phoenix.
There were glimpses of the 1984 SuperBowl commercial, and of Steve Jobs’ original Mac rollout.
Next, a brief discussion of secrecy (locked doors, black drapes over unannounced products) segued into the topic of the NSA and surveillance. To me, this was the most interesting part of the interview.
Tim Cook stressed the need for transparency, saying “We need to say what data is being given, how many people it affects, how many accounts are affected, we need to clear. And, we have a gag order on us right now and so we can’t say those things.”
There’s a shot of Tim Cook in a large group meeting with the President.
He continued, “Much of what has been said isn’t true. There is no back door. The government doesn’t have access to our servers. They would have to cart us out in a box for that. And that just will not happen. We feel that strongly about it.”
Muir: “Do you think Americans, Tim, would be more at ease if you could tell them more?”
Cook: “I do.”
Muir: “Are you going to press Congress for more transparency?”
Cook: “Yes. Absolutely, absolutely.”
After a brief moment of Bud Tribble playing the piano (that was really the only non-Tim Cook moment), Muir said to Tim, “Steve Jobs said to you, I never want you to ask what I would have done. Just do what’s right.”
Tim replied, “But by saying what he said, for me, it relieved, I believe, a huge burden that would have existed, had he not said it. And so I think it was incredible of him to do that.”
This was not a long interview. It did not dive deep. But I did appreciate Tim Cook relating Apple’s position on government surveillance. He moved up two notches in my esteem by doing so.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
The Mac has played an important role in paving the way for computing in many areas. I believe the iPad is playing an equally important role in the future of computing. It is interesting to think that in the future we may be celebrating the 30 year anniversary of the iPad while some manifestation of the product is still in the hands of many.
I think that’s exactly where we are.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
These type of multipurpose boxes are becoming more popular among amp makers. It gives them the chance to get an amp and a sound system in the hands of users, but I’ll be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about the trend.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Among the T5z’s distinctive design features are a 12-inch fretboard radius (compared to the T5’s 15-inch radius) and jumbo frets, which make bending strings easier. Otherwise the T5z retains all the great performance features of the original T5: a three-pickup configuration, five-way switching, tone controls that dial in a full-range of tonal flavors, from heavy riffs to delicate fingerpicking, and dual compatibility with acoustic and electric amps.
I’m heading over to Taylor to see this today.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Our new ID:CORE series are the ultimate entry level guitar amplifiers. Incredible tone and flexibility is accessed by a simple and intuitive control set and delivered in SUPER WIDE STEREO to give an immersive playing experience that will have you hooked on playing guitar.
I stopped over to the Blackstar booth at NAMM, but I didn’t get a chance to hear these yet. I’m interested in the wide stereo sound and how they pull that off while keeping a solid tone.
Clearly this is a promotional video for Capo, but as a longtime user of the software, the video shows how people use the software in different ways. My workflow with Capo is not the same as theirs, but Capo is flexible enough to do both.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
I stopped by the WaveDNA booth today and got a demo of Liquid Rhythm. This is some powerful software for beat creation—I was impressed.
Written by Shawn King
iFixit:
Join us as we live the time-traveler’s dream—the deep, lucid, Orwellian vision of hope, fear, and nostalgia that is 1984. Just in time for its 30th anniversary, we laid hands on an ’84 original: the Macintosh 128K. And, you guessed it—we’re tearing it down like it’s the Berlin Wall.
I guarantee iFixit will bitch about the fact it’s not upgradeable.
Written by Dave Mark
Ever wonder what the difference was between mechanical and soft keyboards, other than the feel of the keys? This article contains everything you could ever want to know about the mechanics behind the mechanical keyboard. I love the animated GIFs that show the different types of switches in action. [via TidBits]
This is the original video showing Steve Jobs introducing the Mac to the world. The crowd’s reaction is amazing to hear, approaching hysteria.
Written by Dave Mark
Steven Levy, on how he came to be part of the Mac’s 1984 launch:
Almost no one remembers who played in the Super Bowl (the Los Angeles Raiders lost to the Washington Redskins. Like I said, 1984 wasn’t like 2014). But the commercial, aired two days before the Mac launch, is part of history, and many can recite the tagline verbatim: “On January 24, Apple will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like ’1984.’”
Jobs also planned a massive advertising campaign to follow, including a complete mini-publication that would run in multiple magazines. But, as he would do often in his subsequent career, Jobs relied on the news media to provide the narrative focus for his effort. He decided to give the exclusive story, along with early access to the team, to Newsweek and Rolling Stone, though he also gave briefings to a new magazine called Macworld.
I was the Rolling Stone writer.
Great read.
Tim Cook and the team will appear on ABC’s World News with David Muir this evening at 6:30 pm eastern time to discuss the 30th anniversary of the Mac.
This picture is from David Muir’s twitter feed, showing him on set with Tim Cook, Craig Federighi, and Bud Tribble:
Written by Dave Mark
MacWorld’s Jason Snell spoke with Phil Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Bud Tribble, vice president of software technology, and Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering, about the Mac’s thirty years of evolution.
Phil Schiller:
“Every company that made computers when we started the Mac, they’re all gone,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, in an interview on Apple’s Cupertino campus Thursday. “We’re the only one left. We’re still doing it, and growing faster than the rest of the PC industry because of that willingness to reinvent ourselves over and over.”
Bud Tribble:
“An incredible amount of thought and creativity went into the original Mac metaphor,” Tribble said. “So there are some extremely strong threads of DNA that have lasted for 30 years. The sign of the strength of them and the underlying principles behind them—that the Mac should be easily approachable and learnable by just looking at it, that it should bend to the will of the person and not bend the person’s will to the technology—those underlying threads also apply to our other products.”
Craig Federighi:
“The reason OS X has a different interface than iOS isn’t because one came after the other or because this one’s old and this one’s new,” Federighi said. Instead, it’s because using a mouse and keyboard just isn’t the same as tapping with your finger. “This device,” Federighi said, pointing at a MacBook Air screen, “has been honed over 30 years to be optimal” for keyboards and mice. Schiller and Federighi both made clear that Apple believes that competitors who try to attach a touchscreen to a PC or a clamshell keyboard onto a tablet are barking up the wrong tree.
“To say [OS X and iOS] should be the same, independent of their purpose? Let’s just converge, for the sake of convergence? [It’s] absolutely a nongoal,” Federighi said. “You don’t want to say the Mac became less good at being a Mac because someone tried to turn it into iOS. At the same time, you don’t want to feel like iOS was designed by [one] company and Mac was designed by [a different] company, and they’re different for reasons of lack of common vision. We have a common sense of aesthetics, a common set of principles that drive us, and we’re building the best products we can for their unique purposes. So you’ll see them be the same where that makes sense, and you’ll see them be different in those things that are critical to their essence.”
Thirty years ago today, Apple first introduced the Mac. From Apple’s front page:
Happy Birthday, Mac.
In 1984, Apple introduced the world to Macintosh.
It was designed to be so easy to use that people could actually use it.
And it came with a promise — that the power of technology taken from a few and put in the hands of everyone, could change the world.
That promise has been kept.
Today, we create, connect, share, and learn in ways that were unimaginable 30 years ago.
Imagine what we can accomplish in the next 30 years.
Inside the site, there’s a beautifully laid out timeline showcasing a variety of Mac highlights over the years.
And, perhaps my favorite, is this video:
January 23, 2014
Written by Jim Dalrymple
The idea that Google’s Android mobile software is both “free” and open-source is so often repeated that it is virtually an article of faith online. There’s only one problem: neither is strictly true.
Google doing what Google does.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Great site put together by Jonathan Zufi, the man behind the Iconic book.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
This sleek 2×6 Thunderbolt audio interface for Mac combines the same high-quality 24/192 kHz audio conversion of Universal Audio’s acclaimed Apollo series with onboard Realtime UAD SOLO or DUO Processing. With its ergonomic desktop design, rugged aluminum construction, and front panel headphone and instrument connections, Apollo Twin allows Mac users to record in real time (at near-zero latency) through the full range of UAD Powered Plug-Ins.
I had some time to play with this today and it’s gorgeous. It’s like a mini version of the Apollo that delivers the same high-quality audio that we’ve come to expect from UA. It’s rugged too, so it will travel well.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
The AC15C1-V-RD limited edition features a Celestion V-Type speaker, custom “British Garnet red” tolex and Bronco patterned Tygon grill cloth. This custom colour projects a powerful presence in any environment – on stage, in the studio, or at home. The V-Type speaker has been built using a carefully balanced ‘recipe’ of both old and new design techniques. It’s a sweet-sounding speaker with a superbly balanced tonal signature that imparts a vintage musicality with authentic Celestion tone that’s suitable for any playing style.
I want one of these amps. I love the Vox sound.
