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What's the most important Apple technology ever?
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For my 200th post, I thought I would ask everyone what they thought was the most important technology ever invented by Apple (that we know of). For purposes of this debate, “invented” should be defined as something that Apple invented by themselves (like FireWire, more or less), and not something that was merely popularized (like USB, the mouse, the icon, and the laser printer). Defend your assertion, and prepare to be challenged by everyone who disagrees with you.
My vote: Handheld computing. Apple showed the world it could be done with the Newton. The screen, the GUI, the handwriting recognition (as flawed as it might have been at first), etc. All of these things changed the future of computing, and indeed, we haven’t even seen all of those changes yet.
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Editor - The Mac Observer
Favorite (but less relevant than it used to be) Quote: Microsoft’s tyranny lies not in its success, but in the way it achieved and maintains that success.
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Handheld computing? The one thing I agree with you on with this is the fact that we have yet to see its real impact. And considering the length of time it took to get from the first crappy, heavy, huge, EXPENSIVE laptops to the iBook, we had better get comfy waiting.
I must go with Airport. Even though Lucent had a large part in the implementation and it’s an IEEE standard, Apple was the first to have the vision and the implementation. They’re still the cheapest too! It has taken networking to a new level of ease and simplicity. (Also lets you surf from the couch too!) And without wireless networking, your mobile computing paradigm will never happen.
-D
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“Wherever you go, there you are.” - Buckaroo Bonzai<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Photodan on 2001-06-26 22:21 ]</font>
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"ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" - Charles Darwin
What’s the difference between a Mac and a PC? Macs are designed, PCs are assembled.
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Dan, I swear you can read my mind. Exactly my thoughts. Scott
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Scott
Pittsburgh, PA
God bless our troops in Iraq and everywhere.GO STEELERS. GO PIRATES. and GO PENGUINS (ummm, well ...)
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Maybe my sig should include “Madame Cleo”
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"ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" - Charles Darwin
What’s the difference between a Mac and a PC? Macs are designed, PCs are assembled.
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That’s Miss Cleo, as in .....
Ok ... now I’m seeing another in your life. Are you using Windows too?
YES! How did you know that?
Honey, Miss Cleo always knows. The cards. ... they never lie. Call me now!
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Scott
Pittsburgh, PA
God bless our troops in Iraq and everywhere.GO STEELERS. GO PIRATES. and GO PENGUINS (ummm, well ...)
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Apologies to all Miss Cleo fans.
(By the way, I knew you’d say that.)Signature
"ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" - Charles Darwin
What’s the difference between a Mac and a PC? Macs are designed, PCs are assembled.
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WHOA! I just got a killer idea!
Let’s call Miss Cleo and ask her what’s gonna happen at Expo!!!
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Scott
Pittsburgh, PA
God bless our troops in Iraq and everywhere.GO STEELERS. GO PIRATES. and GO PENGUINS (ummm, well ...)
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Totally off topic, guys.
Miss cleo belongs in “Small Talk” I think.
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Editor - The Mac Observer
Favorite (but less relevant than it used to be) Quote: Microsoft’s tyranny lies not in its success, but in the way it achieved and maintains that success.
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I’d vote for ColorSync. The debate is whether or not Apple was first with it.
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“Free yo mind & yo ass will follow…”—George Clinton
—peep my iBook—iBrotha.com—for the ladies... -
TMO Observer
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firewire all the way. Apple invented it and its the single most important multimedia technology ever. There is no limit to what it can do. It is the most profound technology ever. I’m not exagerating.
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alanpartridge
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QuickTime.
Apple hardly “invented” handhelds - my father had a Husky Hunter and a Psion in the eighties, certainly didn’t invent wireless networking either - been around for ages. But QuickTime was, and still is, a revolution - almost an operating system in it’s own right. If Microsoft could think straight, they would have licensed QT, and maybe then Apple would have given up on OS’ by now and Apple would BE desktop video.
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“I have won the essay writing competition, of that there is NO doubt!” - Alan Gordon Partridge
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TMO Observer
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I’d go for Quicktime.
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alanpartridge
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I just want to ram the QuickTime point home. Imagine a world where QT is the only digital video standard. No DVDs. No MPEG2 broadcasts. No DV cameras. No MPEG1. No Real. No DHTML. No Flash player. No Shockwave. No IPIX. etc etc. All multimedia technologies are merely QT components. The possibilites are limitless. Strange how MPEG are no trying to realise Apple’s dream through MPEG4. We could have been there already.
Blame Microsoft and Video for Windows, ‘cause it really is their fault.
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“I have won the essay writing competition, of that there is NO doubt!” - Alan Gordon Partridge
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Apple’s greatest breakthrough idea was the original PowerBook design—trackball in the front, keyboard shoved to the rear. They put all the pieces in the right place, and the entire industry eventually followed by moving the keyboard toward the screen, usually with a trackpad or trackball in front of it.
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Paul Sondervan
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For me was Apple’s greatest breakthrough idea, the fact that they had the guts to come with a operating system with a Graphical User Interface & mouse. It changed the way people work. Even Micro$hit had to change their policy regarding MS-Dos.
The weakest point of Apple is that they didn’t know how to take advantge of this situation. Micro$hit knew how to do it when they had their $hitdows.Signature
Ayreon, You must have heard it in your life, even if it’s only once!
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I’m surprised no one has mentioned this, but my vote goes for “plug and play” installation of peripherals. It’s great being able to plug in a printer or CDRW or video card or whatever, and have it just work. Sure, Windows claims to be able to do that as well, but what all know what a joke that is. The great thing is that the Mac always worked like that.
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The only true wisdom comes from knowing that you know nothing. —-Socrates
