14 Years Ago Steve Jobs Introduced the First MacBook Pro

14 years ago today Steve Jobs unveiled the first MacBook Pro at Macworld 2006. Most of the keynote is focused on other products, like Aperture, iLife, iMove, iWeb, iWork, and more. The MacBook Pro’s introduction came as a “one last thing” announcement. In this segment, he discusses the performance per watt of various Apple microprocessors like the PowerPC G4 and PowerPC G5. But Intel’s Core Duo processor was better at energy efficiency, and that’s what the MacBook Pro used.

Floppy Disk Signed by Steve Job Auctioning at $7,500

A Macintosh floppy disk signed by Steve Jobs is up for auction with an estimated value of US$7,500.

Macintosh System Tools Version 6.0 floppy disk, signed in black felt tip, “steve jobs.” In fine condition, with slight brushing to the ink. A hugely desirable format for Jobs’s seldom-seen autograph—known as a reluctant signer, he often declined to comply with the requests of collectors. As a piece of Apple’s iconic Mac OS software, boasting Jobs’s elegantly stylish lowercase signature, this is a museum-quality piece of computing history.

This item is Pre-Certified!

Autographed Steve Jobs Pixar Poster Going up for Auction

A Pixar poster that Steve Jobs autographed is going up for auction this week with a starting bid of US$25,000.

Extraordinarily scarce Pixar Animation Studios poster signed by its co-founder Steve Jobs, sometime after 1995 when ”Toy Story”, the first computer-animated feature film, debuted. Jobs’ legendary vision is evident in his backing of Pixar, whose potential was immediately realized in the success of ”Toy Story”, earning three Academy Award nominations, breaking box office records and securing its reputation as one of the finest animated movies of all time. Poster measures 24” x 36”, signed by Jobs in black fiber-tip marker. In near fine condition. With JSA COA.

Bill Gates Said Steve Jobs Was a Master of 'Casting Spells'

In an interview, Bill Gates talked about Steve Jobs, saying he was a master at “casting spells” to keep Apple from dying. Kind of odd to see a businessman like him use language like “casting spells” but I guess that’s analogies for you.

While it’s really easy to imitate the bad parts of Steve, Gates said, “I have yet to meet any person who in terms of picking talent, hyper-motivating that talent,” who could match him. “He brought some incredibly positive things along with that toughness.”

Jobs was a singular case, Gates said, where Apple was on a path to die and goes on to become the most valuable company in the world. There aren’t going to be many stories like that, he said.

Eddy Cue on Apple TV+, Steve Jobs, and More

Eddy Cue sat down for an interview with GQ, talking about Apple TV+, Steve Jobs, iTunes, and more.

Today, says Cue, most people subscribe to a satellite or cable service. “But do you think that’ll be the case ten years from now? I don’t think even the cable and satellite people are going to raise their hands. There’s a pretty rapid change coming.”

Mac Hardware at WWDC, AppKit vs. UIKit, Next-Gen Wi-Fi, with John Kheit - ACM 513

Bryan Chaffin and guest John Kheit start this week’s show off with an immediate siderail about The Curse of Oak Island and Cooper’s Treasure, because that’s what they do. The real topics, however, include what Apple’s MacBook Pro announcement might mean for Mac hardware at WWDC. They also look at the brewing fight between UIKit and AppKit, and what’s coming in the world of Wi-Fi.

Apple History: The Apple Credit Card From 2004, and the 90s

Apple Card, which will be released this summer, isn’t the company’s first Apple credit card idea. Steve Jobs first thought of it in 2004.

The year was 2004…Steve thought the time was right for Apple to offer its own credit card. He would call it … (drum roll)… Apple Card…Alas, the Apple Card never saw the light of day. Steve worked to create a partnership with MasterCard, but apparently he couldn’t get the terms he wanted—so he pulled the plug.

Interesting story. The article also includes marketing materials the company created at the time. Edit: As it turns out, this wasn’t the first Apple Card either. In 1992/1993, The Mac Observer’s Dave Hamilton worked on an Apple credit card during a previous career at Citibank.

Facebook vs Snapchat is Like Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates

Facebook’s so-called “pivot to privacy” has elicited a number of reactions. One of the more incisive ones comes from Kara Swisher. In a New York Times Sunday review column, Ms. Swisher compared Facebook’s attempts to bolster private messaging, in direct competition with Snapchat, to the battle between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. In that case, Mr. Jobs’s “stunning creativity” eventually “won out.” This time, the size of Facebook may mean Mr. Zuckerberg can make a success of the Snapchat model. If he really means it.

Mr. Zuckerberg is to Bill Gates as Mr. Spiegel is to Steve Jobs. Mr. Jobs always had better ideas and vision than Mr. Gates. But Apple spent a long time in dire straits while he pushed his high-level concepts about security, privacy, and design and simplicity. Mr. Gates, on the other hand, was an unqualified genius at business models and systems, and he clearly understood the depressing truth that good enough was good enough for a lot of consumers.

GQ's History of Cool Examines White Apple Earbuds

Johnathon Heaf writes how Apple’s white earbuds changed the industry forever. It all started with the iPod.

The “silhouette campaign” ads, which I’m sure many of you remember more than the early hardware, focused on the white earbuds that came with each iPod – a design feature that Ive has since stated was pure serendipity.

When he first saw the ads, Steve Jobs was worried the iPod wasn’t visible enough. Yet they were popular because they were fun and emotive.

 

35 Years Ago Today Steve Jobs Launched Macintosh

The Macintosh turns 35 today. Steven Jobs unveiled the product on January 24, 1984 during Apple’s annual shareholders meeting.

The original Macintosh was priced at $2,495 in the United States, equivalent to just over $6,000 today, and was a big deal because of its graphical user interface rather than command-line interface. Tech specs included an 8 MHz Motorola 68000 processor, 128 KB of RAM, and a 400 KB floppy disk drive.

Expensive Apple Hardware Isn't New. Remember the Lisa?

The 2018 iPhones were fairly expensive, and this isn’t a new Apple strategy. The company has been down this road before with the Lisa computer.

Named for Saint Steve’s daughter, the Lisa project kicked off in 1978, finally making an appearance on 19 January 1983. It was pitched as a graphical competitor to the tiresome text-based computers dominating the marketplace.

Aside from all the snark the author pumped into the article, it’s a nice blast from the past. As Battlestar Galactica says, “All of this has happened before and all of this will happen again.”

The Daughter of Steve Jobs is Publishing a Book

Lisa Brennan-Jobs, daughter of Steve Jobs, is publishing a book on September 4, 2018. She tells the story of “the pride and pain of a childhood spent navigating the vastness between her struggling single mom and Apple’s mercurial founder.” She wrote a book adaptation for Vanity Fair where she discusses some of her experiences.

In the spring of 1978, when my parents were 23, my mother gave birth to me on their friend Robert’s farm in Oregon, with the help of two midwives. The labor and delivery took three hours, start to finish. My father arrived a few days later. “It’s not my kid,” he kept telling everyone at the farm, but he’d flown there to meet me anyway. I had black hair and a big nose, and Robert said, “She sure looks like you.”

My parents took me out into a field, laid me on a blanket, and looked through the pages of a baby-name book. He wanted to name me Claire. They went through several names but couldn’t agree. They didn’t want something derivative, a shorter version of a longer name.

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