Apple Celebrates Thirty Years of Macintosh with Homepage Tribute, Visual Timeline, ‘Mac 30’ Video

To celebrate the debut of the original Macintosh 30 years ago today, Apple has posted a tribute on the homepage of its website, and has also created a special “Thirty Years of Mac” section accompanied by a new “Mac 30″ video looking at the past and present of its signature desktop computer.

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 share, and learn in ways that were unimaginable 30 years ago.

Imagine what we can accomplish in the next 30 years.

The special “30 Years” section of Apple’s website allows users to scroll through a visual timeline of the Macintosh’s history, beginning with the first Mac in 1984 all the way to the recently released Mac Pro. Each page in the timeline is introduced by a passage on the Mac’s impact on an individual or entity, such as the Macintosh II’s role in the creation of computational program Mathematica by Theodore Gray or the role the MacBook Pro played in helping create online coding tutorial platform Codecademy.

Pages in the visual timeline also include retrospective information on every Macintosh with photos, and are also followed by research about the most popular uses for a particular Mac. Apple also includes a page for users to input data about their first Mac, which asks questions about location and ownership. The data given by users can be found on another section that gives a visual look at what models were chosen by people as their first Mac, with live updating information.

Meanwhile, the Mac 30 video on the website includes remarks about the Macintosh by notable individuals such as music composer Hans Zimmer and designer Iris van Herpen, and also features a visual look of the computer’s impact in various industries.

In addition to the festivities on Apple’s website, three Apple executives spoke to MacWorld about the Macintosh’s illustrious history, which will be followed by ABC News airing an interview tonight with Apple CEO Tim Cook about the computer’s thirtieth anniversary. Jonathan Zufi, author of the coffee table book “Iconic: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation,” also created a new website that includes photos of macintosh computers and portables from Apple’s early years.

Apple gushes on 30 years of making Macs (video)

This year signifies the 30th anniversary of the Macintosh computer, and who better to reflect on this achievement than the almighty creator Apple? Cupertino has dedicated a corner of its website to such a retrospective, the focal point of which is an inspirational video starring several fans who talk about what Macs have meant to them (embedded below). After learning that Moby is still a thing and that Macs represent a “truly worldwide democratization of creativity,” you can peruse a slick, interactive timeline that walks you through all the iterations and how innovative each one was. You can also tell Apple about your first Mac and what you used it for, with that data populating polls around the site. There are worse ways to kill time, so if you’ve got some to spare, head to the source link and bathe in Cook & Co’s glory.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Apple

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Source: Apple

‘Celebrate the Mac’ Site Offers Photos of Vintage Macs in Celebration of 30th Anniversary [Mac Blog]

Jonathan Zufi, author of the coffee table book ”Iconic: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation” and the man behind the Shrine of Apple site, has created a new website that includes photos of Macintosh computers and portables from Apple’s early years.

To celebrate Mac’s 30th birthday, I’ve created this micro site for all the world to enjoy. In 2009, I started taking photos of every Apple product ever made since 1976. Then I turned them into a really big photo site. I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane, and I hope that the Macintosh’s anniversary brings your happy memories of your own experience with Apple.

Divided into four sections, the site focuses on classic Macs like the 1984 Macintosh 128K and the 1987 Macintosh SE as well as portables like the 1991 Macintosh Powerbook 100 and the 1992 Macintosh Powerbook Duo 230.

There’s also a section on the Macintosh II and LC, Apple’s lower-end consumer computers introduced in the late 1980s and 1990s, and a section entitled “Other Awesome Macs” that shows off products like the 1993 Macintosh TV, the 1992 Macintosh Quadra 950, and the “Flower Power” iMac G3 from 2001.

Each photo is accompanied by a detailed description of product taken from Wikipedia, giving website visitors a quick history of the iconic computers that gave Apple its start. The full site, which has more than 35 photos and product descriptions, is well worth visiting.

January 24, 2014 marks the 30th anniversary of the initial unveiling of the Macintosh. In celebration of the event, Apple executives Phil Schiller, Craig Federighi, and Bud Tribble interviewed with MacWorld to discuss the Mac and Apple CEO Tim Cook has plans to speak with ABC news about the anniversary tomorrow night.

Some of the original Macintosh development team, including Daniel Kottke and Mike Markkula, will hold an event with the Computer History Museum on January 25 to celebrate the anniversary as well. That event will take place at the Flint Center in Cupertino, California, where Steve Jobs originally introduced the Mac.

Samsung Misses Earnings Estimates as Apple and Others Pressure Mobile Sales

Samsung’s corporate earnings missed expectations and its mobile division saw flat growth year-over-year due to pressure from inexpensive rivals and Apple’s new lineup of iPhones, according to an analysis of its fourth-quarter earnings by Bloomberg.

The Korean conglomerate reported net income of 7.22 trillion won ($6.7 billion), well short of the 8.2 trillion won that analysts were expecting. Operating income at the company’s mobile unit, its biggest profit maker, was 5.47 trillion won, down from a record 6.7 trillion in the prior quarter, and roughly flat year-over-year.

The company also said it planned to cut its mobile marketing budget after heavy spending also impacted its fourth-quarter profits, reported Reuters. It will also look to make its marketing spending more efficient.

Analysts interviewed by Bloomberg blamed growth in Apple’s iPhone line, which saw the iPhone 5s and 5c launch early in the quarter. Apple is scheduled to announce its earnings on Monday.

Samsung Galaxy S4 (5-inch display) with Apple iPhone 5 (4-inch display)

“Samsung’s two major challenges for 2014 are to maintain its mobile-phone leadership in China and the U.S., while simultaneously growing its tablet business quickly enough to knock Apple iPad from its perch,” [Neil Mawston, an executive director at researcher Strategy Analytics,] said.

The company shipped 9 million units of the S4 in the fourth quarter, according to a Jan. 8 report from Daewoo Securities Co., lower than its earlier estimate of 13 million units, released on Dec. 23. In the third quarter, Samsung sold 17 million units, Daewoo said.

Apple is rumored to have sold more than fifty million iPhones in the fourth calendar quarter. Apple is not expected to update its iPhone line until next fall.

Samsung announced that it would launch a new version of its flagship Galaxy smartphone by April, alongside the second version of its Gear smart watch.

(Image courtesy Business Insider)

Widely Acclaimed Tomb Raider Reboot Arrives in Mac App Store [Mac Blog]

Last year’s hit game Tomb Raider, which was critically praised for successfully re-imagining iconic video game character Lara Croft for modern times, is finally available on Mac. The Mac version of the action adventure game, which was ported by Feral Interactive, arrives just under a year after it first launched on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

When a young Lara Croft is shipwrecked on an uncharted island, she enters a fight for survival armed with nothing but her instincts. Help Lara perfect her natural gifts as she embarks on a perilous journey to save her friends and escape the island’s murderous inhabitants.

Scavenge vital resources, upgrade Lara’s gear and improve her exploration, combat and survival skills to fight back against vicious enemies. Jump and climb through dense forests, treacherous mountains and WWII bunkers to discover how an ordinary young woman became Lara Croft, Tomb Raider.

The game launches exclusively on the Mac App Store today, and will arrive on other digital storefronts, like Steam, on January 30. Although Tomb Raider is primarily known for its single-player campaign, it has an online multiplayer component. That multiplayer is not available on the version purchased from the Mac App Store. Players who wish to play online multiplayer will have to purchase the game on Steam, as the game requires a Steam account to take part in its Mac-to-Mac only online play.

Players will need Mac OS X 10.9.1, 14GB of free hard drive space, 4GB RAM, a 512MB graphics card and a processor with at least a 2.0 GHz output. Intel HD 4000 graphics cards will require an Intel i7 CPU or better.

Tomb Raider is available in the Mac App Store for $49.99. [Direct Link]

Tim Cook Speaks With ABC News About Thirtieth Anniversary of Macintosh, Interview Airs Tomorrow

ABC News will air an interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook on World News with Diane Sawyer tomorrow evening to coincide with the thirtieth anniversary of the introduction of the Macintosh (via 9to5Mac).

The interview, between ABC’s David Muir and Cook, will air tomorrow at 6:30PM Eastern, though a small portion of the interview will preview on Good Morning America.

ABC has not shared many details about the interview, but based on the image shown above, the Mac Pro will be a point of discussion. “ABC News Anchor David Muir exclusively interviews Apple CEO Tim Cook on the 30th anniversary of the Macintosh and what is next for the company,” ABC says.

In 2012, Tim Cook sat down with Brian Williams for a wide ranging interview that covered Apple’s poor mapping debut, Apple’s future in television and more. The interview is part of a larger media campaign by the company to promote the thirtieth anniversary of the Macintosh’s debut.

Apple Executives Consider Thirty Years of Macintosh, Say iOS and OS X Convergence ‘A Non-Goal’

To celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the unveiling of the original Macintosh — tomorrow, January 24, 2014 — Macworld has published a lengthy interview with three Apple executives to discuss where the Mac has been, and where it is going. Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi, and Vice President of Software Technology Bud Tribble — who was a member of the original Mac development team — all shared their thoughts and the full article is well worth a read.

Among the more interesting tidbits from the interviews is one particular statement from Federighi, where he notes that while iOS and OS X do share some cross-pollination of features and design, they will not become one operating platform without good reason. He says that the Mac has “been honed for over 30 years to be optimal” for keyboards and mice, while attaching a touchscreen to a PC — or a keyboard to a tablet — without a good reason to do so makes for a bad experience.

“We don’t waste time thinking, ‘But it should be one [interface!]‘ ‘How do you make these [operating systems] merge together?’ What a waste of energy that would be,” Schiller said. But he added that the company definitely tries to smooth out bumps in the road that make it difficult for its customers to switch between a Mac and an iOS device. For example, making sure its messaging and calendaring apps have the same name on both OS X and iOS.

“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 non-goal,” 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.”

Macworld editor Jason Snell mentions that though he brought an iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air to the interview at Apple’s Cupertino campus, he ultimately chose to take notes on the MacBook — something not lost on the Apple execs.

“You had a bunch of tools,” Federighi said, pointing at my bag. And you pulled out the one that felt right for the job that you were doing. It wasn’t because it had more computing power … you pulled it out because it was the most natural device to accomplish a task.”

Schiller said Apple believed that the Mac “keeps going forever” because its differences make it really valuable. The current Mac lineup looks very different from what Steve Jobs introduced thirty years ago, but Apple clearly considers it crucial to the future of the company.

Images courtesy Shrine of Apple

iWork for iOS and Mac Updated With Password-Protected Sharing, New Features

Along with an update for its iWork for iCloud apps that brought an iOS 7-style redesign, Apple today released updates for its iWork apps for both Mac and iOS, as well as minor updates for both iMovie for Mac and Podcasts for iOS.

All of Apple’s iWork apps, including its iWork for iCloud apps, now have support for more secure document viewing with password-protected sharing capabilities.

In addition to password-protected documents, Keynote for iOS has also gained a built-in remote function, which will likely replace the standalone Keynote Remote app, while Numbers for iOS now offers landscape viewing and the ability to edit spreadsheets.

Keynote for Mac has gained new transitions, improved display options, the ability to share password-protected presentations via iCloud, and charts with time, date, and duration values. The update also includes improved compatibility with Microsoft PowerPoint 2013 presentations and support for custom number charts on imported Keynote ’09 and PowerPoint presentations.

Pages for Mac has new center and edge guides, while Numbers for Mac now offers tools for sorting multiple columns or rows. The updates for all of the apps should be available later today, with Slashgear and TechCrunch providing some additional information on the new features.

Apple’s iWork update will be a welcome change for Mac users who were disappointed with the upgraded iWork apps that were released in October, as the new apps were missing several features available in older versions of the software. In November, Apple pledged to re-introduce several lost features over the course of the next six months and today’s update is the first step in that direction.

The iWork suite of apps for iOS and Mac are available to users who owned previous versions of iWork and to users who have purchased new Mac and iOS devices. Customers who do not fit those criteria can purchase the iWork apps for Mac for $19.99 and the iWork apps for iOS for $9.99.

Pages for Mac – [Mac App Store]
Numbers for Mac – [Mac App Store]
Keynote for Mac [Mac App Store]

Pages for iOS – [App Store]
Numbers for iOS – [App Store]
Keynote for iOS – [App Store]