Apple Celebrates 20th Anniversary of Steve Jobs Unveiling the iMac

[SeattleMoose]

Ah yes, I remember I got my 6500 Performa (beige tower, not a clone but in those days there were 3 or 4 companies making Mac clones) in 1996 just before Steve came back and the iMacs came out. I lusted after them the minute I saw them. And in those days a 56K modem was "top end" (well next to the God like 128K of an ISDN line) On a good day I was lucky to get a baud rate of 44K. Typical was 28K or 33K. But at the time sitting there waiting a minute for a photo to load didn't seem so bad. The good old days....

 

[Marx55]

Now Apple should release more headless Macs, including low, middle and high products, from Mac mini to Mac Pro, and also a new mini tower. CPU may last seven years (then you cannot install new macOS releases but displays last more than 20 years. Fight programmed obsolescence, protect the environment and fight climate change and global warming.

 

[YaBe]

I don’t see any example in his life where he cared about the past or nostalgia.

The sole fact the he re-entered Apple is a HUGE example of past / nostalgia, I mean he could have gotten a huge ammount of money for Next and just leave, but he cared too much about Apple.

I mean he was unhappy at how his creature was handled, so I am not sure you have a point,

 

[MDF314159265]

G3 is the Mac that started it all for me too. I learned how to use photoshop on that thing in high school. Most productive I ever was in a classroom!
I’ve been an fanboy ever since. I can’t believe that was nearly 20 years ago already...

 

[dilbert99]

They do make nice machines.

In 20 years times, I hope to be celebrating interoperability between manufacturers/software providers such as being able to use any assistant on my phone/devices, choose any music provider and so on...

 

[ChrisH3677]

I loved the sunflower design most, and still do.

The biggest shame of losing Steve Jobs is that people get to annoy us with bs that things would have been extremely different if he was still here. Even from the grave his reality distortion field is working on them.

 

[ksec]

I wonder how the Mac will transform in the next decade. Fortune Global 2000, are still on PC, and likely to be still on PC in 10 years time. I see this as possibly the last PC cycle if PC don't survive, And I really hope Apple could capture much more market shares. Gaming or E-Sport is exploding and it is still growing with no ends in sight. There are more people watching live E-Sports then many other popular sports, and Mac nor iOS is any part of this.

 

[hans1972]

So true. Its the design that brought me into the Mac world. Sadly, Microsoft seems to be out designing Apple these days. The Surface Studio is gorgeous.

And how many Surface Studio has Microsoft sold?

And if Apple had come out with Surface Studio there would have been a whine fest about the lack of powerful CPU GPU options. Look at the hardware specification of the Surface Studio. It is not impressive.

 

[0388631]

Can't believe it's been that long. It goes without saying that Steve Jobs' focus on a new Apple, specifically through the "Yum" campaign changed the way people look at Apple. The colored iMacs had a constant presence for many years in film, television, advertisement of other, non-Apple products, and much more. Apple needs another visionary as good as Jobs. No one will be like Jobs or better. That's a fact.

 

[TheIntruder]

Anyone else look longingly at those keyboards, the ones Apple used to make which were a joy to type on and reliable? Before everything had to be thinner for no other reason than pretty product shots and meaningless specification boosting?

Not at all. The series of translucent keyboards first introduced with the iMac were mediocre at best, and the key action got worse as they aged. The best desktop keyboards Apple has ever made are the Extended I/II. The wired Aluminum keyboards were also very good.

The same way he felt about the continuing dexay of the Apple // soon after the Mac...

People will always lament Jobs' absence, but those who think he would have any such nostalgia don't seem to understand him at all. As you point out, he was a forward thinker and merciless about moving on from what he thought was the past. The Apple ][ become a afterthought once the Lisa and Mac came into being and pointed the way to the future of the company. Today, iOS is clearly the priority for the company, and any speculation that the Mac would have fared any better under his watch is pure conjecture.

 

[YaBe]

And how many Surface Studio has Microsoft sold?

And if Apple had come out with Surface Studio there would have been a whine fest about the lack of powerful CPU GPU options. Look at the hardware specification of the Surface Studio. It is not impressive.

It is not like there are many "impressive" specs in nowadays mac anyway..

2013 Mac Pro (the only impressive thing about it today is the price)
2014 Mac Mini (again the only impressing thing is that it is still alive)
2017 MacBook Pro (impressive 16 gb ram limit and impressive keyboard...)

You see there was a time at Apple when Specs were not the most important thing, but the way SW interacted with HW, and nowadays, well it is going bananas, the SW quality is very poor.

I don't judge a product with number of units sold, I mean if you need to move more than 250 tonnes you use an Antonov 225....unit sold? 1, yet the best in its class(and the only one), quality over quantity, If you try the Surface Studio you'll understand that there is more than specs, I mean...."It just works!™"

EDIT:
Also speaking about my country, I never seen an ad for Microsoft Hardware (well may be only XBoX), that definetly does not help sales, yet says nothing about the quality of the product, you can have poor sales even with a great product, and vice versa.

 

[Schizoid]

Question...
Did anyone here buy shares in 1997, when Apple were losing a billion dollars a year?
I had just started working as an Apple engineer and we were seriously wondering what was going to happen...then along came this blue computer!

 

[DanielDD]

Take a look at this picture. The iMac got a design refresh roughly every two years. The current design is 5 years old and counting.

 

[Sevendaymelee]

When Apple does something worthy of praise then I might be less negative.

This is like someone purposely sitting through a movie that they know they hate because they enjoy bitching about it nonstop for two straight hours.

 

[Admiral]

Great hardware overall, the Pismo lasted for 8 years mostly in humid and hot Indonesia until it finally gave up after ~20.000 hours, YES Twenty-thousand hours.

The really envious part is that you got to spend 20,000 hours in Indonesia. What a wonderful place.

 

[Piggie]

This is like someone purposely sitting through a movie that they know they hate because they enjoy bitching about it nonstop for two straight hours.

The problem is, Apple is the only movie that offers the 1 item you want (MacOS or iOS)

If Apple licenced both, you'd see millions of Apple fans leaving Apple products in a millisecond.
That's the problem, you feel trapped as you have everything invested in iOS, but at the same time you don't like the only things the one company is offering you.

It would be the same with any product/industry.
Say Microsoft produced things you did not want really or like, but you and your business and all your data was tied up in Windows, and 99% of all other machines ran MacOS.

Well then you'd gripe about Msoft.

Right now Apple are at the point of abusing their fans, and so fan a good percentage are still putting up with it.
How long for? Who knows.

It's a shame, that the only thing that WOULD cause Apple to make the machines many want would be for the loyal fans to simply stop buying any Apple product for 1 year.
That's all it would take.
1 year, everyone does not buy any Apple product. And that would change Apple totally.

Won't happen of course

 

[justperry]

The really envious part is that you got to spend 20,000 hours in Indonesia. What a wonderful place.

It is in many ways a beautiful place, but that doesn't mean it's perfect, I would like to go again and live there but there's one issue, I can stay there 6 months Maximum and then have to leave for a visa renewal, this isn't too bad though, the really bad thing is I have to go to the immigration about 8 times in that period, first time after 2 months and then each and every month 2 times, 1 week before the extension expires and then again to pick it up, it gets even worse for the 5th and 6th month, I also have to go to the provincial office and they are bastards there, just let you wait for hours even though they have nothing on their hands, next time I will just give them a goat for Ramadan, then you make friends.
The paperwork is horrible too, need lots of papers each and every time, like filling about 15 papers every month and they are the same every month.

Except for that it's a cheap and easy going country, pay no taxes, no insurances, don't get bothered by mail.

 

[neuropsychguy]

It's okay, they never experienced Mac OS 9, nor the first iMac. 2004 was a great time for Apple, but it can't beat seeing it grow and change.

As someone who had an Apple II, then various models of Macs (family computers), I got to experience it all. My first computer I purchased was from the dark days when Apple allowed clones. I had a Motorola StarMax 3000.

 

[L-Viz]

Buyer's Guide

Macbook - don't buy

Macbook Air - caution

Macbook Pro - don't buy

iMac - don't buy

iMac pro - buy

Mac mini - don't buy

Mac Pro - caution


There is nothing to celebrate at Apple, only if they come out with 5 new Macs at WWDC 2018!

 

[simonmet]

I remember wanting a green iMac so bad, they were such a unique design. I like the specs of the current iMac but they are just boring these days.

Agreed. Looking at that lineup I can’t help but feel the iMac has lost that sense of fun and personality. It’s now just a utilitarian object, amplified by the fact that design changes have been iterative only for more than a decade.

The iMac G3s and G4s were the best designs; the G4 especially!

 

[Kabeyun]

Any poor performance browsing was due to the browser. Remember which one? Internet Explorer. That was the reason Apple had to make Safari.

It was Netscape navigator for me. Way better than IE.

 

[simonmet]

Buyer's Guide

Macbook - don't buy

Macbook Air - caution

Macbook Pro - don't buy

iMac - don't buy

iMac pro - buy

Mac mini - don't buy

Mac Pro - caution


There is nothing to celebrate at Apple, only if they come out with 5 new Macs at WWDC 2018!

And the Mac Pro should be a solid don’t buy as well. Terrible state of affairs.

 

[Appleaker]

Excited for the more powerful, redesigned iMacs.

 

[opeter]

Let's face it. Apple is wisely a phone company first now based on profits.

Phone and service company.

 

[maflynn]

I'm late to the thread, but I owned a Bondi blue iMac and it was something else. I loved using it, but I was not jazzed up about the hockey puck mouse.

Over the years, I've had different macs, but the Bondi Blue was something else (in a good way).