I bought a LaserWriter alongside my first Mac in '86. Though it is long, long gone, it's still probably the best laser printer I've ever owned.
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Apple Released These Oddly Unique Products in the 1990s
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Yes right !?!
The 82 Imagewriter was also awesome. Printed many college then business reports on that sucker!
My handwriting was actually recognised very well by Newton, but i had put in the time and effort to train it, first! Without taking the time to do that, you could very easily end up with recognised text that wasn’t quite right!
I was an early adopter of Newton tech in the 90s and I have all models released in my collection. My fav is the MessagePad 2000 which was an absolutely awesome device!
$1999 for a 15in. display in 1998? Thats $3500 in today’s money. Kinda put things in perspective.
An iMac in 1998 was $1299 which is like $2400 today. Wow!
An iMac in 1998 was $1299 which is like $2400 today. Wow!
Doesn't it, though? And I think the $1599 ASD price is too high. Of course, I didn't buy the one I used in 2002-2004. That probably has a lot to do with it.
I had a QuickTake 100 for a while. At work I was developing technical documentation for our products, so being able to snap a half decent quality photo, upload it to the computer, and drop it in my QuarkXPress document in a matter of minutes was something of a revolution.
I still have my eMate 300. One of Apple's very top pieces of ID, and the design that turned Steve Jobs' head when he came back and cemented his relationship with Jony Ive.
How soon we forget that LCD displays were at one time a total luxury, especially in 1998. I really coveted the original Apple Cinema Display when it first came out in 1999, but the $4,000 price tag was a bit rich for my blood. I did deploy a few for some clients — it was a gorgeous bit of kit.
The best Apple printer I owned was the LaserWriter 16/600 PS. A bulletproof tank, fast and capable, and very easy to service.
I still have my eMate 300. One of Apple's very top pieces of ID, and the design that turned Steve Jobs' head when he came back and cemented his relationship with Jony Ive.
How soon we forget that LCD displays were at one time a total luxury, especially in 1998. I really coveted the original Apple Cinema Display when it first came out in 1999, but the $4,000 price tag was a bit rich for my blood. I did deploy a few for some clients — it was a gorgeous bit of kit.
The best Apple printer I owned was the LaserWriter 16/600 PS. A bulletproof tank, fast and capable, and very easy to service.
I tied up the house phone line for hours and ran up huge credit card and phone bills dialing into AOL at 14.4.
🤣
eMates and the original iBook were really great devices. Both useful and practical.
I had the StyleWriter II alongside my Mac Classic II which I bought from my college's bookstore for probably like half a year's rent. It was AMAZING to have a printer at home so I could stop running to the computer lab to print stuff out.
The Studio Display pictured in the article is the version that was sold in the early 2000s, designed to complement the G4 series Macs. The original 1998 one referenced in the text featured semi-translucent plastic (in a similar design language as the "Pismo" G3 PowerBooks).
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That's way back when Apple was making some different products, success or not, they tried. Other than the Apple Vision Pro, what's new in the last ten years? Upgrades yes, innovative products? Hardly.
I keep my G3 tower in my office as a piece of art (such an iconic design).
Anyway, my first Mac was an LC, back in 1991, with a Stylewriter. People often aren't aware how revolutionary inkjet printers were at the time. Just a printer, right, boring? Not at all! The resolution wasn't far off that of the Laserwriter (costing 10x) as much, and leaps and bounds ahead of the dot matrix printers of the time. Perfect for college. The only downside was that it was sloooowww.
Bandai also released a handheld called WonderSwan which also could not compete with another Nintendo product called Game Boy, despite being a great product.
Why did Apple team up with Bandai?
Why did Apple team up with Bandai?
Those 1990s products were not as innovative as the products released when Steve Jobs was CEO, but they were still more innovative than anything Tim Cook has released as CEO.
Rosetta (the HWR engine) improved a lot with later versions for sure.
Still have a MP130, 2100, and an eMate around. I need to re-lube the hinge on the eMate and re-cell the battery at some point.
WonderSwan wasn't until 1999, well after the PiPP!N. Plus, it's worth remembering that Sega and Bandai nearly merged in 1997, and some of the WS development was done with that in mind before the merger collapsed.
Another one that *just* missed the '90s...
The Newton was kind of like a precursor of the modern smart phone? What crack are you smoking. It was a frickin' tablet. It had no telephony. it was a PDA with a touch screen via stylus. AKA a tablet.
Good lord. Macrumors need to ret-con everything so that Apple can be the inventor of everything is so bizarre.
Good lord. Macrumors need to ret-con everything so that Apple can be the inventor of everything is so bizarre.
I used a 2nd hand StyleWriter (1200 or 1500?) for about 5 years from 1998 on. The type face was nice and I really liked the small footprint of the printer.
Printing was relatively slow, though, and like every other ink printer, once it wasn't used for a while, the ink channels would get blocked by dried-up ink (which was easily fixed by a wipe with distilled water, but still an annoyance).
Ahh, Newton. Subect to cruel social ridicule, yet laid some of the most important foundations for Apple's current success like Apple Silicon. From the terrific Ars article below (well worth the read):
"And last but definitely not least, the little British firm that created the Acorn RISC Machine CPU spun out its chip into a separate company. The ARM designs ended up powering almost every single smartphone and tablet in the world and became the core of what is today known as Apple Silicon. Not bad for a $3 million initial investment!"
Ars Link:
arstechnica.com
!!!!! Newton : The reason to take risks even if you fail -- a good lesson !!!!!!
"And last but definitely not least, the little British firm that created the Acorn RISC Machine CPU spun out its chip into a separate company. The ARM designs ended up powering almost every single smartphone and tablet in the world and became the core of what is today known as Apple Silicon. Not bad for a $3 million initial investment!"
Ars Link:
Remembering Apple’s Newton, 30 years on
On its 30th anniversary, we look at the groundbreaking product’s enduring legacy.
arstechnica.com
!!!!! Newton : The reason to take risks even if you fail -- a good lesson !!!!!!