Apple Released These Oddly Unique Products in the 1990s

[artifex]

Can we talk about the 2000 Studio Display CRT which to this day is the sexist piece of hardware I've ever seen

I only saw these in person once, at a film director's house in 2002. I thought the backs were actual glass because of the clarity, but also because of some little ripples. In my memory they're much bigger than 21 inches, though.

 

[TheSl0th]

Studio Display

You might be thinking that Apple just released the Studio Display three years ago, but it first used that name for an external monitor released back in 1998.

That picture is a much later Studio Display. The original two were these, first on the left, updated reskin + DVI on the right to go with the updated Translucent/Blue PowerMac G3 (and yes, they came standard with height adjustable stands...):

 

[Jumpthesnark]

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).

Correct! I had the "Quicksilver" Power Mac G4 Digital Audio, got it with the Studio Display they showed in the article. Those were purchased in 2001 or '02.

Prior to that I had the Power Mac 6500/250 that I added the Sonnet G3 upgrade card to, and before that was my other '90s Mac, a Quadra 630. Amazing how expensive those machines were at the time, compared to what you can get today.

 

[B4U]

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.

That's the point exactly. 😅
Bandai was not known for making game hardware. They have Tamagotchi and Digimon by then but not any known consoles.

 

[groove-agent]

Interesting article. Thanks Macrumors.

 

[Sippincider]

In my memory the StyleWriter was far better than the other options at the time, certainly better than the dot-matrix's that we had. Were they actually good?

Had one, and it was a good home/light use printer. Near-laser quality at dot-matrix price, what's not to like in those days? Oh, and silent!

The LaserWriters were the proven workhorses, but also commanded the price to get you into that league. The StyleWriters didn't compare but weren't supposed to.

 

[Warped9]

I keep my G3 tower in my office as a piece of art (such an iconic design).

I wish I still had my 2001 Indigo G3 iMac for the same reason.

 

[JannsEn]

I loved my Stylewriter II while in architecture school in the early 90s. It was portable and compact so I can take it to studio when I needed to along with my Powerbook DuoII. Saved me a lot of money from having to print at school where they charged a lot and you had to ask the lab assistant to print files for you. Back at home I had the Duo Dock that it would plug into and it sat on a 8 inch deep shelf above my desk. Such a space saver. I loved that printer lol.

 

[un_homme]

In my memory the StyleWriter was far better than the other options at the time, certainly better than the dot-matrix's that we had. Were they actually good?

Yes, the Apple StyleWriter II and Apple StyleWriter 1200 (shown in photo) were superb products. Both used the same Canon engine.

As I vaguely recall, whichever one I owned was my favorite printer ever. Small footprint, compact, lightweight, portable, easy to use, easy to refill ink & paper, reliable, and quiet. I can still recall the sweet low-key hum of the printhead moving to and fro, and each page landing gently. I remember a feeling of relief & gratitude as that printer demanded so little of my attention.

I would gladly buy one today if it worked with modern Macs!

 

[williamofockham]

Another one that *just* missed the '90s...

yeah, mine overheated and cracked, but I thought it was truly great. replaced it with a tower

 

[jlc1978]

Yes right !?!
The 82 Imagewriter was also awesome. Printed many college then business reports on that sucker!

I had a wide carriage Imagewriter ][ I won an n an Applelink contest. Great printer along with my Daisy wheel printer.

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!

Newton was a great machine. I still have my 100 along with a book on the Newton. I used a 2000 for a while and liked it, even had a modem card and memory for it.

 

[JosephAW]

Mom’s studio display just died the other day along with her G5 tower. Replaced it with a 2010 iMac.

 

[lcseds]

Let's not forget Apple's laser printer. I worked directly with a design engineer to figure out how to fix defective paper trays. And really older people will recall changing the oil when replacing the fuser in the original Apple laser in the very early 90's.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

We need someone to step in and start axing the quirky and unnecessary products currently offered by Apple, so they can get back to focusing on a few great products rather than trying to cover the whole market with quantity instead of quality.

I strongly disagree. Products like Newton and the Apple Vision Pro are essential to tech growth. And calling Apple's 2025 product lines "quantity instead of quality" is just flat wrong.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

$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!

Hey I will sell you that display lightly used for only half the original price...

 

[MysteriousStain]

I had a StyleWriter in uni, the print quality depended on the luck of getting a good ink cartridge. Bought a studio display with my G5, both of which I still own. It was a different age for Apple back then!

 

[WebHead]

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.

Er, it was a handheld, which to me makes it more of a smartphone than a tablet. A "phablet" at the most. And it did predate the PDAs by Palm, PocketPC etc.

Funny how the product that saved Apple was the spiritual successor to the first one Jobs axed.

 

[Agent69]

Can we talk about the 2000 Studio Display CRT which to this day is the sexist piece of hardware I've ever seen

I had one of these. I bought it along with a PowerMac G4 Cube. The Cube wasn't totally silent for me as I ordered it with a Radeon graphics card - which had a fan on it.

I still have the box the G4 came in. It is in my garage and I use it to store Christmas decorations.

 

[WebHead]

Regarding the Cube, are there any more modern innards (eg from Mac mini) that can be retrofitted into it?

 

[Makosuke]

Well, I had both an LCD Studio Display and a StyleWriter, both great products for the era, although man that StyleWriter was slow.

The single cable for, power, video signal, and USB from the computer is something that even now is rare for anything other than a portable screen, although it's kind of funny that we've mostly gone the exact opposite direction--your screen is plugged into the wall and other peripherals, while there's just a single cable running from it to your computer for power, video, etc.

Can we talk about the 2000 Studio Display CRT which to this day is the sexist piece of hardware I've ever seen

As far as actually sitting in front of the screen and using it goes, the LCD Studio Display was definitely the better product--I used one at work for years--but I cannot disagree with you that the CRT one was gorgeous, and looks as good now as it did then, while the LCD version did not hold up as well in terms of industrial design.

 

[Agent69]

Regarding the Cube, are there any more modern innards (eg from Mac mini) that can be retrofitted into it?

I've been hoping that Apple would release a retro-Cube with current Mac Mini innards, as a homage to Jobs, but I am probably one of the few people who would be interested in such a thing.

 

[WebHead]

I've been hoping that Apple would release a retro-Cube with current Mac Mini innards, as a homage to Jobs, but I am probably one of the few people who would be interested in such a thing.

Yes it is probably sadly niche. Looking at some of the instructional videos I'm reminded how large the Cube actually was.

Tho I've also learnt the latest M4 minis can fit entirely inside the Cube case, so you'd just need some kind of rack mount or shelf, and a way of connecting the DVD drive, video ports etc.

 

[MacCheetah3]

I had one of those too. If memory serves me right it complimented the G3 Tower which I had with mine. Certainly showing my age! View attachment 2528061

Still top three best looking tower cases of all time. And well designed functionality too.

Something of a nitpick.. The Power Mac G3 was “Blue and White” - well, in the newer, iMac-inspired form factor.

Initially, the Power Macintosh G3 was available in a classic beige minitower, (horizontal/under monitor) desktop, or all-in-one system.

It was the Power Mac G4 which had the same design but in a graphite-ish color scheme.

Then the “Quicksilver" version. And to finish out that general design, the “Mirrored Drive Doors” model, which had a redesigned front panel and optical drive position.

 

[miguel cortez]

Cool thing about the original 15" LCD Studio Display was that in addition to it being a computer monitor, it had composite and S/VHS inputs as well for video sources and you could easily switch between them.

 

[jakey rolling]

...really older people will recall changing the oil when replacing the fuser in the original Apple laser in the very early 90's.

I worked at an Apple specialty store in the early 00's when the Power Mac G5 was first announced. One of the techs that had been there since the 90's mused that if a client brought in both an old LaserWriter and a new G5 for service, he might actually have to write up a work order for an oil change and a coolant flush.