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The Mac Turns 40: Read Apple's Announcement From 1984

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January 24 marks the 40th anniversary of Steve Jobs unveiling the Macintosh, the first successful mass-marketed computer with a graphical user interface.

Classic-Mac-40-Years-Old-Feature-1.jpg

The original Macintosh popularized the computer mouse, allowing users to control an on-screen pointer. This point-and-click method of computer navigation was still a novel concept to most people at the time, as personal computers in this era typically had text-based command-line interfaces controlled with a keyboard.

An excerpt from Apple's press release in 1984:
Users tell Macintosh what to do simply by moving a "mouse" — a small pointing device — to select among functions listed in menus and represented by pictorial symbols on the screen. Users are no longer forced to memorize the numerous and confusing keyboard commands of conventional computers. The result is radical ease of use and a significant reduction in learning time. In effect, the Macintosh is a desk-top appliance offering users increased utility and creativity with simplicity.
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Apple said the Macintosh typically took "only a few hours to learn," and it touted what are now basic computer features, such as a desktop with icons, the ability to use multiple programs in windows, drop-down menus, and copy and paste.

A quote from Jobs in Apple's press release:
Macintosh easily fits on a desk, both in terms of its style of operation and its physical design. It takes up about the same amount of desk space as a piece of paper. With Macintosh, the computer is an aid to spontaneity and originality, not an obstacle. It allows ideas and relationships to be viewed in new ways. Macintosh enhances not just productivity, but also creativity.
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Pricing for the original Macintosh started at $2,495, equivalent to over $7,000 today. Key specs and features included an 8 MHz processor, 128 KB of RAM, a 400 KB floppy disk drive for storage, and serial ports for connecting a printer and other accessories.

Apple's full press release for the Macintosh can be found on Stanford University's website.

Article Link: The Mac Turns 40: Read Apple's Announcement From 1984
 
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https://www.macrumors.com/2024/01/23/apple-macintosh-turns-40/
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"Macintosh enhances not just productivity, but also creativity." — Steve Jobs

This has been the core of my devotion to Apple products. Somehow, Apple products just work to help me be more creative. I've always seen this as the distinction between Apple and other companies, who are focused solely on "productivity."

That first Mac changed the course of my life.
 
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I was late to the party - my first MAC contract was back in 1994 starting my career in a company that was 100 % MACs for finance, logistics and construction.

Before that I had an Atari ST in 1985 and used this machine for 9 years with an 68000 and 68020 µIC - so the switch from the Atari to the MAC was a consequent move privately and ever since I love the MAC - not because it is so good but because the other options had been so bad and in contrast the MAC was simper, easier to maintain and administrate and more cost effective.

Sold my PowerMac 7500/100 after seven years of using it for half the price I had payed and bought a Ti MacBook

So my love for the MAC lasts 30 years in a row and the reasons for using it at the beginning are still valid today - maybe even more so.

Great machines and great ecosystem - and lots of good memories
 
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Timo_Existencia said:
"Macintosh enhances not just productivity, but also creativity." — Steve Jobs

This has been the core of my devotion to Apple products. Somehow, Apple products just work to help me be more creative. I've always seen this as the distinction between Apple and other companies, who are focused solely on "productivity."

That first Mac changed the course of my life.
Click to expand...

Spot-on, and same here. All through college, and different careers that followed.

And...though I'm not a software developer, I even wrote an RPN scientific calculator app because none existed at the time, and I needed one for work. Also... a Mac was an essential piece of hardware for my senior thesis project.
 
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Equally innovative was Hewlett-Packard's HP150 introduced the year before the Macintosh. The HP 150 featured a touch-screen interface, fast 8 MHz processor, 256KB RAM, twin 3.5-in 740KB micro floppies and an optional thermal printer that fitted in the top of the casing, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-150
 
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citysnaps said:
Spot-on, and same here. All through college, and different careers that followed.

And...though I'm not a software developer, I even wrote an RPN scientific calculator app because none existed at the time, and I needed one for work. Also... a Mac was an essential piece of hardware for my senior thesis project.
Click to expand...
Give me a pen and paper, and I can't draw to save my life. But, Apple gave me the Mac, and for the first decade of my professional career, I was a graphic designer.
 
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The first Mac I owned was an LC, with a zippy 16 MHz 68020 processor and 4 Mb RAM, purchased as I was heading off to university in 1991. It was a cut-down Mac II for people who couldn't afford Mac II's. Mostly used for Word, ChemDraw and I think Claris Draw? Maybe it was MacDraw back then. It was also used for the whatever the Asteroid-type game in After Dark was, and then Maelstrom; that was sweet.

Edit: and Kaleidagraph! Which I used almost daily for 30 years, and still keep a copy around for plotting data. That program, which is Apple Si native now, still has some System 6 graphics elements in it.
 
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Mac truly evolved when it switch to Intel and then away from it.
I loved every Mac I owned - even though 2 of them had GPU failures (Nvidia and AMD)

I just wish 40 years later to have a UI which allows some of us to have a less eye straining UI.

I know others love it - and it’s fine.
For me, Skeuomorphic UI was less straining and easier on my sight and easier to deal with for longer time span.
The vibrant Pokémon-like colors and less readable interface across all Apple products - is something I wish they would provide an alternative.(not remove but add a complement)
 
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I was five when my Dad brought home the original Macintosh. We also had a Compaq luggable and a TRS-80 CoCo in the house. The Mac blew my mind, especially MacPaint. Even though it was only black and white, the resolution of the screen made it a completely different experience over anything else I had access to at the time.
 
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Over the years I’ve considered a lot of the arguments that Windows and Mac fans used to have - before OS X the similarities weren’t as great - but the one that stands out is the ‘right-click’.

Hard to imagine now, but I still recall people saying “Yeah but you can’t even right-click on a Mac!” or “The mouse is wired, it only has one button!”

I believe this was first introduced in Windows 95, and it became such an obviously brilliant and useful feature that it was hard to go back to anything else. Of all the features Apple ‘borrowed’, this one tops it for me.
 
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Timo_Existencia said:
Give me a pen and paper, and I can't draw to save my life. But, Apple gave me the Mac, and for the first decade of my professional career, I was a graphic designer.
Click to expand...

I'm far from a graphic designer, but having MacDraw and a Mac Plus let me create diagrams for what I needed in school and in work.

Apple's laserwriter added a huge dose of legitimacy (coming from a dot-matrix Apple ImageWriter). Other students and co-workerss would look at my diagrams and say, "How in the hell did you do that?" :)

Then Canvas came out and I was in heaven, being able step up my diagraming game from MacDraw. Sadly, Deneba bit the dust and now I use Omnigraffle.
 
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