iFixit:
Join us as we live the time-traveler’s dream—the deep, lucid, Orwellian vision of hope, fear, and nostalgia that is 1984. Just in time for its 30th anniversary, we laid hands on an ‘84 original: the Macintosh 128K. And, you guessed it—we’re tearing it down like it’s the Berlin Wall.
They give it a repairability score of 7/10. Don’t miss the face-to-face photo of Old vs New in Step 7.
Also worth checking out: Macworld’s unboxing of the Macintosh (via John Siracusa).
Jonathan Zufi:
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.
Beautiful photos. Jonathan is also the author of ICONIC, a fantastic photo book about Apple products. Make sure to check out the PowerBooks page and then look down at your new MacBook’s trackpad.
Macworld’s Jason Snell has an interview with Apple executives Phil Schiller, Craig Federighi, and Bud Tribble about the 30 years of the Mac (Tribble was part of the original Macintosh team). It’s a great interview, and this part about convergence of OS X and iOS stood out to me:
The reason OS X has a different interface than iOS isn’t because one came after the other or because this one’s old and this one’s new,” Federighi said. Instead, it’s because using a mouse and keyboard just isn’t the same as tapping with your finger. “This device,” Federighi said, pointing at a MacBook Air screen, “has been honed over 30 years to be optimal” for keyboards and mice. Schiller and Federighi both made clear that Apple believes that competitors who try to attach a touchscreen to a PC or a clamshell keyboard onto a tablet are barking up the wrong tree.
“It’s obvious and easy enough to slap a touchscreen on a piece of hardware, but is that a good experience?” Federighi said. “We believe, no.
Later in the article, Snell included other quotes by Federighi and Schiller about how each device in Apple’s lineup fills a specific role. The message is clear, but I’m sure that it still won’t convince analysts to better understand the company they’re covering.
Earlier today, I asked:
Got some time to kill before dinner. If you have requests for iOS scripts / workflows, feel free to ask.
— Federico Viticci (@viticci) January 23, 2014
I had some free time, and decided to provide a solution to some of the requests I received. I don’t know if I will repeat this experiment in the future (although it’s likely, because I had fun), but if you have questions, feel free to ask. I don’t see why you shouldn’t speed up that tedious task you’ve been doing over and over on your iPad or iPhone with an action, workflow, or script.
The best part – you can download the actions below and skip this step entirely.
This week, 5by5’s most intrepid trio are back at it, discussing Beats Music, Myke’s iPad and the original Macintosh.
I’m liking Beats Music so far, and I like the company’s vision as well. Also returning in this episode: weekly picks. Get it here.
Developed by Daylen Yang, Stockfish is a free and open-source chess app for Mac based on the Stockfish chess engine.
The app does a couple of interesting things: it’s Retina-ready and it can go full-screen, so you’ll enjoy a chess game on your MacBook Pro’s display without distractions. It supports two-player games and it’s got exporting capabilities and keyboard shortcuts. But more importantly, it comes with advanced chess analysis that lets the computer tell you who’s winning and calculate the best move. I’m fascinated by the technological premise: the app can let you choose to optimize analysis for maximum performance so that more cores will be used to compute chess analyses; even the amount of memory to use can be adjusted. It should be pretty impressive on a new Mac Pro.
Stockfish is free on the Mac App Store and open-source. The Stockfish engine is available here.
For ages, at the bottom of press releases, Apple has included a statement about its business, and over the years, this boilerplate statement has changed numerous times.
Good collection by Stephen Hackett. The first press release and the last one clearly show two different companies through a few sentences.
If you’re saving up for a that special movie, latest iTunes albums, or popular new app, keep track of it with Mentio. The wishlist app lets you add media by searching iTunes and the App Store, lets you share your wishes with friends, and has both light and dark themes for your viewing pleasure. Each item you add contains a small summary (like descriptions for movies), and the option to purchase the item once you’re ready to buy. Useful if you buy apps and media using iTunes gift cards. Download Mentio for a dollar on the App Store.
It’s a common headline as of late, but VLC, an open source media player for desktop and mobile, have updated their iOS app with a refreshed look and plenty of new features. VLC’s latest update lets you stream media from Google Drive and Dropbox, adds new multitouch gestures, and has an improved library for TV shows and audio. The app’s free to download from the App Store for iPhone and iPad.
