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Before the Macintosh.
via Digibarn
And even before the Lisa, in 1981 there was the Xerox Star. The link above has a number of high-quality scans of the system.
The Lisa, introduced in 1983 and featuring a young Kevin Costner in one of the ads, would sell for $10,000, yet that was peanuts compared to the Star:
The Xerox Star was not originally meant to be a stand-alone computer, but to be part of an integrated Xerox "personal office system" that also connected to other workstations and network services via Ethernet. Although a single unit sold for $16,000, a typical office would have to purchase at least 2 or 3 machines along with a file server and a name server/print server.
Interesting that in the above shot the printer didn't get the bullet points you see on the screen.
Seeing these two predecessors just three years before the Mac's launch makes you appreciate the littlest Apple all that much more. At $2,500 it was truly remarkable.
Steve Jobs reveals some of iCloud to a D8 conference attendee a year ago
In light of the recent iCloud announcement, it's especially interesting to review this exchange between Steve Jobs and a D8 conference attendee during the Q&A session at the end of Jobs' interview.
What's surprising is how candid Jobs was about a future offering. Not only was he specific about what the problem was, he even tipped his hand at iTunes Match scanning non-iTunes content by using the phrase "or somehow otherwise acquired", which neither McAskill or Mossberg mentioned. He then states that they're working on it.
In retrospect it was an unusual reveal for Jobs to make, given his standard response of not talking about future products
The exchange begins at 1:20:45 in the video here, and I've transcribed it below (emphasis is Jobs'):
Don McAskill: Hey, Steve, Don McAskill from SmugMug. You may remember a couple years ago we talked about this, but I think it's even more pressing. I love my iPad, my two year old daughter loves my iPad, and I buy the truck vs. car analogy, but it seems like there's a sort of a gaping hole in that analogy right now. You have great syncing of contacts and mail and calendar. I can buy my apps and update them over the air, but I still have to tether to get what is arguably the birth of this platform, which is music and videos on my devices…
Steve Jobs (interrupting): That's not exactly true. You can buy music and get it on your device over the air and you can buy video and get it on your device over the air. iTunes store is on all those devices and it does flow over the air.
McAskill: But I have a large iTunes library that I've built up thanks to you over the last eight years…
Jobs (interrupting): No what you'd like to do is share your library of media amongst your various devices. It's not buying it…
Walt Mossberg (interrupting): Without a wire.
Jobs: Yeah, without a wire. It's not buying it on that device, because you could buy it all on that device.
McAskill: It's the tethering…
Mossberg: Syncing.
Jobs: It's the sharing. You want to share your content that you've bought or somehow otherwise acquired amongst you're various devices.
McAskill: Yeah.
Mossberg: And you can't do that today, right, with iTunes?
Jobs: You can do that today with a wire, you cannot do that today without a wire. We need to work harder on that.
Mossberg: You do.
Jobs: We do.
(audience laughing)
McAskill: Thank you.
Mossberg: You really can't even do it with a wire because it'll blow away, it'll say if you're gonna sync with this PC or this Mac…
Jobs (interrupting): No no but if it's your content you can do it all real easy, it just takes a wire.
Mossberg: So you're gonna do better?
Jobs: We need to do better.
Mossberg: OK, any time soon?
Jobs: We're working on it.
Some interesting data on Mac vs. PC vs. Other
It's interesting to note that while Mac people are most concerned with the OS debate, in all three groups over half the people either think they're pointless, or skipped the question altogether.
Reduced prices coming for iWork '11, especially for Family Pack users
Last month, visual cues presented during Apple's "Back to the Mac" media event suggested that it would sell the iWork and iLife suite applications individually on the Mac App Store. Images of the forthcoming software download destination included the ability to purchaseiWork apps for $19.99 each
Back to the Mac: Thoughts, Observations and Questions
My comments on the various announcements at Apple's recent Special Event.
iPhoto 11
Apple continued their efforts to make iLife powerful while still being easy to use. iPhoto is my most-used iLife app, and the new full screen mode looks sweet. Now that I can live in full screen mode, I will.
I didn't like that Facebook and Flickr sharing seemed one-way streets, so the ability to grab and display all your albums even if you didn't use iPhoto to put them there is huge for me. I will use iPhoto much more with Flickr as a result.
I've put together books with iPhoto and enjoyed the process, but today's demo makes it look so much easier than before (and it was already easy). It looks very well done.
My only disappointment is that no editing tools were discussed, and I didn't get a good shot of the editor. The last couple of releases of iPhoto have borrowed tools from Aperture—such as the gamma level control and not saturating skin tones—and I hope this new one does as well. I realize I don't need Aperture power (I stopped at Aperture 2), but that doesn't mean I should only have basics.
iMovie 11
The additions of face recognition and enhanced audio editing to iMovie are big.
Meanwhile, I'm sure many will deride the trailers feature but I think it's beautiful. No, it isn't about creating a 30-second trailer for your 5-minute movie. What the detractors don't seem to get is that for many people the trailer will be the movie. Outside of the geek community most people's jaws will drop when you show them a trailer of the ball game or vacation trip or outing you all had last month.
Garageband 11
I'm all thumbs when it comes to music so I don't use Garageband much, but even I know how cool groove track can be. A great idea, and typical of Apple. I also think the visual feedback when playing was an interesting addition. I wonder how much improvement it could make to plying in the real world.
iWeb and iDVD
It's safe to say these weren't updated at all since they don't even have a spot on the iLife section of the web site. The good news is that for those still creating DVDs they get at least one more iLife cycle (18 months or more) of iDVD support.
iWork 11
Psyche! There was no iWork 11 announcement today. I'm disappointed by this, and anxious for when we'll see the latest version of the suite. Maybe when the App Store opens?
Mac App Store
I love this, and don't get all the paranoia and complaining I've seen.
This is not the only way to get apps on the Mac. It's silly to think Apple's out to kill the 25-year old methodology for getting apps on a Mac. But they are out to come up with something better. I believe the App Store will be it. I love the easy way to find and purchase apps, and to update them afterwards. Further, I don't think of the App Store as installing apps for me, I think of it more as apps that don't need installing. That's what the vast majority of users will think, too.
Mac OS X Lion
Too early to comment much. I mean, we got a really, really small sneak peak. I think it's the smallest sneak peak of a new OS X release we've ever seen. I tend to think this had less to do with what's available, and more to do with this not being a developer event and Apple wanting to focus on what could be bought now.
Still, I already love Launchpad (I really like the iOS paradigm of launching apps) and also Mission Control since I use both Exposé and Spaces heavily.
MacBook Air
I love these, and it's nice to see them transition to full unibody models.
The 11" model is tempting. I'm sure some will claim Apple has finally built a netbook, but that's nonsense. This isn't some Atom-powered cheap plastic piece of crap. Even at the minimum 1.4GHz it's an Intel Core 2 Duo w/ 800MHz bus and 3MB shared cache. It has a full size keyboard. The Nvidia 320M graphics with 1366 x 768 resolution will be gorgeous and fast. On top of this add flash storage (2x faster than a HDD) and there's no netbook that can touch it. This is a laptop, people, albeit a small and beautiful one.
The 13" model offers great improvements over the 11" besides the physically larger screen. The resolution is 1440 x 900, the largest for a 13" MacBook ever. Higher CPU speeds, front-side bus is 1066MHz and the shared cache is 6MB. And there's an SD card slot and 2 more hours of battery life as well.
Regarding battery life, I'm anxious for more to come out on Apple's new battery tests. Interesting to see if they really do show "real world" performance. I'll keep an eye out for battery comments when the reviews hit the usual sites.
Mac US Sales Share the Highest in Apple's History
According to the Quarterly PC Tracker Survey released by IDC today, Apple shipped 1.99 million Macs in the U.S. during the third quarter of 2010. That's good for 10.6 percent of the 18.9 million PCs shipped in the U.S., putting Apple's share at its highest in the U.S. in the company's history
This despite Macs supposedly being too expensive, and of course an economy that's been less than helpful in spurring large consumer purchases.
Further, it's especially impressive when you consider it represents 24% y/y growth while the rest of the industry was essentially flat. Apple has been outpacing the PC industry's growth for years now, and it shows.
Speaking of Apple Not Using Stickers On Macs
A recent New York Times article about various stickers on PCs reminded me of three years ago when a reporter asked Steve Jobs why Apple passed on the extra income afforded by Intel stickers on Macs:
Dear Apple: Please add decent mobile control over MobileMe photo galleries
As a MobileMe subscriber I enjoy using the Gallery for photos. I think the interface and options for viewing photos in the galleries is beautiful. However, every time I maintain the site I can't help but be frustrated at the lack of control Apple provides. The only real control comes via the Mac using iPhoto or Aperture. And even then, photos placed on the galleries have less utility than on the desktop.
The Mac
With Aperture or iPhoto you can create albums for upload and sync to MobileMe. You can add or delete photos and the albums stay in sync. You can add new albums, drag and drop photos between them, and any keywords or star ratings added to photos in a MobileMe album work just like any other album.
Unfortunately, once you get off the Mac some of this data is not used, and your ability to make changes are reduced drastically.
The Web
The Gallery interface for MobileMe on the web isn't too bad. Here you can add/delete albums. You also have some control over albums, but are missing the ability to set privacy or the download quality of the photos (see album settings below, MobileMe on top, iPhoto on bottom). These are important settings, yet they can't be controlled via the web interface.
As for photos, you can add/delete, rotate, and drag and drop them among existing albums. Not bad, but there are no other editing controls, no ratings, and no keywords. Further, even if ratings and keywords are used on the Mac, they're not available on the web interface. You know the keyword searches you can do in Flickr? Yeah, there's none of that in MobileMe.
The iPhone
On the iPhone it gets much worse. You cannot use the web interface, instead you're routed to a page that tells you to load Apple's Gallery app. The app is beautiful (below) and great for viewing pictures, but that's all it allows. There's no facility to edit information or change settings for albums or photos. There's no upload facility, and not even the ability to delete a photo from an album. Aside from viewing all you can do is email a link to a photo or album.
It should be noted that a picture viewed in the native Photos app can be uploaded to MobileMe, where you can select an existing album (but not add a new one) and a title/description. Again, no editing, deleting, ratings or keywords are allowed.
The iPad
Sadly, the iPad is the worst mobile device of all for controlling one's MobileMe galleries. Like the iPhone, you can't use the web interface and must download the Gallery app. But the Gallery app has not been upgraded for the iPad, so it's either very small or very ugly, take your pick.
The Upshot
In short, you have good control of galleries via your Mac, but some of that data isn't stored online, and when you leave the Mac you're limited. The Web interface is OK, but lacks privacy controls, and the iPhone/iPad have essentially no controls at all.
Apple ought to change this. The Gallery app could take some cues from Flickr's own app, which allows title, description, photoset (including adding a new one), tags, image size, geotag, and privacy level for each upload. Further, it allows editing an existing photo's title, description, photoset, tags and privacy. It also allows you to delete photos.
It's frustrating that real maintenance on my MobileMe galleries requires I get back to a Mac. Frankly, it takes the "mobile" out of MobileMe. It's no wonder I use Flickr more often.
