Newton Poetry

The New York Times:

Mr. Jobs founded Apple in 1976 with Steve Wozniak, and built the company’s reputation with the Apple II and Macintosh computers. He left Apple in 1985 after a conflict with John Sculley, then the chief executive. The following year, with a small group of Apple employees, he founded NeXt Computer, which ultimately focused on the corporate computing market, without notable success. In 1986, he bought the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm and re-established it as the independent animation studio Pixar.

A decade later he sold the NeXt operating system to Apple and returned to the company. In short order he was again at the helm and set out to modernize the company’s computers.

And so ends a helluva run.

Lots will be said about Steve Jobs resignation, but it’s the above story that always moved me about Apple. Here was a company that kicked out its founder, struggled, brought him back, and went on to achieve greater things. If that’s not a archetype of a story, I don’t know what is.

It’s only appropriate that today, on the day Steve Jobs announced the iPad 2, that Thomas Brand from Egg Freckles released a tablet for classic Mac lovers: the above G3-era version.

This after I challenged him with a hypothetical blueberry model. Boy, does that guy deliver or what?

Also: a beige model, for the classic lovers. Love how the Apple logo could serve as the new Home button.

While the iPad 2 is the first iPad I’ve considered buying, I would pick up a pinstripe Apple tablet in a heartbeat.

Just for fun, I posted a few new iPhone wallpapers that might interest Apple fans: four wrinkled-paper versions, like the Newton one above.

“I was there until Steve came back and it was clear he was going to kill the project. In some ways I am sad he did, but I can see why he needed to. Apple had to focus or there would be no Apple today. As it is, some of the technologies are around today (as are the engineers that created them). You can see it in the recognition of addresses and events, and in many other places.”

– Maurice Sharp, ex Newton DTS Engineer and Manager, via the Newtontalk list.

Dave Caolog on breaking out his 20″ iMac G4 (my dream machine):

As my MacBook Pro slowly dies, I’ve called my old G4 iMac back into service. Years ago, that machine was wiped clean and given an install of Mac OS X 10.5 before being boxed in the basement. On Friday I will wrap up one week of using it as my primary work machine. In that time I’ve found that it’s slow, beautiful and perfect. Here’s why.

Caolog notes that things run a tad slower on the iMac, but “waiting a half of a second isn’t the end of the world.”

Even better? “This is the most beautiful computer Apple has made,” he says.

Not only do I agree, but after using a 15″ iMac (and at a paltry 800 MHz) for an entire year as my main workstation, it more than served its purpose. Caolog kept his needs simple: TextEdit, Preview, and a few other apps. That’s it.

When your needs are simple, a simple (and gorgeous) Mac is all you need.

[Via Shawn Blanc.]

Andy Ihnatko’s original iPhone. An oldie but goodie.

[Via Daring Fireball.]

It’s just a tad early to be crowning the “greatest gadget” of this century, don’t you think CNet?

Before the iMac, computers were beige. Beige. That might have been fine in the early ’80s, but so were corduroy trousers and sandals with socks and you wouldn’t want to see them in your living room now. And that’s what’s important about the iMac: it’s the machine that made the world at large realise you can have a computer and not have to hide it. It was — and still is — the only computer that’s genuinely sexy.

You’ll get no arguments from me there. But perhaps the iMac is the greatest of the last century, since it was released in the late ’90s?

And as much as I love me some iMac, it’s hard not to think of the iPod or iPhone as the gadget of the 2000s. What sold more? Which had the bigger impact on the industry it landed in? What wiped the slate clean and truly innovated?

The iMac is still a Mac. Internally, and software-wise, it’s no different than a Mac Mini, Mac Pro, or Macbook. For that matter, the original iMac was little different from the Mac SEs before it other than tech specs and software. All-in-ones, even stylish ones, were nothing new in 1998.

Instead of winning some arbitrary contest, the iMac should be known as the Mac that launched Apple’s resurrection. After the original Bondi Blue, everything changed. It was Apple’s first big hit after Steve Jobs returned. For that, it deserves a lot of praise – but certainly not some goofy, arbitrary award from CNet.

Ryan Vetter at Liquidpubs:

Since the Macintosh division, as well as many others at Apple, saw the Newton as something that could very well make desktop computers extinct, they decided to develop a Newton-like Mac. Something that could act like a portable, slate-like device. But, unlike the Newton, these devices would run Mac software, with a full Mac operating system, and work with a keyboard and mouse. It was a bridge between the original Macintosh and the new, mobile powerhouse: the Newton.

What proceeds this is a fascinating tour of Apple’s history designing tablet computers – and not just the Newton, but tablet-style Apple IIs and Macs as well.

Reading through this, you get the impression that the folks at Apple have been obsessed with portables for a very long time. All these years later, it’s what the company is best know for.

[Via Minimal Mac.]

“How many Apple products? Wow, I don’t know if I can account for them all. Practically one of everything. And I’m not exaggerating. Yes, even a Newton.

I can tell you how many PC’s I’ve owned: Zero.”

– Lee Unkrich, director of Toy Story 3, in an interview at Cult of Mac.

“In the same way, I’d rather get a computer that didn’t require any maintenance and simply allowed me to do productive work. I’d like to have something to show for all of my clicking and typing instead of simply making information balloons go away. I’d rather write an article for this site than type my serial number again. I’d rather search the internet for interesting or entertaining information to read instead of looking for the solution to an obscure problem for which I only have a useless generic error message. I just want things to work.”

– Marco Arment