Apple Archive

After yesterday's trip down memory lane with OS/2 2.1, I will today take you even further back. With the help of the recently released Apple Lisa emulator, ToastyTech (another invaluable tool for (G)UI fanatics such as myself) updated its set of screenshots from the Lisa Office System (version 3), the first commercially available graphical user interface for home use. "This Lisa emulator tries to give you the full experience of using an Apple Lisa. The backdrop is a photo of a Lisa that changes as the power light comes on and when you 'insert' a disk. It even plays the sound of the Lisa disk drive running as you access the disk. To start the emulator you must press the 'Power button' just as you would start a real Lisa." Read more for a few notes.

"Not too long ago, ad agencies, design firms and other creative companies were about the only businesses that widely deployed Macintosh computers to their employees. But for a number of reasons, word of the benefits of Apple hardware - and software - on enterprise desktops is now spreading."

"At Macworld 2007, the Apple Developer Connection hosted 48 developers in the ADC Developer Pavilion. Located just next to the Apple booth, these developers were able to present their products at the biggest Mac customer event of the year. Thousands of attendees flowed through the ADC Developer Pavilion, talked with the developers, and test drove the products. To find out more about the developers in the pavilion, we interviewed nine of them." There's also a set of pictures. In one of the pictures, the banner uses Comic Sans.

"Apple has said that Jobs knew of backdated option grants but "was unaware of the accounting implications", and an internal investigation cleared him of misconduct. Still, according to media reports, he's been questioned by authorities at the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the investigation by federal authorities is ongoing. With such questions still swirling, some wonder about the possible downside of leaning so heavily on one person to drive the company's success - and what the Jobs-friendly board is doing to prepare for the possibility of losing its star pitchman."

Longtime Windows expert Scot Finnie gave the Mac a three-month trial as his primary machine for work and home use. After 3 months, he concluded: "If you give the Mac three months, as I did, you won't go back either. The hardest part is paying for it - everything after that gets easier and easier."

Apple plans to crank up the anti-Vista rhetoric at its international chain of retail stores later this week, the latest move in a broader bid by the Mac maker to undermine the new operating system release from rival Microsoft. The campaign, set to get underway this Saturday, will include new store displays and employee t-shirts gently mocking Vista as little more than a washed-up attempt at a modern operating system, those familiar with the matter say. In a multi-page training manual made available through the company's internal retail system this week, Apple challenged its employees to learn and tout the Mac's many existing advantages over Vista-equipped Windows PCs.

Apple has given warning that it could be removed from the highly regarded Nasdaq Global Select Market, as the maker of iPod and Macintosh acknowledged for the first time that it was the subject of a federal investigation into its stock option practices. The company, which last June revealed 'irregularities' in its stock option grants and took an USD 84 million (GPB 43 million) charge six months later, said that the investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission could lead to further restatements and delays to its financial reporting.

"I'd like to connect the dots between Apple's iPhone graphics, OS X, LLVM, and the ARM architecture, and what it means for compilers, interpreters, high-performance embedded software systems, specifically in graphics and bytecode engines."

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs was questioned by US investigators about stock options backdating at the company, according to several reports citing unidentified lawyers. Apple and Jobs' attorney did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment on Tuesday. The US Attorney's Office in San Francisco was also not immediately available.

"The lines between the Mac OS and Windows are starting to blur. And that portends major changes going forward in the world of PCs. At last week's MacWorld, a little company called Parallels won awards for the latest version of its hit product, which enables you to run both operating systems at the same time on a Macintosh. It's a major breakthrough."

Apple may not want the word 'computer' in its title anymore, but it's hard to ignore the impact of the Macintosh on the bottom line. Despite a report of flat shipments, plus all the attention given to the iPod, iPhone and Apple TV in the last month, the Mac had a solid quarter for the period that ended on Dec. 30. Apple reported selling about 1.6 million of its signature product during the quarter. The Mac also saw its revenue share increase by about 40 percent compared to last year.

The iPhone is running an optimised but full version of OS X that weighs in at "considerably less" than half a GB, according to Apple vice president of worldwide iPod marketing Greg Joswiak. Joswiak confirmed that the operating system sits in the flash memory of the device and that Apple will "provide updates to the operating system like we do today."

Axiotron, together with distribution partner Other World Computing, is drawing huge crowds at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco this week, as attendees flock to take its new Mac OS X-based 'ModBook' tablet computer for a test run. Unveiled on Tuesday, the USD 2279 device is an after-market hardware modification to Apple's MacBook notebook line. The companies claim it's the 'first ever Mac OS X tablet computer solution'. Each ModBook starts off as a MacBook Core 2 Duo but undergoes a surgical operation where its original display and keyboard are severed, then replaced with a new 13.3-inch Wacom pen enabled widescreen display set in a chrome-plated magnesium top shell. The device runs the current version of Mac OS X and utilizes that software's built-in Inkwell handwriting recognition.

For fans of Macintosh computers, Tuesday brought a chance to hear some of the inside stories behind the history of the iconic machines. At Macworld, Andy Hertzfeld, a member of the team that built the original Mac, spoke to a crowd of about 50 people about the early days of the project.