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Posts tagged macintosh
A DVD Burner Mac Users Can Enjoy
300 days
by TwiddleGeek
in dvd Rrw Drives
If you use a Macintosh computer, you might already know that it’s not always as easy to find software and hardware for your computer as it is for a PC that runs Windows. It can be very frustrating to have a computer that you love but not be able to find the accessories and additions that you want which are compatible with your system. Companies now understand that Mac users want the same great items such as DVD burner Mac so this is why there are now many more products available to you.
Choosing a Computer for Freelance Graphic Design
For many years, when a freelance graphic designer chose a new computer, Macintosh was the automatic choice. Macintosh computers provided the memory, processing speed and storage necessary for large design files. Most graphic design firms and printing companies used only Macintosh computers. Today, that trend continues but PCs are making...
Where can you find a DVD burner Mac users will find compatible? There are actually several different models that will work on your Macintosh computer. Memorex is a well-known company that makes DVD burners for Macs and there are others as well. the best thing you can do is start reading some reviews and seeing what other people have to say about the different brands so that you can get a good idea for a Mac-compatible DVD Burner that will suit your needs. You should go to websites and message boards for Macintosh users so that you are getting
When choosing a DVD burner Mac, there are a few things you need to take into consideration. what kind of connection does the DVD burner have? what kind of speed does it operate at? These are just a couple things to look at when choosing a DVD burner. are you looking for something that creates DVDs or just something to back up copies of your existing DVDs? do you need something that is excellent at both reading and writing your DVDs? having a good idea of what it is you want will help you when the time comes to select a burner for your Macintosh.
A Career In Desktop Publishing
322 days
Desktop publishing, also known as DTP, combines personal computer and page layout software to create publication documents on a computer for either large-scale publishing or small-scale local economical multifunction peripheral output and distribution.
What Do they Do?:
Desktop publishers use computer software produce and format material to be ready for publication. they use text, numbers and data, and charts to come up with a comprehensive publication. these publications can be anything from newspapers and newsletters, to books and magazines.
About 4 out of 10 work for newspaper, periodical, book, and directory publishers
1 out of 4 work in printing and related support activities.
Employment is expected to grow faster than the average for all occupations.
Job opportunities should be best for those with certificates or degrees in desktop publishing or graphic design.
To become a desktop publishing professional, you will need training from an accredited vocational school or college. you can earn your certificate in desktop publishing in about a year, and you can even earn your certificate online. you will learn advanced Macintosh and PC, press skills, and be proficient in advanced design. Print technologies will also be taught in certificate programs. every employer will have different software requirements, but having basic skills will lay a solid foundation for work in desktop publishing.
Desktop publishers generally work in the printing and publishing industries. those in major metropolitan areas may find that job opportunities are better there than other places. more than 35,000 people are employed in desktop publishing, and that number grows every year. more companies today are publishing brochures and literature in-house, which makes the job outlook for desktop publishers strong. The average earnings for desktop publishers is $33,000 annually.
Elgato Thunderbolt SSD
334 days
PC Advisor – Thunderbolt, the high-speed interconnect standard, launched in February 2011 with Apple’s springtime updates to the MacBook Pro. Yet useful products to use it remain relatively thin on the ground. Elgato’s Thunderbolt SSD is one of very few portable storage drives to use Thunderbolt. It’s a fast drive but it also highlights some current issues with the implementation of the standard that means it cannot perform close to its potential. Read more Storage reviews.
Elgato is best known for its digital TV adaptors, enabling digital terrestrial and satellite television to be watched on a Mac or Windows PC. and the company has an even longer background in digital media, commissioned to develop Roxio’s CD burning technology, for example. But the Elgato Thunderbolt SSD is the company’s first storage product.
The Elgato Thunderbolt SSD comprises a 2.5in solid-state drive in a compact all-metal enclosure, with a single Thunderbolt port to connect to an Apple Macintosh, or a Windows PC fielding a Thunderbolt-enabled motherboard. It requires no extra connection as it takes its power from the Thunderbolt bus, like most portable USB and FireWire hard drives.
Thunderbolt allows up to 12 devices to be connected to one port, daisy-chained together, and up to one display at the end of the chain. Bus-powered units like this SSD are however only permitted to offer one Thunderbolt port. so unlike FireWire, which will allow two portable drives to be linked in-line to one port, bus-powered Thunderbolt devices can only work at the end of a chain.
Elgato Thunderbolt SSD: Build Quality
The Elgato Thunderbolt SSD is a solid-feeling hunk of metal, comprising two halves of cast aluminium secured together by four hex-head screws.
It’s finished with gunmetal paint over the natural metal, and this finish can chip off with use.
One such screw has been glued over to discourage removal. in fact Elgato explicitly warns against opening the case. If you should dare to open the case, you may find a message adhered to the inside of the top half that reads:
‘Welcome! We’ve been expecting you.
This Elgato Thunderbolt SSD was carefully engineered and tested for reliability and performance. Do not replace the factory-installed SSD.
Peak power consumption of the SSD may not exceed 3.5W
Please understand that opening the case has voided your warranty.’
The solid-state drive already fitted inside is an older SATA Revision 2.0 device from SanDisk, the Ultra 120 in our example.
Given Thunderbolt’s design specification of up to 10Gbps full-duplex (that is, 10Gbps in each direction simultaneously), which is equivalent to 1250MBps, there ought to be bandwidth to spare to use a third-generation SSD that is capable of at least 500MBps sequential read/write speeds.
The SanDisk Ultra 120 SSD itself is limited to around 280MBps performance.
We were told that this older, slower drive was selected due to restrictions imposed on the power budget.
While Thunderbolt’s original spec stated that 10W is available to bus-powered devices, the internal SSD is left short-changed by the high power requirements of the essential supporting electronics.
(An Intel spokesman, Jason Ziller, Intel Director of Thunderbolt Marketing, told us that the Thunderbolt bus has been revised to allow up to 12W of power, although Thunderbolt devices are still currently limited to drawing 10W maximum.)
For a start, the Thunderbolt cable itself consumes several watts; the latter cable is an active transmission-line device, with two power-hungry chips hidden inside the plugs on each end.
So while Thunderbolt may deliver up to 10W of power, only 3.5W is available for the SSD, as Elgato warns in the label inside the case. We did try a SATA 6Gbps SSD though, and discovered why Elgato did not fit the same.
Elgato Thunderbolt SSD: Performance
Used as intended, the Elgato Thunderbolt SSD is quite quick for a portable external storage drive. From the QuickBench speed benchmark, we saw write speeds up to 264MBps, and sequential read speeds up to 271MBps.
From the QuickBench small-file transfer test (using samples from 4kB to 1024kB), we saw average sequential read/write speeds of 139/140MBps.
In the random read/write test with same small files, performance was still very good at 127 and 139MBps respectively.
Do note the near-symmetrical speeds of read and write performance. this suggests that QuickBench is using compressible data in its data transfer calculations.
Unfortunately SanDisk Ultra 120 uses a SandForce controller, which accelerates write performance by pre-compressing incoming data. While this allows good performance from data that is compressible — such as text files and spreadsheets — it behaves much less well with already-compressed media files such as JPEG, MPEG and MP3 files.
Pushing the power envelope
With Elgato’s consent, we tried a third-gen SATA SSD to see how the unit behaved. as predicted, when we slotted in the drive — a Patriot Wildfire 256GB SSD — connection to the host PC became erratic as the drive would randomly disconnect. this was presumed to be whenever it became temporarily starved of sufficient power during peak transient current demands.
When this SSD was working though, we noted it was performing some way below its capabilities. Fastest sequential read speeds were up to 382MBps, while fastest writes were at 347MBps
An Intel 520 SSD was also tried, with somewhat similar results: 382MBps reads and 343MBps writes.
The Patriot Wildfire 240GB was previously tested under Windows on a direct SATA 6Gbps link, where we saw it able to reach speeds of around 500MBps (read) and 470MBps (write); the Intel could reach 488 and 480MBps in the same CrystalDiskMark test.
Further examination of the Elgato Thunderbolt SSD’s electronics revealed the probable reason why the two SATA Revision 3.0 SSDs we tried were being throttled back.
One of the key components in the Elgato’s supporting electronics is the PCI-Express to SATA bridge, in this case an ASMedia ASM1061 chip. While this device is listed as supporting ‘SATA 6BGps’, it uses only a single PCI-E lane.
This gives it a theoretical 500MBps throughput at the PHY level, but in practice may only be able to funnel data through at around 75% its nominal ceiling. this at least would explain the circa-380MBps ceiling on data transfer speeds from the Elgato Thunderbolt SSD.
The Elgato Thunderbolt SSD is undoubtedly a quick drive by the standards of many portable storage drives. But current limitations from supporting electronics means it can only work at SATA Revison 2.0 speeds of around 270MBps, rather than the circa-500MBps that modern SSDs can achieve. If you need quick and portable fast storage today, the Elgato Thunderbolt SSD is a solidly constructed external SSD that works well with Thunderbolt-equipped PCs.
Why Are Macs More Expensive Than PCs?
409 days
by TwiddleGeek
in apple Components
This is an impartial question, not intended to show bias toward Macintosh or PC’s in one way or another. The fact is, though, that Macs are more expensive in general than PC’s. everyone knows that, and many have never bought a Mac because of it. In general then, what is it that makes Macs more expensive?
One reason is labor. Apple spends a much higher ratio of it budget hours on it’s operating system, hardware design, and aesthetics. Artists and engineers must work closely together at Apple. It is true though that Windows engineers have their hands full making sure that the Windows OS can be ported to a myriad of hardware systems, and Mac is far more streamlined and can focus intently on enhancements, reliability, and usability. The Mac OS offers much more software and functionality for your dollar than does Windows.
The second element is parts. While Apple uses mid to high-end parts in its computers in much the same way as other computer manufactures, Apple carefully chooses its parts for reliability, design, and compatibility. a Mac can last a very long time indeed. Apple is famous for coming up with ingenious designs such as the iMac, the Mac Mini, and the iPhone. In fact, this has been the Mac legacy from the very beginning. And as computer parts get smaller and smaller world wide, Apple spends a great deal of its time considering how to consolidate such parts in a simple, elegant way.
Finally, in consideration with parts, Apple strives to make its end products very aesthetically pleasing. perhaps most important in this equation are gorgeous monitors; something Macs are famous for and graphics professionals love. however, these monitors are top-end and expensive, which further drives up the price of a Mac. all in all then, Mac and PC prices are pretty much comparable.
Buying Apple Refurbished and Used Mac Laptops is a Wise Choice
455 days
by TwiddleGeek
in vintage Apple Mac
Apple refurbished and used Mac laptops are a great option when considering buying a computer. whether you are looking to upgrade from the computer you already have, trying to meet business or personal needs or have a student in need of a system for schoolwork a refurbished Macintosh computer is a smart choice. it will meet all your technical needs as well as be easier on the pocketbook.
Let’s face it; we all want the best value for our dollar. And refurbished computers provide just that. These computers are often never used, having been ordered but not shipped or having been returned without even being turned on. The computers that were used are put through rigorous testing and must meet the same standards as any new computer leaving the plant. All your computer needs can be easily met with a refurbished Mac laptop. Anything that you want to do with your computer, from CAD projects to playing your favorite movies to all your business accounting can be done just as professionally and easily on a used computer ordered through Apple as it can on a new one and for half the price.
You can get refurbished Apple laptops with features that you will not find on a new PC and you get amazing support with your purchase. there are all the same options available in refurbished models as you can with brand new ones, wide screen glossy monitors, built in cameras and lots of great software already for you to use.
Refurbished and used Mac laptops sold through the online Apple site also come with technical support and a warranty just like new computers. You can shop from the comfort of your home, see all the options available, get customer service, and have it delivered to your door all for a much lower price then you will find anywhere else.
The Apple site is simple to use and answers even the most perplexing questions any time of day from anywhere you want. You can buy a quality computer in the middle of the night while wearing your pajamas or on your lunch hour at work. it is a quick, secure, and straightforward process that caters to the needs of every customer.
Once you find the refurbished computer that suits your needs there are lots of support available to you from on site customer service by knowledgeable employees of Apple to an owner’s manual that will be shipped with your computer. You will have all the technical support available and can even purchase the appropriate features that will be perfect for you. Apple has the highest standards for each computer to make sure that it will be as problem-free as any new computer you might find yet is easy on your budget as well. there is no excuse to keep putting off getting the computer you always wanted.
Apple refurbished and used Mac laptops are a great answer to anyone’s computer and technological needs. there is a product available to meet even the pickiest of customer’s needs and Apple offers them all from their client friendly site. there is no need to put off getting the computer you have always dreamed of because Apple refurbished and used Mac laptops are the top of the line and most economical choice available today.
What Can You Do With A Mac Mini?
460 days
by TwiddleGeek
in usb Keyboards
If you have not seen the newest addition to the Macintosh line, it is worth taking a look. It is a very small computer that is only 6.5 x 6.5 x 2 inches. The Mac Mini is about the size of one of those internal CD-ROM drives you install into a PC. By far one of the smallest computers you can buy. and its relatively in expensive, the base model costs only $499. Additionally, you need not buy a new monitor, mouse or keyboard. It is 100% compatible with PC monitors and PC USB keyboards and mice.
But what exactly can you do with this mini computer? Quite a bit The base model comes with more than enough features for most computer uses. It is a full fledge Macintosh, nothing small about this machine except its physical size.
In this article I will talk about three main uses for the Mac mini. First, I will discuss what Macs are known for; their audio and video capabilities. secondly, I will discuss general Internet uses such as browsing, email and chat. Finally I will discuss word processing. These three are some of the most common tasks for most computer users.
Digital Video, Photos and Music
Music has become what Apple is known best for. Who has not seen one of their iPod music players? The Apple Macintosh comes with iTunes, which allows you to play MP3 music, as well as purchase legal copies of songs directly from the iTunes music store. Songs only cost ninety nine cents, and the selection is huge. if you have an iPod you can attach it to the Macintosh and use it directly with iTunes.
The Mac Mini also comes with iMove and iDVD. These two applications allow you to edit and burn your home movies to a DVD. However, if you want to record your own DVD’s you will need a Mac Mini with the optional DVD burner, which adds $100 to the price of the Mac Mini. if you have a digital camcorder you can transfer your movies directly into the Mac Mini.
Digital Video has become very easy with the Macintosh. just drag clips from your video together and make a complete movie. if you are like me, your home video includes many scenes where the camcorder is not pointed where it should be. The video editing software makes it very easy to remove such footage from your movie.
If you have a video camera you can use iPhoto to download and organize your digital photos. The iPhoto application allows you to quickly move your pictures from your digital camera to the computer. Photos can be organized into catalogs and printed.
Browsing, Email and Chat
The Mac Mini comes with both Internet Explorer and the Safari browsers. Internet Explorer is provided for sites that require it for compatibility. you can also use the built in Macintosh browser Safari. Safari works very much like Internet explorer, only with many additional features and fewer security issues. Safari supports tabbed based browsing, which allows you to open multiple websites and quickly switch between them.
Email can easily be setup on a Mac with iMail. The iMail application will connect to your mail provider and allow you to send and receive mail messages. Chat is provided by iChat which allows you to use your existing instant message accounts to communicate with your friends. Additionally, most of the major chat networks have chat clients that can be downloaded free of charge for the Macintosh.
Word Processing
The Mac Mini comes with Apple Works. Apple works is a full featured office automation product, similar to Microsoft Office. It can open files created with Microsoft office. Apple Works comes with all of the standard office applications that you would expect. It includes a word processor similar to Microsoft Word. Additionally, Apple works includes a database application, similar to Microsoft Access. Spreadsheet functions are provided as well, similar to Microsoft Excel. Finally, a presentation application is also included, similar to Microsoft Powerpoint.
The word processor is full featured and includes all of the tolls you have come to expect. Files created with Microsoft word can be opened. Additionally, you can save your files as Microsoft Word documents. whether you are writing a report for school or a resume for a new job, Apple Works is ready.
Conclusions
The Mac Mini is a very powerful computer, despite its small physical size. The Mac mini also comes with a great deal of software already loaded. The only add-on that I discussed in this article is a $100 DVD burner, if you want to record your movies to DVD.
Using a Macintosh is very similar to Windows. The average Windows user will soon be right at home with a Macintosh. Many things are actually much easier on the Macintosh. The Macintosh operating system is based upon the industrial strength UNIX operating system. This makes for a very stable operating system, without many crashes. if you are thinking of trying something other than Windows, the Mac Mini is a great option.
Entourage Database Corruption and Entourage Database Recovery
474 days
by TwiddleGeek
in vintage Apple Mac
Microsoft Entourage is one of the most popular and powerful Email clients from Microsoft for Mac OS X operating system. It is part of Microsoft Office for Mac suite of products. the most recent version of this email client is Entourage 2008, which is included in Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac.
It stores all your valuable data in a single database. the Entourage database contains a separate Identity for every Entourage account. the Identity works as a database for each user. Users can switch Identities whenever required. Identities are stored in the Identities folder in Microsoft User Database folder.
Under some circumstances, the database may get damaged due to various reasons, including application malfunction, improper system shutdown, virus infection, and Identity corruption. at this point, Entourage account cannot be accessed and you run across critical data loss situations.
Ways to Fix database corruption in Entourage-
•Restore from Backup- Entourage software enables you to backup or archive your database in RGE file. If you have an updated and valid backup of Macintosh Entourage database, import it to the application.
•Rebuild Database- If backup is not updated, you can try repairing the database using Database Utility. It is an inbuilt utility of Microsoft Entourage that enables you to Rebuild Entourage database.
•Use Entourage Recovery Software- If none of the above methods work, you need to opt for commercial Entourage repair software to repair and restore damaged database.
Entourage database recovery tools are particularly developed to perform thorough scan of whole damaged Entourage email database and extract inaccessible data from it. Entourage software retrieve all of the database items, including emails, tasks, notes, contacts, journal, attachments, and appointments.
Such tools repair Entourage database is a quite easy way with simple and extremely-rich graphical user interface. You need not to have sound technical skills for using these tools. they preserve complete database integrity while recovering data due to their safe conduct.
Macintosh Troubleshooting – How to Reset PRAM
475 days
by TwiddleGeek
in apple Macintosh
Macintosh troubleshooting is something that many people who want a new computer think about. unless you are a Mac fanatic the thought of getting repairs done and even getting some Macintosh troubleshooting help can be something that you should consider when purchasing a new computer.
In this article I am going to teach you a bit about the advantages and disadvantages of owning a Mac and hopefully offer some Macintosh troubleshooting advice that might sway your decision in the Mac direction.
Macintosh Troubleshooting and Mac Advantages
I like to think of telling people the advantages and disadvantages of owning a Mac as a form of Macintosh troubleshooting. I mean.if you really think about it helping someone decide to go Mac is a form of troubleshooting.
#1 – Microsoft Products – most people who consider buying a Mac for the first time are concerned about compatibility with Windows computers.
Mac computers can run almost every important Microsoft product so there will be no compatibility problems with your Windows friends. Microsoft office runs very well on a Mac so productivity won’t be affected.
#2 – Convenience – Macs are built with the end user in mind. I find that when introduced to a computer for the first time most people do better with a Mac than a Windows machine.
If my Dad can enter the computer world and love a Mac.anyone can.
#3 – Compatibility – Macs are plug and play, giving them the ability to almost instantly connect to and recognize devices such as printers, external hard drives, cameras, and more.
#4 – Wi-Fi Ready – Every Mac gives you the ability to select a wireless network and join right away, there is not fiddling with the settings and tweaking involved like you would find on a PC.
#5 – Solid Foundation – the Mac operating system is built on UNIX, which seems to be more inherently stable than other systems.
#6 – Safety – Since Mac users are a smaller percentage of the computer using public most hackers find it all but useless to design viruses and malware for the system
Few businesses exclusively use Macs so there is little possibility of financial gain in it for those less than honest people in the world.
Macintosh Troubleshooting, the Disadvantages
#1 – Repairs – Since Mac users are such a small part of the computer pie it can sometimes be hard to find a qualified technician.
#2 – Macintosh Troubleshooting – Once again due to the smaller percentage of users there are fewer resources that the Mac user can turn to in times of trouble, though there are some very good forums for the Mac user they are fewer in number than PC forums.
Macintosh Troubleshooting -Resetting PRAM
If you are encountering random shutdowns, blackouts with no response, failed starts, or connectivity problems the culprit could be the Parameter Random Access Memory or PRAM.
To reset PRAM follow these steps.
1.) Shut down the computer
2.) Find the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option P, and R.
3.) Turn the computer back on
4.) Hold down all 3 key mentioned above until you hear the start up sound twice.
5.) Release the keys
If you still experience the same problems its time to find a service technician
Macs have pros and cons but I feel that the pros significantly outweigh the cons and that you should consider the Mac when you need a new computer. Resetting PRAM can help fix quite a few problems but if this Macintosh troubleshooting solution does not work take your computer to a qualified technician.
Macintosh Computers Come With Many Great Applications Pre-Loaded
517 days
by TwiddleGeek
in mac Os
Macintosh computers come complete with almost everything you need built into the computer. Let’s take a minute to check out just what comes with a Mac right out of the box. With the built in software included, you can edit movies, pictures and music, as well as manage your email, calendars and contacts. In fact, so much is included pre-loaded with the computer that you probably won’t have to buy a lot of additional programs later on. Let’s go over what you’ll see on your dock at the bottom of the screen when you turn your computer on.
First thing you’ll notice is the Finder. The Finder is the windowing system for the computer, however, you’ll notice it most with the translucent bar at the top of your screen. The Finder lets you quit applications, as well as access preferences, the file, edit, etc. menus.
The next application you’ll see on your dock is Dashboard. Dashboard allows you to access Widgets. you can access Dashboard by clicking on the icon in the Dock or pressing F12 on your keyboard. you can add and delete widgets by clicking on the + sign at the lesser left hand side of your screen as well as download new widgets on apple.
Mail is the next application you’ll see, it’s the basic mail application. You’ll be prompted to input your email account’s information into the application when you launch it for the first time. Mail also allows you to keep notes and make to do lists along with the usual, compose, send and automatically receive email from your account.
Next you’ll see Safari. Safari is one of the Mac’s premier web browsers. Safari is considered to be one of the fastest browsers out there, and allows you to keep RSS feeds in order, make RSS feeds of selected parts of a web page as well as having excellent integration with the operating system.
Address Book is the next app you’ll see. Address Book lets you input all of your information for contacts for anyone you know, including phone numbers, web pages and, of course, addresses. You’ll find this application also has excellent integration with other applications on your system and is more useful in other applications more than on it’s own.
Next up you’ll have iCal. iCal has become the standard for calendaring applications on the internet. iCal lets you easily manage your upcoming events and easily syncs with your iPod, iPhone, the web and other computers you may have. Preview is another application that is fairly desecrate within your computing experiences. Preview is what opens whenever you open a PDF document or an image. you probably won’t open this from the Dock very often, but it is most likely crucial to normal computing.
Next up we have the iLife suite. The iLife suite is probably the most interesting part of your new Mac. iLife includes iMovie, Garage Band, iPhoto and iDVD. iPhoto is a photo management application, whenever you hook up a camera, iPhoto is what you’ll see. iMovie is a video editing application, if you ever have a camcorder that is digital and you hook it up to your computer, this is what you’ll see, as well as if you ever want to manipulate video. Garage Band is a music creation and editing app. Garage Band comes with many built in instruments, loops and many useful features that you can use for your music creation. iDVD is just what it sounds like, it lets you take videos and convert them and dress them up so you can simply insert a DVD and have it burn so you can play it on any DVD player.
iTunes is probably the most well known application on both the Mac and Windows computers. iTunes is the largest music store in the world as well as an excellent music management application, if you have a music file, iTunes can probably play it. next you’ll see Spaces. Spaces can be used to form virtual desktops, which can help you split up where your applications are on your Mac and help free you from screen clutter. Spaces can be accessed by pressing the icon on your Dock, pressing F8 or assigning a hot corner in system Preferences.
Time Machine is the second to last application on your Dock. Time Machine is a backup application. Time Machine will backup anything you ask it to to an external hard drive that you attach to your computer via USB or Firewire. The last, and arguably the most useful application you’ll see is the system Preferences. system Preferences lets you set up your computer exactly how you like and lets you configure any of the built in features of Mac OS X. Remember, all of these apps come standard with any Apple computer, weather it’s a Mac Book or a Mac Pro or anything in between – no need to buy all those additional programs or applications like on a PC.
Guest Column: Steve Jobs as Frank Lloyd Wright
619 days
In 1983, my little software company was lucky to be invited to work on Apple’s new computer in development, the Macintosh. Back then Apple wasn’t as secretive as it is today. everyone knew something was coming. We knew what it was called, but no one was saying what it was.
I gladly signed the agreement, and to this day I remember my first glimpse of the Mac. I arrived at a building on Bandley Drive in Cupertino some time in August 1983, and was met by Mike Boich and Guy Kawasaki from the Mac team. As we walked to the conference room, I saw, out of the corner of my eye, a beige plastic box that was small and upright. And personal. How it said that to me, in just a glimpse, I have no idea. Is that a computer? another thought popped into my head: it said “I’m new.” And that was something because back in those days everything was new. And it was personal, for me. all this from a fraction of a second look.
I wish Jobs had been a blogger, had written about his design process, so I could quote something. But he was the opposite of a blogger; Jobs was a mass communicator. no one in my generation has mastered the art as Jobs did.
Before that I had been an Apple II developer for a number of years, and was a devotee of Apple’s products, though I also loved IBM’s PC. there was a sense that we were all creating a new world, we all loved our work — and Jobs and the people he nurtured at Apple were leaders. I was on stage during the rollout of the Mac at Flint Center on Jan. 24, 1984. We shipped our product later that year and went on to have one of the first hits for the Mac.
But I want to tell a different story. Not a personal one, because I did not have a personal relationship with Steve Jobs. however, I built products that made it to market through his platforms. And in doing so, my vision was shaped by his. And later, with podcasting and RSS, I got to influence the direction of his products.
I wish Jobs had been a blogger, had written about his design process, so I could quote something. But he was the opposite of a blogger; Jobs was a mass communicator. no one in my generation has mastered the art as Jobs did. Today, with the outpouring of feeling on the net, are people mourning the man, or the phenomena he could unleash, just by saying, “one more thing.”
And he was a designer, even though people seem to be overlooking that in their remembrances, calling him more of a visionary. he got down in there and made small but very important design decisions about his products. Ones that had wide impact, for better, or worse. And often they weren’t things his products did, rather things his products didn’t do that defined them.
The Mac was full of them. no cursor keys, so you had to use the mouse to navigate. I doubt if money was the reason, though leaving out the cursor keys probably saved a bit, and allowed the other keys to be bigger. it also meant Apple had to design its own keyboard, because they all had cursor keys.
No hard drive. no expansion slots. no fan.
A standardized user interface. This was very controversial with software developers such as myself. We felt what we did was user interface design. what would we do if the UI was already designed. New ideas sometimes don’t get accepted right away by everyone.
And there were the almost-great ideas, like having networking built into every Mac starting with the Mac plus. At the time networking wasn’t even an option on IBM PCs. The networking, while a bold and great idea, didn’t have the impact it should have had because the programming APIs were impossibly difficult. had they been easy the Mac would have been the web, and we could have saved 20 years of incremental upgrades to turn the web into what the Mac was in 1984.
And at times Steve forgot where his ideas came from, or seemed to. he tormented bill Gates, probably in jest, that he was stealing his ideas from Apple, when they both stole from Xerox.
I had some personal interactions with Jobs, but they weren’t very special. I doubt if he knew who I was. he called me once, out of the blue — to rant about the stupidity of people at Apple. This was in 1997 just after coming back. Even today, after all these years, I have a hard time saying I agreed with him, and I didn’t say so in the conversation; I just stayed silent. he doesn’t suffer fools quietly, that’s for sure. Ooops, he didn’t. Hard to think of him in the past tense. why did he call me then? I have no clue.
One more thing.
In the first rush of memorials, people are comparing Jobs to Henry Ford (industrialist), Thomas Edison (inventor) or Walt Disney (media). But there’s also a lot of Frank Lloyd Wright in there. all these men had imperfections, and greatness. But Wright’s were, imho, more Jobsian than the others.
“He’s so wonderfully prickly and famous for bursting into any house he built un-announced — just come in with a troop of people and show them the house, rearrange the furniture. he would even sneak into the houses to rearrange the furniture when the owners were away,” T.C. Boyle wrote of FLW, but it also describes how early Mac developers felt after demoing their products for Steve. to both Jobs and Wright the people who used their products were not as important as the computer or the building. more than the thing itself, what mattered to Wright, and I think what mattered to Jobs is the integrity of his vision. in a way it was a shame that the vision had to be instantiated.
Of course that’s what made their ideas so great and influential. among the many Jobs quotes worth remembering, and quoting — Artists ship. I agree. And when you ship, along with the vision, comes reality. And then you learn and ship again.
There might still be Jobs shipments to come. We don’t know what’s in Apple’s pipeline. But his thinking and vision, his person, will influence others and drive them to greatness, for generations to come.
This post first appears on Scripting News