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Happy Birthday, Apple


The year is 1976, two high school students young guys (Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs) are in their garage working on their latest invention: the Apple I. Almost 200 of these machines were built before the fruity little company known as Apple Computer became a reality.

Fast forward to April 1, 2008, Apple has now surpassed 32 years of making wonderful products that capture the imagination of everyone. Their products have almost a "magical" feel to them. iPods, iMacs, Mac OS X; Apple certainly has come a long way since 1976.

Here's to wishing Apple a happy 32nd Birthday ... we certainly can't wait to see what the next 32 years bring.

Do you have a story about Apple's early days? Be sure to tell yours in the comments.

The year is 1976, two high school students young guys (Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs) are in their garage working on their latest...
 

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Phillip Woon

I had an Apple IIGS in 1988, but sold it to get an IBM PC-AT (80286) compatible with a 20MB hard drive ($3000). I was going to school for Computer Science in the Air Force at a time, and Turbo Pascal didn't work on the IIGS. The IIGS cost me around $2000 at the time

April 07 2008 at 4:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
E.J.

Random Apple memory:

Playing Oregon Trail and dying of dysentery.

I've celebrated Apple's birthday by receiving a brand new MacBook Pro!

April 02 2008 at 6:54 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tony

"I thought it was pretty much (finally) settled history that only one of the Steve's invented the Apple 8-bit computer. Alone. Albeit with on of the greatest marketing geniuses of all time standing right next to him in that garage."

Woz had plenty of help from from Jobs...See, Jobs was working at Atari at the time and would pocket various IC's and whatnot that went into building the first Apple one prototype. So, you could say he was partly the "financier."

April 01 2008 at 3:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
rp

It's times like these when I look at my giant collection of old Macs and Apples and think for a second that it's actually worth keeping them around.. then I go back to trying to trick people into taking them away.

April 01 2008 at 2:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jeff

In 1977, I was the manager of a TV/Stereo store in Los Altos called Alco Paramount. We were the exclusive dealers for the Advent NovaBeam video projectors (all of 48" diagonal). One day this 20 something kid comes into the store and wants to connect literally a shoebox of electronics up to the big screen. He introduced himself to me as Steve Jobs. He spent a hour or so fiddling and adjusting so the sound would work and at the end of all this, he just yanked all the wires from the Advent and rushed out the door. That was my only up-close and personal with the Steve.

April 01 2008 at 12:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Edsel



Happy Birthday to all those that made Apple happen.

Will someone please ask this question of Woz: Did you use a slide rule to help design the first Apple? If so, do you still own it?

Many of us of the early 1970's used slide rules because personal calculators were prohibitively expensive for a student or, they were tethered to a university lab bench.

April 01 2008 at 12:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Matt McNamara

I wasn't in the Apple camp in the early days (wasn't born yet), but earlier today I saw a Mac Classic in my local dump.

I am seriously considering picking it up and fiddling with the insides.

April 01 2008 at 12:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rick

I was born in '72, but I remember playing with an Apple I in 1976 or 1977 - my best friend's father was a professor at M.I.T. and got to take one home for research. I remember mostly playing games. MY first was an Apple IIe a few years later. I had also an early modem and would call up "boards" and early chatlines. Ahh, those were the days.

April 01 2008 at 12:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Stevensnewest

happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear APPLE........happy birthday to you!!! YYAYY!!

blow out the candles, Steve Jobs!!! :D make a wish!

April 01 2008 at 12:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Menlo Bob

In 1989 I was asked to take a photo of the garage of the very modest house Apple was started in. It seemed awkward to do so without first asking the current owner for permission. He kindly asked if I'd like to see it from the inside and I eagerly agreed. While in the house I was also shown one of the bedrooms that featured several early Apple posters. Then it dawned on me...I was being given a tour by Steve Jobs' dad. This lead to an expanded conversation of the very early days. A nice man. I've had the occcasion to also photograph Steve on several occasions but I never considered telling him I'd been in his bedroom.

April 01 2008 at 12:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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