Filed under: Retro Mac, Found Footage, Apple History
Found Footage: Unboxing a Twentieth Anniversary Mac
It's not every day that you can buy a brand new computer that's over 10 years old, but Alfred DiBlasi managed it: an eBay find of an original Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh, fresh in the box. In the 22-minute unboxing video (more than ample even by our standards) Al and his buddies remove the artifact from another era from its packaging and boot it for the first time. Zoom ahead to the 20:00 mark to watch the delightfully pretentious "Design Is Art" QuickTime intro movie (worth YouTubing on its own, if possible) and enjoy the Michael Hedges-esqe (possibly actually Michael Hedges) soundtrack.
While the TAM may have been a poor bargain when it was introduced in 1997 (2 GB hard drive and 32 MB of RAM in a machine costing $7,500?) it still wears a striking titanium gray silhouette, and we know that sleek, forward-looking design can command a premium price today. I hope Al gets all the enjoyment out of it that a decade-old computer can possibly provide.
Thanks Eric & Blake!
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dan Manning said 11:06PM on 5-26-2008
You know, the part with the mannequin was weird. It takes a messed-up sense of humor for that one. At least it wasn't a bobcat...
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Matt said 11:08PM on 5-26-2008
The guy says "knock it off" way too often..
Still, cool video.
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Mark said 11:14PM on 5-26-2008
Someone had to get creative with the box padding...
Also, I think that it is safe to say that the design of the TAM inspired the design of the iMac, to a certain extent
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psxp said 11:16PM on 5-26-2008
Very nice!
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Chris Watson said 11:25PM on 5-26-2008
So, with it being a new Mac I guess the one year warranty is still intact ;)
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Andrew Harrison said 11:55PM on 5-26-2008
wow that guy is really annoying.
nice looking computer though
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William Bokunic said 12:03AM on 5-27-2008
No he's not, you just don't know Al very well.
Al manages to get ahold of some of the coolest things. I'm still waiting for him to do a video about his NeXT computer.
*Proud subscriber of Adiblasi for 1 and a half years*
Kakaze said 12:47AM on 5-27-2008
You don't have to know him to know that not only is the video WAY too long but, yes, it doesn't matter how much cool stuff this guy gets he is incredibly annoying.
Andrew Harrison said 12:58AM on 5-27-2008
@William: Doesn't matter how well I know him, in this video, he's very annoying.
William Bokunic said 6:18AM on 5-27-2008
@Andrew: That's his personality. He likes to joke around. He wouldn't have 1000+ subscribers if not everyone shared your viewpoint.
Allan said 8:51AM on 5-27-2008
I don't think claiming 1000+ subscribers is really going to help this guy's case when you consider that it's on the internet. There are plenty of people on the internet that would subscribe BECAUSE he's annoying.
Not to mention that claiming that he's not annoying b/c it is his personality doesn't really make sense... it's not changing the fact that he is annoying. It may be his personality, that's fine... but that means his personality is "annoying."
Pretty neat find none-the-less... just would have been better if someone else did it, IMO.
Darren said 12:06AM on 5-27-2008
Is that keyboard/touchpad ADB or USB? Either way, it'd be cool to get it hooked up to a modern computer.
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EBone said 12:14AM on 5-27-2008
Cool to see somebody get that excited over an unboxing. Also cool to see how far ahead of the design curve Apple was over ten years ago.
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user7 said 12:54AM on 5-27-2008
I thought for sure I was going to get Rick Rolled on this..
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Chuck B said 2:14AM on 5-27-2008
Wow, I had to skip through most of the video after the first couple minutes. This guy is literally the most annoying person I can Imagine. I still can figure out what he's laughing about and why he does it every 5 seconds through the whole video!! Is he laughing at his own jokes and if so what are they? I actually feel bad for this poor guy because he must not notice when people cut him off when he's talking and constantly are trying to get away from him.
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Feras said 6:15AM on 5-27-2008
you dont know Al, he loves to laugh and make bad jokes on purpose Adam B always seems to get Alfred going
Disgustor said 8:27AM on 5-27-2008
I'm just going to stop you there while I file a restraining order....
Chuck B said 11:31AM on 5-27-2008
Maybe you didn't understand my post. I don't want to know AL! And believe me, after trying to watch this video not many other people will want to know him either. As I said, I do feel sorry for him though.
ThisIsAdamB said 10:22AM on 5-27-2008
Alfred and I have known each other a very long time, and we have our little "shorthand communications" like all old friends do. Sorry if we got a little too "inside" for you. We also both enjoy and understand the long, varied history behind Apple's computers. I had never even seen a TAM in person before this unboxing. This one was special and we wanted to take our time with it. When the TAM was first shipping, they sent a tech in a limo to set it up for you. It was all part of the "show" back then.
Blame the seller for stuffing the dummy in the box, we knew nothing about that beforehand. His joke, we just went with it.
And while some may think that 22 minutes is long (and yes, take out the dummy and some jokes, it's down to 15), there were over 150 people watching us live on Ustream.tv for over 90 minutes from start to finish.
Oh, and Al has over 3000 subscribers on YouTube. I only have 600 myself for my tech and humor videos.
@ Dan M - I agree. That was weird.
@ Matt - "Knock it off" is just one of his catch phrases. We all have them. Wait until you hear him say "Whatever"...
@ Chris W - I want him to send in the warranty card, see what kind of response he gets...
@ Allan, Andrew, Chuck - we're not trying to make friends with everyone out there. No one can. Alfred and I make these videos with our personalities right out there. It's like Letterman vs Leno. You might like one, hate the other. (I can't stand Leno, myself.) If all you want is the tech content, feel free to load, pause, and scrub your way through the video or look at the Flickr feed Al links to in the sidebar of the YouTube page for this video. But I do hope you guys did get something out of it.
@ Darren - ADB but I do have an adapter somewhere....
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Brnboy313 said 1:15PM on 5-27-2008
yayness Adam B is here! the stream was amazing and these people just dont know or understand ur guys (es) humor.
btw is the ipod touch in a sock yet?