Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Cult of Mac, Odds and ends, Apple
30 years of Apple in three minutes
Megan's great roundup of Apple history from the other day wasn't enough nostalgia for you? It should have been -- wow there was a lot of old Apple stuff in there. But just in case your itch for the days of Apple yore isn't yet scratched, here's a great little video compilation of every Apple product from the last thirty years, squished into three minutes and set to Fiona Apple's cover of "Across the Universe."
The IIe! The PowerCD! The QuickTake! And even those early notebooks, which look so blocky today, were impressive in their time. Unfortunately, this video won't tell you much about what these products all were, but just the sight of some of these old units is enough to make the memories come flooding back for us old Apple fans. The iPhone and the iPod are so much hipper, it seems, compared to the units of Apple's past -- you think we'll ever look back with such nostalgia on the first touchscreens we got? A product like the Newton was so charming because it was so quirky, but the iPhone is sleek, popular, and impressive. Do you think future generations will look back at today's Apple products with the same fondness?
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Matthew Hillyer said 11:50AM on 12-16-2008
thanks! I totally forgot they made a camera, that was kinda cool.
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Patriks7 said 10:47AM on 12-17-2008
I didn't even know they made cameras! It looks awesome! Too bad they don't anymore :(
Eriza said 11:32AM on 12-16-2008
luv it
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thezonie said 11:49AM on 12-16-2008
I first began programming on an Apple IIe back in 2nd grade over 25 years ago.
Look how far we've come. :)
(And now I feel old.)
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Howard said 12:07PM on 12-16-2008
Nice but I didn't see the "tooth" mac nor the Powerbook G4 Titanium.... did I miss them?
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L said 12:34PM on 12-16-2008
Yeah, I didn't see a Titanium Powerbook either, went back and checked and sure enough where it should be in the timeline is an Aluminum one ... repeated again later.
cymro said 4:57PM on 12-16-2008
Great! But what am I looking at - at the 3:10 mark?
Ben London said 12:46PM on 12-16-2008
I'm glad I've got into Apple in the tail end of all that. Today's Apple is so much more useful and fun than the dark ages !
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Dave said 12:20PM on 12-16-2008
Ha, the Performa 630, that one brings back memories! And what was that stand-alone black-ish CD-drive thingy called again? I kept using my dad's as a CD-player, connected to some speakers! Oh the days..
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Oliver said 12:27PM on 12-16-2008
what song is this?
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JoshK said 12:34PM on 12-16-2008
Fiona Apple's cover of "Across the Universe"
Ian Murray said 2:44PM on 12-16-2008
It's a song I had to mute.
Unfortunately I don't like my singers to garble and mumble their way through a song.
Moose said 12:49PM on 12-16-2008
Woo hoo! My old 8600... Absolutely loved that computer. Most stable Mac I've ever owned. I literally don't think it crashed once in 3 years of faithful service.
I should go back and watch that again and see how many of those I've owned and what the inflation adjusted expense has been... Shudder.
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quandmeme said 1:09PM on 12-16-2008
You can tell what I'm hoping for January 9th but I was trying to glimpse the duo line. Without a shot of the dock, I couldn't tell whether they were there. Unless I'm misremembering and the duos had trackballs instead of pads. Help me out?
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ds said 1:15PM on 12-16-2008
There was a Duo 280 near the 1 minute mark. Saw my friend the 2400c in there, too.
Chris said 5:06PM on 12-16-2008
Oh the memories of my past computers and gadgets. I had a QuickTake 150, it held about 9 images and transfered back to the computer over the Serial port connection. I remember all of my old systems fondly, the Mac Classic, the LCII, the PowerMac8100, my Sawtooth G4.
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CY said 3:35PM on 12-16-2008
Yes, they missed the titanium which was so important as the leap into the metal laptops. Also, I think including the 12" PowerBook would have been nice. And finally, I think there should have been at least a little mentioning of the clone era. Not Apple products, but so important in the design biography of the co.
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Josh Burks said 2:27PM on 12-16-2008
i wonder how long it took to compile all these images and get them in the right order... Kudos for sure!
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Nick said 2:49PM on 12-16-2008
While they did show some of the printers there, I don't recall seeing any of the B/W or Color LaserWriter printers....
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Ben said 3:09PM on 12-16-2008
I didn't see the iPod Mini in there either.
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