Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Daddy, where do Macs go when they die?

by Robert Palmer (Aug 13th, 2008)

Personally, I've never thrown away a Mac. I've always had someone to give or sell it to. I suppose it's a testament to the longevity of each unit. The first Mac I owned, a Performa 6400, went to a friend of mine in Albuquerque. It had a good life: I ...

Outspring puts the final nail in QuickMail's coffin

by Michael Rose (Jul 28th, 2008)

Back in the summer of 1989, as an eager, green college intern for a major publishing company, I arrived on my first day of work to find that my office wasn't so much an office as it was a storage room. Sure, it had ample space and ventilation, but it ...

Found Footage: Tom Servo's a Mac, and Crow's a PC

by Robert Palmer (Jun 4th, 2008)

If you enjoyed Mystery Science Theater 3000 as much as I did (and still do), this clip from 1991 should warm your precious little heart. We find Servo having problems with his PC, and pining for the Mac that he used to have. Bonus references to ...

Flashback: 10 years ago, Michael Dell's throwdown

by Michael Rose (Oct 8th, 2007)

Remember Michael Dell's legendary snub of Apple's prospects? Back in 1997, Dell was publicly asked what he'd do with the recently re-Steve'd Apple if given the opportunity. "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders," said Dell, ...

Blast from the Past: Original Macintosh manual

by Mat Lu (Sep 2nd, 2007)

Here's a nice find. Peter Merholz recently got ahold of an original Mac User Manual from 1984 and has posted a bunch of pics along with commentary. The most interesting thing, of course, is seeing them trying to explain basic computing GUI concepts ...

Blast from the Past: the iPhone's ancestor

by Mat Lu (Jul 19th, 2007)

Apparently Apple's been thinking about this whole phone thing for a long time. Here, courtesy of Fudder, you can see an Apple smartphone design concept from the middle ages (wait, I mean 1983). For you youngsters in the audience that strange thing on ...

Making music with Hypercard

by Dave Caolo (Jul 16th, 2007)

This post combines two things we love: inventive geeks and vintage Macs. Peter Jungers and Josh Burker worked together to write several HyperCard stacks to compose their music, which you can listen to here. That's a trio of 68K Macs you're listening ...

Blast from the Past: What the new iPods ain't got

by Erica Sadun (May 7th, 2007)

Newer isn't always better. Ask any wine connoisseur or violin player. I recently googled across this article over at the Apple Blog on why new iPods aren't quite as good as old iPods. Sure there are a lot of great reasons to buy new. It was iPod ...

Blast from the Past: Apple Introduces "Easier to Use" portable music player

by Erica Sadun (Apr 30th, 2007)

October 2001. Apple introduces a new portable music player that it declares is much easier to use. So much easier, in fact, that it may "broaden a nascent market in the way the Macintosh once helped make the personal computer accessible to a more ...

Blast from the Past: Under Siege 2

by Erica Sadun (Apr 23rd, 2007)

Casey Ryback, Steven Segal's character in Under Siege, never had it easy but he had great toys. Sure, he was "just the cook" but apparently SEAL cooks have access to some amazing gadgets. Like special communicators, explosives and Miss July. Under ...

Blast from the Past: 1993 Unix World Magazine Cover

by Erica Sadun (Apr 16th, 2007)

April, 1993. Unix World asks: "Does Steve Jobs have a future in software?" 14 years later, as OS X prepares to enter 10.5, we can answer "yes". TUAW reader Bill B. found a copy of this old issue of Unix World lying around his office and scanned it. ...

Blast from the Past: 1986 Apple Ad

by Erica Sadun (Apr 9th, 2007)

If your business is out of control, suggests this ad, perhaps a Macintosh could solve all your problems, with its shiny, shiny spreadsheets, word processing, and other business features that allow you to concentrate on your business rather than ...

Blast from the Past: Apple Ships OS 8

by Erica Sadun (Apr 2nd, 2007)

July 1997. Apple Computer (and it was still Apple Computer back then, none of this Apple, Inc business) revealed the latest and greatest operating system: OS 8. It was even delivered on time! Selling for $99, OS 8 introduced a spiffy updated Finder, ...

Blast from the Past: Happy 6th Birthday OS X

by Mat Lu (Mar 24th, 2007)

It's hard to believe, but today marks the 6th birthday for Mac OS X, at least as measured from when OS X 10.0 (Cheetah) first went on sale at retail outlets on March 24, 2001. Apple's original press release is still online, and is the source of some ...

Blast From the Past: RetroRumors

by Erica Sadun (Mar 19th, 2007)

May 11, 1988. The dawn of a new Apple ][gs+. Someone claiming early access to the development posted details to an online board, which was copied and forwarded and eventually posted to Usenet: "please don't spread this special information around, as ...

Apple '1984' ad 10th in CBS countdown

by Michael Rose (Feb 2nd, 2007)

In the realm of ridiculous rankings, what could be more trivial than "best Superbowl commercial ever?" And yet, CBS has devoted an hour tonight to this burning question. Three years ago, Apple's legendary 1984 ad ranked #4 in the fan voting; tonight ...