We'll be seeing a lot of predictions about the immediate future in the coming days. We're not immune here at TUAW and you'll likely get some predictions from your humble bloggers, but it is really interesting to look back and see how our current technology was (or was not) predicted in the past.

Here is a link to a talk by Nicholas Negroponte from 1984. At the time, Negroponte was head of the MIT Media Lab, and company CEOs were always taking their people there to see what the future might have to offer. This video is from the year the Macintosh appeared. Negroponte talked about touch screens, high resolution monitors, and the future of user interfaces. It is a fascinating presentation, and his predictions for the most part are right on target. It's almost 30 minutes long, but give it a try and I think you'll find it pretty eye-opening.

It isn't easy predicting the future. I remember seeing the General Motors film about the future done for the 1939 Worlds Fair in New York. Most of those predictions were wrong, and very 'Buck Rogers.' Robots doing housework, automated cars and a lot of other things that haven't come to pass, at least not yet.

Negroponte, who now is behind the One Laptop Per Child project, has had a very keen eye over time. Many of the things he predicted came to pass in products released by Apple, which have benefited users immensely.

[via Funky Space Monkey]

Here's a great video of Steve introducing the famous "1984" ad to a boisterous crowd (we're guessing the Macintosh team) a week before it aired during the 1984 Super Bowl. I'd say they liked it.

If Steve's good at one thing, it's making a persuasive speech.

Thanks, Callum!

Update: Reader cuda440 says, "That was at the January 1984 annual shareholder's meeting, held at the Flint Center, De Anza College, Cupertino. I know because I was there, as were nearly all of my fellow Apple employees. Obviously this was before MacWorld, and the shareholder's meeting was where major product announcements were made."

Cool! Thanks for the info, cuda440!

"Hi. I'm Phil. I did it. And I'm proud of it...I made the 'Vote Different' ad," said Philip de Vellis on this recent Huffington Post writeup. A "proud Democrat" and Obama supporter, deVellis authored the Hillary-as-Big-Brother ad on his personal Macintosh, uploaded it to YouTube and passed the link around to some blogs. de Vellis has now resigned from his job with Blue State Digital, a firm that has provided technology to several campaigns including Obama's.

de Vellis does not specify which software he used, but iMovie and Final Cut are obvious candidates. He said he spent just one Sunday afternoon putting the ad together.

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 it came in at #10.

Starting at 9:30 ET/PT, voting opens on the grudge match of Anheuser-Busch's "Lamb Streaker" against the all-time favorite, Coke's Mean Joe Greene ad. That lamb is gonna get skewered. Meanwhile, I'll be watching carefully for Apple's new "Let It Be... iPod" ad.

Many people call Apple's 1984 ad (this one is slightly updated), which introduced the Macintosh, as the best ad ever made. It aired 23 years ago today during Super Bowl XVIII. Head on over to Tony Long's piece for Wired to see why this iconic ad almost never saw the light of day.

Here's my question to you, loyal TUAW readers, how many of you actually saw this ad when it was aired (remember that the ad was only aired on TV twice, and only once nationally).

It's 1984. Meet the Lisa. I'm warning you now, this video is not short. It starts with a nostalgic look back by the expert who more than twenty years earlier introduced the Lisa in a televised interview. He talks about the moment in time, the technology, and his rhinoplasty. You may want to skip a few minutes into the video.

One of the things I love so much about this video is seeing the menus in their original forms. They're so familiar and at the same time, you're struck by the differences.

It's also great to see the core set of Mac Apps that shipped with the Lisa and watch them in action, like the word processor and drawing programs. You get a sense while watching about how revolutionary the Mac leap forward was (and as an Alto and Smalltalk user, I assure you this was way beyond anything from Xerox).

It's also fascinating to see how slow things were. Watch how long it takes for the calculator to load! And notice the 5MB hard drive enclosure on the top of the machine. What an amazing thing to have to think about the Lisa being able to run more than one program at a time, while the Mac could not. Of course, this was around the same time of the height of the Symbolics Lisp Machine, which could pwn the Lisa in almost every way possible, but was way beyond the Lisa in cost.

There's nothing that warms the cockles of a blogger's heart than a good list of things. This time around AppleGazette has compiled a list of the 10 ten Apple commercials of all time. The usual suspects are there, HAL, Ellen Feiss, and Think Different. Oddly enough 1984, possibly the most famous commercial ever, didn't nab the top slot.

Oh, and the image accompanying this post is from the worst Apple ad ever. Sound off in the comments if you know which ad it is.

We all know that his Steveness is a master showman. His patented Reality Distortion Field often gets people to take out their wallets before he has even uncovered whatever product he is showing off. That is why it should come as no surprise that his 1984 keynote, introducing the Macintosh, made this top ten list of presentations. Martin Luther King Jr also made the list, so Steve isn't in bad company.

Dear TUAW'ers, I thought it would be fun to ask you what your favorite Stevenote was. I have to pick the 2006 MWSF Stevenote, since that was the first one that I saw in person. How about you?

[via iFlipFlop]

Being that this is TUAW and we're hounds for this stuff, I'm sure we've come across this footage some time ago, but I came up empty handed while traversing our archives, and even Google found nothing, so here we go: it's a blast from the past boys and girls - excerpts from Steve Jobs' 1984 keynote. Watch as Steve razzles and dazzles the audience with new Mac features which, at the time, were groundbreaking. Also note his affinity for just a hint of drama that you can still see on stage today, despite rumors to the contrary. Enjoy.

It has been awhile since we have heard from PodBrix, purveyors of Apple-centric LEGO creations, and now we know why. They were hard at work in their secret labs creating the 1984 playset. Immortalizing the immortal 1984 commercial in LEGOs seems a worthy addition to the PodBrix line.

As usual this is a limited edition work, only 100 sets will be created and they will cost $198.99 (I would have gone with $198.40. Get it?). While that might seem like a steep price keep in mind that this set features a backlit movie screen (though you'll have to get your own batteries). This set goes on sale on August 2nd promptly at 9pm EST.

This video was ripped from a videotape (which explains the lack of video quality) of the 1984 Apple Shareholders' meeting, where the original Macintosh was unveiled (this is unconfirmed; some are saying it was shown at the Moscone Center during the launch of the Apple IIc). Like a train wreck, I just can't look away. I've watched it about a dozen times now. I think there might be something wrong with me.