We've been sipping green tea in celebration here at TUAW HQ. Why? In honour of one Steven Paul Jobs, no less, for today just happens to be everyone's favourite CEO's 53rd birthday.

With 10 hugely successful years in the modern-era Apple saddle, let's hope there's many, many more of those to come. Happy Birthday Steve, from all of us at TUAW.

I am sure that everyone has forgotten other peoples birthday's from time-to-time (*raises hand*). Luckily, with Mac OS X's built-in Address Book and Automator, you can automate the remembering and sending of greeting cards by e-mail -- thus eliminating the awkwardness of forgetting. In this how-to I will show you how to create a birthday field in your Address Book contacts, and how to send an e-mail birthday greeting when the time is right.

To learn how to do this, read on.

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 mild amusement. It heralds "amazing new functionality such as the Dock, a breakthrough for organizing, documents and document windows." And Apple's trumpeting of there being over 350 native applications for OS X is a far cry from the 5000+ Universal apps available today. Nonetheless, as far as Apple has come it's clear that much was already in place 6 years ago. And with the Leopard launch coming soon, OS X is now really reaching its stride. You can't help but wonder where we'll be 6 years from now (OS XI?). In any case, happy birthday to our favorite OS!

[Via Digg]

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

In light of the iPod's 5th birthday, I figured it would be fun to join Scott in some reminiscing about the early days of my first little white music player. I remember seeing them when the 10 and 20GB models completed the 1st/2nd gen lineup, and I knew that thing would rock my world. I had already been trying out other MP3 players at the time, and I hated all of them. The last one I remember before scraping together cash for a 5GB iPod was a Rio (from Creative, I think?), and I hated that thing too. Getting music onto the device was a chore, and flash memory cards were mind-numbingly expensive (I think it took SD cards). The Rio's interface was an exercise in walking barefoot on broken glass, and the moment I saw the iPod I knew someone had finally done it right.

After tearing the couch apart for that last penny to cover tax (and after a month of saving some cash by eating nothing but Ramen noodles), I rode my bike as fast as I could down to the University bookstore I was part-timing it at (I wasn't in school at the time), because I could get the discount there which made all the difference. The funny thing is: when I brought that 1st gen iPod home, I wasn't plugging it into a Mac - I had a Windows XP box (funny: 5 years ago, same ol' WinXP). While the original iPods were *officially* just made for a Mac (or so most of us remember), I picked up one of the first Mac+PC versions, so I was using Musicmatch and - I hope you're sitting down for this - an unofficial plugin for Windows Media Player. This admittedly blasphemous configuration worked decently, though it certainly didn't hold much of a candle to the integration of the dynamic iTunes+iPod duo that Apple finally brought to Windows. Fortunately, this iPod helped convince me to hop onto the Mac OS X train before that happened.

I'd like to consider myself one of the early benefactors of the 'iPod halo effect.' While I was using crappy software on Windows to manage my first iPod, I started (finally) getting curious about the company that made such an impressive little device. After all, I was in the middle of a design undergrad (I had to take time off to get in-state tuition in CO, and btw: that's a PITA), and the next semester a fellow classmate sat me down for a crash course in all things Apple and Mac OS X (and I was finally more open to learning about them). When the forces of the iPod halo effect and Mac OS X united, I once again embarked on a Ramen diet, this time of epic proportions. My destination? A RevA 12-inch PowerBook - my first Mac - for which many pennies were sacrificed.

So this blogger has that original 5GB iPod and a classmate or two to thank for making the switch to greener OS pastures. Of course, I can also bring incredible amounts of music along in my pocket now too, which isn't half bad either. It's been a fun musical roller-coaster, complete with scratches, too many wacky accessories to count, and a deeper understanding of my music library that just can't stop - won't stop - growing. Thanks, 1G iPod.

A few days ago we wished the iTunes Music Store a happy third birthday. Ah, three years of downloading and paying for music legally. Whodathunk it?

Our friends at Apple Matters let us know that 3 years ago today the Mac only iTunes Music Store hit the million download mark.

I'm thinking that this iTunes Music Store might be a hit.

Reader JP Dane-Castro wrote in to remind us that it was exactly one year ago today that Apple starting shipping the world's most advanced operating system, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

Take stroll down memory lane by reading Apple's press release. Now, when is Leopard shipping?

What a grand gesture. Five more years of Office wasn't enough, so Microsoft went the extra mile and released a fully-functional, virtualization app called VirtualPC XP for Intel Macs... Nah! I'm just kidding. They popped a JPEG up on their site saying how happy they have been to ride on the coattails of an innovator for the past 22 years. Or something like that. You can see the birthday card from the Microsoft MacBU to Apple here. It could have been worse. They could have said: "After 22 years, and a decade-long headstart on the GUI, you are still #2." I'm thankful for small favors. Truth is, Apple should be thanking Microsoft for sticking through the lean times. Oh, and that infusion of cash a few years back didn't hurt (awkward to witness though). So thanks Microsoft, now where's that new version of Virtual PC, hm?

[thanks to Derrick G. for sending this in]

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was born on this date in 1950. That would make him 55 years old. Before the age of 30 he'd already created the software and hardware for what became the Apple II. Today he has a collection of Segways and spends his days educating kids. Me? I'm on the verge of 35, I don't even have a pogo stick and I am blogging in my pajamas. How depressing.

Happy Birthday, Woz!



Thanks wirobro and others who reminded us.