TechCrunch has posted pictures of what they're calling an "unlaunched Apple tablet." In 1990, as the story goes, Apple was supposedly working on a pen-based touchscreen tablet called the Pen Mac that was actually extremely small for the time -- just about an inch thick, with a screen the same size as a Mac Portable. They were bringing a few different companies in on the deal, and apparently it worked well -- ran a full Mac OS, used a pen to control or let you plug in a mouse and keyboard, and there was even a smaller version called the PenLite (bulky by today's standards, but remember that this is 20 years ago now).

So why weren't we all using tablet computers 20 years ago? TechCrunch blames John Sculley, who apparently thought the tablet idea was out, and the PDA idea was in, and we ended up with the Newton instead. I won't second guess him -- while it's easy to think that anything could have beaten the Newton, would the current Apple touchscreen tablet craze even be here if it weren't for the iPhone? And isn't Apple's smartphone just a hop, skip and a jump from their original PDA?

Today's Friday Favorite is a new one to me, but it's been around for a while. I just picked up the latest version of HistoryHound from St. Clair Software -- more famous, probably, for Default Folder X -- and have been using it constantly for days. Its hotkey already has its own spot in my muscle memory. Here's what it does:

HistoryHound indexes bookmarks, history and cache from all of your browsers, with presets for Camino, Firefox 2 & 3, Flock, iCab, OmniWeb, Opera, Safari, Shiira and URL Manager Pro. It means being able to bookmark willy-nilly in any browser and know that you'll be able to quickly locate noteworthy sites again, in any application.

Not just the bookmarks, though; in the background -- with a very low footprint -- HistoryHound starts indexing the full text of each page. Then you can search for exact or fuzzy matches, or with Spotlight-style boolean keywords for any text on the landing page. Search comes in two flavors: a tiny popup panel which can be assigned to a hotkey and provides a list of matches as you type, and a full, Webkit-enabled search window with page previews and a multi-column result list.

An email this morning from Harry McCracken at Technologizer.com pointed the way to a trip down memory lane. Harry was letting us know that Technologizer blogger Benj Edwards had written a 20th anniversary teardown post about the first truly mobile Mac -- the Mac Portable.

Why is this a trip down memory lane for me in particular? I actually owned one of these beasts for a few years. They were ridiculously expensive at the time -- US$7,300 for a 16 lb. (7.25 kg) monochrome screen machine with 1 MB of RAM, a floppy disk drive, and a 40 MB hard disk -- but since I was a developer at the time I was able to get a substantial discount and bought it for about $4,000.

I recall taking my Portable to meetings back in the day, and people were absolutely fascinated by it. Of course, about two years later it would be replaced by the much lighter (5.1 lb. / 2.3 kg) PowerBook 100, which was the first of what we consider to be the truly "laptop" Macs.

Definitely take a look at the Technologizer post if you get a chance. Benj does a step-by-step teardown, describes what you're seeing in each photo, and notes what items on the Portable made it such a technological wonder in the late 1980s. I won't spoil things for you, but be sure to look at the last page of the teardown for a comparison Edwards does between the Portable and the iPhone. We've come a long way in just 20 years.

In 1994, I was working as the IT manager for a natural gas pipeline company (all Macs, of course), had long hair pulled back in a ponytail, and none of that hair was gray. In January of '94, I remember being invited down to Apple's Denver office -- they had a Denver office in those days -- to see some new products that were being introduced.

While I was disappointed that they didn't show us an updated Newton (the MessagePad 110 would be introduced in March), I was intrigued by another device that was demonstrated -- the Apple QuickTake 100 digital camera. At the time, the only other small business / consumer digital cameras on the market were the Canon Ion, a device from Kodak (rebranded by Apple as the QuickTake 100), and the Logitech PhotoMan.

After the demo, we passed around the camera and took photos of each other, and then waited as the pictures were uploaded to a Mac. Considering that "digital photography" for us at that time meant taking a picture with a film camera, waiting for the film to be developed and prints made, and then scanning the pictures on an expensive and slow SCSI scanner, this seemed like the future. Of course, I remember comments from many of the people in attendance to the effect of "digital photography will never replace film photography."

Feeling nostalgic? Applemctom has posted a great video detailing the evolution of Mac gaming from Dark Tower, released in 1986, right up to the resurgence and explosion of gaming on the iPhone.

Take a look and see if your favorites are covered. My vote for inclusion in the sequel is Wolfenstein 3D.

I hope this post gets filed in the "I knew I wasn't the only one!" mental filing cabinets of many. Because if it doesn't, then it makes me the only one who really looks forward to the music Apple uses in its keynotes. Whether it's a song that leads up to Steve Jobs' entrance on stage, or one used in software or hardware demos, there's no denying that music is very much a part of Apple's DNA. Heck, the company's namesake reflects Steve's love for the Beatles. Apple occasionally invites some of music's biggest names to perform at its events because, as Steve says, "it's all about the music."

And this post is all about the music. It's all about the music that Apple has used in one way, shape, or form at its keynote events. Although by no means a definitive list, it's certainly a fair sample.

Normally the Lonely Planet guides for iPhone are $15.99, so any way you look at it, getting the San Francisco guide (iTunes link) for free is a great purchase. At worst you'll see if you like the Lonely Planet way of doing things in a travel guide and at best you might discover something new in San Francisco. Yep, the guide is free in anticipation of WWDC, allowing attendees to do a little sightseeing if Apple's sessions aren't enough for you.

I've only spent a bit of time with the app (I'm not in San Francisco, so testing the "nearby" functions won't happen until next week), but if you're familiar with the Lonely Planet guide books, you'll be pretty familiar with the content here. The app has a really long list for the table of contents, something I felt could be handled better. If you want to find travel information, for example, you'll have to scroll somewhere about 40% down -- this is not optimal if you need info in a hurry. In fact, scrolling through longs lists is so annoying Apple gave the iPod app a search tool and Coverflow browsing. Luckily the LP guide provides a text search which I found quite useful.

Browsing content is terrifically easy, with a slim design that allows you to move forward and back between articles, increase text size or go back up to whatever screen you were previously at, like a search page. Speaking of those searches and the content, a cursory search for Moscone brought up no precise info on the convention center. It is mentioned in a reference to Yerba Buena, but otherwise lacks details.

The map suffers from static information and a lack of one-way street info (kind of important in cities filled with them, but only if you drive). I much prefer the maps and interaction of the AAA Discounts app, complete with animation and cleaner graphics. There are complaints about missing hotels and whatnot, but I've never fully trusted any guidebook to find every hotel and restaurant. Plus, there's always Urbanspoon and a plethora of apps for discovering new places to eat around you.

Obviously if you are ever planning to travel to San Francisco it'd be hard to turn down a free app so full of info. I don't think it'll replace anything like your Maps app, or Urbanspoon, or Yelp-based apps, but that's not the point. As a guide full of history and photos, hotel and restaurant data, workable maps and tons of "getting around" data, the Lonely Planet San Francisco City Guide is incredibly handy.

The guys over at the RetroMacCast sent us a link to their latest episode, featuring an interview with none other than Rob Janoff, the designer of Apple's old rainbow Mac logo. The interview starts a little less than halfway into the show, and it's cool to hear a voice right out of Apple's past.

They talk about the inception of the logo -- how Apple came to Janoff's firm and what they originally asked for in terms of a design. He actually had very little guidance when first creating the logo, and in fact hadn't seen any of Apple's branding or even heard of the company before he created the now-iconic image. He also talks about how lucky he was in choosing the image -- he saw it as a pretty obvious choice to use a picture of fruit for a company named after said fruit, but like any great logo, there ended up being layers of meaning behind that apple bite (or byte, as he points out).

Nothing really earthshaking in the interview (he hasn't had contact with Apple since, and even he says that the mythology behind the company has much more to do than just the familiar logo), but hey, if you're hanging out today during Memorial Day and need something interesting to listen to while barbecuing, you can tune in and learn a little bit about Apple's corporate history.

I admit I wasn't much of a history nut when I was very young, but as I got older I found the subject more and more fascinating. Heck, I even wound up writing a book about a producer of historical epic films. I think a good perspective on history helps you understand the present, so I welcome On this Day [App Store link] for the iPhone/ iPod touch. For $0.99US it's a pretty good way to find out what happened on the current day. It includes 14,000 historical events, so instead of seeing 2 or 3 items you often get 40 or so.

There are some other similar apps for the iPhone, including World Book- The Day in History and Today's History, but neither of them have as many events, and one requires an internet connection to work.

On this Day worked with no issues, but there are a few things that would make it better. Like most people, I wanted to check my birthday and see what notable events, other than my birth, took place. But the app only displays history from the current date. That's a real downer. I talked to the developer and he says he'll change that in a future version. I also found the info button with links to support and sources a bit picky about where I tap. The developer agrees, and says he'll fix it.

On this Day adds a nice feature to the iPhone, and has some real depth. I think a really nice 'blue sky' feature would be links to Wikipedia so I could learn more about these events if the mood strikes me.

Sample screens below:

Welcome to the TUAW newsletter for April 1st 1996. We're really glad that our subscriber base is growing, and that you are continuing to read our daily coverage of all things Apple, including Mac and Newton. We've got a lot in store for this issue, and would love to hear your comments back, so be sure to leave us a note in the attached forum thread to let us know how you liked it.

Happy Birthday, Apple!
Yes, today Apple turned 20 years old. While the company has been struggling for the past year, we can only hope that a turnaround is imminent. We've definitely seen some improvements, like that shiny new Newton MessagePad 130 that Apple released a few weeks ago, but we can't help but think that Apple is missing something. Either way, Apple is still an innovative company that holds true to their slogan of bringing "The Power to Be Your Best" to the consumer and professionals that rely on their products everyday.

Rumor Alert: Is Apple working on a new OS?
Our sources familiar with Apple's plans tell us that Apple is actively working on a project that will eventually replace the Mac OS. According to insiders, the code name for the project is Copland. We're also hearing word that Copland will feature amazing new features like protected memory, better performance, less crashes, and be completely PowerPC native. Becoming PowerPC native will be a huge issue as the PowerPC Macs only started shipping two years ago.

Apple's CEO stepping down? Who's stepping up?
We've recently heard that Apple's board of directors have replaced CEO Michael Spindler with Gil Amelio. From sources, we've heard that Apple will begin a massive layoff of employees -- not good for the company. Here's hoping Gil can turn the ship around.

Apple releases update to Newton MessagePad
Just a couple weeks ago Apple released a new MessagePad that looks promising. The MessagePad 130 features an ARM 610 processor that runs at 20Mhz, an 8MB ROM, 1.2MB RAM, and 1.5MB flash memory for storage. There is the same 320x240 screen that we've come to love on these portable wonders, and there is a backlight included on this model. It runs the 2.0 version of the Newton OS, which has been available on the MessagePad 120 since last year. The device is powered by 4 AA batteries (or a rechargeable pack), and only weighs 1 pound! This device looks promising and we can't wait to get our hands on it. You can get your MessagePad for $800USD.

**For more Apple news, be sure to sign up for The Unofficial Apple Webmailer available on TUAW.com, or you can see more Apple news on their website.**

TUAW Newsletter - April 1, 1976

In this Bicentennial year, technology is making big advances! You can read about it here in Technology Update Aptos Weekly, the official computer newsletter of the Aptos, CA Amateur Computer Club, delivered to your door every week. Remember to pay Steve Sande your dues, as part of that money goes towards the ridiculous rip-off that the Post Office has concocted -- 13¢ for a first-class stamp.

New micro-processor from MOS Technology

MOS Technology announced the new 6502 micro-processor, which should revolutionize the homebrew computing world. For $25, much less than Intel's $179 8080 chip, you get a 8-bit processor with a 16-bit data bus. Steve Wozniak from the HOmebrew Computer Club is basing his "Apple I" computer that he'll show at our next meeting on the 6502. Most people think he's crazy not to use the Intel 8080, but he wants to make a computer thats inexpensive (a friend of his named Steve Jobs wants to sell these computers - now there's a crazy idea!) You can ask Steve about it at the meeting at Tom's house on the 16th - I think he's going to make copies of the specs on one of the Xerox machines at HP.

At the last HCC meeting, Christopher Espinoza showed off a cool subroutine he wrote for the 6502 that prints the A-register in binary! He'll have that in the HCC newsletter sooN and we'll try to see if he'll let us reprint it for those who want to try out this cheap inexpensive mcicro processor.

In my opinion, and I am the editor of this newsletter until someone takes my IBM Selectric away, I think he should be using the Zilog Z-80 that's in the Cromemco Z-1. After all, it's a much faster chip than the 8080. I hear that Gary Kildall will have a version of his Operating System CP/M for the Z-80 and not for the 6502.

Cool new multi-function calculator from Casio!

The Japanese company Casio has just announced a breakthrough product called the CQ 1. Believe it or not, they've figured out a way to put a 4-function calculator (with memory), a digital clock, a stopwatch, AND alarm clock into one box. It's 14,000 yen, whatever that works out to in dollars.

Reader John sent us a fascinating little trip back in time (thanks!) he took on his blog: he found a 1996 copy of MacUser about all of the amazing applications available on the Internet, and decided go look at what had become of them. Sadly, most of them have gone missing, but the old names sound familiar: CU-SeeMe for messaging, Lycos for search, and Happy Puppy for gaming. It's almost hard to believe there was a time before Skype, Google, and Steam, but 1996 was it.

Even Apple has moved on -- their "/documents/product-support" page, something you'd think would have survived all this time, is gone. It's amazing the turnover the Internet's gone through in just 10 years. It's hard to believe that in 2029, something like Google.com will be retaken by a domain squatter as everyone's moved on to the next big thing.

But then again, things are different these days -- Google has obviously successfully figured out how to monetize their free service, and most of the original web companies went down because they could pull that off. But you never know -- a site you visit all the time might be completely changed or gone ten years from now.

A few months ago I brought my family's old Macintosh SE/30 to my home office. While it booted fine a few years ago, it looks like mine has developed SimasiMac, which means a trip inside the machine to replace a few capacitors (I hope). Along with the SE/30 I brought a Powerbook 540c, one of the more capable (and last) of the smaller, 68LC040-based laptops from Apple. The 500 series had numerous firsts, like a trackpad and sleep mode when you shut the lid, plus you could upgrade the CPU to a PowerPC chip.

Currently our 540c doesn't have much software on it, as we used Zip disks to store many of the educational programs my little brothers used in the 90's. It does, however, have a copy of SoftPC, and Windows 95 installed on it. Not two months ago my son sat here in the office and had a ball playing with Paint (why isn't there something like this pre-installed on Macs, hm?) and Minesweeper. He's playing with the calculator in the picture. I find it a little sad that we had to resort to Windows for casual fun, but I guess that's why Macs were never considered "toy computers" (that's sarcasm for those who missed the reference).

When the kids do play classic Mac OS games, I let them use my 500 MHz G3 iBook (the first of the "icebooks"), which not only runs Mac OS X and Mac OS 9, but has a version of TuxPaint for OS X, which I highly recommend. It should be noted that quite a few older Mac educational games won't run on the iBook. Often it's an issue with older versions of QuickTime expected by the program, or some funky extension or Director call that just won't work after OS 8.5 (remember Sherlock?).

You can see some really old Macs pulling serious duty over on Cult of Mac as well. But I want to know what you readers are running in the way of older Macs. What's the oldest Mac currently still living in your house, and what do you use it for? Oh, and if anyone has a copy of NetTrek they'd like to share...

A quarter of a century has passed since the Macintosh was first unveiled, and we're happy to celebrate the silver anniversary of the computer for the rest of us. Here's a look at some of Apple's hits and misses when it comes to the venerable platform.

For a contemporary perspective, check out this story from the April, 1984 issue of Compute! magazine, where associate editor Fred D'Ignazio writes of the January 30 "coming out party" for the Mac at the Boston Computer Society.

When was the first time you heard of the Mac? Our team will be sharing their reminiscences later today.