Most people are split on the decision to buy an extended warranty on their electronic devices. Some think it's the best "accessory" that you can buy for your gear, while others think it's a total waste of money. Speaking from my personal experience with AppleCare support -- it has been a worthwhile investment.

While I have never experienced a major problem with any of my Macs, iPod, or iPhone, AppleCare has definitely been there to solve those minor glitches. Case in point: this weekend my Mighty Mouse's scroll wheel stopped working (this is the 3rd Mighty Mouse in less than one year). I simply called Apple's support and told them what was going on. "My Mighty Mouse stopped scrolling," I said. The Apple representative gave me some simple troubleshooting tips to make sure that my computer wasn't doing anything strange. I was asked to check the scroll speed and then they asked me to reset the PRAM (I don't really understand that one, but OK). After that, the representative said that my mouse was, in fact, defective (no duh), took my address and said they would have a new one out to me in "5 to 7 business days."

That was on Saturday. On Monday I got a knock on the door from a DHL delivery guy with a box in his hand -- you guessed it, Apple overnighted me a wireless Mighty Mouse! The cost to overnight the package: $70. This is just one example of AppleCare's good service.

Here's a great collection of Apple print ads from the past twenty years.

What I've found interesting is that trademark aspects of today's Apple machines can be found in these old designs, like fan-free heat dissipation, the tendency to shrink things and ads that show disembodied hands holding their hardware.

While you're there, check out this great 39-page advertisement for the Macintosh. Talk about hype.

My favorite campaign is the Think Different series of TV spots and posters. What's yours?

[Via Coudal Partners]

24 years ago today the public could, for the first time, buy themselves a Macintosh computer. This little computer, which cost $2500, changed the way people interact with machines on a very real level. It is also the reason that TUAW exists. Without the Macintosh 128k there would be no TUAW, no Mac, and (most likely) no Apple.

Sound off in the comments if you bought one of those first Macs and share your story of how it impacted your life.

Thanks to everyone who reminded us about this.

Fortune has the latest market share figures for December (according to a survey by Net Applications), and it's good news all around for Apple-- Mac systems jumped from a 6.8 share to 7.3, a 7.35% increase. Which is actually nothing compared to the iPhone, which jumped 33%, or even the Playstation, which jumped 50%.

Wait a minute, the Playstation? Where are they getting these numbers from? Apparently Net Applications gets these figures by monitoring browser information from sites tracking their hits through their products (of which Hitslink is one). So a jump for "Mac" systems doesn't mean a jump in sales figures, or even ownership-- all it means is that more people whose browsers reported them as Macs visited Hitslink sites in December than in November. And more people whose browsers reported them as the iPhone did the same. Not quite the definitive numbers they first claim to be, but Net Apps says (of course they would) that these numbers do correspond to trends found by more objective studies.

And as long as they're firing up the flames on both the OS wars and the gaming platform wars, Net Apps goes ahead and swings for the triple play-- they also report that, according to their numbers, the map of people reporting as Mac owners corresponds extremely well to the blue sections of the red/blue maps of the last US elections. Um, yeah-- we're not touching that one. You guys can fight it out in the comments.

When we first got tipped this story (by RP-- thanks!), I was like "Oh boy, another guy who found a Newton on eBay and calls himself a Mac collector." But no, this guy is the real deal. He's got 100 Macs in his basement, including 30 Mac Classics and 18 original iMacs, as well as both a Lisa and a 20th Anniversary Macintosh. And these aren't just sitting around on shelves with cords all over the place-- oh no. These are set up just as Jobs would want them to be-- booted, running, cleanly placed, in an immaculate workspace, gently lit from above. If there's a Mac heaven, it's in this guy's basement in Missouri.

The guy, named Jeremy Mehrle, says he started buying them when he was single to fill the space in his house. I don't know if he charges admission, but if so, I'd pay.

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!

If you're a Mac geek in Menlo Park, California, listen up. TechShop on Independence Drive will host an evening with Daniel Kottke, Apple Employee #12, and the only employee to have worked on the Apple I, Apple II, Apple III and the original Macintosh. Mr. Kottke will speak on "The features that made Apple's products winners in the market place," and working versions of each of those classic machines will be on hand. It all starts at 7:00 PM PST.

As TUAW tipster Taylor points out, Woz himself has a tendency to show up at these public "nerd events," but we aren't making any promises.

Thanks, Taylor!

You've heard about the Apple bubble, right? The prevailing belief that Apple's stock is overpriced and about to explode? Turns out there's definitely a Microsoft bubble, too. Different kind, though. One that surrounds Bill Gates in his day-to-day role at Microsoft.

Microsoft employs a technical assistant dedicated to deleting Mr. Gates' email. "It is a corporate policy not to make a permanent record of Bill's works...The job duties of the technical assistant require him to delete email files from Mr Gates' computer weekly." Apparently this directive appeared after the recent US Government antitrust case, where many emails showed Microsoft's anticompetitive policy.

Still waiting to get to the Apple punchline of this whole post? Turns out that in a (non-deleted) 2004 email, a senior executive told Gates that if he didn't work for Microsoft, he'd buy a Mac. Which shows that you really can find good people for senior management. It also makes you wonder how many deleted emails discuss the preference for iPods over the Zune.

Link may require registration.

These days it seems like any analyst with an axe to grind or a website to build pageviews with is taking a dig at Apple, making any claims that zing well in a headline, deliberately misinterpreting any data they can to make it look like the Mac is receding into unappreciated obscurity. Fortunately, Switch to a Mac has done their research and laid the smack down, calling out the falsifying data and proving that Apple's market share in the computer market (hooray! Finally talk of 'market share' without 'iPod' in the same sentence!) has been expanding. The article analyzes data from various market share studies, Wall Street announcements (for what those are worth), Apple's own releases and more to see through the fog and find that Apple is really doing quite well. If you need some cold hard numbers to convince family/friends/your boss that a Mac is a good purchase, head over and soak up more statistics than you can probably remember.

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.

Folklore.org is the great site created by original Macintosh team member Andy Hertzfeld. It's a priceless collection of stories from the very early days at Apple as told by the Macintosh team. Derek Warren has launched Macintosh Folkore Radio, in which he reads stories of "...how the Macintosh came to be." You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes here.

[Via Cult of Mac]

Intel Macs are so yesterday. I'm all about the "PowerPC G6 Macintosh," and it's only $499 to boot!

Engadget found a company (who might have already been threatened/litigated out of existence by the time you read this) by the name of Red PC who is selling a computer they call the "PowerPC G6 Macintosh." But wait - in addition to getting a supposedly next-gen PPC cloned Mac - there's more! Included in their Apple-defying price of $499 (along with this gorgeous case) is a hacked version of Mac OS X (it's reportedly a Pentium-based machine), Microsoft Office 2004 and - drumroll please - Photoshop CS2!

Nothing says "I'm feeling suicidal" like stepping on the toes of three of the largest players in the computer and software industries.

I'm a fan of Apple's Technical Notes (odd, I know). I thought this one, entitled 'Uniquely Identify a Macintosh Computer' interesting enough to share (some people might disagree with me though).It is all about how you should identify Macs in a number of situations (inventory being the big one). I know what you're thinking, why not just use the serial number of the Mac and be done with it? Well, Sparky, it would seem that a Mac's serial number can actually change (well, the value in the system changes at least) when hardware is swapped out.

Give the tech note a read, and find out more than you ever wanted to know about serial numbers.

Last night on Fox's Family Guy, Stewie had a little fun with his Mac. While practicing for the Olympics, his brother Chris interrupted his "training" (don't ask). Stewie responded by knocking Chris unconscious with a book, and using his motionless body as a landing platform for his pole vaulting practice. Delighted, he announced, "...That was even cooler than playing with the speech function on my Macintosh."

Cut to Stewie in his high chair in front of a laptop:

Stewie: So, computer, what are you thinking about right now?
Mac: Stewie is cool.
Stewie: Yaaaay!

[Via TVSquad]