Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
AppleInsider has a nice long preview of the new Leopard Dock, along with a short history going all the way back to a company called Acorn Computers, and the NeXT Dock (there's even some good, healthy Windows TaskBar bashing thrown in the mix).
There isn't really anything new here, but it is a nice wrap up of everything we've seen about the Dock so far, including the new perspective that folks are so worked up about, and the idea of "stacks," special icons that will expand into a number of different icons. AppleInsider even runs down the default stacks provided with Leopard-- Applications, Documents and Downloads. I'm not sure how long those will last on my Leopard install, however-- I'm much more eager to make my own stacks and reorganize everything myself.
Very exciting. Unfortunately there's no mention of an update to how the vertical Dock looks, but Leopard is right around the corner, so we'll find out for sure very soon if Apple's new Dock lives up to expectations.
"I installed [NewtSMS+ 1.10a beta] on my Newton MP 2100. I put the SIM card into my Nokia Card Phone. Plugged the card phone into my Newt. Let NewtSMS+ know the PIN of my SIM card, and was ready to go...For my money (exactly 35 euros / about 48 USD in this case), the Newton does a brilliant job."
He goes on to note that the Phone Card also works with his eMate and old Compaq laptop, plus the SIM card works with his Nokia 6310i. Nicely done!
The gadget web has been dutifullyreporting the release of a new all-in-one computer from Gateway called the One (above right). Almost inevitably it has been repeatedly compared to the iMac. However, looking at the thing I can't help but observe that it doesn't look so much like an iMac as another Mac of fond memory: the 20th Anniversary Mac (above left). As a Mac guy I just can't help myself: good job Gateway, welcome to 1997!
A little while back we linked to ByteCellar's Apple //c terminal, and now he's gone and put a Newton online. You can check out the whole setup in the gallery, but the short story seems to be that he hooked up the eMate 300 to a serial-to-USB terminal, and then ran it through his Mini. Pretty easy, he says, since he'd already done it with the Apple //c, and apparently it's just an experiment-- while he could easily keep it around for IRC, he says the eMate is bound to its eFate as a paperWate.
And if getting the Newton hooked up as a terminal revs your engine, I was surprised to find out that TUAW houses the original Newton serial connector. Very impressive-- even in 1993, Sadun was doing stuff with Apple hardware that makes my head spin. Figgles, apparently, is her Newton.
And finally, if you don't have the knowhow or the patience to hook your Newton up to a serial internet connection, you could always just pull an Ihnatko and fake it. How long has he had that sticker sitting around? If you're not up for actually stickering your iPhone, Jer Wood's wallpaper might be more your speed.
While browsing Flickr from the luxurious TUAW offices this afternoon (read: That Starbucks on the corner), we came across the Apple Prototypes Flickr group. There's some very cool stuff pictured, including a penlite prototype with duodock and a transparent SE/20.
As the group's administrator notes, prototype Apple hardware rarely sees the light of day. If you've got something cool lying around, consider adding a few shots to this pool (Anonymity will be granted, if desired). Because sharing is caring.
Photograph used with permission from Sonny Hung. Photographer anonymous.
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 like click-and-drag and scrolling that we take so much for granted. Like Peter, I love the helpful simile that the "Finder is like a central hallway in the Macintosh house." You know, just looking at the thing makes me want a Mac classic!
This might be the Mac-geekiest thing I've ever seen, but this is TUAW, so here you go. Sharp-eyed reader Morgan W has a flickr pool up of signs around the Apple campus in Cupertino, and notes that three of their newest building signs (at Bandley Five, Six, and Eight) have an updated logo with no 3D effect, and use Myriad for the font instead of Garamond, which the old signs used.
Will Apple's stock prices jump around at the news? Probably not. but as Morgan says, just like the missing Open Apple, it's another sign that we're moving further and further away from the "rainbow and serif Apple of yore."
Two days from now, their next creation will go on sale: The young Jobs and Woz playset. While the Woz works on a circuit board, Jobs has another idea (yes, the thought bubble is a part of the set).
PodBrix has only produced 300 of these, and they typically sell out in minutes. Set your watches for 9:00 PM EST on 8/29/07. Good luck, and let us know if you get one!
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.
Mad props to my parents for keeping our basement an Apple museum! Aside from a pristine Apple //c (with monochrome monitor), vintage Apple ][ ,and Mac SE/30 (with a color monitor card) they kept most if not all of our Mac and Apple programming books from my youth. A few games even survived, although my addiction to Wasteland forced my dad to ship several of the more fun games to my French cousins. So I took some quick pics and made a vintage Apple books and software gallery. Enjoy the trip down memory lane-- and if any of the authors of these books are around, let us know in the comments.
Some of my favorites:
Chipwits - one of my favorite edutainment titles ever (and the original authors are trying to bring it back)
Jeeves - before he hit the web he was your personal assistant
SiliconUser takes a short look at ye olde Hypercard technology, Apple's precursor to the concepts that eventually became HTML and the World Wide Web. The project was originally created in 1985 as an easier way to create programs on the Macintosh-- it consisted of a "cards and stacks" metaphor, as in you created one card that linked to another card in the stack, and so on. Early Hypercard stacks just worked as organized information databases, but eventually Hypercard ended up doing more and more-- cards could work as applications in themselves, and the links between them served as a precursor to hyperlinks and what we know as the Internet today. Personally, I only used Hypercard very minimally, and it's hard for me to imagine as much functionality coming out of Hypercard as we've got with CSS, HTML, and PHP today. But Hypercard faithful (of which the numbers seem to be not quite known), held onto the application for a long time.
Hypercard's downfall came arguably not because it failed to stand up to new concepts, but because Apple, in a blunder, passed the program away to Claris, who tried to sell it rather than include it free in Macs. By the time Apple took it back, in 1993, the momentum was lost, and after a short period with Apple's Quicktime division, Hypercard was discontinued in 2004. Previous to that, Hypercard 3.0 was shown at WWDC 1996 (including the ability to display Hypercard stacks in a web browser, which might have been the key to keeping Hypercard alive), but that release never came. There are a few traces of Hypercard left on Apple's site, but as a technology, it's as dead as dead gets. Thanks, Thomas!
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 the screen is called a "check" and used to be a way for people to exchange money. Seriously, for 1983 that thing looks pretty cool.
Personally, I was never that much of a fan of Apple's "Think Different" advertising campaign. Nonetheless, this reworking of the "Crazy Ones" ad as moving text art is quite impressive. It's yet another testament to Apple's skillful advertising that people feel strongly enough about it to to do things like this. Just for the record, here's a YouTube video of Apple's original ad.
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates sat down with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at the All Things Digital conference for a joint interview the other day. The footage of the interview was posted at the D5 website, but it was broken up into chunks. Now you can watch, or listen, to the interview in its entirety thanks to the iTunes Store. That's right, the interview is now available as a video or audio podcast. The audio only version checks in at 85 megs or so, while the video file is almost 1 gig in size.
I'm downloading the video as I type this, and I suggest you do the same. It isn't often that one gets to watch two people who have shaped technology in such a meaningful way sit down and share their thoughts about the past, present, and future (though Steve never comments on future products).
Thanks, Karim.
Update: I neglected to mention that Steve and Bill were interviewed in a tag team fashion by Walt and Kara Swisher.
For the Mac history buffs out there, a Memorial Day treat:Thomas Hormby at The Mac Observer has a fascinating look at the the story behind the original iMac. Of course, the iMac is considered by many the computer that saved Apple, and was Steve Jobs' first great triumph after his return.
Personally, I did not realize that the "internet Macintosh" was originally intended to be a Network Computer (remember those?) as promoted by then Apple board member Larry Ellison. Above you can see the video (pre-black turtleneck and jeans!) of the original iMac introduction, then go ahead and check out Hormby's story.
AppleInsider has a nice long preview of the new Leopard Dock, along with a short history going all the way back to a company called Acorn Computers, and the NeXT Dock (there's even some good, healthy Windows TaskBar bashing thrown in the mix).
Who needs an 
A little while back we linked to ByteCellar's 
While browsing Flickr from the luxurious TUAW offices this afternoon (read: That Starbucks on the corner), we came across the 
Mad props to my parents for keeping our basement an Apple museum! Aside from a pristine Apple //c (with monochrome monitor), vintage Apple ][ ,and Mac SE/30 (with a color monitor card) they kept most if not all of our Mac and Apple programming books from my youth. A few games even survived, although my addiction to Wasteland forced my dad to ship several of the more fun games to my French cousins. So I took some quick pics and made a 
SiliconUser takes a short look at 
Apparently Apple's been thinking about this whole phone thing for a long time. Here, courtesy of 
