Νέο ρεκόρ για το App Store της Apple | T3 Magazine

Το ότι το App Store της Apple είναι πολύ επιτυχημένο, το γνωρίζουμε όλοι εδώ και καιρό. Η κίνηση αυξάνεται συνέχεια, όπως αυξάνονται και οι εφαρμογές για κάθε ενδιαφερόμενο. Πριν από λίγο καιρό, η Apple καυχήθηκε ότι οι εφαρμογές στο App Store ξεπερνούν τις 70.000. Τώρα αυτό το νούμερο μοιάζει πολύ μικρό, αν το συγκρίνει κανείς με τις 100.000 εφαρμογές που υπάρχουν πλέον στο online μαγαζί.[next]

 

Το AppleCare βρίσκει τον δρόμο του για την Ελληνική αγορά – MacLife.gr Forum

Αρχισε να διαμορφώνεται σιγά σιγά η σχετική σελίδα υποστήριξης της Apple για τους Ελληνες χρήστες με τα χαρακτηριστικά του AppleCare.
Φαίνεται πως οι ενδείξεις των τελευταίων εβδομάδων γίνονται πραγματικότητα με την Apple να προετοιμάζει το έδαφος για την έλευση την πολυαναμενόμενης επέκτασης εγγύησης των προϊόντων της (AppleCare), ξεκινώντας από την ενημέρωση των σελίδων υποστήριξης. Πρός το παρόν στην συγκεκριμένη σελίδα οι χρήστες μπορούν να βρούν βασικές πληροφορίες στα αγγλικά και τα ελληνικά για το AppleCare και δεν αποκλείεται με την ολοκλήρωση της ιστοσελίδας της iSquare (ο καινούργιος διανομένας των προϊόντων Apple στην χώρα μας), και το άνοιγμα του νέου ηλεκτρονικού καταστήματος, να γίνει διαθέσιμο πρός αγορά[next]

 

The Albert was unusual looking for an Apple IIe clone. It was a two-piece design with what the company called “stereo” styling. The company hedged its bets by offering a Z80 option for anyone wishing to use CP/M, and later sold multi-processor systems that could run AppleDOS, CP/M, or MS-DOS.
The company later developed other Albert models. The Albert Express appears similar to the original model. The Albert Executive and Alfred Professional Executive (Profex) offered more expansion options. A portable version of the Profex was also available, and the Albert Pup was a low-cost, entry-level model.

Model: Albert Computers Albert (April 1983, Apple II-class desktop)
Original Retail Price: $1,595 Base Configuration: 6502 CPU; AppleDOS 3.3 and Coyotesoft OS; 64K RAM (192K max); five Apple-compatible expansion slots; RGB video port; keyboard; RS-232, RS-422/432, parallel, microphone, and game ports, application suite
Video: 24-line x 40-column text, 280 x 192 graphics, 16 colors
Important Options: Z80 coprocessor, joysticks, 12-inch monitor

MacLife.gr

Συγκεκριμένα η Apple ανακοίνωσε τζίρο $9.87 δισ. δολάρια και καθαρά κέρδη $1.67 δισ. δολάρια ή $1.82 δολάρια ανά μετοχή (diluted share). Τα αποτελέσματα στο αντίστοιχο τρίμηνο της περσινής χρονιάς ήταν $7.9 δισ. δολάρια τζίρος και καθαρά κέρδη $1.14 δισ. δολάρια. Το μικτό περιθώριο κέρδους (gross margin) αυξήθηκε στο 36,6% από το 34,7% του αντίστοιχου τριμήνου της προηγούμενης χρονιάς, με τις πωλήσεις εκτός ΗΠΑ να διαμορφώνονται στο 46%. Το συγκεκριμένο τρίμηνο θεωρείται το πιο επικερδές στην ιστορία της Apple.[next]

Ιστοσελίδα αφιερωμένη εις μνήμην του Time Capsule – MacLife.gr Forum
Δυσαρεστημένοι χρήστες του Time Capsule ανάρτησαν στο διαδίκτυο την ιστοσελίδα timecapsuledead.org εκθέτοντας την Apple και καταγράφοντας τις ελλατωματικές συσκευές.

Συγκεκριμένα η ιστοσελιδα απευθύνεται σε χρήστες που βίωσαν τον ξαφνικό “θάνατο” της συσκευής τους Time Capsule, και αισθάνονται παραμελημένοι από την Apple η οποία ακόμη δεν έχει αναγνωρίσει το πρόβλημα. Μέσω της συγκεκριμένης ιστοσελίδας ο χρήστης έχει την δυνατότητα να καταχωρήσει τα στοιχεία του Time Capsule που σταμάτησε να λειτουργεί, όπως τον σειριακό αριθμό, την χώρα αγοράς κ.ο.κ., κι έτσι να μοιραστεί την αγανάκτησή του με άλλους ομοιοπαθούντες ανά την υφήλιο. Καταγράφοντας τις “νεκρές” συσκευές οι δημιουργοί της ιστοσελίδας ευελπιστούν πως θα ευαισθητοποιήσουν την εταιρία να κινητοποιηθεί και φυσικά να αναγνωρίσει το πρόβλημα.[next]

Using the iPod touch to write this entry is interesting. Making spelling mistakes is a lot easyer with this keyboard. After a long wait for this thing and I’m happy I have it. Just a short entry because this thing is hard to type on .

Φανατικοί καταναλωτές οι κάτοχοι προϊόντων της Apple | T3 Magazine
Η εταιρεία NPD διεξήγαγε μια μεγάλη έρευνα στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες, η οποία δείχνει συγκεκριμένες τάσεις ως προς τις αγοραστικές συνήθειες του μέσου καταναλωτή. Το τελικό συμπέρασμα είναι ότι υπάρχει ένας σαφής διαχωρισμός ανάμεσα στον κάτοχο ενός υπολογιστή Apple και σ’ αυτόν που έχει υπολογιστή με Windows. Σε γενικές γραμμές, ο Apple-lover είναι ένας αμετανόητος γκατζετάκιας, που αγοράζει προϊόντα τεχνολογίας πολύ πιο συχνά από τους υπολοίπους[next]

Παραίτηση της Apple από το “Chamber of Commerce” των ΗΠΑ – MacLife.gr Forum
Απαντώντας στα πρόσφατα σχόλια που αντιτίθενται στις προσπάθειες για περιορισμό των εκπομπών ρύπων που ευθύνονται για το φαινόμενο του θερμοκηπίου, η Apple παραιτήθηκε από το Εμπορικό Επιμελητήριο των ΗΠΑ.

Η Apple κατέθεσε ένα κείμενο την Δευτέρα στο επιμελητήριο, σημειώνοντας πως η εταιρία έχει δεσμευθεί για την προστασία του περιβάλλοντος και τις κοινότητες στις οποίες ενεργοποιείται ανά τον κόσμο. Σύμφωνα με την New York Times, το επιμελητήριο σχολίασε αρνητικά τις προσπάθειες για περιορισμό των εκπομπών ρύπων που ευθύνονται για το φαινόμενο του θερμοκηπίου, του οργανισμού για την προστασία του περιβάλλοντος (Environmental Protection Agency), με την Apple να μην συμφωνεί μ’ αυτά τα σχόλια.[next]

Strategic platforming was redefined when gamers got their hands on the timeless gem known as Prince of Persia. Set in Ancient Persia, the Sultan’s vizier Jaffar decides to lock up our nameless hero after discovering the Princess has taking a likening to him. Jaffar goes onto imprison the Princess, leaving her an unwelcoming ultimatum; meet death within an hour timespan or marry Jaffar.

Time is of the essence. So gamers experiencing both pleasure and pain in their numerous attempts to save the Princess is typical. The incorporation of intelligent puzzles and deadly traps keeps gamers on their toes; and with the hour glass reaching its endpoint, your gaming will is tested. Great gameplay, accompanied by a simplistic control scheme (via keyboard), make Prince of Persia a standout title worth revisiting over and over.

Creator Jordan Mechner outdid himself, using the technique of rotoscoping to master every movement in gameplay. The Apple II seemed like the perfect fit for the game, and with numerous ports following on every gaming console ever imaginable, the alone solidifies Prince of Persia’s place in gaming history.

One of the highlights from the Music Hack Day in Berlin was the Arduino singing “Daisy Bell”. If you don’t know, this is an homage to the HAL 9000 in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey; an artificial intelligence that was taught the song in its first steps toward self awareness culminating in an attempt to kill its masters.

It’s unlikely an Arduino will every make it to the point of attempted homicide but with the available code you can find out. Sample code and an explanation of human synthesis is now available through the Cantarino project. The project facilitates the use of phonemes from the SAM Apple II synthesizer to build wave forms that make up recognizable speech on the Arduino platform. The code illustrates how to select and link together speech sounds from the library. Check out the video after the break and then get to work on your own speech synthesis. We’re waiting for someone to put together the theme song from the 1980’s Transformers cartoon. Good luck!

[picture: jeanbaptistparis]

We live in an, um, golden age of Apple gossip. Thanks to the blogosphere, a surging sea of sites cover an endless array of rumors about the company, from ones that are right on the money to ones that are partially right to ones that aren’t right at all. The conversation spawned by the scuttlebutt has helped many a site fill time during slow news days: No other company can set off a frenzy of speculation about matters as mundane as the quantity of USB ports a new machine might sport.

The sheer quantity of Apple scuttlebutt has never been higher. But the company has been a powerful engine for the rumor mill for as long as there’s been an Apple and tech journalists to cover it.  And Google Books’ recent addition of the entire run of InfoWorld provides us with the opportunity to revisit the first golden age of Apple rumors–which, uncoincidentally, ended when Steve Jobs was forced out of the company he cofounded in mid-1985.

Today’s InfoWorld may be a Web site for IT professionals, but in the early 1980s it was a weekly publication for microcomputer users, and its pages are as good a record as you’ll find of the era’s industry chatter–including lots and lots of stuff about Apple. So in this second installment in our once-in-awhile series on Apple rumors and predictions, we’ll check out tidbits from InfoWorld stories (1980-1985). My goal is not to mock, but simply to see what folks thought Apple would do, what they thought it meant…and whether any of it came to pass.

Ready? Swell. Return with us now to April of 1980. Jimmy Carter was President of the United States, only one Star Wars movie had been released, and tech nerds were already hungry for Apple scoops…

The Apple III Revealed

Untitled and unbylined story, April 14th, 1980

The earliest interesting Apple gossip I found in InfoWorld concerned the first machine the company released after the publication’s founding:

It appears that rumors concerning the eventual unveiling of the Apple III are getting closer to the mark, since sources in a position to know are increasingly agreeing. The word is that Apple will debut its new machine in May at the National Computer Conference, in Anaheim, California. Rumors about Apple’s activities have been confused both because Apple is currently working on more than one machine, and because the company has changed its mind about design goals several times. For example, at one time, the company was planning to use a custom-designed processor, but abandoned this idea in favor of the 6502C.

Tight-lipped, taciturn, closed-mouth, reticent–all appropriately describe Apple Computer’s policy regarding release of information about the company or its products. Rumor has it there is a sign in one of their lobbies stating, “Stop talking about business outside of business.” While other companies attempt to maintain secrecy, information leaks inevitable occur, but not so with Apple.

What happened? InfoWorld’s Apple III tipsters knew what they were talking about. This is also an early mention of Apple’s reputation for effective secrecy–although it’s a tad odd to give Apple credit for foiling leaks in a story which correctly quotes unnamed sources providing accurate information about the company’s plans.

Amazing Apple Mystery Machine

“Editorial,” by Richard Milewski, February 2nd, 1981

InfoWorld’s editor speculates about a secret Apple product:

Rumors have been circulating around Silicon Valley about a “new kind” of machine to be released in between the Apple III and the Apple IV. Speculation has centered around hand-held and small table-top machines that will compete with the latest offerings from Radio Shack. But events in and around Apple seem to suggest that Apple has chosen to leave the under $1000 market to others.

(snip)

The Apple mystery machine is likely to be entirely bus-less. Look for a design in which multiple Apple mystery machines, printers, disk storage devices, and other peripherals all communicate by a network protocol. For cost reasons, use of the Ethernet protocol is not likely, but an Ethernet interface peripheral likely is. The machine itself is likely to contain more than one processor, and the basic machine may not be user-programmable without additional hardware.

Does this presage Apple’s exit from the personal-computer market? Probably not.

What happened? By 1981, Apple was working on both the ill-fated Lisa and the Mac, and the machine described here is vague enough that it might have been either of them (or, for that matter, neither of them). In any event, Apple didn’t get out of the PC business (whew!) but didn’t turn its attention to handheld devices until it began work on the Newton in 1989.

Apple V Has a Nice Ring to It

“Inside Track,” by John C. Dvorak, November 8th, 1982

A pre-PC Magazine John Dvorak is already on the Apple beat:

Apple, meanwhile, is going to roll out the Lisa on January 19th, 1983. You heard it here first…There has been so much prepublicity for the name Lisa that the company may keep it! It will more than likely be called the Apple IV or Apple V, though.

(snip)

The product is pretty much what everyone thinks it is–a 68000 machine with a hi-resolution display, window and a mouse for cursor control.

What is interesting about the story is some of the infighting that has been happening at the company. I’ve been told that there is a battle royale going on between the MacIntosh group headed by Steve Jobs and the Lisa group (the Personal Office Systems division)..the Mac people think the Lisa will be overpriced and yet offer little advantage over the Mac.

What happened? Dvorak was right on the Lisa’s release date and right on what the machine was. And let’s give him partial credit for raising the possibility of it being named the Lisa even though he thought it probably wouldn’t be. He was also correct about squabbling between the Lisa and “MacIntosh” teams, and the Lisa did indeed turn out to be not much more than a much pricier Mac.

Hey, a Computer With a Handle is a Portable, Right?

“Inside Track,” by John C. Dvorak, February 14th, 1983

More early Mac tidbits (and commentary on Steve Jobs’ facial hair) from Dvorak:

I’ve been getting two rumors about MacIntosh, the low-end Lisa from Apple. One guy tells me it’s a portable and that Apple is working on a plasma display for the thing.

The latest gossip is that it isn’t a portable. In fact, I’m told that Steve Jobs isn’t sold on portables (hear that, Adam [Osborne]). This month someone will present to Jobs a proposal to come up with a portable.

“Inside Track” went to the latest Apple shareholders meeting to see the new nonmustachioed Steve Jobs. I tell you, without that hairy upper lip, he’s a dead ringer for Hugh Hefner. Now if he’d only take up pipe smoking.

What happened? In 1983, portable computers weren’t a well-defined category, and the Mac’s petite size, all-in-one case, and handle made it far more mobile than an Apple II or an IBM PC. But it didn’t have a plasma screen (offhand, the only computer I can remember with one was the Grid Compass). Apple didn’t release a true portable computer until the Macintosh Portable, years after Jobs left the company the first time. As for a cleanshaven, mid-1980s Jobs looking like Hef?

Judge for yourself. (I guess I sort of see it.)

The Apple Tax, Circa Early 1984

“Inside Track,” by John C. Dvorak, January 24th, 1984

Shortly after the announcement of the Macintosh, Dvorak says that Apple charges too much (sound familiar?) and compares its marketing and pricing strategy to that of other leading PC companies of the era:

What the automatic transmission did for the automobile is what is what the Macintosh concept will do for personal computers.

Note that I use the word concept. I think the Mac is a great computer, OK? But besides being easier to use, what does it do that a $1,500 Morrow Micro Decision can’t do? And no, I don’t own Morrow stock.

The fact of the matter is that we are living in a price-driven environment, and Apple continues to ignore the BSFD marketing maxim: benefits sell–features don’t.

What irks me about all this is that I’m rooting for Apple to have a hit, and I do like the Mac. The simple truth is that people want single-board computers to sell for less than $2,000, and they want free software. That’s all there is to it. Osborne knew this, KayPro knows this, IBM knows this, Morrow knows this, everyone knows it except Apple.

So here is the scenario: There will be a surge of interest in the Mac from people like myself who collect hardware. Then it will begin to get used in the office in a cult fashion, similar to the Apple II phenomenon. Unfortunately, it took years before the big Apple II surge took place. Apple can’t afford to wait that long. IBM has a similar machine in the wings and so do the Japanese.

What happened? Osborne was bankrupt when this was written; Kaypro went bankrupt in 1992; IBM divested itself of its PC business in 2004; Morrow went bankrupt in 1986. Apple? Still in business, still catching flack for charging too much.

Dvorak’s forecast of the Mac’s sales trajectory was pretty accurate, except that it turned out that Apple was able to wait until the Mac got some traction. I’m not sure what the Mac-like computers were from IBM (unless Dvorak was referring to Windows 1.0) and the Japanese, though.

If Woz Says It, It Must be True

“16-Bit Apple IIx Alive and Well,” by Christine McGeever, November 19th, 1984

An InfoWorld reporter gets a scoop from a source within Apple who’s in a position to know–and who’s even willing to be quoted on the record:

In an exclusive interview with InfoWorld, Apple Computer co-founder Stephen Wozniak confirmed that work has begun on the next generation Apple II machine, dubbed the IIx. The computer, which won’t be available until 1986, may be targeted towards business users and won’t compete with sales of the IIc, according to Wozniak.Wozniak says the 16-bit machine will have some of the features of the portable IIc, such as a built-in disk drive, and some of the features of the IIe, such as expandable memory and add-on slots. It will also use Apple’s ProDOS operating system. A prototype of the computer has been built, and Wozniak reportedly has one in his office.

(snip)

The IIx has not been a secret Apple project, although it has frequently been rumored to be canceled or suspended.

What happened? The Apple IIx was real–but that’s not the same thing as really being released. Wozniak and others within the company grappled with technical gremlins. This Apple IIx history says it was killed by technical gremlins, but it also says that the project was killed in March 1984, months before the InfoWorld story appeared. I’m guessing that it was at least kind of alive when InfoWorld wrote about it, though, given that other computer magazines also thought it was extant at the same time. Or perhaps the late-1984 incarnation of the IIx was the machine that shipped in 1986 as the IIGS.

Lisa to Disappear, Macs to Multiply

“From the News Desk,” Michael McCarthy, December 3rd, 1984

InfoWorld thinks that the Lisa has a dicey future, and then crams an amazing quantity of rumors into one paragraph:

Our tip two weeks ago that Apple is planning to drop the Lisa line in 1985 really stirred things up. At a scheduled meeting with financial analysts, Steve Jobs and John Sculley specifically denied the claim both to the analysts and to our reporter. Lisa won’t be going away, they insisted…Denials notwithstanding, analysts and observers continue to find the idea of Apple dropping Lisa very plausible. Sources inside Apple tell us the big cheeses there have been holding meetings all week after reading our Lisa item, which also mentioned the 16-bit Apple IIx that Stephen Wozniak told us he was starting on. Seems that everyone’s mad at everyone else, and that Woz’s IIx project may be sacrificed to propitiate the gods at Apple.

As long as we’re at Apple, let’s review our files for the week’s collection of unsubstantiated rumors. There are enough rumored new Macintoshes to sell out the Highland Games: the color Mac, the Unix Mac, the flat-screen Mac, the Mac with the 8-1/2-by-11-inch full-page screen, and the souped-up, faster processor Mac, which may or may not be a multitasking, multiuser Mac…the color Mac, some say, may be introduced at Comdex. Others say it will be introduced at the annual meeting in January, and still others say technical difficulties mean no color for many moons to come.

What happened? Some tips are dead on–Apple discontinued the Lisa in April of 1985. Everything else mentioned in the story came to be, but it took a long time. Apple didn’t release color Macs until imany moons later, when it shipped the Macintosh II (which was also the first faster-processor Mac) in 1987; it released the first Mac flavor of Unix in 1988; it released a full-page portrait display for modular Macs in 1989. As far as I can remember the first flat-screen Mac that wasn’t a laptop was 1997’s Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh.

Apple II Forever, or at Least Until 1993

“Apple II Shakes Controversy,” an interview with Del Yocam, April 15th, 1985

InfoWorld interviews Del Yocam, head of Apple’s Apple II division, and quotes him as saying:

We really believe the Apple II can live forever…between 60 percent and 80 percent of all microcomputer users may never need any more than 8-bit technology…there are certainly those out there who feel we need to have 16-bit microprocessors, so we are certainly looking at that seriously.

What happened? Apple discontinued the 8-bit Apple IIe in 1993, ending an amazing long run given that the rest of the industry had long ago moved to 16-bit CPUs. Along the way, the company introduced one 16-bit Apple II model, the IIGS, but it died a few months before the IIe did. As for 60 to 80 percent of computer users “never” needing anything better than 8-bit technology–when was the last time you saw a computer that had fewer than 32 bits?

At Least He Lost the Bowtie and Suspenders

“Shuffle Could Aid Apple,” by Jim Forbes, June 24th, 1985

As John Sculley forces Steve Jobs out of Apple’s leadership, an anonymous source at the company says it’s no great loss:

I think Apple is moving from one phase of its life to the next. I don’t know how the image of a leader clad in a bow tie, jeans, and suspenders would help us in the coming years.

What happened? For more than a decade, Apple tried multiple other leadership images: a would-be visionary/ex-sugar-water salesman, a hard-working German guy,  and a cost-cutting chip-industry executive. Then it went back to Steve Jobs (sans foppish duds), whose image remains one of the most potent marketing tools in the history of tech.

Remember the GE Macintosh? Okay, How About the AT&T Macintosh?

Inside Track, by John C. Dvorak, July 15th, 1985

Dvorak discusses early rumors about an Apple buyout (a meme that wouldn’t really heat up until the mid-1990s):

A few weeks ago I was told that General Electric’s Geisco Division was making overtures to buy Apple Computer lock, stock, and (apple) barrel. Those rumors persist with a twist. First of all, I’m told that the AT&T buyout rumors were initiated by a large shareholder to keep the stock high so that the Geisco bid would be high enough for some people to make some money. Geisco, on the other hand, wants to keep the stock depressed so that it can get a good deal. These could, of course, all be bunk rumors to keep Apple stock from falling through the floor.

What happened? As of the last time I checked, Apple remained an independent company. Neither GE nor AT&T is in the PC business, unless you count the modern-day AT&T’s recent foray into netbook retailing. Which doesn’t mean that GE didn’t think about trying to buy Apple in 1985. And Dvorak said he heard the AT&T rumor was spurious.

Steve Jobs in Spaaaaaaaaaaaace!

“News Desk,” edited by Michael McCarthy, June 29th, 1985

A story about the Apple II ends with an aside about Jobs’ extracurricular interests:

Meanwhile, someone often accused of overlooking the Apple II is reported by the local press to be asking NASA for a seat on a future space shuttle flight. Apple chairman Steven P. Jobs is said to be a real space buff.

What happened? The idea of Steve Jobs in zero gravity is kind of entertaining, but he’s remained earthbound. In 2007, Charles Simonyi, the father of Microsoft Office, became the first space-tourist computer billionaire.

The Fondly-Remembered Pseudo-Tramiel Era

“Apple Without Jobs” by Jim Forbes, September 30th, 1985

More speculation on post-Jobs Apple, plus exciting news about a machine in the works:

Sculley will also force line managers in Apple’s Production Operations division to be more concerned with procurement and quality control issues. A horizontally integrated Apple could resemble Jack Tramiel’s Atari, the vice president said. One possible Sculley project, expected in 1987, is a small, portable personal workstation, originally developed by the Apple II group, described by one Apple source as a second-generation Dynabook. The machine will accept bit-mapped graphic images over telecommunications lines, said Jean-Louis Gassée, Apple’s director of product development. Such a workstation would overcome some of the current limitations of videotext, seen as a key element in bringing computers into the home.

What happened? I can’t speak to whether Sculley imposed an organizational structure on Apple similar to that favored by the father of the Commodore 64, but I’m glad that Apple showed more staying power than Tramiel-era Atari ever did. As far as I know, the machine described by Jean-LouisGassée never amounted to anything–but if Apple had released it, it sounds like it could have pre-empted the whole darn World Wide Web. (Side note: Can you imagine, even for a millisecond, anyone at today’s Apple discussing a device planned for release in 2011?)

Steve Jobs: A Hard Habit to Break

“The Last Steve Jobs Column–Honest,” by John C. Dvorak, October 7th, 1985

Dvorak says he’s swearing off writing about Apple’s founder, after one final column on the possibility of competition between Apple and Jobs’ new company, NeXT:

And does Apple seriously think Jobs will be competition? Who is Apple kidding? Talk to the real man behind the Macintosh, Jef Raskin, and you’ll get a different picture of Jobs. According to Raskin, Jobs “fought against the design of the Macintosh for two years.” And Jobs was the promoter of the Lisa until it began to flop. So what’s he going to do on his own? Spend a lot of money, that’s all.

(snip)

Maybe when the smoke clears, we will have heard the last from Steve Jobs a guru, seer, visionary, and hapless victim, too. He’ll just be that rich guy in the big house in Woodside. He’ll go the way of the pet rock, electric carving knives, silly putty, Tiny Tim, and the three-tone paint job. Let’s hope so.

What happened? Dvorak–who, despite the column’s title, is still writing Steve Jobs columns a quarter-century later–was right that NeXT involved spending a lot of money without ever providing serious competition to Apple. How about Jobs going the way of the Pet Rock? Er, Dvorak didn’t say it would happen–just that it might, and that he hoped it would. That’s not inaccurate, technically!

Okay, that’s it for now. I could go on, but Sculley-era Apple gossip has its own distinct character, and probably deserves its own story at some point.

Conclusions for now? InfoWorld reported on some rumors that didn’t turn into fact, and sometimes provided analysis that was iffy at the time and wonderfully goofy in retrospect. But it got a decent amount of stuff right, and it presented rumor as rumor rather than fact. And some of the stuff it wrote about that never came to be stemmed from the tendency of multiple Apple bigwigs to blab about unreleased products. Not perfect, but not bad–especially compared to some of the sites that cover the descendants of the gizmos that Apple was making a quarter-century ago.

(Postscript/needless full disclosure: I worked at InfoWorld from 1992 until 1994, and freelanced for it for a few years beyond that. You can find everything I wrote for it at Google Books, but it doesn’t make for particularly entertaining reading.)

More Cupertino-based nostalgia:

Computador All-in-One, são computadores de mesa, que combinam o monitor com a CPU. A Apple fabricou vários desses computadores, como o Macintosh Original em meados dos anos 80, e o iMac da década de 90 e 2000.

Confira abaixo, a evolução do computador All-in-One da Apple, desde 1977 até os dias atuais.

[Fonte: Webdesigner Depot]

Some game franchises introduce new versions every year. You [Mr. Madden] know who you are. The true masterpieces, though, in a mere iteration or two not only withstand tests of time, but transcend it. These games are as good, if not better, now than they were at their introduction. Games like “GoldenEye 007″ and “Mario Kart” fit that bill.

By that measure, “Oregon Trail”  is, was and shall forever remain the ultimate gaming masterpiece. And the geniuses at MECC managed to sneak it into damn near every public school in the country. For nearly a decade Oregon Trail was the only reason kids wanted to jump on the Apple II sitting on a desk in the back of the classroom. Shit, the only reason I know places like Chimney Rock, Fort Kearney and the Willamette Valley is the countless number of wagon trips I led along the trail.

Anyhow, before it gets too nostalgic here’s a link back to 4th grade:

Play Oregon Trail.

Jason Scott posted a set of scanned Infocom ads from the 1980 on his blog, ASCII, today.

Those of us old enough will probably remember at least a few of the ads he has posted.

Those not old enough might not know who Infocom was.

Infocom, if you didn’t bother to go to the link up in the first sentence, made a series of text-only adventure games in the 1980s starting with Zork, a game I purchased in the college bookstore for my Apple II in… the early 80s.

The games were a bit of an acquired taste.  You either liked them or you didn’t, but they were popular enough both by virtue of their cleverness and the fact that their simplicity allowed the games to be ported to a wide variety of operating environments.  Look at the list of supported computers in the lower right of that ad.  This was what we faced in the early 80s, back when Microsoft was mostly known for its BASIC compiler and its Flight Simulator.

I owned a pile of Infocom games over that decade, though the one I enjoyed the most was Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Getting the Babel Fish was an event at least as memorable to me as killing Archaedas in Uldaman was.

So a big “Thank You!” goes out to Jason Scott for his ongoing effort to find and archieve things like these ads.

Alright old-school video gamers have I got a treat for you today.  Not only will this product make you the envy of all your video-gamer friends, but will also show that you’ve grown from the pimply-faced teenager who used to play Oregon Trail on your parents Apple II series computer to a successful pimply-faced video game developer.

The 8-Bit Tie was created by the nerds at Think-Geek as a homage to the 8-Bit video games they grew up on and as a way to show their independence from corporate America.  So now you can dress your t-shirt up so you can go into meetings appropriately, but not lose your ’street-cred’ among your basement dwelling friends.  Product features as per the Think-Geek website are:

Pixelated design and jaggy edges complete the 8-Bit look.
Clip-on format makes for easy wear with any shirt (including t-shirts).
20 inches in length. Fits any human.
Each tie is handmade, so there will be slight variation to the 8-Bit edges.
Stylish Tie Looks just like what Mario wore to his high-school graduation.
Silky Microfiber Construction (Polyester).

What a cool way to impress all your friends… and I’m pretty sure chicks dig it too.  For more fashion ideas check out my friends at SIRextra, who always have some cool stuff over there.  You can also check out more pics of the 8-Bit Tie on my Flickr Feed.

Cheers!

jordenf

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A empresa High Technology foi pioneira em fazer o primeiro comercial da Apple, eles apresentaram o Apple II, que foi fabricado no final dos anos 70.

]]> http://xollothnews.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/%ce%b7-apple-%cf%80%cf%81%ce%bf%cf%83%cf%86%ce%ad%cf%81%ce%b5%ce%b9-%ce%bf%ce%b8%cf%8c%ce%bd%ce%b5%cf%82-%ce%bc%ce%ac%cf%84-%cf%83%cf%84%ce%bf%cf%85%cf%82-%cf%86%ce%bf%cf%81%ce%b7%cf%84%ce%bf%cf%8d/ Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:36:00 +0000 xollothnews http://xollothnews.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/%ce%b7-apple-%cf%80%cf%81%ce%bf%cf%83%cf%86%ce%ad%cf%81%ce%b5%ce%b9-%ce%bf%ce%b8%cf%8c%ce%bd%ce%b5%cf%82-%ce%bc%ce%ac%cf%84-%cf%83%cf%84%ce%bf%cf%85%cf%82-%cf%86%ce%bf%cf%81%ce%b7%cf%84%ce%bf%cf%8d/

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O Max Headroom, do blog Instructables, encontrou em sua gaveta um pendrive velho de 128 MB e um teclado do Apple II, então teve um super idéia, pegou esses dois itens e montou um pendrive retrô da Apple.

Quem quiser personalizar um pendrive também, pode acompanhar um tutorial que ele montou no blog, é super prático, confira!

“We are all in this together” said Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro), the rogue air conditioning repairman in the Orwellian bureaucratic nightmare of the movie Brazil, when asked why he risks his life to fix people’s air-conditioning without filing the appropriate forms. And so it is with the history of innovation in educational technology. True change has only leaked into the porous sole of the K-12 environment through the vision and passion of individuals (educators and students) intent of doing what they can within or around the system. This has certainly been the case since the dawn of my time working at the intersection of technology and learning.

Think back, if your thinker goes back that far, to the year 1979, or just imagine… (insert harp music here.) Sony introduces the Walkman, the Shah is overthrown in Iran, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is released, and Ukiah High School buys the first Apple II personal computer for the Math and Science Department.  After it arrives and the few math geeks (me included) set it up and run the then just released Visicalc (the first spreadsheet), we all say, “That is great! What else can we do with it?!” Not much, it turned out, at least not without money to buy the few expensive programs that were commercially available or the time to write them ourselves.

Then I found out about the “Apple Core Shareware Library” at my first Apple II user’s group meeting. The next month I brought all the blank floppy disks (think CDs, but funkier) I could find to the meeting and spent the whole time copying disk after disk of games and programs of all types, all miraculously free for the having. Each program created or transcribed was donated by other hobbyists and user group members from around the country and given to the “Public Domain.” It was like a secret underground punk band mix tape (for that new Walkman), but for computer geeks. Our small but distant outpost two-and-a-half hours north of the Silicon Valley was overwhelmed with the bounty.

It took weeks to filter through and look at it all. As it turned out, much of it was garbage or didn’t work properly. But there were a lot of gems in there too, like the Crossword Puzzle Maker, and the free micro database for logging and tracking all of these programs we just acquired. The programs were mostly written in Basic, so we could edit and fix the programs that did not work right during many late night debugging sessions intermingled with bouts of “Dungeons and Dragons.” We got the Star Trek game working just before the movie came to town. In hindsight, it was a rather boring game, but at the time it was really cool.

Fast forward 30 years (cue more harp music), and I find myself basically doing the same job I took out of high school. The Internet is a wonderful bounty that makes those 200 floppy disks of the original Apple Core library look puny indeed. It is filled with both garbage and gems. Curriki stands as the place, like the Apple users group of the past, for those who have a common need and a common interest to find, sort and polish the diamonds in the rough and bring the great value of that work to all of us in the educational community. The investment required is time and support. We need the tools to organize, update and redistribute the content we share. We need ways to find things that are relevant and appropriate to our students and colleagues. This is what we at Curriki are striving to provide.

You can help us help you by letting us know about the tools and support that you need most. Add comments to this posting and let us know about the features and training materials that will help you bring more content to Curriki and use what we already have more effectively. We are now thinking about “Curriki 2.0″ and where to focus on in our next evolution. We are excited to enable you all to become contributing members to our common library, because… we are all in this together.