This Week in Apple History
Today we again take a look back at the informative "This Week in Apple History" series at The Mac Observer. The March 21-31 entry in the series by Owen Linzmayer & Bryan Chaffin is entitled, "Xerox Suit, Oracle Takeover & Jesse Jackson on Apple".

March 21 - 31: Xerox Suit, Oracle Takeover & Jesse Jackson on Apple

Geek Trivia: Last but not Lisa
An article at TechRepublic by Jay Garmon. Not exactly a love-fest, but not all negative either. It begins:
"One of the most colossal blunders in personal computing history hit the market with a painful thud 23 years ago this week. On Jan. 19, 1983, Apple Computer's much-ballyhooed and wildly unsuccessful Lisa PC debuted, earning renown both for its remarkable technical innovations and its notorious commercial failings."

Geek Trivia: Last But Not Lisa

The Joy of Six
A 2005 article at low End Mac by Tyler Sable on the beloved System 6.

The Joy of Six: Apple's Fast, Svelte, Reliable, and Still Useful System 6

Real Artists Ship
Another slice of Apple history from Folklore.org, by Andy Hertzfeld. This time he recounts events surounding the launch of the Macintosh. It begins:
"By the fall of 1983, we had committed to announcing and shipping the Macintosh at Apple's next annual shareholder's meeting, to be held on January 24th, 1984. The failure of the Twiggy disk drive almost caused us to be late (see Quick, Hide In This Closet!) , but it seemed like the new Sony 3.5 inch drive solved all of our problems, and the rest of the hardware was ready to go. The Macintosh ROM was frozen in early September and sent out for fabrication. All that remained was finishing the System Disk, and our two applications, MacWrite and MacPaint."

Real Artists Ship

This Week in Apple History
Today we again take a look back at the informative "This Week in Apple History" series at The Mac Observer. The March 14-20 entry in the series by Owen Linzmayer & Bryan Chaffin is entitled, "Lots Of Mac History, 1 Million Macs, "Wicked Fast," Tell-All Book, Darwin".

March 14 - 20: Lots Of Mac History, 1 Million Macs, "Wicked Fast," Tell-All Book, Darwin

Virtual ][ Emulator Updated to Version 5.1
The fantastic 8-bit Apple II emulator for Mac OS X, Virtual ][ has been updated to version 5.1.

New in this release:
• The program now comes as a universal binary, fully compatible with both the Intel and the PowerPC Macintoshes.
• Added emulation of the ImageWriter II printer.
• Fixed an issue in the mouse card; as a result the emulation now supports the Apple II program "Blazing Paddles".
• Improved disk drive timing: as a result the Apple II program
• "Wasteland" now runs from copy-protected (.nib) disk images.
• Changed the Mockingboard card in such a way that the Apple II program "SkyFox" now detects and uses the card.
• Added a configurable option to skip the "save state" dialog when closing a virtual machine.
• Fixed an issue that resulted in wrong game paddle values when the machine ran at high speed.
• Fixed a potential crash in the Inspector when analyzing some types of copy protected disks.
• The "soft caps lock" feature doesn't affect pasted text anymore; it only affects typed characters, as it should.
• Solved an issue in sound handling that could lead to a deadlock when resetting the virtual machine.
• The "relative mouse mode" setting is now stored when saving a configuration file.

Virtual ][

The Newton and the Hare
A brief December 1994 cover story from the Byte.com archives.

It Begins:
"Negative reviews are bad enough, but when your company's new product is ridiculed for a whole week in Doonesbury, you know you've got a public-relations disaster.
Most products wouldn't survive such a withering blast. But Apple keeps plugging away with the Newton MessagePad, keeping a low profile while building for a hopefully brighter future.
`People ask me what it's like to work on the Newton,'' says Steve Capps, an Apple Fellow (senior scientist). `I tell them I'm thick-skinned, but not thick-headed. We've got to stick with the Newton but be wise about it.'"

The Newton and the Hare

The Apple Story, Part 1
From Apple2history.org:
"BYTE Magazine ran a 'Guide to the Apple' in December 1984. Part of that guide included the first of a two-part interview with Steve Wozniak. Here follows a reproduction of that article, reprinted with permission of Byte.com"

The Apple Story, Part 1

The Story Behind Apple's 1984 Ad
Today we go back a couple of months to this article by Tom Hormby at Low End Mac which offers revealing details about the famous Apple 1984 commercial. It Begins:

"Apple became a household name in the third quarter of SuperBowl XVIII when it aired the enormously popular 1984 ad promoting the upcoming release of the Macintosh."

The Story Behind Apple's 1984 Ad

Evolutionary To The Core: The Apple IIc Heads For Home
This article from the Atarimagazines.com archive by Selby Bateman, originally appeared in COMPUTE! Issue 50 / July 1984 / Page 24, and begins:

"Apple Computer has made 1984 its year of surprises, first with the "revolutionary" Macintosh and now with the "evolutionary" Apple IIc. The new 7¿-pound portable has already achieved critical acclaim and impressive early sales. Is it the computer for you?

"The IIc is not a home computer," says Apple President John Sculley. "It's for the serious user in the home."

Sculley isn't just playing word games with that comment. It is as succinct a statement of Apple's plans for the IIc as you'll find. And it addresses the biggest challenge and the greatest opportunity for the Cupertino, California, company: To convince a huge untapped home market that the IIc is not a low-end computer. And at the same time, Apple is targeting owners of low-end microcomputers who want more power, more software, and more portability."

Evolutionary To The Core: The Apple IIc Heads For Home