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Now that I'm having so much fun in school (not!), I've been coming
up with tons of ideas for articles. Realizing that this is my 10th
article writing for Low End Mac, I decided
to look at Apple's special "anniversary" computers and computers that
were out for Apple's anniversaries.
1981: Apple's 5th Anniversary
Okay, Apple didn't have a special 5th anniversary computer in 1981,
but they did have two nifty computers (and a project). The first of
these two computers was the Apple //e, the first Apple II with lots of
power (and goodies that were standard on many other computers at that
time, like a functional Shift key). The other was the Apple ///, a
relatively advanced (but evil) beast, as it was too expensive, too
prone to failure, and too "un-anything else" for it to be successful.
It did run a powerful (at the time) operating system called the
Sophisticated Operating System (Apple SOS, pronounced like applesauce)
that could run Apple II ProDOS under emulation (like OS X &
Classic).
Then there was Apple's project: the
Lisa, which was still under development. This was an early start to
the Macintosh.
1984:
Apple's 8th Anniversary
Sure, this wasn't a real milestone date in terms of years from when
Apple was founded, but it was when the
first Mac appeared, so all the Mac anniversaries will be from
1984.
1986: Apple's 10th Anniversary
Apple didn't do much for this one. All they did was make the
Mac Plus this year and various
peripherals. Some 10th anniversary....
Early '90s: (Not Really An
Anniversary) the JLPGA PowerBook 170
This was a special edition PowerBook 170
that had a special case for the Japan LPGA. Each component of the case
was a different color, so it looked like an oversized Rubick's Cube.
Even the sliding brightness control dial was a different color! Colors
used were dark blue, maroon, dark green, yellow, white, and PowerBook
gray.
1994:
Macintosh 10th Anniversary
There actually was a 10th Anniversary Mac. It was not highly
publicized or very fancy, but there was one. Although its technological
specs were rather lame for the time, Apple chose the PowerBook 170 (again), enclosed it in a beautiful
white case, and sold very very limited quantities.
1996: Apple's 20th Anniversary
This
was probably one of the classiest looking desktop Macs ever, the
Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh. Somewhat
similar to a Power Mac 6400/6500, it was rather expensive (over $5000
originally), but the price dropped when sales never took off. Included
were wooden palm rests for the PowerBook-style keyboard that included a
trackpad. Nice, brushed metal pipes provided support for the computer.
Don't forget about the kick a** Bose sound system. Oh, and did I
mention the leather-bound owner's manual? Let's just say that this was
the no-compromise Mac - with a price tag to match.
2001: Apple's 25th Anniversary
A rather good and rather lame anniversary year for Apple. The Mac
Web made a bigger deal about Apple's anniversary than Apple did
themselves. Apple had many milestones this year, including two really
good notebooks, retail stores, OS X, and SuperDrives. Although OS
X was Apple's main focus this year, I think they should've had a
special edition Mac. After all, being around for 25 years is something
that no personal computer company can claim (except the ones that built
mainframes or minis).
2004: Macintosh 20th Anniversary
What will the future hold? Will Classic be gone by then? Will I be
working for Apple, or will Microsoft dissolve Apple? Who knows? Who
cares!
The products they've already made will be around for awhile. Long
live older Macs!
Mac of the Day: Mac LC III, Feb. 1993 - The first LC without compromise: 25 MHz 68030 CPU, 32-bit memory, up to 36 MB of RAM.
List of the Day: G4 'Books an email list for G4 iBooks and PowerBooks.
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Psystar Strikes Back, Countersues Apple, Frank Fox, Stop the Noiz, 09.03.
Psystar is trying to paint Apple as a monopoly and force it to license the Mac OS.
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1984:
Apple's 8th Anniversary
Early '90s: (Not Really An
Anniversary) the JLPGA PowerBook 170
1994:
Macintosh 10th Anniversary
This
was probably one of the classiest looking desktop Macs ever, the
