Apple’s Tendency to Short Users of Enough USB Ports

Apple did a wonderful thing when it introduced the all-in-one iMac in 1998. It gave the world a fresh new colorful look at what an all-in-one computer could be with no floppy drive on the front. It included a built-in 100Base-T ethernet port and a 56k modem. And it forced the industry to recon with […]

USB Is Enough

1999 – When the iMac first came out, you either loved it or you hated it. Most of the people who loved it, loved it because of its all-in-one case design, low price, good software, and really cool color. Most of the people who hated it, hated it for two reasons: It’s a Mac, and […]

Why USB Is a Good Thing

1998.10: With USB, Apple is in the odd position of strongly promoting a technology invented on the Wintel side – but not yet embraced there. Despite the pain of early adopters (iMac buyers), there are now USB printers, keyboards, mice, trackballs, and more.

USB and the OfficeJet

August 1999: Last November I said that Macs needed parallel ports. I got a lot of letters on that, some saying I made a lot of sense. Others said parallel ports would soon be obsolete, replaced with the Universal Serial Bus (USB) and FireWire.

USB: Where No Mac Has Gone Before

August 1998: Three months ago it looked like a risky move: The iMac would use the universal serial bus (USB), but not ADB, SCSI, or a standard Mac serial port. Although Microsoft and Intel have promoted USB, and the vast army of clone makers have been building USB into their computers, I don’t know of […]

USB: Adequate at the Low End

With the iMac, Apple is adopting the Universal Serial Bus (USB), replacing the SCSI, serial, and ADB ports Mac users have had for over a decade.

Macintosh Makes the Connection

1997 – Surprising to many, the first Macs didn’t have SCSI. The Apple design team created a compact, closed box with a disk drive, CPU, monitor, 128 KB of RAM, keyboard and mouse ports, a floppy drive port, and two serial ports. The serial ports were the secret – they could support a 230.4 Kbps […]