Lightning, the Epitome of Apple is one of the best things John Gruber has written all year.

The Lightning adapter epitomizes what makes Apple Apple. To the company’s fans, it provides elegance and convenience — it’s just so much nicer than micro-USB. To the company’s detractors, it exists to sell $29 proprietary adapters and to further enable Apple’s fetish for device thinness. Neither side is wrong.

Of course Apple wasn’t always this way.

In 1986 Apple needed a low-cost bus for connecting devices like keyboards and mice to its computers. The large headphone-style jack for the Lisa keyboard was too unreliable, and the phone-style jack used for the Macintosh 128K was too fragile. Apple needed a system that was rated for hundreds of insertions that could allow devices to be daisy-chained together without the need for hubs or complicated routing. It took Steve Wozniak one month on his own to come up with the answer, the Apple Desktop Bus.

In keeping with Apple’s 1980’s philosophy of industrial design, ADB was intended to be as simple to use as possible, while still being inexpensive to implement. Instead of inventing a new port and cable, a suitable connector was found in the form of the 4 pin mini-DIN connector, which was already being used by S-Video.

The connectors were small, widely available, and can only be inserted the “correct way”. They do not lock into position, but even with a friction fit they are firm enough for light duties like those intended for ADB.

ADB could be implemented for less than a penny because Apple sold the decoding transceiver ASIC at a loss to encourage peripheral development and their own economy of scale. Can you imagine today’s Apple selling the Lightening adapter at a loss?

ADB’s protocol required only a single pin for data, labeledADB. Two of the other pins were used for +5 V power supply and ground. The +5 V pin guaranteed at least 500 mA, and required devices to use only 100 mA each. ADB also included the PSW pin which was attached directly to the power supply of the host computer. This was included to allow a key on the keyboard to start up the machine without needing the ADB software to interpret the signal.

The ability to turn on the computer from the keyboard without the need of extra wires was one of the classier advancements Apple made to the personal computing industry. This capability was carried forth into the introduction of USB, but was lost around the same time theiMac G4 was introduced. Despite advances made in the new Mac Pro, it is a pain you still have to reach around the back of the machine to turn it on.

Most serial digital interfaces use a separate clock pin to signal the arrival of individual bits of data. However, Wozniak decided that a separate wire for a clock signal was not necessary; and as ADB was designed to be low-cost, it made economical sense to leave it out. Like modems, the system locked onto the signal rise and fall times to recreate a clock signal.

Data rates on the bus were theoretically as high as 125 kbits. However, the actual speed was at best half that due to there being only one pin being shared between the computer and devices, and in practice throughput was even less as the entire system was driven by how fast the computer polled the bus. The Mac OS was not particularly well suited to this task, and the bus often got bogged down at about 10 kbits.

This slow data transfer rate limited ADB to the kind of devices it was originally intended; mice, keyboards, graphics tablets, joysticks, and software protection dongles.

Another problem with ADB was that despite having all of the basic capabilities needed for hot-swapping, you should never plug or unplug a ADB device once the system was on. Doing so could cause the opening of a soldered-in fuse on the motherboard, and a costly out-of-warranty repair.

In addition the ADB mini-DIN connector was only rated for 400 insertions and it was easy to bend a pin if not inserted with care. Sockets could become loose over time resulting in intermittent function, and while ADB cannot be plugged in the “wrong way,” it is possible to have trouble finding the right way without looking inside the circular connector’s shroud.

The first system to use ADB was the Apple IIGS in 1986. It was subsequently used on all Apple Macintosh machines starting with the Macintosh II and Macintosh SE. ADB was also used on a number of other 680×0-based microcomputers including later models of NeXT computers.

The first Macintosh to move away from ADB was the iMac in 1998, which featured USB in its place. The last Apple computer to have an ADB port was the Power Macintosh Blue & White in 1999. No machines being built today use ADB, but up until February 2005, PowerBooks and iBooks still used the ADB protocol as the internal interface for the built-in keyboard and touchpad.

ADB epitomizes the Woz-era Apple of the 1970s and 80s, “intended to be as simple to use as possible, while still being inexpensive to implement.” ADB may not be considered elegant when compared to modern connections like Lightening or USB, but it was designed to meet the customer’s basic needs at a lower cost. Different goals than Apple has today.

On November 5th, 2010 Apple killed the Xserve.

At the time I thought killing the Xserve was a mistake. Like so many thousand Macintosh IT Professionals I thought Apple’s future in the Enterprise was tied to the existence of a shiny 1U rack-mountable Macintosh server. Without it how would the PC System Administrators ever take us seriously?

And what about all of the core Mac OS X technologies the Xserve was supposed to bring us? Features like a new filesystem to protect us against data corruption, and improved parallel computing to allow our applications to work smarter? Every new release of Windows reaps the rewards of features first developed for the Microsoft line of server operating systems. Without a similar strategy how was Apple supposed to keep up in key areas like endpoint management, and virtualization where Microsoft already holds a clear advantage? I feared without a flagship server, Apple would fall behind on the essential technologies needed to keep Mac OS X competitive. After all there is only so much you can steal from the open source community.

The problem is I never saw the Xserve for what it was. A Power Mac jammed inside a 1U aluminum case. The Xserve was never competitive. It was never the flagship I and the rest of Mac Nerdom wanted it to be.

No one ever heard the battlecries of the Xserve breaching the Enterprise Datacenter; unleashing a horde of Macs on every corporate desktop. It never happened. The Xserve was just a shiny piece of Apple kit that sat in the corner of Mac shops. A showpiece to impress clients. A server just easy enough to use, the tech guy could figure it out and no one needed to hire a dedicated system administrator.

Sure there are examples of Xserves being used in numbers. The Virginia System X supercomputer comes to mind. But even it started out its life composed of Power Mac G5s. And who says System X wasn’t as much a public relations stunt for Apple, as it was a serious attempt at supercomputing?

The Xserve wasn’t even competitive with the Power Macs of the day. When it was released in June 2002 you could get a faster PowerPC G4 processor in your Power Mac than you could in your Xserve. And during the Xserve G5’s entire lifetime it was never able to meet the clock speed or the number of cores as the top of the line Power Mac G5. Apple never took the Xserve seriously. That is why it came as no surprise that in November 2006 the Xserve was the last Mac to make the transition to Intel. The Xserve was slower, ran hotter, and cost more than other any other Mac during its short life. And outside of specially optimized tasks for Mac OS X, it was never able to compete with similarly priced PC servers. Do you honestly think Apple ran its enterprise on Xserves?

But what about all of those flagship features the Xserve was supposed to trickle down to consumer versions of Mac OS X? Unfortunately they never came to be. One reason is because Mac OS X doesn’t work that way. When a core feature is added to Mac OS X, it is available on both the client and server versions of the operating system simultaneously. Unlike Microsoft, Apple’s server OS has never been about leading the way towards technological innovations that would some day be available on the desktop. No, quite the opposite. Apple’s server OS has always been an extension of the client operating system that makes accessing features already installed in Mac OS X easier. Sorry Siracusa, but there was never any hope of the Xserve delivering a better filesystem.

Instead of supporting the Xserve, Apple decided to double-down on the products and technologies that would really matter, and leave the cut-throat market of server hardware to competitors who really had their skin in the game. Looking back it is easy to see that Apple made the right choice. By killing the Xserve we have better Macs, phones, tables, and Apple TVs today. Mac OS X is stronger without the Xserve. Because instead of getting trickle down technologies from its server OS, Mac OS X got better battery life, and millions of new users from its phone operating system. Take that Microsoft.

It is funny to think that because of the death of the Xserve, and not the Xserve itself, Apple now has more Macs in the enterprise than ever before. PC System Administrators eat your hearts out.

Apple has a long history of including Java in its desktop operating systems. The Macintosh Runtime for Java included a JIT compiler developed by Symantec, the standard Java class library from Sun, additional classes providing Macintosh-specific functionality, and the Apple Applet Runner for running Java Applets on the Classic Mac OS without the overhead of a browser.

Macintosh Runtime for Java 1.5 works on computers with 68030, 68040 or PowerPC microprocessors. You also need System 7.5 or later, a minimum of 8 MB of RAM (16 MB is strongly recommended) and at least 7 MB of free disk space. Computers with 68030 or 68040 microprocessors must have 32-bit addressing turned on.

This is what Apple had to say about Java in 1999.

“Our customers want better Java performance in Mac OS and we’re committed to giving it to them,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s Interim CEO. “We are working hard to make our Java implementation second in speed to none other in th world.”

With the JIT compiler Apple expects to significantly boost the performance of Java software running on Mac OS. Industry standard benchmarks on preliminary versions of MRJ combined with the JIT compiler show a 300 percent performance improvement over the current version of MRJ. This is competitive with results seen with Java VMs provided with web browsers for Windows-based computers.

In addition to multiple press releases Apple also started publishing Java development resources on its website, and even went so far as to port a version of QuickTime for Java.

QuickTime for Java brings together Java and QuickTime, allowing developers to create Java software that takes advantage of the power of QuickTime on both Macintosh and Windows. QuickTime for Java harnesses the native power of QuickTime via Java creating an excellent Java multimedia framework.

When the web looked like it would soon be controlled by proprietary frameworks like Java, Steve Jobs didn’t want the Mac to be left out in the cold.

In 2001 during the release of Mac OS X, Apple went as far as to include Java as one of the Mac’s primary Application frameworks right Alongside Classic, Carbon, and Cocoa.

Mac OS X is the only mass-market operating system that comes complete with a fully configured and ready-to-use Java Development Kit. Professional Java developers are increasingly turning to the feature-rich Mac OS X as the operating system of choice for cross-platform Java development projects on the Macintosh and other platforms.

But by 2004 the hype surrounding Java started to settle, and by 2006 is was clear that Java was no longer the pillar of Mac OS X development it had once claimed to be. Java was always a gamble on the Mac. A safe bet for getting the Development Community and Enterprise IT interested in Mac OS X, but a long-shot at making a difference in Mac OS X development. By October 2010 it was clear Objective-C would be the Mac’s programing language of choice. With the budding popularity of the iPhone and iPad Apple didn’t need Java anymore to attract attention.

As of the release of Java for OS X v10.6 Update 3, the Java runtime ported by Apple and that ships with OS X is deprecated. Developers should not rely on the Apple-supplied Java runtime being present in future versions of OS X.

Steve Jobs had this to say about Apple’s decision to drop Java.

Sun (now Oracle) supplies Java for all other platforms. They have their own release schedules, which are almost always different than ours, so the Java we ship is always a version behind. This may not be the best way to do it.

10.7 Lion was the first release of Mac OS X with a Java Runtime Environment missing from the default install. Users could elect to install Java 6 as they needed using Apple’s Software Update service, or download Java 7 directly from Oracle. As of June 18th, 2013 Mac OS X continues to receive Java security updates, but all of that is about to change.

Starting with OS X Mavericks Apple will no longer be providing a version of the Java Runtime Environment. Users who need Java will be prompted to download a version of Java 7 from Oracle’s website. If you still need Java 6, you better stick with Mountain Lion.

A simple search for “Java Security” on the Web, reveals the real reason Apple is dropping Java. With a new versions of Java coming out every couple of weeks to fix severe security risks, it is no wonder Apple is taking a “coffee break.”

Fusion Drive, we barely knew you. Announced as part of an Apple event held on October 23rd, 2012, Fusion Drive combined the large capacity of a conventional hard drive with the speed of a 128 GB flash storage to create a single logical volume with the space of both drives combined. The operating system automatically managed the contents of the Fusion Drive so the most frequently accessed applications, documents, photos, and other data are stored on the faster flash storage, while infrequently used items moved or stayed on the hard drive. Users benefited from the affordable large-capacity data storage Fusion Drive provided, while still experiencing the quick boot times and fast application launch speeds of an SSD.

Unfortunately many of Apple’s most popular Macs could not accommodate Fusion Drive due to a lack of space. Fusion Drive required space for a conventional 2.5 inch hard drive as well separate flash storage, and only the 2013 iMac and Mac mini could include one as a build-to-order option. Even the Mac Pro, with its boxy design and removable hard drive modules, could not take advantage of Fusion Drive. In a time when Macs were getting thinner and lighter, Fusion Drive was pushed out of the nest before it could ever take flight.

There was also the problem of price. At $250 for 128 GBs of flash memory, Fusion Drive came at a premium compared to other third-party SSDs. The people most likely to take advantage of Fusion Drive’s simplicity were the ones least likely to pay for it. And shortly after Fusion Drive’s release, large capacity solid state drives dropped in price, giving power users other options.

Let’s not forget that most users no longer need the high-capacity storage the Fusion Drive provided. The Mac is no longer the digital hub is once was. As more and more content moves to the cloud, Flickr, Pandora, and Netflix have taken away the importance of having high-capacity hard drives on modern Macs. Users of today’s popular personal computer, the iPad, make due with storage capacities half the size of affordable SSDs. Why would they need eight times the storage a Fusion Drive provided? Fusion Drive tried to solve a problem most people really didn’t have.

Fusion Drive, no one needs your fragile combination of storage technologies anymore. If Apple had really believed in you, they would have made you the default storage system on a Mac, any Mac. Instead you were neglected to a build-to-order-option. Even the top-of-the-line 27 inch iMac never shipped with a Fusion Drive standard. Fusion Drive, we will always remember you for the fast plentiful storage you promised. A great idea whose time came too late.

A lot of people have been displeased by the skeuomorphic design elements appearing in Apple’s latest operating systems. Some attribute these design decisions to the tastes of Steve Jobs. I don’t think anyone could clearly define the tastes of Steve Jobs, not even himself. One minute he might be appreciating the craftsmanship of his Bsendorfer grand piano, the next he might be observing the minimalistic teachings of Zen sitting cross legged on the floor of his unfurnished home. If there is one thing that could be said for Steve Job’s taste it is that he only wanted the best. Apple’s history with skeuomorphism reflects the desire to present users with the best technology has to offer, even if that desire is misguided, and Steve is not around.

The Desktop Metaphor

Steve Jobs might not have started the desktop metaphor, but he did bring it the world’s eye with the introduction of the Macintosh. Before the Mac there was no skeuomorphism, because there was no graphical user interface. For almost thirty years the iconography of desktop objects have greeted users as they stare into their computer screens. The desktop metaphor has given new computer users a familiar foundation to ground their experiences upon, and expert users terminology such as “files” and “folders” we still use today.

The Classic Calculator

Steve Jobs was so concerned with the skeuomorphic design details of the Classic Mac OS Calculator that early Apple employee Chris Espinosa had to develop “the Steve Jobs Roll Your Own Calculator Construction Set” just so that he could get it right.

Every decision regarding graphical attributes of the calculator were parameterized by pull-down menus. You could select line thicknesses, button sizes, background patterns, etc.

Steve took a look at the new program, and immediately started fiddling with the parameters. After trying out alternatives for ten minutes or so, he settled on something that he liked.

The calculator Steve designed remained the standard calculator on the Macintosh for over sixteen years, all the way up through Mac OS 9.

Apple CD Audio Player

By the time System 7 shipped in 1991, Steve Jobs had long since left Apple, but his appreciation for the finer things in life was still ingrained in the minds of software engineers working on the Mac. One of their creations, the Apple CD Audio Player, brought an unconventional skeuomorphic design to the Mac that allowed users to adjust the color of the apps stereo receiver facade. This was a first for Mac software, and an unusual move for Apple who normally prohibited users from changing the appearance of the Mac OS. The trend of user customizable themes, and skeuomorphic app designs would continue with the release of Mac OS 8.

Mac OS 8

The introduction of Mac OS 8 on July 26, 1997, brought with it the Appearance Manager, and a new face to the Macintosh GUI called Platinum. The Appearance Manager was originally developed for Apple’s failed en.wikipedia.orgwikiCopland_(operating_system text: Copland) project. It introduced a layer of abstraction between the Control Manager and QuickDraw allowing users to theme the Mac OS. Platinum, the default theme, introduced 3D elements into the Mac OS GUI through the use of subtle shadows and simple gradients. Platinum wasn’t the only Apple-developed theme though.

Hi-Tech is based on a shades-of-black color scheme that made the interface look like a piece of stereo equipment. Gizmo is a “kids” interface, using lots of bright colors and “wiggly” interface elements. Both changed every single element of the overall GUI leaving no trace of Apple Platinum. A third theme was later introduced, Drawing Board, developed at Apple Japan. This theme uses elements that make the interface look like it has been drawn in pencil on a drafting-board, including small “pencil marks” around the windows, a barely visible grid on the desktop, and “squarish” elements with low contrast. Although none of these themes were included with a released version of Mac OS, the files can be copied from the pre-release versions that contained them and successfully used on retail versions.

The optional themes in Mac OS 8 might have been Apple’s greatest example of skeuomorphism to date, but it was Steve Jobs who decided to officially drop support for themes in order to preserve a consistent user interface. Themeing would live on in later versions of the Classic Mac OS and even into the early days of Mac OS X, but only as eggfreckles.net(kaleidoscope.netWhat_is_Kaleidoscope.html text: third-party extensions) and haxies.

QuickTime 4

Intended to showcase the technological improvements of the QuickTime 4.0 multimedia technology, the QuickTime 4.0 Player sported a completely re-imagined user interface designed to look like a “real-world” consumer electronics device. The QuickTime 4.0 interface represented an almost violent departure from the long established standards that had been the hallmark of Apple software by introducing skeuomorphic design elements such as drawers, brushed metal, dials, and borderless windows that would haunt the Macintosh GUI for years to come.

We find this trend toward “consumer” interfaces to be particularly disturbing. The design places a premium on aesthetics over usability. The emphasis is on creating a flashy product, and not on creating a useful and usable product. Rather than asking, “How can we make this look more like a real thing?”, the designers would do their users a far more important service by asking, “How can we make this operate better than the real thing”. To use the QuickTime 4.0 Player as an example, the designers spent far too much time making the software look like a hand-held player, and far too little time examining how they might add utility to such a player. A hand-held player is just that: a player. A software-based multimedia viewer can become an information device. It would appear that this latter approach was never considered in the design of QuickTime.

Apple DVD Player

The Apple DVD Player that shipped with Mac OS 9 went far beyond apps without windows. It shipped with a completely round user interface that more closely resembled the Puck Mouse from the first iMac than a traditional Mac OS application. It is hard to grasp the design decisions made around the Apple DVD Player, and even harder to grasp the app itself. Without a titlebar, or window border to speak of the Apple DVD Player was a skeuomorphic flop that kept users guessing how to drag it off screen long after the movie had started to play. In the age of the candy colored iMacs, and the dawn of brushed metal, Apple emphasized form over function to keep things cool and tide customers over until the arrival of Mac OS X.

iTunes

Another Skeuomorphic design that kept things cool before the arrival of Mac OS X’s Aqua interface was the deeply beveled, brushed metal interface of iTunes 1.0. Complete with jelly bean volume sliders, and Aqua blue accents, iTunes 1.0 looked like something straight out of the future, even running under Mac OS 9. The Faux LCD interface is still a part of iTunes today, but back in version 1.0 the screen was purposely left pixelated to preserve the look of a high-end stereo receiver. (Bitmapped greyscale displays were still a luxury feature on the stereos of 2001.) As an experiment the iTunes user interface was a complete success. Just the right mixture of skeuomorphic cool, combined with the usability of a conventional GUI. iTunes showed the world that skeuomorphic accents could work as long as user interface fundamentals were preserved.

Aqua

Aqua, the Mac OS X user interface, brought many of the accents that made Apple hardware cool and fun to use back to the Mac OS. There were jelly bean buttons, like the CD eject button on the very first iMac. There were translucent colors, like the blue apple on the Power Mac G3, G4, and G4 Cube, There were pinstripes, like those found on all of Apple’s Studio Displays and iMacs shipping at the time. For the first time in history, computer graphics were powerful enough to support photorealistic icons, smooth animations, high-definition textures, and deep drop shadows. Apple didn’t hesitate incorporating these features into Mac OS X, and in doing so changed what we thought of computer interfaces forever. Everything else looked dated in comparison.

As time progressed, the Aqua interface has evolved to reflect the changes in Apple hardware. Gone are the over the top transparencies, deep drop shadows, and distracting pinstripes. Subtle grays, mute reflections, and soft gradients now fill the retina displays of Apple’s latest portables. Some might say that Aqua is not a skeuomorphic interface because it does not resemble a specific real world object. To them I say Aqua is a mirror reflecting back the design decisions that have made Apple’s hardware so appealing over the last 10 years.

Brushed Metal

Despite the abundance of candy colored hues, silky blues, and soft gradients, Mac OS X imprisoned many of its apps in a colder metallic texture for several years. Born in the dark ages of QuickTime, Sherlock, and iTunes, Brushed Metal made its way into the world’s most advanced operating system as an optional interface theme. Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines state that the brushed metal interface should be used for programs that mimic the operation of, or interface with, common devices, but that didn’t stop Apple from bringing Brushed Metal to the Finder and Safari in Mac OS X 10.3 Panther. Out of all of Apple’s skeuomorphic faults, brushed metal might be the most loathed by long time Mac users. It was retired from Apple’s desktop operating system in October 2007 with the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

iOS & Back to the Mac

The runaway success of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch have introduced a whole new generation of users, both young and old, to modern computing. To help them find their way, Apple has littered their path with real-world objects such as torn paper, Corinthian leather, wooden bookshelves, green tabletop felt, stitched pages, dark linen, reel-to-reel tapedecks, and highway road signs. Apologists for skeuomorphic design maintain that users will more readily be able to transfer their knowledge of real-world objects to software using these helpful guides. Unfortunately, the apologists fail to recognize that there are two likely consequences of this approach:

1. The user is unable to transfer his or her existing knowledge of computer interaction.
2. The software becomes needlessly subject to the limitations of the physical device.

With the release of Mountain Lion, Apple is bringing even more “helpful guides” back to the Mac, and needlessly limiting the capabilities of software. With the dawn of the Retina display, and more pixels to fill, I don’t think the trend of skeuomorphic design is going to stop anytime soon, even after the passing of Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs came back to Apple to save the company, not to kill the Newton. Killing the Newton was a sacrifice that had to be made to save Apple. It is pointless to think if things had been different, if the Newton had survived. Because if it had we would not have the Apple we have today. I am glad Steve made the choice to kill the Newton if it meant saving Apple.

Input

I think that, to me, what I want is this little thing that I carry around with me that’s got a keyboard on it, because to do email, you need a keyboard. Until you perfect speech recognition, you need a keyboard. You don’t sit there and write stuff, you need a keyboard. And you need to be connected to the net. So if somebody would just make a little thing where you’re connected to the net at all times, and you’ve got a little keyboard, like an eMate with a modem in it. God, I’d love to buy one. But I don’t see one of those out there. And I don’t care what OS it has in it. So, you know, I don’t want a little scribble thing. But that’s just me.

It sounds like Steve was talking about a BlackBerry. He wasn’t the only one that poked fun at the Newton’s poor handwriting recognition. Deciphering people’s handwriting is hard. It is much easier to get the human mind to adapt to the restraints of a device, than it is to get a 20 MHz ARM processor to adapt to the infinite varieties of human handwriting. Graffiti on the Palm proved people could be taught to write in a restrictive way a limited PDA can understand, but for a device to be accessible to the general public the learning curve had to be lowered. People are attracted to the familiar. Keyboards are familiar to anyone who has ever used a computer. If the technology for transparent handwriting recognition isn’t available why make people suffer through a half-baked experience, especially if the alternative, a keyboard, is readily available and the faster way to go? It is hard to support a product that was developed before its time when superior alternatives are right around the corner.

Connectivity

I tried a Newton, I bought one of the early ones, I thought it was a piece of junk, I threw it away. I bought one of the Motorola envoys, I thought it was a piece of junk after three months and threw it away. I hear the new ones are a lot better. I haven’t tried one… here’s my problem: My problem is, to me, the high order bit is connectivity. The high order bit is being in touch, connected to a network. That’s why I bought the Envoy: it had a cellular modem in it. And I don’t think the world’s about keeping my life on this little thing and IR-ing it into my computer when I get back to my base station.

The internet is a big part of the iPhone’s success. One-third of the iPhone introduction keynote was for a breakthrough internet communications device. Many of the App Store’s most popular applications leverage the internet for real-time communications and services. Most desktop computers at the time of the Newton’s release didn’t have an always on internet connection, and most mobile devices could not connect to the internet short of being tethered to a desktop computer. The Newton’s audible faxing capabilities and optional dial-up modem were a step in the right direction, but the technology for always on wireless internet connectivity just didn’t exist when the Newton was being developed. It would have been a financial mistake for Apple to wait another ten years for the Newton to fulfill its promise of being a great communications device. Putting the company further behind when it needed to focus on its strengths.

Focus

Apple suffered for several years from lousy engineering management. There were people that were going off in 18 different directions… What happened was that you looked at the farm that’s been created with all these different animals going in all different directions, and it doesn’t add up - the total is less than the sum of the parts. We had to decide: What are the fundamental directions we are going in? What makes sense and what doesn’t? And there were a bunch of things that didn’t.

Focusing is saying yes, right? No. Focusing is about saying no. You’ve got to say, no, no, no. The result of that focus is going to be some really great products where the total is much greater than the sum of the parts.

I think that most companies can’t be successful with one stack of system software. Rarely can they manage two, and we I believe are going to succeed at managing two in the next several years, with MacOS and Rhapsody, which is a superset of that. I cannot imagine being successful trying to manage three. So I have sort of a law of physics disconnect with trying to do that, I just don’t see how it can be done. And I don’t think that has anything to do with how good or bad Newton is, or whether we should be making $800 products, or $500 products, which I think we should. It has to do with, I don’t see how you manage three software stacks.

Have you ever tried to buy a computer off of Dell, HP, or Sony’s website? So many options with obscure product numbers, unordered pricing, and customizable specifications listed in a language only an engineer could understand. Excessive choice makes the shopping process more stressful than it needs to be. Customers begin to second guess themselves, and all of the acronyms lead towards too much confusion. It is fruitless to concentrate on making more, when the quantity you have is uninviting, and the effort you put towards maintaining that quantity is diluting your bottom line. Steve Jobs understood this. He understood how expensive maintaining multiple software stacks can be let alone the printers, cameras, and desktop accessories Apple was peddling at the time. For Apple to be great, no for Apple to survive, it had to concentrate on the Macintosh, the one thing it did best, while saying no to everything else. That included the Newton, the printers, the cameras, servers, desktop accessories, and middle management that were getting in the way of making the Macintosh the best it could be.

John Sculley

Oh, it was very painful. I’m not sure I even want to talk about it. (pause) What can I say? I hired the wrong guy. And he [John Sculley] destroyed everything I’d spent 10 years working for. Starting with me, but that wasn’t the saddest part. I’d have gladly left Apple if it had turned out like I wanted it to.

I don’t know if Steve jobs was a vengeful man, but people say since John Sculley created the Newton, and John Sculley threw Steve Jobs out of Apple, that Steve jobs threw out the Newton. I don’t know if that is true. It is hard to love your enemies baby, but if John Sculley’s baby had been a success would Steve have kept it around? It is pointless to engage in these kind of “what-if” scenarios. If the Newton had been successful and transformed Apple into a thriving consumer electronics company Steve Jobs would have never come back to Apple in the first place. Steve Jobs didn’t kill the Newton because John Sculley was its father, Steve Jobs killed the Newton because it was already dead.

You have heard it on The Talk Show. The loud clickity-clack of John Gruber’s Apple Extended Keyboard II. The keyboard that Daring Fireball was written upon. Known for its massive size and generous weight, the Apple Extended Keyboard II is a behemoth compared to the minimalist “Chiclet” inspired keyboards made popular by MacBooks today. Its mechanical key switches produce a reassuring sound that has not been heard by most Macintosh users for more than a decade. Code named “Nimitz,” after a United States supercarrier, the Apple Extended Keyboard II was born in a time before USB, when keyboards and mice were connected to Macs via ADB. Keyboard connoisseurs, like John, who continue to use an Apple Extended Keyboard II today must rely on an ADB to USB adapter like the Griffin iMate to use their keyboards under Mac OS X.

John Gruber won his first Apple Extended Keyboard II during a legendary game of Madden in the dorm rooms of Drexel University in 1992. It lasted him through multiple Macs and 14 years of use until the “E” key “got flakey,” and the whole keyboard had to be replaced in November 2006. The replacement Apple Extended Keyboard II he stored away in his closet for just such an occasion has never felt the same. Great authors have always had affection for their tools, and John’s attraction to his keyboard is no different. The Apple Extended Keyboard II is a great keyboard, but it is an inferior sequel to the to the greatest keyboard Apple has ever made.

The original Apple Extended Keyboard is the best keyboard Apple has ever made. Code named “Saratoga,” it is larger in size and heavier in weight than its successor. The Apple Extended Keyboard features the same 105 key layout as later models, but unlike the Apple Extended Keyboard II it only contains the superior Alps Electric Co. brand mechanical key switches. When you purchase an original Apple Extended Keyboard you are guaranteed quality. When you purchase an Apple Extended Keyboard II you are taking a risk on inferior key switches.

Early model M0312 Apple Extended Keyboard IIs were manufactured with the classic Alps mechanisms. Later model M3501 Apple Extended Keyboard IIs were manufactured with either Alps or subpar Mitsumi mechanisms. If you have a model M3501 Apple Extended Keyboard II you cannot be certain of the key switches it contains without breaking it open. This might account for why John’s second Apple Extended Keyboard II never felt the same as the original. You can always tell the Apple Extended Keyboard and Apple Extended Keyboard II apart by the sounds they make. The original Apple Extended makes a satisfying “clickity-clock,” while the Apple Extended Keyboard II produces a slightly softer “clickity-clack” sound even if it contains Alps switches. Both the Apple Extended Keyboard and Apple Extended Keyboard II require an ADB to USB adapter in order to be used with modern Macs, but only the Extended II contains a crude height adjustment mechanism that often locks up, or fails to keep a consistent elevation. The Apple Extended Keyboard contains no height adjustment, and is a far more sturdy typing platform.

Other differences include the placement of Apple logo on the keyboard, and the choice of power key. The Apple Extended Keyboard II has a sloping curve in the top part of its plastic casing leading up to the Apple logo on the left and unconventional power button on the right. The original Apple Extended keyboard has a straighter curve with the Apple logo in the lower left hand corner, and a power button that resembles every other key.

Another way to tell the two keyboards apart is the labels under the first four function keys. On the original Extended you can find “undo” under F1, “cut” under F2, “copy” under F3, and “paste” under F4. None of these labels are present on the Extended II. On either keyboard there is plenty of room to accommodate large template guides over the top row of function keys displaying shortcuts for many popular historic software packages. The dedicated number pad on both keyboards are equally well spaced and easy to use. And best of all the Caps Lock key on both keyboards locks down when in use.

The assurance of Alps key switches, the larger design, and heavier weight of the Apple Extended Keyboard might seem like minor differences when compared to its predecessor, but there is one unheralded feature of the original Extended keyboard that its sequel can’t match. The Apple Extended Keyboard can be taken completely apart for cleaning. By removing four sturdy screws its key switch mechanisms can be completely removed from the case. The Apple Extended Keyboard II on the other hand relies on a single screw and several plastic snaps to hold it together. Its key switch mechanisms cannot be easily removed from the case. Each Alps keyswitch is rated for 10 to 15 million keystrokes. It is important to be able to clean your keyboard when the expected lifespan is 15–25 years.

The Apple Extended Keyboard was only sold for a short time as an optional accessory. It is much harder to find than an Apple Extended Keyboard II which was manufactured from October 1990 all the way until January 1999. I am lucky enough to own one of each, with a untouched spare Apple Extended Keyboard II hidden away in the closet for a rainy day. I may not be a great author, but I have a great keyboard.

While attending Macworld 2012, I met John Gruber. I was waiting outside the men’s room in an upscale hotel lobby. I was not alone. Stephen Hackett, and Pat Dryburgh were with me. We were all waiting for Shawn Blanc and Ben Brooks who were attending a private get together in the hotel bar across the room. We should have been having a drink ourselves, but instead we were sitting on a sofa outside the men’s room looking rather lame. John Gruber on his way to said men’s room quickly commented on my Daring Fireball t-shirt before walking through the door. On his way back to the bar he came over, introduced himself, and thanked me for being a reader of Daring Fireball. After I returned the introduction, he told me he had visited Egg Freckles and considered linking to my site in the past. I said I was honored, I didn’t know what else to say. He kindly invited us back to join the group and have drinks at the bar. Introducing us as “look who I found over there by the men’s room.”

The moral of this story is that when you meet someone from the internet you admire, try to be cooler than a guy waiting outside the men’s room in a fancy upscale hotel lobby. At least buy yourself a drink. The people you know from the Internet are more interesting in person. Try to act the same.

For me Macworld 2012 was all about meeting new people. I didn’t come to see new products or hear the latest announcements. I know I am not alone. The Internet has replaced conferences as the way to get the word out. As events like Macworld reconfigure, it is important to remember their value is in the people who attend under a common interest, and not the wares, booths, or babes, that are the background noise of any show.

When I was a Mac Genius, and the Genius Bar was new, a red phone with a direct line to Cupertino used to sit behind the bar. The phone didn’t call anyone important, but it did get you AppleCare Tier 2 support if you got stumped by a customer’s question or needed to ask a inquiry of your own. I never picked up the red phone to ask a technical question, that’s what the internet is for, but I did use it a couple of times to ask procedural questions on pending repairs. Most of these questions could have been answered by email, but when a customer visits the store because their mail-in repair is missing, or they were offered a deal by executive relations the quickest answer is sometimes the phone behind you.

On this occasion I didn’t need to use the red phone at all, it was the customer who was making the phone calls. An elderly couple had sat down at the end of the bar with the tangerine iBook they used for connecting to the internet over AOL dial-up. When I asked them what was the problem he told me in a dry British accent that his computer was “swearing at him and saying the filthiest things.”

I asked him if this was before or after he had gotten online, thinking the root of the problem was an inappropriate homepage or some sort of unseen audio pop-up. He said that he could never get online anymore and that when he tried his computer would swear at him several times over the speaker. I didn’t know if I truly believed him, but I went about trying to reproduce the issue anyway.

At first I tried connecting the iBook to the store’s front-of-house ethernet network. Everything worked fine, no swearing. Next I brought out a phone cable and connected to special dial-up server Apple provides for treoubleshooting purposes. Once again the modem worked fine, and the iBook was able to connect to the internet without profanity.

Finally with the phone line still connected I tried using the default ISP phone number AOL had listed and that is when the obscenity began. The phone rang a couple of times over the iBook’s speakers, but instead of being picked up by a computer at the other end a man’s voice answered. He was immediately greeted by the iBook’s computerized hissing, humming, and beeping, and before long lost his patience shouting a long list of profanities into the phone before hanging up.

The iBook’s speaker volume was loud enough that this was heard across the store, and as soon as the lesson in four-letter-words had ended the old gentleman turned to me with a stiff British lip and said “are we doing something wrong?”

I had to hold back my laughter because I immediately knew what was happening. His tangerine iBook was calling a unsuspecting neighbor in the same area code as his AOL ISP. Each time he tried to get online his iBook would call the same man and only answer with the kind of noises a dial-up modem uses to connect to a host server. The recipient had clearly lost his patience after numerous dial-up attempts and resorted to cursing several times before hanging up the phone.

By July 2002 Mac OS X was just over one year old, Safari was still several months away, and very few web browsers took advantage of the innovative new features and bold aqua interface of 10.1 Puma, the latest version of Apple’s Mac OS X operating system. Opera looked like it belonged on Windows. iCab looked like it belonged on Mac OS 9. OmniWeb was the first Mac OS X browser developed in en.wikipedia.orgwikiCocoa_(API text: Cocoa), but all three lacked a modern rendering engine capable of displaying the world’s latest websites. Mozilla and Netscape weren’t much better. Both were bloated, unstable, ugly, and slow. Internet Explorer had been shipping as the default browser on Macs since 1997, and was the only browser included with Mac OS X. It’s en.wikipedia.orgwikiTasman_(layout_engine text: Tasman) rendering engine was state-of-the-art when version 5 shipped in early 2000, but since then Microsoft had lost interest, updates were few and far between, and page rendering had slowed to a crawl. Looking back it is hard to think Apple could sell Mac OS X as “the world’s most advanced operating system” without a world class browser, but that is exactly what they were doing during the Summer of 2002.

In late 2001, Mike Pinkerton and Vidur Apparao started a project within Netscape to prove that en.wikipedia.orgwikiGecko_(layout_engine text: Gecko) could be embedded in a Cocoa application. In early 2002 Dave Hyatt, one of the co-creators of Firefox (then called Phoenix), joined the team and built Chimera, a small, lightweight browser wrapper, around their work.

At the time Gecko was a very robust rendering engine, and when it was stripped out of the bloated MozillaNetscape suite it ran quite fast. By combining Gecko with the stylish performance of a native Cocoa interface Chimera became a world class browser in the making.

Quick to load, intuitive to use, I learned about Chimera in July 2002 during the release of version 0.4. This was an important update for the Chimera project because it marked the first time Chimera could open a URL from an outside application, and the first time Chimera could load content into new tab without the need of additional windows. The ability to quickly open websites from NetNewsWire in a row of organized tabs instead of a mess of stacked windows motivated me to replace Internet Explorer with Chimera as my default browser that summer.

Hyatt was hired by Apple Computer in mid-2002 to start work on what would become Safari. Meanwhile, the Chimera developers got a small team together within Netscape, with dedicated development and QA, to put together a Netscape-branded technology preview for the January 2003 Macworld Conference. However, two days before the show, AOL management decided to abandon the entire project. Despite this setback, a skeleton crew of QA and developers released Camino 0.7 on March 3, 2003.

The name was changed from Chimera to Camino for legal reasons. Because of its roots in Greek mythology, Chimera has been a popular choice of name for hypermedia systems. One of the first graphical web browsers was called Chimera, and researchers at the University of California, Irvine, have also developed a complete hypermedia system of the same name. Camino is Spanish for “path” or “road” (as in El Camino Real, aka the Royal Road), and the name was chosen to continue the “Navigator” motif.

Safari was first released as a public beta on January 7th, 2003, it became Apple’s default browser beginning with Mac OS X v10.3 Panther on October 24th, 2003. During the Beta period and into 2004 I stuck with Camino because its Gecko rendering engine displayed pages more accurately than the up-and-coming WebKit rendering engine used in Safari. As WebKit’s popularity grew and developers became accustom to its features, Camino lost much of the dominance it once had over Safari. Safari 2.0 was released on April 29th, 2005 as the only web browser included with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. This version was touted by Apple as possessing a 1.8x speed boost over Safari 1.2.4, and a noticeable speed increase over pre 1.0 versions of Camino. Safari would go on to become Acid2 compliant with the release of version 2.0.2 on October 31st, 2005. It would take the release of Camino 2.0 on November 18th, 2009, to reach that same milestone.

After the release of 0.7 progress on Camino slowed as development was taken over by the open source community. The Camino website was moved from the Mozilla Foundation mozilla.org to the Camino Project caminobrowser.org. In September 2005, Mike Pinkerton accepted a position at Google where he worked closely with Google’s Firefox team and continued to work on Camino during his “twenty percent” time. Mike would go on to develop the Mac port of Google’s Chrome browser, a direct competitor to Camino.

Camino 1.0, released on February 14th, 2006, was the first browser of the Mozilla family to appear as a universal binary. It included many important new features and advancements like a new tab bar, download manager with pause and resume, built-in ad blocker, history search, and the ability to autofill forms from the address book. Thanks to improvements in the Gecko rendering engine Camino 1.0 also adopted SVG, the <canvas><canvas> tag, and JavaScript 1.6, as well as improved CSS 2 and CSS 3 support.

My daily use of Camino stopped with the introduction of Mac OS X 10.4, because of Safari 2.0’s superior Javascript performance and RSS handling. Camino continued to be an important browser for users of older versions of Mac OS X. While Safari 2.0 dropped support for Macintosh operating systems older than 10.4 Tiger, Camino 1.0 continued to support 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4.

Camino improved integration with Mac OS X while Firefox and other browsers were demonstrating their platform independence. Instead of using an independent spell checker, RSS reader, and password manager, Camino used the dictionary services, Mail RSS reader, and en.wikipedia.orgwikiKeychain_(Mac_OS text: Keychain) in Mac OS X. Camino’s Keychain compatibility made it an excellent second browser because it shared the same saved credentials with Safari. Camino 1.5 introduced session restore on June 5th, 2007, more than four years before Safari would gain the same functionality in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. Because Camino is developed exclusively for Mac OS X it was able to adopt some Mac OS X specific features before any other browser including Safari.

Camino 2.0, released on November 18th, 2009, introduced many new interface features to the browser including movable tabs and tab preview. It was the first Camino release to be Acid2-compliant. Two of my favorite features from Camino 2.0 are the en.wikipedia.orgwikiGrowl_(software text: Growl) support, and enhanced annoyance blocking features. With Growl you are notified when downloads begin and finish, helping you keep track of the content you want. The enhanced annoyance blocking features allow you to enable Flash animations on a per-site basis, helping you avoid the content you don’t. Camino 2.0 introduced a updated AppleScript dictionary that included vocabulary for downloading the raw HTML source, or text from any webpage or selection. This feature is still missing from the latest version of Safari, and makes Camino a valuable part of many of my AppleScript toolbox. The greatest new feature in Camino 2.0 may be the inclusion of version 1.9.0 of Mozilla’s Gecko rendering engine. It is this rendering engine that allows Camino to pass the Acid2 rendering test, and brings Camino up to date with Firefox 3.0 released over a year earlier.

One year behind Firefox, and more than four years behind Safari, Camino was showing its age even before it reached 1.0. Camino is no longer the world class browser it promised to be in the Summer of 2002. The latest version of Camino, 2.1, was released on November 29th, 2011 and brings Camino up to date with Firefox 3.6 released eleven months earlier. The Gecko rendering engine reached 2.0 on March 22nd, 2011 with the release Firefox 4, but Camino may never grow old enough to adopt it. Starting with Firefox 4 Mozilla announced the end of Gecko embedding, which Camino uses to include the Gecko rendering engine inside of a native Cocoa interface.

While embedding has long been relatively low priority, being officially unsupported is a significant change. As important parts of embedding stop working, core Gecko contributors will longer be fixing them. Such breakages are unfortunately common—in fact, making sure that embedding breakages were resolved was a significant amount of the work that went into the release of Camino 2.0, as well as the upcoming Camino 2.1. Without support for embedding, releases of Camino using newer versions of Gecko—like the one used in Firefox 4—won’t be possible.

The development effort that was used to maintain Gecko embedding is being refocused to rapidly bring Firefox up to par with WebKit browsers like Safari and Chrome. The volunteers who develop Camino are too few to maintain Gecko embedding on their own, or put forth the major effort required to port Camino to WebKit. If nothing is done Camino will continue to receive security and stability updates as long as Gecko 1.9.2 is supported, but it will never see full support for Acid3, HTML5, or CSS3.

Camino will continue to be a viable browser only as long as the web works with Gecko 1.9.2, but as I write this many webpages are passing it by. Even though I still have Camino installed on my computer it fails to qualify as a modern browser less than two months since its last update. I am saddened that Camino must die in the effort to save Firefox, a browser that has gotten just a bloated as the Netscape Suite it once replaced. By losing Camino we will not only see the end of a browser that once made the Mac great, but the end of a development community focused solely on the advancement of a great Macintosh software.

Even at training (Early 2009) our instructor warned us about ‘Old School vs. New School’ Geniuses. His emphasis was that the needs of the business change.

Today’s Mac Genius are no longer required to have the same deep understanding of the Mac OS, its UNIX roots, or classic past. They can no longer troubleshoot the same impossible set of hardware symptoms with ease while working with multiple customers bar side. Their lack of knowledge into the depths of Apple history and lore is embarrassing for anyone who grew up with Clarus the Dogcow, HyperCard, and the 1.44MB SuperDrive. The Mac Genius who knew all these things have either moved on, or burned out. Replaced by a new generation of Mac Genius every who are eager to take their place every 18 months.

Tasks like replacing a display, swapping a phone, or updating software don’t require the same skills that isolating a failed video card or manually recreating a user in OS X do. As iPhones and iPads continue to fly out the door, the role of a Genius shifts.

The Mac Genius that work the bar today are different from the Mac Genius of the past. They see more iOS than Mac OS X. Their customers are delivered one by one using a reservation system while an assistant holding an iPad keeps order. Their troubleshooting techniques are predetermined, and the proper diagnosis codes must be achieved before parts can be ordered. Today’s Mac Genius work at a faster pace with more monotony, and less time for conversation.

“These customers don’t want to ‘hang out with a genius’ — they want their phone to work. NOW.

Today’s Mac Genius are replacements, excited to fill the role I once coveted until I we all burn out in the end. There is no path of advancement for a Mac Genius. For a long time I was angry Apple couldn’t find a place for more of the great Mac Genius from the past. But after reading the “The New Genius Bar” on Stephen Hackett’s 512 Pixels I began to understand that today’s Mac Genius are just as good at their jobs as my generation was at ours.

The Genius Bar has changed, and by letting the older Genius go, Apple was doing us all a favor. No matter how much we love the company, no one wants to be a Mac Genius forever.

Most Geniuses are emotionally invested in their jobs. Their ability to assess and react to any situation with skill, tact, and empathy keeps customers ranking Apple support so high, year after year.

There are better jobs out their with double the pay, better hours, and working behind the bar at an Apple Store is a great way to start a career.

I always saw the Genius role as a stepping stone into other IT jobs.

When you see a Genius complain about the nature or the business, the retail schedule, the ever increasing assembly line of work it is time for them to go.

Every 3 or 4 months you have to look hard at yourself and the current incarnation of the job and ask, Am I the best fit for this job? Am I willing to deal with the problem of the week and offer feasible solutions? Is my mental health in a state where I can enjoy this? Would I want to work with me with my current attitude? If the answer is no, I hope a manager helps you through that tough time and out the door if need be.

The magic of the position has worn off. I will always miss the good times I had working for Apple, but too much has changed both behind the bar and within myself for me to ever go back.

Now that 2011 has come to a close, we are able to look back at Apple’s greatest year. Not only did 2011 show record profits and important product updates, but new technologies were released, and brand new versions of all of Apple’s operating systems were unveiled. Customer’s experienced new ways of purchasing products, while taking advantage of innovative cloud-based storage solutions. Developers learned a new integrated development environment for coding applications across all of Apple’s state-of-the-art operating systems. Creatives explored new techniques for editing video, and creating music on Macs and mobile devices alike. And during the midst of it all, Apple became the world’s most valuable company while losing the greatest leader it has ever known. As we look back at the past 365 days it is easy to see why 2011 was Apple’s greatest year.

Mac App Store

The year started off on January 6th with the release of the Mac App Store, a new way to buy applications on any Mac running Snow Leopard. With more than 1,000 free and paid apps, over one million downloads were made during its first day of business alone.

Revealed during the Sneak Peak of Lion event in October 2010, Apple compared the Mac App Store to the ease of purchasing applications on iOS.

The Mac App Store brings the revolutionary App Store experience to OS X, making discovering, installing and updating Mac apps easier than ever. Like on iPad™, you purchase apps using your iTunes® account and they download and install in just one step. App updates are delivered directly through the Mac App Store, so it’s easy to keep all of your apps up to date.

By January 22nd the Mac App Store had received more than 10 million downloads, securing its future as the preferred method of buying applications on the Mac. One of the secrets of the Mac App Store’s success was its prominent position in the Mac OS X Dock. After updating to 10.6.6 users found the Mac App Store icon sitting right next to their favorite applications at the edge of their Macintosh’s screen. Never before had a software update placed a application in such a leading location for users to discover.

The release of Lion as a downloadable upgrade from the Mac App Store in early July only helped to solidify the Mac App Store’s success. Billed as a “tentpole” feature in Lion, the Mac App Store was promoted heavily leading up to Lion’s release. As Apple’s customers upgraded to Lion in record numbers many discovered the Mac App Store for the first time. Physical boxes of software at Apple Stores started to disappear overnight as more and more developers released their applications exclusively for the Mac App Store. By December 12th, Apple’s online strategy for software marketing and sales had become the dominant way to buy software on the Mac with over 100 million downloads.

ThunderBolt

Thunderbolt might be Apple’s most important hardware advancement in the last decade.

Developed by Intel with collaboration from Apple, Thunderbolt enables expandability never before possible on a notebook computer. Featuring two bi-directional channels with transfer speeds up to an amazing 10Gbps each, Thunderbolt delivers PCI Express directly to external high performance peripherals such as RAID arrays, and can support FireWire and USB consumer devices and Gigabit Ethernet networks via adapters. Thunderbolt also supports DisplayPort for high resolution displays and works with existing adapters for HDMI, DVI and VGA displays. Freely available for implementation on systems, cables and devices, Thunderbolt technology is expected to be widely adopted as a new standard for high performance IO.

In the past significant hardware advances have always been implemented on desktop computers first. This was true for FireWire, USB 2.0 and the G5 processor. Starting on February 24th, Apple’s pro line of portable machines were the first to offer the high performance IO and expandability of Thunderbolt.

On May 3rd Apple’s iMacs adopted Thunderbolt with their latest revision, marking the first time a consumer desktop has seen a major hardware advancement before its pro counterpart since the Bondi Blue iMac boldly adopted USB. No fact is more damming to the Mac Pro’s continued irrelevance than its lack of Thunderbolt support.

On July 20th, the world saw the release of Lion and with it came new MacBook Airs, Mac minis, and the Thunderbolt Display. No computer would benefit more from the addition of Thunderbolt than the MacBook Air. Combined with a Thunderbolt Display the new MacBook Air gains all of the ports of a full-featured MacBook Pro, while retaining all of the travel portability of a three pound notebook. Not since the age of the PowerBook Duo has Apple released a mobility minded portable with the expandability of a desktop computer. Thunderbolt made it possible.

On November 4th, Bare Feets performed a speed test of all shipping Macs comparing their ability to run pro applications against a Mac Pro. Bare Feets found that the performance gap between the Mac Pro and high-end Macs was narrowing towards the point of irrelevance thanks to the latest Intel i3, i5, and i7 processors shipping with every new Thunderbolt enabled Mac.

iPad 2

The iPad 2 may have been the most anticipated product of 2011. Steve Jobs made a surprise appearance during his second medical leave to reveal the iPad 2 on March 2nd.

iPad 2 features an entirely new design that is 33 percent thinner and up to 15 percent lighter than the original iPad, while maintaining the same stunning 9.7-inch LED-backlit LCD screen. iPad 2 features Apple’s new dual-core A5 processor for blazing fast performance and stunning graphics and now includes two cameras, a front-facing VGA camera for FaceTime® and Photo Booth®, and a rear-facing camera that captures 720p HD video, bringing the innovative FaceTime feature to iPad users for the first time.

The iPad 2 was later released on March 11th, but Apple has never reported its sales numbers. Analysts put sales of the new iPad in the range of 400,000 to 600,000 units during its first three days on the market, about the same range as the original model sold in its first week. In the most recent quarter Apple reported the iPad 2 contributed 17{493f798df480ad5a2796e65210fbf6e65215ebdcc2070f4d9b100f3865a5d00d} of Apple’s $26.7 billion in revenue, or an estimated 7.5 million units sold from late June to September 24th.

Alongside the iPad 2 came new versions of iMovie and Garageband for iOS. These mobile applications would help creative professionals and curious amateurs create movies and music on the go thanks to the iPad 2’s improved processing power and multitouch interface.

The most unheralded feature of the iPad 2 might be the introduction of AirPlay, a wireless technology that allows you to stream what is on your iPad 2 to your HDTV via an Apple TV. AirPlay would quickly make it to all of Apple’s iOS devices running iOS 5.

Xcode 4

Xcode 4 was a major update to Apple’s integrated development environment, and a mixed blessing for developers who had become accustomed to previous versions. Apple released the final code for Xcode 4.0 on March 9th over the Mac App Store, but many developers were weary to adopt it, citing poor performance and a steep learning curve.

Some of Xcode 4’s biggest changes were in its user interface. For the first time many of the windows and auxiliary applications used to perform development tasks were consolidated into a single application window. This was most likely done to make Xcode 4 more compatible with Lion, which encourages the use of full screen, single window apps. The addition of Navigators and the Jump Bar help Xcode 4 developers navigate the new interface, while the Assistant feature keeps track of what code is being edited across multiple files.

The new Apple LLVM Compiler 2.0 in Xcode 4 means software is compiled quicker and the resulting applications run faster. It also means many existing applications had to be tweaked as new bugs were discovered and compatibility changes had to be made. The new Apple LLVM engine helps by constantly working in the background to understand a developers code. It alerts developers to coding mistakes as they type, and highlights common mishaps and potential fixes without the need to click the build button.

Xcode 4 was a sore spot for many developers who had become accustomed to the previous way of building applications, but thanks to a new versioning system, steady performance improvements, and continued Xcode 3 backwards compatibility many developers were able to make the jump to Apple’s latest IDE on their own schedule.

Final Cut Pro X

Final Cut Pro was another professional Apple application that received a major update last year. Like Xcode 4, Final Cut Pro received both a major upgrade to its underlying architecture as well as a completely new user interface. Creative professionals were stunned to learn that Final Cut Pro X would not open their previous Final Cut Pro Projects. Many snubbed the new iMovie inspired user interface that required them to relearn basic editing skills. And although several reviews confirmed Final Cut Pro to be the fastest nonlinear editor in existence, professional editors were shocked by the absence of so many professional features including support for third-party hardware, tape media importing, and the import or export of content to other editors or finishing systems.

It helps to think of FCP X as not an upgrade of Final Cut Studio, but rather an entirely new application that shares the same name. 64-bit support, a Cocoa foundation, GPU acceleration, and a new rendering engine were all long awaited features that will give Final Cut Pro a solid foundation into the next decade. Many of the FPC X’s deficiency’s can be summed up as the result of 1.0 release, and if you think of it as an entirely new application the results are very impressive.

No one forced creative professionals to upgrade to Final Cut X, but when Apple released FCP X on the Mac App Store they stopped selling the previous boxed version of Final Cut Studio. The lack of professional features, and the abrupt change in workflow caused enough of an outcry that Apple began selling the remaining copies of Final Cut Studio in early September. Update 10.0.1 followed twenty days later, and helped fix some of superficial deficiencies plaguing Final Cut Pro X. Version 10.1 has been promised for early 2012, and I am confident that future updates will only make Final Cut Pro X more compelling as tape-less editing becomes the norm.

Lion

Mac OS X Lion was the most anticipated software upgrade of 2011. Announced during the Sneak Peak of Lion event in October 2010, Apple revealed several new features like the Mac App Store, Launchpad, Full Screen Apps, Multi-touch gestures, and a newly designed Mail application that would be making their way back to the Mac from iOS.

Lion brings many of the best ideas from iPad back to the Mac, plus some fresh new ones like Mission Control that Mac users will really like,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Lion has a ton of new features, and we hope the few we had time to preview today will give users a good idea of where we are headed.

The first developer preview for Lion was released on [February 24th](apple.comprlibrary20110224Apple-Releases-Developer-Preview-of-Mac-OS-X-Lion.html, 2011). Many non-developers participated in the preview because the annual entry fee to the Mac Developer Program had recently been lowered to $100.

Lion was released on the Mac App Store on July 20th, 2011. It offered users 250 new features and sold over 1 million copies on its first day. Reviews for Lion were positive, but many long time Mac fans found issues with Lion’s Resume and Autosave features which took control away from the user. With the release of Lion Apple has made it clear that the future of the Mac is headed towards a convergence with iOS. No one knows when that convergence will take place, but as the two platforms align ease-of-use and reliability will triumph over the customization and extended capabilities of the former Mac OS.

Apple Campus 2

On June 7th, Steve Jobs addressed the Cupertino City Council to present his ideas for a new Apple Campus. If the proposal goes through Apple will be relying heavily on its experience building futuristic retail stores to produce a 2.8 million square foot circular building made out of curved glass. The new campus will be four stories tall, have a diameter of about 1615 feet, and house 12,000 employees on a 175 acre plot down the street from Apple’s current headquarters. Amenities will include…

• an enclosed courtyard
• a cafeteria capable of feeding 3,000 employees in one sitting
• a auditorium capable of seating 1,000 people
• an on campus fitness center
• a 60{493f798df480ad5a2796e65210fbf6e65215ebdcc2070f4d9b100f3865a5d00d} increase in landscaping
• underground parking
• 300,000 square feet of research facilities
• and a natural gas power plant capable of producing all of the campuses power

Apple plans on a 40{493f798df480ad5a2796e65210fbf6e65215ebdcc2070f4d9b100f3865a5d00d} increase in Apple corporate employees going from 9,500 today to 13,000 in 2015 when the new campus is scheduled to be completed. Even though the new campus was not built in 2011, its announcement was a significant milestone for Apple, a company that continues to grow far past anyones expectations.

Steve Jobs

On August 10th, under Steve Jobs guidance, Apple surpassed Exxon Mobil to seize the title of world’s most valuable company.

On August 24th, Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple.

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

He asked to remain as Apple’s Chairman of the board, director, and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

As planned Tim Cook took the reigns as Apple’s CEO. He successfully launched the iPhone 4S, iOS 5, and iCloud before a packed crowd at Apple’s Town Hall auditorium on October 4th, 2011. There was one reserved seat left unfilled in the audience.

On October 5th, Steve Jobs passed away.

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

After hearing the news Apple’s shares fell less than a dollar.

On October 18th, Apple reported their forth quarter results showing an all-time record for Mac and iPad sales, and the highest September quarter revenue and earnings to date.

On October 19th, Apple closed all of its retail stores for several hours as Apple employees gathered at Apple’s headquarters to celebrate Steve’s life. Memorials were erected on the windows and sidewalks outside of every Apple Store, and at Steve’s home in Palo Alto.

On November 15th, Arthur D. Levinson became Chairman of the Board.

Steve Jobs will always be missed, but his vision will live on in the company he founded. Apple will forever be his greatest product.

iOS 5

iOS 5 was first announced at Apple’s annual WWDC keynote address on June 6th. iOS 5 includes more than 200 new features, but the highlights of the keynote were Notification Center, iMessage, Newsstand, and PC Free Activation.

Notifications Center was a long-awaited feature that replaced the stacked dialog box notifications found in previous version of iOS with a pull down sheet that resembles the notifications on Android.

The introduction of iMessage was unexpected by customers and carriers alike. With it Apple hopes to reproduce the popularity of the BlackBerry Messenger service by creating a cost free communication network Apple customers can enjoy across all of their iOS devices.

Subscriptions made it onto the App Store early last year on February 15th, but iOS lacked a centralized place to browse, purchase, and collect periodicals. Newsstand brought the bookshelf interface and integrated store of iBooks to newspapers and magazines, and allowed the delivery of new content overnight as a background process. Apple may not have the same selection of Amazon’s Kindle service, but starting with Newsstand they have all of the pieces they need to build a powerful competing readership.

PC free activation is the most important feature from iOS 5. It sets the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad apart as independent devices free from the cables of personal computers. Android has long benefitted from PC free activation, and the abundance of Google cloud services. Now with the introduction of iOS 5, and iCloud Apple’s users will benefit from a similar liberation. The Post-PC era has begun.

The improvements in iOS 5 were significant, because they matched the long heralded strengths of competing platforms with an attention to detail and polish only Apple could provide.

iOS 5 was released alongside iCloud on October 12th.

iCloud

iCloud was introduced on June 6th by Steve Jobs. It was the last product presentation he would ever make, and arguably one of the most important for Apple’s future success. iCloud is a collection of free and paid services that aim to preserve a single set of data across all of a user’s Macs, PCs, and iOS devices.

“Today it is a real hassle and very frustrating to keep all your information and content up-to-date across all your devices,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iCloud keeps your important information and content up to date across all your devices. All of this happens automatically and wirelessly, and because it’s integrated into our apps you don’t even need to think about it—it all just works.”

As a replacement to MobileMe, iCloud includes all of the basic personal information services a user might expect from an online platform including contacts, calendar, and email. These free services directly compete with the online offerings of Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! without subjecting the user to unsightly ads.

iCloud include the automatic downloading of media, books, and apps to all of your iOS devices and computers running iTunes.

The automatic backup of iOS devices including purchased music, apps, books, photos, videos, device settings and app data is the iCloud feature that makes the PC Free Activation in iOS 5 possible.

iCloud Storage seamlessly stores all documents created using iCloud Storage APIs, and automatically pushes them to all of a users’s devices. When a user changes a document on any device, iCloud automatically pushes the changes to all of their devices. The iCloud Storage API will become iCloud’s most powerful feature as soon as more developers start taking advantage of it. We are already starting to see cross platform applications that are replacing the filesystem with iCloud’s Storage API, but more applications are needed if iCloud is to be considered a success.

The Photo Stream service automatically uploads the photos users take on their iOS devices to iCloud so they can be streamed or imported to any iOS device or computer. Photo Stream might be the best example of iCloud’s ability to keep a single set of data across all of a user’s devices.

For $25 a year iTunes Match scans the songs a user’s music library, including music not purchased on iTunes, and matches it to the more than 20 million songs available on the iTunes Store, offering them high-quality, DRM-free 256 kbps AAC encoding. Any unmatched songs are uploaded to iCloud so users can play any song, album or playlist from their music library on any of their iOS devices without syncing. iTunes Match may not replace the convenience, or low cost of tethered syncing, but geeks love it for the upgrade in quality it gives their music.

iCloud is more ambitious than services like Dropbox that rely on comparing files in the filesystem to synchronize data. With iCloud, Apple wants to replace the filesystem with a single destination for user’s data that can be accessed from anywhere in the world. For iCloud to be successful more developers need to take advantage of its services. Apple is doing everything they can to make iCloud popular by releasing it as a free service, but developers are proceeding with the same caution they used to support iCloud’s inconsistent predecessor MobileMe. Only time will tell if iCloud can overcome developers fears and become the future of data storage, or another just entry in Apple’s long list of online failures.

iPhone 4S

The iPhone 4S was unveiled by Phil Schiller on October 4th just one day before Steve’s death.

Apple today announced iPhone 4S, the most amazing iPhone yet, packed with incredible new features including Apple’s dual-core A5 chip for blazing fast performance and stunning graphics; an all new camera with advanced optics; full 1080p HD resolution video recording; and Siri, an intelligent assistant that helps you get things done just by asking.

At the time of its announcement many people on the internet were expecting the new iPhone 5 case design they saw on rumor sites. When the rumors failed to materialize these same people felt disappointment regardless of the new iPhone’s dual-core A5 processor, advanced optics, or intelligent voice enabled assistant Siri. The disappointment didn’t stop the iPhone 4S from selling over one million pre-orders in the first 24 hours, or over 4 million units during the first weekend. The success surrounding the iPhone 4S shows that Apple no longer needs to impress people with flashy new form factors to sell products. Gone are the days of the candy colored iMac. Apple’s new approach is a timeless elegance that does not need to be updated every year. Not a single Apple hardware product saw a significant redesign this year, and yet Apple still showed record profits. Today’s Apple relies less on being seen, and more on being heard.

One way Apple is being heard is with Siri. Siri is the new voice enabled digital assistant that ships with the iPhone 4S. It listens to a user’s natural language and performs simple tasks based upon their instructions. Siri was released in beta, a rare move for Apple, because it needs to learn from a large sample size of users speech patterns. As Siri improves and changes the way we control our computers it might prove to be the most important advancement in 2011. The introduction of the mouse changed personal computing in 1984, The scroll wheel change portable music in 2001, and multitouch changed the mobile phone in 2007. What will Siri change in 2012?

The Mac App Store, Thunderbolt, iPad 2, Xcode 4, Final Cut Pro X, Lion, Apple’s New Campus, Steve Job’s Life, iOS 5, iCloud, and the iPhone 4S all helped make 2011 Apple’s greatest year. And even though we will probably not see the record number of amazing advancements in 2012 I am still looking forward to it just the same.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. — Steve Jobs (August 24, 2011)

I have had a Mac.com email address ever since I had a Mac that could send email. iTools, the predecessor of .Mac and MobileMe, has been part of my online identity since the summer of 2001. I remember when the only way to access my iTools’ IMAP email was through Outlook Express. When sending files to iDisk’s 5MBs of storage required AppleShare. When one of the perks of owning a Mac was the ability to send tasteful electronic greeting cards with Apple’s branding all over them. Before 2002 Apple’s online offerings were less about features and more about exclusivity. iTools was free, but only if you owned a Mac.

iTools was replaced with .Mac in the summer of 2002. Suddenly my mac.com email address cost something, my online storage size got a little larger, and my iCard electronic greeting cards? Well they stayed the same.

I started paying for .Mac because I saw the value in developing the online identity I started under iTools. Additional services like Apple’s miserable Backup application, and McAfee’s unwarranted virus protection never enticed me. .Mac’s early appeal was always its email address, and how it set me apart from the subscribers of Hotmail, Yahoo!, Comcast, and Earthlink. On the Internet your email address is your identity. It is the one account that connects you with all of the services the web has to offer. You can’t experience most of the web’s opportunities unless you have an email address. By purchasing my .Mac email address I was securing my online presence in a way only a professional email address could provide.

Over the next few years .Mac’s value would grow to include services like webmail, dynamic DNS, and the ability to sync data between Apple’s computers. In 2008 .Mac was replaced with MobileMe and iCards were a thing of the past. In their place were online galleries, 20GBs of storage, and the ability to sync email, contacts, calendars to an iPhone without a corporate Exchange account. I continued to pay for Apple’s online service for the freedom it provided. Instead of being tied to a business account, or a Internet service provider’s email address I could take my MobileMe email, contacts, calendars, and storage with me wherever I went.

Apple’s online services have always faced more affordable competition. From Microsoft’s free Hotmail to Google’s powerful web applications, MobileMe has never been considered inexpensive, or feature-rich. But if you lived inside Apple’s ecosystem and used all of the services MobileMe provided, the $69 discounted annual fee was not unreasonable. The difference between MobileMe and the competition is the respect Apple gives paying customers.

Google recently lost one of its best customers for undisclosed reasons. They canceled his account without telling him why. Google took 7 years of correspondence, over 4,800 photographs and videos, his Google Voice phone number and voicemail, all of his saved reading lists, bookmarks, contacts calendars, and more. He lost his online identity. He lost his blog. He lost his ability to be contacted by the outside world during a time that he needed his established methods of communication most.

Until you pay for your Google, you are not its customer, and even then Google’s primary responsibility is to its advertisers who spend millions of more dollars than you do. When you trust your online identity to free services like Google, you are trusting Google to make the right choices for its customers the advertisers. I would rather pay Apple, a company that makes products and services for people like me, then base my online identity on the profitability of ads.

Today MobileMe is now iCloud, and is free to all of Apple’s customers. As long as Apple is putting its customers first, I will continue to trust iCloud with my online identity. Apple is positioning iCloud as a feature that comes with Apple hardware. The price of new Macs, iPhones and iPads, will secure iCloud’s future. Nothing is certain in web services, but as long as iCloud remains part of the purchase price of Apple products, I can rest assured my online identity is safe.

With the unveiling of Lion just days away it is easy to look back at past releases of Mac OS and see how we arrived at Apple’s latest system software. Over the last 27 years Apple has introduced more than 17 major releases of its premier desktop operating system. Some releases such as System 7, and Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger brought revolutionary changes to the Mac while making the transition between hardware architectures. Evolutionary releases like System 6, and Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard consolidated features while improving stability. The entire history of Mac OS says more about Apple than any other product, and it is the best of Mac OS that says the most about Apple’s future.

When considering the best version of Mac OS you must compare releases that offered the greatest number of new features against versions that clocked the longest up time. You must reference the classic system software of yesterday’s Macintosh against the latest breaking developments in Mac OS X. Your answer might be swayed by the first version you ever used, or the operating system that shipped with your first Mac. The best Mac OS is as much a personal question as it is a technical comparison. There is no right choice and it is often our own experiences and requirements that dictate our answer.

It is popular to assume that the latest technology is always the greatest, and this is often true for operating systems where the most recent versions have the most features. But features alone do not make great operating systems, and all Macs cannot run the latest OS. So instead of picking the most stable Mac OS with the most features I choose four versions that span the entire Macintosh product line and provide the best user experience Apple has to offer.

System 6

System 6 was the first widely available Macintosh operating system to be given a unified “Macintosh System Software” version number. From System 6 forward, the Finder would have a version number closely matching that of the System, alleviating much of the confusion caused by the often considerable differences found on earlier Systems.

System 6 oversaw the introduction of the Motorola 68030 processor, the 1.44 MB SuperDrive, and the legendary Macintosh SE30. Later, it would include support for the first specialized laptop features with the introduction of the Macintosh Portable. System 6’s most remarkable feature was cooperative multitasking by way of a optional system extension called MultiFinder.

Multifinder gave each application CPU time, it provided a way for windows from different applications to co-exist by using an application layering model. When an application was activated, all of its windows were brought forward as a single layer. This approach was necessary for backward compatibility, but MultiFinder combined with System 6’s limited 24 bits of addressable RAM introduced many of the memory management problems that would plague Mac OS until the introduction of Mac OS X.

Despite the memory management issues it introduced, System 6 is a favorite among 68k Mac fans for its small memory footprint, and minimalist appeal. It installs from two floppies, uses 600k of RAM, and doesn’t require an additional hard disk. 6.0.8. the final version of System 6 not only consolidated the existing Macintosh System Software, but incorporated important features from System 7 like TrueType fonts, andQuicktime. With MultiFinder turned off System 6 was easily the most stable operating system for classic Macintosh and became a important comparison against the instabilities of System 7.

Mac OS 8

Codename Tempo, Mac OS 8.0 began life as Mac OS 7.7 but was renumbered 8 to exploit a legal loophole shutting down the Macintosh clone market. Mac OS 8 saw the introduction of many new features such as a customizable appearance, contextual menus, pop-up windows, spring-loaded folders, live scrolling, WindowShade, a multithreaded Finder, and desktop pictures. Despite all of these significant usability advances, Mac OS 8’s most important improvements came in later point releases.

Mac OS 8.1 introduced a new file system known as HFS+, which supported large file sizes and made more efficient use of larger hard drives by using a smaller block size. Mac OS 8.5 focused on speed and stability by eliminating 68k support, and requiring a PowerPC processor. Mac OS 8.6 added a new nanokernel making it the most stable classic Mac OS for PowerPC machines.

Mac OS 8 oversaw the introduction of the G3, the iMac, the iBook, and the Power Mac G4. It added a number of features from the abandoned en.wikipedia.orgwikiCopland_(operating_system text: Copland) project, and kept Mac OS moving forward during a difficult time for Apple. Mac OS 9 might be commonly remembered as the last classic Mac OS, but it was a transitional release that traded stability for features and Mac OS X compatibility. Mac OS 8 was the Mac OS that saved Apple.

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger

I had a tough time picking a best Mac OS between Jaguar, Panther, and Tiger. Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar brought Mac OS X’s feature-set up to par with Mac OS 9 making Mac OS X usable for a wider audience. Mac OS X 10.3 Panther improved upon Jaguar with faster speeds, while retaining Jaguar’s minimal system requirements. Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger ushered in a new era for Mac OS X by implementing exciting new features, and moving the Mac from PowerPC to Intel based processors. If Tiger wasn’t also the best Mac OS for modern PowerPC Macs I would have a hard time recommending it. I am weary of OS upgrades that try to do too much, and the transition from PowerPC to Intel would have been a monumental leap for most OSes, but Tiger pulled it off with ease. I will always have a soft spot for Panther, the last Mac OS before Apple’s popularity exploded, but Tiger is the undisputed favorite on Twitter.

Tiger removed support for the original iMac and iBook, and required 256MBs of RAM, twice the memory as previous versions of Mac OS X. All other system requirements were the same, although to take full advantage of Core Image a graphics card with 64 MBs of video RAM was required. Tiger didn’t ask a lot from its users but it gave a lot in return.

Automator, Grapher, Dictionary, Quartz Composer, AU Lab, and Dashboard were all brand new applications introduced in Tiger. iChat AV, Safari, Mail, and Quicktime all saw significant updates. With Tiger scripting became easier, graphics transitions and effects were more fluid, real-time audio processing was possible. Definitions, weather, stock market information, flight tracking, and built-in RSS were available at the push of a button. Spotlight, Tiger’s new contextual search engine, brought the contents of your hard drive to the forefront with only a few simple keystrokes. And Quicktime 7 combined with H.264 and iChat AV made video conferencing available for the rest of us.

Almost all of these features were made possible by architecture changes first implemented in Tiger. A 64-bit aware kernel allowed for more memory to be available for individual processes running on a Mac with a 64-bit processor. Launchd modernized Mac OS X’s Unix underpinning and allowed for faster startup. Core Image, Core Video, and Core Audio made all of Tiger’s whiz-bang graphical and audio effects possible, while Core Data made it easier for developers to handle structured data in their applications.

On top of all these new applications and technologies Tiger made the transition from PowerPC to Intel in less than 30 months. It took System 7 almost 7 years to make the switch from 68k to PowerPC. It comes at no surprise that Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger is one of the best selling versions of Mac OS X to date, and one of the best versions of Mac OS ever.

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

Snow Leopard is my favorite version of Mac OS X not because of the features it added, but because of the ones it took away. Snow Leopard only runs on Macs with Intel processors. It was the first Mac OS release since System 7.1.1 that does not support the PowerPC architecture (although PowerPC applications are supported via Rosetta , an optional install. Shedding all of those Universal Binaries), and adopting an advanced application compression scheme means Snow Leopard saves 6 GBs of disk space over its predecessor 10.5.

Among Snow Leopard’s select new features are a updated Finder rewritten in Cocoa. A new version of Safari that includes a 50{493f798df480ad5a2796e65210fbf6e65215ebdcc2070f4d9b100f3865a5d00d} increase in JavaScript performance, and support for Microsoft Exchange in Mail, iCal, and Address Book. Under the hood Snow Leopard is the first Mac OS to ship with a 64-bit kernel that can take advantage of greater amounts of memory. QuickTime was completely rewritten to take advantage of audio video codecs in 64-bit, and Grand Central Dispatch was invented to ease the development of applications with multi-core support.

Visually 10.6 Snow Leopard is not much different from 10.5 Leopard. The operating systems looks and acts the same, but in addition to PowerPC support some features have been removed. AppleTalk, Creator Codes, and Classic HFS write access are the most glaring omissions for long time Mac users, but I wouldn’t have Snow Leopard any other way. By making the tough choices and trading features for stability, Snow Leopard is more than a best of breed operating system it is the foundation for the future of Mac OS.

Lion is right around the corner. Built from the best of Mac OS it combines the stability and refinement of Snow Leopard with the usability innovations first seen on the iPhone. It has yet to be determined if the multitouch gestures and full screen apps will be a success on the desktop, and if Lion will be one of the best of Mac OS. All that is certain is that Apple is not standing still, and Lion for better or worse is the future of Mac OS. Let’s hope it will be a good one.

Apple released four distinct Newton form factors containing eight different models between August 1993 and February 1998. Each form factor was an evolutionary step forward for the platform, and introduced design considerations and features that were different from past and subsequent models. Choosing a Newton requires understanding each models benefits and weaknesses and applying that knowledge towards selecting the Newton that best meets your needs.

Original MessagePad & 100

The OMP was unveiled and released on August 3, 1993 at MacWorld Boston. It’s release was somewhat premature and it is referred to by some of the Newton faithful as the ‘grand public beta test’.

Despite having similar technical specifications as later Newtons the OMP is limited to the kind of personal information management we attribute to yesterday’s PDAs or today’s most rudimentary mobile phones. Names, Dates, To Dos, Notes, and the ability to send simple faxes and emails are the OMP’s killer features, but its premature software and inadequate cursive handwriting recognizer Calligrapher, limit its usefulness as a MessagePad.

Unfortunately Calligrapher the word-based handwriting recognition engine in the Newton which was developed by the Soviet programmers at Paragraph International Inc. got more attention for what it couldn’t do than what it could.

Being a word based recognizer Calligrapher can only decipher words that are in its dictionary and even then it has to be trained for several weeks before it gets proficient. Using an Original MessagePad for taking notes often requires adding unknown words to the dictionary and rewriting them several times before the OMP can decipher them correctly. Things got better one year later with the release of the MessagePad 100 which added individual character recognition, but both MessagePads are limited by their early system software that can’t ran many later Newton applications.

The golden screen color, graceful curves, and soft touch casing of the Original MessagePads make these two models some of the most attractive Newtons ever made. But real work on a MessagePad requires real character recognition, and these original MessagePads just don’t offer the versatility or the recognition to make them anything more than collector’s items.

MessagePad 110, 120 & 130

In March of 1994, at the same time the MessagePad 100 was released, Apple updated the Newton form factor with the introduction of a new model. The MessagePad 110 allows for improved portability over the Original MessagePad by offering a slightly smaller display and flip over screen protector that resembles the front cover on a reporter’s notepad. The stylus was redesigned into a more familiar round shape, and internalizing the holster started a trend that made all subsequent MessagePads thinner and more comfortable to hold. The 110 shipped with the same limited Newton OS 1.3 software as the MessagePad 100.

Although all second generation MessagePads look identical, they were produced during a transition period in Apple’s Newton platform and have different specifications. The first models like the MessagePad 110 and the initial release of the MessagePad 120 shipped with the same 1.3 software that makes the Original MessagePads unsuitable for daily use, but later models like the second revision of the 120 and MessagePad 130 shipped with Newton OS 2.0 and its new printed handwriting recognizer Rosetta.

The printed recognizer in OS 2.0 was flawless and required no dictionary or learning period. It worked with familiar and strange handwriting styles alike. It only required separated printed characters to analyze. Even today, its recognition system is unmatched in the computing industry.

Other additions that made it into OS 2.0 include Ink Text, the ability to write and format natural unrecognized handwriting. A text expand feature that allows predetermined shortcuts to be automatically expanded into full length text. The ability to rotate the display into a landscape orientation, and compatibility with external keyboards. Even the the most basic applications like Notes gained custom stationary, and Names gained user defined fields. So many improvements came with Newton OS 2 that I can’t recommend choosing a Newton without it.

The MessagePad 130 is my recommendation for a Newton from this generation. Not only does it sport the comfortable form factor of the 110 and 120, but it is guaranteed to ship with Newton OS 2.0, an extra 512k worth of memory, and over 78,000 new words in its Calligrapher dictionary. It may not have the soft touch casing of the Original MessagePads, but it does have a textured screen with a backlight that is more pleasurable to write on, even in the dark.

MessagePad 2000 & 2100

The MessagePad 130 was just a taste of things to come. The introduction of the MessagePad 2000 brought a true revolution to the MessagePad hardware.

The 20002100 series has an ECL backlit screen like the MP130 but with twice the number of pixels (480 x 320 vs. previous model’s 320 x 240) in a 20{493f798df480ad5a2796e65210fbf6e65215ebdcc2070f4d9b100f3865a5d00d} increase in screen dimensions resulting in a high resolution display (100 dpi vs. 85 dpi). It also propelled the newton from being just black and white pixels to 16 level grey scale pixels.

Starting with the MessagePad 2000 the Newton was no longer just a personal information management device with messaging capabilities. It could now perform basic multimedia tasks including displaying greyscale photography, and playing music over its internal speaker. Of course all of these additional capabilities require a large improvement in performance, and the MessagePad 2000 got it with a 162MHz StrongARM 110 RISC chip that puts out 150 MIPS (@400 MIPSwatt).

The previous Newtons all had 20MHz ARM RISC chips that ran at 15 MIPS (110 th the speed) and 100 MIPSwatt thus using 4 times as much power. The net result of the StrongARM chip is an unbelievable ten fold increase in speed with 14 the power usage.

In addition to the high-res greyscale screen, the multimedia capabilities, and 10x improvement in performance the MessagePad 2000 offers twice as much memory as the 130, and the MessagePad 2100 offers almost twice as much memory as the 2000.

Although both MessagePads shipped with Newton OS 2.1 and greatly improved performance, a 2100 or upgraded 2000 is the Newton to get if you want to experience the most of what the platform has to offer. The additional memory is practically a requirement for web browsing and multitasking, and because these were the last MessagePads released they have the hardware specifications required to experience the entire back catalog of Newton software.

eMate 300

The eMate 300 is Apple’s first and only non-MessagePad Newton with a built-in keyboard. The eMate 300 was designed to take the rugged lifestyle of a K-12 education. For example the eMate’s keyboard has no circuitry hidden underneath to avoid damage from liquid spills, and its protective casing is designed to withstand drops from a student’s hands. If the screen or keyboard is damaged, both are designed for easy removal and replacement.

The screen on the eMate 300 has the same number of pixels but is slightly larger than the MessagePad 2000. And its built-in keyboard adds a row of function keys along the top which replace the button bar and provide one-touch access to built-in applications and common commands such as Close and Backlight OnOff.

The eMate 300 makes a great first computer for a child, but its underpowered 25MHz processor and traditional clamshell design offer few benefits over an older model laptop.

My Choice

My first Newton was a MessagePad 130 and I fell in love with its ease of use, character recognition, and slender form factor. In my opinion no other Newton is better for quick, portable note taking. Later models such as the 2100 are far more versatile, but their features pale considerably when compared to modern devices like the iPad. If you are looking for a first Newton that will do everything the platform has to offer get a 2100. But if you are looking for the optimal MessagePad to do what a Newton does best Note taking, a MessagePad 130 is the smallest device you will find with real handwriting recognition.

A Newton MessagePad, the grandfather of all PDAs, is a funny thing to carry around with you when most people are sliding super slim, constantly connected, application-rich smartphones into their pockets. Compared to the iPhone a Newton MessagePad looks like a green brick, and I have been accused more than once of stealing the rubberized signature pad from a UPS delivery man. Despite what my Newton lacks in portability, connectivity, and applications it makes up for with a unique set of features no other mobile computer can match.

Battery Life

MessagePads have a battery life that can be measured in weeks and not days. While most modern smartphones struggle to make it through a twenty four hour period, my Newton keeps on ticking due to an energy conscious design that continues to impress more than ten years later. Best of all, when my Newton runs out of juice a simple AA battery swap will get it back on task while a modern smartphone must wait three to four hours before going back to work. Sure my Newton might not be able to do as much as a smartphone in the same amount of time, but when it comes to writing and note taking my Newton’s closest competitor is the longevity of a pad of paper — not your smartphone.

Handwriting Recognition

Randy Murray makes the argument that In Meetings, Pen & Paper, Not Glass and Fingers help him connect with his clients and keep technology from getting in the way. He points to the iPad as being a distraction while taking notes, and I agree it must be hard to concentrate on your client when your eyes are focused on a virtual keyboard. The Newton alleviates that problem by recognizing your handwriting, and letting you take notes in the time honored fashion we all grew up with.

Want to start a new note? Just draw a horizontal line across the page. Add bullet items and hierarchy to your thoughts the same way you would on paper. Because you are concentrating on the speaker and not your Newton note taking comes naturally. And because your Newton is a computer those notes, bullets, and hierarchy can be reorganized as many times as you like without crossing out lines or throwing away paper.

Searching through your Newton is far easier than searching through a Moleskine. And when you are done no transcription necessary. Just print, email, fax, or sync your notes back to your computer. Show your client what you captured from the meeting before leaving the room. A Newton allows you to preserve the natural habits of note taking, without the adapting to technology, or the transcription required for traditional handwriting.

Document Centric Workflow

When you turn on a smartphone you are presented with a grid of applications that represent tasks your phone can do. When you turn on a Newton you are presented with your content. On a Newton their is no workflow to follow to get back to your writing because you are already there. There is no file system past a simple index. No open or save dialog boxes because what you write and read is always in front of you. A pad of paper never gets in your way because there is nothing between you and the content. In this respect a Newton is the same as a pad of paper.

Share Everything

If you have ever created something on an iOS device you know your data is stored in the app you created it in. You know how to access it by tapping on the app, but do you know how to get it out and share it with other applications or the rest of the world? On the iPhone sharing your creations is different for every single application. Not onl the methods of sharing, but the process of sharing as well. On the Newton everything is sharable, and shared in the same way. You can fax, email, beam, and print anything from the routing button. As new methods of sharing are installed they too are added to the routing button. Because the process is the same for any type of data you create, sharing on the Newton is almost as easy as ripping a page from your notepad and handing it across the table — and the best part is you get to keep the original.

Expandability

The only reason the Newton is still with us today is because it has managed to keep up with the times. Introduced before the popularity of the World Wide Web, the Newton community has developed both a web browser and and an email client for its users. No small feat for a device that was designed without the ability to network past infrared beaming and analog faxing. Later MessagePads have even gained the ability to print via IP, connect to Wifi hotspots, beam using Bluetooth, and in limited cases communicate through cellular modems. These achievements might sound like old news compared to modern smartphones, but the real message behind a Newton’s expandability is the community that brought it this far.

Community

The Newton is a great note taking device with a long lasting battery life, that puts your content first and allows you to share it with the world. Those features alone might sell you on the platform, but the Newton is no wonder device. It is over ten years old, and far past its prime. The reason I still carry a Newton is because of the community that makes the Newton great. NewtonTalk is a mailing list of passionate users that embrace a Newton’s philosophy of putting your data first while expanding the platforms capabilities for another generation of users to discover and enjoy.

If it wasn’t for the Newton’s community I would never have found the Newton in the first place. I still carry my Newton not only for what a Newton does for me, but what I can do for the community of Newton users that embrace technology in the same way I do. Egg Freckles is my way of celebrating the Newton’s unique capabilities, and the community of users that are responsible for pushing the Newton forward.

iTunes can tell you a lot about a song. It can tell you the title, the artist, the album, and the genre. It can tell you the year a song was released and when it was added to your iTunes library. iTunes can even tell you the bit rate of a recording, and how many times you have played or skipped a particular track. What iTunes can’t tell you is what a particular song is worth to you. iTunes can not place value on your music, and provides only clues when it comes to deciding which songs get synced to your iPod. Unless you are happy auto-filling your iPod randomly it is time to give your music value.

Enter Ratings

iTunes 3 gave us ratings. A chance to evaluate our music with a six point scale. To most people the idea of rating all of their music sounds tedious, and if you have several thousand songs it is certainly more of a chore than auto-filling your iPod. But the rewards are real. By telling iTunes how you value a song you can have it make smarter decisions about syncing your music. For instance you could have iTunes only fill your iPod with songs rated four or five stars. Or you could choose your top rated songs from a particular genre, or artist. Rating your music teaches iTunes its value, and the process of awarding stars becomes simpler when you look at the clues iTunes provides.

★★★★★

Let’s start with the easiest rating five stars, the best of the best. Finding your favorite tracks should be simple, but give iTunes the chance to help out by displaying the music you listen to most. Under the View menu while in iTunes choose the View Options command and make sure Ratings and Plays are both checked. Next click the header of your newly established Plays column to display the songs most played in your iTunes Library. If these aren’t your favorite songs you must have an ear for punishment. Finish by visiting your favorite artists and albums and rating the five star songs iTunes might have missed.

★★★★☆

Four star songs are still songs I would choose to listen to. Songs I would play at my party. Songs I would keep on my iPod. They may not be the best in my collection, but not every song can be my absolute favorite. Often these songs can be found within albums containing five star rated songs and within the works of your favorite artists. I try to keep my four and five star rated music within the capacity of my iPod. Rating too much music four stars only means you need to buy a bigger iPod.

★★★☆☆

Three star music is filler. The songs that sit between the four and five star tracks completing the album. On their own they might sound good, but you won’t ever go to them by name. It takes a decision to determine the difference between a three star track and a four star song. The three star rating is the divide between what goes on my iPod and what stays at home.

★★☆☆☆

A rating of two stars is bestowed on unfavorable music, that although listenable, isn’t something I need to necessarily have in my collection. A rating of two stars or less denotes music I wouldn’t choose for myself, and wouldn’t miss losing.

★☆☆☆☆

A one star rating describes an unenjoyable listening experience. In my collection that includes artist interviews, album intros, and hidden bonus tracks full of noise. One star rated songs would normally be deleted from my computer if they weren’t part of a complete album.

☆☆☆☆☆

All media in iTunes starts off with zero stars. A zero star rating in my iTunes library means a song’s value has yet to be determined, and not that it is without value. If sorting through your iTunes Library turns up a lot of songs with no rating it just means you have a lot of listening to do. Luckily the Potion Factory is here is help with their free utility I Lover Stars. No, it won’t rate your music for you, but while you are sitting in front of your computer listening to music I Love Stars gives you the chance to rate the currently playing song in the Menubar before going onto the next track. Listening to music is the best way to get started rating your collection.

Putting it in a Playlist

My iTunes Library has playlists for all of my star ratings, but the two most important are my 5 Star, and 4 Star Plus smart playlists. My 5 Star smart playlist contains just what you think it does, songs whose rating is five stars, in the playlist of Music. My Four Star Plus smart playlist contains songs that are rated in the range of four to five stars, also in the playlist of Music. Neither playlist has any limits, and both are live updating in anticipation of new music I will rate favorably in the future. With my songs rated and my smart playlists generated the only thing left to do is sync my iPod. By telling iTunes to only sync my Five Star and Four Star Plus playlists to my iPod I am telling iTunes to make a smart choice based on the ratings I have given my music. That is how I sync my iPod.