Happy Birthday, Macintosh

Twenty-five years ago, Apple's Steve Jobs introduced the Macintosh computer. It arrived with an allure of magic in a world where computers were "business machines" that responded only to typing odd text combinations of forward and back slashes, colons, letters and numbers. Before Mac, if someone said they had a mouse on their desk, you'd tell them to call an exterminator. It was the Macintosh that brought the power of point-and-click control out from experimental labs and onto people's desktops. The high resolution images and the text it could display in different fonts were inspiring. Even its all-in-one design -- computer and screen united in one body -- was a marvel.

Here's a link to the Google News roundup of stories about the Mac's 25th anniversary.

Click the image below to reach a Wikipedia account of the Mac's early development.

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iPhone & Leopard

Click image to check out the iPhone tour page.

Later this week, Apple debuts its much anticipated iPhone. An interesting guided tour of how it works is now online...



... and so is this funny satire on YouTube.


As neat as the iPhone is, I'm not sure I'm up for changing carriers just yet. I'm also not sure about spending money that could go towards buying a new desktop computer soon. I'm trying to get more mileage out of the aging hard drive in my iMac, until the next Mac OS X--Leopard--is released this fall.

Click image to see Mac OS X Leopard features.

Leopard itself is promising some great new features and flashy graphics. The one thing I'm not sure I like is the new set of folder icons for music, movies, and other items in Leopard's Home Folder. I've only spotted a glimpse of them, but they strike me as subdued when compared with the eye candy of the new Dock, Cover Flow, and Quick Look.

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Ethics, Security, & A Podcast

Some Random Notes
Of Interest

Pittsburgh's Ethics Hearings Board (video link) meets this week. Here are a few items to bring things up to date since the last post on this topic.

• On February 1st, we aired this story on Channel Four Action News:

"...This afternoon Councilman Bill Peduto announced he's convening a meeting of the board at noon next Friday. Two hours later, Mayor Ravenstahl's office said he's convening an ethics board meeting at four, next Thursday."

"Peduto says he has power as a councilman to call the Ethics Board together. 'Absolutely. because I was the one who worked with Bob O'Connor in order to get the board back and activate it. My predecessor, my former boss Dan Cohen, was the person who wrote the ethics rules for the City of Pittsburgh. it's an issue i've been involved with for 12 years'."

"Mayor Ravenstahl's office says he has the executive power to call the meeting."

"It's not clear if the ethics board will attend both the Thursday and the Friday meetings."


• The next day, an Ethics Board member told me that Peduto had cancelled his attempt to convene the board this coming Friday. Our assignment desk later confirmed this with Peduto's office, which said that more members would be available to attend the meeting on Thursday.




Security?

There's a funny new "'I'm a PC', 'I'm a Mac'" ad. Take a second to check out the latest one here.








Dennis Roddy's latest podcast is his best yet. This edition of his audio journal explores the story of Molly Jean Dilts, who was the subject of his story in Sunday's PG.

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iWish

Apple's New iPhone

Okay, I want one.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs just unveiled the iPhone.

As I posted Monday, I'm a fan of Apple's innovations and this phone is amazing.

No buttons, all touch-screen; it's a video iPod, it's a phone, it's a web browser all built into one. If you use it to look at a web page or picture, you make a pinching gesture on the screen surface to zoom in or out. All of this, plus it promises desktop computer quality access to your e-mail, contacts, and calendar.

But here's something that's huge for Apple: inside, it's got the heart of a Mac. The operating system behind the touch screen interface isn't starting from scratch; it's Mac OS X––the solid system that runs all Apple Macintosh computers.

Here are links to some online animations of the key features. The icons on the upper right of that web page will take you to more.

If you have the time, take a seat and check out this show:

Steve Job's unveiling and demo of the iPhone.

To watch you'll need a high-speed internet connection and Quicktime 7, which a free download for Windows or Mac if you don't have it already.

It would have been hard to imagine something that would upstage the unveiling of this: Apple TV. It's a box that wirelessly connects your TV to your computer and the 'net. That means you can download movies in the den and watch them in the living room. It also wirelessly streams your photo connections and music to your TV, as well as online movie trailers.

Well, enough of my tech fan moment. I’m off to cover the continuation of the McNeilly lawsuit hearing in federal court. Pittsburgh Police Chief Nate Harper is expected to take the stand, and Judge Ambrose could rule on whether to grant or deny a preliminary injunction to Catherine McNeilly before the day is out.

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"I’m a Pasocon." "I’m a Makku."

PC & Mac,
Japanese-Style

You know the 'Get a Mac' TV ads featuring John Hodgeman as a PC and Justin Long as a Mac computer.

It turns out they've been redoing the ads in Japan: different actors, same personalities. I love this video.






I'm an avid Mac user, and I enjoy tracking Apple's innovations the way some people follow sports teams. This could be an interesting week, by the way. Apple's CEO Steve Jobs gives the keynote at the MacWorld Expo on Tuesday. There's talk he may unveil a much-talked about "iTV" which will break new ground in linking your TV to the internet. Other rumors include a new kind of video iPod or even an Apple "iPhone".

This image on Apple's home page doesn't do much to lower expectations, does it?

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