1984 review of the original Mac: "A fever in Silicon Valley that’s hard not to catch."
Larry Magid's 1984 review of the 128k Apple Mac, published in the Los Angeles Times, speaks to the enduring mythology of Apple's products--the quality, the simplicity, the high-priced peripherals--and how it came to be.
Apple’s Macintosh, officially introduced last Tuesday, has started a fever in Silicon Valley that’s hard not to catch. ... [it] is as innovative today as the Apple II was in 1977. It’s one of the few computers introduced in the last 18 months that makes no attempt to imitate the IBM PC....
Like the Lisa, it uses a hand-held “mouse” — a small pointing device which enables the user to select programs, and move data from one part of the screen to another. Also like the Lisa, Macintosh uses a black and white display screen whose resolution is so high that it can quickly draw detailed pictures while at the same time display crisp and readable text.
...
The machine’s inability to run MS-DOS could be its salvation or its downfall.
John Biggs at CrunchGear sums it up well: "You really come to understand why Apple got the reputation for being expensive and weird. The printer cost $495 when similar gear cost maybe $250 on a good day. But remember: this thing had a “mouse” and a “GUI” back when most of us were about ten years old."
Larry Magid’s 1984 LA Times review of 128K Mac [PC Answer via CrunchGear]
Photo: Tom Borowski
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"back when most of us were about ten years old."
...what a peculiar thing to say! I mean, fine, if you're speaking at a high-school reunion or some other event where the demographic spread of the attendees could be assumed as relatively static...but are the readers of CrunchGear so homogenous?
Of course within a few months, a machine at 1/4 the price with twice the memory, GUI, a bigger monitor with the option of color, hard wired MIDI and all the functions of the Mac was put out by Atari.
I pulled my old Mac 128 out of the attic a while back to look at it, and seriously had considered putting it on a shelf in my office. I already have a Thacher's Cylindrical Slide Rule. An interesting pairing of no longer useful yet still fascinating technologies.
#2 True. The Mac was where I parted ways with Apple. As an impoverished 24 year old (a wee bit older than ten), cost was definitely a factor; one had to budget in housing, VW bus maintenance, weed, etc.
#3 I find it strange the compulsion some have, cough, for keeping these things. Still have a Cromenco, a TRS 80, and an Amiga sitting around somewhere. The myriad of PC boxes, not so much.
Personally, I remember the early macs from when I was a kid.. around 10 years old even, and I don't remember being particularly impressed. My cga & ega games were in color, and my monitor was bigger.
I also remember using some kind of HP X Windows workstation at my dad's work.. that was WAY cooler than anything that either microsoft or apple was doing at the same time - and much more representative of how I would be computers years into the future.
@5
You will be computers in the future?
What an odd remark.
Practically the first thing that I did with a 128K Mac (once I stopped drooling) was to make an invitation for a shindig using five different fonts. Good times, baby.
Some of us were 15 days old. :)
Mac user for life, btw. I've had a Plus, IIci, 7100, 7500, and my dual G4 MDD. I've had a PowerBook Duo 230, 540c, Duo 2300c, two 2400s, and two 12" G4s.
I was on the Evangelist mailing list back in the dark days, I subscribed to MacAddict when it first came out (when it was good), I owned a Mac Bible, I've met Andy Ihnatko, and fought in some of the most epic Mac - PC wars that usenet ever saw.
"The Mac, which retails for $2,495..."
Which is, according to the Inflation Calculator, $4191.02 in 2007 dollars. Who bought this thing?
It's kind of funny how ubiquitous old macs are, so much so in fact that I asked myself why there was a picture of books is doing attached to a story about the first Macintosh reviews.
And while I was forced to use one of these little buggers in school every day, I relished when it time to go home and play games in color on my IBM or Commodore.
should be: how I would be *using* computers into the future.
I kinda fact checked myself though too - I doubt the unix workstation I used was in 84, probably more like 86.
I was a sophomore in college and one of my fraternity brothers had one so we used it quite a bit. Remembering trying to use the mac's speech to order a pizza (*almost* worked ;) and doing frame grabs with a digital camera (yes, 1984). I think I finally tossed out the old Imagewriter's output from that too.
My first one was the 512kE+Imagewriter II.
I feel old!
"...ten years old."
Hmph. Speak for yourself.
/eight
The cool thing about the Image Writer II was that you could get an 8 color ribbon and you could actually do some really cool stuff with that thing.
Not improving your user interface for 25 years ("mouse" and "GUI") is not something to brag about. It just shows that Jobs is a marketing genius, but not a technological one. He had a few good ideas and has milked them for decades.
I am one of your readers that was 27 years old in 1984. I started using the internet in 1988. I played with a NeXT computer in 1990 that looks almost exactly like what Apple makes today. I thought Apple was supposed to be so innovative? The main thing they've been innovative at is convincing your parents, and now you, ;-) to buy their "high-priced peripherals".
If you own an iPod instead of a non-DRM clone that costs half as much, you've just joined the latest generation of Jobs' "victims". Enjoy! ;-)