AppleAppleI have never owned an Apple computer till now. I have tested an iMac
in a shop and think it is very powerful despite the design of the "box"
I could never get used to. I am sure that this is still one of the best
solutions for schools and to create newspapers with. I am surprised that
the mouse of an Apple still only has a single button but this might be
a matter of taste. The design with the new glassy look is really
lovely I think.
I have tested once a famous but not free Apple ][ emulator called executor.
It runs under DOS, Windows and Linux. The shareware version runs without
restrictions for a certain time (20 minutes os so) and exits after that
time. It is worth to look at!
Steven Wozniak and Steven Jobs had been friends till high school.
Both of them had been interested in electronics and known as outsiders.
After high school, they worked in companies like Hewlett Packard and Atari.
In 1975 they constructed their own computer in Job's garage. It looked
like a typewriter in a case of wood with a LED display. They called it
Apple I.
Because of the rising inquiry, they found the Apple company in 1976.
After a unsuccessful try to lead their Apple to mass production Jobs decided
to turn to one of the best advertising agency in america, Regis MacKenna.
MacKenna invented the well known Apple logo as a replacement of the
oldone.
With Mike Markula, the new investor, they found the new company called
Apple Computer Inc. in 1977. The success of Apple lead to a great company
(several1000 employee in 1980) and the apple computers became a new home
computer standard. After an aeroplane crash in 1981, Steven Wozniak got
an injury and took a lieve for the moment.
In 1983, Jobs began to court John Sculley, then the president of Pepsi-Cola
and Sculley became president and CEO of Apple. Jobs decided to introduce
a 16 bit computer with a graphical desktop into the market and in 1984,
he successfully managed to sell the first Macintosh, invented by
Jeff Raskin, the developer. This computer was perfectly made for the desktop
publishers because of the ability to integrate graphics and text
into a single program.
Around the beginning of 1985, Jobs and Sculley began to argue and after
a disaster Jobs resigned leaving Sculley as the head of Apple. At this
time, Sculley became locked in a battle with Microsoft over the introduction
of Windows 1.0 which had many similarities to the Mac GUI.
In 1987 apple celebrated again a big success in selling the Mac II.
It seemed that Windows would be a flop but it did not! By 1990 the market
was saturated with PC clones and Apple was the only company selling Macs.
Microsoft introduced also Windows 3.0 at that time and Applewas in trouble.
In 1993 the Apple Board of Directors relieved of his position as CEO,
putting Spindler on his position. But spindler was the wrong man for the
job. Nevertheless he managed to license the Mac OS to several companies.
In 1995 Microsoft introduced Windows 95, which mimicked the Mac GUI
better than ever. In the late 1996, Apple made the anouncement that Steven
Jobs would be returning and became "interim CEO". Jobs found out that Apple
could not profit of the Clone vendors and pulled out its plug. He announced
that Apple would now sell computers direct, both over the web and the phone
as Power Computing has done so well in the past. The Apple Store was a
great succes!
Although he gets paid only 1$.00 a year, Steven Jobs remain at the
helm of Apple Computer Inc., and has kept the "iCEO" title because
"it sounds cool."
The Apple I was Steven Wozniaks first trial in 1976 to create a homecomputer. The development took years. Steve Jobs though that this computer could be sold and they introduced it at the homebrew computer club in Paolo Alto.
In 1977, the Apple II was introduced at about the same time with the commodore PET and were the first homecomputers together with the TRS-80 from Tandy Radio Shack. The Apple II based on the Apple I but it had many improvements like a beige plastic case and the capability to connect it to a TV (16 colours).
The Apple II plus was introduced in 1978. Basically it could be compared with his older brother but it was equipped with the floating point Basic from Microsoft and 48kB RAM.
The Apple IIc is the compact version of the Apple IIe and was quite handy. It is shipped with a green monochrome monitor.
(1980) This was the first trial to establish a computer for offices and the first computer wich was not developed by Steven Wozniak. It was equipped quite well with the possibility to plug in a Z80 softcard to run CP/M but it was just too expensive! ($4000-$8000)
This computer was introduced in 1983 and produced till 1993! Despite the Apple DOS, they hand over the new ProDOS as well
