A documentary of the first Apple Macintosh and the Mac team at Apple. Includes quotes from Steve Jobs.
Category Archives: Apple History TV
Steve Jobs: Good artists copy great artists steal
In the context of the patent fight between Apple an HTC Gizmodo dragged out our YouTube clip from the 1996 PBS documentary “Triumph of the Nerds” in which Jobs quotes Picasso’s “good artists copy, great artists steal” and adds, about Apple: “We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.”
History of the Apple Ads (1978 – 2008)
Apple Campaign "Get a Mac"
2006
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2007
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2008
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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHO3eWlmWNc
Tree Trimming – A holiday animated Get a Mac commercial. Mac and PC set aside their disagreements and decide to trim a Christmas tree by hanging ornaments and stringing lights. Mac tells PC that they are good friends while PC gets nervous. When they are finished, PC does not want to light the lights on the tree. Mac persuades him to do so. PC plugs the trees lights in and they light up and say: “PC RULES”. He apologies to Mac and says that it just sort of happened. The animation is like the Get a Mac Santa Claus ad in Rankin/Bass clay animation style.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J0JVU3bpDE
I Can Do Anything – A holiday animated Get a Mac commercial. PC asks Mac why he loves the holidays so much. Mac says it is the season for Peace on Earth. PC says that they get to be animated and they can do anything. PC demonstrates by floating in the air, building a snowman in fast motion, and talking to animals. PC asks a bunny hopping by where he is going. The bunny replies by saying he’s going to the Apple Store for some last minute gifts. PC then purposely tips the snowman’s head off making it fall on the bunny and apologies. The animation is like the Get a Mac Santa Claus ad in Rankin/Bass clay animation style.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9QAkW12DZY
Time Traveler—PC uses a time machine to travel to the year 2150 to see if any major issues (such as freezing and crashing) have been removed from the PC and to see if PCs are as hassle-free as Macs. Promptly after PC arrives at 2150, future PC literally freezes, which answers the question.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0VvbpJR-Y0
Stacks—PC is searching through all of his pictures, trying to find a photograph of his friend. He searches one picture at a time, but Mac states that iPhoto has a feature called Faces, in which you tag the face of a person and iPhoto finds other pictures of the same person, putting them all into the same folder and saving search time. PC responds to the facial-recognition technology as expensive and tells Mac to sort the pictures instead because he has the technology to make it easier.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR487qnNKCk
Legal Copy—Every time PC says something positive about himself, the legal copy that appears on the screen increases. He finally states that PCs are now 100% trouble-free, and the legal copy covers the whole screen.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWaagCttaPo
Biohazard Suit—PC first appears wearing a biohazard suit to protect himself from PC viruses and malware, of which PC says there are 20,000 discovered every day. Mac asks PC if he is going to live in the suit for the rest of his life, and PC cannot hear him because he is too protected by his virus-proof mask, and takes it off. PC then shrieks and struggles to place it on again.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afa9C98gZ7w
Elimination—PC attempts to find Megan, a new laptop hunter, the perfect PC. Unfortunately, no PCs are ‘immune’ to viruses, which is Megan’s #1 concern, so PC leaves her with Mac.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6SCc6A6Kck
PC Choice Chat—PC has his own radio talk show called PC Choice Chat, and people begin to call in asking for advice on which computer to get. All the callers ask for advice on a computer that would qualify as a Mac but not a PC, as one caller asks for a computer that is for people who hate getting viruses. One other caller asks for PC help like Mac genius, and another wants to switch to Mac. PC ignores these calls.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Y0Arp-MYI
Customer Care—Mac is seen again with an Apple Genius, a real-life person who can help you with your Mac problems. PC then has a short montage of endless automated customer-support messages, never reaching a real person, which is not to PC’s liking, and he then says that his source of help is ‘the same’ as Mac Genius.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM649iQ0ass
Surprise—Mac appears alongside a customer (Andree Vermeulen), with PC notably absent. The customer says she’s looking to buy a great computer. Mac tries to convince her that she should get a PC, telling her that they’re much better and more stable. The customer seems skeptical, tells Mac she’ll “think about it”, and leaves. A frustrated Mac pulls off a mask and his clothes, revealing himself to be PC in disguise. The real Mac then appears, sees PC’s discarded mask and clothes, and says “I don’t even wanna ask.”
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkrdy1p9BYI
Top of the Line—PC and Mac appear with a customer who’s looking for a new computer. PC introduces her to the “top of the line” PC (Patrick Warburton), a handsome and overly slick PC in a suit. She asks him about screen size and speed, to which Top of the Line says he’s the best, but he then balks when she says she doesn’t want to deal with any viruses or hassle. She decides to go with Mac, so Top of the Line hands her his business card and tells her to give him a call “when she’s ready to compromise.”
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh1O0piBDm0
Trainer—The commercial starts off traditionally, but PC is doing sit-ups with a trainer in a striped shirt (Robert Loggia), saying fierce things to make PC improved. PC suggests the trainer try some ‘positive reinforcement’, and is a little angry and shocked when the trainer compliments Mac instead.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUZqANYD7zY
PC Innovations Lab—PC, who has wrapped another PC in Bubble Wrap, is saying that the Bubble Wrap is actually a security shield. Mac tries to speak, but PC cuts him off, showing another PC who apparently has cupholders on his shoulders. The cupholders are full of foam coffee cups, and PC takes a full coffee cup, pretending to toast the cup and saying, “Cheers to innovation”.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYWmDag3ruM
Broken Promises—PC tells Mac how excited he is about the launch of Windows 7 and assures him it won’t have the same problems as Vista. However, Mac feels like he heard this before, and has a series of flashbacks about PC assuring Mac about Windows Vista, XP, Me, 98, 95, and 2.0. On the last flashback, he says “Trust me.” Back in the present, he says this time it’s going to be different, then says “Trust me.” in an almost identical way to the flashback.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XosJw6bEzzY
Teeter Tottering—A woman who had a PC has a box of things that were in her PC and says she’s switching to Mac, but PC tries to convince her to stay while she just goes over to Mac every time.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiU1Gu14xG0
PC News—PC is sitting at a news desk and turns it over to a correspondent at what seems to be a launch party for Windows 7 until a person being interviewed reveals that he is switching to a Mac. PC is surprised by this and asks why, and more people speak of how Mac is #1 with customer satisfaction and PC finally says to cut the feed. This is one of two commercials where Mac and PC acknowledge that they are in a commercial. PC: “Let’s go to a commercial.” Mac: “We are a commercial”. PC: “Let’s go to another commercial”.
Source (Text):
“Get a Mac.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 11 Sep 2008, 22:32 UTC. 14 Sep 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Get_a_Mac&oldid=237810498>.
This article is published under the GNU General Public License
Demo Apple Lisa (1983)
The introduction of the first Mac on January 24th, 1984
Knowledge Navigator (1987/88)
The Knowledge Navigator is a concept described by former Apple Computer CEO John Sculley in his 1987 book, Odyssey. It describes a device that can access a large networked database of hypertext information, and use software agents to assist searching for information.
Apple produced several concept videos showcasing the idea. All of them featured a tablet style computer with numerous advanced capabilities, including an excellent text-to-speech system with no hint of “computerese”, a gesture based interface reminiscent of the multitouch interface used on the iPhone and an equally powerful speech understanding system, allowing the user to converse with the system via an animated “butler” as the software agent.
In one vignette a university professor returns home and turns on his computer, in the form of a tablet the size of a large-format book. The agent is a bow-tie wearing butler who appears on the screen and informs him that he has several calls waiting. He ignores most of these, from his mother, and instead uses the system to compile data for a talk on deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. While he is doing this, the computer informs him that a colleague is calling, and they then exchange data through their machines while holding a video based conversation.
In another such video, a young student uses a smaller handheld version of the system to prompt him while he gives a class presentation on volcanoes, eventually sending a movie of an exploding volcano to the video “blackboard”. In a final installment a user scans in a newspaper by placing it on the screen of the full-sized version, and then has it help him learn to read by listening to him read the scanned results, and prompting when he pauses.
The videos were written and conceived by Hugh Dubberly and Doris Mitsch of Apple Creative Services, and produced by The Kenwood Group in San Francisco. Director: Randy Field. Director of Photography: Bill Zarchy. As a vision statement the films were groundbreaking, as powerful a vision of the future of computing as 2001: A Space Odyssey. It may be useful to note that the video opened with the statement “In the year 2010.” Most viewers missed this indication that the Knowledge Navigator was a visitor from the future and wanted the features now.
The astute bow tie wearing software agent in the video has been the center of quite a few heated discussions in the domain of human-computer interaction. It was criticized as being an unrealistic portrayal of the capacities of any software agent in the foreseeable future, or even in a distant future. Some user interface professionals like Ben Shneiderman of the University of Maryland, College Park have also criticized its use of a human likeness for giving a misleading idea of the nature of any interaction with a computer, present or future.
Compared to recent research in the field of ubiquitous computing and augmented reality interfaces many of the aspects of the Knowledge Navigator seem a bit quaint. For some however this video prototype was and/or still is a source of motivation for their work. They see it as a goal set in a future they might help create one day. To some extent the concept was also used to position the Apple Newton handheld device. Newton was released before the technology was mature however, and proved to be a commercial failure. Eventually, the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web and several devices marketed by Apple’s competitors would indeed fulfill some of the visions of the Knowledge Navigator.
Source:
Knowledge Navigator. (2008, August 28). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:46, November 2, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Knowledge_Navigator&oldid=234849787
This article is licenced under the GNU Free Documentation License
PowerBook Advertising with Steve Wozniak
20th Anniversary Macintosh Promo
Steve Jobs introduces the Think Different campaign (1997)
In the video embedded below, the Apple CEO introduces the company’s 1997 Think Different campaign. A key quote:
[Our new ad campaign] honors those people who have changed the world. Some of them are living, some of them are not. But the ones that aren’t–you know that if they ever used a computer, it would have been a Mac.
And another:
This is a very complicated world. This is a very noisy world, and we’re not going to get a chance…to get people to remember much about us. No company is. And so we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us.
And this is the famous commercial:
