I'm a sucker for code names. They're so Bond. While Apple doesn't use public code names for iOS the way the company does for OS X — no big cats like Snow Leopard or California landmarks like El Capitan — it does use internal code names primarily based on ski resorts. They're not meant for the public but, once a version of iOS goes public, they're not hard to find.

• 1.0: Alpine / Heavenly
• 1.1: Snowbird
• 2.0: Big Bear
• 2.1: Sugarbowl
• 2.2: Timberline
• 3.0: Kirkwood
• 3.1: Northstar
• 3.2: Wildcat (iPad only)
• 4.0: Apex
• 4.1: Baker
• 4.2: Jasper (4.2.5 - 4.2.10: Phoenix)
• 4.3: Durango
• 5.0: Telluride
• 5.1: Hoodoo
• 6.0: Sundance
• 6.1: Brighton
• 7.0: Innsbruck
• 7.1: Sochi
• 8.0: Okemo
• 8.1: OkemoTaos
• 8.2: OkemoZurs
• 8.3: Stowe
• 8.4: Copper
• 9.0: Monarch
• 9.1: Boulder
• 9.2: Castlerock
• 9.3: Eagle
• 10.0: Whitetail
• 10.1: Butler
• 10.2: Corry
• 10.3: Erie
• 11.0: Tigris
• 11.1: Bursa
• 11.2: Cinar
• 11.3: Emet
• 11.4: Fatsa
• 12.0: Hope
• 13.0: Yukon
• 14.0: Azul
• 15.0: Sky

While knowing these names doesn't add to the feature set of the software, it does add a little depth to the experience. And because they're technically secret code names, they're ever so much cooler than desserts.

Only macOS has public code names — currently based on California landmarks like Sierra. The rest do have secret code names, however. While both tvOS and watchOS are based on iOS, where watchOS got to start over at version 1.0 and its own beach-themed code names, tvOS kept going at 9.0 and the same code name as iOS. The numbering has continued to keep pace, but the code names have started to go their own way.

• 9.0: Monarch
• 9.1: Tilden
• 9.2: Angora
• 10.0: Union
• 10.1: Clementine
• 10.2: Emerald
• 11.0: Topaz
• 11.1: Bass
• 11.2: Coyote
• 11.3: Eaton
• 11.4: Francis
• 12.0: Hope
• 13.0: Yager
• 14.0: Archer
• 15.0: Satellite

From 2001 to 2012, OS X was code-named internally (for development purposes) after big cats. Becuase Apple marketing was also using those code-names to promote OS X publicly, however, the company's development crew switched their internal naming structure to wines beginning with OS X 10.3 — publicly known as Panther, privately as "Pinot." (Apple did make one exception for OS X 10.6, which never had a code-name beyond Snow Leopard.)

Though Apple's external code-names for OS X switched to California places in 2013, the internal code-names remained wine-based until 2014. In 2015, the development team switched to types of apples, with OS X 10.11 El Capitan (AKA "Gala").

In 2016, OS X officially became macOS, though Apple continued using California places as the external code names, and apple types as the internal code names. So far, this has remained the internal code name across the board.

• OS X 10 beta: Kodiak
• OS X 10.0: Cheetah
• OS X 10.1: Puma
• OS X 10.2: Jaguar
• OS X 10.3 Panther (Pinot)
• OS X 10.4 Tiger (Merlot)
• OS X 10.4.4 Tiger (Intel: Chardonay)
• OS X 10.5 Leopard (Chablis)
• OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
• OS X 10.7 Lion (Barolo)
• OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion (Zinfandel)
• OS X 10.9 Mavericks (Cabernet)
• OS X 10.10: Yosemite (Syrah)
• OS X 10.11: El Capitan (Gala)
• macOS 10.12: Sierra (Fuji)
• macOS 10.13: High Sierra (Lobo)
• macOS 10.14: Mojave (Liberty)
• macOS 10.15: Catalina (Jazz)
• macOS 11: Big Sur (GoldenGate)
• macOS 12: Monterey (Star)

Apple doesn't use public code names for watchOS the way the company does for the currently California-landmark dubbed macOS Sierra. It does use internal code names, though. The Apple Watch itself was code names Gizmo, but for watchOS, it's all based on beaches.

• 1.0: SkiHill
• 2.0: Bondi
• 2.1 Bahar
• 2.2: Angora
• 3.0: Daytona
• 3.1: Blowfish
• 3.2: Electric
• 4.0: Fortune
• 4.1: Beluga
• 4.2: Catamaran
• 4.3: Emperor
• 5.0: Glory
• 6.0: Grace
• 7.0: Hunter

Don't miss this. Seriously.

Highlights

• Steve Jobs hated a guy at Microsoft who claimed their tablet PC would revolutionize computers so he came in and said it was all wrong, the stylus was wrong, and could be done better with fingers and capacitive multitouch.
• Hardware team started and software team started figuring out the interface.
• The first version was a table in a room where you could move a photo with your fingers.
• At the same time, Apple was moving from a computer company to an electronics company with half the sales coming from iPod.
• Apple was watching for what would take over the music space and cannabilize iPod. Phones seemed to be it.
• Everyone hated their phones. It wasn't pleasurable to use. Steve wondered if they could take the tablet demo and shrink it down to a pocket-sized phone.
• Bas made a demo and it was just exactly how everything should work, Steve saw it, said put the tablet on hold and start working on the phone.
• Apple talked about MVNO, buying spectrum, partnering. Started meeting with carriers who thought manufacturers were terrible. So, they gave pages and pages of requirements.
• Apple said the carrier could take care of the network, Apple would do everything else. They didn't get very far at first. Then Cingular came in and, finally, agreed.
• Apple hadn't even really started building the phone yet.
• Cingular execs would call in with ideas, like adding a dedicated button for email. Scott would tell them maybe they'd add it later. They though, Lego phone!
• Steve thought the CEO of CingularAT&T should be on stage. Steve thought he should see it. Scott wanted to wait for the last possible moment.
• Steve and Scott fly out to demo for Stan in Las Vegas. Scott was worried about reception so wanted to use Wi-Fi, but Four Seasons charged for that, so Scott worried about loging in. So, he called Four Seasons. Couldn't mention Apple. Couldn't mention Steve. Pretended to be a Cingular exec who needed to do a demo, please make sure Wi-Fi is free and ready to connect. Couldn't do it because Four Season and Mandalay shared a single point of connection, would have to make it free for everyone. Scott said, great. You're the Four Seasons, you can do it! They made it happen.
• Answered some questions, did Wi-Fi demo. Cingular was super happy. Bet on the right horse. A few days later, IT guy from the Four Seasons calls: Can I please turn charging back on? Sure. Thanks so much!
• Steve Jobs was demanding. Forced people to do their best. Was really compassionate and dedicated to his friends and relatives.
• Steve saved Scott's life once. They were deep into Mac OS X before iPhone. Scott got really sick. A week passed. Second week passed. Throwing up constantly. Lost a lot of weight. Finally figured out what it was. Very rare virus. Scott was dying. Steve was calling every day, checking in.
• Scott was so sick he wanted to die. Even strong meds weren't working.
• Months later, Steve calls, says he has the best acupuncturist in the world. I'm going to bring her to you, she'll fix you.
• Steve said if they tried to stop him, he'd just dedicate a wing to Stanford hospital. Nice to have friends like that.
• One time at Apple they wanted to price something and Steve wanted to price it high. Scott said he had friends with no money, Steve was a millionaire, didn't understand. Steve said no, he was a multi-billionaire. Stuck with his price.
• Steve came into the hospital with the acupuncturist. Scott asked if he had to believe in it. She said no, it didn't matter. She was going to fix him.
• She stuck needles in him, nausea went away. For the first time in two months, he didn't throw up constantly. She came back the next day, he never threw up again. She came to his house the next day, he could eat again. First time in two months.
• Scott was dying, Steve saved his life. Scott will always owe him that. He'd lost 50 lbs, wanted to die. She saved him.
• Scott was blown away by Siri. He thought that technology was years away. He couldn't believe it was now. Very interesting. -When Steve was sick, Scott would go to his house every day, sit at his bed, talk. Some days Steve couldn't open his eyes, couldn't talk. Steve loved Siri because he couldn't type but could talk.
• Scott was surprised when Steve died, he seemed like he would always be there. Scott was devastated.
• Steve was funny. Steve would insist on paying for Scott at Caffe Macs. Scott said he felt bad. Steve said he was only paid $1 year. He didn't know who was paying when he badged. Multi-billionaire scamming Apple. (Haha!)
• When the original iPhone came out, reviews didn't get it. Talked about number of clicks. iPhone was being compared against other smartphones of the time according to the presumed metrics of the time. But Apple was changing the entire paradigm. It wasn't about the number of taps, it was about people figuring out how to use it. People without a law degree would never figure out a BlackBerry. First time Scott saw a working iPhone prototype, he was blown away by it.
• They weren't using it like a real phone outside. So Scott took the phone out. Steve asked for one, Scott said not yet. Too much configuration. One day Scott slipped an iPhone into his pocket and slipped out 4 doors out of lockout. Was terrified. Drove home. Closed all the drapes and doors. Started using it all the time. Only Steve had the number. Would duck away to use it.
• Never felt like work. Finally Steve said, I'm the CEO, I get to decide, you're giving me a phone. Only two people in the world. Steve would call him all the time. It never felt like work to use it. Scott knew it would be huge.
• Scott was not concerned about bad reviews. He'd used it. He knew. They were irrelevant. He knew it would be big.
• Scott always thinks things can be better. That's what designers do.
• Not currently building any new tech (far as you know!)
• AR is very interesting if there's a form factor that makes sense. If not, it won't succeed. But the idea is really good.
• Scott had never heard the term skeuomorphism. Had to look it up. He looks for things that are easy to use, understandable. iPhone was about being photoillustrative, metaphorical, relatable. Scott didn't love every part but they made designs that worked.
• When they shipped iPad, Scott got an email from a guy with a 2-year old daughter who could understand what to do because the UI "told" her how. Same week, got an email from a woman who was 99 1/2 years old. Loved to read but couldn't any more. Couldn't type any more. Got an iPad, read two novels that first week. Big and bright. Could type without pressure. We knew we were doing something right.
• Had hyper-collaborative team who dedicated their lives to making this happen. Scott wants to applaud them.

And that's a wrap!

Scott Forstall was in charge of building iPhone OS, now iOS, for Apple and Steve Jobs. By all accounts, he had a singular ability to distil down a myriad of options to a few he knew, at least one of, Jobs would approve. That skill alone made him invaluable to everyone else working on the the Purple Experience Project.

Now, 10 years after the launch of the original iPhone, and almost five years after leaving Apple, Forstall is sitting down to talk about the creation of one of the most culturally significant objects of our time. And he's doing it at the Computer History Museum:

Tickets are sold out, alas, but no doubt the stories they share will echo across the community and the industry. And, hopefully, willl be preserved for posterity.

In May 2006, during the Intel transition, Apple announced the MacBook, a replacement for the aging, PowerPC-based iBook G4.

The new machine sported a 13.3-inch screen, the same MagSafe charger and iSight as the MacBook Pro, and was thinner than the outgoing iBook. It ushered in the "island" keyboard design featured on all Macs today; I remember it being controversial at the time, but it's now weird to use a keyboard where the keys touch each other.

Like its predecessor, the MacBook's case was plastic: The two lower-end models used an outer shell that was glossy like the iBook; the screen bezel, trackpad and keyboard were in a nice, matte white.

But the most expensive MacBook model, which cost $200 more at launch, came in black.

Inside, the machines were more or less the same. At launch, the $1099 model came with a 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, but both the middle-rung white model and the black one both came with a 2.0 Ghz chip, a SuperDrive, and the same 512 MB of RAM.

The only thing the extra $200 got you was an 80 GB hard drive (up from 60) and that black plastic. As $200 for 20 GB of space seemed bananas, the term "black tax" surfaced as a way to complain about Apple's strategy.

This original plastic MacBook family wasn't without issues. Some models discolored, there were hard drive issues, a problem with shutting down that was kind of fixed with a firmware update, and — of course — chipping plastic around the palm rest and bezel.

The cracking plastic problem lasted for years. Even though Apple tweaked the display stops a little over the years, most Geniuses (including me) at the time could replace a MacBook top case with our eyes closed.

This particular problem was more pronounced on the white models. The black plastic Apple used had a softer, more rubber-like texture, and seemed to hold up better — as long as you didn't mind oily fingerprints. While almost every white MacBook developed top case cracking, many black MacBooks did not.

Even with its issues, the MacBook was an incredibly popular computer. It sold well across a variety of users, including students and professionals. It helped Apple expand in the consumer space faster than it had previously, and brought software like iLife and iWork to the masses in a way the iBook never did.

The black version was the envy of many users who ended up with cheaper options. To my eye, the black MacBook still looks like a modern design, whereas the white one has aged — and not so gracefully. To be fair, I don't think Apple did enough to warrant the cost increase based on the black MacBook's tech specs, but the company was starting to explore the idea of fashion as a feature.

While it's not unusual for Apple to price things based partially on color or material now (just look at the Apple Watch or the Jet Black iPhone 7), it was unusual at the time. I worked at my local Apple Store when these machines were on sale, and people would often complain about the black tax.

But I think it was worth it for those who could swing it. I love it.

My earliest memories of technology came from my first year of grade school: It was 1992, and our teacher had installed some variant of an Apple II in the classroom. The students were only able to use it a few times, but each time I got to put a disk in the machine, I was able to escape to another world.

A world in which I was traveling west in a wagon, attempting to avoid dying of dysentery.

Oregon Trail. Number Munchers. DinoPark Tycoon. Odell Down Under. MayaQuest. While Oregon Trail is no doubt the most well-known title of the bunch, there's a lot more where it came from, thanks to one very special group: The Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium.

History of MECC

The Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium was founded in 1973 to coordinate and provide computer support and services to school across the state.

IBM, Honeywell, and other companies had facilities in the state, helping to push technology further and faster in remote locales outside of Silicon Valley. This led to a group of schools in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area and University of Minnesota College of Education partnering to provide access to HP hardware and software. Eventually, MECC would have an UNIVAC 1110 mainframe installed at its office. This spurred teachers and professors to write software that could be used in their classrooms.

After the Apple II was blessed as the official computer for schools state-wide, MECC began to start supporting these machines, too, creating programs and educational games — including, yes, The Oregon Trail. It was distributed on diskettes across the state, and after a few years, other states clamored for access to the consortium's growing library of software. By the 1990s, MECC was creating applications and games for classrooms across the country.

As the Apple II lost ground to the Macintosh, MECC began developing for the company's newest computer. In 1990, Number Munchers and Word Munchers were ported to both the Mac OS and MS-DOS systems.

This series starred green "Munchers" who the user would move around a board eating the answers to whatever question the game asked. "Troggles" — like that blue one above — had to be avoided, or your Muncher would become lunch.

I have fond memories of playing these games (and many others) on a parade of otherwise-forgettable beige Macs throughout elementary school.

Burning bright, burning out

In 1991, Minnesota could no longer offer MECC funding as part of its state education program; the consortium was thusly spun off as a private company, sold to a venture capital fund for $5.25 million. In 1994, MECC had an IPO and went public, and just a year after that, it was purchased by SoftKey for $370 million and the company's name changed to The Learning Company.

At the time, the company had $30 million in revenue annually; an estimated one-third came from the Oregon Trail series.

Throughout the mid-1990s, MECC continued to update its old titles while releasing new ones. But by that time, MECC was facing increased competition and its habit of recycling old game content over and over was becoming a problem. By the late 1990s, layoffs were affecting entire offices, and titles that had been announced were being cancelled. In 1997 and 1998, The Learning Company made several acquisitions. The next year, MECC's old Minnesota offices were closed and all titles besides The Oregon Trail were discontinued.

MECC today

The MECC as we knew it is long-gone, but its golden egg is still available. Now developed by Gameloft, a modern version of The Oregon Trail can be downloaded on the iOS App Store.

All of the other games I remember so fondly are gone, though you can still find a few in Archive.org's library of MECC titles, which can be played via its online virtualization suite.

(Super Munchers is my current favorite.)

But, as is the way of digital creations, some of my old favorite titles seem to be lost to time: Swimming the ocean in Odell Down Under or hatching eggs in DinoPark Tycoon can now only happen in my memories.

Since their inception, Apple's PowerBooks had been encased in various shades of gray and black plastics. Some were smaller than others, and they looked good for the time, but by the time 2001 rolled around, it was time for a change.

The iMac and iBook G3s were colorful machines, and even the PowerMac was clad in plastic. The PowerBook G4, however, would be a totally different beast.

This is my Titanium PowerBook. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

Jobs' pitch for the machine was simple. Apple's notebooks were powerful already, but subnotebooks like the 11-inch machines Sony was selling at the time were far more attractive.

This language even made it into the press release:

On the Inside

On the power front, the new notebook came with the G4 processor, which was notably faster than the previously-used G3. For some tasks, Apple claimed it was 60% faster, in fact. Each of the two initial SKUs came with slot-loading DVD-ROM drives, 2 FireWire ports (hidden behind a door in the back with the rest of the I/O) and were Airport-ready.

While the launch models were clocked at 400 and 500 MHz, Apple would revise these machines several times over their two and a half year run, vastly increasing the power that mobile users were growing accustomed to having.

Gigabit Ethernet was added in October 2001, with an increase in clock speed. In April 2002, the machines got faster again and a DVI port and audio in were added.

The last revision, in November 2002, brought an optional SuperDrive, which was the first slot-loading DVD burner offered from Apple. These machines ran at a clock speed of up to 1GHz and supported 1 GB of RAM.

On the Outside

The big story was, of course, the design.

The G4 was just one inch thick, and was made out of metal. It made the previous-generation machines look bloated and old, in their curvy black plastic enclosures. Instead of the aluminum used today, Jony Ive and company opted for "airplane-grade" titanium. Most of the machine was covered in the lightweight metal, giving the computer a sleek, modern look. Trim pieces were painted white, as were the hinges.

Trouble in Paradise

Unfortunately, as it is with most things, the Titanium PowerBook wasn't quite perfect. Unlike the anodized metal Apple uses today, there was paint applied to the PowerBook that would chip off over time. This left the notebook looking beat up and old.

The biggest problem with the design would prove to be the hinges. Many, many users would open their notebooks just to have the lid come off in their hands as the hinges would fail suddenly and completely. In later PowerBook and the MacBook Pros, Apple would use one very wide hinge to help spread the load over a larger area to solve this.

(Thankfully, my Titanium hasn't suffered either of these fates, as you can see.)

The Titanium's Legacy

The Retina MacBook Pro I am typing on right now can draw its family tree right back to the Titanium PowerBook.

Some of the similarities are obvious. Both are powerful, thin and clad in smooth, cool metal. Both have black key caps and nice trackpads coupled with beautiful displays.

But under the hood, these machines are even more similar.

In 2008, Jobs and Ive introduced the unibody MacBook Pro. In short, Apple starts with a slab of aluminum, carves it up and puts the logic board and other components of the computer into it. The bottom cover is just a thin piece of metal to cover it up; all the structure is formed by the top case.

While it wasn't as elegant or simple as this, the Titanium used a similar design. All of the guts of the machine came out through the bottom, making the notebook a weird, accidental proof of concept.

This sort of things is only noticeable in hindsight, of course, but that's what this column is all about. For me, as nice as this machine is, it's important to me personally because it was the first Mac I considered "mine." It was assigned to me at a job, but we were encouraged to use them as personal machines as well. I did my first creative work on a Titanium, and will always remember it fondly.

Rumors had been mounting that Apple was frustrated with the PowerPC chips it had been using. At the heart of the problem was the PowerBook, as Charles Moore points out:

In fact, the PowerMac case was radically redesigned to accommodate the G5's massive thermal needs. The tower has numerous computer-controlled fans and four separate thermal zones to keep things cool and quiet. All of that engineering seemed impossible in a PowerBook, leading to this image floating around Mac forums at the time:

Yikes.

In his keynote address, Jobs addressed the challenges in front of Apple working with the PowerPC roadmap. Apple hadn't been able to deliver the 3.0 GHz Power Mac G5 the company had promised:

(That's a pretty sick Steve Jobs burn.)

According to Jobs, this all came down to a metric he called "Performance Per Watt." In short, only Intel could give Apple the power they wanted in an efficient package. PPC was just too hot and too power-hungry for Apple to stay the course.

OS X's Secret Life

Jobs made a big reveal on stage to much laughter from the audience of developers and journalists:

Turns out, since day one, Apple had put in place a safety net: OS X must be processor independent; every release of OS X had been compiled for PPC and Intel.

For those familiar with NeXTSTEP, this shouldn't have been a surprise. The OS had been running on Intel years before this announcement; Apple had just kept that project alive as NeXTSTEP evolved into OS X.

The Developer Transition

The Intel switch meant developers would need to recompile their applications to work on the new chipsets. Apple came to WWDC prepared for this. A new version of Xcode was capable of building "universal" binaries that would run natively on PowerPC and Intel machines.

While Jobs said many developers could get their apps ready with just a little work, for some bigger applications, this wasn't the case. For those developers and users, Apple shipped Rosetta, a translator that allowed Intel Macs to run PowerPC code at nearly full-speed.

Unlike Classic Mode, it was invisible. In everyday use, a user should never know if the application they were in was built for Intel or not. It had some limitations,#Compatibility) but more than held people over until things like Office and Photoshop made the jump.

For developers who wanted or needed to work with Intel hardware early, Apple had a solution: the Intel Developer Transition Kit:

A stripped-down Intel Mac strapped to the inside of a PowerMac G5 case, these machines were $999 loaners that could be used by developers to fine tune their products. They had to be returned to Apple, as the reference hardware wasn't ever designed to be in the hands of normal users.

The Products

In 2005, Jobs said that this would be a two-year transition. Apple hoped to have the first Intel Macs shipping by WWDC 2006, with the entire line being moved over by the end of 2007.

Apple ended up moving much faster than that. The first Intel machines — the iMac and PowerBook MacBook Pro — were announced in January 2006.

The Mac mini followed in February, with the MacBook replacing the iBook in May. In August 2006, Apple announced the transition was complete with the new Xserve and Mac Pro. We've lived in an all-Intel Mac world for a decade.

Today, of course, PowerPC support is a thing of the past. 2011's Mac OS X Lion shipped without Rosetta support, and an iTunes update in 2012 made it the last Apple application to leave PowerPC behind.

The OS Is What Matters

When Apple announced this, part of the Mac community was up in arms. After years of mocking Intel chips in their advertising, Apple was now praising the company's technology. It was a bit much to swallow for some.

How could an Intel box feel like Mac? Would Intel's firmware, dubbed EFI, give users the freedom APple's old Open Firmware had? Without the ability to run the Classic environment, Intel Macs were a nonstarter for some users, regardless of personal feelings about the platform.

(I'm completely side-stepping this discussion. 2005 was a weird time.)

Jobs addressed this in his closing remarks:

He was right. I was a big Mac user before the transition, and my first MacBook Pro felt like the PowerBook it replaced. The Mac was still the Mac, just faster and quieter.

The Future

Historically, the Mac has seen several big transitions. In the mid 1990s, Apple moved from 68k processors to PowerPC chips. The early 2000s saw the transition away from the classic Mac OS to Mac OS X, and then the switch to Intel around 2006. It's been a long time, and while iOS devices are what are boosting the company's bottom line, the Mac is still important.

There's been a lot of talk about the pros and cons of Apple moving to ARM chips for the Mac. If that's going to happen, I still think it's several years off. While the 12-inch MacBook seems like a good candidate for an Apple-designed chipset, I don't think anything ARM-based can take on the i5 and i7 that Apple ships in most Macs, let alone the Xeon processors that power the Mac Pro.

If Apple does move away from Intel, it will leave things like easy virtualization of Windows behind. That's a big deal for a lot of users, but is it enough to stop the change? Time will tell.

No matter what happens, I think the Mac will always feel like home for those of us who love it.

Mac SE

The first time an Apple product wore the SE badge was way back in 1987, when the Macintosh SE rolled off the line.

The Macintosh SE brought expansion to the "compact" Mac form factor via an expansion slot, in addition to the SCSI port that arrived with the Macintosh Plus the previous year. The SE also helped bring ADB into the world and could be fitted with a second floppy drive or an internal hard drive.

(It also came with a fun Easter Egg embedded into the ROM. Hat tip to John Siracusa for that trip down memory lane.)

The Macintosh SE would be replaced by the "SE FDHD." This alphabet soup of a Mac was more or less a recycled, 8MHz SE with a 1.4MB SuperDrive (!) instead of the 800KB floppy disk drive found on the original SE.

The Macintosh SE/30 is the best known of the three machines with the name. The SE/30 is fondly remembered by the likes of John Gruber and John Siracusa, and for good reason. It came with a much faster 16MHz 68030 processor with a much higher RAM ceiling at 32MB. The second floppy options was not offered in the SE/30, in favor of a built-in hard drive featuring a spacious 40 or 80MB of storage space.

iMac DV SE

The SE name would next appear in October 1999. After Steve Jobs announced a revision to the "Five Flavor" iMacs that brought FireWire and iMovie to the desktop machine with the new "iMac DV" models, he announced one more machine: the iMac DV Special Edition.

Available in a stunning Graphite, this iMac sat above the just-announced DV models, but offered 128MB of RAM and a 13GB hard drive, over the 64MB of RAM and 10GB of storage found on the cheaper, more colorful models.

For 2000 and 2001, the iMac SE would include multiple case options, including Snow, Blue Dalmatian and Flower Power.

iBook SE

With the iMac, Apple used the SE name to set apart the top-of-the-line model with its better specs and higher price points. While this strategy was employed for the iMac for several revisions, with the iBook G3 line it was shorter lived.

Offered for sale several months after the original iBook had been on shelves, the iBook SE was identical to the original except for a speed bump that brought it to 366MHz. Of course, it only came in Graphite:

When the iBook gained FireWire in September 2000, the SE was bumped to 466MHz and included a DVD-ROM drive, and was available in Graphite and a bright green color dubbed Key Lime.

For whatever reason, the scheme of using "SE" to note special features and colors at the top of a product line never graduated past the iMac and iBook G3 lines. My guess is that Apple wanted to streamline things, and coupled with the fact that the G4 era meant the end of colorful cases on Macs, it probably wouldn't have made sense to keep the naming scheme going.

iPod U2 Special Edition

So, yeah. I knew when I started writing this article that I would inevitably get to this point. It can't be avoided anymore. Here we are. It's just me, you and Bono's iPod:

Officially named the "iPod U2 Special Edition," the U2 iPod was a black and red and engraved version of Apple's music player.

(The Harry Potter iPods didn't use this naming scheme, oddly.)

Customers who bought this iPod received an iTunes Store coupon redeemable for $50 off of the price of The Complete U2, a collection featuring over 400 tracks.

The U2 Special Edition would be revised a couple of times, keeping up to date with the non-Bono iPods, but was eventually dropped from the lineup in September 2007.

iPod shuffle (Late 2009)

This one is probably pushing the concept of this column, but I think it's worth a mention.

For the Late 2009 iPod shuffle, Apple introduced several new colors, but at the top of the line, with more storage space and a higher price tag, sat a stainless steel model.

While it didn't have a specific product name like the iMac and iBook SEs before it, Apple did refer to this iPod as a "special edition," so I'm willing to count it.

Plus, it looked super cool. Just check out this Apple PR image of the thing:

SE Today

Today, Apple's using the SE moniker on a weird mashup of old and new iPhone technology and design in the iPhone SE. Will this particular model of phone become a normal part of Apple's lineup, or will it fade away like other things that have worn the badge before it? What do you think? Unless you're Bono, sound off in the comments below.

These days, lots of people are moving to the iPad as their main portable device. There's a lot to like about the iPad Pro and iOS; in fact, I'm writing this very article on my tablet. But even with all that iPad love, portable Macs aren't going anywhere soon. They vastly outsell desktop Macs, and there are still plenty of people (myself included) who don't wish to move to iOS full time.

Apple's been making notebooks almost as long as the Mac has been around: Here are nine models in its storied history that I think are worth knowing about.

Macintosh Portable

This is the machine that started it all: a Mac that could run without being plugged in, thanks to a built-in 10-hour lead-acid battery. (Of course, due to the way the battery was wired with the charger, if the battery ever failed, the machine could not be run on AC power. Whoops.)

Input was done via the built-in keyboard and trackball, and the 16-pound computer came with a 9.8-inch 640x400 pixel active matrix screen — pretty good for its day, even if initial models didn't ship with a backlight.

The Macintosh Portable didn't set the world on fire, but it gave users who could afford the $6500 price tag a taste of on-the-go productivity.

PowerBook 100

Image via Wikipedia

It's almost hard to believe this machine came on the heels of the Macintosh Portable: The 100 was Apple's introductory-level laptop; the 140 and 170 shipped at the same time and were faster, with the latter being the first to come with an active-matrix display.

Even though it was the runt of the litter — and built by Sony on behalf of Apple — the PowerBook 100 helped define many things that still hold true for Apple's notebook design today. The keyboard was pushed toward the display, putting the pointing device in the center of the palm rests. The display could be adjusted to a wide range of angles, and the whole thing folded as flat as possible. And it was the first to hold the PowerBook moniker — one that still echoes in the modern "MacBook" laptop lineup.

PowerBook Duos

The PowerBook Duo line was Apple's first attempt to make a notebook that could be a desktop replacement, and in many ways, the predecessor to the MacBook Air. From 1992 to 1997, Apple released seven models, starting with the Duo 210. The 10.9-by-8.5-inch laptop was just 1.4 inches thick and weighed 4.1 pounds — heavy by today's standards, but impossibly small in the early 90s.

Throughout its manufacturing life, the Duo saw all sorts of advancements, including color displays and, at the very end, a PowerPC processor. What made these computers so special, however, was their flexibility.

The Duos could be used with one of several Apple-built Docks which expanded their capabilities. Apple's Duo Dock added a screen, a floppy disk drive, optional floating point unit, level 2 cache, and more: It was the 1990s version of a Thunderbolt display, offering the laptop extra processing and graphics power when plugged in to boost the system's performance.

The Mini and Micro Dock left out the screen, but added additional ports to the machine; the Micro dock pictured included a disk drive and an additional ADB port on the back.

PowerBook 5300

While every computer has its pros and cons, the PowerBook 5300's legacy is forever stained: It was the first generation of Apple notebooks to feature PowerPC chips, and it seems that the company had some transition pains moving to the new platform.

The hot-swappable drive bay system (also a first!) was too small for a CD-ROM drive, despite the feature's growing popularity in 1995. The internal expansion slot was also prone to failure, and the Power PC processor lacked the L2 cache, making the machine run much more slowly than it would have otherwise.

The biggest mark against this poor computer, however, is the failure of the Sony-built lithium-ion batteries used in the system. These failures resulted in two known fires, and Apple scrambled to replace the laptop's batteries with nickel metal-hydride versions that provided only about 70 percent of the run time.

I guess less battery life is better than your laptop catching fire, but still. That said, this is the laptop that saved the world in Independence Day, so I'm really conflicted.

The PowerBook G3 family

Apple's PowerBook G3 models look more or less the same to the untrained eye, but this series of computers helped right the wrongs of previous Apple notebooks: Apple revved them quickly and often, making big improvements in short periods of time.

The first PowerBook G3 was similar to the PowerBook 3400 in design, but it packed a much-improved internal boost: the third-generation "G3" PowerPC 750 chipset. Educated from its previous mistakes, Apple included a speedy and expansive backside cache, putting this notebook neck and neck with the Power Mac G3s at the time when it came to raw power.

In May 1998, Steve Jobs announced three new PowerBook G3s: 12-inch, 13-inch and 14-inch models in an updated enclosure informally known as "Wall Street" (and much beloved by Apple laptop collectors). Clocked at 233 MHz to 292 MHz, these machines delivered the first-ever Build to Order experience on Apple's website.

In the fall of 1998, Apple killed off the 13-inch model to streamline the production process and ship machines more quickly, and a few months later Apple introduced the "Bronze Keyboard" G3, which added USB and hardware MPEG-2 decoding — all in a case that was thinner and lighter. The new keyboard was slightly transparent, which gave the machine its nickname. It was followed up by what Apple called the "PowerBook (FireWire)," but what is commonly called the Pismo. This PowerBook brought FireWire to the product and much better performance.

Titanium PowerBook G4

Steve Jobs introduced this machine in 2001 as the meeting of power and sex.

On the power front, this notebook was built around the G4 chipset that had previously been found only in the company's towers. This meant that professionals could work on the go easier than ever, with up to 500 MHz in the laptop's original configurations. Final Cut Pro, for example, ran 60 percent faster on this machine than the outgoing Pismo.

As far as the sex, the TiBook sported a 15.2-inch display and came in an enclosure that was just 1-inch thick. Gone was the curvy black plastic of the G3 era; in its place, Apple used titanium for the case. Chosen for its weight and strength, the Titanium gave the machine new straight lines, and an industrial look that still resonates today.

The Titanium would see several revisions, eventually shipping with Gigabit Ethernet and a 1 GHz G4.

It wasn't a perfect machine, as pretty as it was: The paint used on the Titanium body had a nasty habit of chipping and flaking off, and many users would experience hinge failures. Apple worked to address these issues on later revisions, but I still get a little sense of fear anytime I open mine.

This was the first Mac that I ever used outside of a classroom settings, and I have a fond place in my heart for it.

12- and 17-inch Aluminum PowerBook G4

Two years after the TiBook was announced, Steve Jobs gave the machine two siblings: one smaller, one larger:

The 17-inch model used the same LCD as the iMac G4, wrapped in and all-new aluminum chassis that featured no exterior paint. It was the world's first 17-inch notebook, and brought FireWire 800, Bluetooth and 802.11g wireless networking to the PowerBook line.

The 12-inch PowerBook G4 also took these advancements to market — but in a much smaller notebook. The ultra-portable machine weighed just 4.6 pounds; less than that year's 12-inch iBook. It was even smaller than the PowerBook Duos. It's still one of my favorite notebooks, and one that only the 11.6-inch Air and new Retina MacBook have come close to touching in terms of spirit.

MacBook Air

In 2008, Steve Jobs pulled the 13.3-inch MacBook Air out of an inner-office envelope, immediately changing notebooks forever. While this original model wasn't as fast or powerful as later models would be, the basic recipe was right: It ditched the optical drive, most ports and (if the user had enough cash) the spinning hard drive for an SSD.

Often considered ahead of its time, the parallels to the current MacBook are obvious and easy to make, but this computer really did set the tone for the laptop era we are in today.

The current MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro are all built with SSD storage, lack optical drives, and are thinner and lighter than ever. While this particular model was expensive and didn't sell well, we owe a lot to it.

MacBook Pro with Retina display

Until the unibody design was introduced in 2008, the MacBook Pro was basically an aluminum PowerBook with Intel inside. While the case was new, the tech inside wasn't all that different than what Apple had been shipping. That all changed at WWDC 2012, when Phil Schiller took the wraps off the MacBook Pro with Retina display.

Beyond the obvious addition on the new 2880-by-1800-pixel display, Apple took the opportunity to redesign the entire machine. Ethernet and FireWire were removed, and Thunderbolt was elevated to a more important status. The case was thinner thanks to the lack of an optical drive.

This is the MacBook Pro we have today. My 15-inch is more more or less the same as the computer introduced nearly four years ago. I think it's time for a refresh, and I'm excited to see what's next.

Your favorites?

Have a Mac laptop I didn't mention that you treasure? Tell me your favorite Mac laptop stories in the comments.

A new report from the Silicon Business Journal reveals Apple silently purchasing numerous buildings in Sunnyvale, California that could be tied to the initiative codenamed Project Titan. What's more is the company is apparently naming these buildings after Greek mythology.

One of the larger buildings is reportedly named Rhea and is said to be the brick and mortar that has a high level of both security and noise. Documents filed with Sunnyvale reveal areas including a lube bay, tire changer, and wheel balancer which all seemingly slot together comfortably with Project Titan. As 9to5Mac points out:

Even with more information seeping out about potential vehicle development, it's all still speculative and we're really not any closer to working out exactly what the company is working on, nor do we have a rough idea as to what the result of Project Titan will be. That said, we're pretty stoked to be one step closer to learning about how Apple plans to enter the electric car market.

This month's old Mac is the weird cousin of the iMac G4 we looked at in February. Introduced only months after the iMac G4, the eMac mashed up old ideas with new tech: It retained the all-in-one design defined by the iMac G3, but it shipped with a larger 17-inch CRT display and used the same G4 chipset found in the LCD-equipped iMacs.

Here we see the eMac, complete with keyboard, mouse and optional stand.

Priced at $999, it looked like a great deal — but you couldn't just walk into a store and pick one up when it launched in April 2002. You see, the eMac wasn't for the average user: It was for the education market.

E is for education

The "i" in iMac may have stood for "internet," but don't go assuming the "e" in eMac stood for "ethernet" — the computer took its first-initial moniker from a very different avenue: education. Here's how Steve Jobs introduced it to the press in April 2002:

The eMac was a tangible expression of how much Apple cared about the education market; it had been a stronghold for the company dating back to the Apple II days.

But a few months after the computer's release, Apple put the eMac for sale in its retail stores; this led to conjecture that Apple wasn't selling the eMac to schools in the volumes it had hoped. The company's press release read differently, however:

Whatever the real reason, the eMac was out in the world, available alongside the iMac in retail stores and on the Internet.

Problematic problems

While the design of the eMac may have been based on the iMac before it, the increased heat generated by the G4 processor forced Apple to add a fan to the back of the case, hidden behind a plastic cap ringed in translucent plastic.

The fan kept the processor's heat under control, but the eMac still played host to several hardware issues over its short lifespan.

Many early units were plagued by myriad video-related failures, including discoloration, jittery video and what got dubbed as "raster shift", fixable only with the replacement of an internal video cable:

In fact, units built between April 2004 and June 2005 had such widespread video and power issues that Apple opened a Repair Extension Program to address the problem. The REP covered problems due to swollen or burst capacitors, an issue that also plagued the company's iMac G5, as well as products from many other manufacturers.

I was working as a Mac Genius while this REP was open, and had a local school come in with over two dozen machines covered by the program. While the school may have been happy to get their machines repaired free of charge, storing that many eMacs while waiting for parts to come in was a challenge that my store manager was less than thrilled about helping me solve.

A slow march to nowhere

But as poor as the eMac's hardware reputation was, the machine's woes were far more philosophical than that. Designing a machine to be a low-cost, simple solution for the classroom led to what was always going to be a compromised mainstream product: While the G4 was a welcome addition for education customers, the CRT design made the eMac look old and bloated in comparison to the sleek, LCD-topped iMac G4 when the machine went on sale to the public. The 50-pound machine just didn't make a big name for itself.

That's not to say Apple didn't try: From April 2002 to October 2005, the company revved the machine three times, adding better graphics, USB 2.0 and faster CPUs. But ultimately, Apple replaced the eMac with a low-cost, education-only Intel iMac. The last CRT-based Mac slipped quietly away, forgotten by almost everyone who didn't see one in their school or office.

In 2002, One year after outlining the Digital Hub strategy, Steve Jobs unveiled one of the most iconic computers of the 21st century: the iMac G4.

This new computer made the machine that helped save Apple look much older than it actually was. Gone was the heavy, bulky CRT; in its place, a 15-inch LCD screen. Twice as bright and twice as sharp as the old CRT, it was a major upgrade. The new iMac also featured a G4 processor making things like DVD creation in iDVD possible on a consumer machine for the first time. Also on board was a SuperDrive, allowing users to burn both CDs and DVDs.

In teasing the new design, Apple joked about simply "chopping off the back" of the iMac, putting the logic board and other components behind the display. And indeed, while Apple would design the iMac G5 just that way two and a half years later — and every iMac thereafter — in 2002, the technology just wasn't ready.

According to Jobs, to do so, Apple would need to need to slow down the spinning drives, lowering hard drive performance, and the SuperDrive would be unable to ship. Instead, Jobs said, Apple "let each element be true to itself. If the screen is flat, let it be flat," he said. "If the computer wants to be horizontal, let it be horizontal."

This lead to an amazing design. The result, to my eye, is still stunning:

When it first rose from the stage during the keynote, people gasped. The base was a small, all-white half-dome that measured just 10.6 inches across. All of the ports, including power, modem, Ethernet, USB and Firewire were arranged horizontally around the back for easy cable management:

The screen floated above the base, suspended in mid-air on a chrome arm. And that arm had several tricks up its shiny, metal sleeve: In addition to allowing the user to adjust the height of the display, the screen could be angled up or down and even swiveled to the side, all with the touch of a finger. The engineering that went into this is, to this day, impressive, and opening one of those machines up for repair was no trivial task.

The arm also gave the iMac boatloads of personality, which Apple showed off in this ad and the product video used to introduce the machine:

The 15-inch model wasn't the only iMac G4 SKU Apple sold. In July 2002, Apple added a 17-inch model that used the same panel used in the 17-inch PowerBook G4. In November 2003, a massive 20-inch model was added to the line as well:

By the time Apple replaced the iMac G4 in the summer of 2004, it'd become quite powerful as well. Packed with USB 2.0 and a 1.25 GHz G4, the iMac was beginning to creep into what was considered desktop territory just 12 or 18 months earlier.

Today, the iMac line is far broader than it was back in 2002. From the low-end machine to the loaded 27-inch Retina monster, the iMac can meet the needs for almost all desktop users. And while this iMac G4 was the start of that to a small degree, its true place in history is cemented by its industrial design: 14 years later, it still looks modern.

While the Apple of today sells more accessories than ever, the company has been in the business of add-ons for decades. The Smart Battery Case may be in the news for its Band-Aid hump design, but looking back, there's a lot more where that thing came from. Here a few of my favorites:

iPad Keyboard Dock

Apple made a big productivity push when it first launched the iPad in 2010, showing off its iWork suite on the tablet during the keynote.

And to put writers at ease, Apple announced a $69 dock that grafted a version of its aluminum keyboard to the bottom of the iPad. The iPad could be charged and pass audio out via its 30-pin Dock Connector, but it required the iPad to sit in portrait mode. After the keynote, I'm not sure the company ever mentioned this device again; it was quietly removed from stores with the introduction of Lightning-based iPad models.

iPhone Bluetooth Headset

Alongside the original iPhone, Apple sold a $129 Bluetooth headset for those who wanted to use their new smartphones hands-free.

While it benefitted from some clever integrations, the Bluetooth Headset wasn't for everyone. (Sound familiar?) Audio quality wasn't great, and with just one size of earpiece, many found it uncomfortable to use.

As it turns out, Apple still sells the charging cable. If you are need of the charging dock, however, you're out of luck.

iPod Socks

There are a lot of weird—and sometimes expensive—iPod cases, bands and lanyards that Apple sold over the years, but there's one accessory that always drew a smile and a laugh.

Put on sale in 2004, iPod Socks are still a crowd favorite.

Sold until 2012, these cloth accessories came in six bright colors, and were designed to keep your iPod—or iPhone, I suppose—nice and snuggly while in your bag. The entire pack sold for $29.99.

My iPod classic is still housed in a green one, in fact. It's not protective for anything beyond some scratches, but geeze, it is downright adorable.

VideoPhone Kit

Years before the external iSight camera and FaceTime, Apple sold the VideoPhone Kit, which allowed for video conferencing from a Mac, as long as you had OS 7.5.5 and a 28,000 bps modem, ISDN, or Ethernet connection.

Image Credit: Jonathan Zufi, iconicbook.com

This was all powered by Netscape's CoolTalk audioconferencing platform. If you needed to video chat in 1997 with a Macintosh, this was the way to do it.

Apple PowerCD

Released in 1993 as part of Apple's "Mac-like Things" initiative, the PowerCD was the only product to ever ship from the team.

Image Credit: Wikipedia

It was the first stand-alone consumer device the company had ever shipped, as it did not require a computer for it to operate. Basically a re-branded Phillips player, the PowerCD could be purchased with the AppleDesign Powered Speakers. The original line of speakers didn't match the PowerCD's dark gray exterior, but Apple resolved this with the AppleDesign Powered Speakers II in 1994.

The upright optical disc drive could also be used with a computer, however, becoming an external drive via SCSI connection. It came with a remote, and the whole thing could run on AA batteries for portability. Due to its Phillips roots, it could be used to play Photo-CD discs as well.

Duo Dock

The PowerBook Duo was a line of small notebooks that Apple sold from 1992-1997.

Like the first MacBook Air or the MacBook with Retina display, the Duos lacked most normal ports. But Apple did include a 156-pin Processor Direct Slot port, giving access to the machines' processor and data busses.

Apple took advantage of this port to offer numerous docks for the small notebooks, but the crown jewel was the $519 Duo Dock, which included a CRT, floppy drive, second hard drive, additional VRAM and more:

Your favorites?

What Mac or iOS accessories hold a special place in your heart? Let us know in the comments.

While the newly revised Apple TV may be making headlines this month, the original box previewed in 2006 wasn't Apple's first major foray into television.

For that, we need to take a trip to 1993.

Hardware

Clad in a ever-rare-for-the-1990s black case and matching accessories, the Macintosh TV was a LC520 with a few tricks up its sleeve.

In addition to being a regular LC520—which is in and of itself notable for being Apple's 1990s attempt to ship a compelling all-in-one—the Macintosh TV included a cable-ready TV tuner card.

The TV tuner card provided a coax jack on the rear of the Mac's casing, allowing users to run a television antenna or cable service directly into the machine. Its included remote could be used to control TV functionality, change channels and adjust the volume.

It wasn't all good news when it came to the Macintosh TV's hardware, however. While it was faster than the original LC520—it had a blazing 32 MHz Motorola 68030 processor in contrast to the 520's 25 MHz silicon—it shipped with a slower system bus, choking the entire computer.

RAM was another sore point: The Macintosh TV could be upgraded to just 8MB of memory, while its beige cousin could handle 32MB. It also lacked the then-standard DB-15 connector for passing video out to an external display.

Software

Turns out smashing a TV into a Mac running System 7 was ... less than ideal.

Unfortunately, this computer didn't offer the ease-of-use that iOS 9 captured with Picture-in-Picture. No: The user could either watch TV or use their Mac as a computer. If you flipped over to the TV environment, MacOS basically disappeared. And forget about capturing any video coming into the system; creating individual frames as PICT files was as much as would-be pirates could manage.

To drive the dagger even deeper, the TV picture used 16-bit color—MacOS was still living in the 8-bit world.

Goodnight, sweet prince

The idea of TV on the Mac was—like several things Apple did the 90s—ahead of its time. It didn't do well on the market: The steep $2099 price tag turned off users, and four months later, it was gone from store shelves.

TidBits editor Adam C. Engst once named it the second-worst Mac of all time, right after the ill-fated Macintosh IIvi and IIvx machines. That said, the original black set top box still has a few fans: collectors. With only 10,000 or so sold before Apple pulled the plug, units go for a hefty price on eBay. It's one of the few places you can acquire a piece of Apple history—and see the earliest origins of the Apple TV.

It's well-known that the original iPod was introduced in the fall of 2001, and the iTunes Store was first shown off in April 2003. But Apple's obsession with music didn't stop there: The company had many music-themed events throughout the next decade.

Throughout the 2000s, Apple's consumer announcements largely revolved around Macworld Expo, held each January in San Francisco. Only a few iPods were introduced there, however: The iPod mini, in January 2004, and the iPod shuffle in January of 2005.

The iPod mini was the second member of the iPod lineup: Equipped with a 4GB hard drive that could hold 1000 songs and Apple's first example of a click-wheel with integrated buttons, the smaller model was designed to "go after" the Flash storage-based (solid state drive) players flooding the market at the time.

At $249, the iPod mini was more expensive than other Flash-based players on the market, but users didn't seem to care: The device was a huge hit. Its small size and choice of colors—silver, gold, green, blue, and pink—made it part MP3 player, part fashion accessory.

After a couple of years of iPod and iPod mini sales, Apple began to realize that its new MP3 player was a huge holiday seller. The company moved all new iPod releases from January to the fall, ensuring that new, lustworthy iPods would be on sale for the holiday shopping season.

2004-2006: The golden era

In October of 2004, Apple held its first official music event. After some housekeeping, Steve Jobs announced two new iPods: the iPod Photo and the first U2 iPod.

The iPod Photo had the same look as the fourth-generation iPod, but it came with a color screen and the ability to view images you'd synced via iTunes. (I remember being very jealous of my roommate's iPod photo.) It sat above the regular—grayscale—iPod in the product line at $499 for 40GB and $599 for 60GB; the two would later be folded into one model in June 2005.

The second player introduced in October 2004 wasn't as revolutionary: The U2 iPod was a physical manifestation of the growing partnership between Apple and the band. Previous to this, Bono had helped demo iChat video conferencing, and the band had featured heavily in Apple's dancing silhouette ads.

Like the iPod Photo, the U2 iPod took its build design from the fourth-generation iPod, but its colors were unique: It sported a black body with a red click-wheel, and the stainless steel back boasted laser-engraved signatures from U2 band members.

This $349 iPod didn't include any of the iPod Photo's fancy features, but it did come with a poster of the band along with an iTunes Store coupon redeemable for $50 U.S. off The Complete U2, a "digital boxed set" featuring over 400 U2 tracks.

Yeah.

I can't think of much nice to say here, so let's just move on...

In September 2005, Apple took a big risk, replacing the iPod mini with the iPod nano.

The iPod mini was the most popular iPod to date—in fact, it was the most popular MP3 player in the world. To replace it outright, after just a year and a half of (very impressive) sales, seemed insane. But Apple did just that.

Like its predecessors, the new Nano boasted "1000 songs in your pocket." The joke, however, was that the iPod nano was so small, it could fit in that odd little pocket found on most jeans. When Jobs pulled it out, there were audible "oohs" and "ahhs" from the audience: It was nearly one-third the size of the iPod mini before it. And instead of the anodized aluminum that wrapped the iPod mini, the nano came in white and black plastic, with stainless steel rear casing.

In addition, the iPod nano shipped not only with photo support, but was also the first iPod to include a lap timer, world clock, and screen lock.

While the first-generation iPod nano echoed its mini ancestor in popularity, it wasn't without problems. Users complained of heavy scratching on both the rear casing and the screen, and a few years later, Apple would launch a warranty replacement program for units with defective batteries.

Just a month after the iPod nano's launch, Apple again gathered the media for a second Special Music event in October 2005. The topic? Music videos and TV shows in the iTunes store and on the iPod.

Dubbed the "white iPod" by Jobs, the new fifth-generation iPod featured a larger, 2.5-inch (320-by-240 pixels) display. Coupled with new internals, this iPod could play H.264 and MPEG-4 files at 30 frames per second and even send video out via connector cable to a television set.

Like the iPod nano, the fifth-generation model came in both black and white, and debuted with 30GB and 60GB models that were both thinner than the 20GB iPod with color display that it replaced.

Mercifully, 2006 included just one Special Event, in which the company overhauled the entire iPod line. The fifth-generation iPod got a brighter screen, a better battery, and a price drop—not to mention gapless playback support for music files. The U2 iPod, meanwhile, was feature-revved to match its video-playing cousins.

The iPod nano got an even bigger update: With the second-generation nano, Apple returned to an aluminum design and anodized colors. The thinner device could now play music for 24 hours straight, and could hold up to 2000 songs for users who purchased the black 8GB model.

The iPod Shuffle received the largest update, however. Gone was the stick-of-gum form factor, replaced by a smaller, clip-based design. "Wearability," Jobs said, was what customers wanted most out of the shuffle, and the clip made the device possible to wear without needing a case or lanyard.

2007-2012: Winding Down

In my mind, 2006 was the last great Music special event. Apple only had one new iPod model to introduce after the iPhone was released in June 2007: the iPod touch. As the dedicated music player declined in both importance and relevance, Apple wisely let its foot off the gas.

That's not to say that the remainder of the Music special events weren't newsworthy: Apple released some of its best iPods after 2007. The iPod touch got bigger and more powerful, albeit usually a step behind the iPhone. The mainstream iPod got re-named the iPod classic in 2007, forever losing its white plastic case in exchange for silver and black aluminum.

And the best iPod nanos came out between 2007 and 2012, including my personal favorite, 2008's "Nanochromatic" 4th-generation model.

It came in bold, bright colors, and returned to the "candybar" form factor after whatever this was. The return to form was short lived, as 2010's iPod nano was square and featured a touch screen instead of a clickwheel, leading some to use the device as a watch.

Where are they now?

The hard-drive-based iPod classic is gone: Apple stopped selling it in September 2014. The company had upgraded the classic's capacity several times since 2007, but there were no other significant changes to the line. While I like having an iPod classic to keep all of my music with me, clearly I'm in the minority. I don't think most Apple users miss this model as an option.

The iPod nano we have today is more or less the same as the 7th-generation model, with a 2.5-inch touchscreen display and weird, iOS-inspired-but-not-really-iOS software. The nano's colors have been tweaked over the years, but that's about it.

The current iPod shuffle, too, has seen only color changes since it was last updated in September 2010. From 2009-2010, Apple did sell a buttonless iPod shuffle, but returned to the (slightly smaller) clip-based design before putting the product on life support.

Really, the only iPod receiving any kind of attention from Apple at all these days is the iPod touch. While it was a long time coming, this year's update brought lots of improvements to the device. But it's no longer the kind of device to highlight at a Music special event: These day,s, the iPod touch is probably more of a portable gaming device than a portable MP3 player.

It's a matter of time before the nano and shuffle quietly join the iPod classic in the great iPod dock in the sky. They no longer sell well, and Apple doesn't seem to be interested in bringing new features to the products. While that makes sense, it makes me a little sad. I love my iPhone 6S Plus, and while it's now the primary way I listen to music, I'll always remember the excitement each fall brought when Apple took the stage to show off the new innovations we'd see from the iPod that next year.

For nearly 15 years, professionals with Macs had a very specific set of expectations when it came to their computers. They wanted the power of the best silicon Apple could offer, coupled with the ability to open their machines to add or change out components like RAM, hard drives and expansions cards.

These expectations were formed by the design of a single model: the "Blue and White" Power Macintosh G3.

Brains and brawn

First announced in 1997, the Power Macintosh G3 was already a beast, but the "next-generation" machine announced at Macworld 1999 shipped with much faster G3 processors than before, better graphics from ATI, faster RAM and more.

Steve Jobs took nearly 30 minutes of stage time outlining the new system's internal hardware, which wasn't unusual for the time.

From a technical perspective, the Blue and White PowerMac G3 was a major turning point in the pro line of computers from Apple. This PowerMac was the first machine from Apple to ship with FireWire, and the first pro machine from Apple to ship with USB. It left SCSI in the past, and shipped with just one ADB port.

In 1999, Apple was deep in the trenches of the Megahertz Wars with Intel, and was hellbent on showing the world that their G3 was faster than what was shipping in Wintel machines, despite the clock speeds. During the announcement of the product, Phil Schiller and Jobs showed that their slower-on-paper machine smoked the competition. HAL 9000 even interrupted the keynote to help make the point.

The new PowerMac G3 was about more than sheer power and advancing the hardware, though. The redesigned case (codenamed "Yosemite") is what cemented this machine's place in history.

Form and function

1999 marked the end of the beige PowerMacs. The new case was stunning. The front and back panels were the same Bondi Blue as the iMac, but the sides were wrapped in translucent white plastic that looked like they could glow. It came with handles for easy moving.

The real magic of the design, however, was on the side. With the pull of a simple tab, the side of the machine opened up to give access to the inside of the computer.

"We don't think design is just how it looks," Steve Jobs said during this keynote. "We think design is how it works."

Apple made a huge deal of the design, as highlighted by this ad, and it really was a genius move. Users could add drives easily. The RAM and cards slots — and the entire logic board — were mounted on the door itself. Pro users had never enjoyed such easy or clean access to their systems.

The design legacy

The basic template this machine created — a tower with handles and hinged door — stayed intact for years. This machine, the "Mirror Drive Door" G4 was shipping until 2004:

Image via Apple PR

The PowerMac G5 changed some of the design elements, but the concept remained. The handles were a little more square, and the door became a simple side panel that could be removed to expose the components in the machine. It wasn't until the 2013 Mac Pro that the design elements set forth by the Blue and White G3 finally fizzled out.

That's a heck of a run.

All-in-ones (or AIOs) are desktop computers where all the major components—logic board, storage, display and more—are in the same case. These designs are much neater and cleaner than your traditional PC setup, which requires a separate computer, screen, and lots of cables running everywhere.

For the last 17 years, Apple's AIO offering has been the iMac. While the 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display is a far cry from the 9-inch black-and-white CRT Macintosh Steve Jobs unveiled way back in 1984, they share DNA and a common design philosophy: Simplicity is king.

In the beginning

The original Macintosh 128k wasn't a huge success, in part to the computer industry's response to the machine. While the simplicity and elegance is still obvious today, some looked at the computer as a toy—ill-equipped for real work.

Image Credit: iFixit

Part of this was due to the case and physical design of the machine. It was small and approachable, but because Apple kept users from being able to open the case and tinker—a standard at the time—many wrote it off before ever learning about its industry-changing software.

But Apple pressed on, rapidly innovating on the original design. The majority of early Macs were of the same "compact" design as the original—an all-in-one case built around a 9-inch black and white CRT—but the company iterated by adding internal hard drives, better disk drives and more RAM. The chassis was finally retired when the Color Classic II (also named the Performa 275) was pulled from shelves with little fanfare in May of 1994.

Losing the all-in-one way

By 1994, Apple was a mess. The company had multiple competing Macintosh product lines, few of which were successful.

One such line was the Perfoma: The computers were made up largely of recycled Mac internals from other lines, hidden within a case sporting a built-in 14-inch color CRT. They were often found in schools and homes, while the Quadras and Power Mac lines were sold to the higher end of the market.

These mid-90s all-in-one Macs are mostly all forgettable: Many of them were re-badged and named over the years, contributing to some of the most confusing product names I've ever come across.

There is one exceptional machine in the bunch: the Mac TV, which shipped with a black case and built-in TV tuner card. Past that, the all-in-one scene in the 1990s was a sea of endless, mind-numbing beige.

The turning point

When I was in high school, I worked at the student newspaper, laying out pages on a 1998 Power Macintosh G3 All-in-One.

Image Credit: Jonathan Zufi, iconicbook.com

I'm of the mindset that this machine—dubbed the "Molar Mac" for its tooth-like appearance{.nofollow}—is historically important, as it helped reintroduce the Mac community to AIOs that mattered. It's also the closest in design to Apple's perhaps most significant AIO of the 1990s: The original iMac, with its translucent plastic and swooping curves. The Molar Mac has largely been forgotten, set out to pasture with a bunch of other old Macs that no one really remembers. But it paved the way for something great.

The peak

In early 1998, Steve Jobs took the stage to introduce the original iMac. Clad in "bondi blue" translucent plastic, the design was a true return to the all-in-one design.

Gone were the expansion cards found in the Molar Mac. This iMac—with the exception of a small door allowing the user to add more RAM—was a sealed system. And, like the Macintosh 128k, it was approachable and friendly. It brought magic back to the Macintosh, and set the stage for Apple's return to profitability.

The 2000s are chock-full of some great iMacs. The original G3 line grew and expanded at an astonishing rate, only to be followed by the iMac "Sunflower" G4, the iMac G5 and, of course, an entire line of Intel-powered machines that range from the original 17-inch Core Duo machine in 2006 to today's Retina-infused 27-inch monster.

Looking toward the future

As great as the current iMacs are, I can't help but think the best days of the all-in-one design are behind it. I think there will always be room for the iMac in Apple's lineup, but it's clearly not where the company is making most of its money. That hasn't been true for a long time: Apple now sells way more notebooks than desktops, and that trend isn't going to reverse anytime soon. While the Retina iMac is a huge step forward, notebooks and iOS devices are where Apple is currently doing its strongest hardware work. (Of course, given that both are closed AIO systems, you could say that Apple's taken a bit of its history forward even as the iMac line starts to fade.)

No matter what comes in the years ahead for computers, iOS devices, or cars, the iMac will always have a special place in the company's—and many users's—hearts. I know it does in mine.

Looking for a special gift for that mega Apple enthusiast in your life? How about the newest edition of an absolutely stunning coffee table book that features lush, beautiful photographs of Apple devices?

Jonathan Zufi has published a second revision to his gorgeous coffee table book on Apple design, Iconic: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation. Those in the U.S. who already have the first edition should be receiving a supplement in the mail, according to the Iconic blog; everyone outside the U.S. can order it for $12, which covers shipping.

Iconic is a lush volume filled with full-color photographs of hundreds of Apple products that run the entire gamut of Apple's existence: Desktop machines like the Apple II, the Apple IIc and the Macintosh to laptops like the first Macintosh Portable, the iconic (pardon the pun) iBook, and the MacBook Pro, and handheld devices like the Newton MessagePad, iPhone, iPod and iPad.

Apple peripherals get some love, too — everything from mice and printers that were made back in the Apple II days. Even Apple's unique packaging of these devices gets some attention. But perhaps some of the most thought-provoking material in the book involve the myriad and rare prototypes that never got beyond the design stage, which Zufi has worked with collectors to document and photograph.

The supplement adds 16 new pages of photos with a big focus on prototype machines that Zufi was able to photograph since the original book was published; you'll get a look at a prototype Mac mini with an iPod docking port, built into it, for example and a transparent Macintosh SE prototype, along with newer devices like the 2013 Mac Pro and the iPhone 5s.

All the photos are shot to brilliantly highlight the machine's design, with quotes and commentary from Apple publications and Apple executives through the years added, so it's not just photos. I have the first edition of Iconic (and recently received the supplement) — Zufi's attention to detail and treatment of the subject material shows both a tender love of Apple gear and a true understanding of how the company itself likes to showcase its products. If you appreciate Apple's aesthetic in not only its design but its marketing and presentation, you'll really admire what Zufi has done here.

Zufi has published Iconic in several different editions, including a "Special Edition" that includes a cleverly designed cover that mimics the design of 80s-era Apple hardware and an "Ultimate edition" with a pulsing power button on the cover. Of course, you don't need to go crazy — the other editions are stunning, too, and will be a welcome treat for any true Apple fan this holiday season. The Classic edition is available from online and brick and mortar retailers; the other editions can be ordered directly from the publisher on the web site.

• $54.30 - Order now

It was a long road to OS X 10.9 Mavericks. Mac OS X was first introduced as a public beta (codenamed Kodiak) in September of 2000, and beta it was - a radical departure from Mac OS 9, both in look (introducing the "Aqua" interface) and in operation. Mac OS X was built on a UNIX foundation, and was more closely related to the NextStep operating system that had been developed by NeXT, the computing company Steve Jobs founded between stints running Apple.

OS X 10.0 Cheetah gave way to OS X 10.1 Puma, and then OS X 10.2 Jaguar. Over the years Apple iteratively improved OS X, typically waiting until a major release before introducing major new features, capabilities and applications. Early on Apple cranked out changes to OS X on an annual basis, but once the company hit Mac OS X 10.3 Panther (Pinot), it slowed down, changing to a biannual upgrade cycle.

Apple wasn't standing still between those upgrades, either. By 2005 the PowerPC chip that had served as the basis for Macs throughout the 90s was pushing its limits. Fortunately, Apple hedged its bets, and had been working to keep OS X operating on Intel hardware as well. OS X 10.4 Tiger (Merlot) was the transition point, specifically OS X 10.4.4 Tiger (Chardonay). And so Apple was able to migrate successfully to a different microprocessor architecture without having to start over at square one.

Since then Apple's stayed the course. OS X 10.5 Leopard (Chablis) led to the "no new features" feature release of OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, which lead to OS X 10.7 Lion (Barolo). With the introduction of Mountain Lion in 10.8 (Zinfandel), it was clear that Apple was resuming its annual upgrade cycle again, to iteratively make changes to the operating system to keep up with new technology and user expectations. And that brings us to today and the launch of OS X 10.9 Mavericks (Cabernet), the first installment of the operating system not to carry a big cat's name.

To that end, Apple has run out of big cats to name their operating system. So starting with Mavericks, they've switched to a nomenclature based on places in California, Apple's home state - places that Apple says its employees draw their inspiration from.

Mavericks is actually a surfing spot in Northern California, not too far from Half Moon Bay. That's a local spot for Apple employees, to be sure - it's in San Mateo County, only about 30 miles from Apple's corporate headquarters.

Apple's renewed focus on the Mac and Mac software is promising. If past is prologue, we should get our first look at OS X 10.10 (Syrah) in 2014. What features will it have, and what California landmark will it call home? We'll find out next year.

• Read the full OS X Mavericks review
• Watch/listen to the OS X Mavericks review podcast
• Join in on the OS X Mavericks forum discussions

Tony Fadell, former head of iPod at Apple, recently did an interview about his new product, the Nest thermostat, but also touched on the challenges of bringing the original iPod to market. The interviewer, Leo Kelion, pushed Fadell hard on his feelings about recently ousted senior vice-president of iOS, Scott Forstall, which whom Fadell is rumored not have gotten along, and about how Apple will fare now, sans-Forstall. Here's the's horrible BBC video embed:

So, in sum, Fadell seems to be enjoying his schadenfreude spritzers, thinks Apple will be just fine, and likes where he's going with the Nest.

Source: BBC

Now that Apple has announced that senior-vice-president of iOS, Scott Forstall was leaving the company, amid storms and market-closings, various additional information is surfacing on the story, at least from Apple's perspective. Namely, it's now being claimed that Forstall was fired.

First up, Mark Gurman from 9to5Mac got his hands on the memo Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, sent to employees following the news, which unlike the press release, takes the time to thank Forstall.

However, Adam Lashinsky from Fortune is being told that things weren't so happy behind Apple's famously closed doors.

Lashinsky also says Forstall refused to sign the iOS 6 Maps apology letter, something echoed by Nick Wingfield of the New York Times:

Chris Ziegler of The Verge has heard likewise.

Om Malik of GigaOm claims Forstall's departure wasn't planned long in advance, and that reaction inside Apple has been largely positive.

Again, all this reads like Apple's perspective on the matter. Jessica E. Lessin of The Wall Street Journal also repeats the maps and apology letter story, but then offers some perspective from whats seems like Forstall's perspective. First, that he believed Apple could handle maps without apologizing, but also:

If there was indeed a power struggle or a contention as to who would guide Apple's products going forward, however, it seems inarguable that Forstall lost. It also seems like Apple was willing to make hard decisions and to sacrifice even extremely talented, long tenured individuals for what they felt was the good of the company moving forward.

If it came down to a choice between Jony Ive (and Bob Mansfield) and Scott Forstall, or of Tim Cook's leadership and Scott Forstall's ambitions, it's tough to argue the call. It's not so tough to see the faith and trust being put into Jony Ive and his design sensibilities, which have so far been manifested more in hardware than software, and Craig Federighi's engineering skills, which have only recently earned him the top spot in OS X, never mind iOS.

This is either an Apple -- and more specifically a Tim Cook -- as rightly confident in their ability to manage people as they are in their ability to project product, or an Apple already fraying at the seams about to experience another serious escalation in load and stress.

I'm very much hoping it's the former.

Source: 9to5Mac, Fortune, New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Verge, GigaOm

Apple announced today that Scott Forstall, senior vice-president of iOS, and John Browett, recent SVP of retail, are leaving the company. Forstall, who came to Apple from NeXT when Steve Jobs returned to the company, will stay on until next year as an advisor to Tim Cook. John Browett sounds like he's leaving far more immediately. Jony Ive, Eddy Cue, Craig Federighi, and Bob Manfield will be divvying up a lot of their duties. Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, said in the press release:

While it's impossible to separate fact from fiction from simple politicking, Forstall had reportedly been a strong personality at Apple, and was rumored to have been butting heads with Jony Ive, among others, over the direction of Apple design. He was also in charge of the troubled launches of both Siri, which suffered repeated network and reliability problems, and iOS 6 maps, whose geographical data issues turned into a public relations problem for Apple. The press release certainly reads more as a welcome for Ive in his new roll than anything resembling a grateful farewell to Forstall for his work to date.

Jony Ive, longtime SVP of Industrial Design, will take over Human Interface across Apple.

Eddy Cue, promoted to SVP of Internet and Services following the ill-fated MobileMe launch, which take on Siri and Maps.

Craig Federighi, who took over OS X following the departure of Bertrand Serlet, will also take on iOS.

Bob Mansfield, who left his post as SVP of Hardware Engineering, only to return as SVP of [nothing specified] will now lead a new group called Technologies.

Apple will conduct a search to replace Browett as the head of retail. Browett was the subject of controversy recently when cuts to Apple store staff and rumored shifts in priority led to some embarrassing publicity and backpedaling.

Source: Apple PR

There were a couple of interesting comments on usability, interface, and experience today, one coming from Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, who acknowledged they bet wrong on HTML5, and the other from unnamed sources who suggest Apple is deeply split along Scot Forstall vs Jonathan Ive lines when it comes to skeuomorphic vs more digitally authentic design.

Zuckerberg made his mea culpa on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt, according to Drew Olanoff of TechCrunch he said:

HTML5, which is a catch-all term for the languages used to show content and enable interactivity on the modern web (including HTML markup, CSS stylings, and JavaScript programming), has many advantages. It's abstracted. It's updatable outside the software review process. It's widely known. It's robust. But it's still doesn't perform well enough to provide a great user experience. Native code combined with web-fed data has proven time and again to provide both great performance and great content. Apple learned this when they dumped widgets for built-in apps in iOS 1.0 in 2007, dumped web apps for the App Store in iOS 2.0 in 2008, and have been following that path ever since. It took Facebook until 2012.

Austin Carr at Fast Company, meanwhile, asks, "Will Apple’s Tacky Software-Design Philosophy Cause A Revolt?". He's referring to skeuomorphism, which means taking design or ornamentation from the real world and transposing it to the digital world in an attempt to make a more familiar, relatable, fancy, or fun interface. For example, making a reading app look and work like a real world book.

Despite the provocative headline, however, there are some problems with the core assumptions. For example, not all fancy, elaborate, even ostentatious designs are skeuomorphic or vice versa. Wrapping something in leather doesn't make it skeuomorphic, and making something skeuomorphic doesn't mean it has to involve radio knobs or needle pointers. Even if we restrict it to actual skeuomorphism, there's very little argument on either side of the issue. Does skeuomorphism add to the experience or take away? Add to the information density or or the noise? Does it lower user stress or increase it? Does it make the app more accessible or less accessible? More visually interesting or more distracting?

The question isn't whether skeuomorphism is good or bad, but is Apple currently using it effectively in iOS and OS X? In some cases, I think so. In others, I think they've missed the mark. But design is a process not a end point. It's looping iterations.

(Speaking of which, for really great takes on skeuomorphism from some of the people most directly involved and invested, check out the guests we've had on our Iterate podcast, especially de With, Mantia, Maheux, Brichter, Jardine, and Wiskus.)

Whatever your thoughts on HTML5 and skeumorphism, though, the most influential companies in the world caring deeply about usability, interface, and experience is an insanely great thing.

The single most fascinating aspect of the ongoing Apple vs. Samsung trials continues to be the wealth of historical information they're unearthing about the design and development of the iPhone and iPad. Yesterday, Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing. Phil Schiller, and senior vice president of iOS, Scott Forstall, both took the stand and shared an unprecedented look into the events and timelines surrounding the creation of Apple's iPhone and iPad. Bryan Bishop broke down the testimony for The Verge. Here's the timeline:

• Phil Schiller said the project began with the idea of putting entertainment content on phones. (Because phones back then weren't as good as iPods)
• In 2003, Apple began working on the tablet that would become the iPad
• In 2004, they shifted focus from tablet to phone, and the device that would become the iPhone
• They used a table view as a proof of concept. (We've heard this from Steve Jobs before -- that he was sold on the project after seeing inertial scrolling and the rubber-band physics.)
• Forstall was only allowed to recruit from within Apple, and couldn't tell anyone what they'd be working on until they were on board. (He could tell them they'd be giving up nights and weekends.)
• Forstall repeated the Jobs' mantra that they made the phone they themselves wanted to own
• Of the various "colors", "Project Purple" went ahead as the iPhone project and the building the team took over became the "Purple Dorm", complete with a "The first rule of Fight Club is not to talk about Fight Club" poster on the door.
• Forstall had the idea for tap-to-zoom while using early prototypes.
• Schiller said sales for the original iPhone exceeded expectations.
• Schiller said sales of subsequent iPhones have been greater than all generations previous.
• After the iPhone, Apple moved back to the iPad project.
• Schiller said Apple was going for great design, ease of use, and lust factor with the project.

So, not only have we seen early prototypes of both devices, including the "Project Purple" prototype itself, but we're getting even more information about the timeline and the thinking behind the product development process.

And again, the typically ultra-secretive Apple's willingness to share this information provides tremendous insight into just how genuinely they feel wronged and want to absolutely trounce Samsung in court.

And it's only been the first week.

Source: The Verge

In 2011, Apple SVP of Internet Services, Eddy Cue, apparently emailed Apple SVP of iOS, Scott Forstall, that Apple's then CEO, the late Steve Jobs was open to the idea of a Samsung Galaxy Tab sized iPad mini. This came to light as part of the ongoing Apple vs. Samsung, according to The Verge's Bryan Bishop:

One of the most oft-repeated, and often taken out of context, criticisms levied against the very idea of a 7.x-inch iPad is that in October of 2010, Steve Jobs said that 7-inch tablets were terrible and would be DOA when they hit the market.

That's the same Steve Jobs, of course, who once said no one wanted to watch video on an iPod, before introducing the iPod video, and that Apple would never make a phone, before introducing the iPhone, and that no one wanted to read, before introducing iBooks.

The public statements of CEO's are just that -- public statements, with all the strategy, including misdirection, that that can imply. They're not indicative of anything other than they're exactly what a CEO, in this case Steve Jobs, wants everyone to hear at a certain point in time.

This email correspondence between on the other hand, if accurate, is different. It's an internal communication. It's what Eddy Cue wanted Scott Forstall to hear at that specific point in time.

It doesn't negate any effect Steve Jobs saying 7-inch tablets were terrible could have on the likelihood of Apple making an iPad mini, however, because there never was any beyond misquotes and misunderstandings.

The 7-inch tablets Jobs was referring to were exactly that -- 7-inches in size, made by competitors, not running iPad iOS, and were, frankly, terrible and were, as it turns out, DOA.

What it does show is, perhaps, part of Apple's process and thinking around bringing the rumored iPad mini to market, and their timeline. And that's interesting.

Tim Cook once said the thing that most impressed him about Steve Jobs was Jobs' ability to change his mind, and to change direction with incredible speed.

If and when Apple chooses to release an iPad mini, it will be different in kind from existing small form factor tablets that were on the market at the time. Whether it succeeds or not, it will be different than what Steve Jobs was referring to in 2010 -- it will be what he was "receptive" to in 2011, and for very specific reasons.

It won't be a 7-inch tablet. It'll be a 7.85-inch or thereabouts iPad.

Source: The Verge

Apple director Jerome B. York passed away today at the age of 71. President and CEO of Harwinton Capital, former CFO of IBM and Chrysler, and former vice chairman of Tracinda, he joined Apple's board when Steve Jobs came back to the company. Apple's CEO had the following to say:

Apple is also paying respects via the Apple.com home page (pictured above).

All of our hearts and condolences go out to the York family.