Revisit 40 years of Mac with this web archive showcasing images and videos of Apple’s greatest home computers

40 years of Mac
(Image credit: mac40th)

If you have a bit of Apple nostalgia and a few spare minutes, you can surf through the last 40 years of Mac history with just a few clicks. 

A site called Mac40th has launched that showcases photos from the book Iconic: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation, allowing you to see them for free. According to the site: “You'll see a continuous stream of random Macs - just keep clicking 'Show me more Macs' and that's what you'll get. If you're a hardcore Mac fan, this site should keep you busy for a very long time.”

As it takes you through the best Mac designs of all time, you can expect to find the original Macintosh with its more blocky design, the iconic iMac G3 with all its colors, and the minimalistic 2022 Mac Studio.  One quick flick through here shows off just how memorable Apple has been for decades. Flicking through the site only further proves just how Apple has kept the Macintosh memorable for four decades.

A string look and feel — iMore’s take

After becoming an adopter of the Mac after the relatively understated MacBook Air launched in 2008, it’s hard to deny just how iconic the Mac has been for so long. These photos from Mac40th don’t quite display the whole picture, as an abundance of adverts on the site show off another one of the Mac’s best selling points — its marketing. 

Apple’s “Computer for the rest of us” ad from 1984 drives this point home. Many personal computers came with entire handbooks on how to learn and operate them, whereas the Macintosh 128K came with a single leaflet. It was quite powerful for the time but, most importantly, it was accessible and fast. 

That advert is only thirty seconds long yet gets the point across immediately. 40 years later, and with a MacBook Pro underneath my fingertips, that lesson has driven Apple to be one of the leading tech companies in the world — Apple’s machines work and they work well, and I’m sure they will for another 40 years, and beyond. 

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James Bentley

James is a staff writer and general Jack of all trades at iMore. With news, features, reviews, and guides under his belt, he has always liked Apple for its unique branding and distinctive style. Originally buying a Macbook for music and video production, he has since gone on to join the Apple ecosystem with as many devices as he can fit on his person. 

With a degree in Law and Media and being a little too young to move onto the next step of his law career, James started writing from his bedroom about games, movies, tech, and anything else he could think of. Within months, this turned into a fully-fledged career as a freelance journalist. Before joining iMore, he was a staff writer at Gfinity and saw himself published at sites like TechRadar, NME, and Eurogamer. 

As his extensive portfolio implies, James was predominantly a games journalist before joining iMore and brings with him a unique perspective on Apple itself. When not working, he is trying to catch up with the movies and albums of the year, as well as finally finishing the Yakuza series. If you like Midwest emo music or pretentious indie games that will make you cry, he’ll talk your ear off.