Macintosh

The Mac TV Commercial That Changed The World

January 22, 2018 General

That iconic TV commercial which changed computing, the Macintosh “1984” ad, was aired this day on January 22, 1984, during the telecast of Super Bowl XVIII. It’s difficult to imagine computing before Macintosh’s GUI interaction where users worked with command-line interfaces (CLI) which required memorizing commands (I worked with CLIs once). Which also reminds me of the time when I laid my hands on my first Mac, that experience was pretty amazing!

[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“1984” was a TV commercial that introduced the Apple Macintosh personal computer. It was conceived by Steve Hayden, Brent Thomas and Lee Clow at Chiat/Day, produced by Fairbanks Films and directed by the legendary Ridley Scott. English athlete Anya Major performed as the unnamed heroine and David Graham as the Big Brother. It was first aired in 10 local outlets in the U.S. but it’s second televised airing, and the only national airing, was on January 22, 1984, during a break in the third quarter of the telecast of Super Bowl XVII by CBS. The ad was an allusion to breaking away from the conformity set by the “Big Brother” (IBM machines).[/perfectpullquote]

Cleaning Up My Calendar And The Chaos

January 28, 2016 General Technology

I signed up for a 1-hour webinar for creating a Business Model Canvas in November 2015 and I accepted a calendar (.iCal) invite for the event from my email account. It’s always convenient as a reminder with the event details now etched for eternity in my Calendar on Mac and Google. Soon after, the organizer wrote back saying there was a mistake from their side. The platform used to send the invites “wasn’t meeting the standards for a smooth broadcast”. I thought how serious could this be. My calendar displayed some unidentified entries, such as meeting invites from John Doe, also the host of this webinar, and I deleted them steadfastly. It was chaotic and I falsely thought that my tragedy has ended here.

I’m an infrequent Calendar user on Mac. But ever since this November incident, I started receiving a server connection error every time I would open it. I only realized today that this silly server mishap had rained a deluge of personal entries from John Doe’s calendar onto my calendar entries, right back up to 2011! Apart from the many recurring meetings, there was a court appearance for a traffic offense, some haircut schedules, details on flights, itineraries, and hotel stays, dinner meetings with executives, and more. Not to mention the calendar displayed time and place particulars as well. Much embarrassing as it was for me to know such intimate information from John’s personal schedule, he would be horrified to learn about this rather bizarre leak to more than 20 participants of this seminar!

I began a clean-up operation lasting about an hour, painstakingly glancing and deleting every single entry I could find until 2011 so far. Unfortunately, some of the deleted entries would have sent email notifications causing inconvenience to its participants but it doesn’t matter to me. My calendar was mutilated and my privacy has been wrecked and it led to unimaginable turmoil, thanks to some web platform broadcast which went awry. Now I only hope that John Doe doesn’t have a long-winded career and his entries don’t go far back in time. This incident has taught me an invaluable lesson, that convenience is sometimes costly.

At last, Safari for Windows!

June 12, 2007 Design

I was pleased to hear the good news that Apple launched their Safari browser for Windows XP and Vista. I am surprised but happy that the Windows version has finally arrived. Does this mean the beginning of the end for its closest rival Firefox? we’ll have to wait and see.

Not amongst those willing to wait, I have installed Safari and I am writing this blurb from it. You can get the latest Public Beta 3 from this place and have fun!

Apple Launches MacbookPro

January 11, 2006 Design

Apple MacbookproApple never fails to surprise you. Rather it’s a brand you’d always expect some fresh ideas. At the Macworld conference, Steve Jobs unveiled the new Intel chip based MacbookPro. This is the first product to be launched with Intel based chips after Apple switched from IBM Power PC chips.

The Macbookpros are powered by Intel’s new Core Duo processor technology and promise to be 4 times powerful then the G4s!

Also I was happy to note that my long standing wish of including an FM radio along with the iPods has come true. Apple has introduced an FM remote control with the device so music lovers can now play FM radio stations while the information is flashed on their iPod LCDs. Pretty neat eh! Time to think about buying one now.

Aperture Launched

November 9, 2005 Design

Apple ApertureThis would be the greatest revelation as far as I am concerned. All this while I was feeling proud about Apple not succumbing to the market gimmicks of using Flash on their website. They have a novel way of seeking aesthetic value even in the most simplest of things. The fact that Apple was not using Flash anywhere across their website was a very challenging thought in itself because it was able to achieve good results without using the SWF technology.

Not any more. Apple has just launched it’s new software called Aperture and has used Flash beautifully on the official website. The black colour lends a certain entertaining aura, much to the liking of any photographer. If you are a designer and you want to see aesthetics marry usability then visit Apple.com.