Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which has all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite-sized summary. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes well with a cup of coffee or tea on a Monday morning, but it’s also cool if you want to read it over lunch or dinner.
“The back of this thing looks better than the front of the other guys”
The iMac celebrated its 25th anniversary this weekend, and it was hard not to compare that joyful launch to the state of today’s Mac. The very first iMac felt like a cultural event, and its appearance in colleges and home offices around the world was a turning point in the development of consumer technology. These days, Apple is struggling to generate any of the same enthusiasm for a Mac launch, and it’s not surprising that sales are starting to decline.
Perhaps it is inevitable that a market sector becomes commoditized over the years and loses some of its hype. Or maybe Apple’s approach to the market has changed. For example, look at Steve Jobs’s famous quadrant, which featured prominently in that 1998 keynote: there were only four squares covering the flagship products it wanted to create at the intersections of consumer and professional, and desktop and portable. Imagine trying to fit the 2023 Mac lineup – Mac Studio, legacy Mac Pro and all – into a simple grid and then trying to fit that grid into a presentation slide. It’s much easier to get excited about a product when you understand how it fits into a range and who it’s for.
But the key to getting excited and inspired by a product is recognizing that it’s unlike anything you’ve seen before. The iMac was groundbreaking and innovative, surpassing modern PCs with its more user-friendly interface and easy way to connect to the Internet. Somewhat controversially, it was the first Mac to drop the floppy drive, but its USB port meant it was better equipped than previous machines to accommodate a wide variety of hardware.
It was, above all, aesthetically groundbreaking. The G3 iMac was arguably Jonny Ive’s finest hour, with a cute, colorful, translucent appearance that looked like nothing we’d seen before, but would influence its engineering design for years to come. In a landscape of beige boxes, the iMac was eccentric and tactile, and a little crazy. It was risky and different and certainly not perfect – that mouse, my goodness – but it was pleasure.
Compare that to the range of Macs that Apple currently sells. Where’s the madness? Where’s the fun? The MacBook Air doesn’t come in Bondi Blue, Lime, and Tangerine, but in blue-black, gray, silver, and the world’s most muted gold. The Mac mini is a sensible gray box. And the direct descendant of the G3 iMac, the 24-inch iMac, has replaced the spherical blob shape with a rectangle and doesn’t even have the courage of its colors, which hide their full vibrancy on the back, leaving the actual user with only a faded facsimile. sees .
It’s not easy to remain surprising and strange for a long period of time, and it was probably inevitable that the Mac would be less interesting a quarter of a century later. So the next question is this: can Apple generate the same excitement and affection in a different sphere? At WWDC, we may have our answer. Or not.
Video of the week
A quarter of a century ago, Steve Jobs introduced the iMac to the world. It was really a different time.
Trending: Top Stories
Finally, the iPad Pro may be about to become a real pro device.
Apple’s “parade of the terrible” is actually pretty good. Yes, we are talking about financial results.
We round up 5 small iOS 17 features that make a big difference (plus 1 that isn’t).
The battery life of the iPad Pro is terrible and Apple does nothing about the.
It turns out that the iPhone is actually a bargain compared to Android phones.
The first apple store union wants its employees to receive tips.
Apple is working with Google to get it off the air AirTag stalkers.
Even AirPods have been out since 2017, Apple still has no good way to update its earbuds.
The NYPD is handing out 500 AirTags to combat a recent one car theft epidemic.
AMD says it’s new Ryzen7840U chip beats the M2, but omits important data.
The rumor mill
A leak has revealed redesigned iOS 17 apps with a new one streamlined user interface.
A report claims that from Apple M3 Mac chip postponed to 2024.
An iPhone 15 supplier seems to have confirmed that solid state buttons are a no go.
If WWDC is approachingwhat does Apple have in store in May 2023?
Podcast of the week
What will Apple introduce at WWDC with iOS 17 and iPadOS 17? Maybe a little more than we expected! We talk about the possibilities in this episode of the Macworld Podcast.
You can watch every episode of the Macworld Podcast on Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our own site.
Software updates, bugs and issues
Apple finally has a faster way to patch security flaws.
Will Apple follow Google’s lead and remove the lock icon from Safari?
Apples watchOS 10 revision will spotlight widgets instead of apps.
And with that we are done for this week. To receive regular raids, sign up for our newsletters. You can also follow us on Twitter or on Facebook for discussion on the latest Apple news stories. See you next week, and stay Appley.
