It may seem hard to believe especially to Apple's dedicated fanclub but it was 25 years ago this week that Apple first unveiled the Macintosh computer.
The shiny new product was showcased during an opulent (reported costs vary from $900,000 to $1.5 million) TV commercial directed by now- legendary director/producer Ridley Scott, which aired on 22 January that year during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII - although you couldn't actually buy one until a few days later on 24 January 1984.
Running Mac OS 1.0, the first-ever Mac featured a nine inch black and white screen with a 512x342 resolution. It had128k of RAM, 8Mhz of power and took 400k 3.5-inch floppy disks. The first Mac cost a mere $2,495 back then, and Apple sold about 72,000 in the first few months.
In the following clip, a much younger, healthier and hairier looking Steve Jobs walks a very appreciative crowd through the Macintosh 128k's amazing features scrolling text, basic animation and even a chess game. Jobs showed off the computer's ability to read text documents, with the machine verbally warning us "never trust a computer you can't lift."
The famous ad promoting the Mac 128k was also aired in cinemas. It referenced George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, and despite its expense, was named the best Superbowl ad in the 40 year history of the game two years ago.
What was your favourite Mac ad? Drop us a line at itpro@dennis.co.uk to let us know.
-
Bigger salaries, more burnout: Is the CISO role in crisis?In-depth CISOs are more stressed than ever before – but why is this and what can be done?
-
Cheap cyber crime kits can be bought on the dark web for less than $25News Research from NordVPN shows phishing kits are now widely available on the dark web and via messaging apps like Telegram, and are often selling for less than $25.
-
Apple discontinues the iMac ProNews Desktop product shake-up paves the way for new Apple Silicon-powered machines
-
M1 Mac mini users suffering Bluetooth connectivity problemsNews It’s unknown if the issue is in the new Apple silicon or the Big Sur OS
-
Apple starts accepting Mac trade-ins at retail storesNews Up until now, you could only trade in a used Mac online, which was unwieldy and time-consuming
-
Apple launches surprise desktop iMac and iMac Pro upgradesNews New iMac models have up to 9th-gen Core i9 processors and Vega Pro graphics
-
Apple unveils next-generation Mac miniNews Space grey device with five times the performance has been unveiled at special October event
-
Thousands of Macs exposed to EFI boot-up bugNews Some relatively new Macs haven't had a pre-boot update since they were first put on the market
-
Apple fixes its spammy calendar with Report Junk featureNews The new option lets you block spam iCloud calendar invites
-
Apple MacBook Retina 12in review - 'a superb choice, but challenging to fit into how you work'Reviews Apple upgrades specs and adds rose gold model for 2016 MacBook Retina 12in
