CultCast #277 - MORE weird & wacky Apple products that time forgot!

The CultCast - A podcast by America's favorite Apple Podcast - Fridays

Categories:

Technology

This week:

  • We’ve found even MORE of the weirdest and wackiest Apple products that time forgot
  • The best new features in iOS 10.3 and macOS 10.12.4.
  • Rumors mills say Apple may resurrect the PowerBook!
  • iPhone 8 rumors point to a backside TouchID
  • The sources of Steve Jobs best one-liners
  • A wobbly British guy tries to ski
 
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We also want to give Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com a  thanks for the great music you hear on today's show.
On the show this week

@erfon / @bst3r / @lkahney

 

Intro: A young Jony Ive on the 20th Anniversary Mac
 
‘iPhone Edition’ could have rear-facing Touch ID sensor
  • A (somewhat sketchy) new report claims that the tenth anniversary iPhone, commonly referred to as the iPhone 8, will instead by called the iPhone Edition.
  • In addition, it suggests that the major form factor redesign that’s been reported on may turn out to be less drastic than some are imagining — although changes will include features like a rear-mounted Touch ID sensor.
  • According to the report, which is accompanied by renders showing the design, the iPhone Edition won’t feature a Touch ID sensor embedded beneath the display, but rather a fingerprint scanner on the rear of the device.
  • It also won’t come with the glass back plate, but will instead stick to having a metal back plate as the result of glass’ tendency to shatter when dropped
 
Does Apple trademark filing mean PowerBook is coming back?
  • A couple of news outlets are flipping their lid over the news that Apple has filed a new worldwide trademark for the word “PowerBook,” the name of Apple’s pre-MacBook laptop series, which ran from 1991 until 2006.
  • In fact, a lot of Apple’s trademarks are about stopping its assets falling into other company’s hands — as happened when rival watchmaker Swatch decided to trademark Steve Jobs’ iconic “One more thing” catchphrase, shortly after Apple began competing with it in the watch business.
 
Swiss watchmaker hits back at Apple by trademarking ‘One more thing’
  • This isn’t the first time Apple has had people try to pilfer its well-known “One more thing” phrase. At the launch of Apple ripoff artist Xiaomi’ Mi 4 smartphone, CEO Lei Jun “borrowed” Apple’s tagline while also wearing a black top and blue jeans.
  • The trademark was registered in Germany in May, but was granted in 2015.
  • It was originally a quotation by Jobs of Peter Falk’s Columbo character
  • “Stay hungry, stay foolish” - Whole Earth Catalog, a magazine Steve Jobs loved.
 
20th Anniversary Mac
  • one of the first Macs to be designed by Jony Ive, and it paved the way for the vertical design of computer that forms today's iMacIt looked like a movie prop.  The beautiful machine every 90s CEO would covet.
  • April 1, 1996 marked 20 years since the day that Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne came together to form Apple Computer, and they decided to release the 20th Anniversary Mac to celebrate this momentous occasion.
  • It featured a a TV/FM tuner, an S-Video input card, and a custom-made Bose sound system including two "Jewel” speakers, and a subwoofer built into the externally located power supply "base unit”.
  • Upon unveiling, the TAM was predicted to cost US$9,000, which would include a direct-to-door concierge delivery service. At release the price was reduced to $7,499.  Problem was, it similar performance as the PowerMac 6500, a machine costing just $2,999.
  • In the middle of its sales' lifespan Apple dropped the price further to around US$3,500, and finally upon discontinuation in March 1998 the price was set to US$1,995. Customers who paid full price for the TAM, and then complained to Apple when the price was so drastically cut, were offered a free high-end Powerbook as compensation.
 
 
TimeBand
It's hard to imagine, but there was actually a time when the Apple freely shared its concepts with the world. In 1991, under the leadership of John Scully, Apple shared a bunch of design concepts with a Japanese magazine called Axis.
 
One of the strange products included in the spread was a wearable wrist computer called TimeBand.
Like an iPad mini living on your wrist!
 
 
The beautiful, the portable, Apple PowerCD