April 25, 1990: Steve Jobs shuts down Pixar’s hardware division (yes, it used to have one!), ending production of the pricey Pixar Image Computer immediately.
Jobs sells the company’s hardware unit to Fremont, California-based imaging company Vicom Systems for a paltry $2 million.
The Apple Watch repeatedly saves lives around the world, thanks to its health monitoring features and emergency functions.
Here’s a comprehensive roundup of some of the most notable ways Apple Watch has saved people’s lives. From fit teenagers with undiagnosed health problems to car crash victims in danger of drowning, Apple’s smartwatch helps people cheat death in remarkable ways.
April 24, 2015: The original Apple Watch launch means consumers, who endured a seven-month wait after the device’s unveiling at a keynote the previous September, can finally strap an Apple wearable onto their wrists.
Apple CEO Tim Cook describes the smartwatch as the “next chapter in Apple history.” Behind the scenes, however, the first Apple Watch launch is a moment long in the making.
For the 10th anniversary of its launch, we compiled over a decade of Apple Watch history into a quick timeline. Starting with the original three collections — including models in solid 18 karat gold — all the way to today’s far more advanced (and sensible) Apple Watch Series 10 and Ultra 2.
The Apple Watch was the first major product introduction of Tim Cook’s reign as Apple CEO. There was immense pressure on Apple to prove that it could still innovate without Steve Jobs. While the Apple Watch wasn’t as flashy as the iPhone and iPad, it’s grown into an incredible business rife with breakthrough technology, in one of the most physically constrained form factors yet.
April 23, 2009: Less than a year after opening its virtual doors, the App Store reaches 1 billion downloads.
Peer-to-peer file sharing app Bump becomes the 1 billionth app to be downloaded. As a result of his purchase, 13-year-old Connor Mulcahey of Weston, Connecticut, wins a “1 Billion App Countdown” promotion.
He takes home an assortment of Apple products valued at more than $13,000, including a $10,000 iTunes gift card, a 32GB iPod touch, an Apple Time Capsule wireless router and a 17-inch MacBook Pro.
April 22, 2013: The world gets its first Apple car. Well, kind of. In reality, the iBeetle is a collaboration with German automaker Volkswagen that offers a car “stylistically linked” to Apple.
This means Apple-inspired colors, a built-in docking station for your iPhone, and a special app that lets you control the car’s features.
April 21, 1995: Rumors swirl that Japanese camera company Canon might take over Apple in either a partial or complete acquisition.
Speculation grows about a possible deal after Apple reveals its latest earnings, which show big improvement but still fall far short of Wall Street’s expectations.
April 20, 2010: A day after the most high-profile iPhone leak in history, tech news site Gizmodo dissects a prototype iPhone 4, then publishes the teardown — showing the world exactly what’s inside the soon-to-be-released device.
The iPhone 4 prototype, accidentally left in a bar by 27-year-old Apple software engineer Gray Powell, quickly becomes the biggest story in the tech world. And that’s where the trouble begins.
April 19, 1994: Gaston Bastiaens, the executive in charge of Apple’s revolutionary new Newton MessagePad product line, parts ways with the company.
“We can’t say whether he fell or was pushed,” says an Apple spokesman. Reports suggest that the departing Bastiaens, general manager of Apple’s personal interactive electronics division, is leaving due to his failure to make the Newton a financial success.
April 18, 1996: Apple unveils a massive $15 million promotional tie-in for the Mission: Impossible movie starring Tom Cruise.
Designed to promote the PowerBook, which Cruise uses in the spy flick, the marketing campaign comes at a particularly bad time. Attempting to climb back into the black after reporting its largest quarterly loss ever, Apple is in the middle of trying to perform its very own impossible mission. And that’s just the start of the problems.
April 17, 1977: The Apple II launch at the West Coast Computer Faire positions Apple at the forefront of the looming personal computer revolution.
The company’s first mass-market computer, the Apple II boasts an attractively machined case designed by Jerry Manock (who will later design the first Macintosh). It also packs a keyboard, BASIC compatibility and, most importantly, color graphics.
Fueled by some marketing savvy from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, the Apple II launch makes quite a splash at the San Francisco Bay Area’s first personal computer convention.
April 16, 2009: Apple hits back at Microsoft following an advertisement that criticizes Cupertino for failing to sell decent laptops for less than $1,000.
“A PC is no bargain when it doesn’t do what you want,” Mac PR director Bill Evans tells Bloomberg. “The one thing that both Apple and Microsoft can agree on is that everyone thinks the Mac is cool. With its great designs and advanced software, nothing matches it at any price.”
April 15, 1981: Apple CEO Mike Markkula defends the struggling Apple III computer with a surprisingly straightforward admission. The comment comes even as the company pushes an unorthodox “fix” for the Apple III motherboard, which tends to overheat due to a questionable design.
“It would be dishonest for me to sit here and say that it’s perfect,” Markkula tells The Wall Street Journal, after critics blast the new computer for its overheating motherboard. Apple’s official solution to the problem? Ask users to drop their Apple III from a height of 6 inches to reseat the chips.
April 14, 1986: The “low-cost” Macintosh 512Ke brings hardware upgrades — and a bit of confusion — to the low end of the Mac lineup.
The Mac 512Ke is an “enhanced” (hence the “e”) model of the Mac 512K. The upgrade addresses complaints that the original Mac lacked enough memory. The 512Ke adds a double-density 800KB floppy drive and a 128KB ROM to the Mac 512K formula.
April 13, 2005: The tech world gets excited when a sketchy rumor suggests Apple is building a tablet computer.
The Chinese-language report claims Quanta will build a 15-inch touchscreen tablet PC with detachable keyboard. Apple will supposedly ship the device in the first quarter of 2006. Things don’t turn out quite like that, but the rumor offers the first hint about Apple’s secret iPad project.
April 12, 1976: Apple’s third co-founder, a former Atari colleague of Steve Wozniak’s named Ron Wayne, cashes in his Apple shares for just $800.
Wayne, who owns a 10% stake in the company, throws in the towel after worrying that he doesn’t have the time or energy to properly invest in Apple. He later receives an extra $1,500 check to seal the deal. When he cashes it, he loses out on an investment that could have been worth billions.
“I was 40 and these kids were in their 20s,” Wayne told Cult of Mac decades later, referring to Wozniak and Steve Jobs. “They were whirlwinds — it was like having a tiger by the tail. If I had stayed with Apple I probably would have wound up the richest man in the cemetery.”
December 15, 2003: Almost eight months after launching the iTunes Music Store, Apple celebrates its 25 millionth download.
The song in question? Appropriately enough for this time of year, a Frank Sinatra cover* of the Christmas classic “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”
November 17, 1995: Apple releases the first beta version of its new Mac OS Copland operating system to approximately 50 developers. Not so much a Mac OS update as a totally new operating system, it offers next-gen features designed to help Apple take on the then-mighty Windows 95.
Sadly, Copland OS will never reach the public.
November 9, 1994: Gil Amelio, a businessman with a reputation as a talented turnaround artist, joins Apple’s board.
Coming off his impressive revitalization of two other tech companies, National Semiconductor and Rockwell International, Amelio’s appointment at Apple sparks widespread celebration. Many Apple watchers think his arrival means the company’s dark days are over. Sadly, Amelio’s turnaround tricks won’t work in Cupertino.
Apple only shows off its finished products, which makes the company’s secret prototypes and early concepts all the more fascinating. Details of these first-draft designs usually don’t come out until years after Apple dreams them up and discards them. Even if you’re well-versed in Apple history, these alternate-history unreleased Apple products will intrigue and confuse.
The wild and crazy ideas go back more than 40 years. If anything, it proves that Apple continuously skates toward the next hit. The quest for innovation continues, no matter whether the company is in dire straits or cruising on success. Keep reading or watch our video to see the wildest Apple products that might have been.
June 12, 2007: With iPhone frenzy hitting a fever pitch in the buildup to the device’s launch, journalist Walt Mossberg sends the Apple world into a tizzy by whipping out a prerelease unit during a speech. The Wall Street Journal columnist is one of a handful of tech writers given early access to Apple’s revolutionary smartphone so he can put it through its paces for a review.
Speaking at The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Presidents Forum, Mossberg says he isn’t sure whether he’ll give the iPhone a thumbs up. Worried doubters immediately fear Apple is about to drop a dud.
May 19, 1980: Apple introduces the Apple III at the National Computer Conference in Anaheim, California. After two years of development, the business-oriented computer arrives to follow the enormously successful Apple II. However, for a variety of reasons, the Apple III launch turns out to be the company’s first major misstep.
The Steve Jobs Archive’s first major release — a digital book titled Make Something Wonderful: Steve Jobs in his own words — will arrive April 11.
Despite the announcement coming in an email from the archive on April Fools’ Day, the news appears to be genuine. And that includes the part about the e-book, which is filled with Jobs’ emails, conversations, photos and more, being free online for all.
December 14, 1999: Apple acquires the domain name www.iphone.org, prompting years of speculation that Cupertino is considering building a cellphone. While the news generates interest, some take it as a warning sign.
Apple only recently abandoned the kind of non-computer projects like games consoles, PDAs and digital cameras that proved to be dead ends earlier in the decade. An Apple phone could never be a thing, right?
In some ways, it’s hard to remember what the world looked like before Apple arrived in 1976. The upstart company made computing consumer-friendly, fashionable and, ultimately, ubiquitous.
In just four and a half decades, Apple made a surprisingly big impact on the tech scene and the world at large.
As we look back on the company’s 45th birthday this week, we take stock of 45 ways Apple put a ding in the universe. Hit the highlights in this week’s issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Get the free app to enjoy the stories on your iOS device. Or read them on the web via the link stacks below.