Today in Apple history - page 18

While Apple originally introduced the diminutive Mac mini in 2005, it was on June 15, 2010, that it launched the sleek, unibody aluminum Mac mini redesign that persists to this day.

Starting at $699, the mid-2010 era Mac mini gave users a 2.4-GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 2 GB of RAM, and a 320 GB hard drive. It also boasted an HDMI-out port for the first time, an SD card reader, a dazzling new NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics chip and — very excitingly — no power brick, since all the power circuitry was housed inside the minimalist device, which stood at a not-so-imposing 1.4 inches tall.

Under Tim Cook’s leadership, Apple has been upping its focus on teaching kids to program — thanks to events such as its free “Hour of Code” classes at Apple Stores around the world.

But Apple’s been helping introduce young people to coding for far longer than that. In fact, years before Apple ushered in its Swift Playgrounds app as it did this week at WWDC, it helped popularize home programming thanks to Apple Logo, a basic coding language which found success on the Apple II.

June 13, 1989: Canon Inc. invests $100 million in NeXT Inc., the computer company founded by Steve Jobs after he left Apple.

The massive cash infusion gives Canon a 16.67% stake in NeXT. It also helps the money-losing company find a direction that ultimately leads Jobs back to Cupertino.

In the music industry, they talk about the “difficult second album.” Fortunately that didn’t hold true when it came to Apple releasing its highly successful second-gen iPhone, which it unveiled for the first time on June 9, 2008.

Adding GPS, 3G data and a higher-quality build than its predecessor, the iPhone 3G was arguably just as revolutionary for what it did on the software side. iOS 2 arrived at the same time, and introduced push email, turn-by-turn navigation and, most significantly of all, an App Store — something Steve Jobs had previously been adamant Apple would’t allow.

Check out the debut of the iPhone 3G below.