The Mac at 40

Insanely Great - CHM

Watch the program on YouTube here! In January 1984, Steve Jobs unveiled the Apple Macintosh, an “insanely great” computer “for the rest of us” that changed the world—and Apple itself. Exemplifying a (counter) culture of changemakers, the Mac brought the graphical user interface to the masses and launched new connections for computing and creativity. It …

CHM

Here's a timely link. On this day 40 years ago, Apple unveiled the first Macintosh computer. Tonight, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, a truly insanely great panel of folks from that original Mac team are getting together to talk about the launch with journalists David Pogue and Steven Levy.

And the really great news is that if you find yourself, like me, many miles away, you can still watch live on the CHM YouTube stream. It's tonight at 7pm PT.

"It sure is great to get out of the bag."

Yesterday, I alluded to (and linked to) what is widely considered to be the best product launch of all time: Steve Jobs' unveiling of the iPhone. But the unveiling of the Mac is close, and even upstages it in showmanship in many ways – thanks in no small part to Jobs' bowtie. When Vangelis' Chariots of Fire theme hits, the audible cheers from the crowd, goosebumps. And it's just five minutes long.

Also worth watching the much longer event from a week later where Jobs and many of the same Mac team due at tonight's event were onstage at the Boston Computer Society General Meeting.

I won't lie, it definitely crossed my mind that I launched this site on January 22 – the day Apple debuted their iconic "1984" commercial during Super Bowl XVIII.