"You've come a long way, baby!"

I love Macs. I have for a long time. I believe that they are far superior to Microsoft Windows. Linux is pretty cool though. I am not so anti-Windows that I won't even be friends with a Windows user but needless to say, I am biased. Here's one reason. -

What does the blog post title have to do with this? Well, I just wanted to dive into the history of the Mac as we know it today.

1989

Let's take ourselves back to 1989. Eternal Flame by The Bangles and Madonna's Like a Prayer were at the top of the charts. The Cosby Show, Cheers, and America's Funniest Home Videos (the first time) were some of our prime time favs. Good Morning Vietnam, Crocodile Dundee II, Big, Three Men and A Baby were all Box Office Hits.

As for the Apple company, they had released their first portable computer, aptly named "The Macintosh Portable" weighing in at a muscle-building 15 pounds. It had a 40 MB hard drive (not GB. This is not a typo.)

1994

Boyz II Men all melted our hearts with their smooth rhymes and Celine Dion topped the charts with "The Power of Love". Jim Carrey was "The Mask", Harrison Ford was fighting South American drug cartels as Jack Ryan in "Clear and Present Danger" and (at the time) Robin Williams all made us laugh and cry while he dressed up like an old nanny in Mrs. Doubtfire. Seinfeld, Friends, and Home Improvement all ruled prime time TV. Those were the times! My family went to Disneyland that year for summer vacation.


Apple made some serious improvements from their first portable computer. 1994 was the year of the Powerbook 520. They shed some weight since the Macintosh Portable. This one only weighed around 5 pounds. 320 MB Hard Drive. $2,270 (of 1990's dollars) would get you a 9.5" grayscale screen with a max resolution of 640 x 480.

1999

Y2K was upon us. Pokemon was annoyingly popular. The Blair Witch Project freaked us all out. The Star Wars franchise was revived with the spring release of "The Phantom Menace" (in my personal opinion, it wasn't the best Star Wars movie. But Darth Maul certainly kicked Jedi butts!)

Apple Macs were becoming a little more modern looking. Apple released a fun new iBook in the late summer right before school started. It was announced during MacWorld in July and was one of the most anticipated new Apple Computer ever. Comes in a variety of flavors (colors). Yum!






2003

Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes the next beloved Governor of California AND has time to star in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Saddam Hussein is captured by U.S. Forces. The book "Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix" is released. We finally get to find out if Frodo is strong enough to throw The One Ring into the fires of Mount Doom forever eliminating evil from Middle Earth. Apple launches the iTunes Store that turns out to be a huge success selling 10 million (10,000,000) songs in just four (4) months.

Now the Macs are becoming a little more recognizable with an iBook G4 (I am still using my Powerbook G4.) Models starting at $1099


2008

Well, unless you have lived in a 'bubble home' underneath the ocean for a year then I'm sure you have a pretty good idea of the 'goings-on' and events of 2008. Social networking and Web 2.0 are in full swing. (I personally, am anxiously awaiting Web 3.0). Here is the 15" Powerbook that I would love to upgrade to from my 2003 Powerbook. I have kept the software up-to-date and have had the innards upgraded (but it's maxed out now) I want one of these for photography and graphic design mostly.


If you made it down this far in the blog post then I commend you! You must like Macs too! If you like Mac then bookmark this post or share it with a friend!

Sources: http://www.apple-history.com/
http://www.historycentral.com/20th
http://www.thepeoplehistory.com