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Unofficial Apple Archive

699 points by todotask 7y ago

telegrammae 7y ago
Apple's design of 10-15 years ago looks excellent even today. Truly - good design does not lose its attractiveness as styles and standards change. Most icons, fonts, panels, colors of most of their old software and promotional materials look very pleasant, even in low resolution.
- jdofaz 7y ago
  It comes down to your taste, I thought aqua and the lickable interface was ugly then, and now.
- throwaway2048 7y ago
  the original osx pinstripe look is pretty hideous, and the faux glossy emboss look hasn't aged well either https://images.techhive.com/images/article/2016/01/mac-os-x-public-beta-05-100637717-large.png https://images.techhive.com/images/article/2016/01/mac-os-x-...
  - ceejayoz 7y ago
    We'll say the same about flat buttons-that-don't-look-like-buttons too.
    - reaperducer 7y ago
      The good thing about Material Design is that we don't have to wait for it to go out of fashion among developers. People have been saying it's butt ugly from day one.
    - throwaway2048 7y ago
      sure, but the discussion is about "timeless" design
  - galad87 7y ago
    Fortunately they were toned down in 10.2.
  - kitsunesoba 7y ago
    The 10.4 version and especially the 10.9 version of Aqua was basically perfect in my eyes… they had dimension and contrast without being overbearing and were bright and cheery without being blinding. I know people are fond of the 10.5 and 10.6 Aqua but I found its darker grey window chrome a bit too dreary looking.
  - hokumguru 7y ago
    I don't know what you're talking about. Maybe the text shadows on the window title there are overdone but otherwise I think that looks great!
  - ryanSrich 7y ago
    As a designer, I couldn't disagree more. The screenshot you linked is far better than 99% of design today. It took time and effort to create such engaging and aesthetically pleasing design. Today's designers don't care — the profession is overrun by MBAs calling themselves UXers.
  - aspectmin 7y ago
    We have gained so much along the way (I.e. fast computing), but we’ve lost a lot as well - computers are nowhere near as friendly/stylish.
    - trilinearnz 7y ago
      Great point. I think part of this is that computers are now so ubiquitous, there is less call for making them approachable to people who are not using them. Personally I like the friendly stylings of old which were empathetic to users' needs. Computers these days seem to take themselves too seriously, and we've lost a bit of the fun as a result.
  - aspectmin 7y ago
    Is there a good design book, or program that would teach design principles/philosophy like this? To me, a lot of these modern interfaces (eg Unity) feel like staring at a dark concrete city. I’d love to see some more of this come back.
  - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
    I've never used them, but from what I've read 10.0–10.2 were pretty bad across the board, and 10.3 (Panther) was when OS X became a truly viable product. I think Apple knew this, too. If you look at the timeline of macOS releases, 10.0–10.2 were released in the span of just over a year, and 10.3 had barely a year of life before Panther replaced it (incremental annual releases are the norm now, but they weren't then). And of course, Apple was still supporting OS 9 at the time.
    - jsjohnst 7y ago
      10.0 -> 10.1 = 6 months 10.1 -> 10.2 = 11 months 10.2 -> 10.3 = 14 months 10.3 -> 10.4 = 18 months
  - xvector 7y ago
    I love the vaporwave aesthetic of this photo! Thanks for sharing.
    - pyridines 7y ago
      When this design came out, I thought it was bold and futuristic. The "juicy" look is dated now, but to hear it described as "vaporwave" makes me feel old.
      - anthk 7y ago
        This. When I say OSX Tiger after sufffering Windows 98 (and having KDE3 in parallel) I was amazed, that doesn't look vaporwave at all. If anything, Amiga OS 3.1 and before is vaporwave. OSX Tiger was "UI done right".
  - ukyrgf 7y ago
    Meanwhile I'd go out of my way to use system themers and programs that supported skins just to get that aqua aesthetic in Windows.
  - anthk 7y ago
    OSX Tiger was not like that, it was the most polished UI from Apple ever since System 7.
- Nextgrid 7y ago
  I especially notice this with iOS. iPhone OS (back when it was called that) was a masterpiece of design with every app having its own, different personality while being simple & efficient to use. The last few iOS releases are a disaster on both fronts. Design-wise it’s completely blank, flat & empty, and usability wise a lot of the apps are just shadows of their former selves. Music, messages, maps, App Store, podcasts, etc. Even basic text editing was downgraded.
leerob 7y ago
The amount of content here is incredible. Did Apple create this, or fans?
- sjroot 7y ago
  It says it is unofficial. Must have taken a ton of effort to get this stuff together. Very cool!
- alias_neo 7y ago
  It's unofficial, there was a discussion on Reddit yesterday with people asking if the author would provide access the content to archive it in case Apple DMCAs it, to which he gave some childish strop in response about how he deserves the in(fame)y. You'll find it on /r/DataHoarders if you care to look.
  - blowski 7y ago
    https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/ep27pk/probably_worth_archiving_this_since_apple_will/fehyxtr/?context=8&depth=9 https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/ep27pk/probabl...
    - exikyut 7y ago
      The relevant comments were deleted. ^Z time: http://removeddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/ep27pk/probably_worth_archiving_this_since_apple_will/ http://removeddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/ep27pk/probably... And just in case: http://archive.is/bU2RM http://archive.is/bU2RM (An aside: wow, archive.is handles JS perfectly. It's necessary nowadays, but I'm still extremely impressed)
  - filmgirlcw 7y ago
    Yeah, he had a Google Drive link in June that got taken down. Hopefully someone archived that (I sadly didn’t) so r/DataHoarders can help keep it in circulation.
  - lostgame 7y ago
    >> to which he gave some childish strop in response about how he deserves the in(fame)y I dunno, he kinda does to an extent? No reason for him to be an asshole about it, but this is an excellent resource and very well-put-together.
ericzawo 7y ago
Thank you very much for this.
tolmasky 7y ago
As best as I can tell, this is missing my favorite video, “Jaguar on the Loose”. Really reminds me how things felt back then. I’m on mobile though where the experience isn’t fantastic so maybe I just missed it on the site. Provided below: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2zfnka https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2zfnka
- andrekandre 7y ago
  wow good times, for me it was this video https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2zfnja https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2zfnja the whole thing was rendered in quartz2d afaicr
  - tolmasky 7y ago
    That is a great one too! I love the fact that the QuickTime video at the end is actually a PDF.
    - andrekandre 7y ago
      > QuickTime video at the end is actually a PDF wow, i never noticed that until now!
duderific 7y ago
For some reason, the first thing I clicked was 1983, which led me to an ad for the Lisa computer. I remember seeing it at the local mall at a computer retailer, and being in awe of how cool it looked compared to other computers at the time, and shocked that it cost $10,000 (equivalent to ~ $25,000 today.) Even though the Lisa never really went anywhere, it was an amazing achievement at the time.
herodotus 7y ago
My own little moment of fame: WWDC June 8, 2009, Keynote, 21 minutes and 22 seconds in: Bertrand Serlet says (about improvements to Preview): "We have added lots of little touches. The one I like...we have added a little bit of AI to actually infer the selection" My colleague and I (we co-developed the "little bit of AI") never saw this comment (and the applause) live: we were still lining up outside of Moscone West. As Apple employees we weren't allowed in until all the guests and paying attendees had entered. Still, we watched the video afterwards and got a huge kick out of the mention. BTW, the AI we added did not use neural nets or deep learning.
- blowski 7y ago
  That must be an amazing feeling! Is this a feature that's still in macOS today? Can I see it in action?
  - herodotus 7y ago
    The feature is there. I assume our code is still used, but it may have been rewritten since I retired. You can use this as an example if you like: https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/FNR/FNR-269-W.pdf https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/FNR/FNR-269-W.pdf (which is random, but you need two columns in the PDF). Try select from column 1 near the bottom, across to column 2. PDFs are very diverse. Our algorithm does not always work, alas, but it is significantly better than what existed before. In fact, for some reason, it works well for this document on page 1 and 3 but not so well on page 2! But I no longer have access to the low level tools I used to use to figure out what went wrong.
    - amartya916 7y ago
      This is so neat. Like someone else mentioned already, this feature has been very useful for me countless times. In fact, when it doesn't work, I tend to blame the PDF itself :). Thanks a ton!
  - cfitz 7y ago
    Yup, just open Preview for an image (possibly other documents as well e.g., PDF), go into “markup” mode, and begin to draw with the pen or pencil. Preview will try to “perfect” your drawn check mark, X, straight line, curved line, etc.
nslocum 7y ago
Check out the employee holiday bonus from 1983: https://www.applearchive.org/1983-feed/apple-holiday-bonus https://www.applearchive.org/1983-feed/apple-holiday-bonus
- branon 7y ago
  That's the gift that keeps on giving, the whole year!
- reaperducer 7y ago
  Was this an employee holiday bonus, or a public promotion called "Apple Holiday Bonus?" I don't see anything in it making it employee-specific. I think it might just be a play on words.
  - nslocum 7y ago
    It has to be for customers and this site mislabeled it as "employee holiday bonus". It's just too embarrassing... a bunch of coupons for magazines and software.
mcculley 7y ago
Mildly ironic: The first video I went to is https://www.applearchive.org/1990-feed/steve-jobs-on-the-library-of-congress-and-bicycles-for-the-mind https://www.applearchive.org/1990-feed/steve-jobs-on-the-lib... which has the caption, "We shouldn't build too many more libraries, instead we should connect towns to the internet to provide access to the Library of Congress". 30 years later and copyright has us not much closer to unlocking the Library of Congress.
malkia 7y ago
Also notable is https://www.folklore.org/ https://www.folklore.org/ - thatnks for this site!
overlyLogical 7y ago
Aesthetics are pretty objective despite some people refusing to acknowledge beauty in favor of their own ugly idea. I don't even like Apple and I can say people like stainless steel more than plastic. That said, if you bought a product because of the color, I got bad news for you.
- telegrammae 7y ago
  I wasn't even talking about the hardware, that's a separate story. Apple's old hardware also looks and feels wonderful.
  - cable2600 7y ago
    It is the style and design of Apple hardware that helps people choose them more often. After all Apple targets the creative arts community.
rvz 7y ago
For anyone curious about the intricacy of the guidelines of the Apple logo: check this out here: https://www.applearchive.org/1987-feed/apple-logo-standards-and-guidelines https://www.applearchive.org/1987-feed/apple-logo-standards-... It goes into absolute depth into the do's and don'ts of their logo, which I find quite frankly interesting to see from a designer's perspective.
reaperducer 7y ago
I love the early 2000's Apple aesthetic. I'm not sure if it was actually really good, or I just associate it with a happy time in my life. I still have an iTunes playlist with all of the music from the dancing silhouette iPod commercials, and I get the warm and fuzzies when I listen to it. I wish there was a high-quality archive of these commercials online to relive some of those memories. Unfortunately, every time I look for them on YouTube, they're incomplete copies of over-compressed copies of watermarked copies of cropped copies of altered copies of something someone recorded off what looks like low-grade Betamax.
- lostgame 7y ago
  >> I'm not sure if it was actually really good, or I just associate it with a happy time in my life. I am a collector of Macs from around this time. I just picked up an orange G3 Clamshell iBook, and I absolutely adore my 'pixar lamp' iMac G4. I'm considering internal hardware mod projects to get these two up to a reasonable speed.
  - reaperducer 7y ago
    The monitor on my iLamp went black last week for no reason that I can determine. The machine still works, and I can VNC into it to use it, but that's not so much fun. I have the tools to fix it, but no longer possess the manual dexterity. Sadly, it will probably end up in the garbage because my local Apple Store won't take it back for recycling.
    - lostgame 7y ago
      That's unfortunate. The LCD displays on these units are stunning. I still use mine for small Photoshop work and drawing in Flash. It's just beautiful and inviting for work. If you were anywhere near Toronto I'd take it off your hands. I specifically want broken units for my hardware mods as I feel bad intentionally destroying a functioning unit. It's just kinda shitty to collectors.
      - 7y ago
nyjah 7y ago
To this day these are some of my favorite coding posters. You have to hit the little arrow to find them, I missed them the first time searching, so I wanted to post it because they are awesome. https://www.applearchive.org/2006-feed/apple-computer-sciences-posters https://www.applearchive.org/2006-feed/apple-computer-scienc...
gatherhunterer 7y ago
It is surprising to see that Steve Jobs is the most-featured person on a site that says it is dedicated to “unsung heroes”. It looks like it’s just about Apple in general. Going from “all about Jobs” to “look at our cutting-edge emoji designs” is a nice encapsulation of Apple history. I know that many people hope the period from Jobs’ death to Ives’ departure was just a phase. But it feels like we’re down to the wire product-wise. The new MBP is a nice start but before long the iPhone SE will reach end-of-life and I just don’t want a flat brick with three cameras and no audio port.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
DanCarvajal 7y ago
Had to watch the iPod Nano reveal again. That was the first thing I ever live steamed on Quicktime as a teen and it blew my mind. Edit: also it's weird but I totally had a crush on the faceless dancer in the miniskirt in this iPod Shuffle commercial. https://www.applearchive.org/2005-feed/ipod-shuffle-tv-ad-life-is-random https://www.applearchive.org/2005-feed/ipod-shuffle-tv-ad-li...
- wcfields 7y ago
  Now all I can see is someone is being choked by a spaghetti of white wires.
- michaelgrafl 7y ago
  Not weird at all. Fit bodies are attractive, dancing is attractive, skirts are attractive. And your mind gets to fill in the blanks with whatever it prefers!
sproketboy 7y ago
Not a fan of the year based navigation.
Ohn0 7y ago
My favorite https://www.applearchive.org/1992-feed/whats-on-your-powerbook-tv-ad-haiku-guy https://www.applearchive.org/1992-feed/whats-on-your-powerbo...
mortenjorck 7y ago
I love the way the thumbnails for each year change with Apple’s brand typography from the era. The one thing I would change is pre-1984: Apple started using Garamond with the introduction of the Macintosh; I would use either Motter Tektura (from the old logo) or Univers condensed (used in Apple II print materials) for 1977-1983.
Wowfunhappy 7y ago
I've been using OS X since 2010, but in that time I never used the Dashboard. I didn't see any point. A couple weeks ago, I watched the keynote of Steve Jobs introducing Tiger, and when he demo'd the Dashboard, I had this moment of dawning realization: "Oh, so that's what you're supposed to use that for. That is... actually completely brilliant. Yes. I want that. Now." I'm now using the Dashboard quite heavily. It's great. It got even better a few days later when I watched the Leopard keynote and discovered how you're supposed to use Web Clips.
- mikestew 7y ago
  Too bad you came to use Dashboard so late in the game, it's gone in Catalina: https://9to5mac.com/2019/06/04/dashboard-in-macos-10-15-catalina/ https://9to5mac.com/2019/06/04/dashboard-in-macos-10-15-cata...
  - nobleach 7y ago
    I'm ON Catalina right now, and I didn't even know that. (I typically use my Linux laptop for everything... dunno why I decided to use my Macbook Pro today) I had to triple-swipe right just to see if was really gone. Yup. It's gone. Dang.
- par 7y ago
  what's it for? i never used it when it was around.
  - Angostura 7y ago
    There were several widgets I used a lot - a fab BBC radio widget rage let me listen to radio channels (bring up the UI instantly and then dismiss) same for a widget that controlled my MAMP servers and a web clipping of a page showing the status of various systems I monitored
  - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
    So, worth noting, I'm sure I saw plenty of these explanations over the years, and it still took watching Steve Jobs's demo before I "got" it. But: it's a workspace for quick glances that don't take you out of the flow of what you're working on. If you've ever kept a paper notepad, or a calculator, or a small tablet on your desk for reference while using your computer, Dashboard is that, but even better because it can be activated and deactivated more quickly than physically looking down at your desk. (Make sure the Dashboard is set "As Overlay" if you're ever on a system that has it. Modern-ish macOS defaults to "As Space", which reeks of a setting created by people who didn't actually use the Dashboard.)
russellbeattie 7y ago
What's interesting about this is how design and presentation has been a part of Apple's DNA since basically day one. When they launched the Apple II in 1977 at the West Coast Computer Faire, there were dozens of other micro-computer startups there as well. But Steve had the foresight to hire a professional product designer to create the foam molded case, and professional graphic artists and marketing people to design their logo, brochures, booth, etc. In addition to the technical genius under the hood provided by Woz, the visual components clearly separated Apple from the pack and put them in the same league as multinational corporations Commodore and Tandy when Apple was still essentially two twenty somethings in a rented office in Cupertino. Corporate DNA is an interesting phenomenon. Throughout the years, under various different leaders, Apple has somehow been able to consistently produce quality technology that people want to own because it looks good and is marketed well. One has to wonder how it becomes so ingrained in a company like that.
- NateEag 7y ago
  Steve Jobs. It hasn't been there since he passed - they've been coasting, and it's starting to show.
  - cable2600 7y ago
    Tim Cook is trying his best. But yes they are coasting on previous innovations like Android is, and barely adding new features. Just more RAM and faster CPU. They killed the Mac Pro by making it look like a garbage can. It is back to ATX standards but way too expensive, which drives people to make Hackintoshes to play MacOS games. I home Apple can get the PlayMac or whatever gaming Mac out soon so people can play games on it without spending thousands on a Mac Pro.
  - setpatchaddress 7y ago
    People have said that since 2012. Steve died in 2011. It's now 2020. Have you really never used an Apple Watch or talked to someone who has?
    - 7y ago
starlig-ht 7y ago
Don't know why I expected granny smiths and red delicious stored in case of apocalypse.
microtherion 7y ago
My first contribution to a feature: https://www.applearchive.org/1999-feed/apple-special-event-october-1999 https://www.applearchive.org/1999-feed/apple-special-event-o... at 13:24 A rather one-off thing, never ported to Mac OS X, but we had fun developing it.
- rahuldottech 7y ago
  Whoa, really cool!
Rebelgecko 7y ago
Am I crazy or is right-clicking totally broken on this website? Is this intentional? Maybe a joke about the old iMac hockey puck mice?
- nottorp 7y ago
  It is. Dare I ask about middle clicking, which should directly open the link in a new tab? :) Please follow the old Apple, that was about usability, not the new Apple, that is only about flashy design...
  - briandear 7y ago
    The old Apple mouse only had one button.
    - nottorp 7y ago
      They still supported cmd+click for right click didn't they? As opposed to this site...
- saagarjha 7y ago
  It is. One of the articles mentioned that they are trying to prevent piracy (rolls eyes) so maybe that’s what it is.
  - pxtail 7y ago
    It always mildly amuses me when people are doing this on their websites, it's like watching someone clumsily doing something pointless but you don't say anything and just watch.
  - amatecha 7y ago
    That's awkward, since it's not this website author's content to be "pirated". All copyrights for the site's content belong to Apple. Further, it's trivially easy to press F12 and use the browser dev tools to get at anything on the page.
dewey 7y ago
Some more backstory and an interview with the guy who compiled it for those interested: https://ww.9to5mac.com/2020/01/15/the-unofficial-apple-archive-history-videos/# https://ww.9to5mac.com/2020/01/15/the-unofficial-apple-archi...
WalterBright 7y ago
I didn't see any Mac vs PC ads.
- duncans 7y ago
  Several in 2006 at least https://www.applearchive.org/2006 https://www.applearchive.org/2006
  - WalterBright 7y ago
    Ah, thank you!
  - remcolandegge 7y ago
    They are always fun to watch :)
gallamine 7y ago
This "easy pay" training video is quite the show https://www.applearchive.org/2006-feed/apple-internal-easy-pay-training-video https://www.applearchive.org/2006-feed/apple-internal-easy-p...
golem14 7y ago
Ahh, now I understand this Futurama jab: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSt04IPqFfM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSt04IPqFfM Compare: https://www.applearchive.org/1984-feed/macintosh-tv-ad-1984 https://www.applearchive.org/1984-feed/macintosh-tv-ad-1984
- pstuart 7y ago
  Futurama was written with us old folks in mind. My kids love it (as do I), but it's rich with mockery you can't appreciate without having been there when it was happening.
saagarjha 7y ago
Im very curious to know how they got access to recent internal and unreleased material.
- pxtail 7y ago
  Even more interestingly - why this site with this domain name and that much apple-related content still does exist? [0] https://techcrunch.com/2010/01/07/apple-domain-names/ https://techcrunch.com/2010/01/07/apple-domain-names/
TekMol 7y ago
I cannot see any of the videos. For all the videos, I get this on a black background: Sorry Because of its privacy settings, this video cannot be played here. What is that? Anybody else seeing this?
- staffordrj 7y ago
  I'm seeing the same thing. All the embedded vimeo videos were either deleted or made private.
- filchermcurr 7y ago
  I get that in Firefox, but if I open it in Safari everything plays just fine. You might just have to play the browser juggling game!
mrfusion 7y ago
Tbh I don’t understand what this is.
asimpletune 7y ago
The design of this site is site is so good. I love the layout and how easy it is to discover content.
bsimpson 7y ago
I forgot Seybold was a thing.
mengibar10 7y ago
It was a nice "time travel" for half an hour as I watched the clips. I checked what was it like when I was 8 years old, then when we moved to the big city, when I was in middle school, when I entered the college, and then graduated, when I moved to US, when I got married, and when I got my first child. I did not see these before only except the famous 1984 ad.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
cmod 7y ago
My own random Apple-connected moment of delight. In 2005, when they announced Dashboard widgets, I was running a data-visualization site built off Google News called Buzztracker [0]. It was a really simple idea and hackneyed execution, but it worked and was quite popular: it mapped the news from 1000s of sources onto a map, allowing you to navigate via geography into the day's events. I took an afternoon and knocked out a widget edition of the site. If I remember correctly, you submitted your widgets to Apple.com and they had a little gallery. Well, I came home a few days later and my server was melting: thousands of hits/second from apple.com. It turned out they decided to make the entire homepage of apple.com a hot-link to my widget. [1] It stayed that way for about 24 hours — June 17 - 18, 2005. I love this era of the 'net — when apple.com would just link to a dev's or designer's project. I almost fell out of my chair. Printed the screenshot out. I still remember the bar I went to that night, who I had a celebratory drink with in Kagurazaka, Tokyo, sort of marveling at the absurdity of it all. The exposure didn't have any marked direct effect on my career or work, but it did boost my confidence in that maybe I wasn't working on such useless stuff in isolation on the other side of the world. [0] http://buzztracker.org http://buzztracker.org — the maps don't work because the SSIs are broken; but we often forget, Google News was one of the first times world-wide news was consolidated into a somewhat homogenous format (most sites weren't using RSS when it launched in 2001/2), certainly not one you could easily scrape and process global news patterns. [1] https://craigmod.com/images/misc/buzztracker_apple.jpg https://craigmod.com/images/misc/buzztracker_apple.jpg edit: grammar
- jw1224 7y ago
  I had a very similar experience! My "Christmas Countdown Clock" widget (hey, I was only 12 at the time...) got literally hundreds of thousands of downloads when Apple linked to my hosting space from their old widget gallery. After this first taste of "success" I doubled-down on learning to code and, well, here we are today :)
amatecha 7y ago
First video I watch: "You are strictly prohibited from making a copy or modification of, or from rebroadcasting or re-encoding, this broadcast without the prior written permission from Apple Public Relations" I'll be surprised if it's online for another week (not that I want that to be the case). At the same time, the right-click blocker, referral link to Rogue Ameoba, and soliciting of donations just rub me the wrong way. To be honest, these all should have been uploaded directly to archive.org or something. It's kinda disappointing, as I've gone to apple.com/pr for years and downloaded press images of the products I find cool/appealing. I always hoped there'd somehow be an archive of all the awesome presentations and stuff over the years. It's bittersweet that there's such a rad archive online, but it's approached in such an exclusionary way. Actually it's even worse than I thought -- went to copy one of the Vimeo links (since I could see the videos are hosted on Vimeo) and they are not viewable outside of the applearchive site? https://player.vimeo.com/video/372119562 https://player.vimeo.com/video/372119562 for example. "Because of its privacy settings, this video cannot be played here."
- roxil 7y ago
  You can probably download the videos with youtube-dl and reupload them to archive.org.
- amatecha 7y ago
  I was shockingly accurate: takedowns came exactly a week after my comment: https://twitter.com/samhenrigold/status/1220903242856640512 https://twitter.com/samhenrigold/status/1220903242856640512 Sadly, completely expected :\ Hope he still has all the original files on hand.

699 points by todotask 7y ago

Apple's design of 10-15 years ago looks excellent even today. Truly - good design does not lose its attractiveness as styles and standards change. Most icons, fonts, panels, colors of most of their old software and promotional materials look very pleasant, even in low resolution.

jdofaz 7y ago
It comes down to your taste, I thought aqua and the lickable interface was ugly then, and now.
throwaway2048 7y ago
the original osx pinstripe look is pretty hideous, and the faux glossy emboss look hasn't aged well either https://images.techhive.com/images/article/2016/01/mac-os-x-public-beta-05-100637717-large.png https://images.techhive.com/images/article/2016/01/mac-os-x-...
- ceejayoz 7y ago
  We'll say the same about flat buttons-that-don't-look-like-buttons too.
  - reaperducer 7y ago
    The good thing about Material Design is that we don't have to wait for it to go out of fashion among developers. People have been saying it's butt ugly from day one.
  - throwaway2048 7y ago
    sure, but the discussion is about "timeless" design
- galad87 7y ago
  Fortunately they were toned down in 10.2.
- kitsunesoba 7y ago
  The 10.4 version and especially the 10.9 version of Aqua was basically perfect in my eyes… they had dimension and contrast without being overbearing and were bright and cheery without being blinding. I know people are fond of the 10.5 and 10.6 Aqua but I found its darker grey window chrome a bit too dreary looking.
- hokumguru 7y ago
  I don't know what you're talking about. Maybe the text shadows on the window title there are overdone but otherwise I think that looks great!
- ryanSrich 7y ago
  As a designer, I couldn't disagree more. The screenshot you linked is far better than 99% of design today. It took time and effort to create such engaging and aesthetically pleasing design. Today's designers don't care — the profession is overrun by MBAs calling themselves UXers.
- aspectmin 7y ago
  We have gained so much along the way (I.e. fast computing), but we’ve lost a lot as well - computers are nowhere near as friendly/stylish.
  - trilinearnz 7y ago
    Great point. I think part of this is that computers are now so ubiquitous, there is less call for making them approachable to people who are not using them. Personally I like the friendly stylings of old which were empathetic to users' needs. Computers these days seem to take themselves too seriously, and we've lost a bit of the fun as a result.
- aspectmin 7y ago
  Is there a good design book, or program that would teach design principles/philosophy like this? To me, a lot of these modern interfaces (eg Unity) feel like staring at a dark concrete city. I’d love to see some more of this come back.
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  I've never used them, but from what I've read 10.0–10.2 were pretty bad across the board, and 10.3 (Panther) was when OS X became a truly viable product. I think Apple knew this, too. If you look at the timeline of macOS releases, 10.0–10.2 were released in the span of just over a year, and 10.3 had barely a year of life before Panther replaced it (incremental annual releases are the norm now, but they weren't then). And of course, Apple was still supporting OS 9 at the time.
  - jsjohnst 7y ago
    10.0 -> 10.1 = 6 months 10.1 -> 10.2 = 11 months 10.2 -> 10.3 = 14 months 10.3 -> 10.4 = 18 months
- xvector 7y ago
  I love the vaporwave aesthetic of this photo! Thanks for sharing.
  - pyridines 7y ago
    When this design came out, I thought it was bold and futuristic. The "juicy" look is dated now, but to hear it described as "vaporwave" makes me feel old.
    - anthk 7y ago
      This. When I say OSX Tiger after sufffering Windows 98 (and having KDE3 in parallel) I was amazed, that doesn't look vaporwave at all. If anything, Amiga OS 3.1 and before is vaporwave. OSX Tiger was "UI done right".
- ukyrgf 7y ago
  Meanwhile I'd go out of my way to use system themers and programs that supported skins just to get that aqua aesthetic in Windows.
- anthk 7y ago
  OSX Tiger was not like that, it was the most polished UI from Apple ever since System 7.
Nextgrid 7y ago
I especially notice this with iOS. iPhone OS (back when it was called that) was a masterpiece of design with every app having its own, different personality while being simple & efficient to use. The last few iOS releases are a disaster on both fronts. Design-wise it’s completely blank, flat & empty, and usability wise a lot of the apps are just shadows of their former selves. Music, messages, maps, App Store, podcasts, etc. Even basic text editing was downgraded.

leerob 7y ago

The amount of content here is incredible. Did Apple create this, or fans?

sjroot 7y ago
It says it is unofficial. Must have taken a ton of effort to get this stuff together. Very cool!
alias_neo 7y ago
It's unofficial, there was a discussion on Reddit yesterday with people asking if the author would provide access the content to archive it in case Apple DMCAs it, to which he gave some childish strop in response about how he deserves the in(fame)y. You'll find it on /r/DataHoarders if you care to look.
- blowski 7y ago
  https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/ep27pk/probably_worth_archiving_this_since_apple_will/fehyxtr/?context=8&depth=9 https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/ep27pk/probabl...
  - exikyut 7y ago
    The relevant comments were deleted. ^Z time: http://removeddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/ep27pk/probably_worth_archiving_this_since_apple_will/ http://removeddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/ep27pk/probably... And just in case: http://archive.is/bU2RM http://archive.is/bU2RM (An aside: wow, archive.is handles JS perfectly. It's necessary nowadays, but I'm still extremely impressed)
- filmgirlcw 7y ago
  Yeah, he had a Google Drive link in June that got taken down. Hopefully someone archived that (I sadly didn’t) so r/DataHoarders can help keep it in circulation.
- lostgame 7y ago
  >> to which he gave some childish strop in response about how he deserves the in(fame)y I dunno, he kinda does to an extent? No reason for him to be an asshole about it, but this is an excellent resource and very well-put-together.

ericzawo 7y ago

Thank you very much for this.

tolmasky 7y ago

As best as I can tell, this is missing my favorite video, “Jaguar on the Loose”. Really reminds me how things felt back then. I’m on mobile though where the experience isn’t fantastic so maybe I just missed it on the site. Provided below: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2zfnka https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2zfnka

andrekandre 7y ago
wow good times, for me it was this video https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2zfnja https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2zfnja the whole thing was rendered in quartz2d afaicr
- tolmasky 7y ago
  That is a great one too! I love the fact that the QuickTime video at the end is actually a PDF.
  - andrekandre 7y ago
    > QuickTime video at the end is actually a PDF wow, i never noticed that until now!

duderific 7y ago

For some reason, the first thing I clicked was 1983, which led me to an ad for the Lisa computer. I remember seeing it at the local mall at a computer retailer, and being in awe of how cool it looked compared to other computers at the time, and shocked that it cost $10,000 (equivalent to ~ $25,000 today.) Even though the Lisa never really went anywhere, it was an amazing achievement at the time.

herodotus 7y ago

My own little moment of fame: WWDC June 8, 2009, Keynote, 21 minutes and 22 seconds in: Bertrand Serlet says (about improvements to Preview): "We have added lots of little touches. The one I like...we have added a little bit of AI to actually infer the selection" My colleague and I (we co-developed the "little bit of AI") never saw this comment (and the applause) live: we were still lining up outside of Moscone West. As Apple employees we weren't allowed in until all the guests and paying attendees had entered. Still, we watched the video afterwards and got a huge kick out of the mention. BTW, the AI we added did not use neural nets or deep learning.

blowski 7y ago
That must be an amazing feeling! Is this a feature that's still in macOS today? Can I see it in action?
- herodotus 7y ago
  The feature is there. I assume our code is still used, but it may have been rewritten since I retired. You can use this as an example if you like: https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/FNR/FNR-269-W.pdf https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/FNR/FNR-269-W.pdf (which is random, but you need two columns in the PDF). Try select from column 1 near the bottom, across to column 2. PDFs are very diverse. Our algorithm does not always work, alas, but it is significantly better than what existed before. In fact, for some reason, it works well for this document on page 1 and 3 but not so well on page 2! But I no longer have access to the low level tools I used to use to figure out what went wrong.
  - amartya916 7y ago
    This is so neat. Like someone else mentioned already, this feature has been very useful for me countless times. In fact, when it doesn't work, I tend to blame the PDF itself :). Thanks a ton!
- cfitz 7y ago
  Yup, just open Preview for an image (possibly other documents as well e.g., PDF), go into “markup” mode, and begin to draw with the pen or pencil. Preview will try to “perfect” your drawn check mark, X, straight line, curved line, etc.

nslocum 7y ago

Check out the employee holiday bonus from 1983: https://www.applearchive.org/1983-feed/apple-holiday-bonus https://www.applearchive.org/1983-feed/apple-holiday-bonus

branon 7y ago
That's the gift that keeps on giving, the whole year!
reaperducer 7y ago
Was this an employee holiday bonus, or a public promotion called "Apple Holiday Bonus?" I don't see anything in it making it employee-specific. I think it might just be a play on words.
- nslocum 7y ago
  It has to be for customers and this site mislabeled it as "employee holiday bonus". It's just too embarrassing... a bunch of coupons for magazines and software.

mcculley 7y ago

Mildly ironic: The first video I went to is https://www.applearchive.org/1990-feed/steve-jobs-on-the-library-of-congress-and-bicycles-for-the-mind https://www.applearchive.org/1990-feed/steve-jobs-on-the-lib... which has the caption, "We shouldn't build too many more libraries, instead we should connect towns to the internet to provide access to the Library of Congress". 30 years later and copyright has us not much closer to unlocking the Library of Congress.

malkia 7y ago

Also notable is https://www.folklore.org/ https://www.folklore.org/ - thatnks for this site!

overlyLogical 7y ago

Aesthetics are pretty objective despite some people refusing to acknowledge beauty in favor of their own ugly idea. I don't even like Apple and I can say people like stainless steel more than plastic. That said, if you bought a product because of the color, I got bad news for you.

telegrammae 7y ago
I wasn't even talking about the hardware, that's a separate story. Apple's old hardware also looks and feels wonderful.
- cable2600 7y ago
  It is the style and design of Apple hardware that helps people choose them more often. After all Apple targets the creative arts community.

rvz 7y ago

For anyone curious about the intricacy of the guidelines of the Apple logo: check this out here: https://www.applearchive.org/1987-feed/apple-logo-standards-and-guidelines https://www.applearchive.org/1987-feed/apple-logo-standards-... It goes into absolute depth into the do's and don'ts of their logo, which I find quite frankly interesting to see from a designer's perspective.

reaperducer 7y ago

I love the early 2000's Apple aesthetic. I'm not sure if it was actually really good, or I just associate it with a happy time in my life. I still have an iTunes playlist with all of the music from the dancing silhouette iPod commercials, and I get the warm and fuzzies when I listen to it. I wish there was a high-quality archive of these commercials online to relive some of those memories. Unfortunately, every time I look for them on YouTube, they're incomplete copies of over-compressed copies of watermarked copies of cropped copies of altered copies of something someone recorded off what looks like low-grade Betamax.

lostgame 7y ago
>> I'm not sure if it was actually really good, or I just associate it with a happy time in my life. I am a collector of Macs from around this time. I just picked up an orange G3 Clamshell iBook, and I absolutely adore my 'pixar lamp' iMac G4. I'm considering internal hardware mod projects to get these two up to a reasonable speed.
- reaperducer 7y ago
  The monitor on my iLamp went black last week for no reason that I can determine. The machine still works, and I can VNC into it to use it, but that's not so much fun. I have the tools to fix it, but no longer possess the manual dexterity. Sadly, it will probably end up in the garbage because my local Apple Store won't take it back for recycling.
  - lostgame 7y ago
    That's unfortunate. The LCD displays on these units are stunning. I still use mine for small Photoshop work and drawing in Flash. It's just beautiful and inviting for work. If you were anywhere near Toronto I'd take it off your hands. I specifically want broken units for my hardware mods as I feel bad intentionally destroying a functioning unit. It's just kinda shitty to collectors.
    - 7y ago

nyjah 7y ago

To this day these are some of my favorite coding posters. You have to hit the little arrow to find them, I missed them the first time searching, so I wanted to post it because they are awesome. https://www.applearchive.org/2006-feed/apple-computer-sciences-posters https://www.applearchive.org/2006-feed/apple-computer-scienc...

gatherhunterer 7y ago

It is surprising to see that Steve Jobs is the most-featured person on a site that says it is dedicated to “unsung heroes”. It looks like it’s just about Apple in general. Going from “all about Jobs” to “look at our cutting-edge emoji designs” is a nice encapsulation of Apple history. I know that many people hope the period from Jobs’ death to Ives’ departure was just a phase. But it feels like we’re down to the wire product-wise. The new MBP is a nice start but before long the iPhone SE will reach end-of-life and I just don’t want a flat brick with three cameras and no audio port.

deleted 7y ago
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DanCarvajal 7y ago

Had to watch the iPod Nano reveal again. That was the first thing I ever live steamed on Quicktime as a teen and it blew my mind. Edit: also it's weird but I totally had a crush on the faceless dancer in the miniskirt in this iPod Shuffle commercial. https://www.applearchive.org/2005-feed/ipod-shuffle-tv-ad-life-is-random https://www.applearchive.org/2005-feed/ipod-shuffle-tv-ad-li...

wcfields 7y ago
Now all I can see is someone is being choked by a spaghetti of white wires.
michaelgrafl 7y ago
Not weird at all. Fit bodies are attractive, dancing is attractive, skirts are attractive. And your mind gets to fill in the blanks with whatever it prefers!

sproketboy 7y ago

Not a fan of the year based navigation.

Ohn0 7y ago

My favorite https://www.applearchive.org/1992-feed/whats-on-your-powerbook-tv-ad-haiku-guy https://www.applearchive.org/1992-feed/whats-on-your-powerbo...

mortenjorck 7y ago

I love the way the thumbnails for each year change with Apple’s brand typography from the era. The one thing I would change is pre-1984: Apple started using Garamond with the introduction of the Macintosh; I would use either Motter Tektura (from the old logo) or Univers condensed (used in Apple II print materials) for 1977-1983.

Wowfunhappy 7y ago

I've been using OS X since 2010, but in that time I never used the Dashboard. I didn't see any point. A couple weeks ago, I watched the keynote of Steve Jobs introducing Tiger, and when he demo'd the Dashboard, I had this moment of dawning realization: "Oh, so that's what you're supposed to use that for. That is... actually completely brilliant. Yes. I want that. Now." I'm now using the Dashboard quite heavily. It's great. It got even better a few days later when I watched the Leopard keynote and discovered how you're supposed to use Web Clips.

mikestew 7y ago
Too bad you came to use Dashboard so late in the game, it's gone in Catalina: https://9to5mac.com/2019/06/04/dashboard-in-macos-10-15-catalina/ https://9to5mac.com/2019/06/04/dashboard-in-macos-10-15-cata...
- nobleach 7y ago
  I'm ON Catalina right now, and I didn't even know that. (I typically use my Linux laptop for everything... dunno why I decided to use my Macbook Pro today) I had to triple-swipe right just to see if was really gone. Yup. It's gone. Dang.
par 7y ago
what's it for? i never used it when it was around.
- Angostura 7y ago
  There were several widgets I used a lot - a fab BBC radio widget rage let me listen to radio channels (bring up the UI instantly and then dismiss) same for a widget that controlled my MAMP servers and a web clipping of a page showing the status of various systems I monitored
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  So, worth noting, I'm sure I saw plenty of these explanations over the years, and it still took watching Steve Jobs's demo before I "got" it. But: it's a workspace for quick glances that don't take you out of the flow of what you're working on. If you've ever kept a paper notepad, or a calculator, or a small tablet on your desk for reference while using your computer, Dashboard is that, but even better because it can be activated and deactivated more quickly than physically looking down at your desk. (Make sure the Dashboard is set "As Overlay" if you're ever on a system that has it. Modern-ish macOS defaults to "As Space", which reeks of a setting created by people who didn't actually use the Dashboard.)

russellbeattie 7y ago

What's interesting about this is how design and presentation has been a part of Apple's DNA since basically day one. When they launched the Apple II in 1977 at the West Coast Computer Faire, there were dozens of other micro-computer startups there as well. But Steve had the foresight to hire a professional product designer to create the foam molded case, and professional graphic artists and marketing people to design their logo, brochures, booth, etc. In addition to the technical genius under the hood provided by Woz, the visual components clearly separated Apple from the pack and put them in the same league as multinational corporations Commodore and Tandy when Apple was still essentially two twenty somethings in a rented office in Cupertino. Corporate DNA is an interesting phenomenon. Throughout the years, under various different leaders, Apple has somehow been able to consistently produce quality technology that people want to own because it looks good and is marketed well. One has to wonder how it becomes so ingrained in a company like that.

NateEag 7y ago
Steve Jobs. It hasn't been there since he passed - they've been coasting, and it's starting to show.
- cable2600 7y ago
  Tim Cook is trying his best. But yes they are coasting on previous innovations like Android is, and barely adding new features. Just more RAM and faster CPU. They killed the Mac Pro by making it look like a garbage can. It is back to ATX standards but way too expensive, which drives people to make Hackintoshes to play MacOS games. I home Apple can get the PlayMac or whatever gaming Mac out soon so people can play games on it without spending thousands on a Mac Pro.
- setpatchaddress 7y ago
  People have said that since 2012. Steve died in 2011. It's now 2020. Have you really never used an Apple Watch or talked to someone who has?
  - 7y ago

starlig-ht 7y ago

Don't know why I expected granny smiths and red delicious stored in case of apocalypse.

microtherion 7y ago

My first contribution to a feature: https://www.applearchive.org/1999-feed/apple-special-event-october-1999 https://www.applearchive.org/1999-feed/apple-special-event-o... at 13:24 A rather one-off thing, never ported to Mac OS X, but we had fun developing it.

rahuldottech 7y ago
Whoa, really cool!

Rebelgecko 7y ago

Am I crazy or is right-clicking totally broken on this website? Is this intentional? Maybe a joke about the old iMac hockey puck mice?

nottorp 7y ago
It is. Dare I ask about middle clicking, which should directly open the link in a new tab? :) Please follow the old Apple, that was about usability, not the new Apple, that is only about flashy design...
- briandear 7y ago
  The old Apple mouse only had one button.
  - nottorp 7y ago
    They still supported cmd+click for right click didn't they? As opposed to this site...
saagarjha 7y ago
It is. One of the articles mentioned that they are trying to prevent piracy (rolls eyes) so maybe that’s what it is.
- pxtail 7y ago
  It always mildly amuses me when people are doing this on their websites, it's like watching someone clumsily doing something pointless but you don't say anything and just watch.
- amatecha 7y ago
  That's awkward, since it's not this website author's content to be "pirated". All copyrights for the site's content belong to Apple. Further, it's trivially easy to press F12 and use the browser dev tools to get at anything on the page.

dewey 7y ago

Some more backstory and an interview with the guy who compiled it for those interested: https://ww.9to5mac.com/2020/01/15/the-unofficial-apple-archive-history-videos/# https://ww.9to5mac.com/2020/01/15/the-unofficial-apple-archi...

WalterBright 7y ago

I didn't see any Mac vs PC ads.

duncans 7y ago
Several in 2006 at least https://www.applearchive.org/2006 https://www.applearchive.org/2006
- WalterBright 7y ago
  Ah, thank you!
- remcolandegge 7y ago
  They are always fun to watch :)

gallamine 7y ago

This "easy pay" training video is quite the show https://www.applearchive.org/2006-feed/apple-internal-easy-pay-training-video https://www.applearchive.org/2006-feed/apple-internal-easy-p...

golem14 7y ago

Ahh, now I understand this Futurama jab: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSt04IPqFfM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSt04IPqFfM Compare: https://www.applearchive.org/1984-feed/macintosh-tv-ad-1984 https://www.applearchive.org/1984-feed/macintosh-tv-ad-1984

pstuart 7y ago
Futurama was written with us old folks in mind. My kids love it (as do I), but it's rich with mockery you can't appreciate without having been there when it was happening.

saagarjha 7y ago

Im very curious to know how they got access to recent internal and unreleased material.

pxtail 7y ago
Even more interestingly - why this site with this domain name and that much apple-related content still does exist? [0] https://techcrunch.com/2010/01/07/apple-domain-names/ https://techcrunch.com/2010/01/07/apple-domain-names/

TekMol 7y ago

I cannot see any of the videos. For all the videos, I get this on a black background: Sorry Because of its privacy settings, this video cannot be played here. What is that? Anybody else seeing this?

staffordrj 7y ago
I'm seeing the same thing. All the embedded vimeo videos were either deleted or made private.
filchermcurr 7y ago
I get that in Firefox, but if I open it in Safari everything plays just fine. You might just have to play the browser juggling game!

mrfusion 7y ago

Tbh I don’t understand what this is.

asimpletune 7y ago

The design of this site is site is so good. I love the layout and how easy it is to discover content.

bsimpson 7y ago

I forgot Seybold was a thing.

mengibar10 7y ago

It was a nice "time travel" for half an hour as I watched the clips. I checked what was it like when I was 8 years old, then when we moved to the big city, when I was in middle school, when I entered the college, and then graduated, when I moved to US, when I got married, and when I got my first child. I did not see these before only except the famous 1984 ad.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

cmod 7y ago

My own random Apple-connected moment of delight. In 2005, when they announced Dashboard widgets, I was running a data-visualization site built off Google News called Buzztracker [0]. It was a really simple idea and hackneyed execution, but it worked and was quite popular: it mapped the news from 1000s of sources onto a map, allowing you to navigate via geography into the day's events. I took an afternoon and knocked out a widget edition of the site. If I remember correctly, you submitted your widgets to Apple.com and they had a little gallery. Well, I came home a few days later and my server was melting: thousands of hits/second from apple.com. It turned out they decided to make the entire homepage of apple.com a hot-link to my widget. [1] It stayed that way for about 24 hours — June 17 - 18, 2005. I love this era of the 'net — when apple.com would just link to a dev's or designer's project. I almost fell out of my chair. Printed the screenshot out. I still remember the bar I went to that night, who I had a celebratory drink with in Kagurazaka, Tokyo, sort of marveling at the absurdity of it all. The exposure didn't have any marked direct effect on my career or work, but it did boost my confidence in that maybe I wasn't working on such useless stuff in isolation on the other side of the world. [0] http://buzztracker.org http://buzztracker.org — the maps don't work because the SSIs are broken; but we often forget, Google News was one of the first times world-wide news was consolidated into a somewhat homogenous format (most sites weren't using RSS when it launched in 2001/2), certainly not one you could easily scrape and process global news patterns. [1] https://craigmod.com/images/misc/buzztracker_apple.jpg https://craigmod.com/images/misc/buzztracker_apple.jpg edit: grammar

jw1224 7y ago
I had a very similar experience! My "Christmas Countdown Clock" widget (hey, I was only 12 at the time...) got literally hundreds of thousands of downloads when Apple linked to my hosting space from their old widget gallery. After this first taste of "success" I doubled-down on learning to code and, well, here we are today :)

amatecha 7y ago

First video I watch: "You are strictly prohibited from making a copy or modification of, or from rebroadcasting or re-encoding, this broadcast without the prior written permission from Apple Public Relations" I'll be surprised if it's online for another week (not that I want that to be the case). At the same time, the right-click blocker, referral link to Rogue Ameoba, and soliciting of donations just rub me the wrong way. To be honest, these all should have been uploaded directly to archive.org or something. It's kinda disappointing, as I've gone to apple.com/pr for years and downloaded press images of the products I find cool/appealing. I always hoped there'd somehow be an archive of all the awesome presentations and stuff over the years. It's bittersweet that there's such a rad archive online, but it's approached in such an exclusionary way. Actually it's even worse than I thought -- went to copy one of the Vimeo links (since I could see the videos are hosted on Vimeo) and they are not viewable outside of the applearchive site? https://player.vimeo.com/video/372119562 https://player.vimeo.com/video/372119562 for example. "Because of its privacy settings, this video cannot be played here."

roxil 7y ago
You can probably download the videos with youtube-dl and reupload them to archive.org.
amatecha 7y ago
I was shockingly accurate: takedowns came exactly a week after my comment: https://twitter.com/samhenrigold/status/1220903242856640512 https://twitter.com/samhenrigold/status/1220903242856640512 Sadly, completely expected :\ Hope he still has all the original files on hand.