3 ms·

How the hell did they start the company in 1976, released Apple II in 1977 and then released few more products in next two years including Apple Graphics Tablet

by guzik 4y ago

How the hell did they start the company in 1976, released Apple II in 1977 and then released few more products in next two years including Apple Graphics Tablet? Were they working 24/7?

adrian_b 4y ago
That kind of graphics tablet was just an input device, typically used for digitizing drawings which had been either drawn by hand or generated by some kind of device without a computer interface. It has nothing to do with tablets in the sense of small computers. Its design was mostly a hardware design problem, somewhat more difficult than designing a mouse, because it had accuracy requirements, but not much more.
- noduerme 4y ago
  It's weird that you need to explain this to people who've never used a pen tablet without a screen. I mean, many of us have used wacom pads as standard input devices for decades. With a bit of hand-eye coordination, it's amazing what humans can do.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
peoplefromibiza 4y ago
they didn't manufacture it, they simply labeled it as Apple.
- stevenjgarner 4y ago
  Same as the Apple Cluster Controller used to interface Apple computers as dumb 3270 terminals to IBM mainframes. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32293269 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32293269
Someone 4y ago
Hard- and software were way easier at the time. This device had 2 kilobytes of ROM (https://downloads.reactivemicro.com/Documentation/Manuals/Apple%20Graphics%20Tablet.pdf https://downloads.reactivemicro.com/Documentation/Manuals/Ap...) It would surprise me if you could have a USB device properly identify itself in that amount of memory
- guzik 4y ago
  Ah, I keep forgetting this. Today prototyping takes months as we cannot solder components in our offices because of the size of the ICs. I also read that they barely had any software for Apple II until VisiCalc debuted (a software not even written by Apple's engineers).
  - jrockway 4y ago
    Not really true. Even hobbyists can happily solder today's tiny parts. Even BGAs. You can order chips overnight, and there are many adaptors to let you breadboard with them. Where signal quality concerns prevent breadboarding, someone in China will produce a one-off board for you the same day and mail it to you overnight. If you have more money, you can engage a contractor like Foxconn that have offices in the US. Send them revisions at 9AM, drive over to their office, have the new version to test that night. (You teach them how to manufacture your board in the US, and then they mass produce it in China.) Nobody is having problems getting prototypes going quickly these days. We have much better debug and test tooling today. We have factories for prototype runs available literally overnight. The reason no hardware hackers are making pen tablets today is because you can go on Amazon and have one delivered to you for $20, same day. Today's big problem is supply chain issues for manufacturing in quantity. You'll spend 1000 hours of software engineering effort for a certain microcontroller, QA test it on your prototype board, and then find that the microcontroller family is no longer made (or has indefinite lead times). You then throw the software away and delay the project another year.
  - mmphosis 4y ago
    Not really true. At the time, there was lots of software for the Apple II. There was no spreadsheet software because VisiCalc was one of the first to be released. Most software was created by 3rd parties. “A software” didn’t need to be approved by a centralized store controlled by Apple.

by guzik 4y ago

How the hell did they start the company in 1976, released Apple II in 1977 and then released few more products in next two years including Apple Graphics Tablet? Were they working 24/7?

adrian_b 4y ago

That kind of graphics tablet was just an input device, typically used for digitizing drawings which had been either drawn by hand or generated by some kind of device without a computer interface. It has nothing to do with tablets in the sense of small computers. Its design was mostly a hardware design problem, somewhat more difficult than designing a mouse, because it had accuracy requirements, but not much more.

noduerme 4y ago
It's weird that you need to explain this to people who've never used a pen tablet without a screen. I mean, many of us have used wacom pads as standard input devices for decades. With a bit of hand-eye coordination, it's amazing what humans can do.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

peoplefromibiza 4y ago

they didn't manufacture it, they simply labeled it as Apple.

stevenjgarner 4y ago
Same as the Apple Cluster Controller used to interface Apple computers as dumb 3270 terminals to IBM mainframes. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32293269 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32293269

Someone 4y ago

Hard- and software were way easier at the time. This device had 2 kilobytes of ROM (https://downloads.reactivemicro.com/Documentation/Manuals/Apple%20Graphics%20Tablet.pdf https://downloads.reactivemicro.com/Documentation/Manuals/Ap...) It would surprise me if you could have a USB device properly identify itself in that amount of memory

guzik 4y ago
Ah, I keep forgetting this. Today prototyping takes months as we cannot solder components in our offices because of the size of the ICs. I also read that they barely had any software for Apple II until VisiCalc debuted (a software not even written by Apple's engineers).
- jrockway 4y ago
  Not really true. Even hobbyists can happily solder today's tiny parts. Even BGAs. You can order chips overnight, and there are many adaptors to let you breadboard with them. Where signal quality concerns prevent breadboarding, someone in China will produce a one-off board for you the same day and mail it to you overnight. If you have more money, you can engage a contractor like Foxconn that have offices in the US. Send them revisions at 9AM, drive over to their office, have the new version to test that night. (You teach them how to manufacture your board in the US, and then they mass produce it in China.) Nobody is having problems getting prototypes going quickly these days. We have much better debug and test tooling today. We have factories for prototype runs available literally overnight. The reason no hardware hackers are making pen tablets today is because you can go on Amazon and have one delivered to you for $20, same day. Today's big problem is supply chain issues for manufacturing in quantity. You'll spend 1000 hours of software engineering effort for a certain microcontroller, QA test it on your prototype board, and then find that the microcontroller family is no longer made (or has indefinite lead times). You then throw the software away and delay the project another year.
- mmphosis 4y ago
  Not really true. At the time, there was lots of software for the Apple II. There was no spreadsheet software because VisiCalc was one of the first to be released. Most software was created by 3rd parties. “A software” didn’t need to be approved by a centralized store controlled by Apple.