Apple Computer History - In Pictures

June 16, 2012 - Posted by Tolzoh
Apple wasn't always this sleek and stylish looking as it is today. It took decades for Apple to evolve into something like it is today.


Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak with Apply II GS.
The Apple II GS, released in 1986, was the first to feature easily-expandable RAM and boosted the number of colours to 4,096. It also provided full legacy support for software designed for older Apple computers.


The Power Mac 4400 was Apple's higher-end computer from 1996 to 1998. It was also available in a PC-compatible version running the DOS operating system.

 

The Macintosh XL was an all-in-one version of the famous Apple Lisa, the first personal computer to offer a graphical user interface. It was so successful that the company ran out of the parts necessary to build it.


Apple's iMac G3 was the first model to bear the iMac name that came to designate Apple's all-in-one computers. Apple's design team asked a confectionery company for tips on maintaining consistency in the coloured shell, prompting Steve Jobs to say "it looks so good you kinda wanna lick it," according to biographer Walter Isaacson.


Released in 2000, the G4 Cube is considered by many Apple fans to be one of Jonathan Ive's most memorable designs - one even made it into the New York Museum of Modern Art. It used an innovative convection-based cooling system that made it almost comletely silent.

 
The G4, known colloquially as the "sunflower" after advert showed it reacting to people looking in at a window display, was sold between 2002 and 2004. It marked the moment when Steve Jobs decided that "the CRT [monitor] is officially dead" with its thin and light LCD screen.


The 2006-vintage iMac was the first Apple desktop computer to be based on an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. It was only available briefly before an upgraded model was released later the same year.


The addition of an aluminum body marked the evolution of the iMac into the form it still sports to this day. It continues to use many of the features developed in earlier iMac models, such as convection cooling.


The Macintosh Portable was the very first attempt at a battery-powered Apple computer and the first commercially-available computer to be used and to send an email in space, aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1991. While critics loved it, it proved unpopular with consumers.


The 500-series PowerBooks were the first to introduce the trackpad, in place of trackballs, to laptop computers, and the first to include built-in Ethernet capability. Consumers could also enjoy the first laptop stereo sound from the speakers.


The 500-series PowerBooks were the first to introduce the trackpad, in place of trackballs, to laptop computers, and the first to include built-in Ethernet capability. Consumers could also enjoy the first laptop stereo sound from the speakers.


The 1999 "clamshell" iBook aped the styling of the contemporary iMac with a curved, ergonomic design and brightly-coloured casing, even including a built-in carrying handle. It was the first Apple laptop to include wireless networking.