What is Digg?97 Comments
- gmprunner, on 10/10/2007, -0/+51Wow, you know a manual is old when it has instructions on how to click with a (single button) mouse.
- fr34k5h0w, on 10/10/2007, -0/+39Haha Chapter 6 picture- the daily commute with Macintosh.
- desistere, on 10/10/2007, -8/+30And I am sure this is still their main demographic. Minorities and women, as consumers, generally have less expendable income. In 1984, a Mac cost $2495. That price is for a machine that is essentially a word processor and a fancy calculator at a time when the internet was not even conceived of as a home market product.
Even today, look at the demographic that Mac ads aim at. Young white hipsters. Apple dominates its computer niche through its portrayal of itself as a fashion forward premium computer maker. Look through Apple.com. After about 20 minutes I found one picture of a black person that was dressed as a young hipster. You advertise where the money is. Black people and latinos are simply not the core demographic of Mac users. Same now as it was then. - toxicityj, on 10/10/2007, -9/+30hey the guys in those pictures look to be business men. i though..hey wait a minute. I thought the mac commercials said that work was for PC users! wtf?!
- dazonic, on 10/10/2007, -0/+19I was pretty impressed with the graphic design, especially for the time.
- jefdub, on 10/10/2007, -14/+29They must have targeted their primary (and only) costumers as "white men." Or even "preppy white men."
- blapierre, on 10/10/2007, -0/+15I guess they have to include every different looking person for you to be happy. Why aren't they just humans?
- Urusai, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13Back in the days of yore, Macs were targeted toward businesses, emphasizing the fast learning curve and maximizing productivity. As always, American businesses instead chose the up-front cheaper solution. They also associated IBM with business (Big Blue, who also made all their typewriters), while Apple was known more for its toy-like Apple ][.
- chrisbarr, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12makes me glad how small laptops are now
- Tetraca, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12And now what are manuals? Here's the start menu. Go nuts. There's no depth. People would rather spend 10 minutes on the phone every time they have a problem trying to fix their problem while interpreting a man with a thick Indic accent rather than spending 1 hour reading a manual and having most of the problems they'll encounter at their level of literacy solved. Have we really lost that much attention span in 20 years, if that?
- specialK16, on 10/10/2007, -2/+12Well you don't really need a mac to use iTunes.
- Yodacola, on 10/10/2007, -3/+12Lets all give a big thanks to frog design. Without them, the Mac would have looked like a PC!
- lhsonic, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9You know, back in the day, I bet that thing looked beautiful, just like my old '89 Corolla used to.
- NerveBand, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8How the ***** do you remember the number of R's you need to login with?
- dcipjr, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8The writers definitely had a sense of humor. In one place, when talking about the brightness settings for the screen, the manual actually says that the Mac's screen makes a "fine night light" -- no joke.
- grrrrrrrrrrrrrr, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8Interesting. I'm wondering if a lot of successful industrial design doesn't boil down to a primal, resonant human subconscious connection between the product and the user. If you look at the early Mac screen it was, in a way, 'a human face with a smug knowing grin' being a floppy disc slot off to the side...the only thing missing was probably a stogie for more attitude. Compared to the IBM PC robotic stereo model approach http://www.technologyevangelist.com/images/IBM-PC.jpg ...the Mac was intimately and naturally very human and distinct. Important signals to consider...kinda like those asymmetric sleepy-eyed models...
http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2007/04/23/model_narrowweb__300x428,0.jpg" that...I just swear..are winking at me"...The most powerful communication is, IMO, natural, intuitive, vain, sub-conscious and self-serving. - jaxxon, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7Man! That was a freaky blast from the past. Wow! I haven't seen those images in 23 years.... GAH! It's a freaky weird feeling to have those memories invoked again. Thanks for this!
- funkytaco, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6I lived in California in the 80's, and alot of people wore their sweaters around their necks like that. They thought it was cool. I take it Steve thought it was cool, too.
- Fracture98, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Nah. The Heisenberg compensator.
- Nossie, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6what? just because they don't have the obligatory random coloured guy? jesus christ what about the Chinese and middle eastern ones?
- astrosmash, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Frog design didn't start with Apple until the Apple //c. And yes, their designs were drool-worthy.
The big-box Apple II, Lisa, and Mac Classic were designed in house, and according http://folklore.org , Jobs himself played a significant role in refining the design of the first Mac "toaster". - turpenine, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6maybe it just means they found a bunch of white dudes hanging out around cupertino.
- sg7791, on 10/10/2007, -2/+7But look who founded the company.
- BEDrocko, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3he said minorities and women *generally* have less expendable income... you're arguing a flawed stance by claiming he generalized white men... besides even if he did say generally white men have more expendable income, there's nothing untrue about it. It doesn't much matter that there happens to be poor white men, there are just a lot more rich white men than any other demographic. Quit being a digg whiner.
- rcran, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3For the internal clock, right? One AA I think.
- BEDrocko, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4you're point? white executives only sell to white people? what kind of crap argument is that?
- bradleyland, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3It reminds me that some of my customers could actually benefit from reading that manual.
- webtroll, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Amazing how many of these concepts still apply to todays operating systems and computer designs. Especially the metaphor for "scrolling" is really helpful, a lot of people that didn't grow up with computers are still amazed/confused by this concept unfamiliar from daily life that seems so intuitive for the rest of us.
I also love the product shots. The telephone with answering machine on the desk in chapter 5 might have been the inspiration for the Mac mini ;-) - georgiepiebob, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3yeah, we all shun racism, but just because the white guys were ***** back in the day they still get a hard time. it's ok, we can call the white guy racist and be mean to him, because his kind were actually bad people, and we can prove it, so it's ok. look at me, i type on a computer when im on digg acting like an expert on racism. at least im not a european white guy.
*sigh*, isn't digg the best - darlyn, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Lovin' that reflection!
- TheSalmonThief, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I actually own several of these (computers, and one original M00001 manual); I love how they have places to put in batteries in the back.
- jaxxon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Dude.. I SO wanted that carrying case for my Mac back then. It's pretty silly now, tho. You're right.
- gllopc, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Everyone in that manual has owned or currently owns a large boat.
- astrosmash, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3That's one more mouse button than other PCs of the time.
And while PC mice always had two or three buttons, the second mouse button do anything until Windows 95 came along. - kris33, on 10/10/2007, -2/+5You don't have to be black to enjoy "black music"
- iarenzana, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Stylish.
- Billions, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3you're reaching...
- ggko, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2And by then the manual pretty much just told you where to plug in things and how to switch the machine on.
No command references, monitor ROM listings, motherboard schematics, ... - Insimbi, on 10/10/2007, -3/+5ROFL at the carrying case.
- sg7791, on 10/10/2007, -4/+6Well, sure. As far as products go. But the iTunes store has a Latino section on the main page. I don't know what to make of that.
- alamandrax, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2and the Holtzmann Generators worked with a simple D cell.
- jammerb, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I have that manual... one of the best things in it is in the index. There are two entries under "mouse" : "care" and "feeding" the page reference for feeding is that index page - have had a special love for Apple ever since!
- qwertydvorak, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2these were the days of the true manual.
http://www.vintage-computer.com/ibm_pc.shtml
ours had more like 7 unlike the three pictured. one for multimate, one for lotus 123, and a couple more i can't remember right now. all in those same binders. back when a manual showed you the pinouts on the ports, how to program basic, and how to fully navigate dos. 1200 baud *drools* (read faster than the text downloads)
***Goes off to feel old now*** - ricardob, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I got my first full time job programming the 128K Mac back in 1984. Nobody in Mexico knew how to use it or program for it. The owner of the company I worked for had his own private jet and flew the Mac from Texas to Mexico City. Then he hired me to program on it, he found me at the Anahuac University.
I remember those manuals, and I loved that thing. I still have the original ‘Inside Mac’ programming guide which at that time had to read 3-4 times over to understand everything.
Good memories, thankzzz
I still program for macs at http://batista.org - jmontes, on 10/10/2007, -5/+7People who are digging down jefdub's comment probably didn't go to the link. It's pretty blatent. Times have changed.
- frostieDude, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2iPod + iTunes is not the same as a Mac. Go to an Apple store sometime and watch the people and what they are looking at. The blacks that come in will usually be looking at iPods while most of the people looking at Macs are white.
- LondonDude, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2My grandparents won an old mac like this in a raffle about 10 years ago (the school was getting rid of them for some decent computers) and the manual 5 blue books printed on A4 and about as thick as your index finger. No pictures either!
- Weebs43, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2The mouse had 1 button for simplicity, which is what these computers were aimed to be. Judging by your comment, you're completely unaware that Mac's do in fact have two buttons.
- fauxXenophanes, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1wow
- frostieDude, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Just seeing that makes me want to buy yet another iPod.
-
Show 51 - 95 of 95 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is 
