“The Business Mac is the ultimate resource for both small office (SOHO) and enterprise users struggling to resolve the issues of using Macs in their business.”

“Over the years, there have been more than a few misconceptions about Macs. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular ones…”

Old, but interesting… “When Apple unveiled its space-age iMac this spring, it caused a huge sensation. Not only is iMac turbo-charged and priced for the consumer market, it looks unlike any other machine out there — computer or otherwise. Remarkable by any measure, the iMac demonstrates the incredible ‘Think different’ creativity of Apple’s in-house industrial design group, led by British-born designer Jonathan Ive. Who is Ive and how does he view the world? This interview provides a glimpse of Apple’s industrial design team leader.” Note: Here’s a slow mirror showing the new iMac.

“The Dock is by far the most controversial feature in Mac OS X. It attempts to single-handedly serve as a replacement for the Apple menu, popup windows, WindowShade, the Control Strip, spring-loaded folders, and various of the other user-friendly features Mac users have gotten used to over the past fifteen years or so. Needless to say, these are big (and numerous) shoes to fill, so one would expect nothing less than a killer app, right?”

“Apples, clones, hacks. Obscure, unusual, exceptional.” Also check out MacTreasures.

“Apple Computer Inc. said today that it was expanding into the retail business, confirming that it planned to open its first store on May 19. A computer industry analyst said the company might open as many as 10 stores as part of a strategy to extend the Apple brand.”

“Apple expatriates Bruce ‘Tog’ Togzini and Jef Raskin, highly-credentialed and respected individuals, are figuratively leading the charge to convince users that, regardless of how much any individual may like Aqua, it is poorly designed and will destroy their productivity. In seeing the obvious painstaking design that went into the new interface, I found myself having a hard time believing these arguments, convincing through they sounded, and in the process of replying to some discussion postings on MacCentral.com, I found myself discovering the holes in their reasoning.”

Something new from the Barrett brothers: “Have you ever run into a problem you know you’ve solved in the past, but you couldn’t remember how you’d solved it? Do you have Macintosh technical knowledge you’d like to share with others with jobs like ours? Are you frustrated that there isn’t an online resource with proven, reliable, non-speculative information to help you solve the problems you encounter every day? AppleTechs.com aims to be a repository of solutions — an exchange of resources and knowledge by our peers, categorized, indexed, and searchable.”

“The Mac OS system software, and many Mac OS applications, contain many subtle human interface tweaks that combine to make the Macintosh user experience richer and easier. The subtlety of some of these tweaks is staggering. This page documents some of my personal favourites.”

“We are very excited to introduce to you the XtremMac™ what we believe will be a whole new way of looking at the computer as a natural ingredient of your personal environment. It started with the intention to make the world’s fastest computer. A modest, but important mission. Then we thought — why not make it look good so we don’t have to hide it in the closet or under the table. Just as you pick your favorite designer furniture to fit your home, why shouldn’t you be able to pick your favorite designer computer?”

“The recent arrival of Apple’s next-generation operating system, OS X, is a tech landmark. But, Steven Johnson also asks, is it this generation’s Sgt. Pepper?”

“Gedeon Maheux of Iconfactory and Rick Roe of The Omni Group have differing opinions about the merits of Apple’s new photorealistic icons, so it shouldn’t be surprising that they are using different tools to create the clickable images.” Also, read former XPLANEr John Marstall’s take on the new OS X (see the 9/22/00 entry).

“Mac OS X is so interesting because it is Unix — or, rather, one of the many Unix variants — through and through. Strip away the colorful candy shell, and any number of bearded, suspendered old-school Unix hackers would feel right at home inside the confines of Mac OS X. In fact, if you ignore the graphical user interface (GUI) entirely and limit your interaction with the operating system to an 80-by-25-character text window, you’d be hard-pressed to identify Mac OS X as anything other than a true-blue FreeBSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) release, on which OS X is based.”

“soultools is a set of icons for your MacOS or Windows computer. What perhaps makes this set a little bit different from the others is that they are only in black and white. Oldschool flavour, a bit sentimental but hopefully still with a fresh look.”

“‘Making the Macintosh’ is an online project documenting the history of the Macintosh computer. The Macintosh stands at a cusp in the history of computing and Silicon Valley: it brought together (and sometimes transformed) a number of technical and conceptual threads in computing that developed in the 1960s and 1970s, but it also was responsible for sparking new movements in computing. This project collects and publishes primary material on the Macintosh’s development and early reception. It draws on the extensive holdings of the Stanford University Library’s Department of Special Collections, the personal papers of engineers and technical writers involved in the Macintosh project, and interviews conducted for the project.”