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I tried to identify high-quality audio samples and failed miserably
High-resolution audio is getting a lot buzz as of late thanks to the efforts of Tidal, Neil Young and others. While Tidal had a test of its own, NPR set up another quiz to see if you can tell the difference between MP3s and uncompressed WAVs. I couldn't, and I listened to the samples through a pair of B&O H6s routed through an Apogee Groove DAC/headphone amp. In fact, the only track out of the six in which I was able to accurately identify the uncompressed audio was Katy Perry's "Dark Horse" (oddly enough, I'm a big KP fan). For reference, 320kbps MP3s, which are the mid-grade option here, are what streaming services like Spotify, Rdio and others use for their catalogs.
Apple Macintosh 128k prototype with 5.25-inch Twiggy floppy drive for sale on eBay
Apple's Macintosh took many forms over the years, from its initial concept by Jef Raskin as a $500 appliance that contained a built-in keyboard, printer and 5-inch display, to its ceremonious debut in 1984 with an inflated price that was five times this initial vision. For a period in the Mac's development, it was assumed that the computer would feature Apple's proprietary Twiggy 5.25-inch floppy disk drive, which also came as standard issue on the original Lisa. Just recently, an extremely rare prototype of the 128k Mac with a Twiggy drive has surfaced on eBay, but with an opening bid of $99,995, this antique is beyond what most of us could ever afford.While the Twiggy disk could store an impressive 860KB of data, it was also notoriously unreliable -- so bad, in fact, that one engineer responsible for the drive remarked to Steve Jobs, "Take out your .45 and shoot the friggin' horse in the head." Ultimately, the company did just that, and the original Macintosh shipped with a 3.5-inch drive from Sony that could write only 400KB to its not-so-floppy disks. While this prototype will attract only the most affluent of bidders, the rest of us can enjoy the priceless photos of what might've been.
Happy 27th Birthday, Macintosh
Apple unveiled its first Macintosh-branded computer 27 years ago today. Steve Jobs introduced the Apple Macintosh on January 24, 1984 and received wild applause from the crowd of 3,000 people. The original Apple Macintosh was the first personal computer to be powered by the Mac operating system, then lovingly called System 1.0. The all-in-one beige case included a 9-inch monitor, a convenient handle and an accompanying keyboard and mouse. It also featured an 8 MHz processor with 128 KB DRAM, 16-bit data bus and non-upgradeable internal components. It was originally introduced simply as the Apple Macintosh and was re-branded as the Macintosh 128K when its big brother, the Macintosh 512K, was introduced in September 1984. The history-making computer debuted with a price tag of US$2495. For those that want to relive a piece of history, Steve Job's unveiling of the Apple Macintosh is above, and the famous "1984" Ridley Scott TV commercial, which aired during Super Bowl XVIII, is after the break. Enjoy!
Welcome to Macintosh, 24 years ago today
24 years ago today the public could, for the first time, buy themselves a Macintosh computer. This little computer, which cost $2500, changed the way people interact with machines on a very real level. It is also the reason that TUAW exists. Without the Macintosh 128k there would be no TUAW, no Mac, and (most likely) no Apple.Sound off in the comments if you bought one of those first Macs and share your story of how it impacted your life.Thanks to everyone who reminded us about this.
Flickr Find: Mac factory circa 1984
Check out this great shot posted by Flickr user wackymac. Apparently it depicts a Mac assembly line from 1984. He writes:"This is a photo of the original Macintosh factory in Fremont, California. It was the first of its kind for the computer industry, featuring advanced automated technology with a Just-In-Time manufacturing system. It was Steve Jobs' decision to make this kind of factory for the first Macs. This factory was able to produce a 128k Macintosh every 27 seconds."You know, the current machines are beautiful, but there's just something about the compact Macs that I'll always love.
