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12 moments in the keyboard's history
At some point in the day, we all smash our fingers against some form of keyboard -- whether it's of the physical or virtual variety. In this week's Rewind, we take a look at how the keyboard's grown beyond its humble typewriter beginnings and taken on a life of its own.
Flickr Find: Digital Steve Jobs on a bookshelf
We just love it when someone uploads a photo to Flickr that not only pays homage to the late co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, but also demonstrates vividly how much some of us like to keep our old Apple equipment and books. Blake Patterson (@blakespot) took this photo on October 7, 2011 -- just two days after Jobs passed away. This Apple //c is displaying a ghostly green monochrome image of Jobs, rendered in Applesoft BASIC line by glowing line with a program by Chris Baird from the A2Central.com IRC chat. A look at the A2Central website indicates that there's still a thriving community of Apple II fans, so if you still have working hardware, there are a lot of people who are willing to help you keep it running.
Apple II Digital Music Synthesizer available now for 8-bit die-hards
The last time we had occasion to feature 8 Bit Weapon in this space, our man Seth had hacked his Nintendo Power Pad into a music controller. Now the team is back with something a little less strenuous -- but no less musical -- for all of you budding chiptune artists out there. The Digital Music Synthesizer for Apple II is a wavetable synthesizer designed specifically for live performance. Not only does this bad boy come with ten voices (including bass, trumpet, square wave, sawtooth wave, and sine wave), but sequences can be recorded for a later time. But wait, there's more -- there is no monitor required. If you've ever had to lug an Apple II monitor to a dank performance space on a weeknight (and who hasn't?), you understand what a sweet setup this is. Supports your Apple IIe, IIc, IIc+, or IIgs computer with 80-column capability and at least one 5.25" floppy disk drive. Get yours now for $19.95 -- but not before checking out the demo after the break.
Twitterers remember their first Mac
Reader Sam K. (thanks!) noticed the fun on Twitter -- lots of folks are sharing their memories of the first Mac they bought/used with the #firstmac hash tag, and boy is it fun reading through them. The responses are all over the place, from the old ][e (technically my first computer ever at school, though the first one I actually owned at home was a Tandy Color Computer my Dad bought from one of his coworkers) and //c up to the old iMacs and even a few people who can only claim iPod as the first Apple product they used. The first Mac I actually owned was much later than my first steps into BASIC -- when I needed a laptop a few years ago, I picked up a 12" Powerbook G4 and have been straight OS X ever since. It's great to read this stuff, because you can see just how Apple has shaped people's lives. I was amazed to hear all of the emotion in the calls to Steve on our talkcast last week, but looking at something like this Twitter feed (to put your own memories in, just mark a tweet with the #firstmac tag somewhere in there) really shows you how dedicated Apple's products have made the company's customers. These people have all bought a Mac, whether it was a Mac SE (errrr, a Mac Classic?) or a MacBook Air, and never looked back since. Very cool. And while we're at it, is it possible that you're on Twitter and haven't yet started following us? If not, jump in and do so now!
Flickr Find: Apple IIc unboxing
Like geeks everywhere, here at TUAW we like unboxing pics. But unboxing shots from an original Apple IIc? Now that's Apple fan candy! This Apple IIc was recently purchased on eBay and had never been opened before. The lucky buyer posted this Flickr set of the ritual. I particularly love the old rainbow Apple stickers! [via Digg]
Rig of the Day: Apple //c
TUAW reader and Flickr user superpixel* has posted this great shot of an Apple//c, complete with one of those tiny, green-on-black monitors. I used to have one of these displays, but not the computer to go with it."Apple 2c" posted by superpixel.For the month of April, the theme for our Rig of the Day will be "Vintage Macs" in honor of Apple's anniversary. If you'd like to see your own rig featured here, simply upload photos into our group Flickr pool. Let's see your vintage Macs (Apples and Newtons, too)! We'll select an image every day to highlight.*The so-called "superpixel" is actually TUAW's own Victor Agreda, Jr.
