Brave News World Spring 2005: cover accessories faces fashion food health humor movies music shoes sports tech

About BNW BNW Cover Accessories Faces Fashion Food Health Movies Music Production Shoes Sports Tech

Tech... Notable moments in Mac History By Brian Beck From January 1984 (the release of the first Macintosh Computer) to now, the Mac has had a roller-coaster history. From being the first to market with a GUI-based system to being dominated in sales by Windows OS-based computers to now, where Apple is slowly making a comeback in the Windows dominated market, the history of the Macintosh computer is a great ride. The early days Photo courtesy of Apple-History January 1984: Macintosh 128k was released. The system was known for being the first with a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that released at an affordable price point. Apple would go on to release more models in this line and increase the amount of RAM or introduce other features. Photo: What the Macintosh 128k looked like March 1987: Macintosh II was released. This system was billed as the ultimate expandable Mac. It was also the first Mac with color capabilities. September 1989: Macintosh Portable was released. This was a failed attempt at producing a portable Macintosh. The high price kept it from being more widely adopted. October 1990: Macintosh LC was released. The LC stood for "low cost" -- the system retailed at $2,400 and was targeted at home users. Moving onto the next step... Photo courtesy of Apple-History October 1991: PowerBook 100 was released. While this system was essentially a repackaged Macintosh Portable, it was well-received due to its lower cost -- the system was $4000 less than the Portable. Photo: Apple's first "real" laptop, the Powerbook 100 was a precursor of things to come Febuary 1993: Macintosh Centris 610 was released. This Mac was well-known for two reasons: it was one of the first mid-range computers to have a 68040 processor and it was housed in the now well-known low profile case. October 1993: Quadra 610 was released. This system was a Centris 610 with a faster processor. April 1995: Power Macintosh 5200 was released. This was the first LC model to use a PowerPC chip and was released initially to education markets. ...the recent history Photo courtesy of Apple-History November 1997: Powerbook G3 was released. This was, at the time of release, referred to as "the fastest notebook in the world." It was able to back up those claims by clocking speeds close to those of the PowerMac 9600/300. It was the first powerbook to use a G3 processor (a third generation processor from Motorola/IBM). Photo: The Powerbook G3 was a huge step for Apple. It went a long way to bring portable computing into the mainstream. August 1998: The iMac was released. Billed as "Apple's computer for the new millenium," this system would go on to be one of Apple's most recognizable Macintosh systems to date. The distinctive colored shells and design would live on in a later released product, the eMac. Apple would keep the iMac line alive, however, and would use it to release two more systems with revolutionary designs -- the Lampshade iMac (announced in January 2002) and the iMac G5 (introduced in August 2004). July 1999: The iBook was announced. This portable was revolutionary for the Macintosh system, setting precedents that would go on to become standards across all lines. The most popular and well known that is still around today is Airport (Apple's implementation of the 802.11 wireless networking standard). June 2004: New PowerMac G5 was released. While it may have only been a speed bump of previous G5 systems, this marks the most powerful development in desktop technology for Apple. Able to run as much as dual 2.5 GhZ G5 processors, this system is a definite beast. Photo courtesy of Apple-History January 2005: Mac Mini was released. This system was Apple's first stab at the PC userbase. The system cost only $499 and did not have any other things included. It was just the system -- PC Users could use their current mouse, keyboard, monitor and any other Mac-Compatible accessories. The system was also significantly cheaper than any previous Apple system. Photo: Apple's latest entry into the computer market. Thanks to Glen Sanford of Apple-History.com for the information provided on his page and the permission to use it. Visit his site for more detail on almost every model of Macintosh ever released.

Brave News World is a general-interest magazine produced online by students in the course Online Journalism JRN 410 led by Professor Anthony Curtis, Department of Mass Communications, University of North Carolina at Pembroke. The cover, sections and pages were designed by students in the course and article topics were chosen and reported by the individual students who wrote them. We are eternally grateful to those agencies and institutions that have graciously provided images for this edition. Views expressed by individual writers in this magazine are not endorsed by the professor, the department, the university, or possibly anyone else. Your comments are welcomed by the professor who may be contacted at (910) 521-6616. Or you may e-mail the professor at acurtis@uncp.edu.