40 Years of Apple tech

It's been a tradition for over a decade at mkodo to showcase exciting new features, creations innovations and personal interests. I'm incredibly passionate about digital preservation and showing the next generations how far technology has progressed and where it's going next.

We started where it all began in 1984. Arguably the first consumer computer the "Macintosh" a computer with only 128KB of RAM and no hard drive. This astonishing computer for its time holds many accolades including the first personal computer with a mouse, and a revolutionary user interface to match.

The late 80s were a revolutionary time for personal computers, no more so than the NeXT Computer. This 1988 example is infamous for being the world's first web server and being used by Tim Bernands Lee to create the World Wide Web and so much of the internet we know and use today. The operating system powering this computer (NeXTStep) evolved over the years into the backbone of macOS and iOS with the return of Steve Jobs to Apple. It can not be understated how much of the personal computing revolution was influenced by this machine.

The 90s was the internet decade, I have many memories of IT lessons being about what was possible with a computer. But as the internet became more mainstream in the late 90s the image of geeky boring beige computers was to Change. In 1998 Apple introduced the iMac G3, this revolutionary device was presented by Steve Jobs as his vision of a "Digital Hub" for the home. This all-in-one design came in many different examples including many colours of the rainbow and featured extensively in film and TV.

In parallel there was a portable revolution kicking off, the 1998 G3 "Wallstreet" Wall Street PowerBook was a mobile powerhouse. As a user, you could hot-swap new batteries, expansion cards and DVD ROM drives whilst travelling.

Later in 1999, the cord would be cut with the introduction of the iBook. The world's first Wi-Fi-based laptop. Steve Jobs famously had to use a hoop to show the disbelieving audience audience. And famous for its cameo in the 2001 film Legally Blonde.

Dawn of the new millenium and mp3 era Apple's industrial design changed significantly. Apple's early 2000s design aesthetic was full of translucent plastics and precious metals. Arguably Apple's biggest flop the G4 Cube remains a fan favourite today but back in 2000, it was famous for prioritising silence and the floating cube design over performance with a design that still looks modern over two decades later.

Special kudos for the 2001 Power Mac G4, marvelling at this powerful computer is what got me into IT and eventually programming, this beast of a computer could address up to 1.5GB of RAM which was an unimaginable amount of memory at the time and the first consumer computer with highspeed gigabit ethernet.

A personal favourite of mine is the iMac G4, aka Pixar lamp. A very fragile design but ideal if you like personality with your gadgets.

By the mid-2000s Apple and the computer industry as a whole had changed to focus on performance. Many manufacturers were competing with Moore's law and building ever-faster computers. The Apple G5 Quad I believe is the pinnacle of this. This 2005 4 CPU beast was so powerful it was the only machine they manufactured to feature liquid cooling. Some of my Apple friends have told many stories about the dreaded green goo and fires that were caused by this machine but its IBM CPU went on to be reused in the Xbox 360 and PS3 CPU designs.

Apple announced in 2006 that they would be moving away from PowerPC and onto more power-efficient CPUs. The start of the Intel era of computers brought many benefits including the ability to run Windows via boot camp and new designs. Two favourites of mine were the 2007 Black Macbook and 2008 Macbook Air which challenged the notion of what a laptop could be and was the final nail in the coffin for the optical drive.

Throughout the 2010's more outlandish designs were introduced. Famously 苹果 announced the Mac Pro transcan in late 2013. One of the longest-selling computers in Apple's history it had a reputation for overheating but its portable and small design won over critics. My trash can has the notoriety of being used to build many of mkodo's first native iOS apps and lived a busy life building code for much of this decade.

And finally onto 2019, the Mac Pro with wheels. Famously unveiled with the infamous wheel add-on on the Mac Pro represented the last hurrah for Intel CPUs and the progression into Apple Silicon. This beast benchmarks the same as a current entry-level Macbook Pro, how things changed from its announcement at WWDC 2019. Also, Apple's focus on custom silicon and machine learning means the next decade of personal computing will have the biggest changes yet.

Thanks to mkodo and Leon Highmoor-Bayes for hosting, and to some of the generous donations from Sherry Bates featured in this exhibition.

If you would like to learn more here is a recent podcast I did for Alfie Whattam Podcast