On January 22, 1984, Apple aired what's widely considered one of the best TV ads of all time. Two days later the Macintosh computer was released "with the promise to put the creative power of technology in everyone’s hands." Over the years—30 of them, to be exact—we've seen many successful incarnations of the Mac (do you remember your blueberry G3?) and a few not-so successful ones (I still think the 20th anniversary Mac is downright nifty). The creation of the Mac influenced computers as much then as it does today. Most remarkable, though, the Mac is still around and, arguably, better than ever.

“Every company that made computers when we started the Mac, they’re all gone,” Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, told Macworld in an interview on Thursday. “We’re the only one left. We’re still doing it, and growing faster than the rest of the PC industry because of that willingness to reinvent ourselves over and over.”

Macworld has more on the computer's longevity:

“There were so many things of value in the original Mac that it is still recognizable,” Schiller said. The teams at Apple that have built and rebuilt the Mac over the years have had the option to toss away anything that didn’t work—and yet so much of the original Mac concept succeeded that, 30 years later, the Mac remains undeniably the Mac.

Bud Tribble, now Apple’s vice president of software technology, was a member of the original Macintosh development team, giving him a unique perspective on both the Apple of 1984 and the 2014 model.

“An incredible amount of thought and creativity went into the original Mac metaphor,” Tribble said. “So there are some extremely strong threads of DNA that have lasted for 30 years. The sign of the strength of them and the underlying principles behind them—that the Mac should be easily approachable and learnable by just looking at it, that it should bend to the will of the person and not bend the person’s will to the technology—those underlying threads also apply to our other products.”

The advent of the Mac also helped fan the obsessive flames of the great Apple vs. PC war—the Catholics vs. Protestants of our time—a feud already brewing prior to 1984. And what a war it is. Apple fans are zealots, and their detractors equally nutty. PC Magazine says of the battle:

That first model, simply called Macintosh (later rebadged the Macintosh 128k), brought users a relatively refined GUI, the Mac OS that continues now as Mac OS X. The Mac even ushered in Steve Jobs's first keynote, with the unveiling of the iconic "1984" ad during the 1984 Super Bowl. But it's hard to appreciate technology at a distance, because even the best computer from 1984 looks to modern eyes like a solar-powered calculator in 2014.

Now, PC Magazine (this was pre-PCMag.com) didn't actually review the original Apple Macintosh when it came out in 1984. No, the Apple versus PC divide was already in place, as evidenced by this cover story—when PC Magazine was billed as "The independent guide to IBM personal computers." We did, however, talk about it, because the Macintosh was clearly worth noting, even if we didn't have one in the labs. [...]

But PCs lack the fervor and excitement of a Mac. They just do, at least for your average user. They neither glisten in the morning light nor make you look cool at a cafe as you pretend to write the next great American novel. The PC is for the people; the Mac for a certain kind of people—namely, those who can afford them. For many, though, the operating system's ease and the luminous design of a Mac (a staple of all Apple products) outweighs personal fiscal responsibility.

Speaking of fervor, back in 1998 and fresh out of college, I worked a low-level job at Macworld Magazine. (Fun fact: We had to use a PC, the company's only non-testing lab PC, to generate magazine circulation reports. "It's more powerful and runs on the right software," my then boss would explain. Heh.) I remember the line for my first Macworld convention at Moscone Center was insane—One Direction insane. It went down Third Street, wound around Folsom, and back up Second Street. The fandom was unlike anything I had ever witnessed. Someone in line for Steve Jobs keynote fainted and an ambulance had to be called. It was glorious.

By now we all know the important names involved. Steve Jobs. Steve Wozniak. And more. But those are the big ones. Jobs died on October 5, 2011. Vigils were held at Apple stores and in Dolores Park, now ground zero for San Francisco's exploding tech sector on the weekends. The Woz, as he's affectionately known, does awesome things like toodle around on Segway and make cameo appearances on a Bravo reality shows. The Mac prefaced the iPhone, which itself led to another type of revolution.

Here's to 30 more years of slick computing and sleek design, Apple. Thanks for the memories.

Oh, and here's that ad:

Though interest in the Apple iPhone subsided ever so slightly, we're always curious about the technological wizardry brewing in Cupertino. We're hearing rumors that Apple could debut the new iPhone on Wednesday, September 12, 2012, with the release date on Friday, September 21. According to iMore's unnamed sources, the iPad Mini and a new iPod nano will be unveiled at the same event.

As for the new devices' hardware, iMore has, well, more:

As for hardware, we're still hearing the iPad mini will be exactly like the 9.7-inch iPad, only scaled down to 7.x-inches. We originally heard Apple had a few iPhone 5 prototypes, including 3.5-inch and 4-inch versions, but recent reports and parts leaks make it look like the 4-inch, 16:9 screen version is what Apple's going with. We've also consistently heard all new iOS devices will have the new, smaller Dock connector going forward, which along with the nano-SIM and rumored in-cell display should leave lots of room for the LTE radio we heard about earlier in the year, and the bigger battery to go along with it.

And with that, you have around six weeks to whip yourselves up into frantic lather over the new iPhone.

Much has been written about how Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 and turned the troubled company into one of the most valuable in the world—but sometimes a t-shirt just says it better. Because before we could get an iPod, iPhone or iPad, some housecleaning had to be done. And to that end, we have yet to see a shirt that better sums up how Jobs immediately went about fixing the company he co-founded than the one you see before you. A year after this shirt was handed out to a few Mac OS faithful in Boston, Jobs started going about axing every single thing this shirt represented. Shall we count the ways?

Killing The Clones: Back when the Apple's name went hand in hand with the word "beleaguered" it tried its hand at the Windows model of licensing its OS out to other companies. And for awhile Power Computer was the most successful of the bunch, eventually hitting revenues of $400 million a year. One of the first things Jobs did upon his return? Kill the licensing program and buy Power Computing in Apple stock.

Making Peace With Intel: The actual slogan that PC had Sluggo saying to try and rally the troops was not "We're Fighting Back For the Mac," it was "Let's Kick Intel's Ass!" But for various reasons that was too risque for a shirt. And it didn't work anyway! Though in 1996 Macs ran on PowerPC chips from Motorola and IBM, quickly after Jobs and his NeXT team arrived a program was set up to port the next generation Mac OS based on NeXT Step (now known as OS X) to Intel chips. It wasn't until 2005, however, when the transition was officially announced to the public.

Stopping The Spec Wars: Lots of things changed about the computer industry when Jobs came back to Apple, but one of the biggest was the disregard for specs. At the time of this shirt, that 225 Mhz speed barrier was a big deal for a Mac to cross. Now, thanks to an emphasis on the new (see: the latest iPad being named simply "the new iPad") most people don't even know how much memory they have in their iPod. 10,000 songs is not a real metric.

Expelling The Expos: Back in the day there were only so many places for Mac fans to gather both online and off, which made the Macworld Expos in Boston, SF and Tokyo incredibly important (this was long before there was a Daring Fireball and its ilk, when some of us were constantly refreshing the Apple-as-soap-opera blog As The Apple Turns for our daily fix). But Steve Jobs wasn't a fan. Though he definitely grasped the importance of the keynotes there, he didn't like being tied down to someone else's events for his announcements. In 1997 the Boston Macworld Expo was where Jobs announced a cash-infusion from archrival Microsoft (to boos) and that was pretty much it. The show moved to New York the next year, did a few years here and then, without Apple participating, had a few lackluster appearances in Boston before giving up the ghost in 2005.

Branding The Apple The strangest thing about this shirt? That neither the word Apple, or the company's famous rainbow logo (later made monochromatic by Jobs) is anywhere near it. Yes, it wasn't an Apple shirt, but that was exactly the point. At the time Power Computer was arguably making the best Apple computers out there (even if yeah, they weren't Apple computers) and here was that company putting out shirts with an IBM logo! One of the first things Jobs did upon his return was introduce the the "Think Different" ad campaign and bring the focus back on Apple the company.

Yes, in his return to Apple Jobs oversaw a major developments—but to get there he and his team first had to clean the company up. And if you could put that cleanup's roadmap on one shirt? This would be it.

Orbitz.com, purveyors of cheap travel and hotel accommodations, has finally figured out how to capitalize on the expensive tastes and smug sense of superiority of folks who choose to do their computing with Apple products. In a report from the Wall Street Journal today, the business paper notes that the travel site has begun steering Mac users looking for a cheap place to crash towards different and sometimes more expensive travel options than their Windows counterparts.

In their analysis of users' browsing data, Orbitz found what market researchers have known for years: that folks using Apple computers tend to spend more money already. The logic then, goes something like: "why not just show them more expensive options to begin with?"

While searching for two nights in a Miami Beach hotel, the Wall Street Journal found Mac users were given a list of more pricy boutique hotels — which actually sound like the kind of places you'd find a lot of frequently traveling Mac users anyway.

The Orbitz effort is only part of the larger trend of retail sites and advertisers combing through the massive piles of user data they've been amassing for years in an attempt to predict user behavior and eke out a couple extra bucks here and there. The WSJ calls it predictive analytics, but what it ultimately amounts to is creating an online stereotype so retailers can sell more of the same thing to the same sorts of people. Which is more or less how we ended up with so many MacBooks using the hotel lobby WiFi in the first place.

[WSJ]
[Atlantic]
[Full disclosure: This blog post was written on a Mac. Just like every other blog post on the Internet.]

Mac, the San Francisco Police Department's prolific drug-sniffing Springer Spaniel, was recognized for his work with the departments Investigations Bureau in a special ceremony at the Hall of Justice today. Mac, who is three years old and absolutely adorable, received a special star and a belly rub from Police Chief Greg Suhr for his role in seizing over $3.75 million worth of drug money and over 500 pounds of cocaine, crack, methamphetamine, MDMA and heroin.

Mac's drug-sniffing work has provided support to nearly every bay Area law enforcement agency as well as the FBI, DHS and ATF. Good work, little buddy!

Hey, rabid iPad fans, get ready to change your pad for one that's clearer, crisper, and thinner. According to All Things D, Apple will announce the iPad 3 (or, worse, the iPad 2S) in the first week of March. "Sources say the company has chosen the first week in March to debut the successor to the iPad 2, and will do so at one of its trademark special events. The event will be held in San Francisco, presumably at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Apple’s preferred location for big announcements like these."

While nothing has been confirmed by Apple (of course), the new iPad will probably run on a faster chip, feature a 2048×1536 Retina Display (similar to the iPhone 4 and 4S), boast better graphics, and be even thinner than its predecessor. Oh, and it might have a better camera. And maybe even Siri will make an appearance on the next generation? Fingers crossed.

If the iPad 3 does unleash itself upon the world, look for it to hit store shelves a week after the big announcement. Again, this is all delicious speculation. As Macworld notes, "Should Apple indeed decide to hold an event the first week of March, we’d likely not find out until sometime in late February."

After June's WWDC failed to deliver any special phone gadgetry, we're now hearing word that Apple will launch the iPhone 5 in September. Probably. The new phone will allegedly come equipped with a stronger chip and a better camera, among other marvels of modern technology. "The device will include the A5 processor, the more powerful chip that Apple added to the iPad 2 earlier this year, along with an 8-megapixel camera, up from the 5-megapixel model in the iPhone 4, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the details aren’t public," reports Bloomberg.

Other rumors about the next generation phone, according to Business Insider, are: a larger screen, getting rid of the home button, a camera that shoot full HD video, duel-LED Flash, new design, same old design, it will make bacon come out of your elbow (hat tip: Murphy Brown), and more.

Apple declined to comment. Naturally.

Also, Apple is allegedly now testing a new version of the iPad "that has a higher resolution screen, similar to the one now used in the iPhone 4."

[via Shelly Palmer]

The first person in line, as SF Weekly's Alexia Tsotsis reports, was Chris Bank, who's been camped outside the Apple store on Stockton since midnight Tuesday. He has "put up his coveted slot for auction via Air BNB at $200 per night." However, "Bank has apparently given up the first place in line title to international pun champion Joe Sabia...for the discount sum of $400."

SFGate notes a few problems with the new iPhone 4. Some fans report "cellular reception problems when they hold the phone with their hands around the outer metal band of the device." Mildly disgruntled users have recorded video of the bars plunging significantly and sending them to Gizmodo. Below you can view footage (via SFGate) about one such instance.

Holy smokes, people. According to Britney Gilbert at Eye On Blogs, "Tech blog Gizmodo claims that someone, most likely an Apple employee, left a yet-to-be-release iPhone 4G in a Redwood City bar, disguised to look like a 3G phone." Behold.

If this is the 4G, tapering is out; stronger edges are in. And, if this iPhone 4G is the second coming, which Gizmodo claims it is, the next generation will feature: front facing camera for char, camera flash (praise Jesus), split buttons for volume, metallic power, mute, and volume buttons.