Commemorating Microsoft’s 50th anniversary, Bill Gates provides a first-hand account of the company’s origin story. The post gains extra charm from an interactive design that transforms the text into ASCII art evocative of the era.
A cascade of Web technology interactions—involving lightboxes, automatic browser translation, and a bizarre Google Translate bug—resulted in respondents to a Pew Research survey seeing “forks” instead of “yes.”
Storyteller and former Take Control author Scott Knaster has launched a Substack newsletter featuring true stories of the Silicon Valley of yesteryear from his time at Apple, General Magic, Microsoft, and Google.
Congratulations to Jim Rea of ProVUE, who is celebrating the 40th anniversary of exhibiting his database OverVUE (which has evolved into today’s Panorama X) at the very first Macworld Expo.
At Tedium, Ernie Smith explores the origins of screen savers, revealing a history that stretches back further than most might think. Although Apple seems focused on its high-resolution Aerial video screen savers, screen saver design seems to be returning to just darkening the screen.
Paul Kafasis relates the hilariously incorrect results of asking Siri to identify Super Bowl winners, which leads John Gruber to compare Siri with other answer engines, a comparison in which Siri comes out smelling like old socks.
On a recent visit to San Francisco, Adam Engst was thoroughly impressed with a ride in a Waymo robotaxi. How many years will it be before the company expands service to most of the country?
Rogue Amoeba has finished moving its entire fleet of audio apps to its next-generation audio capture technology, a process that took three years after being forced by Apple security changes. Here’s the story.
Not that you were planning on seeking it out, but Apple recommends that you keep your iPhone and Apple Watch away from high concentrations of helium.
As part of a new digital exhibit, the Steve Jobs Archive has released a video of Jobs addressing designers at an industry conference in Aspen. Although it’s interesting to look back at the time, it’s also fascinating to see how accurate his predictions were.
Curious about what the Internet was like 30 years ago, in 1994? Fast Company has published an article looking at 15 websites from that year, but for a much more comprehensive (and amusing) view, check out the “Internet Explorer’s Kit for Macintosh” book by Adam Engst and Bill Dickson, now available online.
Veronica de Souza shares the texts she received from the thieves who stole her iPhone and then tried to convince her to unlock it.
Apple has released a large set of operating system updates, including iOS 17.5, iPadOS 17.5, macOS 14.5 Sonoma, watchOS 10.5, tvOS 17.5, HomePod Software 17.5, macOS Ventura 13.6.7, macOS Monterey 12.7.5, iOS 16.7.8, and iPadOS 16.7.8. New features include alerts for Android-paired tracking devices moving with you and a new game and leaderboard for Apple News+ subscribers.
Want to wax nostalgic? This history of online messaging system is sure to trigger some memories of when the Internet was a smaller, kinder place.
Apple has posted an account of a team using the Apple Watch Ultra 2 (and iPhone 15 Pro Max) during The Speed Project, an unofficial, unsanctioned relay race from Santa Monica to Las Vegas. Adam Engst wonders how well the technology really worked.