It's been 30 years since Apple's Macintosh, which was first introduced by Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984, popularized personal computers and ushered the world into the digital age. Before the Mac, computers were out of reach for many as they were priced at over US$10,000. With a price tag of US$2,500, the Macintosh was the first computer that targeted end users. The Macintosh managed to meet or even outperform most of its competitors. The Mac used a Motorola 68000 microprocessor, one of the most powerful CPUs at that time. It also ran on 128K of RAM, while other computers had only 64K of RAM. Its cathode ray tube monitor was nine inches wide and had a resolution of 512 x 342. At the back of the computer, there were ports for a modem, a mouse, an external floppy drive, a printer and headphones. The keyboard, which did not have a numeric pad, arrow keys, or function keys, was plugged in from the front. The first generation of Macintosh was equipped with a 400 kilobyte, 3.5-inch floppy disk drive. It was designed in a way that expansion was almost impossible, thus no extra internal storage could be added. The Mac operating system was contained on a "start-up" disk, which means that users had to insert a disk into the floppy drive whenever the computer was switched on. Originally marketed as the "Apple Macintosh," the computer achieved its iconic status because it was the first affordable computer to feature a graphical user interface, which enabled people to use computers without taking coding classes. Two "killer applications," MacWrite and MacPaint, were also bundled with the computer. Macintosh was also portable in a sense as it could be lifted by the handle on top and put into a bag. To celebrate Macintosh's 30th birthday, Apple would stage a special event at the Flint Center in Cupertino, California, the exact same spot where Steve Jobs presented the first Macintosh three decades ago. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next Media Animation's News Direct service provides daily, high-quality, informative 3D animated news graphics that fill in for missing footage and help viewers understand breaking news stories or in-depth features on science, technology, and health. To subscribe to News Direct or for more info, please visit: http://newsdirect.nma.com.tw/Index.aspx

• published: 23 Jan 2014
• views: 164