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Apple Reveals ‘Lisa’, Its $50M Gamble (1983)

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Re: Apple Reveals ‘Lisa’, Its $50M Gamble (1983)

#31
post #4

This makes the new Mac Pro look like a bargain... especially after you adjust for inflation.

$25k after inflation. I had no idea it was that expensive!

My parent’s Mac II cost over $6000 at the time we got it. Compared to the IBM PCs at the time, the 640x480 hires display was stunningly gorgeous!

Re: Apple Reveals ‘Lisa’, Its $50M Gamble (1983)

#32

Trying to understand Steve Jobs is an effort in futility I know, but I've never understood what he was thinking around this time. He refused to accept responsibility for his daughter when she was born in 1978, and even 5 years later, he was still questioning the accuracy of DNA paternity tests in Time Magazine and despite being a multi-millionaire, only grudgingly paying $500 a month for child support. But then he go…

Plus he lied to her about it when she asked him years later. It’s in her fairly recently published memoir.

Re: Apple Reveals ‘Lisa’, Its $50M Gamble (1983)

#33
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the future is AR, it's a good thing Apple is one of the leading companies in this area.

I would not say even their software AR is leading AR in general (assuming you are referring to ARKit). They have no hardware AR devices, correct me if I'm wrong. What are they leading?

They aren't selling any AR devices. Doesnt mean they aren't developing and testing them internally.

Re: Apple Reveals ‘Lisa’, Its $50M Gamble (1983)

#35
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steve Jobs could not get trademark on McIntosh but was able to negotiate for Macintosh https://www.soundandvision.com/content/flashback-1984-apple-...

I don't see a reference to it at that link but it's because audio equipment manufacturer McIntosh Labs had the trademark: https://www.mcintoshlabs.com/ Edited to add from wikipedia: “Apple Inc. employee Jef Raskin named the Macintosh line of personal computers after the McIntosh. He deliberately misspelled the name to avoid conflict with the hi-fi equipment manufacturer McIntosh Laboratory. Apple's attempt in 1982 to…

I just lost ten minutes to drooling over the absurdly over-the-top McIntosh Reference System. Now I need to win the lottery.

Re: Apple Reveals ‘Lisa’, Its $50M Gamble (1983)

#37

Watching early Apple presentations and modern presentations shows the company prioritizing sales over innovation. Now we see a phone that is marginally better than the previous year, with taglines like "the best iPhone ever". The future is AR and gestures in my opinion, if keyboard input speed is ever an issue then a glove Swype interface would work. Many smaller companies have already set the stage nicely, such as t…

While we are definitely going to have more AR, I'm not convinced that it's the future at all. But I guess that's the case with most people and most technologies until they become ubiquitous. AR still seems like a solution looking for a problem.

Funny, I've felt the same thing about VR. With AR, I can think of a million practical applications. With any kind of VR that is short of full sensory immersion, I can't think of a single practical use.

Re: Apple Reveals ‘Lisa’, Its $50M Gamble (1983)

#38
It’s interesting to me how well-reported this seems, or maybe how it seems informed by ensuing decades of literature rather than being reported in the moment. Apple’s mythos, Jobs’s showmanship, and the importance of Xerox PARC and Apple’s deal with Xerox were all established lore very early on. I guess it’s just bias on my part that it seems like things would have been less clear or known at the time.

Re: Apple Reveals ‘Lisa’, Its $50M Gamble (1983)

#39

Did much of Lisa even survive to become the Mac, or was it just in spirit? Considering you needed a Lisa to develop for the Mac for the first few years, it’s good that they made it.

Spirit. The Lisa was a MUCH more powerful computer than the first Mac - which is why you needed a Lisa in the first place. The Mac wasn't able to run much of anything developed for the Lisa. Mac software was written in machine language, as I recall the Lisa made more use of higher level languages, so even the tool chain would be problematic.

Check folklore.org for more stories of that time.

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