Apple Core

• Apple Park - a boondoggle or the greatest office ever built?

  In 2011, Steve Jobs made his final public appearance, presenting his plans for a second Apple campus to Cupertino City Council. He proposed a circular building, one mile in diameter, surrounded by beautifully landscaped grounds that concealed a subterranean parking garage. With a whopping $5 billion budget and a prestigious international architect attached to the project, Jobs’ ambition was to build “the best office building in the world.” Drawing on his learnings from Pixar’s headquarters, Jobs believed the “donut-shaped” design would result in to unexpected encounters that prompted innovation.Completed in 2017, Apple Park quickly an iconic part of the brand, featured in every product launch video. But the building’s Pentagon-style “groundscraper” design epitomizes car-dependent suburban bureaucracy rather than innovation, and with the rise of post-COVID home working, large campus sites have become less relevant. So, in this episode, we explore the history of Silicon Valley office parks and consider if Jobs achieved his goal of building the world’s best office.MERCH STORECheck out our merch store on Teepublic for retro-geek t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, mugs, stickers, and more: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/apple-core-podcastLINKS:Video of Steve Jobs’ presentation to Cupertino City Council https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtuz5OmOh_MThe Glendenning Barn https://finance.yahoo.com/news/story-behind-random-century-old-162804565.htmlHistory of the Apple Park site https://s3.amazonaws.com/Apple-Campus2-DEIR/Apple_Campus_2_Project_EIR_Public_Review_5e-Cultural.pdfHewlett Packard’s Garage on Apple Maps https://maps.apple.com/?address=367%20Addison%20Ave,%20Palo%20Alto,%20CA%20%2094301,%20United%20States&ll=37.443018,-122.154640&q=367%20Addison%20AveSteve Jobs’s parents’ garage on Apple Maps https://maps.apple.com/?address=2066%20Crist%20Dr,%20Los%20Altos,%20CA%20%2094024,%20United%20States&ll=37.340323,-122.068897&q=2066%20Crist%20Dr&t=hThe A1844 Door Assembly With Reader https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-mystery-device-a1844-photos-user-manual-2017-3Satellite image of Apple Park by Apple Maps.

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• Leander Kahney - biographer of Tim Cook and Jony Ive

  In this special episode we interview Leander Kahney, editor of Cult of Mac, and author of New York Times best-selling biographies of Tim Cook and Jony Ive.During his three-decade career, working first at MacWEEK, then Wired News, and now as the editor of his own tech news website, Cult of Mac, Leander attended all the legendary Steve Jobs keynotes and interviewed some of Apple’s most senior executives. Leander regales us with a wealth of fascinating Apple insights and anecdotes. He also shares his origin story as a war correspondent. Plus we learn how Cult of Mac became a thing… And why he wishes he’d never called it that.MERCH STORECheck out our merch store on Teepublic for retro-geek t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, mugs, stickers, and more: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/apple-core-podcastLINKS:Subscribe to Leander’s Cult of Mac Newsletter: https://newsletters.cultofmac.comAnd check out Leander’s books:The Cult of Mac https://www.amazon.com/Cult-Mac-Leander-Kahney/dp/1593271220/The Cult of iPod https://www.amazon.com/Cult-iPod-Leander-Kahney/dp/1593270666/Inside Steve’s Brain https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Steves-Brain-Leander-Kahney/dp/1591845513/Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products https://www.amazon.com/dp/1591847060/Tim Cook: The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525537600/The Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition https://www.amazon.com/Cult-Mac-2nd-Leander-Kahney/dp/1593279140/

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• Apple Maps - the unnecessary apology

  Apple Maps launched alongside the original iPhone in 2007. Initially, it relied on map data from Google. But in 2012, when the two companies became smartphone rivals, Apple was forced to find an alternative data source.Opting to build its own map platform in-house, Apple attempted to replicate a product Google had developed over many years in a matter of months. Unsurprisingly, the results were not perfect. Users around the world reported bad directions, missing landmarks, and bizarre visual glitches.The fallout from the Apple Maps launch led to a rare apology from Tim Cook, and the departure of one of Apple’s most indispensable software engineers. But with the benefit of hindsight, the wisdom of Apple’s move into mapping has become clear. It enabled Apple to compete head-on with Android, and kickstarted Cupertino’s move into services.MERCH STORECheck out our merch store on Teepublic for retro-geek design t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, mugs, stickers, and more: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/apple-core-podcastLINKSThe Verge report stating Apple’s deal with Google still had a year to run when Apple scrapped it: https://www.theverge.com/2012/9/25/3407614/apple-over-a-year-left-on-google-maps-contract-google-maps-ios-appTim Cook’s apology letter (via the Internet Archive): https://web.archive.org/web/20121001005112/http://www.apple.com/letter-from-tim-cook-on-maps/New York Times article on the brawl between Apple and Google in 2010: https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/technology/14brawl.htmlWall Street Journal report on Apple’s acquisition of C3 Technologies from Saab: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304543904577398502695522974Cult of Mac on firing of Richard Williamson: https://www.cultofmac.com/apple-history/apple-maps-launch-disasterScott Forstall tells the story of his interview with Steve Jobs at NeXT: https://macdailynews.com/2020/05/22/scott-forstall-reveals-how-his-interview-with-steve-jobs-went/Adam Lashinsky’s Inside Apple: https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Apple-Americas-Admired-Secretive-Company/dp/1455512168/

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• Mac OS X - how Steve Jobs saved Apple’s crown jewel

  In 1996, Apple was in serious trouble. The Mac was almost obsolete. Its multitasking was flaky, it couldn’t handle multiple processors, and it kept crashing. Sales were tanking as users switched to Windows NT in droves.Apple appointed a new CEO, Gil Amelio, to turn things around. He tried to replace the Mac’s System 7 with a new modern operating system he called Rhapsody. Amelio’s strategy wasn’t bad, but he failed to anticipate how difficult it would be to persuade Mac users and developers to switch platforms.Fortunately, Amelio selected NeXTSTEP as the core foundation of Rhapsody, and the acquisition of NeXT led to the fateful return of Steve Jobs. Over the following two years, Jobs ousted Amelio, fixed his flawed Rhapsody strategy, added a shiny UI that looked so good you could lick it, and rename the whole thing Mac OS X.LINKSGil Amelio’s book: On the Firing Line: My 500 Days at Apple https://www.amazon.com/Firing-Line-500-Days-Apple/dp/0887309186/MacWorld Expo San Francisco January 7 1997 - Steve Jobs first keynote after his return to Apple:  https://youtu.be/QhhFQ-3w5tE?si=f0IIUmN-s_Ff0n0IWWDC, May 1998 at the San Jose Convention Center - Steve Jobs and Avi Tevanian introduce Mac OS X and Carbon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03kTC0Sm7wcMacworld San Francisco January 2000 - Steve Jobs announces Aqua: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko4V3G4NqIIScreenshot of iMovie running on Mac OS 9 with Aqua controls, before Aqua was announced for Mac OS X: https://x.com/mac_os_9/status/1080826112408662017Interesting article about Steve Jobs and object oriented programming: https://computerhistory.org/blog/the-deep-history-of-your-apps-steve-jobs-nextstep-and-early-object-oriented-programming/

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• NeXT - the secret to Apple’s salvation and success

  The iPhone in your pocket, the Mac on your desk, and even the watch on your wrist are all based on NeXTSTEP, an operating system developed by a long forgotten computer maker called NeXT.Steve Jobs founded NeXT in 1985, just months after his humiliating departure from Apple. Jobs was determined to beat Apple at its own game by proving his new company was the next big thing in computing. But it didn’t work out that way. While NeXT’s iconic cube-shaped workstations gained a loyal following, they never sold in large numbers. Despite many setbacks and failures, Jobs’ wilderness years at NeXT laid the foundation for decades of success that would follow. Apple’s acquisition of NeXT in 1997 proved to be one of the greatest mergers in business history. During his second tenure at Apple, Jobs oversaw the migration of the Mac onto his NeXTSTEP platform. Many of its quirky features, like the spinning beachball of death, are still recognizable in MacOS to this day.LINKSThe full story of how Steve Jobs learned about 3M computers on a trip to Brown University - “What’s a megaflop?”: https://www.folklore.org/Whats_A_Megaflop.htmlThe NeXT logo, designed by Paul Rand: https://www.logodesignlove.com/next-logo-paul-randTry NeXTSTEP out for yourself on Infinite Mac: https://infinitemac.orgThe NeXT Computer Tim Berners-Lee used to develop the world’s first Web browser at the Science Museum in London: https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/world-wide-web-global-information-spaceCheck out these pics of NeXT’s HQ and *that* staircase: https://allaboutstevejobs.com/pics/pics_places/next/next_hqNeXT cube Photograph by Rama, Wikimedia Commons, Cc-by-sa-2.0-fr  © Rama, Cc-by-sa-2.0-fr https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXT#/media/File:NEXT_Cube-IMG_7151.jpgThanks to our sound engineer, Martin Algesten, for making us sound fabulous.

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