RMC Episode 732: Apple Turns 50!

·42 min·4 clips

James and John reveal the five pivotal moments their lives interleaved with Apple's 50-year history.

The episode opens with James and John announcing they will forego their usual Macintosh Power CD discussion to mark Apple's 50th anniversary. They plan to share five significant moments where their personal lives interleaved with Apple's history. The show includes a segment called 'eBay Fines' where they highlight vintage Apple items for sale, such as a 'Think Different' cloth banner from the late 1990s featuring colorful iMac G3s and a fully functional Macintosh bite-sized conversion made from a Mac clock. They discuss Apple's 50th-anniversary celebrations, including a Paul McCartney concert and employee gift packs containing posters, t-shirts, and pins. John recounts his first contact with an Apple II in high school in 1982 and a later incident where his art teacher accused him of using the computer to generate artwork for a project. James describes his first encounter with Apple computers in a Derby, Kansas library, playing Oregon Trail on Apple II Plus systems. John shares a story about programming for a real estate company on an Apple III. James recalls seeing an Apple Lisa at a computer fair in Wichita, Kansas in 1983, feeling too intimidated to use it. James reveals that on his third date with his future wife, he impressed her by showing a morph of the Marx Brothers on his Blue and White G3. John talks about discovering a coworker's shrine of vintage Macs at Parks Photo Lab in 2006, which led to them meeting and eventually starting the RetroMacCast podcast. James shares a photo from the 2007 Macworld Expo where the iPhone was announced, and he stood near Steve Jobs. John mentions interviewing Andy Hertzfeld and being photographed near Steve Jobs and Jony Ive at Macworld Expo 2008. The episode concludes with news about a 50th-anniversary exhibition on Apple's campus, a new book on a private Apple collection in the Netherlands, a USB-C power jack mod for classic Macs, and a limited-edition retro keyboard. James humorously recounts trying to boot four different vintage Macs before finding one that worked.

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Apple's 50th becomes a lived in memory tour through one collector's Apple life.

RetroMacCast uses Apple's 50th anniversary as a loose, personal pass through James's own Apple history. James and John set aside the planned Macintosh Power CD chat for another week and spend the episode on five moments that tied Apple to his life, from an Apple IIe at home to…

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Want Apple history told by two old Mac fans on a stroll down memory lane?

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