See that up there? That’s the 2000 iMac Snow A/V Special Edition. I had that. And it was amazing. It’s mostly a CRT monitor, with the computing guts stuck underneath. But it’s just so well executed. All hail Apple for killing the beige box. CNN’s got a few words to say about it after the jump.
And it Matters
If Steve Jobs’ Apple hadn’t found a way to make our computing machines visually appealing, somewhat fashionable, unique, and an unprecedented mix of form and streamlined function within a structured ecosystem (the whole Apple walled garden ethos), well, we might all be packing around bricky beige IBMs or something. Or maybe they’d still be that weird yet ubiquitous dark blue plastic of the early to late 90s. And there’d be 37 commonly used formats for digital music, or, you know, something like that.
I’m pretty sure Apple’s efforts toward beatifying and standardizing our digital experience succeeded because of intrinsic human social-psychological needs/desires: make it shiny, make it useful, and make some rules.
Because if pure hardcore utility is all that really matters, or if we really want complete flexibility with unlimited customizability, or if what’s good is something that no one controls and is free to all, then those options, those alternatives to Apple, they would be like, you know, winning.
See Also:
Communism. Hippies. Linux.
