I have always been a big fan of Tim Cook, and likewise, Steve Jobs, but if Steve was not taken from the Planet Earth so young, and ran the company instead of Tim, the company would have done well, but nowhere near as well as it has under Tim. For me it began with a phone call from Tim at the beginning of my First Term. He had a fairly large problem that only I, as President, could fix. Most people would have paid millions of dollars to a consultant, who I probably would not have known, but who would say that he knew me well. The fees would be paid but the job would not have gotten done. When I got the call I said, wow, it’s Tim Apple (Cook!) calling, how big is that? I was very impressed with myself to have the head of Apple calling to “kiss my ass.” Anyway, he explained his problem, a tough one it was, I felt he was right and got it taken care of, quickly and effectively. That was the beginning of a long and very nice relationship. During my five years as President, Tim would call me, but never too much, and I would help him where I could. Years latter, after 3 or 4 BIG HELPS, I started to say to people, anyone who would listen, that this guy is an amazing manager and leader. He makes these calls to me, I help him out (but not always, because he will, on occasion, be too aggressive in his ask!), and he gets the job done, QUICKLY, without a dime being given to those very expensive (millions of dollars!) consultants around town who sometimes get it done, and sometimes don’t. Anyway, Tim Cook had an AMAZING career, almost incomparable, and will go on and continue to do great work for Apple, and whatever else he chooses to work on. Quite simply, Tim Cook is an incredible guy!!! President DONALD J. TRUMP

Yes, that quote is exactly as it was written. I don’t think anyone has an obligation to clean up Trump’s bonkers writing.

Tim Cook, writing on apple.com:

For the past 15 years I’ve started just about every morning the same way. I open my email and I read notes I received the day before from Apple’s users all over the world.

You share little pieces of your lives with me and tell me things you want me to know about how Apple has touched you. About the moment your mom was saved by her Apple Watch. About the perfect selfie you captured at the summit of a mountain that seemed impossible to climb. You thank me for the ways Mac has changed what you can do at work and sometimes give me a hard time because something you care about isn’t working like it should.

In every one of those emails I feel the beating heart of our shared humanity. I feel a sense of deepening obligation to work harder and push further. But most of all, I feel a gratitude that I cannot put into words, that I somehow got to be the person on the other end of those emails, the leader of a company that ignites imaginations and enriches lives in such profound ways it defies description. What an honor and a privilege it has been.

He continues:

Today we announced that I’m taking the next step in my journey at Apple. Over the coming months I will be transitioning into a new role, leaving the CEO job behind in September and becoming Apple’s executive chairman. A new person will be stepping into what I know in my heart is the best job in the world. That leader is John Ternus, a brilliant engineer and thinker who has spent the past 25 years building the Apple products our users love so much, obsessed with every detail, focused on every possible way we can make something better, bolder, more beautiful, and more meaningful. He is the perfect person for the job.

John cares so much about who we are at Apple, what we do at Apple, who we reach at Apple, and he has the heart and character to lead with extraordinary integrity. I am so proud to call him Apple’s next CEO. This company will reach such incredible heights under his leadership, and you will feel his impact in every bit of delight and discovery that grows out of the products and services to come. I can’t wait for you to get to know him like I do.

This is not goodbye. But at this moment of transition, I wanted to take the opportunity to say thank you. Not on behalf of the company, this time, though there is a wellspring of gratitude for you that overflows inside our walls. But simply on behalf of me. Tim. A person who grew up in a rural place in a different time and, for these magical moments, got to be the CEO of the greatest company in the world. Thank you for the confidence and kindness you’ve shown me. Thank you for saying hi to me on the street and in our stores. Thank you for cheering alongside me when we unveiled a new product or service. Thank you, most of all, for believing in me to lead the company that has always put you at the center of our work. Every day we get up and think about what we can do to make your life a little bit better. And every day, you’ve made mine the best I could have asked for.

Thank you.

Part of this transition is Cook’s continued handling governments, both here and abroad. Apple Newsroom:

Cook will continue in his role as CEO through the summer as he works closely with Ternus on a smooth transition. As executive chairman, Cook will assist with certain aspects of the company, including engaging with policymakers around the world.

Later in the press release:

“I am profoundly grateful for this opportunity to carry Apple’s mission forward,” said Ternus. “Having spent almost my entire career at Apple, I have been lucky to have worked under Steve Jobs and to have had Tim Cook as my mentor. It has been a privilege to help shape the products and experiences that have changed so much of how we interact with the world and with one another. I am filled with optimism about what we can achieve in the years to come, and I am so happy to know that the most talented people on earth are here at Apple, determined to be part of something bigger than any one of us. I am humbled to step into this role, and I promise to lead with the values and vision that have come to define this special place for half a century.”

Arthur Levinson, who has been Apple’s non-executive chairman for the past 15 years, will become its lead independent director on September 1, 2026. Ternus will join the board of directors, also effective September 1, 2026.

Additionally, Johny Srouji has been promoted to Chief Hardware Officer, a title that seems hand-crafted for him:

Apple today announced that, effective immediately, Apple executive Johny Srouji will become chief hardware officer. Srouji, who most recently served as senior vice president of Hardware Technologies, will assume an expanded role leading Hardware Engineering, which John Ternus most recently oversaw, as well as the hardware technologies organization.

“Johny is one of the most talented people I have ever had the privilege to work with,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. “He has played a singular role in driving Apple’s silicon strategy, and his influence has been felt deeply not just inside the company, but across the industry. He has always led his organization with remarkable deftness and judgment, and time and again, his team has delivered breakthrough innovations that have transformed our products. We are incredibly fortunate to have him as Apple’s chief hardware officer.”

“Johny has been an incredible partner on the executive team, and is going to be an extraordinary chief hardware officer,” said incoming Apple CEO John Ternus. “I look forward to continuing to work closely with him in our new roles.”

Surely this was an effort to keep Srouji at the company. Hopefully it goes better then last time around.

The Artemis era well and truly began Friday evening when a shiny spacecraft that had traveled 700,000 miles around the Moon, carrying four astronauts, splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.

For NASA, for its international partners, and for all of humanity the successful conclusion of the Artemis II mission marked a return to deep space by our species after more than half a century.

It was a spectacular achievement, and NASA deserves credit for making something what is very difficult look relatively easy. But it also raises an important question: What comes next?

Congratulations to Artemis II on a successful mission! You captured the wonders of space and our planet beautifully, taking iPhone photography to new heights, and we’re grateful you shared it with the world. Your work continues to inspire us all to think different. Welcome home!

Joz chimed in on X (gross) as well:

Welcome home to the Artemis II crew! Honored that NASA astronauts brought iPhone to space with them. One small step for iPhone. One giant leap for space selfies.

Kalley Huang at The New York Times:

The iPhone 17 Pro Maxes being used by the astronauts aren’t the only cameras on the Orion capsule, though they may be the newest since their debut in September. The crew is also taking photos and videos with two Nikon D5s, a model that was introduced in 2016, and four GoPro Hero 11s, which was introduced in 2022.

The process for approving hardware for spaceflight is “usually pretty involved and lengthy,” said Tobias Niederwieser, an assistant research professor at BioServe Space Technologies, a research institute at the University of Colorado, Boulder, that had a payload on the Artemis I mission.

Typically, the process has four phases, Mr. Niederwieser said. The first introduces the piece of hardware to a safety panel. The second identifies the potential hazards of the hardware, which ranges from moving parts to materials like glass that could shatter. The third lays out a plan for addressing such hazards. The fourth proves that the plan works.

Apple was not involved in NASA’s approval process, despite people online claiming it’s the most brilliant product placement the world …errr, moon… has ever seen.

Slamming into the atmosphere at more than 30 times the speed of sound, NASA’s Orion spacecraft blazed a trail over the Pacific Ocean on Friday, returning home with four astronauts and safely capping humanity’s first voyage to the Moon in nearly 54 years.

Temperatures outside the capsule built up to some 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit as a sheath of plasma enveloped the Orion spacecraft, named Integrity, and its four long-distance travelers, temporarily blocking radio signals the Moon ship and Mission Control in Houston. Flying southwest to northeast, the spacecraft steered toward a splashdown zone southwest of San Diego, where a US Navy recovery ship held position to await the crew’s homecoming. Ground teams regained communications with Orion commander Reid Wiseman after a six-minute blackout.

Airborne tracking planes beamed live video of Orion’s descent back to Mission Control, showing the capsule jettison its parachute cover and deploy a series of chutes to stabilize its plunge toward the Pacific. Then, three larger main chutes, each with an area of 10,500 square feet, opened to slow Orion for splashdown at 8:07 pm EDT Friday (00:07 UTC Saturday).

What an image:

It will take a while before all the data is sorted through, but by all accounts at this point, Artemis II was a near–perfect mission. It’s good to have good news in 2026.

On the Macintosh episode of Version History, David Pierce and Nilay Patel had a lot of fun riffing about Mr. Macintosh, Steve Jobs’s obscure concept for a digital cryptid who lives in your computer.

About 15 years later, Apple actually shipped something very similar, except instead of a mysterious little man it was a yak named Bruce.

If you left older versions of Final Cut Pro running for 12 hours or more, you might come back to a small brown creature grazing a patch of grass on your timeline. There were other ways to intentionally trigger him, but this was the most fun one.

I mean, just look at this:

It looks like Bruce was part of the very earliest versions of Final Cut Pro, as reported in 1999:

An Easter Egg in Final Cut Pro, fondly known as “Bruce the Wonder Yak” is popping up on monitors everywhere. Over the last day or two Bruce has spooked more than one unsuspecting FCP editor, fearing the mild mannered bovine was the result of some sort of computer virus. But fear not, Yak herder and Final Cut Pro Chief Engineer, Randy Ubillos assures us “not to worry,” and that Bruce is just an “undocumented feature” of the software.

However, sources in Cupertino have informed us that one problem concerning Bruce is the fact that people are addressing him as a “Cow.” An Apple spokesperson was quoted as saying, “A little sensitivity people! Save those kinds of remarks for more deserving parties like John Dvorak.”

If you want to see Bruce the Wonder Yak for yourself, go to “About Final Cut Pro” in the Apple Menu, let the splash screen scroll through the credits a few times, and in after a moment or two he’ll come out to graze on your desktop. Let him stay a while and he might even impart a few pearls of wisdom!

Like many fun things, Bruce was murdered put to rest when Steve Jobs came back to Apple and squashed all Easter Eggs.

In addition to writing about the history of Bruce, Bromley has brought Bruce back to life:

Yesterday, I wrote about Bruce the Wonder Yak, a funny little creature who lived inside Final Cut Pro. The responses kind of blew me away. Quite a few people remember Bruce, and they miss him like I did.

So I brought him back. And, no, this is not an April Fools joke.

Call the Yak can be downloaded on Github. I am in love.

xAI is committed to building a state-of-the-art water recycling plant in Memphis. This plant will protect billions of gallons of water each year.

The team is currently prioritizing other more immediate projects at the site but our plans to build the water plant have not changed.

I certainly hope so.

Folks in Memphis responded strongly to yesterday’s news that the water treatment plant was on hold. xAI has very little credibility in the eyes of a lot of Memphians. The company not explaining what “other more immediate projects” have taken priority hasn’t helped.

Ground was broken on the plant in October, but as of today, work has stopped. Samuel Hardiman at The Daily Memphian broke the news:

Work on xAI’s planned, promised and under-construction water-recycling facility has been paused, the project’s engineer told The Daily Memphian on Wednesday, April 8.

“We are on an indefinite pause while we review the best way to execute this project, the most efficient way to execute this project,” Mark Carroll, Colossus Water Recycling engineer, said in an interview Wednesday.

Carroll said the company decided to pause construction a week ago and told project stakeholders about it Wedneday. A company spokesperson had previously said The Daily Memphian’s reporting [that the project had been paused] was “false” but declined to say why.

Hardiman goes on:

“XAI has invested substantially in this, this project. I mean, you’ve driven by the site, you’ve seen that this was not blowing smoke up anyone’s skirt,” Carroll said. “We have been going at this project full bore. So this is not something where xAI promised something and didn’t intend to carry through.”

He went on to say that he doesn’t actually know what the company’s plans are for the site. Memphis Mayor Paul Young said that the city would “use every lever we have to make sure this project moves forward.”

Apple’s first foldable iPhone may not carry the speculative media-derived “Fold” branding after all, according to Chinese leaker Digital Chat Station.

In a new post on Weibo, the oft-accurate leaker claimed that Apple’s book-style foldable could launch as the “iPhone Ultra.” Meanwhile, domestic Chinese manufacturers are allegedly deciding whether to follow Apple’s lead by tentatively branding their own upcoming foldables as “Ultra” models, but likely with a lighter price tag – Apple’s version is expected to cost between $2,000 and $2,500.

Names are always tough to nail down, but I’m feeling good about my prediction from September.

Don’t miss this image of the Moon fully eclipsing the Sun. We live in an amazing universe.

Before etching their names in spaceflight history, the four Artemis II astronauts received some posthumous words of encouragement from one of NASA’s greats.

Jim Lovell, who flew on two Apollo-era missions in 1968 and 1970, recorded a message for the astronauts before his death in 2025. They heard it before they became the first humans to fly near the moon in more than 50 years.

On Monday, April 6, astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover of NASA, as well as Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency, flew by the moon in a mission similar to the Apollo 8 flyby, of which Lovell was a part. And in a bit of serendipity, it wasn’t long before a nearly seven-hour period of lunar observations began that the Artemis II crew broke one of Lovell’s own records: surpassing the distance from Earth that the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission reached under Lovell’s command.

Here’s what Lovell said:

Hello, Artemis II! This is Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell. Welcome to my old neighborhood! When Frank Borman, Bill Anders, and I orbited the Moon on Apollo 8, we got humanity’s first up-close look at the Moon and got a view of the home planet that inspired and united people around the world. I’m proud to pass that torch on to you — as you swing around the Moon and lay the groundwork for missions to Mars … for the benefit of all. It’s a historic day, and I know how busy you’ll be. But don’t forget to enjoy the view. So, Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy, and all the great teams supporting you — good luck and Godspeed from all of us here on the good Earth.

This mission is a huge step forward in human spaceflight, but NASA’s thoughtfulness in moments like this have really blown me away.

When using Reminders, I was also using InstaRemind to add tasks quickly using natural language processing. OmniFocus’ Quick Entry tool is pretty great, but I have found it to be error-prone as you have to tab between multiple fields to enter a task with metadata such as a project, due date, etc:

I took the chance to complete my first project with Claude. Over a few days, I went back and forth with it to create a webpage that would accept input as I described and pass it to OmniFocus. I can trigger this webpage with Keyboard Maestro:

You can see two text fields. The top section is for my task and its data, with the bottom text field reserved for any notes to be saved with the task. Tokens get broken out under the text, with reminders across the bottom of the window.

You may wonder why I chose these symbols. Turns out, I still had the Remember the Milk Smart Add shortcuts in my brain, and they came to the surface when working on this. (I used RTM heavily 10-15 years ago!)

I can even click on any metadata to edit it:

Once I’m ready, I can type Command+Return, and the task is sent to OmniFocus:

Like many people, I have very complex feelings about AI. It brings both good and bad into the world, and even this little tool makes me feel a little strange, but I am glad I got to explore what Claude can do. At times, it seemed real dumb; I had to tell it several times that I was using Planned dates and not Defer dates. Other times, it felt like I was working with a knowledgeable web developer. That is… weird.

If you want to play with this, I have the HTML file and Keyboard Maestro macro for calling it zipped up here. Since it’s just a local webpage, there are many ways you could use it.

Note that you will need to hard-code your OmniFocus projects at line 260 in the HTML file. I left an example project in the code for you to see.

I am not offering any support for this, nor am I making any promises about whether it’s a good idea to use it. All it’s doing is passing data to the OmniFocus Mac app via a custom URL. It doesn’t make any web calls or rely on external APIs, but if it suddenly springs to life, please tell someone.

If you order an M3 Ultra Mac Studio with the only remaining RAM upgrade today,¹ Apple says it will arrive in four to five months.

That means the 256GB RAM option ordered in April arrives in August or September if the shipping estimate tracks.

It’s not just the Mac Studio; it’s easy to build a Mac mini that won’t ship until August. That is bad news if you need a new Mac desktop on short notice. These long delays are not impacting all Macs, though, as the iMac and notebooks seem to all have much better shipping dates.

I assume we will see an update to the Mac mini and Mac Studio sooner rather than later, but I also would bet that Apple is steering its resources into making sure that models like the MacBook Air and Pro are easier to come by in the current climate of component shortages.

It’s not uncommon for large companies doing big deals to make demands of their bankers and lawyers.

But Elon Musk has made a particularly bold demand of his Wall Street advisers ahead of the initial public offering of his company SpaceX.

Mr. Musk is requiring banks, law firms, auditors and other advisers working on the I.P.O. to buy subscriptions to Grok, his artificial intelligence chatbot, which is part of SpaceX, according to four people with knowledge of the matter, who were not authorized to speak publicly about confidential discussions.

Some of the banks have agreed to spend tens of millions on the chatbot, and they have already started integrating Grok into their I.T. systems, three of the people said.

Stephen has received the best follow-up in podcast history, Myke realizes something about his feelings for the Mac Pro, and Federico is charging his iPhone more than he expected.

Apple has continued posting short videos featuring its new Little Finder Guy mascot on TikTok and YouTube Shorts, taking advantage of the popularity of the anthropomorphized Mac Finder icon.

The short videos promote the MacBook Neo through a series of Mac tips, all of which include Little Finder Guy in cute poses. A video about journaling features the character with a book and a pen, while another about the Passwords app has Little Finder Guy with a magnifying glass.

I love that Apple is having fun with this, and think it’s some of their best marketing in ages, even if some folks are cranky about it. Anything that makes the Mac more fun and relevant to young users is a win in my book.

Watching the launch was wild. As Jason Snell mentioned to me, it is amazing how much the SLS sounds like a space shuttle, thanks to its mountain of recycled and upgraded shuttle-era components.

That sound — in contrast to footage that looks very similar to the launches of the old Saturn V — really struck a chord in me.

(And if you can watch the video of the stage separation and not feel something, you aren’t hooked up right.)

The crew is made up of Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen. They are now on their way to the moon, set to return in 10 days. Their rocket may be the product of a hugely-flawed program, but right now, that doesn’t matter. They are getting us closer to returning to the lunar surface than we’ve been in 50 years. That’s worth celebrating.

In the tech world, a milestone anniversary is a chance to revisit a product’s launch or a particularly meaningful update, inviting us to remember how far things have come.

Just like in relationships, as the numbers get bigger, those reflections can get harder to make. Memories fade, and as the decades pass, there are fewer miles on the road ahead.

Today, Apple marks 50 years in business. In our current era of VC-funded startups and AI-powered workflows, it’s difficult to believe that anything could last that long in the technology industry.

Apple is one of just a handful of modern tech companies with roots in the 1970s, and it’s hard to overstate the differences between the early days of the company and where it is today.

Gone are the days of hand-building computers, replaced by one of the world’s most intricate supply chains. The A18 Pro just beneath the keyboard of the MacBook Neo I am typing on would astound the men and women who worked on the original Macintosh. If the dreamers who designed the Newton were handed an iPhone Air, their heads would explode. Showing someone in the garage a photo of Apple Park would have brought work to a halt for the day.

That is just how things are, especially in tech. The more time passes, the more extraordinary the ordinary things in life become.

This nostalgia can be powerful. For long-time Apple fans, it may come from writing programs on an Apple II after school or flipping through copies of MacUser or Macworld to learn about the move to PowerPC. For me, those early experiences with Mac OS X in high school and college—often set to an iPod soundtrack—still resonate. For younger users, perhaps it’s their first MacBook, iPhone, or iPad.

For those who closely follow Apple, it may be for the days of a smaller company and a more close-knit community of weirdos who love their Macs. Some still wonder what Steve Jobs would do in any given situation.

Whatever your feelings are today, they are valid, even if they are messy.

That is just how things are, especially in the 21st century. Companies like Apple have the pull once reserved for countries. AI — like the Internet before it — has brought both good and evil into the world. Social media and the app ecosystem have generated untold wealth for some and unimaginable sorrow for others. Apple is not merely good nor bad for the world.

In 2001, I sat down at a beige Power Mac G3 All-in-One at my high school newspaper and began to learn Photoshop and QuarkXPress. I had no idea where things would lead, but the feeling I discovered back then resonates with me today: that technology — especially the Mac — was a tool to express myself. That feeling was only amplified during my years at my college newspaper, where I designed thousands of pages over the course of five and a half years.

25 years later, I still have that feeling when I record on a podcast, publish a blog post, or help release an app update.

In 2007, I was working at my local Apple Store when the original iPhone went on sale. I got to use one a few hours before sales started and was blown away. I remember calling my wife, excited to tell her that I was talking to her on an iPhone. As primitive as the first model was, I knew that the flip phone, iPod, and paper calendar in my employee locker were not long for this world.

Late the following year, I began writing this very website. I wanted to share my thoughts on the Mac and related products with the world, following in the footsteps of writers I had been reading for years.

In March of 2011, I recorded my first podcast with Myke, not knowing that three years later we would launch our own network, and definitely not knowing we would still be doing it 12 years after that.

Just this week, I have had FaceTime calls with friends in other states, been sent jokes from my kids over iMessage, and looked through old photos with my wife at bedtime.

All of those important moments were made possible by the Apple products in my life.

I’m often asked about tech by friends. What will the next iPhone do that the current one can’t? Is AI going to take our jobs? Should they get a new MacBook Air for their college kid, or let them use an old one for another year? Is social media as bad for us as it seems? Why should anyone pay for more iCloud space?

Some of these questions are easy, while others are not.

That is just how things are, especially when predicting the future. Technology moves both faster and slower than it seems that it should. We don’t have flying cars, but we are carrying supercomputers in our pockets. We haven’t cured cancer, but we have explored the far reaches of our solar system. Apple’s bets on the future haven’t always come to pass, but the products they make have allowed millions of people to make their own bets.

I don’t know what the next half-century looks like, but I’m betting Apple remains a constant — delivering the tools I use to create and cultivating the joy that comes with using a well-made product.

Recently, I had the chance to talk with a guy whose life, which is past the nine-decade mark, has been defined by just two weeks of it. You have likely heard the capsule version of his story repeatedly. He’s the man who gave up on one of the largest golden tickets in history. He created the first logo for a company who has been shaped more than any other by its second logo. And as he leaned into other pursuits, the other two people who founded that company with him, each named Steve, became legends in the world of technology. I would like to inform you that Ronald G. Wayne is not just the guy who gave up his 10% stake in Apple after just two weeks. He is so much more than that, a polymath, a creative, a writer, a talented artist, and the guy who meticulously got Atari’s stockroom in order. Today’s Tedium talks about the other 90+ years of Ronald G. Wayne’s 91 years on this planet where he didn’t work for Apple.

I learned a ton about Ron Wayne reading this, and I suspect you will, too.

It was January 2008, and Steve Jobs had just pulled the MacBook Air out of a manila envelope onstage at Macworld.

Within minutes, Windows PC executives everywhere lost their minds. They grabbed the nearest office envelope, tried to shove in their plastic laptops, and tore straight through the paper. Engineers were summoned. Assistants were dispatched for larger envelopes.

Okay, I have no proof that happened. But we all know what did happen next: imitation. Years of it.

Apple’s history books all hail the iPod. The iPhone. The iPad. And then, somewhere between a sidebar and a footnote, the MacBook Air. But without the Air, the modern laptop doesn’t exist.

Dating back to the early 2000s, it was clear that notebooks were going to overtake desktops, and the MacBook Air had a whole lot to do with that.

As Apple turns 50, its presence in our lives is so pervasive—2.5 billion of the company’s devices are in active use—that its unlikely origin story is more resonant than ever. To tell it, I turned to the people who lived it:

• Apple’s two living cofounders, Wozniak and Wayne
• Mike Markkula, the early retiree from Intel whose guidance and money turned the garage startup into a company
• Some of Apple’s earliest staffers, including Bill Fernandez, its first full-time employee, and Chris Espinosa, who’s still there today
• Regis McKenna, the Silicon Valley marketing guru who established Apple as a brand
• Liza Loop, the educator who became Apple’s first user
• Ron Rosenbaum, the Esquire writer whose article inspired Wozniak and Jobs’s first business venture
• Nolan Bushnell, whose Atari provided Jobs with most of his pre-Apple work experience
• Lee Felsenstein, moderator of the Homebrew Computer Club, the user group that prompted Wozniak to build Apple’s first machine
• Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston, the creators of VisiCalc, the spreadsheet that gave the Apple II its killer app
• And many others

This oral history is incredible.

When you think of Apple, you probably think of the iPhone, or maybe the Mac, or perhaps you’ve got fond memories of the iPod. But Apple’s 50-year run of creating tech products that people fall in love with — sometimes a lot of people, sometimes just a hardy few — would never have happened if it weren’t for a product and platform that’s been gone for decades.

Apple would never have made it if it weren’t for the Apple II, the company’s first hit product and the first one to generate the amount of devotion we’ve now come to expect from fans of Apple’s products. Their slogan was, and still is, “Apple II Forever!”

What a time to be alive.

Apple decided to start caring about the Mac Pro again at the worst possible time. The Intel Mac Pro, while excellent, arrived just six months before the announcement that the Mac would transition to Apple silicon. After which, the Mac Pro didn’t offer any better performance than the Mac Studio. Just the card slots — which you couldn’t put a GPU in.

Due to Apple silicon’s all-in-one architecture, the Ultra-tier chip pushes the limits of what Apple can fabricate at a reasonable price. The bigger the chip is on the die, the lower the yield of good chips will be made, raising the cost further.

Apple reportedly experimented with making a higher-tier chip than the Ultra — often referred to as the “Extreme” chip, though the name is just speculation. It was canceled for being too expensive.

I’ve thought a lot about the bad timing Jones mentions. Had Apple stuck to the original timeline, and killed off the 2013 Mac Pro in favor of an iMac “specifically targeted at large segments of the pro market,” back in 2017, Apple could have avoided putting out the best Intel Mac ever, less than a year before the transition to Apple silicon.

Did Apple know in 2017 that 2020 was the year the M1 would make it out of the lab? Probably not, but it doesn’t make the timing any less painful.

Jones goes on to explore how an “Extreme” chip could be built, and offers some advice for the Mac Studio team:

Apple should design a custom enclosure for PCI card slots that can plug into the Mac Studio. It would have a custom connector so that it could work (nearly) as fast as internal slots in a Mac Pro.

Maybe this custom connector is on the bottom of the Mac Studio, so installation is as simple as plugging it into a Mac Studio-sized port in the top of the box.

I do not see any future in which Apple goes down this road.

Apple sees the Mac Studio and its industry-standard Thunderbolt ports as the way forward for adding hardware. Doing anything custom at this point just adds uncertainty to a market that has been repeatedly damaged by Apple’s flip-flopping.

The company yanked the pro market around for over a decade. The Mac Pro was old, then it was new! It did not support internal expansion, then it did! With every change of its mind, Apple lost more and more trust of would-be Mac Pro buyers.

Chance Miller, at 9to5Mac:

It’s the end of an era: Apple has confirmed to 9to5Mac that the Mac Pro is being discontinued. It has been removed from Apple’s website as of Thursday afternoon. The “buy” page on Apple’s website for the Mac Pro now redirects to the Mac’s homepage, where all references have been removed.

Apple has also confirmed to 9to5Mac that it has no plans to offer future Mac Pro hardware.

The Mac Pro was introduced way back in 2006 as a replacement for the outgoing Power Mac G5. It had a good few years, then languished until the 2013 model was announced.

That machine was a dud, and it languished until the 2019 model was announced.¹

It came out in December 2019, which was less than a year before Apple silicon was announced and the M1 shipped.

The Mac Pro got one last update in June 2023, when Apple dropped the Intel version for one with an M2 Ultra inside. It’s been languishing again ever since.

It is clear that Apple sees the Mac Studio as the way forward for high-end desktop computing. Apple silicon did away with the graphics expansion that made the 2019 Intel machine so interesting, leaving all of those slots with far less to do for most users.

This news shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, even if it is a sad ending to what was once an amazing computer.