Tag Archives: History

Happy 15 Years iPod

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Hey Apple – Happy 15 years of MP3 Portable Music Player Awesomeness. Thanks for our 6.5oz – 5 GB – 1,000 song MP3 player that had the first original 20 minute skip protection with a Firewire chargeable battery that provided 10 continuous hours of music playback in an ultra-portable device that ultimately changed the world! I think we can all safely say the last 15 years was better then the 15 years that proceeded it … all due to the ability of rocking out to our own music anywhere we could possibly dream, on our iPods!

I remember my first iPod party … it took 2.5 days to continuously and randomly play all 1,035 songs on my iPod. Ironically, the final song played happened to be “Closing Time” by Semisonic. 2.5 years later Apple partnered with HP + Compaq to to introduce the first and only iPod licensed product called the “Apple iPod by HP”. What a bullshit move really, for Apple fanatics … but in reality it was genius. HP’s tagline at the time was “Invent” which was laughable, but in 2004 HP shipped over 30 million computers, which all had iTunes compounded with the iTunes Music Store as the default music player. The rest of the story … is just history.


[YouTubeUlar] <— 446,719

Future of Gaming – Microsoft IllumiRoom + Bungie

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[YouTubeUlar] <— 441,095 Ummmmm, I've never been a fan of Microsoft ever... and especially since they acquired Bungie back in 2000 to steal Halo away from the macintosh platform in favor of their unreleased XBox platform.

Not many people realize how integral Bungie was to the Macintosh platform for keeping Apple’s computing platform more awesome than the others (Windows)… but it’s true. If you can remember Pathways Into Darkness then you most certainly will remember Marathon, Myth, and totally fucking awesome Oni.

Obviously Marathon was finally ported to Windows in 1996, and the entire trilogy is now available for free on all platforms – but that didn’t completely change the company from abandoning the Macintosh platform as Bungie’s developing platform of choice. Bungie loved Apple and during the 1999 MacWorld Keynote Address Steve Jobs allowed Jason Jones to unveil Halo for the first time to a public audience to showcase Apple’s new adoption of OpenGL.

On June 19th, 2000 Microsoft announced that it had acquired Bungie Software and that Bungie would become Bungie Studios underneath the Microsoft Game Division. Luckily the core team of Bungie game developers resisted all of Microsofts efforts to ‘boring’ize the group and they were actually able to finish Halo specifically for the XBox and thus changing the world of gaming… again.

Bungie continued making Halo 2 (2004) and Halo 3 (2007) underneath Microsoft and specifically for the XBox until 5 days after Halo 3 was released and they announced they were leaving the ‘boring’ giant. After leaving they continued development work on the Halo brand for a couple years until finally parting with Microsoft with a new publishing deal with Activision Blizzard in 2010.

And now, finally – that your slightly educated – we can announce the future of gaming… Pathways Out of Darkness — Destiny.

[YouTubeUlar] <— 4,949,334 I just hope IllumiRoom does some stellar work with this game.

[Geek out on Illumiroom – Engadget]
[Geek out on Destiny]

Steve Jobs – Hell Froze Over

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[YouTubeUlar] <— 79,224 A nice little recap of the generation I was so fortunate to have grown up in. Thanks for sharing the wealth of knowledge in the biography of your life Steve Jobs. If you haven't read Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs... I suggest you try it out. But since I don't read, plan a gigantic road trip and listen to it like I did. Steve Jobs (Unabridged) - Walter Isaacson Walter Isaacson – Steve Jobs (Unabridged)

“I have a dream”

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[iDevice Link] <— 11,502,121 views In school we never watched the full Martin Luther King "I have a dream" speech. I don't know if the technology wasn't available - or if our teachers were just too lazy to check out the VHS tape. But as I think back at it now... it makes me wonder where the line between childcare and actual learning sits in our educational system. My entire technical background I learned in 3rd grade. And now I receive my education on YouTube. Sound dangerous? It is.

Final Cut Pro – Future + Past

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Recently reading the May issue of Larry Jordan’s usually very informative newsletter… I rallied through a couple in depth articles regarding Apple pulling the strings on Final Cut Pro and how false those rumors could be.

1. Larry’s Blog
2. CNET Update
3. Philip Hodgetts

For most people consuming my random postings and writings – this will mean nothing. But for me – it is great to relive the good years from 1998 where digital video was born and how it has shaped my life. Brought to you by Philip Hodgette.

Apple eventually purchased Final Cut about three weeks after NAB in reality to ensure that there would continue to be a Non Linear Editing application on the Mac. I also believe that someone figured that Apple’s FireWire (they developed it) port combined with the iLink on Sony’s DV cameras just released (in reality, also FireWire) combined with the new software could sell some Macs. That was a smart move. When I saw Final Cut in March 98, it was working with some Targa dual stream cards, which was not as robust as when Final Cut Pro was release at NAB 99. But Final Cut Pro had native FireWire/DV support: perfect with those new Blue and White G3 towers with native FireWire!

What a great look back to the good ol’ days – thanks for the write-up Philip.