That 1984 commercial for the Apple Macintosh, directed by Ridley Scott and influenced by George Orwell’s “1984,” has become the stuff of legend. To some, it was the greatest TV spot ever. It may also be that Apple never, ever, scaled those heights again when it came to advertising, and that includes the original “Think […]

On October 22, Apple released OS X Mavericks as a free download. In the previous months, I’ve suggested that such a thing might happen, although Apple went even further by making iWork and iLife more or less free too. I mean “more or less” because you have to buy a new Mac, or be using a […]

Let me put my cards on the table, without saying too much beyond the obvious. When Gmail began in 2004 as a public beta, where you had to be invited to sign up, I decided to give it a try. Now the same was true with Hotmail, AOL and other services over the years. I […]

Long long ago, you could actually get a brand new version of the Mac OS free. Until the early 1990s, you could go to your favorite Mac dealer, give them a set of floppies, and (assuming they wanted to be helpful) you’d have the requisite files copied over in short order; some dealers might add […]