You encapsulated my thoughs exactly at the end - Apple's problem for a while, particularly in the first few years of the post-Jobs era, was that it elevated design above everything else. Hence $10,000 gold Apple Watches and super-thin MacBooks with lousy keyboards. Ive was (and to a degree still is) hugely important to Apple, but he succeeded in part because Jobs reined in some of his impulses.
Exactly, Ive's work was so good back in the day because there was a bigger asshole above him who would've fired him without thinking twice. But post-Jobs I imagine Ive got too much free reign. Form can never trump function if you're trying to create anything that's not completely vain
THIS IS THE GOLDEN ERA FOR APPLE? For money, yes. For making fast computers yes. For logic in their product line? Zero, why new 13.3" MBP doesn't have MagSafe but new 13.6" MBA does? For environmental reasons. NOT AT ALL GOLDEN.
@@bapt_andthebasses the 13 inch MacBook Pro is the only thing they haven't axed yet mostly because it sells really well(people like flexing about having the 'pro'). It's the only exception, what other issue is there with their lineup?
@@bapt_andthebasses The 13-inch MacBook Pro M2 is, I suspect, a holdover to clear inventory and make the most of parts during shortages. That doesn't mean it makes much sense to customers, but it might be worth remembering when one is out of stock while the other is still sitting on shelves.
Cool to see such a relatively in-depth video on the TAM. I was lucky enough to buy a couple of them brand new in 1997 for £2400 (total).* I upgraded one of them with the Sonnet card, like in your video. The other is entirely stock. Both are still in mint working condition complete with all their parts and packaging (some still shrink-wrapped). Always loved the TAM. *Bought and paid for one, which developed a floppy disk drive fault. Reported it to the reseller who agreed to replace it. Come the time, a courier dropped off a brand new replacement TAM but refused to collect the faulty one, saying his job was only to drop off. Despite me informing the reseller, and them telling me another courier would come to collect the faulty unit, both TAMs are still here 25 years later. Oh… and the floppy disk drive cured itself a few weeks after the replacement arrived. 😀
@@yannisgk how? There were a bunch of all in one Macs before this, including the first Mac. This looks nothing like the CRT bright color variation, USB endowed iMacs.
You should have shown the 1997 Macworld video where this was introduced. It's hilarious. Steve Jobs had just returned to Apple as an advisor, and he had just given his big comeback speech. At the end of the keynote, the TAM was unexpectedly introduced as a surprise to Jobs by the marketing manager, with Jobs and Woz on stage. The demo it was supposed to run immediately crashed. Jobs can be seen staring at the TAM with complete and utter disgust, and within a month, the marketing manager was fired.
ironic thing is, IF Jobs had a hand in developing the TAM, he wouldve been hellbent on getting it to market and crapple sheeple wouldve gobbled them up regardless of price or performance
I bought one when they went on fire sale after Jobs killed it. It was an interesting machine. The sound was great and it was almost like a stereo instead of a Mac. The screen was so small even in that era.
THIS IS THE GOLDEN ERA FOR APPLE? For money, yes. For making fast computers yes. For logic in their product line? Zero, why new 13.3" MBP doesn't have MagSafe but new 13.6" MBA does? For environmental reasons. NOT AT ALL GOLDEN.
@@bapt_andthebasses Turns out when you start making more money than several whole countries your product lineup doesn't have to make sense. Not like thats a good thing mind you, same goes for making actual repairable products.
My uncle had one of these, he bought it a few years after it came out. It was so cool to see in person, at the time I had no idea it was a computer, I thought it was some high end TV/stereo combo
It definitely *stinks* of late-90s Sony design ethos, the kind where they made a product purely to *look* futuristic even when it compromised its usability or performance. Really makes you appreciate how much Jobs reigned in that urge to just look pretty and do nothing.
Back in the days, when the TAM was released, it was a total mystery to me (and others) why Apple would waste their drying up funds to create such a monstrosity. Sure, the flat screen was a big desire, but everything else was just awful ... and then the absurd price. So glad that Apple recovered from this, and that whole period in the 90s when it looked like Apple was fading out of existence, buried in a graveyard of it's confusing range of uninspiring and underperforming models. The top brass was a bunch of bozos. But Steve took charge again and cleaned house, and Apple was saved.
I still have mine, pristine and very much in use. These originally were priced at $10k with concierge service - delivered to your door and setup for you. The price was dropped to ~$8k, and then rapidly to $2500. I bought mine for that last price directly from Apple the day the price drop was announced. Back in the day it was my office fax machine, answering machine, TV, AM/FM receiver and CD player. MP3 functionality came with software upgrades as well as internet radio. It is currently running MacOS 9.22 and serves as my living room CD/MP3 and FM receiver - and functional artwork. The Bose speakers still sound great and the remote still works. I have all the documentation and boxes, including the pen set/leather pouch and leather CD case that came with and leather keyboard insert and trackpad (I don't use the trackpad). Instead, I use a black ADB mouse from the old Mac TV (anyone remember those). I've added a G3 upgrade (years ago) and WiFi. Can still browse the web, although with limited functionality due to outdated protocols. Oh, and I use it to sync my Newton Message Pad 2001! P.S. I also have my original NeXT Turbo Color slab, still working like a champ.
Sure fun to reminisce! I always wanted a Twentieth Anniversary Mac and wish I’d bought one when the price dropped after they were discontinued. It’s interesting to see the start of using laptop components to miniaturize desktops. It would be cool if you produced a “Short” explaining the pinouts of the power cable.
The connectors on the umbilical are from a company called Burndy (now Souriau). Interestingly NAIM uses connectors from the same range on their higher end products for power supplies and crossovers; they're not specifically aerospace connectors as suggested in another comments rather they are mainly used in industrial and harsh environment applications.
The opening to this video with the history of Apple was really entertaining and well done. Would love to see a video of Apples entire history in that style, and along with your analysis. Great video!
There's one thing from Apple for sure, they always made sure that the included speakers on their desktop/laptop should sound good. Even on their iPhones as well.
Awesome video - thank you for taking me back! I remember at the time of its release it was reported as under spec’d and wildly over priced. It did look cool however. It was such a transitional time in Apple. Steve was back, NEXT was purchased (now MacOS) and MacOS 8 was in perpetual release (it never arrived). In what I remember seemed like a few short months, this Mac disappeared along with the Apple Newton and the rest of their range of the day. Apple was reportedly only days away from bankruptcy. It was at the end of 12 months of what seemed like turmoil (1997-1998) that the Bondi Blue iMac was launched, Apple was reborn and the rest is history. It was an amazing time in history.
I love this video, TAM is such an incredible machine, I agree with you too, this is the golden era of Apple if they want it, I love see products like the new MacBook Pro M1 (Pro or Max) which is beautiful and functional, but... we still seeing the Apple Watch Series 3 or the MacBook Pro TouchBar (why?) just hope Apple can bring us great products, also other companies, because competence is the best for us!
Before Jobs came back, Apple was making and selling a myriad of products which were expensive and sold poorly. The Newton, the QuickTake, the Macintosh TV, the 2th Anniversary Mac, and loads of computers and laptops which only really went to the educational market. And it wasn't like these started as financially questionable and then turned out to be massively successful. Products like the TAM and Newton were expensive (R&D and production) and sold to a very small market, increasing prices and making them even less affordable. Jobs rightfully cut Apple's product line down to size and focused on those that worked.
I worked at an Apple Premium Reseller and Premium Service Provider here in Germany/Bavaria/Franconia. This Reseller has this Mac in his Selling Room. It is used as a Radio. Very nice peace of history.
Also, that weird “domesticated Mac” seems to be a cross between a Color Classic and that “molar” PowerMac G3 AIO. It likely preceded both and was reused, which means the TAM’s development was linked to both of those machines.
The amount of engineering and design that went into this is insane. Fantastic first offering from Jony Ive. Would love to get one of these but scared to look at eBay for the prices !
Wow, I remember seeing one in person more than 20 years ago. It was already low spec to run the latest software, so I didn’t waste to much time with it. Great video! Keep surprising us :-)
wow, that is definitely jony ive's designed product, it might not be a good product but it was elegantly designed. IMO the trashcan mac pro is not horrible, sure it has become a joke, but when you think about it, it's a very good design, very well cooled and extremely quiet for what it is, people often forgot that it has a xeon cpu with dual firepro gpu(s) in the size of fat paper towel. it is essentially the predecessor of mac studio. People who actually used it for the first 5 years enjoyed it, me included, AND despite having bespoke gpu(s) (I know they probably just use the wxxxx counterpart driver), the windows driver worked pretty well in bootcamp.
And that was the thing, if Jonny hadn't obsessed on Form over function the trash can Mac may have been a bigger hit. The idea was great it's execution though left many to drop it. Just the problem alone with non standard GPU cards is an example of this. Would it have hurt the design that much to make so you could put in standard windows compatible GPU cards? Probably not, but the Hubris of Jonny could not stand for that. Just like how you can't make a cake without some eggs and flour. Without Steve there to temper Jonny's zeal for design that's how you get the Trash Can Mac and iPhone problems after Steve's death.
i appreciate you taking the time out to post such unique apple content like this. makes the wait between videos a bit longer than other channels but i know you're always coming with quality
so many years watching your channel, last months meanwhile other apple ecosystem channel discuss and make the same test to the m1 mac, this channel show joy, Unboxing rare products and a lot of experimentation, something so crazy like genius we can wait, but with an style i really appreciate
I owned one of these in the UK about 10 years ago, I had it in my bedroom and used it as a sound system, with the remote you could turn it on and pretty sure you could get radio stations. the sound was excellent and Im an 'Audiophile' I was sad to let it go, but when I was offered £4k for it couldn't say no. the guy wanted it to just look on his desk.
Spot on with that assessment! Once Steve passed the Design team had too much control and the hardware suffered (thermals/performance etc) Apple has come full circle for sure with designs that now don't impact functionality and usability!
egomanic Jobs was the source of most if ALL of crapple's pitiful hardware flaws. fans, who needs fans or venting. it'll be fine, just tell user to drop their wildly overpriced crapple laptop to reseat RAM from overheating
I worked on this before it came out. Surprised I didn't immediately see anyone mention that this was featured (product-placed) in Batman and Robin. Very apt, the movie was just as good as the computer.
AKA the “Seinfeld Mac” for those few episodes where it was part of the apartment set. It must have been revolutionary in 1997… for a few moments anyway.
One of the prototypes was also in Batman and Robin from 1997. Alfred uses it to burn a disc. It’s also in Seinfeld, although it’s very unbelievable that Jerry bought one because of its cost.
I bought one of these when they were on sale in 1998 for $1999. It was an amazing computer with incredible sound. I upgraded the processor with the "fat back" and was very happy.... except... it developed a buzz. Apple tried to repair it twice but the fault was not fixed. It was a known issue and there did not have a solution. By then it was 2.5y ears old and Apple offered me a Mac Pro G4 450 and LCD monitor, brand new, as a replacement. It was incredible customer service. I loved the TAM but took the Mac Pro which was way way faster (but nowhere near as cool) and ran it for 8 years as a my daily driver. I still have the Pen that came with the TAM and the manuals.
God, seeing that old MacOS boot screen again... I remember 7.5.5 was rock solid. I had to work hard to make that crash, and I was video editing on a PowerMac 9500.
Great video about this truly unique Apple product! You should have pointed out the significance of putting an LCD screen in a desktop computer in 1997! This was even before the release of the original Studio and Cinema display!
It's basically just a vertically mounted laptop with some expandability on the rear. Otherwise, no great shakes visually or performance-wise. I get why Jobs wanted rid of these immediately.
Trackpads, mice, etc are still foreign to many people, even in the US. I'm an IT tech that specializes in elder care and it's amazing how many people still need this level of instruction.
no, this soundsystem used to be "high-end" 20 years ago. it used to be the norm, that soundsystems sound good. Except in cars. in cars they liked us to have headaches of all the loud mid heights. :D
I have to thank Steve, as apparently he was the one who said to slash the price on the TAM when it was discontinued, and thus allowing me to be able to afford it. Of course - my next problem was my location - they weren't sold in my country. Only 12,000 TAMs were made (11,601 sold, the rest kept for parts), and they only sold them in a handful of countries. I had to find a dealer in the US who would ship to me - which was against their terms of trade with Apple. Thankfully, my TAM arrived safe and sound, as - much like the one you just "opened" - now resides "used" but in box with all original packaging. Ironically... if I sold it today, I'd get about the same as what I paid for it originally. Not that I'm selling!
Clear to see how this became the form factor for the future flat screen imacs. And yes, a vanity product, in a sense, but i like to think of this like those concept cars that we see from time to time. Aspects of those sometimes wild and crazy looking designs, that eventually settle down into an actual product. I am sure that the first iMacs with the CRT tubes/Bondi Blue configuration were descended from this, but the main difference is that the CRT screen was used to make it actually affordable. Thus the all-in-one screen and computer that became the iMac of more recent times.
It is incredible to me, after all the amazing things they've done over the past 4 decades that THIS is what we consider their golden age. that even after all they did they're STILL killing it!
As my Performa 638 aged out of being a useful computer it retained its utility as a TV for my bedroom. Great for plugging in the Sega Saturn and gaming.
I had a pc which allowed me to open a small window while working and leave the History Channel on or something else on cable. It was pretty handy. I agree. This is the Golden era of Apple. Not happy with everything, but many good products. Fixes of problematic issues like laptop keyboards. Apple silicon turned out to be a good move tho I maybe it might make sense to still make one or two machines that boot into intel.
OH and - that start-up chime! You've not heard it (even though you can play it on other devices) until you've heard it ON the TAM. Those speakers just bring it to life.
This is definitely not Apple's golden era that happened from around 1998 when Jobs got back to Apple and released the iMac G3 to around 2011, being the latest best things from Apple, the iPhone 4, the iPad and the MacBook Air, (coincidentally, when Jobs died) since then even in software nothing has been that special. Of course, later Apple had other hits but it's clear this was the golden era, today Apple is a good business and they keep using the recipes the Jobs/Ive team made but it's definitely not the same Apple, which could be a good thing, but it's not the golden era.
crapple dug themselves their grave. crawling to NeXt and buying NeXt was last ditch effort. Jobs knew crapple was screwed and would let him do wtf he wanted once the buyout was complete
I knew immediately when i read the video title that this had to be talking about the TAM. (didn't even see the thumbnail heh) that machine is FANTASTIC. I got to work on one once when I was an apple certified desktop technician in a previous life.
Great video! I love seeing the TAM again. I do think that Steve and Jony were the epitome of Apple's greatest designs, and I hesitate to believe that this is Apple's golden era. The Apple designs have felt quite lackluster since around 2015 for me, even as I had worked for Apple, particularly with the notch on the iPhones and now Macs. I love the move to ARM, though their newfound focus and explicitly stating that they are now a "services" company has me concerned that we no longer share the same values, especially in the age if digital privacy. I don't want to buy a device that requires 24/7 telemetry to the mothership and requires an Internet connection to do just about anything. I certainly don't want a subscription to my hardware and software. I appreciate products that stand alone on their own quite well, they have tasks to do and do them extremely well, and are even more powerful when online. And great design, of course that's important as well. 😊 I hope Apple can find a better balance and I agree, it seems like they're working on that part today.
During Ive’s tenure post-Jobs, we got the Apple Watch and the iOS 7 UI: both of which were groundbreakingly good: those were Ive’s babies. It’s hard to say where fault lies for the missteps Apple took post-Jobs. Certainly Apple’s products during this period were continually hamstrung by chronic under-delivery by Intel. The 12” retina MacBook was a design classic that emerged during Ive’s tenure. And then it was killed. It’s hard to know how to apportion praise/blame, without information on what was going on inside Apple at the time.
14:19 - It was the same display as on the PowerBook 3400c, so tied for highest resolution for a "built-in-display" Mac, although external CRTs were available from Apple with much higher resolutions, even many years earlier.
Oh man, I’m old, so I remember these… There was a Apple Computer Dealer (pre Apple Store) on Folsom St that had one in the shop and I used to go visit it under the pretense of looking for USB compatible peripherals (hard to find in 1998) for my shiny new lime green iMac. The TAM looked like it was from a sci fi movie, it was way ahead of it’s time.
I think there are a lot of design cues in the TAM that remind me of the PowerBook 540c (Blackbird), from 1994. It was one of my earlier Mac laptops and I still think fondly of the design aesthetic of that era at Apple. Its relatively tiny trackpad seems similar to that on the TAM.
Excellent review Thanks ! coming from a Mac user since 1991 Mac SE 30 second hand ;-) and seeing like the Cube and owning other oddities at the time Steve was out i.e. the pizza box a B&W HP Printer that used to cost an arm and a piece of your leg too. Oldies but goldies ?
I have some storage cubes containing things I paid for, from 90s digital cameras, to Palm Pilots to first gen iPad and more. I can’t quite throw them away, they serve to remind me that there are some things you can never ever get back, like time, my youth and all the money I willingly paid for that stuff LOL
Have you seen the video clip of the macworld TAM presentation where they gifted one of the first ones to Steve Jobs? The death stare Steve gave the poor engineer doing the presentation totally slays me. Rumors have it that particular machine ended up in a dumpster shortly after.
The company I worked for at the time bought one of these, because the boss was a bit of an Apple fan. We had the machine running all day in the lobby for years, running a company presentation. It did indeed have an excellent sound system and in after hours we would play CDs on it or turn the radio up, which was also built-in. I always thought is was a really cool machine, but too expensive and underpowered for real work. As a display piece, however it was great.
this was really interesting, also it maker me wonder how I will be watching videos 20-30 years from now talking about the m1 mac or something like that
SO FRICKEN AWESOME! I remember seeing this on Jerry's desk in a few episodes of Seinfeld (he had different models over the seasons. Too bad that doesn't have a DVD player..you could loop Seinfeld episodes! I had a few different models over the years myself: Cir 1986 Beige Macintosh Plus (Currently own) Centris Quadra Performa 1st Gen Bondi Blue i-Mac 1st Gen e-Mac Power Mac G3 (Blue), G4 (Graphite), and 2 G5s (CheeseGrater) I still have one of the G5s 2006 17" PowerBook Aluma Body 2011 17" MacBook Pro UniBody (Currently own) 2009 MacBook "Core 2 Duo" 2.0 13-Inch 2020 i-Mac 27" Retina 8 Core (Currently own) A few iPods 1st Gen, 1st Gen iPod Mini, 1st Gen Shuffle,1st Gen Nano, 1st Gen Photo, 1st Gen Video, 3rd Gen Touch And 3 iPads. I 1st used an Apple II in my high school's computer lab back in 1983-84. Needles to say I am an avid Apple guy. I love the history surrounding it..the players, (Wozniak, Jobs, Wayne, Raskin, Sculley, Amelio, Gassée). the early development..the inspiration..all of it. It was history being played out right before my very eyes. I even attended the 1983 US Festival..due in large part that Steve Wozniak was the brainchild behind the festival.
I didn't know this mac. Never seen one in my life, but the design intrigued me, I found it familiar. As you dissected it and showed how it looks like, If realized, I had seen one of these drawn and animated in the 1998 japanese animated series "Serial Experiments Lain". In that series, the main character, Lain, has a Red colored computer immensely similar to this one in her desk. At the time I thought it was a very odd shaped computer, but now I see they had just based it off the TAM. That series, after all, is plagued with references to Be, NeXT, and Apple everywhere. It's quite mystical, to find out something you thought was from a world of fiction, was actually real.
Ohhh, I'm super jealous... You got your hands on such an amazing find! I didn't even know about this thing! Shame about the trackpad and remote, but hey, it's still amazing! Oh, and my guess as to why the experience disk would work on 95 is so that non-Mac users could view those materials to make them want one
Minor nitpick, due to the camera angle and limited viewing angle of the LCD, I could not see the trail of extensions loading. But, I remember those days so I could see it in my minds eye. The TAM was a neat looking device for sure. Thanks for sharing this. 😊
You encapsulated my thoughs exactly at the end - Apple's problem for a while, particularly in the first few years of the post-Jobs era, was that it elevated design above everything else. Hence $10,000 gold Apple Watches and super-thin MacBooks with lousy keyboards. Ive was (and to a degree still is) hugely important to Apple, but he succeeded in part because Jobs reined in some of his impulses.
Exactly, Ive's work was so good back in the day because there was a bigger asshole above him who would've fired him without thinking twice. But post-Jobs I imagine Ive got too much free reign.
Form can never trump function if you're trying to create anything that's not completely vain
THIS IS THE GOLDEN ERA FOR APPLE? For money, yes. For making fast computers yes. For logic in their product line? Zero, why new 13.3" MBP doesn't have MagSafe but new 13.6" MBA does? For environmental reasons. NOT AT ALL GOLDEN.
@@bapt_andthebasses the 13 inch MacBook Pro is the only thing they haven't axed yet mostly because it sells really well(people like flexing about having the 'pro'). It's the only exception, what other issue is there with their lineup?
@@bapt_andthebasses The 13-inch MacBook Pro M2 is, I suspect, a holdover to clear inventory and make the most of parts during shortages. That doesn't mean it makes much sense to customers, but it might be worth remembering when one is out of stock while the other is still sitting on shelves.
Not just jobs, it’s a LOT of people that reigned him in.
Cool to see such a relatively in-depth video on the TAM. I was lucky enough to buy a couple of them brand new in 1997 for £2400 (total).*
I upgraded one of them with the Sonnet card, like in your video. The other is entirely stock. Both are still in mint working condition complete with all their parts and packaging (some still shrink-wrapped). Always loved the TAM.
*Bought and paid for one, which developed a floppy disk drive fault. Reported it to the reseller who agreed to replace it. Come the time, a courier dropped off a brand new replacement TAM but refused to collect the faulty one, saying his job was only to drop off. Despite me informing the reseller, and them telling me another courier would come to collect the faulty unit, both TAMs are still here 25 years later.
Oh… and the floppy disk drive cured itself a few weeks after the replacement arrived. 😀
Neat! Thanks for sharing and watching :)
Lucky man... lol
so basically you stole one.
@@jessihawkins9116 - not according to UK consumer law I didn’t.
@@eddie275a if you didn’t pay for it it’s stealing
This is definitely Apple's forgotten Mac. It's soo cool that this Mac allowed you to watch TV on it! In that regard, it's ahead of its time.
no this is history revisionism. there were other macs that you could watch tv on before this. the 5200 comes to mind. this also was not an iMac.
@@jessihawkins9116 it wasn't an imac but it surely resembled on them!!!
@@yannisgk how? There were a bunch of all in one Macs before this, including the first Mac. This looks nothing like the CRT bright color variation, USB endowed iMacs.
@@techviewer8379 didn't the emacs have that capability
@@jessihawkins9116: Yup, I had a 5200CD. As uninspiring as its specs might have been, I was quite fond of it.
You should have shown the 1997 Macworld video where this was introduced. It's hilarious.
Steve Jobs had just returned to Apple as an advisor, and he had just given his big comeback speech. At the end of the keynote, the TAM was unexpectedly introduced as a surprise to Jobs by the marketing manager, with Jobs and Woz on stage. The demo it was supposed to run immediately crashed. Jobs can be seen staring at the TAM with complete and utter disgust, and within a month, the marketing manager was fired.
ironic thing is, IF Jobs had a hand in developing the TAM, he wouldve been hellbent on getting it to market and crapple sheeple wouldve gobbled them up regardless of price or performance
@@harveylong5878 lmao ok bud
@@harveylong5878 despite the fact he disliked it
I bought one when they went on fire sale after Jobs killed it. It was an interesting machine. The sound was great and it was almost like a stereo instead of a Mac. The screen was so small even in that era.
That ending is so true, really feels like dapple have hit their design/function stride again
dapple
this is a weird place to find you
THIS IS THE GOLDEN ERA FOR APPLE? For money, yes. For making fast computers yes. For logic in their product line? Zero, why new 13.3" MBP doesn't have MagSafe but new 13.6" MBA does? For environmental reasons. NOT AT ALL GOLDEN.
@@bapt_andthebasses Turns out when you start making more money than several whole countries your product lineup doesn't have to make sense. Not like thats a good thing mind you, same goes for making actual repairable products.
i used to watch u
My uncle had one of these, he bought it a few years after it came out. It was so cool to see in person, at the time I had no idea it was a computer, I thought it was some high end TV/stereo combo
It definitely *stinks* of late-90s Sony design ethos, the kind where they made a product purely to *look* futuristic even when it compromised its usability or performance. Really makes you appreciate how much Jobs reigned in that urge to just look pretty and do nothing.
This has become one of my favorite Apple product channels.
Thank you!!
It's like getting back Matt's Macintosh!
Totally agree, please make video of connecting new tech with old tech such as iPod with new MacBook etc
Same here, and I hate Apple, but like knowing about all computers.
This is great. Always wanted to see more details on this Mac.
The last time an Apple manual told you how to upgrade your memory, was 2020 with the 27" iMac
Back in the days, when the TAM was released, it was a total mystery to me (and others) why Apple would waste their drying up funds to create such a monstrosity.
Sure, the flat screen was a big desire, but everything else was just awful ... and then the absurd price. So glad that Apple recovered from this, and that whole period in the 90s when it looked like Apple was fading out of existence, buried in a graveyard of it's confusing range of uninspiring and underperforming models. The top brass was a bunch of bozos. But Steve took charge again and cleaned house, and Apple was saved.
I still have mine, pristine and very much in use. These originally were priced at $10k with concierge service - delivered to your door and setup for you. The price was dropped to ~$8k, and then rapidly to $2500. I bought mine for that last price directly from Apple the day the price drop was announced. Back in the day it was my office fax machine, answering machine, TV, AM/FM receiver and CD player. MP3 functionality came with software upgrades as well as internet radio. It is currently running MacOS 9.22 and serves as my living room CD/MP3 and FM receiver - and functional artwork. The Bose speakers still sound great and the remote still works. I have all the documentation and boxes, including the pen set/leather pouch and leather CD case that came with and leather keyboard insert and trackpad (I don't use the trackpad). Instead, I use a black ADB mouse from the old Mac TV (anyone remember those). I've added a G3 upgrade (years ago) and WiFi. Can still browse the web, although with limited functionality due to outdated protocols. Oh, and I use it to sync my Newton Message Pad 2001! P.S. I also have my original NeXT Turbo Color slab, still working like a champ.
Legend says that a guy with a tux comes over and assemble the machine
Not incorrect.
Sure fun to reminisce! I always wanted a Twentieth Anniversary Mac and wish I’d bought one when the price dropped after they were discontinued. It’s interesting to see the start of using laptop components to miniaturize desktops. It would be cool if you produced a “Short” explaining the pinouts of the power cable.
The connectors on the umbilical are from a company called Burndy (now Souriau).
Interestingly NAIM uses connectors from the same range on their higher end products for power supplies and crossovers; they're not specifically aerospace connectors as suggested in another comments rather they are mainly used in industrial and harsh environment applications.
The opening to this video with the history of Apple was really entertaining and well done. Would love to see a video of Apples entire history in that style, and along with your analysis. Great video!
There's one thing from Apple for sure, they always made sure that the included speakers on their desktop/laptop should sound good. Even on their iPhones as well.
Awesome video - thank you for taking me back! I remember at the time of its release it was reported as under spec’d and wildly over priced. It did look cool however. It was such a transitional time in Apple. Steve was back, NEXT was purchased (now MacOS) and MacOS 8 was in perpetual release (it never arrived). In what I remember seemed like a few short months, this Mac disappeared along with the Apple Newton and the rest of their range of the day. Apple was reportedly only days away from bankruptcy. It was at the end of 12 months of what seemed like turmoil (1997-1998) that the Bondi Blue iMac was launched, Apple was reborn and the rest is history. It was an amazing time in history.
I love this video, TAM is such an incredible machine, I agree with you too, this is the golden era of Apple if they want it, I love see products like the new MacBook Pro M1 (Pro or Max) which is beautiful and functional, but... we still seeing the Apple Watch Series 3 or the MacBook Pro TouchBar (why?) just hope Apple can bring us great products, also other companies, because competence is the best for us!
Before Jobs came back, Apple was making and selling a myriad of products which were expensive and sold poorly. The Newton, the QuickTake, the Macintosh TV, the 2th Anniversary Mac, and loads of computers and laptops which only really went to the educational market.
And it wasn't like these started as financially questionable and then turned out to be massively successful. Products like the TAM and Newton were expensive (R&D and production) and sold to a very small market, increasing prices and making them even less affordable.
Jobs rightfully cut Apple's product line down to size and focused on those that worked.
I worked at an Apple Premium Reseller and Premium Service Provider here in Germany/Bavaria/Franconia. This Reseller has this Mac in his Selling Room. It is used as a Radio. Very nice peace of history.
Also, that weird “domesticated Mac” seems to be a cross between a Color Classic and that “molar” PowerMac G3 AIO. It likely preceded both and was reused, which means the TAM’s development was linked to both of those machines.
The amount of engineering and design that went into this is insane. Fantastic first offering from Jony Ive. Would love to get one of these but scared to look at eBay for the prices !
Wow, I remember seeing one in person more than 20 years ago. It was already low spec to run the latest software, so I didn’t waste to much time with it. Great video! Keep surprising us :-)
I love how the outfit matches the box inside.
And the backplates.
And the TAM.
Next level review stuff right there.
wow, that is definitely jony ive's designed product, it might not be a good product but it was elegantly designed.
IMO the trashcan mac pro is not horrible, sure it has become a joke, but when you think about it, it's a very good design, very well cooled and extremely quiet for what it is, people often forgot that it has a xeon cpu with dual firepro gpu(s) in the size of fat paper towel. it is essentially the predecessor of mac studio. People who actually used it for the first 5 years enjoyed it, me included, AND despite having bespoke gpu(s) (I know they probably just use the wxxxx counterpart driver), the windows driver worked pretty well in bootcamp.
And that was the thing, if Jonny hadn't obsessed on Form over function the trash can Mac may have been a bigger hit. The idea was great it's execution though left many to drop it. Just the problem alone with non standard GPU cards is an example of this. Would it have hurt the design that much to make so you could put in standard windows compatible GPU cards? Probably not, but the Hubris of Jonny could not stand for that. Just like how you can't make a cake without some eggs and flour. Without Steve there to temper Jonny's zeal for design that's how you get the Trash Can Mac and iPhone problems after Steve's death.
i appreciate you taking the time out to post such unique apple content like this. makes the wait between videos a bit longer than other channels but i know you're always coming with quality
Ooh I’m looking forward to this! I love your Apple History Videos
Wow solid blast from the past. I was born in 1993 so to me this is all brand new stuff I’ve never seen before. Thank you for this love your videos.
Same! 93 babies! It’s crazy stuff so futurist seeming was coming out back then! I would have wanted this!
so many years watching your channel, last months meanwhile other apple ecosystem channel discuss and make the same test to the m1 mac, this channel show joy, Unboxing rare products and a lot of experimentation, something so crazy like genius we can wait, but with an style i really appreciate
I owned one of these in the UK about 10 years ago, I had it in my bedroom and used it as a sound system, with the remote you could turn it on and pretty sure you could get radio stations. the sound was excellent and Im an 'Audiophile' I was sad to let it go, but when I was offered £4k for it couldn't say no. the guy wanted it to just look on his desk.
Spot on with that assessment! Once Steve passed the Design team had too much control and the hardware suffered (thermals/performance etc) Apple has come full circle for sure with designs that now don't impact functionality and usability!
egomanic Jobs was the source of most if ALL of crapple's pitiful hardware flaws. fans, who needs fans or venting. it'll be fine, just tell user to drop their wildly overpriced crapple laptop to reseat RAM from overheating
Awesome machine! I bet Jonny loved working on it! So glad they kept him around!
My wife said that computer looks like it should be on a bad guy's desk in a cheesy 90s action movie 😂
Hahaha maybe true!
Classic Apple’s last Hurrah before Steve Jobs came in and cleaned house. Very intriguing piece of tech history.
I worked on this before it came out. Surprised I didn't immediately see anyone mention that this was featured (product-placed) in Batman and Robin. Very apt, the movie was just as good as the computer.
I would give anything for one of these. My Apple fanboy days are long, long since over, but this will forever be my holy grail.
Brand new in the box on Ebay, $19,500. Only one for sale at $1,450 in working order but with a SERIOUSLY badly frayed power cable.
AKA the “Seinfeld Mac” for those few episodes where it was part of the apartment set. It must have been revolutionary in 1997… for a few moments anyway.
One of the prototypes was also in Batman and Robin from 1997. Alfred uses it to burn a disc. It’s also in Seinfeld, although it’s very unbelievable that Jerry bought one because of its cost.
I bought one of these when they were on sale in 1998 for $1999. It was an amazing computer with incredible sound. I upgraded the processor with the "fat back" and was very happy.... except... it developed a buzz. Apple tried to repair it twice but the fault was not fixed. It was a known issue and there did not have a solution. By then it was 2.5y ears old and Apple offered me a Mac Pro G4 450 and LCD monitor, brand new, as a replacement. It was incredible customer service. I loved the TAM but took the Mac Pro which was way way faster (but nowhere near as cool) and ran it for 8 years as a my daily driver. I still have the Pen that came with the TAM and the manuals.
Do you still have it?
No, as I mentioned it had a persistent problem so Apple swapped it for a G4 and LCD monitor which I do still have.
God, seeing that old MacOS boot screen again... I remember 7.5.5 was rock solid. I had to work hard to make that crash, and I was video editing on a PowerMac 9500.
What an absolute delight. Thank you for this video. I wish I owned one of these.
Great video about this truly unique Apple product! You should have pointed out the significance of putting an LCD screen in a desktop computer in 1997! This was even before the release of the original Studio and Cinema display!
It's basically just a vertically mounted laptop with some expandability on the rear. Otherwise, no great shakes visually or performance-wise. I get why Jobs wanted rid of these immediately.
Trackpads, mice, etc are still foreign to many people, even in the US.
I'm an IT tech that specializes in elder care and it's amazing how many people still need this level of instruction.
Oh wow, this was amazing for it's time. Thank you for sharing it with the rest of the world.
Its insane this still looks modern this one always suprises me
no, this soundsystem used to be "high-end" 20 years ago. it used to be the norm, that soundsystems sound good. Except in cars. in cars they liked us to have headaches of all the loud mid heights. :D
Absolutely no surprise B&O was involved with the prior designs. Looks just like the contemporary CD players they were selling!
That is a beautifully designed Mac.
I have to thank Steve, as apparently he was the one who said to slash the price on the TAM when it was discontinued, and thus allowing me to be able to afford it. Of course - my next problem was my location - they weren't sold in my country. Only 12,000 TAMs were made (11,601 sold, the rest kept for parts), and they only sold them in a handful of countries. I had to find a dealer in the US who would ship to me - which was against their terms of trade with Apple. Thankfully, my TAM arrived safe and sound, as - much like the one you just "opened" - now resides "used" but in box with all original packaging.
Ironically... if I sold it today, I'd get about the same as what I paid for it originally. Not that I'm selling!
Really cool, can hardly wait for 50th anniversary Mac!
Clear to see how this became the form factor for the future flat screen imacs. And yes, a vanity product, in a sense, but i like to think of this like those concept cars that we see from time to time. Aspects of those sometimes wild and crazy looking designs, that eventually settle down into an actual product. I am sure that the first iMacs with the CRT tubes/Bondi Blue configuration were descended from this, but the main difference is that the CRT screen was used to make it actually affordable.
Thus the all-in-one screen and computer that became the iMac of more recent times.
Call the support number in the manual and see if its still works :D
It is incredible to me, after all the amazing things they've done over the past 4 decades that THIS is what we consider their golden age. that even after all they did they're STILL killing it!
I have one of these in storage that my old man got back in the day, I remember the sounds being great.
Your landlord having all those docs also means you better not try to take advantage of him…. this guy has RECIEPTS!!!!
No, apple still focuses more on form than function, they just managed to engineer their way into making that form actually function. Impressive.
that was Job's MO; it has to look pretty. who cares if it actually works, just make it look pretty
In 1997, trackpads were still brand new to computers, including laptops, and a trackpad on a desktop was unheard of.
I wanted one of these SOOOO... bad back in the day but while it looked great there were much faster Macs for a lot less $$$.
As my Performa 638 aged out of being a useful computer it retained its utility as a TV for my bedroom. Great for plugging in the Sega Saturn and gaming.
I had a pc which allowed me to open a small window while working and leave the History Channel on or something else on cable. It was pretty handy. I agree. This is the Golden era of Apple. Not happy with everything, but many good products. Fixes of problematic issues like laptop keyboards. Apple silicon turned out to be a good move tho I maybe it might make sense to still make one or two machines that boot into intel.
OH and - that start-up chime! You've not heard it (even though you can play it on other devices) until you've heard it ON the TAM. Those speakers just bring it to life.
This is definitely not Apple's golden era that happened from around 1998 when Jobs got back to Apple and released the iMac G3 to around 2011, being the latest best things from Apple, the iPhone 4, the iPad and the MacBook Air, (coincidentally, when Jobs died) since then even in software nothing has been that special. Of course, later Apple had other hits but it's clear this was the golden era, today Apple is a good business and they keep using the recipes the Jobs/Ive team made but it's definitely not the same Apple, which could be a good thing, but it's not the golden era.
Interesting that Apple has two golden eras from the late 1970's-mid 1980's and 1998-2011. In both cases Steve Jobs was in both golden ages of apple.
SONNET!! I completely forgot about those folks.
What an awesome walk through…🙌🏾
When it was announced there was also,a white glove delivery and setup option for an additional cost
Steve Jobs made the comeback of the century.
crapple dug themselves their grave. crawling to NeXt and buying NeXt was last ditch effort. Jobs knew crapple was screwed and would let him do wtf he wanted once the buyout was complete
PERFORMANCE!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I knew immediately when i read the video title that this had to be talking about the TAM. (didn't even see the thumbnail heh) that machine is FANTASTIC. I got to work on one once when I was an apple certified desktop technician in a previous life.
Fascinating historical artifact, so many ports, such a tiny screen!
Great video! I love seeing the TAM again. I do think that Steve and Jony were the epitome of Apple's greatest designs, and I hesitate to believe that this is Apple's golden era. The Apple designs have felt quite lackluster since around 2015 for me, even as I had worked for Apple, particularly with the notch on the iPhones and now Macs. I love the move to ARM, though their newfound focus and explicitly stating that they are now a "services" company has me concerned that we no longer share the same values, especially in the age if digital privacy. I don't want to buy a device that requires 24/7 telemetry to the mothership and requires an Internet connection to do just about anything. I certainly don't want a subscription to my hardware and software. I appreciate products that stand alone on their own quite well, they have tasks to do and do them extremely well, and are even more powerful when online. And great design, of course that's important as well. 😊
I hope Apple can find a better balance and I agree, it seems like they're working on that part today.
20th anniversary mac is one of my favorite computer designs ever. it's pretty incredible your landlord just happened to have one in this condition.
During Ive’s tenure post-Jobs, we got the Apple Watch and the iOS 7 UI: both of which were groundbreakingly good: those were Ive’s babies. It’s hard to say where fault lies for the missteps Apple took post-Jobs. Certainly Apple’s products during this period were continually hamstrung by chronic under-delivery by Intel. The 12” retina MacBook was a design classic that emerged during Ive’s tenure. And then it was killed. It’s hard to know how to apportion praise/blame, without information on what was going on inside Apple at the time.
What an awesome archive! I feel like I’m the part of history as I’m watching this.
I loved this computer. Alfred used it in Batman and Robin. Terrible movie, fantastic Schwarzenegger puns.
14:19 - It was the same display as on the PowerBook 3400c, so tied for highest resolution for a "built-in-display" Mac, although external CRTs were available from Apple with much higher resolutions, even many years earlier.
Oh man, I’m old, so I remember these… There was a Apple Computer Dealer (pre Apple Store) on Folsom St that had one in the shop and I used to go visit it under the pretense of looking for USB compatible peripherals (hard to find in 1998) for my shiny new lime green iMac. The TAM looked like it was from a sci fi movie, it was way ahead of it’s time.
Have never ever seen any of these products before, remarkable content
I think there are a lot of design cues in the TAM that remind me of the PowerBook 540c (Blackbird), from 1994. It was one of my earlier Mac laptops and I still think fondly of the design aesthetic of that era at Apple. Its relatively tiny trackpad seems similar to that on the TAM.
What's the likelihood of one of the best Apple youtube channel hosts lives in a unit that has a landlord that owned a pristine 20th anniversary mac?
This is one pretty device. You should back up the CD-ROM's to the internet archive in case there are none.
Excellent review Thanks ! coming from a Mac user since 1991 Mac SE 30 second hand ;-) and seeing like the Cube and owning other oddities at the time Steve was out i.e. the pizza box a B&W HP Printer that used to cost an arm and a piece of your leg too. Oldies but goldies ?
I have some storage cubes containing things I paid for, from 90s digital cameras, to Palm Pilots to first gen iPad and more. I can’t quite throw them away, they serve to remind me that there are some things you can never ever get back, like time, my youth and all the money I willingly paid for that stuff LOL
Have you seen the video clip of the macworld TAM presentation where they gifted one of the first ones to Steve Jobs? The death stare Steve gave the poor engineer doing the presentation totally slays me. Rumors have it that particular machine ended up in a dumpster shortly after.
I love how much "and something and something and something" there is rather than "something, something and something".
18:38 that concept looks so cool lol i could imagine an alternate timeline in which it came out around the same time as the imac g4
The company I worked for at the time bought one of these, because the boss was a bit of an Apple fan. We had the machine running all day in the lobby for years, running a company presentation. It did indeed have an excellent sound system and in after hours we would play CDs on it or turn the radio up, which was also built-in. I always thought is was a really cool machine, but too expensive and underpowered for real work. As a display piece, however it was great.
Very neat! When my family got our first computer, the Macintosh SE, I remember learning how to click and drag with the mouse on the provided tutorial.
I learned programming messing around with Apple script. I remember making an infinite dialog box so technically a virus. That was fun.
A Macintosh SE exists?
Alternate title: Landlord had no idea what this is worth now!
You always entice us with these types of videos, really interesting stuff! Thanks for sharing
The speakers sound like something out of a museum, very clear
this was really interesting, also it maker me wonder how I will be watching videos 20-30 years from now talking about the m1 mac or something like that
SO FRICKEN AWESOME! I remember seeing this on Jerry's desk in a few episodes of Seinfeld (he had different models over the seasons. Too bad that doesn't have a DVD player..you could loop Seinfeld episodes! I had a few different models over the years myself:
Cir 1986 Beige Macintosh Plus (Currently own)
Centris
Quadra
Performa
1st Gen Bondi Blue i-Mac
1st Gen e-Mac
Power Mac G3 (Blue), G4 (Graphite), and 2 G5s (CheeseGrater) I still have one of the G5s
2006 17" PowerBook Aluma Body
2011 17" MacBook Pro UniBody (Currently own)
2009 MacBook "Core 2 Duo" 2.0 13-Inch
2020 i-Mac 27" Retina 8 Core (Currently own)
A few iPods 1st Gen, 1st Gen iPod Mini, 1st Gen Shuffle,1st Gen Nano, 1st Gen Photo, 1st Gen Video, 3rd Gen Touch
And 3 iPads. I 1st used an Apple II in my high school's computer lab back in 1983-84. Needles to say I am an avid Apple guy. I love the history surrounding it..the players, (Wozniak, Jobs, Wayne, Raskin, Sculley, Amelio, Gassée). the early development..the inspiration..all of it. It was history being played out right before my very eyes. I even attended the 1983 US Festival..due in large part that Steve Wozniak was the brainchild behind the festival.
I didn't know this mac. Never seen one in my life, but the design intrigued me, I found it familiar. As you dissected it and showed how it looks like, If realized, I had seen one of these drawn and animated in the 1998 japanese animated series "Serial Experiments Lain". In that series, the main character, Lain, has a Red colored computer immensely similar to this one in her desk. At the time I thought it was a very odd shaped computer, but now I see they had just based it off the TAM. That series, after all, is plagued with references to Be, NeXT, and Apple everywhere. It's quite mystical, to find out something you thought was from a world of fiction, was actually real.
Ohhh, I'm super jealous... You got your hands on such an amazing find! I didn't even know about this thing! Shame about the trackpad and remote, but hey, it's still amazing!
Oh, and my guess as to why the experience disk would work on 95 is so that non-Mac users could view those materials to make them want one
Minor nitpick, due to the camera angle and limited viewing angle of the LCD, I could not see the trail of extensions loading. But, I remember those days so I could see it in my minds eye. The TAM was a neat looking device for sure. Thanks for sharing this. 😊
setup montage music was perfectly snazzy 😂❤️
You know how to bring out the nostalgia, Snazzy.
The TAM's boot sound will always be my favorite
Quinn's genuine disappointment at the missing remote and mouse literally broke my heart