October 26, 2004: Apple debuts the iPod Photo, a device capable of putting not just 15,000 songs in your pocket, but also 25,000 photographs. The new device “lets you take your entire music and photo library with you wherever you go,” Apple says.
It is the first iPod to offer a color screen and the ability to display digital images and album cover art. The iPod Photo represents a big step forward in the functionality of Apple’s iconic music player.
October 23, 2001: Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduces the first iPod, a device capable of storing an entire music library in a highly portable package.
The first-generation device boasts a 5GB hard drive capable of putting “1,000 songs in your pocket.” That may not sound too dazzling in a world in which people can stream the massive Apple Music library from their iPhones, but it was a game-changer at the time!
October 22, 2008: During an Apple conference call, Steve Jobs reveals that a user downloaded the 200 millionth app from the App Store that very day.
The news comes less than five months after the launch of the App Store, and only a month after Apple surpassed 100 million app downloads.
October 20, 2009: Apple goes big with its iMac redesign, introducing the first 27-inch all-in-one Mac.
The sleek, sophisticated aluminum unibody design looks so good that the iMac will remain virtually unchanged for years. As with the first Macintosh with a built-in CD-ROM drive, the iMac’s 27-inch display represents a sea change for tech. The big, beautiful screen signals that larger displays need no longer remain the domain of pampered professionals.
October 16, 2003: Six months after opening the iTunes Music Store for Mac owners, Apple expands the service to cover Windows PCs as well.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs later quips that making iTunes available to Windows owners is akin to “giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell.”
October 14, 2005: Tim Cook takes the reins as Apple’s chief operating officer, continuing an upward climb through the company’s ranks that will make him CEO less than six years later.
“Tim and I have worked together for over seven years now, and I am looking forward to working even more closely with him to help Apple reach some exciting goals during the coming years,” Steve Jobs says in a statement.
October 13, 2006: Apple launches its limited-edition iPod nano (Product) Red Special Edition music player, with 10% of profits going to fight AIDS in Africa.
Created in association with U2 lead singer Bono and activist/attorney Bobby Shriver, it’s the first of many Apple philanthropic products. “We’re ecstatic that Apple is giving their customers the choice to buy a red iPod nano and help women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa,” Bono says in a statement.
September 30, 2002: Apple introduces iSync, a tool that lets Mac users synchronize their address books and calendars with their cellphones, iPods and Palm OS-compatible handheld organizers via Bluetooth.
“iSync is the beginning of something really big,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs says in a press release announcing the iSync public beta. “With the push of a button, iSync synchronizes the address book and calendar on your Mac with those on your mobile phone.”
It represents a big leap forward in the ability of computers and mobile devices to talk with one another. And it hints at some of Apple’s later advances.
September 29, 2004: Apple debuts Logic Pro 7, its professional music creation and audio production software. The update brings new tools and a streamlined interface in line with other Apple software.
Coming off the success of the iPod and the iTunes Music Store, the Logic Pro 7 launch — alongside its stripped-down sibling, Logic Express 7 — serves as a reminder of Apple’s dominance in music tech, for consumers and professionals alike.
September 25, 2006: Apple ships its second-generation iPod nano, offering a fancy redesign of the pocket-size original.
“iPod nano is the world’s most popular digital music player, and we’ve completely redesigned it to make it even better,” said Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a press release. “The all-new iPod nano gives music fans more of what they love in their iPods.”
Among the new iPod nano’s improvements are a slimmer, anodized aluminum casing; a brighter screen; longer battery life, and a wide range of colors. And, oh yes, it also includes gapless music playback for the first time!
September 11, 2009: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer reportedly snatches an iPhone from an employee during a meeting and pretends to destroy it.
The iPhone freakout isn’t the first time Ballmer behaves in a wacky way and incurs negative publicity as a result. However, it’s an embarrassing moment for a man who ranks among the tech world’s most powerful people.
September 9, 2009: Steve Jobs makes his public return to Apple after successful liver-transplant surgery.
Appearing onstage at Apple’s fall event, Jobs receives a standing ovation that lasts almost a minute. He then opens the keynote on an unusually personal note by discussing his health.
September 8, 2003: Apple reveals that the iTunes Music Store recently sold its 10 millionth song download. The tune in question? Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated.”
Come to think of it, “You fall and you crawl and you break and you take what you get and you turn it into [success]” describes Apple pretty well in the late ’90s and early 2000s.
September 5, 2007: Apple introduces its first new iPods after the release of the iPhone. The lineup includes the third-gen iPod nano, the newly renamed iPod Classic and — most significantly — the debut of the iPod touch.
In doing so, Apple sets out to demonstrate that there is still plenty of life left in the iconic portable music player.
August 31, 2004: Apple launches the iMac G5, a distinctive, white plastic computer that looks a little like the world’s biggest iPod.
Housed in a 2-inch-thick enclosure reminiscent of Apple’s Cinema Displays, the new all-in-one machine bridges the gap between the pleasing plasticity of the iconic G3 iMac and the minimalist form factor of the ultra-slim aluminum Macs that will follow.
August 29, 2001: During a meeting, Apple’s board of directors awards Steve Jobs new stock options that will become part of a stock-backdating scandal several years later.
When the matter eventually ends up in court, Apple’s former general counsel pays $2.2 million to settle charges that she backdated stock options for Jobs, herself and others — and created fake paperwork to hide this fact.
August 22, 2001: Apple takes home a technical Emmy Award for developing FireWire, the high-speed serial port that allows users to transfer data quickly between a Macintosh and another device, such as a digital camera.
“Apple enabled the desktop video revolution with its invention of FireWire,” says Jon Rubinstein, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, in a press release about the Emmy win. FireWire plays a key role in Steve Jobs’ “digital hub” strategy at Apple. However, the technology’s origins go back much further than that.
August 21, 2008: Microsoft recruits comedian Jerry Seinfeld for a series of ads. It’s a naked attempt to shake the company’s reputation as a stodgy oldster (as opposed to Apple’s trendsetting hipster image).
Microsoft pays Seinfeld a reported $10 million for the ads. However, thanks to the Mac’s appearance in virtually every episode of Seinfeld over the years, the comedian remains the world’s most famous Apple fanboy.
August 13, 2002: Apple unveils the final face-lift for its Power Mac G4, the so-called “Mirrored Drive Doors” model.
The distinctive-looking computer borrows visually from the previous “QuickSilver” G4, released a year earlier. However, it adds a different front panel, with a mirrorlike finish for the media drive doors. It’s the last visual redesign of Apple’s Power Mac G4.
August 10, 2008: The developer of I Am Rich, a pointless iPhone app that sold for a whopping $999.99, defends his notorious creation as “art.”
After Apple removed I Am Rich from the App Store in the wake of controversy over the app’s outrageous price and total lack of usefulness, its creator, German developer Armin Heinrich, says he made it as a sort of joke.
August 7, 2006: Apple unleashes the first Mac Pro, a high-end desktop computer that completes the company’s transition from PowerPC to Intel processors.
Built for computation-heavy tasks like 3D rendering and professional audio and video editing, the quad-core, 64-bit Mac Pro serves as a replacement for the Power Mac G5 (from which it borrows its aluminum “cheese grater” design).
August 4, 2008: In an internal memo, Steve Jobs owns up to mistakes in launching MobileMe, spinning Apple’s bungled cloud service rollout as a learning opportunity.
“It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store,” Jobs writes in an email to Apple employees. “We all had more than enough to do, and MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence.”
August 3, 2009: Google CEO Eric Schmidt resigns from Apple’s board of directors amidst increasing competition between the two companies.
The root of the problem? The growing feud over Android’s encroachment on iOS as the two smartphone platforms battle for dominance.
July 26, 2005: Apple debuts the opaque white iBook G4, the last of its laptops to launch under the iBook name.
The portable computer adds Apple’s scrolling trackpad for the first time. It also incorporates Bluetooth 2.0 as a standard feature, and becomes the last Apple laptop with a PowerPC chip.
July 24, 2006: The world gets its first glimpse of Apple’s new wireless Mighty Mouse, a multibutton Bluetooth device with super-accurate laser tracking.
Photos of the accessory come to light through an Apple filing with the Federal Communications Commission. Apple will launch the device the very next day.