20 Macs

Jason talks to Stephen about his recent deep dive into the world of the Macintosh Performa line, which was sold from 1992 to 1997. Over that time period, nearly 50 models were sold wearing the name. Things got messy.

Stephen Hackett joins Jason to wrap up the series and discuss all the Macs that didn't make the list.

From November 20, 2020: Titanium PowerBook G4, MacBook Air, the original Macintosh, PowerBook 140/170, and iMac G3.

From August 31, 2020: The Macintosh Portable, Power Computing clones, iMac G4, Power Mac G4 Cube, iBook, Macintosh SE/30, and laying out pages at college newspapers.

From June 12, 2020: The Power Mac G5, PowerBook Duo, PowerBook 500 & 5300, Blue-and-White Power Mac G3, DayStar Genesis MP, Mac mini, Mac IIcx and IIci, and the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh.

From November 20, 2020: Titanium PowerBook G4, MacBook Air, the original Macintosh, PowerBook 140/170, iMac G3, and to his great dismay, John learns Jason's final rankings.

From September 1, 2020: The Macintosh Portable, Power Computing clones, iMac G4, Power Mac G4 Cube, iBook, and Macintosh SE/30.

Two interviews with John Siracusa used for the 20 Macs for 2020 podcast, discussing the first nine entries in the series.

It was the late 90s and Apple was on the ropes. Steve Jobs knew the company needed a lifeline, fast. And 10 months after Jobs took back control of the company, he announced the product that would fund Apple's resurgence and change its future forever.

After the failure of the Macintosh Portable, Apple took a different approach to designing a laptop. The result helped tip the balance of power between humans and computers.

The first Mac followed in the Lisa's footsteps and had a lot of limitations--but it changed the course of the computer industry forever.

Apple's first attempt at the ultimate thin and light laptop was overpriced and underpowered. The second attempt resulted in the definitive Mac of the 2010s.

Apple's first metallic silver laptop set the company on a path that it's been on for two decades and counting, but it also proved that the company still had a lot to learn.

What's the best Mac of all time? It's an impossible question to answer. Yet three well-known Mac commentators all have the same answer.

After a lot of speculation, Steve Jobs finally filled in the Mac's fourth product quadrant with a consumer laptop that was one of a kind. But what's a "consumer laptop," really?

There may have never been a Mac more aligned with Steve Jobs's personal quirks than the Power Mac G4 Cube. It was a spectacular failure.

One of Apple's greatest design triumphs was meant to set the company up for the next decade. Instead, it became a false start--and a rejected design direction ended up being more functional, if less inspirational.

For a couple of years in the mid-90s, the Mac market was enthralled by a clonemaker with great deals and riotous marketing.

Thank goodness there are second chances, because Apple's first attempt to make a portable Macintosh was as inauspicious at it gets.

In an era where Apple liked to show concepts from its design lab in public, one weird Mac prototype somehow became a real product, and was unveiled at the end of the worst Apple keynote in history.