Macinography 11: Trackpads and the Portable Pointing Device Wars
Release Date: 06/17/2020
Good Night Garden, Hello Userlandia
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A short goodbye to the Garden. We thank you for listening over the years. It's been a lot of fun!
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Episode 61: William Volk Oral History Interview - Apple, Amiga, and PC Game Pioneer
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Joining Dan in the Garden today is game industry veteran William Volk. Volk started his career in late 1979 as a game tester for Avalon Hill and developed or spearheaded games across all generations of platforms. We talk Volk’s career past and present, including development in the early days of the Macintosh, the influence of gaming on education, his return to indie development with The Climate Trail, and how the Amiga keeps coming back.
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Episode 60: March Mac-ness with Matt Corey
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After weathering a cold and snowy winter, Dan and Jake welcome March with open arms. It’s a season of renewal, and previous guest Matt Corey returns to talk about his new light control app, Follow the Sun. Both Jake and Matt now have M1 MacBooks Air—how do they fit in their workflows? Plus, Dan finally succumbed and bought the LG 34WK95U ultrawide monitor. Is the ultrawide life all it’s cracked up to be? Listen in to find out.
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Episode 59: Smart Kitchens and Food Technology
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The dynamic duo is reunited as Jake thaws out from the Texas deep freeze—did all his smart tech survive? Dan still can’t find a GPU, and Jake adds CarPlay to his new automobile. For our main topic, we talk smart kitchen appliances, how tech has changed our grocery habits, and hot takes on easter candy too.
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Macinography 18: The Problem with Performas
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Meet the Martinettis. They’re the all-American family of the nineties. When they want a computer, they hop on down to the big box store and buy a Performa, the computer made just for them. Alas, darkness lurked from within that happy Mac, seduced by the siren song of marketshare. Listen to find out how an otherwise reasonable idea almost rotted Apple from the core.
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Episode 58: Live Streaming With Your Mac with Maegan Wilson
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We’ll do it live! Guest and friend of the show Maegan Wilson returns to fill in for Jake. Ever wanted to stream your games or productivity but didn’t know where to start? Dan and Maeghan talk about streaming to Twitch and YouTube using Macs (and PCs!), the gear you’ll need, and what the experience is like.
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Episode 57: Fitness Technology Roundtable with Isaac Niebeling, Dustin Ray, and Ian Blackburn
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Get buff, get tough! The Icon Garden Roundtable is back, this time the subject is fitness technology, apps, and more! Special guests Isaac Niebeling, Dustin Ray, and Ian Blackburn sit down to talk smart exercise bikes, fitness games, how social media and apps work into our fitness routines, and more.
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Episode 56: Keeping Vintage Macs Alive with Steve AKA Mac84
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Special guest Steve, AKA Mac84, joins Dan and Jake to talk all things retro. Ever wanted to restore an old Mac but didn’t know where to start? How about collecting old Apple clones? We’ve got all your favorite flea market and eBay finds right here. Listen for some nostalgia and commiseration!
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Episode 55: The 2021 Inaugural Tech-Tacular
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Ring in the new year with Dan and Jake! Now that the new year is in session, it’s time for a holiday review. What did we give (and get) for the holidays this year? How are Jake’s AirPods Max holding up—and what’s this about a great, inexpensive third party case from an unexpected source? And how painful can it be to construct holiday gifts for children? All these and more as we start off 2021 right. Plus, Jake tries to install a smart shower. Listen in to find out how it went!
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Macinography 17: The Print Shop
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Making your own holiday cards was a tedious affair. What if your home computer made it easy to design attractive custom cards? You’d make one for everybody—even Uncle Frank. Aldus and Adobe might have led the charge, but Broderbund Software was just as critical to introducing desktop publishing to the masses. But there’s more to this app than banners—it starred in a titanic legal battle to determine the future of software copyright.
info_outlineToday, every laptop in the world comes equipped with a touchpad. But it wasn’t always that way. What came before the trackpad? What did it have to beat to be number one? And who had one first? We touch on these complicated questions on this installment of Macinography.
Sources / Notes:
- CHM Oral History - David Levy
- CHM Oral History - George Gerpheide
- CHM Oral History - Arthur Porter
- CHM Oral History - Ted Selker
- CHM Oral History - Federico Faggin
- CHM Oral History - Robert Miller
- CHM Oral History -Neil Hancock
- CHM Oral History - Rainer Mellebrain
- The first rolling-ball mouse · e-basteln
- Briton: ‘I invented the computer mouse 20 years before the Americans’ - Telegraph
- Oral-History:Ralph Benjamin - Engineering and Technology History Wiki
- Doug’s 1968 Demo - Doug Engelbart Institute
- PC Mag - Google Books
- Interview with David Thornburg
- Macworld July 1994
- Macuser July 1994, September 1994
- InfoWorld November 7, 1994
- Microsoft Buxton Collection
Contact Us You can find Dan on twitter @kefkafloyd and Jake on twitter @jakepugh. We’re available on your podcast platform of choice, and if you like us, a five star rating or review would be greatly appreciated. You can visit our website at icongardenshow.com or post in the Ars thread by going to bit.ly/tigsthread. Some interstitial music used in this episode is courtesy of the Youtube Audio Library and it was composed by Jeremy Blake. Thanks for listening, and we’ll catch you next time.