HBD Apple

[thatguy]

Everyone’s favorite fruit company was cheekily founded on April Fools Day 1976. We had Apple ][s at Kennedy Jr high, but I never got interested in them. It was not much of a leap from the terminals and teletypes my dad had in his home office. He was excited about home computers and we got a Commodore 64 pretty early, but beyond a few games, I found it boring. When I started at SJSU, they had Macs in the library that you could sign up for to write papers and print them out on the laser printer. I was a terrible typist, so the undo/redo and copy paste features (as well as all the cool fonts and the high quality print output) were all game changers. I was taking a pascal class at the time and we were using IBM 286’s with DOS and 5.25” floppy disks. A little later, we also had some “super computers” in the art dept. that could do rudimentary 3D. It was a custom OS, and equally terse. All things pointed to macs really being for “the rest of us”. My friend Jerry got a job at Software Etc and bought himself a Mac and would bring home software. I used to go over there and play with MacPaint. Again, really exciting for the time. 

Ever since then, I’ve been in the Mac cult. I’ve had many friends pass thru the fruit factory. I applied multiple times over the years and didn’t make the cut, and so have been Apple adjacent in my career. ComputerWare, Sixty-Eight Thousand/ARRISystems, and Aladdin/Allume/Smith Micro. I finally joined the fold and in July, it will have been 10 years. I don’t know what my life would have been like if there was no Macintosh. 

For whatever faults they have, as a corporation, they at least try do do good things. I hope that continues. 

Thanks Apple. 

—tg

[Greg]

HBD, Fruit Company.

I've always been an Apple Stan. I wrote Pascal Programs on an Apple II at UCSB. My father bought me an Apple Mac 3 months after it was introduced. I think we even went to a hardware demonstration at a local computer store. It had a 128K of RAM on board. I later went to some guy in Palo Alto to swap out the chips and had 512K. I watched while he soldiered them onto the board. It's been downhill ever since. I still have a Mac Plus in the closet that I used while I lived in Daly City at the missing house.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

I’m a Luddite. I like Apple.

[Drunk Monk]

I like my iPhone. Stacy and Tara have Mac products. I used Stacy's Mac for a few years, until I got my chromebook. I'm a PC guy. It's just how I was raised, plus my main axe is MS Word, which has never performed very well on Macs.

[King Bob]

We've been all Apple for a long time. Partly because I use them in academia, and also because Christina is bad with computers and never could get the hang of a PC. And iPhones are so nice, especially since they introduced the cheaper SE model - I can carry all my music in my pocket and the drive still isn't full.

I remember when I was at Santa Clara, they had gotten Macs in the art department. I looked at what people were doing with them, and it was so simplistic and crude that I thought they were idiots. Clearly I had no vision on that one.

[Drunk Monk]

When I worked at svale public library, I was part of a crew that oversaw the media center. We rented out VHS, vinyl and CDs, which were new then and I was the only person on staff that owned a CD player. We also monitored the computers. I was also the only person who knew how to repair vhs cassettes - one of my many obsolete skills like swordsmanship. We had 3 - an apple, a PC and a commodore. There was always a huge queue for the Apple.

When I got to SJSU, I made some pin money making graphs. Psych papers always needed graphs and I could handle letraset. But by my senior year, the psych dept got a few puters for students to rent and that market dried up fast. Making graphs on an apple was so quick, even in the early days.

I get frustrated with macs because I can’t control/alt/delete or get at the code sometimes.

[King Bob]

DM reminds me that the big weakness of Apple is in key shortcuts. I used to notice it a lot in Word and Excel. On a PC you can do a lot of things without taking your hands off the keyboard, but in Apple you have to use the mouse. And there doesn't really seem to be any reason why they couldn't handle the same shortcuts.

DM also reminds me that I love the library. And the San Jose library system is still buying CDs and I check them out often. I have several on request right now.

[thatguy]

Not a birthday thing, but an Apple thing...


https://basicappleguy.com/haberdashery/apple-battersea

Apple has announced an opening date for its latest store, [color=var(--paragraphLinkColor)]Apple Battersea[/color], opening June 15, 2023. The newest store is located on the site of the [color=var(--paragraphLinkColor)]Battersea Power Station[/color], a decommissioned 1930s coal power station that has been reimagined into an office and leisure destination in London. Apple is poised to occupy some of the [color=var(--paragraphLinkColor)]offices[/color] in the station itself, and this store is the latest addition to Apple’s expansion in the UK.

--tg



(from Children of men)

[thatguy]

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/09/a...in-london/

PRESS RELEASE
September 21, 2026
Apple opens Apple Music Hall, a brand‑new state‑of‑the‑art live music venue in London
Artists can perform an intimate live show for fans, record it in Spatial Audio, create a broadcast-ready mix, and capture multicamera video — all directly from the venue


Apple Music Hall, a state-of-the-art live music venue in London’s storied Battersea Power Station, is designed to connect artists and fans through bespoke, intimate performances.
[/url]
LONDON Apple today announced the opening of Apple Music Hall, a brand-new state-of-the-art live music venue in London’s storied Battersea Power Station, designed to connect artists and fans through bespoke, intimate performances unlike anywhere else.

“Apple’s deep love for music dates all the way back to the very beginning, from the launch of the iPod to the long-running iTunes Music Festival to the debut of Apple Music,” said Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and International Content. “Today, with the opening of Apple Music Hall, we are once again taking an unprecedented step further in our commitment to artists and fans by supporting live music in ways only Apple can do.”

• A comfortable foyer with a seating area and a large screen inside Apple Music Hall.
  
• A comfortable foyer with a seating area, a large glass window, and a staircase inside Apple Music Hall.
  
• The exterior of Apple Music Hall inside Battersea Power Station on the River Thames.
  

Taking inspiration from the iconic Battersea Power Station, Apple Music Hall incorporates heritage brickwork, fluted arches, and bronze balconies reminiscent of the historic oriel windows.


Taking inspiration from the iconic Battersea Power Station, Apple Music Hall incorporates heritage brickwork, fluted arches, and bronze balconies reminiscent of the historic oriel windows.


Taking inspiration from the iconic Battersea Power Station, Apple Music Hall incorporates heritage brickwork, fluted arches, and bronze balconies reminiscent of the historic oriel windows.

A Live Music Venue Unlike Any Other
Apple Music Hall will offer artists and music fans alike an exceptional live concert experience alongside the River Thames. Taking inspiration from the iconic Battersea Power Station, the new venue incorporates heritage brickwork, fluted arches, and bronze balconies reminiscent of the historic oriel windows. A giant glass wall further enhances the visual connection with the historic building, offering a panoramic view of the concourse and the river beyond.

The 600-capacity venue is designed intentionally to close the gap between intimacy and production value and allow for an unprecedented level of creative control. Every seat feels close to the performer, yet the infrastructure offers what an artist requires for an arena tour, with a 38-foot-wide stage that can be reconfigured for traditional front-facing sets or more in-the-round experiences. Additionally, the venue is equipped with a 48-speaker spatial sound system positioned all around the audience. When an artist performs in spatial, it will enable fans to hear that performance in an immersive environment.

Behind the stage, Apple Music Hall operates as a full production facility. Two dedicated recording and mix studios are built to professional standards so that every performance can be captured as a multitrack recording and mixed in Spatial Audio, live or after the fact. The venue is also hardwired for 16 or more cameras that feed a purpose-built broadcast control room with infrastructure that supports iPhone video capture running in parallel alongside traditional broadcast cameras.

At Apple Music Hall, artists can perform an intimate live show and walk out with a finished Spatial Audio recording, a broadcast-ready mix, and multicamera video.

In short, an artist can perform an intimate live show for fans at Apple Music Hall and walk out with a finished Spatial Audio recording, a broadcast-ready mix, and multicamera video — all from a single show. Performances out of Apple Music Hall will also be livestreamed globally so fans outside of London can tune in to enjoy these one-time-only shows from their favorite artists.

“At Apple Music, we care deeply about music, the artists who make it, and their life stories,” said Zane Lowe, Apple Music’s global creative director and lead anchor for Apple Music 1. “We’re always looking for new opportunities to connect the artists and the fans because we are fans. What better way to celebrate this relationship than a new music venue where we get to experience amazing music in an amazing space and share it with the world. Great music and memories will be made at Apple Music Hall.”

For more information about Apple Music Hall, including how to access tickets for upcoming shows, fans can visit applemusichall.com or follow @applemusichall on Instagram and TikTok.

Brand-New Apple Music Radio Studios in London
Apple also announced today that all of Apple Music Radio’s London-based hosts and shows will now broadcast live out of Battersea with the opening of its new radio studios.

• A lounge-style space inside Apple Music Radio’s London studios.
  
• A hallway inside Apple Music Radio’s London studios, featuring posters of musicians and a frosted window.
  

Apple Music Radio’s London-based hosts will now broadcast live out of its new studios inside Battersea Power Station.


Apple Music Radio’s London-based hosts will now broadcast live out of its new studios inside Battersea Power Station.

Since its inception, Apple Music Radio has been a defining feature of the service — a place where fans and artists meet in real time. From global premieres and intimate interviews to in-depth specials and surprise performances, Apple Music Radio has distinguished itself through expertly curated, artist-led storytelling that makes listeners feel closer to the music they love. Apple Music Radio streams 24/7 and is available for free around the world.

• A cozy lounge space at Apple Music Radio’s studios in London.
  
• A vanity inside a greenroom at Apple Music Radio’s studios in London.
  

In the new space, hosts will continue to bring intimate interviews, in-depth specials, and surprise performances to fans around the world.
[url=https://www.apple.com/newsroom/images/2026/09/apple-opens-apple-music-hall-a-state-of-the-art-live-music-venue-in-london/article/Apple-Music-Radio-greenroom.zip]

In the new space, hosts will continue to bring intimate interviews, in-depth specials, and surprise performances to fans around the world.

Now I want to go back to London and poke around inside!

--tg