Apple Released These Oddly Unique Products in the 1990s

In the aboriginal to mid-1990s, Apple released a wide scope of quirky and unsocial products, ranging from printers and integer cameras to a video crippled console and a PDA with a keyboard. Steve Jobs nixed the immense bulk of these products upon his instrumentality to Apple successful 1997, helping the institution to regain its absorption and debar impending bankruptcy.


Many longtime MacRumors readers are apt already good informed astir Apple's peculiar 1990s era, but for those who started pursuing the institution successful the 2000s, it tin beryllium fascinating to look backmost astatine the products released successful the older days.

Below, we bespeak connected 5 unsocial Apple products from the 1990s, including the QuickTake, Newton eMate 300, Studio Display, StyleWriter, and Pippin. There are of people galore others, ranging from the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh to the Newton MessagePad, but we tried to marque immoderate selections that are possibly a spot much obscure today.

Newton eMate 300

In 1993, Apple released the Newton MessagePad, a idiosyncratic integer adjunct (PDA) that was benignant of similar a precise aboriginal and rudimentary mentation of the modern smartphone. Equipped with a black-and-white, pressure-sensitive interaction screen, and a stylus, the instrumentality offered basal calendar, contact, note-taking, to-do list, and email functionality.

Apple went connected to merchandise a enactment of Newton products, including the eMate 300 successful 1996, an entry-level machine for children to usage successful the classroom. It was the lone Newton instrumentality with a built-in keyboard, and it featured a colorful and durable integrative casing that could withstand the perils of the classroom. It looks a small spot similar the iBook that Apple released a fewer years later, but it ran the Newton operating strategy alternatively of Mac OS.

Priced astatine astir $800, the eMate 300 was equipped with a 6.8-inch black-and-white, pressure-sensitive interaction surface with a solution of 480×320 pixels. Other specs included a 25 MHz ARM processor and a whopping 3 MB of RAM.

Jobs discontinued the full Newton enactment upon his instrumentality successful 1997.

QuickTake

In 1994, Apple released the QuickTake, 1 of the archetypal consumer-oriented integer cameras ever. Apple designed the archetypal QuickTake 100 exemplary successful concern with Kodak. With 1MB of built-in storage, the camera could store up to a whopping 8 photos with a solution of 640×480 pixels. The camera had a built-in flash, but it did not connection manual absorption oregon zoom controls. And portion it featured a tiny LCD surface for basal accusation similar artillery level, it did not supply a unrecorded preview of the viewfinder's image.

Apple went connected to merchandise 2 much QuickTake 150 and QuickTake 200 models, with the second made successful concern with Fujifilm. Some of the QuickTake 200's cardinal upgrades included enactment for higher-resolution photos up to 1024×768 pixels, a 1.8-inch LCD surface with a viewfinder preview, and a removable 2MB retention card.

At the clip the QuickTake was released, it was inactive communal for radical to person photos printed astatine a store, truthful the quality to transportation integer photos to a Mac oregon PC was rather novel, but Apple faced tons of contention from the likes of Canon, Nikon, and Sony, and it was yet a lower-selling merchandise that did not past the Jobs chopping block.

Pippin

Believe it oregon not, Apple erstwhile made a video crippled console.

Apple teamed up with Bandai to merchandise the Pippin, oregon PiPP!N, successful 1996. Priced astatine $599, the PowerPC-based console was intended to beryllium somewhat of a hybrid of a machine and a video crippled console, with its bundle based connected the Macintosh System 7.5.2. Games were loaded into the built-in CD-ROM drive, but the enactment was limited.

Ultimately, the PiPP!N was a flop, arsenic some Sony's PlayStation ($299) and the Nintendo 64 ($199) were little costly and offered a wider room of games.

Another casualty of Jobs' return, the PiPP!N was discontinued by 1998.

Studio Display

You mightiness beryllium reasoning that Apple conscionable released the Studio Display 3 years ago, but it archetypal utilized that sanction for an outer show released backmost successful 1998.

The archetypal Studio Display featured a sleek design, with a 15-inch flat-panel LCD surface and a 4:3 facet ratio. It had a solution of 1024×768 pixels, a acold outcry from the existent model's solution of 5120×2880 pixels. It was priced astatine $1,999.

This is really a merchandise that Apple released soon aft Jobs returned to Apple, and the enactment remained disposable until 2004, erstwhile Apple afloat shifted to its widescreen Cinema Display. In 2011, Apple moved connected to the Thunderbolt Display, which was discontinued successful 2016, earlier releasing the Pro Display XDR successful 2019 and the existent Studio Display successful 2022.

Apple besides released a bulkier CRT mentation of the Studio Display successful 1999.

StyleWriter

Printers are different instrumentality class that Jobs enactment the kibosh connected erstwhile helium returned to Apple. Before then, though, Apple had released a assortment of printer models, including the ImageWriter successful 1982, the LaserWriter successful 1985, and yet the StyleWriter successful 1991.

The archetypal StyleWriter was Apple's archetypal inkjet printer with liquid ink, whereas the ImageWriter was a dot-matrix printer and the LaserWriter was a laser printer.

In the 2000s to aboriginal 2010s, Apple offered a rebate connected third-party printers from brands similar HP, Canon, Epson, and Lexmark with the acquisition of a caller Mac, but it has been astir 30 years since an Apple-branded printer was past connected the market.
This article, "Apple Released These Oddly Unique Products successful the 1990s" archetypal appeared connected MacRumors.com

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