→ Designed in California

A few days ago, I came across this new podcast from the fine folks at Relay. It’s called “Designed in California,” and it’s reflecting on the first couple of years of Apple. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the company (Or does it?) and for me, it’s kinda fun to follow all those different stories that are popping up this year. This podcast is one of them. Hosted by Myke Hurley and Jason Snell, the show works in seasons and reflects on different aspects of those first couple of years.

The pilot covers how the two Steves met and the seemingly short timeframe that led to the founding of Apple.

The first season (spread across four episodes) explains how they got from their original design to the Apple II.

In the third season, which has not fully dropped yet¹, they got John Siracusa as a domain expert covering the way to the modern Mac OS.

A few notes Link to heading

1. Steve Jobs famously sold his vehicle to get some money to fund their little project. What was probably covered in Walter Isaacson’s biography, but I forgot, was the fact that the vehicle happened to be a VW bus. Being a VW employee, this makes me both sad and kinda proud that we had a part in the founding this company.
2. I didn’t know how bad Copland was. That was way before my time with the platform, so I didn’t really have a chance to see it firsthand. Also, Windows 95 and NT, which I don’t have great memories of, were maybe not as bad as I remember them.
3. Ron Wayne’s story is interesting. He designed the original Apple logo and held 10% of the company. What was once USD 800 would today be around USD 215bn, according to Wikipedia². Not quite the same ballpark, but that reminds me of those people who once bought a bunch of bitcoin to see what it’s all about, only to sell it after a short while.