It happened in the "Seinfeld reunion" episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. The iMac seems to be from the previous generation, not the 16:9 model. Jerry's classic Mac was only replaced once before, during the last season, with an Apple Macintosh 20th Anniversary.

It wasn't the only wink to the Cupertino company during that episode, but it certainly was the most significant sign of time change.

I wonder if Jerry's iMac actually runs Windows (and that sound you heard was the scream of the million Apple fanboys reading these lines). I know. I'm a cruel man. [Macenstein and Edible Apple]

That's according to the man who named it, Ken Segall, who talked to Leander at Cult of Mac. Segall worked at Apple's agency TBWA\Chiat\Day, and not only christened the iMac, but was the man behind Apple's pitch-perfect "Think Different" campaign.

It's ironic that Segall, who knew iMac was the perfect name and pitched it to Jobs over and over after being rejected again and again, thought that the computer itself was stupid: "We were guarded. We were being polite, but we were really thinking, ‘Jesus, do they know what they are doing? It was so radical."

It strikingly highlights the difference between people who create things and the people who sell them: Apple could see they had a brilliant product, but a terrible way to sell it. TBWA saw a terrible product, but had a brilliant way to brand it. Unfortunately, Segall won't actually reveal Jobs' terrible name, fearing it would open the ninth gate of Hell and bring forth the Apocalypse choo-choo.

Steve never actually told Segall he'd accepted iMac—he just started silk-screening it on prototypes to see how it looked.

Check out the full interview over at Cult of Mac, there are way more tidbits, like how Segall came up with "iMac," that definitely make it worth the read. [Cult of Mac]

If your name were Gene Roddenberry, however, that would have been a piece of cake. Still, if you are an Star Trek fan, you may be interested in bidding for this original Macintosh 128 with serial number F4200NUM0001, owned by the sci-fi genius himself. According to that number, it was the 776th Mac 128, manufactured during the 20th week of 1984 in Fremont, California.

It's exactly like the one I have—including the Macintosh team signatures etching inside—except mine was manufactured on the 28th week of 1984.

Profiles in History—who got all their facts wrong in their press release, hopefully not the bit about this being Roddenberry's computer—is going to auction the computer and the extra floppy drive at the beginning of October. It has an estimated sale price of $800 to $1200, which seems quite cheap, knowing who the owner was. [Dvice]

Gizmodo Gallery 2009
Groupe
267 Elizabeth Street
New York, NY 10012

Gallery Dates:
September 23rd-27th

Times:

9/22 Tuesday
Media Day by appointment only. For info please contact gallery@gizmodo.com.

9/23 Wednesday
12-8

9/24 Thursday
12-8

9/25 Friday
12-8

9/26 Saturday
11-8
9-? - Live KCRW Show

9/27 Sunday
11-6

Read more about our Giz Gallery 09 here, follow @gizgallery on Twitter and see what else we'll be playing with at the event. And special thanks to Toyota's Prius — without their sponsorship, there would be no Gizmodo Gallery.

Nice to have as a $20 alternative to the classic exploded Mac 128K. [Exploded Store]

Remember these? The good old Mac SE, the iMac, the smurf/grey G3... I loved all of them. I would go completely bonkerini with any of these today. They would feel awfully slow and crippled. But, somehow, each of them represent a better time in my past. Times of wine and roses, love and happiness, fun and innocence, when the sun chirped, the birds shone, and the water was wet.

Which is precisely why I'm getting this t-shirt. That and because it's cool. [RubyRed via Cult of Mac]

Oh poor you, you sad Macintosh you. You were left to dream the eternal slumber on the streets of the city that never sleeps. Here you you are, all alone, out of your old happy, cozy home, freezing under the cold night, alone, with no purpose or meaning whatsoever. Do you remember the warm light of that desk lamp now? Do you remember her smile? Her fingers caressing your keyboard, pumping words and life and her essence into you? Can you still feel the flower she used to put in a blue vase, right next to you?

Yes. I know you can. And you know all that is gone.

You are alone now, and nobody loves you anymore. All the dreams you helped to fulfill, all the mails that you gave away—the mails that made her cry, laugh, hate, and love—, the pictures and movies with her best memories, the songs that made her dance and smile and shed tears of sadness and happiness and raw uncontrolled emotions... all of that is gone. Forever. Left on a sidewalk for someone to pick. Left on the sidewalk to forget.

You are no more, you little computer you. You that once opened her imagination with the scent of your new plastic made in China—"oh, can I really do this? I guess can!"—, the beauty of your blue translucent case—"isn't it a beauty? It matches my wallpaper!"—, and the bong of that unique start-up sound—"so cute!".

But now... now you are no more, my dear iMac. Your time is gone.

Forever.

There, left alone on a sidewalk of New York, the greatest city of them all. I saw you, dark and rejected, as I came out of a restaurant, and you reminded me... you reminded me of all that and more. For a moment, you became a symbol of times gone by. And for that, I love you so.

Here's a song—David Bowie's best song ever—to remember you by.

In the movie, the computer runs the classic Macintosh System in inverted video mode, white over black. Don't forget to check io9's Watchmen review and coverage, as well as our Steve Jobs conspiracy theory and multiple babblings on the movie.

Update: VERY sorry for the spoilers. Took those out. – JC

The new silly mark was set on a 20-inch 2007 iMac, with a 2.4ghz Core 2 Duo and 4 Gigabytes of RAM. It took about 15 minutes to open all apps, and I guess 15 more minutes to put all the windows in Exposé mode. The reader who sent this says that he "was able to talk on video chat while opening everything, even while the video froze at some times for just a few seconds." One thing he noticed: The dock can't get beyond 100 applications.

And what I still can't get is how people have the patience to collect 200 apps just to run them at once. [Thanks Hawkskater0]

The designs include an homage to Apple's classic 1984 commercial, and two other designs formed using a "word cloud" that lists every Mac ever made. If you want to get in on the deal, it is a good idea to head over to FastMac before everything is gone. [FastMac]

The first Macintosh, now usually called the Macintosh 128k, was an inauspicious beginning for one of the most exciting companies in the industry. It was expensive and underpowered for the time, and its novel mouse-driven interface was unpopular with techies. But the Mac is a survivor, developing and changing through the years, taking the first dip into the water of portability and later making waves with innovative design and remarkable success while other lines have folded or moved on to other ventures.

Back in the day, Steve Jobs was just as much a showman as he's been in the years since. He's half nerd and half P.T. Barnum. Here's the event at which he first unveiled the Macintosh.

Even if you're not a Mac user, and I'm not, the Mac has inarguably helped the industry as a whole. Personal computing wouldn't be where it is without it. So go wild, commenters. Reminisce. And wish the Mac a happy birthday. [AppleInsider]

The production values of this ad, created by Steve Hayden and Lee Clow at advertising agency Chiat/Day—Apple's current ad agency—and directed by Ridley Scott—director of Alien and Blade Runner—, are simply amazing. At the time, the narrative and the cinematography were a complete breakthrough, to the point of TV commentators exclaiming "What the hell was that?" after the commercial cut, which ran during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII, January 22, 1984.

Apple spent 1.5 million on it, even while the board didn't want to run it and Steve Jobs—who obviously believed the ad was genius and was present at the moment of the filming—had to use all his Reality Distortion Field powers alongside John Sculley to get them to approve the spot. Reportedly, Steve Wozniak liked it so much that he offered to pay for it with his own money.

At the end, Steve's vision—as some times, spot on—prevailed and the 1984 commercial became the biggest hit ever in the history of advertising, setting the bar for every Super Bowl commercial since then. With one single emission, it generated millions of dollars in free coverage and re-runs in TV stations through the nation and abroad, and became a historical landmark to advertisers, companies, and public alike.

The fact is that the current nipple in Apple's mighty doesn't work very well. At least two of mine, which lose precision and stop functioning if you don't clean them regularly. A complete buttonless mouse, with a trackpad on the front, would be great. [MacBlogz]

It's true that it may be a little bit too far-fetched to expect a collaboration between Lego and Apple. Or a MacBook with three displays.

The other two, however, are closer to reality than we may think. An Apple dock that is connected to the screen to let you play games using wireless pads? That doesn't sound crazy. It actually sounds great. So does the big iCom, a music player/digital picture frame/holophone that may sound crazy, but it's actually the wet dream of every Apple tablet fanboy. Or at least, mine. [MacLife]

Adobe Creative Suite 4 Now Shipping

Milestone Release Radically Improves Creative Workflow Efficiency; Redefines Collaboration Between Designers and Developers

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Oct. 15, 2008 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the immediate availability of the Adobe® Creative Suite® 4 product family, the highly-anticipated release of industry-leading design and development software for virtually every creative workflow. Delivering radical breakthroughs in workflow efficiency – and packed with hundreds of innovative, time saving features – the new Creative Suite 4 product line advances the creative process across print, Web, interactive, film, video and mobile.

Customers can choose from six new versions: Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium, Design Standard, Web Premium, Web Standard, Production Premium and Master Collection. The combination of Creative Suite and the new capabilities of Adobe Flash® Player 10, also available today (see separate press release) deliver new levels of creativity and expressiveness across media channels. Designers using the Adobe Creative Suite 4 product family will gain unprecedented creative control using the new expressive features and visual performance improvements in Adobe Flash Player 10 to deliver breakthrough Web experiences across multiple browsers and operating systems.

“Creative Suite 4 and Flash Player 10 introduce vital time-saving features, new levels of integration and the jaw-dropping innovations our design and developer customers expect from us,” said John Loiacono, senior vice president, Creative Solutions Business Unit at Adobe.

“CS4 continues to fulfill our promise to customers to break down more barriers in cross-media workflows, while also providing new services and collaboration tools that help them manage complex client demands.”

As part of the CS4 product launch, the largest in Adobe’s history, also available today are brand new versions of Photoshop® CS4, Photoshop CS4 Extended, InDesign® CS4, Illustrator® CS4, Flash CS4 Professional, Dreamweaver® CS4, Fireworks® CS4, Contribute® CS4, After Effects® CS4, Adobe Premiere® Pro CS4, Encore® CS4, Soundbooth® CS4 and Adobe OnLocation™ CS4.

Intuitive Workflows Improve Creative Efficiency

A simplified workflow in Adobe Creative Suite 4 enables users to design across media more efficiently by making it easier to complete common tasks and move content seamlessly among applications. InDesign CS4 includes a new Live Preflight tool that allows designers to catch production errors and a newly customizable Links panel to manage placed files more efficiently. The revolutionary new Content-Aware Scaling tool in Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended automatically recomposes an image as it is resized, preserving vital areas as it adapts to new dimensions. An expanded version of Dynamic Link in CS4 Production Premium enables users to move and update content between After Effects CS4, Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, Soundbooth CS4, and Encore CS4 without rendering, saving countless hours in production. With deep XMP metadata support, the production workflow is simplified, resulting in online content that gives viewers new ways to interact with and search for video, while giving content owners new opportunities to track and monetize content.

Adobe Creative Suite 4 brings 3D center-stage providing the ability to paint, composite, and animate 3D models using familiar tools in Photoshop CS4 Extended. Flash CS4 Professional now offers the ability to apply tweens to objects instead of keyframes, providing greater control over animation attributes. Also in Flash CS4 Professional, the new Bones tool helps create more realistic animations between linked objects. With a searchable library of more than 450 dynamically updated device profiles from leading manufacturers, Adobe Device Central CS4 enables users to easily test mobile content designed using many of the Creative Suite 4 products.

New and Expanded Services Extend Capabilities for Online Collaboration

Adobe Creative Suite 4 now also offers a host of services* for online collaboration. Adobe ConnectNow, a service of Acrobat.com, allows real-time collaboration with two colleagues or clients. Designers can also share color harmonies with Adobe Kuler™. Other online resources include: Adobe Community Help for technical questions; Resource Central for accessing video and audio product-related news and tutorials, as well as Soundbooth scores and sound effects; and Adobe Bridge Home, a customizable resource for tips, tutorials, news and inspirational content.

Pricing and Availability

Adobe Creative Suite 4 and its associated point products are immediately available through Adobe Authorized Resellers and the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com/store. Estimated street price for the Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium is US$1799, US$1699 for Adobe Creative Suite 4 Web Premium, US$1699 for Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium, and US$2499 for Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection. To reward customers for staying current, Adobe is offering Creative Suite 3 customers moving to Creative Suite 4 a lower upgrade price than it offers to those moving from older, qualifying versions. For a limited time, a special introductory offer enables customers with older qualifying products to enjoy the same lower price with savings of up to US$200 off their actual upgrade price. For more detailed information please visit www.adobe.com/creativesuite.

Sure, they're masterfully painted, but more interestingly come from a time when Apple, a more innocent underdog, could portray their products as fine art without coming off as arrogant. I'm not saying that this campaign wasn't at least partially born of hubris, but the effect - especially this many years later - is more strange and hilarious than anything else. Details and a full gallery are available here. [MyOldMac via Cult of Mac]

Finally she [Susan Kare] came across a floral symbol that was used in Sweden to indicate an interesting feature or attraction in a campground. She rendered a 16 x 16 bitmap of the little symbol and showed it to the rest of the team, and everybody liked it. Twenty years later, even in OS X, the Macintosh still has a little bit of a Swedish campground in it.

It certainly marks the spot in this case.

I'm back from Lego's headquarters in Denmark, frantically writing features, editing video, and preparing images showing the amazing brick manufacturing process, the Lego cathedrals with billions of pieces in them and giant robots moving them around, the Lego secret vault with every single set ever produced, and many more awesome things. I've to say that I've been blown away and, trust me, it's not just fanboyism. [LEGO in Gizmodo]