
When I was in middle school, I used every opportunity to spend time in my school’s computer lab, which featured Apple II computers. I eventually convinced my parents to buy me an inexpensive Sinclair ZX81 computer, but I always dreamed of owning my own Apple computer, especially after the Macintosh was introduced in 1984. In 1988, after my freshman year of college, I used the money I earned from a summer job to purchase my first Apple computer (a Macintosh Plus), and I’ve been using Apple products ever since. Like many others, I’ve been thinking about my history with Apple products this week because Apple turned 50 on April 1, 2026. Joe Rossignol of MacRumors notes the many ways Apple itself celebrated, including a concert featuring Paul McCartney on Apple’s campus for Apple employees. If you missed the really fun animation that was on Apple’s website on Wednesday, I encourage you to check it out now, thanks to this post from John Gruber of Daring Fireball. That same post from Gruber links to a great “rewind” video shared by Apple CEO Tim Cook. And as Lex Friedman figured out, if you watch the rewind video in reverse, you’ll hear a song that will be familiar to many people who have been paying attention to Apple over the years. It’s been a nice walk down memory lane this week, and Apple’s 50th dominates the news of note from the past week:
- Kalley Huang of the New York Times interviews Chris Espinosa, the only person who has worked at Apple for its entire fifty years.
- Jason Snell of Six Colors wrote an interesting article called Between Jobs about the period of time from 1985 to 1997 when Steve Jobs was not at Apple.
- Speaking of Snell, this week’s episode of the Upgrade podcast was amazing, with Snell sharing numerous stories about Apple’s earliest years.
- I’m really enjoying David Pogue’s new book Apple: The First 50 Years. You can currently get it at a deep discount on Amazon, only $34.09. The hardcover version is great because of all of the great pictures, but I also purchased the Audible version of the book because David Pogue does such a wonderful job reading it.
- D. Griffin Jones of Cult of Mac created a great list of what he calls the most important Apple news stories from each of the last 50 years.
- Ryan D’Agostino, writing at Esquire, discusses Apple’s history and interviews Apple CEO Tim Cook. The most interesting part of the interview is when Cook explains why he spends so much time talking to President Trump.
- Here is a memo that Cook wrote to Apple employees to mark Apple’s 50th, as reprinted by Zac Hall of 9to5Mac. “As extraordinary as it is to reflect on the past fifty years, what excites me most is what comes next.”
- When Apple introduced the iPhone 14 in 2022, which supported communicating with satellites, it worked with Globalstar, a company in Covington, LA (close to New Orleans). Two years later, Apple purchased a 20% interest in Globalstar. This week, Tim Hardwick of MacRumors reported that Amazon is now trying to purchase Globalstar to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink, and becuase of Apple’s 20% ownership, Amazon has to negotiate with Apple as well.
- Jacob Krol of TechRadar discusses Apple’s new AirPods Max 2 and talks about the product with Tim Millet and Eric Treski of Apple.
- Chance Miller of 9to5Mac also reviews the AirPods Max 2.
- A collection of artists called Cosmic Perspective announced this week that it brought a Blackmagic Design URSA Cine Immersive camera to NASA Kennedy Space Center to record the Artemis launch in immersive video. No word yet on when the video will be released, but I look forward to watching that one. NASA: for your next trip, how about taking an URSA Cine Immersive camera to the moon?
- If the Blackmagic camera doesn’t fit into the cargo hold, perhaps the astronauts could just take immersive videos using an iPhone. NASA is now letting astronauts bring a smartphone into space, and Roman Loyola of Macworld reports that there are iPhone 17 Pro devices on Artemis right now.
- Tucker Reals of CBS News reports that Iran announced this week that, in retaliation for President Trump’s actions, Iran will target 18 U.S. technology and finance companies in the Middle East, including Apple.
- Glenn Fleishman of Six Colors notes that if you depend upon the Apple Health app to remind you when to take your medications, be careful when you travel across time zones.
- Rajat Saini of The Mac Observer notes that Season 2 of the Apple TV show Your Friends & Neighbors debuts tonight. My wife and I enjoyed the first season, and I’m looking forward to the second season.
- And finally, Apple showed off some rare items from its archives on its campus in Cupertino, California, this week, and Ben Cohen of the Wall Street Journal shows off many of the items and interviews Apple CEO Tim Cook to discuss them in this great video:





