Enjoy the new episode! Alfred and I will talk more TAM tonight on his webcast (at 9:30 PM CST). See you there! ua-cam.com/users/adiblasi Also, special thanks to Soundcore for making this episode possible! 🎧
No. Not at all. My friend, Al, emailed Steve Woz, and apparently Wozniak liked the TAM, at least. Here's a snippet of Al readying Woz's email response (from yesterday's webcast). ua-cam.com/video/XZA7vP6eCfo/v-deo.html
You have to remember that back when a 27 inch TV was the biggest TV most homes had a 13 inch TV wasn't an uncommon size for a kid to have. I used to watch TV all the time on a 13 inch TV growing up, and watching on the 25 inch in the living room was a TREAT. I recently watched something with my daughter on a 32 inch TV in a hotel room and I swear to god it hurt my eyes to look at such a tiny screen from 15 feet away.
That botched TAM introduction is probably responsible for the style and tone of all of Apple’s future keynotes. Jobs probably tore everyone involved a new asshole and made DAMN sure future keynotes would run flawlessly.
I remember reading about Jobs saying something like "The TAM was everything wrong with Apple" but I dunno, it seems like the kind of computer he would like, fits in line with the original Mac vision. An appliance for the home. Cute, blends in, gets out of the way, nice.
@@PuffyRainbowCloud Yup. Rumor has it once he got back in the company via the NeXT acquisition (which he was probably also not that happy about) he sold a bucketload of Apple shares which managed to get executives knickers in a twist. Gill Amelio was asked to resign and look who became the new CEO... Kinda feel bad for Gill, he was competent, Apple would have been fucked without him, but it had to happen I suppose.
@@negirno Honestly both probably would have been hits if it weren't for the pricetags. The TAM has an excuse being a limited run machine, the Cube was just plain overpriced. Took them until the Mac Mini to learn their lesson, but hey better late than never
Come on, just look at the TAM - you can see immediately why Jobs didn't like it. In fact I was surprised to find that Jony Ive had a lot of design input. It looks fussy and odd.
@@rGunti I actually have owned some Soundcore Q20's (over-ears) and I only have two beefs with them. 1. They are made all out of plastic and it feels cheap 2. micro-USB I've never used Raycons, but at least I know they are definetly way worse. I've convinced some of my friends to get a pair of the Q20's. They are pretty good.
"Anker Soundcore Liberty": Cool, I have a pair! "Anker Soundcore Liberty Air": Alright, it makes matinence on the Liberty a bit confusing, but... "Anker Soundcore Liberty Air Two Pro": a lot of words
Back in 1998 when we had to setup one of those in our little Apple Shop in Basel, Switzerland, we were of course testing the audio capabilities. Bose even threw a reference test audio cd in the box. And the result was literally earth shaking. Our 6m by 2.5m store window vibrating dangerously and feedback by out neighbours meant it could be heard through half the block. Track 5 (“Friends” by the Thom Rotella Band, ua-cam.com/video/_WaAnrlzfLk/v-deo.html ) to this day is in my playlist to test devices.
I worked at Apple for 13 years, and back in the early 00's the TAM was still being supported because of how "special" it was. They could only be serviced by being sent in to Apple's corporate service dept for repair and they came in often. They were a b*tch to repair because the parts became rare. One particular customer moaned about it all the time, but despite being offered a Brand new iMac that would smoke the stock TAM he refused because it was so "special". That thing spent more time in repair than with him. Honestly that what mainly made me particularly interested to watch this video, but outside of the owning by "The Demo Gods", I found it curious that no other mention was made about the notorious issues the TAM became known for.
@@theapplenerd1387 The 2016-2019 MacBooks running Mojave and Catalina can have the startup chime with a simple terminal command to change the NVRAM default setting from off to on. Big Sur makes it easier with a checkbox in System Preferences.
its basically function over form, sure the current macs look really nice, but how often do you hear about aggressive thermal throttling and heat issues. *obviously with M1 this irrelevant now
I can’t believe Alfred was brought up in this video. I’ve been a friend and longtime viewer of Alfred for well over 10 years! Absolutely amazing! I was in his Ustream when he unboxed the TAM! It’s sad that the TAM died faster than my friend’s marriage. It was an FF-Class failure! It was whatevah! All Alfred jokes aside I loved this video! Great work!
The have a lot of nostalgia value because a generation that had them more readily available has emerged, and they're rare because computers are a throw-away type of tech where once you upgrade it there's no reason to keep the old model. It's like how weird cars you wouldn't have thought possible are becoming valuable
I own a Mac 20. One time a person told me that if I got him one he would give me a Mac Pro Xeon. It was a hunt for a couple of years, but I actually found two in Mexico and kept one... and they gave me a Mac Pro Xeon.
I purchased a TAM off eBay back around 2011. Mine has the infamous "buzzing" issue because the base unit is acting up. I ended up opening up the base unit and disabling the amplifier and I use external speakers that are hidden so it seems like it's still working properly. Mine also came with the 400MHz Sonnet G3 upgrade card. I've tried putting Mac OS X on it, but haven't had any luck. I put a flash to IDE adapter in and put in a 2GB flash card. I'm dual booting Mac OS 7 and 9 on it. It's a really neat piece of history, but it's certainly not the most reliable (or sturdy, the plastic on the base unit is chipping off) computer ever made.
Have always loved the TAM, so this video was dear to my heart. However, for your next video you should highlight together both a 5400/5500 and a TAM because internally for the most part, they are the same computer. Currently, I own an All-in-One 5500 (with its built-in Sony 15 CRT) and along with the TAM they each use the same internal Apple video card (which shipped with video editing software), internal Apple TV/FM card (with a FM antenna and the black remote control), internal Ethernet card, internal PCI expansion slot, and they both use the same G3 upgrade processor card.
Always found this Mac interesting even if it was pretty silly. I seem to remember the price included someone coming to your house to unpack and set it all up for you. Looking forward to watching your video.
I bought one, still in the box, from an Apple Shop that was going out of business. I bought it, along with a Sonnet G3 500Mhz upgrade card, for $1200. They didn’t even know they had it until I dug it out of their storage basement. I still own it, though I used to use it as a stereo as it’s sound was fantastic, though after I bought a used Bang & Olufsen BeoSound 3200, along with a pair of BeoLab 8000 speakers that I still use today thanks to Bluetooth, it quickly gained dust and now resides on a shelf in my office, next to my PowerBook 100 and transparent 2400c, also with a G3 upgrade card.
2:16 That thing is awesome. I have a Sony LCD monitor that looks just like that, with the curved back. Half of the TAM protos remind me of videophones, very telling of the era I suppose
After many years I've been able to purchase one for my collection in very good shape thanksfully. It's a very nice piece and design I must admit. Sound is great, speed is very good even considering the old hard drive inside. I've been able to run old softwares and games that I always wanted to run. No regret for this purchase !
I remember watching Alfred's unboxing of this more than a decade ago. Before that video I had never even heard of this product. Its definitely a fascinating piece of design. The lamp design iteration definitely seemed to be of inspiration to the iMac g4.
The silver one looks even better. This computer is gorgeous. It was just way too expensive and ahead of its time. A lot like the G4 Cube I really want to see a video where you install OS X
Seinfeld had one of these as Jerry's prop computer *FOR ONE SEASON*. Can you imagine somebody in the props department going out and buying a $7500 object to put in a corner of the stage, and then discard after 9 months of filming? Must've been an interesting meeting where they decided to do that one...
It was probably given by Apple to the studio specifically for use in the film. Since it was a prototype, there was probably an Apple rep on the set, and as soon as it was no longer needed for filming, it went back with the rep to Apple, so the prop department probably had little to nothing to do with the care of it. Also, for a sequel, one-shot props like this don't need to be consistent from film to film. It's also reasonable to think that Wayne Manor would be outfitted with the latest desktop computers, so by the time a 5th batman movie (in the original film series) would have come out, either Apple no longer worked with Warner Bros, or they had a new model to show, and Alfred's computer would be a newer one.
Thanks for the great video Ken! I've always seen it in the background, and am so glad to finally get the story on it. I'm a pretty big B&O fan, and I did see quite a few similarities of B&O design in that design. I'm a little surprised they went with Bose for the speaker system.
for fm radio, you could just stuff some copper wire around and out of the coax, you could also just use a coax. Or, What I had done in similar cases, take a coax plug it in, run it to the location I need, take copper wire trick, other end of wire around the bottom hook on an FM antenna, boom, antenna.
Back in the days, when you bought one, the had it delivered in a limo and the Chauffeur would bring it into you home and unbox and install it for you. I believe it was an addon on top of the $7500 I think it was 10k in total. Wasn't me it didn't happen. I owned one got it for $1000 CAD and upgraded to a Sonnet G3 250 maxed out ram and internal drive, later replaced the driver with a 128GB SD2SCSI. Fixed the Bose audio issue, a prone flaw with these TAMs. Last I ran OS9forever then installed OSX 10.2.8 It gave me alots enjoyment but also had a lot of other macs to play with .Sadly I sold it 5 years ago to someone in my neighbour who bought it for his dad who had Terminal Cancer..... Well can't say no to a dying man's last wishes. I maybe will try to buy another if I have the time and space, its not about the money, its do I have time to play with my other tech stuff...... Concerige service ;) web.archive.org/web/19980123171313/www.twentiethanniversary.apple.com/usa-c.html
i just found your channel and i already love it. Your presentation, your tone (very important for me. some people try too hard and sound like an annoying amateur news anchor) and most importantly your content. Just Subbed looking forward to going through your back log.
Hadn’t thought about his stuff in years! Well, actually I tell a lie, I was just telling a friend about the Apple Lisa demo from back in the day he did where he explained scroll bars (to the uninitiated) as “elevators”. But I didn’t remember his name!
Well, I guess you can do ANYTHING "in theory"... ;-) Even "float upstream, modify a constant and win an argument with IRS" (OK, maybe that "winning the argument" is a bit far-fetched proposal...). On a more serious note - yes, at least IN THEORY - that is, as long as you could get (or build) a G4 CPU containing board (with all the necessary "interface" chipsets) that could be plugged into the L2 Cache slot. But then probably the limiting factor would be machine bus speed, or its RAM speed and/or total amount of RAM you could install. Y'see, you can make an old car, with its chassis, suspension, gearbox and so on, only so much faster by installing a new and more powerful engine in it. For some reasons Apple machines with 603e PPC (some of them, at least) had L2C made as a "plug-in" boards. Sonnet Tech took advantage of it and created a G3 upgrade card that fitted in this L2C slot, with its own "piggybacked" G3 CPU. That was the only way to do an upgrade, as the original 603e CPU was SOLDERED onto the MB. Fitting the newer CPU on L2C effectively meant "cutting off" the original CPU from the picture, as the "CPU workload"never reached it (L2C is "the first gate of call" for the OS, so to speak) - and thus all data stayed within L2C cache, from where they were send, if needed, to that "piggybacked" G3 CPU fitted on that upgrade card. The other Mac that had its 603e CPU soldered to the MB, and its L2C on a card in a slot was... a rather pathetic Performa 6400 (mine was 200MHz CPU/ 16 MB RAM/ 2 GB HDD; with keyboard, mouse and a 15" CRT monitor included), which happened to be my first computer (in my mid-thirties). Needless to say, I've upgraded the RAM right away, initially to 32 megs, but then 64, and in a year or two I went the whole hog, all the way upto 128 MB!). HDD upgrade was done shortly after first RAM upgrade (a whopping 6 GB ATA HDD), and then I purchased G3 upgrade card almost as soon as they were available. And they weren't cheap, but still worth every penny (or "cent") spent on them. But I digress here... Anyway, that upgrade card here looks to me like a tad newer version (although its speed is just the same - 300 MHz; AFAIR there were two options - 250 MHz and 30MHz), as it has a significantly bigger radiator compared to the card I bought back then. That smaller radiator size, combined with a poor air circulation in Performa's box (especially where L2C was located), led to G3 CPU heating up a bit, so I had to install a tiny CPU fan (ripped off some old PC) on the top of it (the radiator, that is). I guess I wasn't the only person experiencing this issue, so Sonnet probbably revised the design of the radiator, but to be 100% sure I'd have to go to my garage, find and dig out that Performa "pieces" and take a good look - but, unfortunately, I don't feel like doing it right now. But as soon as I'll finally get around to that project of rebuilding my Performa in a beautiful mahogany wooden case (complete with brass knobs and buttons, steampunk style - I have to admit that original case was a pure detest at a first sight) I'll let you (and everybody else) know. Don't hold your breath, though - it's been already twenty years since the project inception, and it's still in a "general concept" stage...
I love these TAMs but only because my favorite Mac was the PowerPC 6500/275 603e which had most of the same entertainment features, TV tuner, radio, remote, bass boosted speakers.cable-in. I bought one of those Sonnet Crescendo G3/350 when it was introduced for i believe $300 . gave me several more years of use.
Now but it and put modern guts in. Some printing and fabrication to make paneling for modern ports will be needed, but the TAM has a damned good look to it.
I'm a Windows guy, I don't think I'll ever be by in a modern-day Mac anytime soon especially with how expensive they are. But I want this very specific McIntosh just to put it in a display case and preservatives piece of computer and Technology history. All the features and components that we consider basic in a computer today, was basically revolutionary back then. And holy shit that price.
I have one complete with original boxes, ran a website for the TAM for a number of years. for what it is, they put way more into than they ever got out, which wasn't a good thing for apple but it leaves a very interesting one off relic. Mine has a sonnet g3 400mhz upgrade with OS 9.1. I have the AppleDesign book that has the TAM in it, pretty rare and an extra Bose subwoofer. has the most unique start up chime.
The Sonnet cards aren't compatible with OSX. You can get OSX running on the Gazelle architecture but given the ram limit of 128MB and the lack of G3 support, good luck. I've tried to get it operational with my 5500 before with no success but there have been others who got it working.
To me it’s still the most beautiful computer ever made. It has a very curious mix of very 90s modernism yet timelessness to it. I would totally still use one as a our house’s main music player.
I have two of these -- My 1st is a Euro version (no real diff except the TV out) bought from a Norwegian seller while I was living in England in 2011 - It has one original box & all accessories (remote, pen/pencil in leather case, original CDs & leather case, the manuals etc) . I lucked out & seller was a TAM collector & had a Sonnet G3 400 MHz upgrade he sold & a USB expansion card. My 2nd is an eBay purchase US spec model. It didn't have TAM keyboard but other than some splashes of paint on the power supply, the system was fine. Later I found a TAM keyboard on eBay -- seller had no idea what it was!
4:50 The convex bulges on the front panels under the screen really ruin the look of the commercially released TAM. The Spartacus prototype 4:44 doesn't have a flawless appearance either but it looks so much nicer for the lack of the final TAM's strange little pot belly. It seems certain that someone in Apple's industrial-design hierarchy demanded revisions to make the TAM match the Macintosh line's official "design language" of the time, as seen for example on the G3 PowerBooks en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_G3 . Unfortunately whatever you think of that PowerBook the convex curves really didn't work on the front of the TAM.
One the ultimate apple flexes ;-) I saw one in Harrods in the UK (a very upmarket department store) in the 90’s and was amazed by it and still lust after one! Good find Ken and thanks for the video too!
You should be able to run a wire from the center of the female connection of the radio port, out, and it should give you a radio signal, if done right. Maybe not as good, but you should be able to get some stations. I would research before doing this, but should work.
I remember when we got macs at college in the 80's , I was on a computer programming course. And as a test we were asked to write our own version of a user manual.
Would see this model set up in electronic shops in Tokyo when I was living there. Always took my breath away and made me feel I was looking at the future....
Never thought of the stand of this mac as something you can more thoughtfully use to carry your gamecube. Although the GameCube's handle actually makes more sense for its size. This unit wasn't as weird to me as the swing arm desk lamp mac (the one you call the sunflower mac for some reason).
Many of the TAMs suffered from a buzzing power supply/bass module unit. Unfortunate when they really pushed the sound system made by Bose. If looking for a used TAM, gotta make sure it doesn't have one of those buzzing power supplies. The analog TV tuner is obsolete today, but back in the late 90s, it was cool that it included both an FM tuner and TV tuner. The TAM was an overpriced mess, until Jobs had a clearing house special at $1,999. I believe it was also the 'house computer' on MTVs The Real World Seattle. If I recall, the UI of the prototype TAM in the Batman movie was the 'Hi-Tech' theme that was supposed to be part of the failed Copeland operating system, before Mac OS 8 was released with only the Platinum theme.
"Subwoofer unit" xD Yeah right... "Bass module" or just "Woofer" is more correct. A subwoofer must be able to go ATLEAST beneeth 30Hz to legit be a real subwoofer. But this is often ignored in marketing. I hate false marketing like that :P
@@hillstones Yes, I do since there is so much false marketing. It's annoying. What would make me feel better is that everyone stopped with the false marketing.. I bet you also have something simular you get annoyed about like every human ever...
I bought the first Liberty Sir in black Friday and they're good, Anker usually makes good inexpensive sound products. IDK, is just you don't see many people talking about them... BTW I really love that reveal in that Apple conference Jobs really wanted to punch someone in the gut and Wozniak better started laughing his ass off, he was just having a blast.
Back in the day Apple made the TAM more as a side proj - it was never supposed to be a mass consumer product. And it was ridiculously expensive back then. But when it first came out it was a show-stopper.
Enjoy the new episode! Alfred and I will talk more TAM tonight on his webcast (at 9:30 PM CST). See you there! ua-cam.com/users/adiblasi
Also, special thanks to Soundcore for making this episode possible! 🎧
My laptop is SUPER OLD It is from 2009 and it runs like a minus 999999999 degrees knife through metal yes I am very serious
My laptop is from 2013
My laptop is a school laptop 😂😂 It has a whopping core i3 with 4 gigs of RAM!
Cool!
@@zachspiegel1577 mine too but is not a school pc
"They surprised Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs"
That does not sound like a good idea...
No. Not at all. My friend, Al, emailed Steve Woz, and apparently Wozniak liked the TAM, at least. Here's a snippet of Al readying Woz's email response (from yesterday's webcast). ua-cam.com/video/XZA7vP6eCfo/v-deo.html
@@ComputerClan well Woz liked everything that Jobs hated. So... Take that as you will.
It’s funny to think about the brief period Jobs was back at Apple but not CEO
@@MaxOakland I suppose it can be, depending on how you look at it. But he was also at Apple for 9 years prior, and he wasn't CEO.
CORRECTION: here's the proper time stamp. Same video, different time stamp. ua-cam.com/video/XZA7vP6eCfo/v-deo.html
You have to remember that back when a 27 inch TV was the biggest TV most homes had a 13 inch TV wasn't an uncommon size for a kid to have. I used to watch TV all the time on a 13 inch TV growing up, and watching on the 25 inch in the living room was a TREAT.
I recently watched something with my daughter on a 32 inch TV in a hotel room and I swear to god it hurt my eyes to look at such a tiny screen from 15 feet away.
Couldn't have said it better myself, lol. We got a 40" in our living room and I feel like its a toy as well, lol!
That botched TAM introduction is probably responsible for the style and tone of all of Apple’s future keynotes. Jobs probably tore everyone involved a new asshole and made DAMN sure future keynotes would run flawlessly.
......... Oh ok......
I remember reading about Jobs saying something like "The TAM was everything wrong with Apple" but I dunno, it seems like the kind of computer he would like, fits in line with the original Mac vision. An appliance for the home. Cute, blends in, gets out of the way, nice.
Honestly, he was probably just salty about the whole thing. Fired from his own company and all that.
@@PuffyRainbowCloud Yup. Rumor has it once he got back in the company via the NeXT acquisition (which he was probably also not that happy about) he sold a bucketload of Apple shares which managed to get executives knickers in a twist. Gill Amelio was asked to resign and look who became the new CEO... Kinda feel bad for Gill, he was competent, Apple would have been fucked without him, but it had to happen I suppose.
Ironically, some years later, he came out with his own unconventional Mac design, the G4 Cube and it was also a failure.
@@negirno Honestly both probably would have been hits if it weren't for the pricetags. The TAM has an excuse being a limited run machine, the Cube was just plain overpriced. Took them until the Mac Mini to learn their lesson, but hey better late than never
Come on, just look at the TAM - you can see immediately why Jobs didn't like it. In fact I was surprised to find that Jony Ive had a lot of design input. It looks fussy and odd.
How Ken was able to get ahold of one of these blows my mind. He has enterally earned my respect for owning one of these absolutely beautiful machines.
Ah, yes. The Anker Soundcore Liberty Air Two Pro. That was six words for the name of a pair of earbuds.
Trust me, it took me about 15 takes to say the name on the camera...... it'll be in the blooper reel. : p
At least its something else than Raycon ;)
@@rGunti I actually have owned some Soundcore Q20's (over-ears) and I only have two beefs with them.
1. They are made all out of plastic and it feels cheap
2. micro-USB
I've never used Raycons, but at least I know they are definetly way worse. I've convinced some of my friends to get a pair of the Q20's. They are pretty good.
"Anker Soundcore Liberty": Cool, I have a pair!
"Anker Soundcore Liberty Air": Alright, it makes matinence on the Liberty a bit confusing, but...
"Anker Soundcore Liberty Air Two Pro": a lot of words
@@UHDbits I have a SC Life Q20. It's not an *amazing* pair of ANC OE monitors, but for the money, it's excellent.
Back in 1998 when we had to setup one of those in our little Apple Shop in Basel, Switzerland, we were of course testing the audio capabilities. Bose even threw a reference test audio cd in the box. And the result was literally earth shaking. Our 6m by 2.5m store window vibrating dangerously and feedback by out neighbours meant it could be heard through half the block. Track 5 (“Friends” by the Thom Rotella Band, ua-cam.com/video/_WaAnrlzfLk/v-deo.html ) to this day is in my playlist to test devices.
That's amazing.
I worked at Apple for 13 years, and back in the early 00's the TAM was still being supported because of how "special" it was. They could only be serviced by being sent in to Apple's corporate service dept for repair and they came in often. They were a b*tch to repair because the parts became rare. One particular customer moaned about it all the time, but despite being offered a Brand new iMac that would smoke the stock TAM he refused because it was so "special". That thing spent more time in repair than with him. Honestly that what mainly made me particularly interested to watch this video, but outside of the owning by "The Demo Gods", I found it curious that no other mention was made about the notorious issues the TAM became known for.
So more of a CRAP than a Mac
This Mac is so special that it needs a special startup sound, so Apple.
They just need to update the T0.2 Chip
If you upgrade to macOS big sur, then you get the startup sound back
@@theapplenerd1387 The 2016-2019 MacBooks running Mojave and Catalina can have the startup chime with a simple terminal command to change the NVRAM default setting from off to on. Big Sur makes it easier with a checkbox in System Preferences.
@@hillstones, Mojave cannot do it, terminal method is catalina - only
@@theapplenerd1387 if you read his entire comment you would see he said that
In the 90s, computers were boxes for the most part, and even Macs were boxes for the most part...
2021: “Yep, still boxes....”
Yup the Powermac 6100 was a Pizza (Box)
Pizza i as….
Imac g3 was a gumdrop
its basically function over form, sure the current macs look really nice, but how often do you hear about aggressive thermal throttling and heat issues.
*obviously with M1 this irrelevant now
imac was not a box
I was just wondering when the episode would be about this. Because I remembered that he bought this Macintosh at the same market as the NeXT cube.
Yep! And I'd love to do a retrospective of the NeXTcube someday, too. : )
@@ComputerClan we all got.our wish for that one
This makes me want to see a 50th Anniversary Mac in five years.
Already? Good god... saw one of the first Lisas ever made... and I remember that like was yesterday.
@@marcdraco2189never give away details that date you that much😂
@@brainwithani5693 not that I’d admit to my days with pre-Zx80 Sinclair designs … because that would make me old. 😜
Pre-ZX80? Like, the Executive and their other calculators?@@marcdraco2189
I’ve been a PC guy my whole life (gaming was just easier), so it’s wicked cool to see all this crazy apple stuff I never knew existed back then.
And
Imagine if Apple did this today. An Apple Silicon iMac G4 like computer with a touchscreen display that runs macOS alongside iPad apps.
Is that a joke, dude?
2:30 Daniel Day Lewis was fantastic in "There Will Be Blood!"
who knew he was great at product design? 😄
The startup sound is legendary.
I wish they made a reissue.
40th anniversary Mac in 2027?
@@flp322 hehe
@@flp322 no, it would be 50th anniversary.
Hey, this year would be a perfect time to release a reissue to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the 20th anniversary Macintosh.
@@flp322 ehhh i know you sent this a year ago, but it's more like "50th anniversary Mac in 2026?"
I can’t believe Alfred was brought up in this video. I’ve been a friend and longtime viewer of Alfred for well over 10 years! Absolutely amazing! I was in his Ustream when he unboxed the TAM! It’s sad that the TAM died faster than my friend’s marriage. It was an FF-Class failure! It was whatevah! All Alfred jokes aside I loved this video! Great work!
Its actually unbelivable how much some old computers are worth. The price is just going up. That's crazy!
The have a lot of nostalgia value because a generation that had them more readily available has emerged, and they're rare because computers are a throw-away type of tech where once you upgrade it there's no reason to keep the old model.
It's like how weird cars you wouldn't have thought possible are becoming valuable
I own a Mac 20. One time a person told me that if I got him one he would give me a Mac Pro Xeon. It was a hunt for a couple of years, but I actually found two in Mexico and kept one... and they gave me a Mac Pro Xeon.
I purchased a TAM off eBay back around 2011. Mine has the infamous "buzzing" issue because the base unit is acting up. I ended up opening up the base unit and disabling the amplifier and I use external speakers that are hidden so it seems like it's still working properly. Mine also came with the 400MHz Sonnet G3 upgrade card. I've tried putting Mac OS X on it, but haven't had any luck. I put a flash to IDE adapter in and put in a 2GB flash card. I'm dual booting Mac OS 7 and 9 on it. It's a really neat piece of history, but it's certainly not the most reliable (or sturdy, the plastic on the base unit is chipping off) computer ever made.
this mate spent more money in old hardware than i ever spent in new hardware
I used to work on these as an apple tech back in the day. Its based off the 6500 laptop and you could also switch out the main board for a G3 one.
It’s the Mac TV 2.0! Now we can all enjoy the latest episodes of The Flying Toasters Show with Bose audio!
That Dwight Schrute laugh at 6:00 :D Very funny. Excellent video
Thank you : D
Have always loved the TAM, so this video was dear to my heart. However, for your next video you should highlight together both a 5400/5500 and a TAM because internally for the most part, they are the same computer. Currently, I own an All-in-One 5500 (with its built-in Sony 15 CRT) and along with the TAM they each use the same internal Apple video card (which shipped with video editing software), internal Apple TV/FM card (with a FM antenna and the black remote control), internal Ethernet card, internal PCI expansion slot, and they both use the same G3 upgrade processor card.
Always found this Mac interesting even if it was pretty silly. I seem to remember the price included someone coming to your house to unpack and set it all up for you. Looking forward to watching your video.
I bought one, still in the box, from an Apple Shop that was going out of business. I bought it, along with a Sonnet G3 500Mhz upgrade card, for $1200. They didn’t even know they had it until I dug it out of their storage basement. I still own it, though I used to use it as a stereo as it’s sound was fantastic, though after I bought a used Bang & Olufsen BeoSound 3200, along with a pair of BeoLab 8000 speakers that I still use today thanks to Bluetooth, it quickly gained dust and now resides on a shelf in my office, next to my PowerBook 100 and transparent 2400c, also with a G3 upgrade card.
Wow, I've always loved the TAM but I never knew Daniel Day-Lewis was involved in making it, that's cool
Adjusted for inflation, that would be $12,317.50 today. That's like 2.5 Pro Display XDRs, or like 2 with the stands
Looks like a laptop unfolded and stood straight up. I remember seeing this at Macworld thinking how cool this was.
Always wanted one of these, especially when they first came out. So forward-thinking.
2:16 That thing is awesome. I have a Sony LCD monitor that looks just like that, with the curved back. Half of the TAM protos remind me of videophones, very telling of the era I suppose
I only remember that indian guy presenting the machine and praying to the "demo gods". Steve was not amused.
After many years I've been able to purchase one for my collection in very good shape thanksfully. It's a very nice piece and design I must admit. Sound is great, speed is very good even considering the old hard drive inside. I've been able to run old softwares and games that I always wanted to run. No regret for this purchase !
I remember watching Alfred's unboxing of this more than a decade ago. Before that video I had never even heard of this product. Its definitely a fascinating piece of design. The lamp design iteration definitely seemed to be of inspiration to the iMac g4.
The silver one looks even better. This computer is gorgeous. It was just way too expensive and ahead of its time. A lot like the G4 Cube
I really want to see a video where you install OS X
For the fm tuner it looks like you could just use a coax cable, I used to use when I was testing old receivers
Seinfeld had one of these as Jerry's prop computer *FOR ONE SEASON*. Can you imagine somebody in the props department going out and buying a $7500 object to put in a corner of the stage, and then discard after 9 months of filming? Must've been an interesting meeting where they decided to do that one...
When it comes to the prototype try contacting the prop department of the film studio that produced the movie maybe they held onto it in case of sequal
It was probably given by Apple to the studio specifically for use in the film. Since it was a prototype, there was probably an Apple rep on the set, and as soon as it was no longer needed for filming, it went back with the rep to Apple, so the prop department probably had little to nothing to do with the care of it.
Also, for a sequel, one-shot props like this don't need to be consistent from film to film. It's also reasonable to think that Wayne Manor would be outfitted with the latest desktop computers, so by the time a 5th batman movie (in the original film series) would have come out, either Apple no longer worked with Warner Bros, or they had a new model to show, and Alfred's computer would be a newer one.
Thanks for the great video Ken! I've always seen it in the background, and am so glad to finally get the story on it. I'm a pretty big B&O fan, and I did see quite a few similarities of B&O design in that design. I'm a little surprised they went with Bose for the speaker system.
I remember watching Alfred's TAM unboxing when I was a lot younger, not long after my 7th birthday. How things have changed since then...
Ah yes, the Serial Experiments Lain computer!
You're still using a kid's Navi.
was looking for someone to say it as soon as i saw this recommended to me
Let's get to an actual screen capture before the 90% mark. We want to know if it plays HL at what fps
for fm radio, you could just stuff some copper wire around and out of the coax, you could also just use a coax. Or, What I had done in similar cases, take a coax plug it in, run it to the location I need, take copper wire trick, other end of wire around the bottom hook on an FM antenna, boom, antenna.
That design was just amazing, rarely see old computer with that beautiful design
I’m pretty sure that’s the Mac in the background of Jerry’s apartment in Seinfeld 😄
It is.
The models change throughout the years. 😉
Finally a UA-camr that's sponsored by a good earphone brand
TAM is timeless design. It still looks sharp by today's standard. I think its design is ahead of its time back then.
Back in the days, when you bought one, the had it delivered in a limo and the Chauffeur would bring it into you home and unbox and install it for you. I believe it was an addon on top of the $7500 I think it was 10k in total. Wasn't me it didn't happen. I owned one got it for $1000 CAD and upgraded to a Sonnet G3 250 maxed out ram and internal drive, later replaced the driver with a 128GB SD2SCSI. Fixed the Bose audio issue, a prone flaw with these TAMs. Last I ran OS9forever then installed OSX 10.2.8 It gave me alots enjoyment but also had a lot of other macs to play with .Sadly I sold it 5 years ago to someone in my neighbour who bought it for his dad who had Terminal Cancer..... Well can't say no to a dying man's last wishes. I maybe will try to buy another if I have the time and space, its not about the money, its do I have time to play with my other tech stuff......
Concerige service ;) web.archive.org/web/19980123171313/www.twentiethanniversary.apple.com/usa-c.html
Excellent. I was there. The reveal was a huge schlimazel.
The prototype TAM used to be in The Apple Museum in Prague...before the collection was stolen by the co-owner...
I love the TAM, I remember seeing it as a kid and thinking "Wow! Computers of the future will be so cool!". I still want one.
Little did you know it is cool, Subzero cool to get 5.2 ghz clock speeds gpu and processor. Wait mac can't reach those speeds that was PC.
The fact that you have such a precious piece of technology is so insane.
Was the TAM the first Mac to move the power supply out of the main unit?
i just found your channel and i already love it. Your presentation, your tone (very important for me. some people try too hard and sound like an annoying amateur news anchor) and most importantly your content. Just Subbed looking forward to going through your back log.
That Alfred.tv shout out !
Watched a ton of him back in 2010-2012. He got me into mac stuff!
Hadn’t thought about his stuff in years! Well, actually I tell a lie, I was just telling a friend about the Apple Lisa demo from back in the day he did where he explained scroll bars (to the uninitiated) as “elevators”. But I didn’t remember his name!
Am i the only one overly impressed by the 11:43 transition? lol. That was so good.
Could you, in theory, replace the G3 cpu with a G4 in this model as well??
Well, I guess you can do ANYTHING "in theory"... ;-) Even "float upstream, modify a constant and win an argument with IRS" (OK, maybe that "winning the argument" is a bit far-fetched proposal...).
On a more serious note - yes, at least IN THEORY - that is, as long as you could get (or build) a G4 CPU containing board (with all the necessary "interface" chipsets) that could be plugged into the L2 Cache slot. But then probably the limiting factor would be machine bus speed, or its RAM speed and/or total amount of RAM you could install. Y'see, you can make an old car, with its chassis, suspension, gearbox and so on, only so much faster by installing a new and more powerful engine in it.
For some reasons Apple machines with 603e PPC (some of them, at least) had L2C made as a "plug-in" boards. Sonnet Tech took advantage of it and created a G3 upgrade card that fitted in this L2C slot, with its own "piggybacked" G3 CPU. That was the only way to do an upgrade, as the original 603e CPU was SOLDERED onto the MB. Fitting the newer CPU on L2C effectively meant "cutting off" the original CPU from the picture, as the "CPU workload"never reached it (L2C is "the first gate of call" for the OS, so to speak) - and thus all data stayed within L2C cache, from where they were send, if needed, to that "piggybacked" G3 CPU fitted on that upgrade card.
The other Mac that had its 603e CPU soldered to the MB, and its L2C on a card in a slot was... a rather pathetic Performa 6400 (mine was 200MHz CPU/ 16 MB RAM/ 2 GB HDD; with keyboard, mouse and a 15" CRT monitor included), which happened to be my first computer (in my mid-thirties).
Needless to say, I've upgraded the RAM right away, initially to 32 megs, but then 64, and in a year or two I went the whole hog, all the way upto 128 MB!). HDD upgrade was done shortly after first RAM upgrade (a whopping 6 GB ATA HDD), and then I purchased G3 upgrade card almost as soon as they were available.
And they weren't cheap, but still worth every penny (or "cent") spent on them. But I digress here...
Anyway, that upgrade card here looks to me like a tad newer version (although its speed is just the same - 300 MHz; AFAIR there were two options - 250 MHz and 30MHz), as it has a significantly bigger radiator compared to the card I bought back then.
That smaller radiator size, combined with a poor air circulation in Performa's box (especially where L2C was located), led to G3 CPU heating up a bit, so I had to install a tiny CPU fan (ripped off some old PC) on the top of it (the radiator, that is).
I guess I wasn't the only person experiencing this issue, so Sonnet probbably revised the design of the radiator, but to be 100% sure I'd have to go to my garage, find and dig out that Performa "pieces" and take a good look - but, unfortunately, I don't feel like doing it right now.
But as soon as I'll finally get around to that project of rebuilding my Performa in a beautiful mahogany wooden case (complete with brass knobs and buttons, steampunk style - I have to admit that original case was a pure detest at a first sight) I'll let you (and everybody else) know.
Don't hold your breath, though - it's been already twenty years since the project inception, and it's still in a "general concept" stage...
wait we can comment?
i thought it was after the premiere
I love these TAMs but only because my favorite Mac was the PowerPC 6500/275 603e which had most of the same entertainment features, TV tuner, radio, remote, bass boosted speakers.cable-in. I bought one of those Sonnet Crescendo G3/350 when it was introduced for i believe $300 . gave me several more years of use.
Now but it and put modern guts in. Some printing and fabrication to make paneling for modern ports will be needed, but the TAM has a damned good look to it.
I have never been a huge fan for Apple products, but that TAM is one that I have always loved the look of. I hope to have one eventually.
I'm a Windows guy, I don't think I'll ever be by in a modern-day Mac anytime soon especially with how expensive they are. But I want this very specific McIntosh just to put it in a display case and preservatives piece of computer and Technology history. All the features and components that we consider basic in a computer today, was basically revolutionary back then. And holy shit that price.
Imagine if this is brought back, with updated specs and Higher screen resolution and comes with Mac os Big Sur
I got two of these and they still play audio CDs nicely!
But that Joker smile after “give me a call”. :)) Priceless.
This channel is underrated. You definitely deserve more subscribers considering the quality of your videos and the effort you put into them!
Thank you : )
I have one complete with original boxes, ran a website for the TAM for a number of years. for what it is, they put way more into than they ever got out, which wasn't a good thing for apple but it leaves a very interesting one off relic. Mine has a sonnet g3 400mhz upgrade with OS 9.1. I have the AppleDesign book that has the TAM in it, pretty rare and an extra Bose subwoofer. has the most unique start up chime.
Were the speakers as good as the ones on my old Performa 6400? Those things were *powerful*.
The Sonnet cards aren't compatible with OSX. You can get OSX running on the Gazelle architecture but given the ram limit of 128MB and the lack of G3 support, good luck. I've tried to get it operational with my 5500 before with no success but there have been others who got it working.
To me it’s still the most beautiful computer ever made. It has a very curious mix of very 90s modernism yet timelessness to it. I would totally still use one as a our house’s main music player.
I have two of these -- My 1st is a Euro version (no real diff except the TV out) bought from a Norwegian seller while I was living in England in 2011 - It has one original box & all accessories (remote, pen/pencil in leather case, original CDs & leather case, the manuals etc) . I lucked out & seller was a TAM collector & had a Sonnet G3 400 MHz upgrade he sold & a USB expansion card. My 2nd is an eBay purchase US spec model. It didn't have TAM keyboard but other than some splashes of paint on the power supply, the system was fine. Later I found a TAM keyboard on eBay -- seller had no idea what it was!
The combination power supply/subwoofer should be an accessory for the M-series iMac which could plug into the power supply hole.
I was given one of these, still in the boxes. Searched to see info about it online and that’s how I got here. So…apparently it’s rare…
"i didn't do sacrifice to demo god earlier" lol that was an underrated joke right there.
Earbuds: Exists
Dankpods: Boutta end this mans whole career.
*I swear if this is raycons v2*
whoa hes proliferating throughout the community now
@@Dimondminer11 Eyup. He annihilated Raycons fair n square.
I hope these are actually OKAY and not ass.
I have a couple of years old Anker wireless earbuds (not these though). They're pretty good, but incredibly good for the price (it was like 20€).
@@vurpo7080 Mildly shocked not gonna lie.
I will dodge them either way, mostly for, personal reasons that i would rather not mention.
4:50 The convex bulges on the front panels under the screen really ruin the look of the commercially released TAM. The Spartacus prototype 4:44 doesn't have a flawless appearance either but it looks so much nicer for the lack of the final TAM's strange little pot belly. It seems certain that someone in Apple's industrial-design hierarchy demanded revisions to make the TAM match the Macintosh line's official "design language" of the time, as seen for example on the G3 PowerBooks en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_G3 . Unfortunately whatever you think of that PowerBook the convex curves really didn't work on the front of the TAM.
Nice shoutout to aldiblasj/Alfred.tv. One of the first channels I subscribed to in the old UA-cam days.
Awesome! Same here. He's hosting a show tonight, and I'll be on it, if you wanna join. I appear at 9:30 PM CST (UTC-6).
1:34 whats a club mac?
5:59 that was the best fake laugh was waiting for the 'wait you're serious'
they had some really great visual design thats for sure, some of those concepts are just plain cool looking
One the ultimate apple flexes ;-) I saw one in Harrods in the UK (a very upmarket department store) in the 90’s and was amazed by it and still lust after one! Good find Ken and thanks for the video too!
You should be able to run a wire from the center of the female connection of the radio port, out, and it should give you a radio signal, if done right. Maybe not as good, but you should be able to get some stations. I would research before doing this, but should work.
I remember when we got macs at college in the 80's , I was on a computer programming course. And as a test we were asked to write our own version of a user manual.
Would see this model set up in electronic shops in Tokyo when I was living there. Always took my breath away and made me feel I was looking at the future....
Such an amazing piece of Apple history and a neat computer nonetheless. Awesome video!
Thank you : )
Never thought of the stand of this mac as something you can more thoughtfully use to carry your gamecube. Although the GameCube's handle actually makes more sense for its size.
This unit wasn't as weird to me as the swing arm desk lamp mac (the one you call the sunflower mac for some reason).
The fact that a crappy Superhero movie with the "Bat Credit Card" used a prototype Spartacus TAM unit still looks sweet. (4:41)
Cant wait to see what they'll do for the 40th anniversary. And the 20th anniversary of the iPod this year
Nothing
Many of the TAMs suffered from a buzzing power supply/bass module unit. Unfortunate when they really pushed the sound system made by Bose. If looking for a used TAM, gotta make sure it doesn't have one of those buzzing power supplies. The analog TV tuner is obsolete today, but back in the late 90s, it was cool that it included both an FM tuner and TV tuner. The TAM was an overpriced mess, until Jobs had a clearing house special at $1,999. I believe it was also the 'house computer' on MTVs The Real World Seattle. If I recall, the UI of the prototype TAM in the Batman movie was the 'Hi-Tech' theme that was supposed to be part of the failed Copeland operating system, before Mac OS 8 was released with only the Platinum theme.
"Subwoofer unit" xD Yeah right... "Bass module" or just "Woofer" is more correct. A subwoofer must be able to go ATLEAST beneeth 30Hz to legit be a real subwoofer. But this is often ignored in marketing.
I hate false marketing like that :P
@@Oystein87 That is what you have an issue with? Bass module, does that make you feel better? Sheesh.
@@hillstones Yes, I do since there is so much false marketing.
It's annoying. What would make me feel better is that everyone stopped with the false marketing..
I bet you also have something simular you get annoyed about like every human ever...
Hello Ken, Great show! Do you know where can I buy the G3 CPU upgrade for the TAM? Thanks for any info!
I bought the first Liberty Sir in black Friday and they're good, Anker usually makes good inexpensive sound products. IDK, is just you don't see many people talking about them...
BTW I really love that reveal in that Apple conference Jobs really wanted to punch someone in the gut and Wozniak better started laughing his ass off, he was just having a blast.
What I love about Apple at the time was how creative they were with their designs.
I remember my first computer in 1990. It was a box Macintoch SE 30. Yes it was a box with a B/W 12 inches screen. It costed me a lot.
My favourite computer design is the commodore PET. it's got that timeless early sci-fi look.
When is the mac os X upgrade video coming out? I really enjoyed this one and would be Nice to see more!
Back in the day Apple made the TAM more as a side proj - it was never supposed to be a mass consumer product. And it was ridiculously expensive back then. But when it first came out it was a show-stopper.
I've seen so many of your episodes in the last two weeks that I think I love you already 🤭☺️🙃
I caught the Krazy and now I'm contagious !