Latest news with #AppleIIe
Newsweek
30-06-2025
- General
- Newsweek
Millennial Finds Dad's 1981 Work Pass—Jaws Drop as She Realizes What It Is
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A woman's touching tribute to her late father—a pioneering early employee at Apple—has gone viral, sparking nostalgia and admiration from Redditors. Ashley Rogers, 40, who lives in the greater Detroit area and posts on Reddit as u/ApolloBollo, shared a photo of her father Barry Robinson's Apple ID card from 1981 in the subreddit r/mildlyinteresting, where it quickly gained traction, racking up 97,000 upvotes. Rogers told Newsweek that she was born in 1984, during the time her father worked for Apple. She explained that her parents met in Charlotte, North Carolina, in February 1981—just one month after the ID photo was taken. "My Momma worked for Apple as an 'area associate'—a receptionist who did it all. My Dad was the first salesman in Florida—the only Florida employee of Apple Computer. He had a lot to do with educational sales—he would visit schools and encourage them to purchase Apple and the corresponding software," she said. Rogers said she was prompted to share the post after her mother, while cleaning out her wallet, found several old ID cards—including the now-viral Apple badge. Her parents' love story began with a bold move: while on a business trip to Charlotte, Barry walked up to Rogers' mother's desk, took a sip from her half-coffee, half-hot-chocolate drink, and smiled. "Momma said he was the absolute most handsome man she had ever met," Rogers said. The office buzzed about "Barry from Florida" all week. "She said he had on a light grey suit and the seams on the sides of his pants overlapped—the girls in the office that day talked about how they hoped the seams hid zippers. Easy access (barf!!)," Rogers quipped. Her mother moved to Boca Raton to be with him in January 1982. Person thumbs through wallet filled with cards. Person thumbs through wallet filled with a child, Rogers misunderstood her dad's job, believing he "sold literal apples" and was also Lionel Richie—thanks to the big hair and mustache resemblance. Their home always had a computer, starting with the Apple IIe, and she recalls playing the game Deja Vu, though never quite grasping its mystery-laden storyline. A gamepad for children's software was also a favorite for her and her brother. Barry Robinson worked for Apple until 1989. During that time, he traveled extensively, attending conferences, meeting Steve Jobs in Hawaii and Robin Williams in Cupertino. "When Apple threw parties—they threw parties, man. It was the 80s in south Florida. Let your imagination go wild," Rogers recalled. Celebrating new births with lavish baskets and $1,500 congratulatory checks, Apple's perks back then were legendary. The east coast sales division also took annual cruises to places like San Juan and Martinique. Barry Robinson's old Apple ID card. Barry Robinson's old Apple ID card. Ashley Rogers/Ashley Rogers After leaving Apple, Robinson continued his trailblazing streak. The family moved to Charlotte, NC, to be closer to Rogers' maternal relatives. He went on to create an early version of DoorDash called "WeShop," delivering groceries to busy families and seniors. He later partnered with his son and his friends to sell kit skateboard ramps in the early '90s, before returning to sales in the automotive finance sector. In 2014, Robinson underwent triple bypass surgery in Georgia. He had long suffered from a rheumatic heart, stemming from childhood rheumatic fever. During that hospital stay, Rogers met her future husband, who worked at the same hospital. "He took GREAT pleasure every year reminding us that if it wasn't for good old dad, we never would have met," she said. That same year, Rogers moved to Michigan—soon followed by her parents and brother. Her brother later married the family's next-door neighbor, another connection she credited to her father's influence.. "He was the absolute funniest person I've ever met and this whole to-do about his goofy Apple ID badge, it would have cracked him up," Rogers said. She added that while the photo has gone viral, no former Apple employees have yet come forward to say they personally knew him. Robinson passed away on August 24, 2020. He and his wife were just weeks away from celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary. "Up to the day my father died—he had his moustache. I never witnessed him without it," Rogers added. "He would push his moustache up sometimes and I would be in hysterics." Life at Apple in the Early Days Robinson was among the vanguard who shaped Apple's future in its golden age. According to PCMag, the early 1980s were a defining era for the company, which had launched the Apple II in 1977—one of the first mass-produced personal computers. By 1981, when Robinson joined, Apple had grown to 2,500 employees and was on the cusp of launching the Lisa and Macintosh, which would revolutionize user interfaces. Reddit Reacts The story resonated with thousands of Redditors, many of whom expressed a mix of admiration and regret. "Did he hold on to his stock? Are you posting this from your private island? Super cool btw," joked one commenter. "My first proper job was with Apple in the summer of '98... stock was around 30 cents. I bought absolutely none of it and drank every penny," another lamented. Others empathized: "1998 Apple didn't really look like a sure bet. The iMac had made a splash, but OSX and iPods were still a long way out. I wouldn't have bet on them then," someone noted. One user recalled how working in a university mail room in 2001 gave them an early glimpse of Amazon's growing footprint. "My laziness cost me a headstart on early retirement," they added. Do you have any viral videos or pictures that you want to share? We want to see the best ones! Send them in to life@ and they could appear on our site.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bill Atkinson won the respect of Steve Jobs by creating a high-level programming language in just 6 days
Bill Atkinson died on June 5 after battling pancreatic cancer. He was 74. Atkinson was one of the earliest Apple employees, responsible for key Mac software and its graphical user interfaces. But he ultimately won the respect of his boss, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, by creating a version of a high-level programming language for the Apple II computer in just six days. Bill Atkinson, who worked at Apple from 1978—two years after its founding—to 1990, died on June 5 after battling pancreatic cancer, his family wrote on Facebook. He was 74. Atkinson was the 51st employee at Apple, and he was personally recruited by Steve Jobs. According to Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs, Atkinson, a doctoral student in neuroscience at the time, initially declined Apple's request to come work at the company. But Steve Jobs sent Atkinson a nonrefundable plane ticket, and then gave him a three-hour pitch on why he should join the company. 'Think about surfing on the front edge of a wave,' Jobs recalled telling Atkinson in that meeting. 'It's really exhilarating. Now think about dog-paddling at the tail end of that wave. It wouldn't be anywhere near as much fun. Come down here and make a dent in the universe.' Atkinson accepted the job offer—and as a result, he never finished his PhD. Atkinson would go on to develop some of Apple's key software, including Quickdraw, which allowed old Apple computers to draw images and windows on the screen, and HyperCard, an easy-to-use software development kit so creators could build their own applications. He also notably developed the graphical user interface of the Apple Lisa, a precursor to the Macintosh, and later several of the Mac's user interfaces. But his very first job was to develop a program that could track stock portfolios. The software would auto-dial the Dow Jones service to get quotes, and then hang up. His second project at Apple, though, was ultimately how Atkinson won Jobs' respect. Jobs had been resisting using a new programming language for the Apple II, one of Apple's earliest and most popular personal computers that spawned many successors—including the Lisa, the Apple III, the Apple II Plus, Apple IIe, Apple IIc, Apple IIc Plus—though most of those computers, save for the Apple IIe, were abject failures. Jobs at the time had resisted giving the Apple II a new programming language, thinking BASIC, the simple programming language that powered the original Apple I, was all the Apple II needed going forward. Atkinson, however, pressed Jobs to build something better. 'Since you're so passionate about it, I'll give you six days to prove me wrong,' Jobs told Atkinson, according to Isaacson's biography of the Apple co-founder. Sure enough, in just six days, Atkinson had created a specialized version of Pascal, a high-level programming language made especially for the Apple II. According to Isaacson, 'Jobs respected him ever after.' Atkinson would later leave Apple in 1990 to co-found his own company called General Magic, which built precursors to USB and small touchscreens. In 2007, he was an outside developer for a small startup called Numenta, which leverages what we know about human neuroscience to develop AI. But Atkinson also spent much of his later years working as a nature photographer, using a digital printing process he helped create, and a mobile app he developed, to let users make postcards out of their digital images to send via postal service or email. Atkinson is succeeded by his wife, two daughters, stepson, stepdaughter, two brothers, four sisters, and his dog, Poppy, according to his family's Facebook message. This story was originally featured on
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
PGA Tour 2K25 is shaping up to be best golf game yet – and you can find out why for free right now
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. When I first started playing golf just over a decade ago, I already had a preconception of the mechanics of the sport. Club distance and selection, how to address the ball on different surface types, even how to look for minute slopes on the green. That's because I have spent my life playing golf games – from the most basic top-down efforts on the likes of the ZX Spectrum and Apple IIe, through Leaderboard and even the Mario Golf titles on Game Boy and beyond – and they have each taught me much about hitting a tiny rubber ball across a patch of countryside. The knowledge hasn't quite turned me into Rory McIlroy, more Roaring-ly bad still, but the basics have enabled me to at least grasp the concept enough to progressively get a little better each round. Ironically, my experiences on real-life courses have also helped when playing the games, and none more so than with 2K Games' series over the years. First introduced as The Golf Club in 2014 and brought into the 2K stable four years later, the series has always set out to be the most accurate golfing simulation possible. It is developed by HB Studios – a team that's clearly in love with the sport – and it shows. Skills learned on a course can be beneficial to in-game play and vice versa, and so it's always been on my wishlist each generation. Now we have the latest in PGA Tour 2K25, and that continues to be the case. Indeed, it is the most rounded game from the studio yet, with enough for beginners as for seasoned veterans. While an extra lick of polish and a few new features show enough potential for this to be the best golf game yet – for this or any other generation. I got to play a pre-release build for a few hours recently and mostly concentrated on the new MyCareer mode, and the first thing that struck me is just how much more intuitive the interface is now. It has an extra layer of professionalism and shine, while also enables you to get to the most important bits more quickly. MyPlayer creation has been refined and tidied too. You can opt to play on the men's or women's tour and there is plenty of variety in customisation to build your golfer. There's now the option to choose between five archetypes, to really get an individual-looking (and feeling) player. You can be a powerhouse, technician, magician, greenskeeper or sculptor, each with their own starting attributes that will determine how certain shots and situations play out. The skill system has been overhauled too, with new skill trees for different shots, including tee, approach, recovery, bunker and green. These essentially add to the individuality of your play and make the game more diverse. In my own play session, I pretty much forgot about them, to be honest, as I knew I wouldn't get to add much to my character in the time frame I had. However, I did get to swap between different difficulty levels to try those out. There's a new one, for starters, which is great for beginners. Select "perfect swing" and it's far more forgiving when it comes to hitting the ball in a straight line. Using the right thumbstick (on an Xbox controller on the PC version) is a decent substitute for the real swing of a club, but on higher difficulty levels, deviations in your swipes can send the ball careening in different directions. However, with perfect swing the ball is far more likely to head the way you want, allowing you to concentrate more on power, club choice and modifiers, such as backspin. It's a great new option to learn the mechanics of the game without the frustration. You can then switch to higher difficulty levels later. That's where HB Studios' games are at their best. There aren't just a wealth of options when it comes to player customisation, every aspect of the gameplay can be tweaked too, in order to make it as accurate or arcade-like as you fancy. In addition, your clubs and even golf balls can be levelled up this year, with XP earned in game and the ability to add fittings and stats to fine tune them to suit your play. Course creation returns too, so you can either build your own 18 holes or find others to download and play on. However, when it comes to real world locations, even they're improved. There are 27 licensed courses and competitions, including the 2025 US Open at Oakmont Country Club, while St Andrews will be added to the game for the first time at a later date. But of course, none of that would matter if the game didn't play well, and I can safely say that I came away from my hands-on session with a big smile on my face. With a new EvoSwing technology running the show, hitting the ball feels more tangible and smoother than ever. The adjusted mechanic now takes into account contact, rhythm, transition and swing path – each of which is felt more the higher up the difficulty scale you're willing to sit – and it really feels that you are more in control of shots. That doesn't mean you won't curse the controller when a ball is shanked into the nearby lake, but you'll now know that it's more human error than the game's. It felt like my session with PGA Tour 2K25 was over as soon as it started, but I'd actually played for more than two-and-a-half hours. The fact that I wanted to play more is testament to its immediate accessibility – something that's a marked improvement on its predecessors. I'm certainly looking forward to seeing the final game, which is out for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC on 28 February 2025 – so not long now. You can even play some of it for yourself before then – from right now, in fact, as a first look trailer is available for each platform too. Just head to your respective digital store for your console or computer and give it a go. Hopefully, you'll see exactly where I'm coming from when I say it could turn out to be the best golf game yet. From what I've seen so far, it certainly has the potential.
