Latest news with #GeneralMagic
Engadget
2 days ago
- Engadget
Influential Apple engineer Bill Atkinson dies at 74
A renowned Apple engineer who was instrumental in developing modern-day computing has died. Bill Atkinson, who was part of Apple's original Macintosh development team, died of pancreatic cancer at 74, according to a Facebook post made by his family on June 5. His contributions to Apple and the Macintosh personal computer are still widely used today, including fundamental UI elements like the menu bar, double-clicking and the selection lasso. However, Atkinson's work goes much deeper than that, since he's partly responsible for the foundational design language that influenced Apple's early days. His legacy includes creating MacPaint, an application that showed the world what a graphics-based system looks like at a time when text-based systems were the norm, and developing QuickDraw, a graphics toolbox that the Macintosh and Lisa computers use. To make computers more user-friendly, Atkinson also designed HyperCard, an Apple application that introduced hypertext to everyday users and not just programmers. Tim Cook paid tribute to Atkinson, posting on X, that he was a 'true visionary whose creativity, heart, and groundbreaking work on the Mac will forever inspire us.' Beyond Apple, Atkinson was one of three co-founders for General Magic, a software and electronics company that supplied products to Motorola and Sony in the 90s. Later, he worked with Numenta in 2007, which was a startup focused on artificial intelligence. Atkinson was also a seasoned nature photographer, publishing a book called Within the Stone that highlights polished and cut rocks with close-up shots. Atkinson is survived by his wife, two daughters, stepson, stepdaughter, two brothers, four sisters, and dog, Poppy.
Yahoo
23-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
25 years on from the dot.com stock market crash, is history repeating itself?
In March 2000, at the peak of the biggest stock market bubble in history, the Nasdaq Composite Index topped out at 5,000 points. By the end of 2002, the tech-heavy index had crashed 78%. In today's euphoric, momentum-driven market, could the same fate be unleashed on investors? John Templeton once famously said that 'bull-markets are born on pessimism, grow on scepticism, mature on optimism and die on euphoria'. By the late 1990s, people were giving up their jobs in droves to become day traders. Making money was as easy as taking candy from a baby. Back then companies were going public on little more than a PowerPoint presentation and slapping '.com' at the end of the company name. But it wasn't just non-profitable companies that reached crazy valuations; well established names did too. Back then Cisco Systems was valued at 37 times sales and had the biggest market cap. In the rush for routers and internet hardware, it was the clear leader. The parallels with Nvidia today are unnerving. Out of the ashes of the crash, established names did survive and ultimately thrive. Amazon, which had crashed 97%, came back – but it would take a decade to do so. But the stars of the internet revolution were new name, on the whole, with revolutionary business models. Meta and Alphabet pushed the internet's evolutionary path in a completely different direction. The old darlings of Cisco and Vodafone were cast aside. To this day, neither share price has recovered. Today, investors are betting on AI, or should I say one form of AI, large language models. The path for Nvidia, Microsoft, and the rest of the Magnificent 7 stocks is laid out right in front of them. A long tail representing trillions of dollars is there for the taking. Enter DeepSeek and maybe the future AI path is not so obvious after all. Any business school will teach you that first mover advantage provides a company with a clear competitive edge. I believe it does. But timing is important too. History is littered with examples of companies that were at the forefront of pioneering a new technology and yet did not go on to become the eventual winner. Xerox, through the invention of the photocopier, created the 'office of the future' but surrendered leadership to Canon. General Magic released an early version of a smart phone in 1994. It went bankrupt in 2002. Xerox failed because it believed bigger photocopiers was what customers wanted. General Magic failed because dial-up modems couldn't handle large amounts of data. As I said, the internet did turn out to be revolutionary. But most of the early leaders were nowhere to be seen once the race had run. I have absolutely no doubt that the promise of AI will be just as revolutionary as the internet was 25 years ago. But whether that means that Nvidia or any of the other tech giants will be at the centre of it, to me it's simply too early to say. If investors' bets turn out to be wrong, this bubble will undoubtedly burst. The post 25 years on from the stock market crash, is history repeating itself? appeared first on The Motley Fool UK. More reading 5 Stocks For Trying To Build Wealth After 50 One Top Growth Stock from the Motley Fool Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Andrew Mackie has no position in any of the shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has recommended Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. Motley Fool UK 2025 Sign in to access your portfolio
