Linked List: February 11, 2025

Tuesday, 11 February 2025

iTools, Apple’s Original ‘Internet Strategy’, From January 2000 ★

From the Apple Newsroom archive, dateline “Macworld Expo, San Francisco — January 5, 2000”:

Apple today took the wraps off its highly anticipated Internet strategy, introducing a new category of Internet services called iTools; a completely redesigned Apple.com web site featuring iReview and iCards; and a multi-year partnership and investment with Earthlink for Internet access (see related release).

iTools is a revolutionary new category of Internet services that takes advantage of Apple’s unique technology on both ends of the Internet — the operating system on the client side (Mac OS 9) and the services software running on Apple’s Internet servers (iTools). Providing the software on both ends of the Internet offers Apple the unprecedented ability to offer services impossible to implement solely on Internet servers.

“Our new iReviews, iCards and the revolutionary iTools offer amazing new ways for Mac users to take full advantage of the Internet,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s iCEO. “Mac users can now do things on the Internet that Wintel users can only dream of.”

It’s striking in hindsight how much Apple, circa 2000, was unabashedly the scrappy underdog. If an announcement is truly highly anticipated you don’t have to describe it as “highly anticipated”. And that Jobs quote, including the colloquial “Wintel”.

And from the feature list:

Mac.com, an email service run by Apple. Mac.com gives users an exclusive address on the Internet and works with standard POP email clients, such as Outlook Express, Eudora and Netscape Communicator. Mac.com users can easily set up automatic replies and forwarding of their email to other email addresses, and configure Outlook Express for their Mac.com mailbox from a simple web page.

So I misremembered the timeline of how I got into my bifurcated Apple Account situation earlier today (but I was correct in that post to be uncertain of the timeline). My @mac.com address did predate the debut of the iTunes Music Store, but I’ve had it since iTools was announced in January 2000, not when .Mac (worst Apple name ever?) was announced in July 2002. (Thanks to Thomas Brand for reminding me.) The branding evolution is:

iTools (2000) → .Mac (2002) → MobileMe (2008) → iCloud (2011)

It took Apple a decade to get from iTools to iCloud, but iCloud has proven to be a winner. It’s interesting to think of the “Internet moment” circa 2000 compared to the “AI moment” today. Circa 2000, the hot new companies didn’t make computers or devices, and they didn’t make software that ran on consumer devices. They made websites and web apps that ran in browsers on devices.

The bear case against Apple then was that they’d missed the boat on the big new thing, and their core strengths were no longer relevant. Pretty much the same bear case now re: AI. The difference is that Apple today is not only not a “scrappy underdog” — they’re the most valuable company in the world.

Apple Completes Pixelmator Acquisition ★

Juli Clover, reporting for MacRumors:

Pixelmator last year announced that it was being acquired by Apple, and today the company confirmed that the acquisition has been completed after Apple received regulatory approval. The Pixelmator for iOS, Pixelmator Pro, and Photomator apps were today updated with a new splash screen announcing the deal.

Previously: “Pixelmator Acquired by Apple; Future of Their Apps Uncertain”. Apple being Apple, they still haven’t dropped a clue what they’re going to do with Pixelmator (the namesake app) or Photomator.

Apple Support: ‘About Migrating Apple Account Purchases Between Accounts’ ★

New Apple support document dropped today:

You can choose to migrate apps, music, and other content you’ve purchased from Apple on a secondary Apple Account to a primary Apple Account. The secondary Apple Account might be an account that’s used only for purchases. You’ll need access to the primary email address or phone number and password for both accounts, and neither account should be shared with anyone else. Learn more about how to migrate purchases.

At the time of migration, the Apple Account signed in for use with iCloud and most features on your iPhone or iPad will be referred to as the primary Apple Account.

At the time of migration, the Apple Account signed in just for use with Media & Purchases will be referred to as the secondary Apple Account.

This might be the “finally” to end all finallys. I really never thought I’d see this day when Apple finally made this possible. This document presents a solution to a situation I’ve been in (and with each subsequent media purchase, digging deeper into) for over 20 years.

This whole thing started so long ago that I can’t even recall exactly how I got into this. As best I can recall it went something like this. When Apple launched the iTunes Music Store in April 2003, I created my store account using an @daringfireball.net email address. In some sense that seems like an odd choice in hindsight, insofar as that’s my “work” address, but at the time (even though Daring Fireball was less than a year old) it felt like my best “forever” email address. I felt very certain from the start I’d be doing this forever.

I chose to use my DF email address for the iTunes Store in 2003 despite the fact that I had created my @mac.com email address in the summer of 2002 when Apple launched .Mac — a few weeks before I launched Daring Fireball. I signed up for .Mac to get a good username, “just in case” (although I didn’t score “gruber” — someone beat me to it, despite the fact that I signed up during or soon after the end of the keynote in which .Mac was announced), but I never anticipated using it much. But .Mac became MobileMe, MobileMe became iCloud, and iCloud now is one’s primary Apple Account. 20 years ago it just wasn’t clear at all that the .Mac account I created would be so central to being an Apple platform user for decades to come.

So fast forward to today, and I’ve had two Apple Accounts on every device I use for the last 20-or-so years. One for “Media and Purchases” (my original iTunes account, using the @daringfireball.net address), and my primary Apple ID (the @mac.com address). All my purchases — all the music, books, apps, subscriptions, and thousands of dollars in movies that I’ve purchased with that iTunes account over the years — are using an Apple Account that’s not my iCloud account.

Apple has made this bifurcation work pretty well over the years, seemingly not just because many longstanding customers are in the same boat as me, but many Apple employees are themselves passengers on that boat. “Just make it so you can transfer purchases from a secondary old account to your primary one” sounds easy, conceptually, but apparently it was devilishly tricky under the hood.

But it seems Apple has figured it out and implemented a solution. I’ll wait and let others try this before I do (if it ain’t broke don’t fix it), but if any of you try this, I’m curious how it goes — especially if you’re part of a family sharing group.

(Via Chris Espinosa, who I suppose counts as both a longstanding employee and customer.)

‘The Wild True Story Behind Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show’ ★

Angela Watercutter, with a great behind-the-scenes look at the Apple-Music-sponsored halftime show by Kendrick Lamar:

While “making it work” means one thing when you’re putting on a Madonna concert or the Democratic National Convention, it means something different when you’re trying to squeeze it into a national title match between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles. For one, you have to get all of the staging, lights, dancers, and the artist themselves onto the field in 7.5 minutes and then get them off 6 minutes after the final note. For another, you have to do all of this on a field where the biggest NFL game of the year is being played — without screwing up the turf.

It seems like a great ongoing relationship for Apple Music to sponsor these halftime shows. Amazon Prime has Thursday Night Football, and Google’s YouTube TV has the NFL Sunday Ticket package (which Apple seriously bid for, but didn’t get). That leaves Apple TV+ as the biggest streaming platform from a big tech company that doesn’t have any NFL games. Sponsoring the Super Bowl halftime show gives the NFL a relationship with Apple.

And Apple seems happy to let the shows themselves be artist-centric. This was Kendrick Lamar’s show, presented by Apple Music — not Apple Music’s show featuring Kendrick Lamar. I could be wrong, but I think the old Pepsi halftime shows were more Pepsi-centric, more focused on spectacle than showmanship. There were some small lyrical adjustments, but those might have been at the NFL’s behest more than Apple’s. Apple let Lamar do his thing, despite the fact that the target of his enmity, Drake, was literally the artist who Apple invited on stage at WWDC 2015 to introduce Apple Music.