This CD booklet has a bright red cover and is titled “CD-ROM discs” in the Apple Garamond font used between 1984–2003. The cover includes a badge-style graphic that declares “Great Value!” and “Apple #1 Computer Used in Schools.”
This booklet is made from clear vinyl and measures 7.5 x 9.25 inches. The front and back flap have internal pockets that hold paperwork such as software licenses, and the three inside pages can hold 2 CDs each.
The CD-ROMs contained in the booklet are all video games and include:
Bungie (the company that would eventually create the Halo video game, 1996)
These two folders are printed with a logotype for the Apple User Group Connection program. Both include stickers that indicate they are for the Community/Education Edition of the program.
The folders are made of heavy white card stock with a matte finish, measure 9 x 12 inches, and the unique design of the inside back pocket allowed the pocket to expand to about 3/8 inch.
The interior of the folders are filled with 8.5 x 11-inch printed materials, brochures, and a book. Both folders included letters from the Apple User Group Connection instructing groups leaders to participate in some aspect of the program.
The included paperback book is titled Just Add Water: Community/Education Edition. The book describes itself on the cover as “A guide for starting, sustaining, and enjoying an Apple User Group in your community, university, or K-12 school district.” The back cover includes, “Inside you will find insights and proven tips on developing and maintaining programs that successfully serve members’ needs. Just Add Water, Community/Education Edition draws on the experiences of many successful User Groups.”
The folders also include three different issues of Quick Connect: The Apple Newsletter for Apple User Groups. The issues contain articles on Apple products, Apple leadership, education, and enterprise. The three issues in this collection are from May/June 1993, January/February 1993, and March/April 1993.
In addition to the folders and their contents, this User Group Connection collection also includes nine letters addressed to user group leaders using various salutations (e.g., Dear Apple User Group Ambassador, Dear K–12 Apple User Group Ambassador, Dear Education SIG Leader, etc.) [SIG = Special Interest Group]. The letters describe new programs, features, products, and other information pertaining to the User Groups. This collection is dated between 1992–1993.
Based upon my own recollection, Apple offered a program called the “Apple Educator Advantage” to educators around 1993–2004. I personally participated in the program between 1999–2003. I first recall the program as a low-interest buying program for teachers and school staff that was set up through a school district’s administration center and offered to school staff. Educators were able to make purchases at the same discounted pricing offered to school districts and then pay over time.
The Apple Educator Advantage program was started at a time before Apple Stores existed, before online purchasing was commonplace, and continued to be offered a few years after Apple Stores began opening around the United States.
This CD booklet was likely offered to school staff who participated in the Apple Educator Advantage program. This booklet is made from frosted vinyl and measures 7.5 x 9.25 inches. The front and back flap have internal pockets that hold paperwork such as software licenses, and the two inside pages can hold 2 CDs each.
The FileMaker database application (in various forms) has been owned by Apple since the late 1980s, first as a product in Apple’s “wholly owned subsidiary” Claris, then as a separate company called “FileMaker, Inc.,” and (coming full-circle) in 2019 “FileMaker International Inc.” changed its name back to “Claris” as “Claris International Inc.”
As of 2023, the Claris “About Us” website declares, “Claris is the leader in workplace innovation.” A black Apple logo is displayed prominently on the page with the words “Claris, an Apple company.”
When this software box was produced in 2004, the company was called “FileMaker, Inc.” At version 7, FileMaker Pro was described as:
“the world’s leading workgroup database software, combines legendary ease-of-use with rich new features to help you get organized quickly and painlessly. With FileMaker Pro 7, you can create robust business database solutions in minutes, and instantly share them with your team or your customers over your intranet or the web with legendary Instant Web Publishing. For managing people, projects, processes, and information, FileMaker Pro 7 has everything you need to instantly turn your ideas into productive, creative, and scalable solutions.”
This box contains a Not for Resale FileMaker Pro 7 install CD, the FileMaker Pro 7 User’s Guide, a FileMaker Pro 7 Tutorial, licensing agreements, and various brochures and advertisements for add-on products and services.
This Apple Learning Series Secondary Multimedia CD set contained 10 CD-ROM titles curated and sold by Apple Education as a bundle. The CDs were packaged in a 2-ring binder with vinyl pages that each held one CD-ROM.
The PDF spec sheet states that, “This product provides an outstanding collection of educator-evaluated software along with a comprehensive website that includes model student projects, step-by-step instructions, an online professional development course, and a tool that correlates the software and projects to select state and national standards.”
The set includes the following CDs:
Art Mania 12,000, Nova Development—A collection of clip art and quality photographic images on two CDs.
Cinema 4D XL, Maxon—A completely integrated 3D modeling, animation, and raytracing program.
Director 8 Academic, Macromedia—The standard for delivering powerful multimedia for the Internet, CD-ROMs, and DVD-ROMs.
Final Cut Pro 2, Apple—The all-in-one solution for professional digital video editing, compositing, and special effects. The set also included Boris Script LTD, Boris FX; Cinema 4D GO, Maxon; Commotion DV, Puffin Designs; Cleaner 5 EZ, Terran Interactive; EDL Access, Focal Point Systems; and QuickTime Pro, Apple.
Inspiration, Inspiration Software—A dynamic diagramming and outlining environments to help you organize ideas and information.
Painter Classic, Corel—An easy-to-use version of the world’s leading paint program.
Photoshop Elements, Adobe—An introduction to the world-standard image-editing solution.
SmartSound for Multimedia, Sonic Desktop—Tools to produce professional-quality soundtracks.
The Archives of History, MPI Multimedia—More than 100 QuickTime movies that can be used in presentations or viewed on their own.
The VR Worx, VR Toolbox—A complete suite of authoring tools for QuickTime VR (virtual reality).
Surprisingly, the PDF Spec Sheet for this product was still available on Apple’s website as a download as of January 2023.
This box is an example of 2002-era packaging design for Apple accessories. This particular item is the Apple 65W Portable Power Adapter. The box indicates that it was:
“Compatible with PowerBook G4 computers and iBook computers that have two USB ports.”
The box uses the Apple Myriad font during the year Apple was transitioning away from using Apple Garamond in their corporate identity. The box measures 150cm x 190cm x 55cm.
The box contains the original adapter, but none of the internal cardboard packaging.
Before Apple’s software developer program was referred to as “Apple Developer Program” (sometimes stylized as Developer), the original developer program was started in 1980 by user group in the Pacific Northwest of the United States—the Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) User Group. The user group still exists as of 2023 and its website indicates:
“The Apple Programmers and Developers Association, or APDA, was started in 1980 by Don Williams in coordination with Apple, Inc. and A.P.P.L.E. The resulting tools produced by APDA were the tools with which all Apple programs have come to be and the resulting magazine which was produced quarterly was aptly named the APDAlog.”
Nearly a decade later, Apple reportedly purchased APDA. According to A.P.P.L.E.:
“In 1989, Apple Computer, Inc. bought APDA from A.P.P.L.E. for $3 Million and Apple began producing the APDA Log. The issues shown in this section are the ones produced by A.P.P.L.E. prior to Apple’s take over of the APDA.”
This magazine’s title is APDA Tools for Developers and was published by Apple in February 1993 as a successor to the APDA Log. This issue contains the following sections and articles:
What’s New: New and updated products
Getting Started in Macintosh Programming: Your first steps begin here
Essentials: Self-paced training courses, Technical Notes, Getting Started bundles, and more.
E.T.O.: Essentials, Tools, Objects: A subscription-based collection of powerful Apple development tools
Macintosh Programmer’s Workshop: This powerful development platform offers the flexibility you need
Object-Oriented Programming: MacApp, Macintosh Common Lisp, and other OOP tools and environments
Media Integration: QuickTime and other multimedia software development products
Apple UNIX Tools: A/UX development tools
Programming Languages & Libraries: Develop applications for the Macintosh with C, Pascal, and more
Debuggers & Supplemental Tools: MacsBug, Virtual User, ResEdit, and other programming tools
Networking & Communications: Extend your reach with DAL, MacTCP, MacX25, MacX.400, and SNA•ps
As a company, Apple has historically focused upon making hardware and software that is accessible to all people. As of this writing in January 2023, Apple’s Accessibility features are available in categories of Vision, Hearing, Mobility, and Cognitive.
Apple’s Developer site provides a comprehensive set of tools for developers to use their Accessibility guidelines to create software, stating, “Apple operating systems provide extraordinary opportunities to deliver high-quality experiences to everyone, including people with disabilities.”
This letter, packet, and disk—now over 30 years old—attests to Apple’s long-time commitment to accessibility. Back in 1992, Apple called this division “Worldwide Disability Solutions.” This mailing was sent to education customers with a welcome letter, an information packet, and a 3.5-inch disk with a database of “Macintosh Disability Resources.” The disk contains “up-to-date information on the entire range of assistive hardware products for Macintosh computers.”
The aspirational welcome letter reads:
At Apple Computer, we have always believed that with a good idea and a lot of determination, anyone can do just about anything. That’s the inspiration behind our company. It’s the inspiration behind the computers we make. And it’s the inspiration behind the people at Apple who are working to change the way the world understands disability. And what it means to be disabled. Apple’s Worldwide Disability Solutions Group was formed in 1985. Our principal focus then, as now, was the individual. Young and old. His needs. Her wants. His dreams. Her imagination. Technology, of course, was important to us, too. But our computers have always been secondary. People have always mattered most. Especially people who live with a label. These are the people who, every day, tell us how Macintosh computers are helping them to express themselves. In words. In letters. In music. In pictures. In numbers. In whatever ways that matter to them. These are the people who are now living their lives out loud. Or quietly. It’s their choice. And that, in the end, is the point. Our technology. Their choices. Just as it should be.
This booklet and set of CD-ROMs included software and how-to guides to teach a user to create the elements of a web page at a time when the Internet was still considered new and unknown by many. In true Apple style, the set provided easy-to-use tools and directions “that can help you build creative and engaging Web pages of your own—without any complicated programming.”
In 1997 the “World Wide Web” was defined as “the fastest growing part of the Internet.” The guide provided a handy definition of a Web page:
“Using Web browser software, you can view color images, animation, and video, and even hear sound on the Web. The documents that you view on the Web are known as Web pages, and can contain links to other pages so that when you click a word or image that has been designated as a link, your browser will automatically display the contents of the linked page.”
The three CD-ROMs included in the kit were an Apple Web Page Construction Kit CD (containing Kaboom! Special Edition and Web Explosion Special Edition from Nova Development Corporation and WwwART from Microfrontier. Inc.), Claris Home Page 2.0, and WebPainter.
The kit was comprised of a 7.5 x 9.25-inch booklet and a single frosted vinyl CD packet containing 3 CDs. This kit was shipped in a cardboard box that I do not have in my collection.
