a garage full of nostalgia

I think we’re all a little excited about it introductory video of Apple’s latest keynote: a clip made up of different sounds from the company’s products, many of which are exhausted but deeply rooted in their own mythology. They are, in my opinion, small time capsules – Like, who are lucky enough to keep one of these relics, we put them back on the table.

The big message Apple wants to get across with this video is “get creative.” But there is also something about “being different”. The doors that open slowly at first It reminds us a lot of another very American legend: that the birth of something great can happen anywhere, like a garage. The first Apple desks started in one, specifically 2066 on Crist Drive (in Los Altos, California) – the house where Steve Jobs lived with his parents. Everything that was born from there changed the world.

The video fully exudes creative power, but is loaded with a good dose of nostalgia

almost giving the rhythm of this keynote: a nod to all Apple fans. Those of us who started over 20 years ago, or those who are going to buy a new Mac for the first time – what better time to play (we) corporate tribute, with the most powerful creative tool they’ve ever designed.

A talented musician and a place full of surprises

Maybe he could have looked like an actor chosen for the occasion – for one more nod, maybe for his resemblance to a young Jobs from another era – but nothing is further from the truth: it is AG Cook (not related to Tim, by the way), musician, producer and singer, boss of the British label PC Music (if they had been called Mac Music, they would have been round now …).

AG has three albums on the market, which of course you can find in Apple Music. For those of you who like the electronic, safe, powerful, and clear type of music, you will find songs on his label that you are sure to love. I recommend a very good musical list of the British artist, his essentials:

The place where all the video takes place is full of surprises. Those that we have been able to guess, beyond similarity to Jobs garage, this is the appearance of an original Macintosh, strategically placed on a shelf to the left (0:05). The first major protagonist also appears, a original iMac G3: neither more nor less than the Mac with which Steve Jobs changed course and saved Apple

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And now we go to the other extreme, at 0:09 we will see that it is using a Pro Display XDR, the new generation monitor that the company presented at WWDC19 alongside the Mac Pro. He connected it to a 16 “MacBook Pro (2019) with TouchBar. On top of the table, a HomePod mini to pick up its startup sound … and in the background, like wink back to Apple’s musical beginnings, a iPod Hi-Fi, Apple’s first speaker, which also served as a powerful (and giant) iPod docking station.

The AirPods Pro make their appearance at 12:40 a.m., using their physical “click” when opening and closing the charging case cover in the video. A few seconds later, at 0:48, we can see the mouse on the left “puck“of the iMac G3, one of its more radical and striking designs. Perfect for a computer that was exactly what I was looking for at the time.

On a wake-up call, at 12:49 am, he uses a 2006 MacBook Pro … but recording the sound of the MagSafe connector

, just now that it’s back to Apple products (and also with a very similar shape). At 12:51 am, a familiar iPhone 12 Pro, to capture the sounds of iOS. In beautiful panoramic view of the shelves in the background, one can see up close at 12:56 a.m. an entire iBook G3 “clamshell” – legendary in the Apple world, which Steve Jobs himself called an “iMac to go” in 1999.

I’m already finishing, and removing it from that iPod Hi-Fi that we commented on before, a fifth generation iPod, where the click wheel will undoubtedly bring back memories to anyone who used it at the time, with that sound so particular by browsing their lists. For those who like the details, here is the full list of all the sounds used in the video:

• Starting the iMac G3
• Starting the MacBook Pro
• Closing the AirPods case
• IOS Alert
• Minimum HomePod volume
• Click wheel for iPod
• Alert note
• Email
• MagSafe charger
• Night Owl Ringtone
• HomePod No
• HomePod PingPong
• Mac Alert 2020
• Empty trash can
• Message sent
• Message received
• HomePod device identification
• IPhone keyboard
• Drop invitation
• Mac Sosumi (System 7 alert sound composed by Jim Reekes)
• Apple Pay

I’m convinced that many of you still have at home – maybe also in a garage or storage room? – many devices of the time, classic pieces of a world where technology also had its iconic devices. And it tells us of a special time when, even today, we can continue to use them – and remember – as pieces of the nostalgia puzzle. Or as melodies for one musical composition so loaded with memories like this.