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Using a palm-sized unit called a mouse. >> it was the first time that a machine was personal, it was simple, it was friendly. >> it took the computer out of the exclusive domain of geeks and nerds and people who had memorized the commands and put it on the desk of everybody. untrained, nontechnical people. >> stores around the country put them on sale today, and analysts say it's a good bet that macintosh could soon be the biggest apple of the industry's eye. >> it's got its best years ahead of it, eventually i want to be able to carry my mac around with me, walk around with it in my pocket. >...

Will be amazed what these little gadgets can do. >> the idea was that ordinary people might have a use for computers. now, it took a while to figure out what those uses might be. >> the main thing was spreadsheets and word processing. the computer was the best typewriter you could ever have. it gave you a new way to write. you could change things around. and check your spelling. it would always look perfect. >> my dad had the large ledger sheets, done them all by hand, and i remember taking a computer to show him the spreadsheet. and suddenly, he understood the value of a personal computer. >>...

The manufacturers are trying to overcome it by making them what they call user-friendly. >> isn't that pretty? now what do i do? >> making computers easy enough to use for a beginner, it wasn't always true. people had never encountered this stuff. >> hold down shift and press -- >> so there was a great disconnect between the ambitions of the apples and microsofts and the realities of people trying to use these things for the first time. >> right now, if you buy a computer system and you want to solve one of your problems, we immediately throw a big problem right in the middle of you and your p...

Just to see if they could do it. >> steve jobs hears about some of this work going on at this lab, and he wants a look. >> xerox park was an innovation place, apple was an innovation place. steve was very visual. and he could see right away the graphic user interface was different and more communicative than anything he'd seen before. he knew that it was effective, but was affecting him. >> jobs realizes, this is the future of computing. this is a whole different kind of computer to be built. famously, a computer for the rest of us. >> 1984. the ridley scott commercial for the macintosh. >> it...

To computers is it is a power tool that gives me power that i feel i should have had, but nature left me without. and i can now exploit more of my potential with a computer. [ music: "bygones" by oliver ]