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Home / News / Retro Chic – Apple QuickTake 100 (1994)

Retro Chic – Apple QuickTake 100 (1994)

What’s the story?There was a time when everything Apple touched didn’t turn to gold (or an aluminium monobloc). In fact, in the early’90s Apple was

What’s the story?

There was a time when everything Apple touched didn’t turn to gold (or an aluminium monobloc). In fact, in the early’90s Apple was a bona fide underdog. In an effort to stake a claim outside of its battle with Microsoft, Cupertino’s favourite multi-national turned to cameras. The Kodak-made QuickTake 100 was the result.

Why should I want one?

Er, you probably won’t. Put it this way, swapping your 10MP compact for a second-hand QuickTake is like ditching your iPhone for a Nokia 3210. With 1MB of memory the 100 could only store eight photos at its maximum resolution (640×480) and there wasn’t even a screen to review them. You won’t find focus or zoom controls either. Anyone surfing eBay for an Apple snapper will be doing it purely as an act of gadget archaeology. It’ll look just dandy in your display cabinet, next to the Macintosh SE.

What should I look for?

Most QuickTakes for sale are in America but you can have one shipped over for about £15. The problems will start when you try to get your photos off the camera. You’ll need an OS7, 8 or 9 Mac (not OS X) and an RS-232 cable to connect them up. If you get that far you can download a PDF of the original manual here: bit.ly/quicktakemanual.

eBay price £50

[Main image courtesy of Mario Amaya]

 

Apple’s biggest flops:

Newton (1993)

Useless, or a tech trailblazer ahead of its time? The Newton was Apple’s first attempt at a handheld computer. As you might have noticed, its second fared a little better…

Pippin (1995)

Until the iPhone, Apple had made very little impact in the games business. By the time the Pippin launched, the market was owned by the PlayStation and Nintendo 64. Too late.

Puck mouse (1998)

With more flaws than a multi-storey car park, the USB “hockey puck” mouse came with the iMac G3 in 1998. It looked cool but was an ergonomic nightmare. Best used for hockey.

iPod Hi-Fi (2006)

By 2006 it seemed the planet’s iPod docks outnumbered people ten to one, but Apple still had a punt with this massively overpriced monolith. It lasted till September 2007.

Profile image of Dan Grabham Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home

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