A new and completely unofficial archive of all things Apple is attempting to make almost 44 years of the company’s official videos, ads, and imagery available to browse online. 9to5Mac reports that The Apple Archive currently contains just under 1TB of data, comprising over 15,000 files, and it includes everything from print ads, to TV spots, WWDC sessions, internal training videos, and even a collection of macOS and iOS wallpapers.
The whole collection is well worth browsing through, but there are a few particularly interesting inclusions. This unreleased social ad for the long-delayed-then-cancelled AirPower charging pad is fascinating. Not only does it show off how Apple might have marketed its wireless charger had it actually released, but also because the ad is so clearly in an unfinished state, offering the kind of work-in-progress insight that we so rarely get to see from a company like Apple.
Or how about this huge collection of internal videos which includes a particularly excellent video on Apple’s early patenting strategy (skip to the 4:15 mark) and this 1995 guide on how to photograph “VR” scenes. The archive includes a very 80s “I’m Different” TV ad that aired nine years before the well-known video of Steve Jobs introducing Apple’s iconic “Think Different” ad campaign.
The Apple Archive is the work of Sam Gold, who started putting it together after the EveryAppleVideo YouTube channel was unceremoniously taken down. After experimenting with starting his own YouTube channel, a Google Drive folder, and even attempting to work with the Internet Archive, Gold finally settled on using Vimeo to host the archive’s video content.
This collection is by no means finished. Gold is constantly on the lookout for higher resolution content, the videos are also having subtitles added where possible, and they’re also being transcoded to save on space. The archive is an excellent dose of nostalgia for Apple fans. It might not have the same level of finish as Apple’s official coffee table book, but then again it doesn’t come with a $300 price tag.
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