System 7, codenamed 'Big Bang', and also known as Mac OS 7, is a graphical user interface-based operating system for Macintosh computers and is part of the classic Mac OS series of operating systems. It was introduced on May 13, 1991, by Apple Computer, Inc. 1 It succeeded System 6, and was the main Macintosh operating system until it was. Hi Dan, My machine is a Power Mac G5, Dual 1.8GH Memory is 4.5GB DDR SDRAM Mac OS X 10.5.8 After restarting the computer a couple of times the computers top bar turned white again and everything seemed fine, howerver a couple of days later it has turned pink again. The gold aluminum Apple Watch SE is simply gorgeous with a softer look that incorporates both pink and copper tones. While it may look like it would only be suited for lighter color watch bands, this gold is surprisingly versatile as it looks all sorts of amazing when combined with the deep navy blue and the basic black sport bands.
iTunes 11 is a radical departure from previous versions and nothing illustrates this more than the new album display mode. The headlining feature of this display is the new view style that visually matches the track listing to the album's cover art. The result is an attractive display of textual information that seamlessly integrates with the album's artwork.
After using iTunes for a day I wondered just how hard it would be to mimic this functionality — use a source image to create a themed image/text display.
The first step in replicating iTunes theming is obvious: getting the background color used for the track listing. This seemed easy enough, just use simple color frequency to determine the most prevalent color along the left hand side of the artwork. Doing a simple color count gives pretty good results, but looking at iTunes it was clear there was more to it than just that. I proceeded to add a bit of logic to add preference for colored backgrounds instead of just using black and white when those were the most prevalent colors. Doing this presents more interesting styles since seeing only black and white backgrounds would be a bit boring. Of course you don't want to replace black or white if those colors really are dominant, so I made sure that the fallback color was at least 30% as common as the default black or white.
Once I started filtering black and white backgrounds my results started to get a bit closer to iTunes. After doing some more analysis I saw that iTunes also looks for borders around the artwork. So lets say you have a solid white border around the artwork picture, iTunes will remove the border and base its theming colors off the remaining interior content. I didn't add this functionality as it was outside the scope of my simple demo application.
After the background color was determined, the next step is to find contrasting text colors. Again, the first thing I tried was simple color counting, this provides surprisingly good results but iTunes does better. If we relied only on color frequency you'd get variants of the same color for the different types of text (EG: primary, secondary, detail). So the next thing I did to improve the results were to make sure the text colors were distinct enough from each other to be considered a separate color. At this point things were really starting to look good. But what other aspects would need to be considered to ensure the text always looked good on the chosen background color? To ensure colorful text I also added a bit of code to make sure the color used for the text had a minimum saturation level. This prevents washed out colors or very light pastel colors from being used that might not give the best appearance. Now that the text had unique colors that looked good with the background, the only remaining problem was that the resulting text colors could end up lacking enough contrast with the background to be readable. So the last thing I added was a check to make sure any text color would provide enough contrast with the background to be readable. Unfortunately this requirement does cause a rare 'miss' when finding text colors which then cause the default black/white colors to be used.
The end result looks something like this:
It's not 100% identical to iTunes — sometimes it's better! Sometimes just different — but it works pretty well overall.
You can see exactly what I did in the following Xcode demo project:
A few notes about this demo. I did very basic frequency filtering to prevent random colors from appearing as text colors. In my case I chose to ignore colors that only appear once. This threshold should be based on your input image size since smaller images won't have as many pixels to sample from. Another processing technique that iTunes does, that I would also do if this were shipping code, is to look for compression fringing around the edges of the image. I've noticed a few cover art images that contain a single pixel edge of white/gray fringe that should be ignored and removed before sampling for the colors.
(Last but not least, this code was written in a few hours, and is very rough. So just in case you have thoughts about speed or optimizations, please note it was more of a thought exercise than a lesson in algorithm design. Engineer disclaimer complete.)
That being said, I hope this is somewhat interesting! It shows that with just a bit of work you too can have fancy themed designs too.
UPDATE: Thanks to Aaron Brethorst, this code is also now on GitHub.
How Much Is My Old Mac Worth?
The Vintage Mac Museum tends to get several emails per month from people with older model Macinti, looking to sell their systems and wondering how much they're worth. Being familiar with old Macs and visible on the web, I understand why folks are asking me this question. But this can be a tough value to determine, there isn't a blue book or single exchange available for old Macs.
'I am the original owner of the Bondi Blue iMac Rev C, which is usable and in excellent shape for it's age. The serial number sticker attached to the case shows date of 1/7/1999. Does this mac have collector value?'
'Since I want to give some money to a friend of mine for Christmas, I have decided to sell my Macintosh IIsi computer. Unfortunately, I am not sure what a fair price would be. Can you please give me some advice?'
As of this writing (2011), on average I'd say most old Macs are worth about $100. Many less than that. An original 128k Mac, truly rare items and prototypes can command hundreds to thousands of dollars. For most systems, sentimental values tend to be higher than resale prices.
Here's how you can determine how much your old Mac is worth:
Jason Ponic's Apple Computer Market Guide compiles resale prices for various models of vintage Apple equipment. It's a nicely compiled resource, most values seem fairly representative of eBay market rates.
eBay is the largest market and a good resource to help determine Mac prices. There are two types of sellers listing this type of equipment, professional sellers and closet cleaners. The professional seller is going to ask the most, these are good upper bound prices for insurance purposes. The closet cleaner just wants to get rid of his/her old stuff at a fair price, these are the more practical values. Check Completed Listings to see what things have actually sold for (or not), rather than the initial asking values. Heavier items may have lower values unless they're very rare, due to higher shipping costs.
craigslist is the classified ads of the web, broken down by city. Search for your model in your local version as well as those for other major cities (e.g., New York, Boston, San Francisco) You'll quickly get an idea what average prices are and who is still thinking their $1500 computer is still worth $1000 7 years later. Craiglist by design is a local service, so selling your Mac across the country this way is not typically viable.
Mac of All Trades and PowerMax tend to be a good resources for current retail market values. These vendors buy some used systems, usually at one-half to two-thirds of retail value .
Average out the values you find to determine an approximate worth. You also need to factor in the rarity of the particular model, and the relative availability based on your location. Here in the Boston area there is no shortage of old computers, with many colleges, high tech companies, the MIT Flea and a vibrant local craigslist. But if you don't live in a major metro area or are looking for something less common, you can wind up paying multiple times what someone else might for the same item.
Such I suppose, is how the market works.
As of this writing for both the Mac IIsi and the iMac G3 I'd estimate about $50 each, I see these models selling on my local craigslist regularly. A rev A bondi blue iMac might be worth twice that. A G4 Cube or PowerMac G5 can go for $250. If you have an working Mac 128k you can probably get $1000 on eBay. For a Mac Plus in a carry bag, don't expect more than $100. If you have the original packaging that can increase the value.
My Favorite Color Is Pink Mac Os Catalina
You can often get more money for old Macs – if they aren't rare models – by breaking them down and selling them for parts. The whole is usually worth less than the sum of its parts when reselling on eBay.
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The Vintage Mac Museum is a private, working collection of the pre-Intel Apple Macintosh and related memorabilia. We provide old Mac file transfer and conversion services, along with research into old Mac technologies for patent searches or academic purposes.
This thread is closed and new comments have been disabled. Thanks for your interest!
My Favorite Color Is Pink Mac Os Sierra
I have a very lightly used PowerBook G3/400(Firewire/Pismo) that I would love to sell to a collector. It has a 10 GB HD and an airport card. What's a fair price? Anyone interested? I'm on Cape Cod.
I have a macintosh powerbook duo 2300 with docking station and monitor,original mouse and key board with working printer. Everything works. I wish a computer lover would take it off my hands instead of it going in the trash :(
Hi im a huge apple collector I would love to have it if you still got them i have many vintage mac desktops but no apple laptop and I can always find good homes even for dated computers I am also a big mac collector I also have a rare next station color with cd rom and sound.
I have the original Apple Macintosh Classic. I purchased it in 1983 from University of Pennsylvania, about six months before they were released to the public in January 84. When the 512 upgrade and external Drive came out, it was like heaven.
So it's had another memory upgrade but I don't remember exactly how much. It's it's in my basement. I haven't fired it up in years but I imagine it should work. Are you interested? Since I'm not really a collector, it probably should be in the hands of someone that would appreciate and maybe even use it.Dear stpworld,
In my basement there's still a 1985 128K Macintosh.
In it's company there an Imagewriter, a travelbag and some of the original boxes.
If interested I can send pictures.
I live in the Netherlands so the equipment is for 220V.The equipment has not been used for 15 or 20 years, but was put in storage in working condition. Please contact me at FreddeVet @ koebongerd.nl
Ok I have an old Macintosh Centris 610 floppy drive. Is this even in great working condition worth anything? If you collect then you maybe can tell me if its worth anything and have no use for it so if you want make me an offer. Have alot of floppys and programs for it monitor and everything but no printer
Hi ! I have a 1999 blue and clear G3 with the heavy blue and clear 21″ studio monitor. Any interest in either?
I have a Macintosh Plus 1Mb(model no# 0001a) wondering if its worth anything
I have a 13 year old IMAC that I don't know what to do with. Should I scrap it for the guts.When we switched to an Emac it still worked.Let me know what you think
I have an original Mac which came off the assembly line with the Drexel University 'D' embossed on it. They were ordered in 1983 and delivered in April 1984. It has been updated to 512 and then 1024 (or was it 1 M?) Can you give me an idea of the value and where would be the best place to sell it?
I have a PowerBook 100, I would like to resurrect it but the hard disk is broken, any suggestion on how to replace it?
I am willing to buy an old Macintosh Classic of any sort (9″ screen) whether it is unfunctional or working, as long as there is minimal cosmetic damage, im looking around £20 – £50, just email me at josephross @ me.com if anyone is interested in selling one.
Hi if anyone has a macintosh Classic II or an LC II for sale please reply me I check often but they have to be working and have working sound but I do not need disks or keyboards or even cables I have it all I just wish to have a working one of either also they must be complete on the computer part no missing ram and no missing hd or floppy. stpworld2006 @ hotmail.com
I have a working Mac SE with a 30 gig hard drive, Apple mouse & 2 non Apple keyboards. Also a Macinosh PowerBook G3. All working would they be worth anything?
I have a Mac SE dual floppy in a soft 'carrying case' and a Mac portable with its original case (predates all the notebooks and laptops) and a StyleWriter printer. They were both working last time I used them, but it has been years… Do these have any resale value?
Speedy girls - dream team mac os. I have an original Macintosh 512k (not 512ke) in practically mint condition (still has Energizer clock battery from 1984). I have all the original documentation (including receipts and service documents) and all the original software. It has an Apple soft case and all the original peripherals. I also have the Apple ImageWriter that was sold with the computer. Does anyone have a guesstimate on value?
I have a MacTV with all the original stuff – is does not start – what is it worth?
We have a Macintosh Performa 640 CD. I use it as a word processor as we have a SCREWY Internet situation and it cannot or will not share the service with the crappy PC my husband prefers. I plan to get myself an iPad and call it MINE!! Is this Mac worth anything to anybody?
Carole
Lots of info about Macintosh. What does anyone know about the value of a Lisa? I have two of them and would like to see them go to a good home. The original cost was more than $10,000 each. One of them has a switch and wiring changes that allow it to 'turn into a MacIntosh with the flip of a switch.
Back to the Performa 640CD question: Is it worth anything? Is it worth bothering to sell on Craigslist? Your input is appreciated.
Thanks, CAROLE
Trying to find info on rarity of a M0420 Classic. Build date August 1990. Here is all I can find at all really. http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_classic/specs/mac_classic.html Any value to anyone? Only numbers on it are under the bar code. E03222ZM0435LL/A
My friend, Todd Boschee, is selling his Apple museum. It is the largest Apple Computer museum in Canada. It is located in Medicine Hat, Alberta. http://www.showmeapple.com
that would be worth much based on what you had describe it. but be cautious when dealing online a lot of scammers would try anything to get that vintage mac of yours. I suggest you search ebay for similar types and do some comparisons.
I have an Apple Performa 550 and I've been wanting to sale it. I know they're not worth a lot, but I was looking at the specs online and I noticed the manufacture date on mine. All of the introduction dates for the Performa I've seen say November 1993. Mine says manufactured in (September) 1993! Does that mean anything? Is it rare?
I have an old Mac 1mb supposedly it is signed on the inside by one of the original creators I'm not sure if that's Steve Jobs or not how can I find out? If it is signed by Steve Jobs how much would the computer be worth then?
I have an original Macintosh with a Drexel University D branded on the face of the case (yes, branded, before they started printing the blue D on them. I was a Drexel Student that bought one when the first Drexel let students buy them in 1984. I still have the original manuals and stickers unopened it the plastic wrap, and all of the original system and word, etc… disks. I also have the original external floppy drive.
Does anyone know how to remove the front cover to see if it is one that has the signatures?
The serial # is f424khnm001 – produced in 1984 @ Fremont, CA – 22564th unit made.
I m also curious how much it is worth.