At a few different times in its history, Apple has published magazines of a sort. These were not just catalogs, although they did of course promote the Apple cause. The Apple magazine lasted for a few issues in the early 1980s, and I will be posting scans of those at some point in the future. Later on, there was an Apple magazine issue that made an appearance in 1997, but as far as I know was just a single issue and then the project was dropped again. In between, Apple produced two issues of Apple on Apples. I don’t believe that there were any more than those two. Apple seems to keep thinking this is a good idea, but then changing its mind and just going back to publishing catalogs. The second issue is undated, but the events list suggests it is from early 1983, so I’m going to guess January 1983.
The Apple on Apples issues are quite short. The first one has only a couple of contentful articles, amounting to a profile of a couple of companies using Apple II Pluses to run their businesses, and an interview with Mike Markkula. The second issue is more developed, with articles on Logo, the Lisa and //e, online and local networking with the Apple II Plus, an interview with Paul C. Dali, profiles of Allen Dziejma and Paul Lutus, and tips on integrating Visicalc and Apple Writer on an Apple ///.
Each issue features a “puzzler” as well. In the first issue, the questions included “What is the weight of an FCC-approved Apple II?” and the answers were provided. In the second issue, Apple was more ambitious with the puzzler and made it a contest, six winners being awarded “I solved the puzzler” T-shirts. I have no idea if those were ever given out, or what the answers to the puzzler were, because there was no issue number 3. One thing I don’t understand about the puzzler is that in issue 2, they list the winners of the last puzzler, yet the puzzler in issue 1 gave the answers and didn’t provide anywhere to write in. Did they just make those winners up? Very strange. [Update: see below.]
In any event, they’re sort of interesting, and they’re quite uncommon in the wild.
- Apple on Apples, v1n1 (October 1982, dated version)
- Apple on Apples, v1n1 (October 1982, undated version) (scan coming soon)
- Apple on Apples, v1n2 (January 1983? no date given)
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For the record, the problems I found in the “puzzler” were: One disk has its media access slot sideways, the logo and the feed advance wheel on the Silentype printer are on the wrong side and the plug comes out the back not out the side, the Monitor III is essentially upside down, though the switches are at the top instead of the bottom and are red, there is no useful need for antennae above the monitor, the keyboard is wrong in various ways (missing a row of keys, the space bar is red, some keys are elongated where they shouldn’t be. Anyone have an “I solved the puzzler” T-shirt?
Update: Turns out, there were actually two versions of Apple on Apples v1n1. The one I scanned and discussed here says “October 1982” on the cover, and has the puzzler as discussed, with the answers. The other version does not give a date on the cover, has an additional introductory “About this issue” note, and has a trimmed-down “puzzler” section that actually does give an address to send answers to. Unfortunately, my copy of this second version has some water damage, but I will add a scan of it here shortly.