How Mac Changed the World

The Macintosh computer has never lacked for enthusiasts ready to paint the machine with cosmic significance. More than any other personal computer, the Mac comes wrapped in hype, most of it directly traceable to Steven Jobs, former chairman of Apple. He loved to tell his designers that the computer they were building -- with its icons, its pull-down menus and its mouse -- would not only change the world, but also "put a dent in the universe." As if to hammer his point home to the rest of America, Jobs launched the new machine in January 1984 with the famously melodramatic...