Apple Store enthusiast and creative extraordinaire Michael Steeber today announced the launch of The Apple Store Time Machine, a new interactive Mac app that lets you “travel back in time” and revisit four iconic Apple Stores on their grand opening days.
“The Apple Store Time Machine is a celebration of the places and products that have shaped our lives for more than twenty years,” said Steeber, who spent hundreds of hours researching, designing, and developing the project. “This interactive experience recreates memorable moments in Apple history with painstaking detail and historical accuracy.”
The app is free to download and runs on Apple silicon Macs and recent Intel-based Macs. There is an option to make a donation on the project’s website.
The four Apple Store locations that the app allows you to experience are Apple Tysons Corner in Virginia circa 2001, Apple Stanford Shopping Center in California circa 2004, Apple Fifth Avenue in New York circa 2006, and Apple Infinite Loop in Cupertino circa 2015. All four stores include easter eggs such as iPhone and Mac commercials, interactive Mac apps like GarageBand and Photo Booth, a ringing phone at the original Genius Bar, and more.
The app is almost like a video game or simulator, complete with keyboard controls for moving around stores, but Steeber prefers to describe the app as an experience. However you describe it, it’s clear that Steeber put a tremendous amount of effort into this project, with each store visualizing even the smallest of details, like software boxes.
For more Apple Store coverage, subscribe to Steeber’s newsletter “Tabletops.”
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