Skip to main content

Apple II recently got its first operating system update in 23 years

An Apple II computer on a desk.
Matthew Pearce
Given that Apple helped pioneer the business model of getting customers to upgrade their computers (and, later, their smartphones and tablets) every few years, the term “built-in obsolescence” is sometimes thrown around by critics looking to bash the Cupertino company.

That phrase couldn’t be used to describe the Apple II, however — which not only still has an enthusiastic fanbase of users 39 years after the first model rolled off production lines, but recently got its first software update in almost a quarter-century.

Recommended Videos

Called ProDOS 2.4, it wasn’t issued by Apple, but rather is a fan-created operating system update made by coder John Brooks. Having since gone onto a successful programming career — including coding Sega Genesis games for Electronic Arts — Brooks told Digital Trends that the Apple II kicked off his love of computer coding.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

“I got my first Apple II+ in 1979 when I was aged 10,” he said. “At the time, we had no way of storing our programs in our household. I had a book called 101 Games in Basic, and I used to type in the programs one at a time, and then when I got bored of one game I’d move onto programming in the next one. I had to do that for nine months or so, before my family could afford to buy a disk drive. That’s what put me on my path toward understanding how computers work.”

The release notes for ProDOS 2.4 read like those for a new MacOS or iOS over-the-air update, circa 2016. There are bug fixes, speed boosts and a handful of new features, just like you’d expect from any other Apple update. The difference, of course, is that rather than being an update for software released last month or the month before, ProDOS 2.4 is an update to ProDOS 2.0.3, which first shipped way back in 1993 — when Bill Clinton took over as president, Jurassic Park was running wild in theaters, and Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You swept the music charts.

You can check out the whole list of updates here and, if you don’t happen to have an Apple II model of your own, the same page lets you boot it as a webpage emulator too.

But while this news will likely prompt the fondest reaction from people old enough to remember the glory days of Apple’s original breakout hit computer line, John Brooks said that the machines still have something to offer younger users today.

“Older computers like the Apple II offer a great introduction and set of training wheels for anyone wanting to learn about programming,” he said. “I’m a big fan of the Raspberry Pi, but it’s so much more complicated by comparison. I think a throwback to those earlier computers could help people discover coding.”

Somewhere, Steve Wozniak just punched the air in agreement!

Luke Dormehl
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…
Apple reveals how Aardman shot its festive animation on an iPhone
Aardman's stop animation projected onto London's iconic Battersea Power Station.

The stop-motion specialists at Aardman Animations have collaborated with Apple on a festive film that’s being beamed nightly onto Battersea Power Station, one of London’s most iconic buildings.

To shoot the project, the multi-Oscar-winning team at Aardman, known for hits such as Creature Comforts, Chicken Run, and a multitude of Wallace and Gromit adventures, used an iPhone 16 Pro.

Read more
Apple might once again be considering a TV of its own
The Apple TV Siri Remote in hand.

Toward the end of the first decade of the 2000s, rumors swirled that Apple had its sights set on making a TV — a proper set, not a streaming device like what the Apple TV has become. Steve Jobs even claimed to have figured out exactly how to add the product to the company's portfolio, but the idea never came to fruition before his untimely passing. In today's Power On newsletter, Mark Gurman said that Apple "may even revisit the idea of making an Apple-branded TV set."

Gurman didn't mention details beyond that. In fact, the mention of the TV set came on the heels of a discussion around Apple's upcoming smart home device. Gurman's phrasing regarding the TV — "something [Apple] is evaluating" — is the key here. Gurman suggests that revisiting an Apple-branded TV might be dependent on the success of upcoming smart home devices, especially since HomeKit has been the least popular and least-supported platform of the three major choices.

Read more
We just got our first hint of the RTX 6090, but it’s not what you think
A hand grabbing MSI's RTX 4090 Suprim X.

As we're all counting down the days to a possible announcement of Nvidia's RTX 50-series, GPU brands are already looking ahead to what comes next. A new trademark filing with the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) reveals just how far ahead some manufacturers are thinking, because it mentions not just the Nvidia RTX 5090, but also an RTX 5090 Ti; there's even an RTX 6090 Ti. Still, it'll be a long while before we can count the RTX 60-series among the best graphics cards, so what is this all about?

The trademark registration filing, first spotted by harukaze5719 on X (formerly Twitter) and shared by VideoCardz, comes from a company called Sinotex International Industrial Ltd. This company is responsible for the GPU brand Ninja, which doesn't have much of a market presence in the U.S.

Read more