Feed: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Feed Link: https://www.engadget.com/
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Title: Influential Apple engineer Bill Atkinson dies at 74

Date: Sun, 08 Jun 2025 19:10:24 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/computing/influentia...

A renowned Apple engineer who was instrumental in developing modern-day
computing has died. Bill Atkinson, who was part of Apple's original Macintosh
development team, died of pancreatic cancer at 74, according to a Facebook
post made by his family on June 5.

His contributions to Apple and the Macintosh personal computer are still
widely used today, including fundamental UI elements like the menu bar,
double-clicking and the selection lasso. However, Atkinson's work goes much
deeper than that, since he's partly responsible for the foundational design
language that influenced Apple's early days. His legacy includes creating
MacPaint, an application that showed the world what a graphics-based system
looks like at a time when text-based systems were the norm, and developing
QuickDraw, a graphics toolbox that the Macintosh and Lisa computers use. To
make computers more user-friendly, Atkinson also designed HyperCard, an Apple
application that introduced hypertext to everyday users and not just
programmers. Tim Cook paid tribute to Atkinson, posting on X, that he was a
ΓÇ£true visionary whose creativity, heart, and groundbreaking work on the Mac
will forever inspire us.ΓÇ¥

Beyond Apple, Atkinson was one of three co-founders for General Magic, a
software and electronics company that supplied products to Motorola and Sony
in the 90s. Later, he worked with Numenta in 2007, which was a startup
focused on artificial intelligence. Atkinson was also a seasoned nature
photographer, publishing a book called Within the Stone that highlights
polished and cut rocks with close-up shots. Atkinson is survived by his wife,
two daughters, stepson, stepdaughter, two brothers, four sisters, and dog,
Poppy.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/computing/influentia...
dies-at-74-191024913.html?src=rss

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