All you need to know about Andy Hertzfeld
Andy Hertzfeld is an American computer scientist and inventor, with a net worth of $50 million. Andy Hertzfeld was a member of the first Apple Macintosh computer development team in the early 1980s.
Hertzfeld decided to work for Apple Computers after purchasing an Apple II. From 1979 until 1984, he was a designer for Macintosh system software.
Who is Andy Hertzfeld?
Andy Hertzfeld was born on April 6, 1953, in Philadelphia, PA. He attended Brown University and graduated with a degree in computer science in 1975. Hertzfeld later pursued graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
After leaving Apple in 1984, he co-founded the electronics businesses Radius, General Magic, and Eazel. Later, from 2005 to 2013, Hertzfeld worked as a designer for Google. Andy was a key designer for Google+’s Circles user interface.
How old is Andy Hertzfeld?
He is currently 70 years old.
What is Andy Hertzfeld’s net worth?
He is estimated to be worth $70 Million.
What is Andy Hertzfeld’s career?
In 1978, Hertzfeld purchased an Apple II computer and began writing software for it. He also began contributing to the monthly periodicals Call-A.P.P.L.E. and Dr. Dobb’s Journal. This finally got the notice of Apple, who hired Hertzfeld in 1979 as a systems programmer.
During his early years at Apple, Hertzfeld worked on the firmware for the company’s first printer, the Apple Silentype, as well as the Sup’R’Terminal, the first 80-column peripheral card for the Apple II computer. He later built an icon and font editor to allow for the creation of standard Macintosh computer icons, which he sought the help of his artist friend Susan Kare to design.
In 1981, Hertzfeld joined the design team for the Apple Macintosh computer, working for Bud Tribble alongside Burrell Smith and Bill Atkinson. He was the chief software architect for the Macintosh Operating System, which pioneered the use of a graphical user interface. Hertzfeld also wrote significant elements of the Macintosh’s original system software, including key components like the user interface toolkit, control panel, and scrapbook.
After leaving Apple in 1984, Hertzfeld started Radius alongside Mike Boich, Burrell Smith, Alain Rossmann, and Matt Carter. Radius specializes in Macintosh peripherals and accessories, such as CPU upgrade cards, graphics accelerators, video capture cards, and color calibrators. The company’s original product, the Radius Full Page Display, pioneered the concept of having many displays available in a single coordinate space, allowing users to move windows between them.
Radius went public in 1990, but by 1992, it was facing major challenges, with numerous shareholder lawsuits charging its executives of insider trading. Following a series of layoffs in 1993, Radius bought VideoFusion, a video production software business. The following year, it purchased rival company SuperMac. Radius renamed itself Digital Origin in 1999 and shifted its focus to video editing software and hardware development. A few years later, in 2002, it was purchased by the corporation Media 100.
Hertzfeld co-founded General Magic, a software and electronics firm, with Marc Porat and Bill Atkinson in 1990, as his second venture after leaving Apple. Early on, the company worked in near-total secrecy; but, it quickly drew the attention of many of the world’s most important electronics corporations, including Sony and AT&T, which became partners and investors.
General Magic’s main product, the Magic Cap, the object-oriented operating system that powered Sony’s Magic Link and the Motorola Envoy, was released in 1994. Among many other products, General Magic created the precursors to devices and components like USBs, software modems, touchscreen controller integrated circuits, and networked games.
Hertzfeld started his third company, Eazel, in 1999. Notably, the company’s team comprised several former employees from leading technological companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Netscape, and Sun Microsystems. Eazel’s main product was the Nautilus file manager for Linux’s GNOME desktop. After a failed attempt to monetize and get sufficient funds, Eazel ceased operations in the spring of 2001.
Source
