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Make Your Own Transparent iBook
Blackstealth sent in linkage to an attractive and clever
mod for the Apple iBook. The TronBook
takes the idea of a transparent iBook
and takes it a few steps further. I wish we'd see more laptop mods of this
quality.
So if I drop it what happens?
Here for when the site inevitably goes down :-)
Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
Please bring back Quickies and please put all case mod stories under them.
Anybody else miss Quickies? What happened to them?
Any chance someone has started doing this commercially, like these guys do for GBAs and the like? I'd like to get this done, but to source the parts and have the time/skill is a definite problem. Especially in the skill area. A friend of mine trashed his LCD trying something like this. I guess the paint ran off into the back or something.
DataSquid.net, a little about me.
Apple produces transparent pre-production models of every product. Sort of a final debugging - that way, if a chip blows, or there's a stress on the plastic somewhere, it can be identified quite easily...they've been doing this for years...
While I commend apple on both their design and marketing (who else could manage to sell "of course it's going to be more expensive now, you understand don't you?") I can't get over the fact that it's so plastic. I've had a few different laptops over the year and my favorites are invevitably the ones with metal exteriors. A device that's meant to be portable should be durable, and I'm afraid that while plastics have made great strides in impact resistance, for sheer maleability (sp?) of impact and ability to stay in one piece, alloys in use today still win hands down. I wanted an ibook. I lusted after one. Then I picked one up and played with it. No thank you sam. Give me something that's gonna survive daily duty in the back of a pack or the bottom of a briefcase.
Find out about my new childrens book: SS Death Camp Criminal Batallion Go To Monte Carlo For The Massacre
I'm afraid that while plastics have made great strides in impact resistance, for sheer maleability (sp?) of impact and ability to stay in one piece, alloys in use today still win hands down. I wanted an ibook. I lusted after one. Then I picked one up and played with it. No thank you sam. Give me something that's gonna survive daily duty in the back of a pack or the bottom of a briefcase.
Ummm TiBook?
I know I'm going to hell, I'm just trying to get good seats.
To bad I bought a TiBook.
...
Oh wait mines better.
Cool looking though.
I know I'm going to hell, I'm just trying to get good seats.
That light bulb paint will rub off in no time, he could have laquered it for a bit more durability.
Nice though, I'm jealous enough to have a go with the red.
AC sent in linkage to an attractive and clever mod for the Apple G4 Tower. A beige box conversion! I wish we'd see more boxen mods of this ingenuity.
That is so cool. It makes me wonder though, why Apple doesn't come up with designs like this themselves. yeah sure, they come up with a lot of original stuff and cool designs, but having more to choose from would surely be an advantage. The transparent cover over the hard drive and battery could do with being tinted blue - it's just a wee bit too clear I think. Wish I could afford an iBook to do this to :o)
Follow me
I'm an apple fan and all. But this is just plain ugly.
There is something to be said for a case that isn't totally transparent.
Kinda brings to mind the old saying about people who live in clear plastic houses...oh wait.
...is the LAST part of the mod? You know, the part where they guy sprays all that foam all over the iBook, and makes it look like a lump of elephant poop....
:P
...oh wait. Wrong article.
Thinkgeek to start carrying neon light strips to place inside of your clear iBooks?
*SRU
I have one of these iBooks.. I wanna see one in black or gray.
Anyone know how to remove scratches from the cases of these things?
ex-fucking-actly!
Invariably these mods end up looking like shit! why don't these guys give it up, save their time/money and leave the design to the lovely design people at apple?
i hate pansy republicans
What I'd like to do (yes, I do have an iBook!) is remove the white paint, then get an artist to paint some lurid, pinball-backglass-style cartoon art to replace the white. Maybe Bill Gates getting his ass kicked by Linux Lass (yes, I do run Linux!)
A few links on the left side of the page goes to pages of pictures that show the construction phase, wow what resources these geeks have. I like the banner on top too, a colourful "The chamber of fussiest people.". Can we steal that and make it the new Slashdot motto?
What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
sexy, said Bender.
karma suicide 2k2
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Because the person is running Mac OS X on the laptop.
blaah !
Another thing Apple does is colour their PCBs according to the design/manufacturing phase. EVT boards (engineering trials) were red, DVT boards (design trials) were blue & PVT/production were the standard green colour
Alison
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." - Albert Einstein
Another Mirror Here
thank you
OpenDK by Fazigu take spaint off of plactic safely.
That's really a silly question. One could ask, why weren't you working on KDE or GNOME instead of reading and posting to Slashdot? Let the guy do with his time what he likes, just as you are free to do. Besides, the guy is a Mac user; he's already got a polished UI, and KDE and GNOME probably don't even concern him.
There ain't no rules here; we're trying to accomplish something.
So what did his wife say when she got home? He did mention that she wouldn't be happy about him pulling apart her ibook.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
Um! Doesn't this guy know you're supposed to paint EGGS on Easter, not APPLES!
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
There are plenty of links to replacement keyboards and such for other Powerbooks like the Wallstreet, Pismo, etc, but for some reason, nothing has appeared yet for the IceBook. Anyone have any links to cool mods for it? A keyboard would go great with a paint mod.
True. I worked at a large software publisher and we recieved a completely clear version of the first iMac back in '97. It looked pretty sweet, except all the shielding kinda hid the cool stuff.
The iBook is covered in polycarbonate plastic. The same stuff they use in ultra hard shatter resistent eyeglasses and in bulletproof glass.
Unless you're carrying steel surgical instruments and diamond cutting blades in the bottom of your briefcase or in your backpack, the iBook will probably suffer, at most, cosmetic scratches from the run of the mill stuff.
Alloys will deform *and stay that way* where the polycarbonate will flex and return it's shape. The iBook itself has a polycarbonate shell, a magnesium frame (you wanted alloys? you got it), rubber mounting for the drives and other components, and it's got an extra sturdy hinge for the screen.
The only stronger laptop I can imagine would be the Panasonic ToughBooks. Everything else I've seen (even my Titanium PowerBook) pales in comparison to an iBook.
GPL Deconstructed
Two more words:
That's three words.
Ceci n'est pas une sig.
Shuttupa in your face, anh?
I stand by a statement I made a long time ago - circuit boards and manufacturing labels are inherently ugly. Perhaps I'm not geek enough to appreciate them properly (although I still find the new-electronics smell a pleasant one), but I'm very glad my computer has a case you can't see through.
In fact, I don't even like my computer looking like a computer - it doesn't fit my decor as it is. Make the whole thing invisible, and I'll be happy.
Go get a slightly older iBook, teh one with the handle. If you want a slab of metal, it _will_ be more durable than the iBook. Of course it won't have a screen. Or a CPU, or a keyboard, being simply a slab of metal.
If you have a standard laptop that's _constructed_ using metal, I will offer to come over with my iBook SE and beat it completely to flinders.
I will then proceed to open it up and write a nice weblog entry on the experience, after it has woken up from sleep.
Ok, maybe I'm overstating, although not completely.
My SE iBook has survived a 7' slam into blacktop (I slipped on ice) with nary a scratch. A previous one (still in service) survived me slamming it with all my weight on concrete stairs (tripped and caught my balance ON the iBook while holding it by the handle), again, no damage at all.
The newer ones (iBooks) seem pretty tough, but they don't inspire me with that same toughness, probably due to the reduced size and therefore reduced airspace between the sides/edges of the laptop and the components, which is, IMO, one of the main reasons the "handled" models can take so much abuse.
KDE make an elf assumption (so it wont run on non elf unicies for a long time) and GNOME is already running on OS-X via fink.
I can recall the first TiBook looking like this in the lab .....
are there pics of this? that'd be really interesting...
moox. for a new generation.
Use the stuff you use to remove scratches from a CD, cellphone screen. It is basically a gentle polish.
This is something only a jap would do--they do this to shitty little Hondas and Acuras (two cars that weren't meant for racing).
Only a jap could think that a big fat tailpipe that makes lawnmower sounds on a embarassing modded Honda with a spoiler bigger than the car itself is cool.
God I hate japs!
It's not a TronBook till it's running a purely black and white Aqua theme that's been cheesily colored in with magic marker.
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
Instead of paint, a person can stick colored paper or a photograph back there. could look very cool.
OK it's a personal opinion, but electronics have the cyber-futuristic look inherently, just like robots and the like. I admit some people don't like that look, but I could imagine many of the /. crowd do.
I could go further by saying that electronics is beautiful because it's 100% functional. Beige/grey cases are not functional.
--
If you moderate this, then your children will be next.
I am looking for sources of various thicknesses of plexi. as thick as 1/4 inch (about 7mm) down to 1/16 inch (about 1.6mm) or smaller
As well as multipurpose fish-safe solvents/glues.
this will be used in a number of projects including case mods and computer-fishtank conversions.
comment directly in my journal
are there pics of this? that'd be really interesting...
Hell, no! I can recall my brother-in-law getting into major trouble for photographing my baby daughter out in the parking lot one day. No cameras, no nothing!
The time the C1/iMac was under development, we were brought into a room in Cupertino which was under guard & shown an early prototype which was stored under a cloth. Major paranoia. :) The iMac was translucent plastic, not the infamous Bondi Blue & had a laptop CD-ROM bodged into place. Interestingly enough, when the LifeSavers project went ahead, the first time we became aware that the iMac colours had changed was when they trundled down the manufacturing line! Here's a pic of the production line from Apple PR
As for the TiBook - it's wasn't much to look at. A big 3" thick perspex box with some Pismo and EVT parts inside. The wide LCD screen was naked and held in place on a sheet of plastic with Kapton tape. The whole display 'hinge' was propped up behind the case. The slightest jiggle was enough to crash the beast as all the flex connectors were just pushed onto free-floating pcbs. There was a honking big piece of metal stuck over the processor card & a conventional CPU fan was attached.
It really wasn't that much to look at but the speed of the thing was phenomenal to us G3/400 types ....
Alison
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." - Albert Einstein
...you did something like this with a new 23" Cinema Display?
heh heh heh...
can you say technology lust?
All this geekness is way kewl and shit but for 10 years I've been waiting for a rugged affordable laptop you don't have to baby. I want a crack proof shatter proof shock proof case that doesn't weigh 9 lbs.
What should they use? Kevlar and shock foam plastic? Inorganic ceramics? What???
Btw: I am looking for a warm hole of nonspecific gender.
---
Authentic posting by NaveWeiss. That ain't your average anonymous coward
The iBook is pretty rugged for what it is. I was at a baseball game Friday (there's a place that needs 802.11b access...) and had left it under my seat. I stood up to cheer the Astros and this lady came brushing behind me. I didn't notice till later the big footprint on the suede slipcover I keep it in.
Opened it up, it came out of sleep fine. No problem. You could probably make a thinner iBook with metal, but pound for pound, I don't think you can beat the polycarbonate it is wrapped in. I move it everyday between home and office and whereever without too much care and its never lost a tick in the last 9 months.
That's what the notebook was designed to run, and it comes with a huge software bundle that just works, enabling you to manage music, photos, edit DV, burn CD's, do office work, play games, Web, email, etc. all out of the box with nothing to add. You also get perfect sleep modes, instant wake-up, and 5-6 hour battery life. And it checks a server monthly and updates all of its own software, even updating the OS itself. That's a lot of stuff to throw away just to run Linux on one more machine. Think of the iBook as a subnotebook that just happens to have an optical drive and a full selection of ports. It's trouble-free mobile computing ... Linux might be better running on a cheap home x86 PC with the iBook as your mobile machine. UNIX-wise they will live together quite happily.
As someone who flunked physics, I was wondering if a black painted case would cool better - would absorb more heat inside and radiate more heat out? Similarly does the white paint increase heat reflection back into the case? Or is this a dumb question ...?
I am very interested in replacement keyboards for Apple laptops. The reason is my need for a Ctrl key to the left of the 'A' key. I'm a long-time Unix user, and I just can't get along without this. Currently Apple Laptop Keyboards are unusable for unix users.
So, where can I buy replacement Apple Laptop Keyboards?? Do they have this problem?
My standand rant follows. Apple: Please re-design your laptop motherboards so that they don't use the broken-by-design ADB keyboards, and please do it right away!
Apple Laptop Keyboards are Unacceptable to Unix Users
Apple designs horrible keyboards. ADB keyboards (which are still used on all of Apple's laptops) are unusable to unix users who need a Ctrl key to the left of the 'A'.
Proper Keyboard Design
- When a key is pressed, the keyboard sends a keyPress
event.
- When a key is released, the keyboard sends a keyRelease
event.
- Each key is assigned a different keycode.
Nothing more, nothing less.ADB Keyboard Mis-design
- When the key to the left of the 'A' (CapsLock) is
pressed, the ADB keyboard sends both a keyPress event
and a keyRelease event.
- When the CapsLock key is then released, the ADB keyboard
sends NO events.
- When the CapsLock key is next pressed, the ADB keyboard
sends NO events.
- When the CapsLock key is then released, the ADB keyboard
sends both a keyPress event and a keyRelease
event.
- The above cycle repeats over and over.
This is WRONG ! Apple's ADB keyboards are broken by design.Unix Users Cannot Use Apple's ADB Keyboards
What this means is that unix users who need the key to the left of the 'A' to be a Ctrl key cannot use Apple ADB keyboards. You can easily reprogram the CapsLock key to be a Ctrl key and get rid of the badness of the CapsLock key, but you can't get the required goodness of the Ctrl key to the left of the 'A'.
Apple Loses Sales to Unix Users
All Apple laptops have the horrible broken-by-design ADB keyboards which are unusable to unix users. I want to buy an Apple laptop, but I cannot and will not until Apple builds input devices usable by unix users.
It weighs 4.9lbs (much less than your 9 lb weight requirement), is a rubber mounted (drive and electronics), magnesium alloy framed (for lightness, rigidity, and strength), polycarbonate covered (bulletproof? Probably not.) laptop that you can probably use to stop knife wielding attackers and then write up the incident up in your online journal while wirelessly surfing the net at your local Starbucks.
:)
You think I'm joking, but I'm not. You could probably stop a knife with your iBook, whack the attacker in the head with it, and then walk away with a working iBook
GPL Deconstructed
It's not my style to troll like that, and you can easily verify the authentication of the message by pressing on the link.
So, help me to find a girlfriend.
Thank you.
Slashdot community, please notice: I am looking for a girlfriend.
Nave H. Weiss
There is a patch to the kernel that works for remapping capslock to control. Check the debian-powerpc archives.
I have a positive modifier on Troll. When I mod someone Troll their karma should go UP!