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Make Your Own Transparent iBook

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the working-with-what-you-got dept.

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.

12 of 146 comments (clear)

  1. Picture Mirror... by FyRE666 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here for when the site inevitably goes down :-)

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    Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
  2. Re:And lose the magnesium cover? by Hast · · Score: 2, Informative

    The iBook doesn't have magnesium cover, that's the TiBook. The iBook just have painted plastic. (Which is why these hacks are so easy to do.)

  3. RE: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    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...

  4. Re:And lose the magnesium cover? by xTina · · Score: 3, Informative

    The iBook doesn't have a magnesium cover but it does have a magnesium frame:

    <snip>
    That's why it's made of ultratough polycarbonate - the same material used in bulletproof glass - and has an internal magnesium frame for added strength.
    </snip>

    (from http://www.apple.com/ibook/)

  5. Re:Transparent prototypes by Draoi · · Score: 4, Informative
    I can vouch for that, having worked there in diagnostic engineering. Early models were made in perspex as soon as the basic form was decided upon. The product design team used this to ensure that everything would fit in the final unit, that the airflow was going to work out, etc. Also, you could easily look through a unit and immediately know if it had a modem, the latest processor card, etc. Cool stuff. The *really* early units were made of of sawn-up sheets of perspex which had been glued and taped together. The components were glued or velcro'd into place & the whole box was about three times bigger than the normal product. I can recall the first TiBook looking like this in the lab .....

    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

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    Alison

    "It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." - Albert Einstein

  6. A better solvant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    OpenDK by Fazigu take spaint off of plactic safely.

  7. Re:Does it come in black? by jlower · · Score: 3, Informative

    Get some plastic scratch remover if the surface isn't painted. It's a lot like rubbing compound for cars. You should be able to find it at bigger hardware stores.

    I've used it to remove scratches from plexiglas aquariums. Takes some patience and elbow grease but it works.

  8. Re:Two words. by stripes · · Score: 3, Informative
    Ummm TiBook?

    The TiBook while it is very nice does have a few drawbacks. It is physically wider. As a more costly item it may be more of a theft target. Worst of all (to me) it has a whole lot less 802.11 range (the iBook and PowerBook G3 tends to have much better range then most PCMCIA 802.11 cards, the TiBook has somewhat worse range then 802.11 cards). There are a lot of good things about the TiBook though.

  9. Japanese imports by jchristopher · · Score: 3, Informative
    Mods for Apple laptops are apparently incredibly popular in Japan - they have all kinds of stuff like replacement colored light up keyboards, etc. Not just one-off mods, but actual production parts that you can buy at retail.

    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.

  10. Realistic here by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

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    GPL Deconstructed
  11. Re:Two words. by threephaseboy · · Score: 2, Informative

    Fine. But most of them did not. Also note that "Powerbook G3" technically refers to the Kanga G3, the one in the 5300 case, while "Powerbook G3 Series" refers to the first curvy ones thru the last FW models. Everything up to and including the bronze G3 didnt have a airport slot b/c airport had not come out yet.

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  12. Re:Two words. by threephaseboy · · Score: 2, Informative

    Look at: http://www.info.apple.com/support/applespec.html
    Note that you have Powerbook G3 (Series), Powerbook G3 (Bronze), Powerbook G3 (Firewire), and then just "Powerbook G3"

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