How the PowerBook was Born

Sabah Arif writes "Apple had no presence in the portables market prior to 1992. Its attempt at creating a laptop Macintosh, the Macintosh Portable, weighed almost 15 lbs and failed to sell. On the personal behest of John Sculley, Apple contracted with Sony to create Asahi, a smaller Portable. Apple developed two high end models in company. After 1992 and until the disastrous 5300, Apple was the leading notebook maker."

Comments

thin thing

[catwh0re]

rumours suggest intel powerbooks will be 25% thinner... if that is even possible.

The Story condensed

[Anonymous Coward]

PowerBook was born while on Safari. The child enjoyed sitting on Pa Apple's laptop, and had a run in with a Tiger at age X. Surviving a SCSI childhood in the mean streets of Motorola, PowerBook grew up to play with Firewire.

ah the original powerbook

[nizcolas]

...also affectionately referred to as the luggable

Re:ah the original powerbook

[gatzke]

The classic Compaq was a great luggable. Size of a suitcase with two 5.25" drives. We got a 30 MB add-on drive and that was awesome. 1 MB RAM but DOS only used the first 640k effectively. Clear 7 inch green CRT. Keyboard folded up into bottom of machine, full sized with real key depth.

That was a luggable machine. 15 pounds is nothing.

Re:ah the original powerbook

[gatzke]

Found a link to that classic luggable Compaq, from back in the day when real men used laptops.

http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/compaq /

Re:ah the original powerbook

[RollingThunder]

Sounds like the Kaypro that my father-in-law gave to me.

That thing is a farking boat anchor, but it's technically portable. By elephants.

Just gotta say it

[ackthpt]

I was at a conference, a week ago, where the presenters were using powerbooks. I think you can tell a lot about a product by how people use it. These things looked really smooth and after all my fits with a WinXP laptop, I desperately want one. Problem is we're a Windoze shop. :p

Re:Just gotta say it

[ElectroBot]

If you can't make the switch to Mac or don't want to support both OSes in your shop then you should wait until Intel iBooks or Powerbooks come out. You'll have a laptop with great battery life (for a regular-sized laptop - ultra portables aren't really laptops), great design and you'll be able to run Windows, Mac OS X and Linux on one machine.

Re:Just gotta say it

[ThaFooz]

I was at a conference, a week ago, where the presenters were using powerbooks. I think you can tell a lot about a product by how people use it. These things looked really smooth and after all my fits with a WinXP laptop, I desperately want one. Problem is we're a Windoze shop. :p

Well, you might be suprised at how well the integrate with Windows. There is an OSX version of MS Office, a Mac Remote Desktop client, Virtual PC for emulating the Windows environment, and AFAIK they can join Windows domains. I mean, unless you're on Visual Studio 24/7, you could probably get away with a switch. Or just wait 8 months for Intel Powerbooks and dual boot :)

Re:Just gotta say it

[delire]

PC laptops just suck. PC makers operate on razor thin margins - which means cheap (and often proprietary) parts, gawd-awful, tech support, and an enormous number of models..

What a spectacular load of bollocks.

'PC' laptops, generally speaking, suffer no worse quality componentry or service deals than Apples. Apple does not 'make' hardware. They outsource production to two of the largest laptop and gadget manufacturers in the world, one of which has a much larger stake in the laptop market than Apple, Asustek. Taiwanese companies Asustek and Quanta are pretty much entirely responsible for delivering the Apple line, from iPods to PB's to MiniMacs.

Having worked at a university recently (PB's are quite popular in Humanities departments) I was witness to several PB's being returned for that mysterious 'motherboard failure' that we all keep hearing about, and another for a HDD error. In one case the laptop had to be sent away with a turnaround of five weeks. This has caused two defectors to Thinkpads which, I must say, have a better reputation where hardware is concerned.

This said, The G3's were tanks. A friend of mine's G3 has outlived her PB, and is over three times it's age. The move to Intel at the condition of cost and availability simply puts the Apple laptop within the same production and distribution chain as the rest of the re-branded portables.

Quality of hardware is not Apple's edge anymore; it's just not in their interest to compete on that level, one at the expense of market share.

I think PowerBooks are pretty nice

[ReformedExCon]

I just wish they'd use a better screen. Comparing Mac laptops to Windows laptops is like night and day, literally. The Mac laptops have such dim screens compared to the laptops that are available for Windows.

I suppose it keeps the cost down, but if there is one area that really ought not be skimped on (especially for machines meant to be used by graphic designers), the LCD monitor is it, in my opinion.

Re:I think PowerBooks are pretty nice

[ackthpt]

I just wish they'd use a better screen. Comparing Mac laptops to Windows laptops is like night and day, literally. The Mac laptops have such dim screens compared to the laptops that are available for Windows.

I suppose it keeps the cost down, but if there is one area that really ought not be skimped on (especially for machines meant to be used by graphic designers), the LCD monitor is it, in my opinion.

Odd that. I think the Compaq I use at work is too damn bright. I prefer dimmer monitors. For that matter I really hate the black on white, like on typing paper, scheme which I think contributes to my migrain headaches.)

Dimmer may be a way to conserve power. Do Powerbooks have issues with power consumption? How do they rate?

Re:I think PowerBooks are pretty nice

[Concerned Onlooker]

Well, since there is bound to be a slew of anecdotal evidence I may as well pipe up. I'm using an older TiBook (867 Mhz). Original battery. If I set the brightness to the middle mark I am still getting 4 hours of run time. But really, no notebook battery lasts long enough in my opinion.

By the way, I really hate laptops with the smooth, shiny monitor glass/covering. The reflections are completely distracting.

Re:I think PowerBooks are pretty nice

[Jeff DeMaagd]

The latest 15" and 17" Powerbooks supposedly use a brighter screen and are offered in higher resolutions than previous models.

My current issue with Powerbooks is that they are still hobbled with a very slow front side bus, about a third that of a Pentium-M, with a much smaller cache to boot, 512k vs 1 or 2megs. I don't know how fast the bus on the Turion64 is, but I think those might be faster still.

Re:I think PowerBooks are pretty nice

[ocp]

Powerbooks adjust the brightness of the screen to the available light in the user's environment. The screen can be quite dim in a poorly lit room, which results in less fatigue and less stress on your eyes when you look somewhere else besides the screen (your eyes do not need to adjust back and forth to the different lighting levels).

At least for me, brighter is not better. I have both types of laptops at home (private and work), and once you get used to the automatic dimming of the powerbook, the windows one feels like working with a desk lamp lighting directly onto your face.

Re:I think PowerBooks are pretty nice

[iocat]

I can deal with the dim screen. I suppose I could even get used to the track pad, versus the pencil eraser thing I prefer now. But until they put TWO BUTTONS on the PowerBooks, the editors, artists, and poets can keep 'em. Common Apple -- you released a two button mouse... now fix the laptops!

Re:I think PowerBooks are pretty nice

[Lord Maud'Dib]

Why is this such a problem? 99% of the time a single normal click is all that is required. The rare times you need an alternate click its an easy outstretch finger in addition to the normal click and can easily be done with one hand. The wear on my trackpad button is actually most prominent just to the right of centre. If there were two buttons there of equal size I'd be contorting my (right) hand into a less natural position, so I prefer the single button. That, and any OS/app that needs to use the right button a lot is not designed properly.

Re:I think PowerBooks are pretty nice

[holy zarquon's singi]

I could even get used to the track pad, versus the pencil eraser thing I prefer now.

I think the pencil eraser thing you refer to should be referred to as a "clitoris".

Re:I think PowerBooks are pretty nice

[skingers6894]

It's funny you should say that. I've read this opinion a few times on slashdot of late. Yet here I am with my 17" Powerbook and the brightness setting is just over halfway. This means the 'book has almost twice the brightness I need. If other brand notebooks make the PB look dim I guess I'd have to wear sunglasses to use those!

Re:I think PowerBooks are pretty nice

[KlaymenDK]

It's a problem because it needs that extra finger. I know it sounds like a small thing, but are you aware of the number of mouse clicks that go into an average work week? A lot.

For instance, when I read an online article, being able to load links in background tabs is a godsend. I do that using a middle click. Or, I highlight the occasional word and right click to call up a dictionary.

Had I only one mouse button, your argument is that I could simply use one extra finger to hit Command or Option. But that finger has got to be attached to the hand not holding the mouse, and thus it's more inconvenient.

Now that Apple have introduced multi-button support in their OS, we can use them. But on the laptop itself we still have only one button (and as far as I have experienced in shops, the pointer surface doesn't even have hotspots for scrolling - but I could (hopefully) be wrong). I guess if someone would give me an Apple laptop, I'd install some form of mouse gesture utility.

DISCLAIMER: In the olden days I was a Mac guy, I've had everything from the original Mac to a Colour Classic. After that, Windows (and more recently, KDE) has spoiled me.

Re:I think PowerBooks are pretty nice

[shmlco]

Let's see, this 15" Powerbook has 2GB ram, a 120GB HD, 1.67 PPC G4 processor, 128MB ATI Radion 9700 video chip running a 1440x960 screen, 802.11g, Slot-load 8x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW), gigabit ethernet, USB 2.0 and FireWire 400 & 800, built-in speakers, built-in microphone, DVI-I and SVGA-out, and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR. And that's not counting the software shipped with it.

Funny, but it seems to me that most other notebooks are the ones missing the features...

Re:I think PowerBooks are pretty nice

[penguin-collective]

So does my Powerbook. Those are pretty standard specs these days--nothing to write home about. And in terms of software, many laptops come at least with as much software included as Powerbooks

And in some areas the Powerbooks fall short, most notably CPU performance and battery life. And while a Mac-only user might not notice it, the pointing device and keyboard are pretty mediocre designs (and, worse yet, you don't get a choice--if you want a Powerbook, you are stuck with Apple's design).

As I was saying: the Powerbooks are great looking and they are, overall, capable, well-designed laptops at reasonable prices. I do recommend them. But they are not cutting-edge or particularly innovative. In fact, until Apple starts shipping x86-based laptops, they simply won't be able to match the performance of other laptops.

Re:I think PowerBooks are pretty nice

[Ohreally_factor]

Now that Apple have introduced multi-button support in their OS, we can use them.

Did someone recently uncomment the mod_troll line in your httpd.conf file? =P (Support for multi button mice is not recent. I'm not sure but, but I think it's been around at least ten years. Come on, man! Are we going to get the kottke troll next?)

However, your point about the PB lacking a second button is valid. Until Apple rectifies this (if they ever do), I suggest looking at Sidetrack, a utility/pref pane that will give you the functionality that you desire.

Re:I think PowerBooks are pretty nice

[John Muir]

I have the same thing with white on black...

But on this PowerBook I press Command+Control+Option+8 and it switches to negative colour mode! Perfect for low light levels when you just can't crank the white down low enough.

I seriously recommend a Mac for anyone with eyestrain. The OS has features like that and a competent zoom built in so that all programs support them, and they're available by keypresses.

Re:I think PowerBooks are pretty nice

[TheRaven64]

We are talking about laptops here, and for the most part you use your thumb to operate both (or all three) buttons on a trackpad/point. This means you have to feel your way to the correct one, or even look (I use a PowerBook and a ThinkPad, by the way, so I am familiar with both). In contrast, you have a finger near the control key all of the time you are using the keyboard. The only time when a multi-button trackpad is preferable is if you are left-handed, and that is because of a brain-dead decision by Apple to have a single control key on the left hand side, making it inaccessible if you are using the trackpad with your left hand.

Re:I think PowerBooks are pretty nice

[v1]

It's only a button click away! In the Displays system preference, do a colorsync calibration. Now when it asks you for gamma, DO NOT select "mac standard gamma". Choose one of the other two options available, such as "uncorrected gamma". That will get you your gamma that you are used to seeing on windows.

Re:I think PowerBooks are pretty nice

[Mattintosh]

That has nothing to do with the hardware and everything to do with the target market of the Macintosh.

See this link for more information, but the basic gist of it is this:

- Sun and PC (read: "Windows") don't gamma-correct anything going to the display. The average graphics card/driver end up with a gamma factor of about 2.0 or 2.1, though.

- The Mac has a standard correction factor of 1.8 due to hardware and display driver output. The reasoning for this is that it supposedly gives better color accuracy for print output. Being a complete know-nothing about graphics, I can't vouch for this.

- SGI's are similar to the Mac, but use a different correction factor. (The link says 2.4. I'll take their word for it.)

The result is that the screen on a Mac looks darker when uncorrected.

Either that, or you're just looking at someone's screen in power-save mode. Auto-dim is how Apple achieves those "amazing" battery life numbers. Remember, kids, Powerbooks are made in the same factories as Vaios and Inspirons. They're just made to Apple's spec instead of Sony's or Dell's.

Autonomy Necessary for Creativity?

[rewinn]

Was the key to the strategy glancingly mentioned in the article as "...Sculley started a semiautonomous division to produce a successful portable computer"

It seems that big chunks of autonomy are necessary to developing really high quality products that are significantly different from the main corporate line. IIRC the IBM AS/400 line was the end result of a similar process: almost a separate computer company, it is said.

It would be interesting to test the hypothesis by comparing the failed development of the Apple Portable to the successful development of the Powerbook.

Re:Autonomy Necessary for Creativity?

[TheRaven64]

I think this is the worst example imaginable for two reasons:

1. There was nothing innovative about the IBM PC. It was built using off-the-shelf components from the lowest bidder. The project wasn't about making a good PC, it was about making a quick-to-market PC because everyone is buying these PC things and IBM only had minicomputers and mainframes to sell them. The only reason people bought them was that 'no one ever got fired for buying IBM' - they were inferior to most of their current competition.
2. The PC lost the market for IBM. If they had produced something internally, then they could have used the same marketting to make everyone buy the thing, built it to a strong market position, and prevented clone makers getting in on the act. They would almost certainly have written the OS in-house (they did for everything else).

The IBM PC was the product of IBM management getting caught with their pants down, not some stunning innovation.

what a wordsmith

[JeffSh]

"After 1992 and until the disastrous 5300, Apple was the leading notebook maker."

Man this guy is really good at confusing things. He sounds like a political writer. It would have been easier to say "For 2 years, 1993 and 1994, until the Apple Powerbook 5300 was released, Apple was the leading seller of portable computers"

2 years? 2 years. Seriously. I had to do research to find that the powerbook 5300 was released in 1995. Taken at face value, without knowing what the 5300 is, someone could interpret Apple's position to actually have been "dominant", where it wasn't.

Gosh. 1992. Man. The internet was barely even around! that's like stonage.

Re:what a wordsmith

[eMartin]

That's one way to interpret it.

I thought he was saying that Apple was the leading notebook maker for 3308 years.

And while I'm not one of those who expects Apple to go out of business anytime soon, I'm not so sure about them still being around in the disastrous year 5300.

much more interesting...

[3-State Bit]

birth of the P-P-P-Powerbook

It was smaller

[legomaniaboy]

See, the original PowerBook was smaller than the competing portables. It set the standard for what a good notebook is. People liked the size and weight. Now most people are buying these big computers again. It's stupid! I'd much rather have my 12 inch iBook. If you want a big computer with more power, get a desktop for less that would have much better specs. One of the new G5 iMacs would be an excellent choice! It's dumb how so many companies are un-protablizing their notebooks. Come on, get back to what a notebook computers should really be like, because bigger isn't always better.

Re:It was smaller

[Mad Merlin]

The nipple is leaps and bounds better than a touchpad in actual use. I didn't use it at first, instead using the touchpad, but I find the nipple is just so much more accurate, and it doesn't require you to move your fingers from the keyboard like the touchpad does.

Furthermore, for extended mousing, there's nowhere for your wrist to rest when using the touchpad. I found this major flaw pretty quickly and started using my thumb on the touchpad, but the nipple just works much better.

I've seen a lot of people with touchpad only laptops always carry around real mice because the touchpad just isn't suitable for anything more than a few seconds of use, but that really hurts the portability of the laptop. Then you need to carry the mouse with you and hope that you have a flat surface to use it on.

Like another posted already said, the nipple never gets in the way of typing, the touchpad on the other hand did. Often times you'd be typing and the palm of your hand would slip onto the touchpad and you'd highlight all of the text you've typed and before you can stop yourself, you'll hit another key, thus erasing it all, cursing, and hitting undo. It doesn't happen anymore, as I've trained myself to rest my palms further away from the touchpad, but it's very annoying at first.

For me, a laptop without a nipple would be rather worthless.

Re:It was smaller

[aclarke]

There are all sorts of portable computers available in the world because there are all sorts of people. Different people have different needs. I'm typing this on a 12" powerbook but I'm in the process of buying a 15" or 17" to replace it. How much do you travel? Is your computer mostly plugged into an external monitor on a desk, or do you use it on an airplane? How tall/strong are you? Do you need features like a PCMCIA slot? How much computing power do you need?

As for me, I'm usually just taking my computer between my home office and my clients' offices. 80% of the time I have it plugged into an external monitor. I only need to use it on an airplane every 3-4 months but I need all the power I can get. The 12" doesn't have a PCMCIA slot, and mine's maxed out at 640MB of RAM and I need at least a gigabyte. I'm about 6'4 so carrying a larger laptop is less of a deal for me than if I was 5'4.

What kind of computer you buy depends on what you want it for, which is why Apple makes 5 different models. And why there's more than one manufacturer.

Re:It was smaller

[plumby]

Now most people are buying these big computers again. It's stupid! I'd much rather have my 12 inch iBook. If you want a big computer with more power, get a desktop for less that would have much better specs.

I always find this kind of comment amusing. "I personally have no use for one, so how could anyone else need one".

I've got a 17" laptop and 95% of its use is while sat on the sofa at home watching TV. A desktop (which I have as well) would be absolutely useless for this - the monitor would keep falling off my lap for one thing!

The other 5% is either sat in the conservatory or out in the garden - although in both instances it's on a table, I really wouldn't fancy lugging my entire desktop PC to the bottom of the garden.

I can understand that other people may not use their portables this way, and may be far better off with a tiny 12" one (my wife used to have one of the really small Sony Vaios, and it was great because she used to work on the train with it, so being small was pretty important), but there are many people who want to use a high spec PC with a big screen, but that they can also carry around the house with them.

Re:It was smaller

[prichardson]

I don't know about Windows laptops, but in Mac OS X you can set it so that the track-pad deactivates while you're typing. I don't use it because I've honestly never had the problem of highlighting text and then typing over it, but I tried it out and it works pretty well.

Re:It was smaller

[hackstraw]

I've seen a lot of people with touchpad only laptops always carry around real mice because the touchpad just isn't suitable for anything more than a few seconds of use, but that really hurts the portability of the laptop. Then you need to carry the mouse with you and hope that you have a flat surface to use it on.

Nipple, snipple. I guess your a little offtopic because PowerBooks don't and never had nipples, but rather touchpads.

I'm typing this on a PowerBook right now. I'm lying on my couch on my back with the PowerBook on my groin area insulated by a blanky (plus its a little cold in my house). I'm using the touchpad now and well over 99% of the time that I use my PowerBook at home. The reason, portability. At work, I take my power cord, my computer, and my 3 button schroolwheel mouse and plug them all in.

I thought I would never say this, but I have gotten used to the one button thing on Macs. Why? Because there are so many click modifiers (shift, control, Command/Apple/or Meta if you prefer), that a second button (usually control) is only one of those, and hitting the control button is no different than hitting a second mouse button. I was helping a friend with a "PC" laptop with two buttons the other day on his touchpad, and I found it difficult to use. I guess I have been successfully brainwashed, but maybe my brain needed washing.

My biggest beef with a touchpad, is not general mousing around, its doing things like DND or selecting text or anything that is working with graphics like painting or drawing.

However, for general use like surfing the web, and doing general point and click things, a touchpad is fine. If I need more control, or am going to be using the mouse extensively, its very worthwhile to grab the mouse out of my bag and use it. Like I said, I rarely use it at home. I have only used it when working with X, because the 3 buttons come in handy there and for playing some silly flash game that was controlled with the mouse.

Trackball Position?

[evilviper]

The most striking difference between the PowerBooks and the PC portables was the presence of a built-in trackball and its position on the case. Other manufacturers included trackballs (or other pointing devices), but they were often placed in awkward positions.

I'll call BS on that!

I'll admit it is somewhat a matter of personal preference, but I liked having a trackball on the right-side of the unit much more than in the center of the unit. Being near the edge of the unit allows you to bend your hand around it, making it almost feel like a normal thumb-operated trackball.

The center-mounted trackball necessitated the same terrible hand contortions you're familiar with due to notebook touchpads. I can certainly imagine it was a real pain for left-handed users, but you can't always make everything ambidexterous, and comfortable.

I'd pay thousands of dollars if I could get a modern notebook with a fairly normal keyboard and side-mounted trackball, like I had on my old 20MHz Compaq notebook.

Sometimes progress, isn't... :-(

Re:Trackball Position?

[torpedobird]

...unless you were left handed

Re:Trackball Position?

[penguin-collective]

I'll admit it is somewhat a matter of personal preference, but I liked having a trackball on the right-side of the unit much more than in the center of the unit. Being near the edge of the unit allows you to bend your hand around it, making it almost feel like a normal thumb-operated trackball.

It's not just a question of preference: in general, the center mounted trackball under the space bar tests out well in usability tests, better than side-mounted trackballs or trackpads.

There may have been specific problems on specific laptop models, but in general, it's a good design.

(The decision to go with trackpads was probably motivated not by usability, but by cost, styling, and size: trackpads are cheap, trouble-free, don't break the line of the design, and don't require much space inside the case.)

The center-mounted trackball necessitated the same terrible hand contortions you're familiar with due to notebook touchpads.

If the trackball is right under the spacebar, you don't contort your hands at all, you just move them down a little. Some of them are designed to be used with thumbs, others, with your index fingers, and some can be used either way. If you try to use one of those pointing devices in a way different from the way it was intended to be used, the result may have been frustrating, however.

luggable and immortal too

[lightyear4]

I have an ancient powerbook 500, running an equally ancient build of debian. Its used as an nfs share and as an ssh frontend to a router's console port. It has an uptime measured in years. Luggable? ..sure, Undying? Oh yes.

Re:For the sake of the discussion...

[inputsprocket]

The Apple 5300

From wikipedia:
The 5300 series is widely considered Apple's worst product of the 1995-1996 time period where the company teetered on the brink of death. In its 5300ce incarnation with a TFT of 800x600 pixels, a 117 MHz PPC, 32 MB on-board RAM and hot-swappable drive bay, the 5300ce was quite ahead of other laptop models at the time, but by far failed to meet the quality standard expected for the price. Many models shipped dead on arrival, and a few 5300's used at Apple actually burst into flames due to problems with then-new Lithium Ion batteries made by Sony (earning the 5300 the nickname "Hindenbook", after the Hindenburg disaster). While no consumer models suffered this fate, Apple was forced to recall the entire product line and delay its availability while they downgraded to proven nickel metal hydride batteries. Apple's much-publicized PowerBook 5300 product placement in the film Mission Impossible turned to disaster when the PowerBooks still hadn't arrived in stores when the movie premiered in theaters. After Apple offered an Extended Repair Program, the series turned into a remarkably attractive machine, but never lost its reputation.

Re:For the sake of the discussion...

[Graymalkin]

The Powerbook 5300 was the first model of Powerbook released with a PowerPC processor. Up until then the Powerbooks had used 68k chips that Classic Macs used (Macs before the PowerMac line). They were very powerful laptops but also pretty expensive, the fully loaded 5300ce 32/1.1GB model sold for $6,800. There's a lot of factors that contributed to the "disaster" moniker. The first was that a number of units shipped were simply DOA and had to be swapped out. There were also problems with the case and mouse button, problems shared with the Powerbook 190 which was the 5300's 68k powered sibling.

There were also qute a few problems with the 5300's Li-ion batteries. Due to Sony's manufacturing error the batteries would short and there were a couple reports of them actually catching on fire. Switching the Li-ion batteries out for NiMH ones solved the problem but seriously reduced the 5300's battery life. This was coupled with power supplies that couldn't power all of the expansion bays was quite a mess.

Performance wise the 5300 was very unimpressive. It used a 603e PowerPC chip but they didn't bother sticking an L2 cache on the machine. The clock speed wuld have been alright with a decent sized L2 cache but as it stood the machine was dog slow in most apps.

The Powerbook 5300 was responsible for many of the Apple build quality memes of the mid-90s.

Apple IIc

[VirtualSquid]

Apple had no presence in the portables market prior to 1992

Where's the historical perspective? It may come as a surprise to some, but Apple actually made computers *before* the Macintosh. The Apple IIc was compact and roughly portable; although i couldn't tell you for sure (i was a C64 hacker at the time) we all assumed the Apple IIc was a portable because we see it being used on a beach in the movie "2010". Although looking back now, one has to wonder where the battery is in that compact little case.

Bring back the POWERBOOK TRACKBALL!

[wolfpaws]

Honestly, I still miss the trackballs of the 1xx Powerbooks, as well as the recessed trackballs of the Duos.

They had the best ergonomic experience of any laptop pointing devices ever. The size and mass of the ball, the position of the buttons...Just outstanding.

except the PB100 came out in 1991.

[YesIAmAScript]

Asahi being the Powerbook 100. It came out in October, 1991. I remember many people having Powerbooks (100,140,170) at that time.

So Apple had part of 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, and even a lot of 1995 because the 5300 didn't come out until August and people didn't realize the PB5300 sucked immediately.

That's enough time that the way the writer described it is reasonable. It's about 1/3rd of the total time that laptops have even existed.

Stonage?

[Compuser]

Is that a time period or a body condition?

Re:Stonage?

[game kid]

I get stonage when I sniff muh staaash, maaan. I inhale some vapor and I'm, like, *sniffs CPU* whooooa...*passes out in trailer and smashes LCD with forehead*

*game kid does not condone the use of processor steam as a recreational drug

First Apple Portable--Not the Powerbook!!

[SierraPete]

I know I'm immediately showing my age here, but Apple's first portable computer was not the Powerbook. It was the Apple //c (circa 1983), complete with an 80 column LCD monitor, a battery pack. Reference at http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/appleiic/ .

Popular? No. It was too expensive, the LCD screen was poor, battery life was awful, and regular visits with a chiropractor for the battery pack were not out the question. But it was the first Apple "laptop."

I Remember When These First Came Out...

[R3d M3rcury]

...They were shown in 1991 at WWDC. I was there.

The presentation was actually very well done, I thought--almost as good as a SteveNote. Back then, without Steve Jobs and his ego, essentially every group (desktop hardware, imaging, system software, etc.) gave a keynote on a different subject. Sculley gave the Monday keynote where he usually talked about the business side. Pretty boring stuff and Sculley wasn't that great a speaker anyway. Hell, even Bill Gates did a better presentation than Sculley (he was also there).

So we got this keynote from some VP of "Portable Computing." He started off talking about the Macintosh Portable and how they had finally identified the market for this device.

Cut to a shot of the space shuttle taking off.

Yup. The Macintosh Portable was the first personal computer in space (and I can hear the HP41c fans sharpening their knives). They showed it floating around the cabin of the shuttle, as light as a feather. They even showed something that everyone had wanted to see since the first Macintosh: A disk being ejected across the room.

Amusing.

The VP then showed off Apple Remote Access. One odd thing about his presentation, though, was that the computer he was using had no video-out. Thus, there was a guy standing behind him with a portable camera zoomed in on the screen. But if you paid attention--and I didn't until somebody mentioned it after the presentation--you could see the the edges around the screen were dark and a Macintosh Portable was sort of a light Macintosh SE grey. So ARA was being demoed on a PowerBook--we just couldn't see the whole thing.

Anyway, they were finally ready to unveil the replacement for the Macintosh Portable. They wheeled this table out onto the stage with a cloth covering a device. The VP whipped off the cloth to show us: A LaserWriter. Various chuckles from the audience. "Well, it's pretty portable..." the VP quipped as he tried to lift the LaserWriter (Apple LaserWriters weighed about 50 pounds). Suddenly, a disembodied voice from the booth called out: "Look in the paper tray." The VP reached into the paper tray and pulled out a PowerBook! And the audience went wild.

Definitely one of the better Apple presentations.

Re:I Remember When These First Came Out...

[WillAdams]

Actually, the GRiD Compass was in space before ever there was a Macintosh Portable:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/computer s/Ch4-6.html

1983

William

Re:hmm....

[shmlco]

Visit an Apple store and check out the lastest Powerbooks, as they've just updated the screens. I'm typing this on a new 15" Powerbook with a widescreen resolution of 1440x920 and it's absolutely gorgeous.

Outbound anyone?

[WestBoca]

Of course, the Outbound, a Mac clone that used semi-legal SE ROM chips, was the first true Mac laptop...or something to that effect. I LOVED mine, and their customer support was the absolute BEST...which may explain why they're now kaput.

http://www.jagshouse.com/outbound.html

and

http://www.lowendmac.com/clones/outbound.html

Mea Culpa--You're right

[R3d M3rcury]

You're right--mea culpa.

The first e-mail from space was sent from a Macintosh Portable, but it was not the first "portable computer" in space.

My mistake.

Thinking about this also reminded me of another funny Portable/PowerBook story. A friend of mine's sister went out and bought a Macintosh Portable after seeing the PowerBooks. She preferred the Portable because, living in New York City, she wanted a heavy machine that would be less easy to steal. She'd had her purse snatched once or twice and could see someone coming up, giving her a shove and running off with this nice and light PowerBook.

No one was going "run" while lugging a 25 pound Macintosh Portable.

(I had this great mental image of some guy running up, shoving her, grabbing the portable and--wham!--he's stuck in one place like he was attached to an anchor.)

Re:Oh really

[mlewan]

"I'm kinda looking forward to the Mac equivalents of MathCAD, Solidworks, Nastran and ADAMS.

Oh, you didn't mean real software you meant typewriting and pretty pictures. That's nice, dear."

Well, I did write "depending on your line of work". I fully realise that there is plenty of software out there that doesn't run on the Mac, and where there is no Mac equivalent. Just to mention a few in addition to your examples:

W32.Beagle.CQ@mm W32.Secefa.A Trojan.Lodear.D Win32.Glieder.{CF, CG, CH, CI, CJ} , Bagle.{EO, EP, ES}, W32/Bagle.gen!7B14EBCA , Mitglieder.GB , Troj/BagleDl-{AF, AH, AK} , TROJ_BAGLE.AH Backdoor.Spymon Trojan.Anserin Win32.Anserin.C , Troj/Torpig-k W32.Mytob.ME@mm W32/Mytob-FS , WORM_MYTOB.MV W32.Mytob.MC@mm W97M.Toler Trojan.Danmec W32.Mogi Bloodhound.Exploit.54 SymbOS.Pbstealer.A Pbstealer.A Trojan.Goldun.H Bloodhound.Exploit.53 W32.Mytob.LZ@mm Net-Worm.Win32.Mytob.dm , W32/Mytob.gen@MM W32.Sober.X@mm CME-681, WORM_SOBER.AG , W32/Sober-{X, Z} , Win32.Sober.W , Sober.Y, W32/Sober@MM!M681 , W32/Sober.AA@mm ELF_LUPPER.C Backdoor.Naninf.B ALS.Bursted.B Backdoor.Foobot Backdoor.Tuckist W32.Sober.S@mm W32.Sober.W@mm Win32.Sober.T , W32/Sober.s@MM W32.Sober.T@mm Sober.W, W32/Sober.v@MM , WORM_SOBER.AD Backdoor.Danrit W32.Sober.V@mm CME-157, Win32.Sober.Q , W32/Sober.t@MM Trojan.Muquest SymbOS.Cardtrp.F Cardtrap.F SymbOS.Cardtrp.G Cardtrap.G Bloodhound.Exploit.52 Backdoor.Ryknos.B Troj/Stinx-F , BKDR_BREPLIBOT.D , Breplibot.C Backdoor.Ryknos CME-589, Win32.OutsBot.U , W32/Ryknos.A , Troj/Stinx-E , Ryknos.A , BKDR_BREPLIOBOT.C Trojan.Kondeli SymbOS.Doomboot.N SYMBOS_DOOMED.I SymbOS.Doomboot.M SYMBOS_DOOMED.H Trojan.Heoms Trojan.Totmau Backdoor.Haxdoor.G Trojan.Lodav.B WORM_BAGLE.BQ Trojan.Tracker Backdoor.Zagaban Trojan.Lodear.C Win32.Glieder.CE Trojan.Bankem W32.Beagle.CN@mm Bagle.EK, Email-Worm.Win32.Bagle.ek , W32/Bagle.gen , Bagle.FN , Win32.Bagle.{CW, CX, CY, CZ, DA} , WORM_BAGLE.BS , W32/Bagle-{AR, BS} W32.Monikey@mm Trojan.Lodear.B Bagle.{EB, EI, EK}, Email-Worm.Win32.Bagle.{eb, ei} , Troj/Bagle{Dl-Y, Dl-AB} , Win32.Glieder.{CC, CD} , Mitglieder.FL W32.Mytob.LO@mm W32/Mytob-FH Backdoor.Toob.A Backdoor.Ranky.V Trojan.Lodav.A Mitglieder.{FN, FM} , Troj/BagleDl-AA , Win32.Fantibag.H Trojan.Lodear W32.Lodear.A@mm, Win32.Glieder.{BZ, CA, CB} , Bagle.{EE-EG}, Email-Worm.Win32.Bagle.{ee-eg} , W32/Bagle.{dk-dm} , Mitglieder.FK , Troj/BagleDl-W , TROJ_BAGLE.AB , Email-Worm.Win32.Bagle.{ef-eg} W32.Spybot.ZIF WORM_RBOT.CMR W32.Magflag.B TROJ_DLOADER.AMC W32.Vig.C W32.Loxbot.B WORM_OPANKI.AC W32.Mytob.LM@mm WORM_MYTOB.KQ KIX.Ixlam.A Backdoor.Civcat Backdoor.Sedepex Trojan.Goldun.G,