#PowerBook G3
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Apple: PowerBook G3 (1998)
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Macworld June 1998
The redesigned PowerBook G3 (no longer using elaborate model numbers to distinguish itself from the previous portable with a G3 chip in it) received feature coverage in this issue. On the whole Macworld was impressed, but not quite so much with the large white Apple logo on the lid (which would have been upside down when the computer was opened). Andrew Gore’s editorial pondered all the rumours about Apple being about to produce a “consumer-level Mac,” although he supposed a machine more likely to enter those households that still hadn’t bought a computer, even a sub-$1,000 PC, would be a set-top box now including a DVD player.
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I want to hear your favourite edutainment games from the 90s.
Mine is MISSION T.H.I.N.K, a logic game that is probably subconsciously the reason i fell in love with programming. It may be playable at the link I attached, but always play it on my hand-me-down PowerBook G3.
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Let's talk about my BABIES
(in order of acquisition)
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Number One! ThinkPad T440p! (Not actually named)
This was a bit of an impulse purchase, as all of my laptops have been in the last threeish months. I knew of the trans girl stereotype of ThinkPads and Linux, and I wanted that. Especially because my laptop at the time was a crappy HP Stream (pictured underneath the ThinkPad) that couldn't run Windows without crashing constantly.
So I did some research and found out that this was the last model with socketed processors, and just kinda went for it! It arrived in much better condition than the pics suggested so I imagine the seller picked the wrong laptop out of the pile, but I'm not complaining.
It truly was nothing special when it was new, but I've upgraded it quite a bit since then! A 2C/4T 2.4GHz i3-4000M to a 4c/8t 3.7GHz i7-4800MQ, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD! It took me about five hours to install and configure Arch Linux on here, and that was with the guidance of friends who are a lot nerdier than me and I actually cried like, twice, out of frustration... BUT, it's been a solid performer ever since.
It cost me about $170 after everything I've done to it, but I still need to replace the screen on it with a 1080p IPS model, because the 768p TN panel is now literally the worst laptop screen I own. Apple seriously had better ones 12 years before this.
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Number two! 12" iBook G3/500, "Baby"
Baby features in my current profile banner, as it's the laptop I carry around with me all the time to write on the go. The battery life is still pretty fantastic for its age, and it's super cute and small (the same depth as my ThinkPad not including the thicc battery, but about 2" narrower due to 4:3 aspect ratio).
I also picked this one up on a whim, because I was taken by an Apple hyperfixation, and also the image of a coffee shop hipster writing on an iBook. This one isn't a clamshell, love it or hate it, but I love it.
It's the very earliest model from 2001, with a 500MHz G3, 64MB of built-in RAM, and a CD-ROM drive. The original 10GB hard drive was missing so I went through the painstaking process of digging down to where it belongs and installing a 40GB IDE laptop drive I LITERALLY found in the trash.
I also spent $17 on a pair of working batteries and ended up with one that lasts for a good 4.5 hours when all you're doing is word processing, which I was and generally still do. Very close to factory battery life. I also spent about $16 on a charger because I didn't have one yet.
At first, I put Mac OS 9.2.2 on here, because it didn't have enough RAM for OS X as far as I could tell. Once I got the RAM upgrade (now 576MB, 64MB built-in + 512MB module), I installed OSX Tiger on here as well.
It's got some old OS9 games like Diablo II, Quake, Warcraft II, and I actually still own a physical copy of Riven on CD, so those all work on there. And I'm also using it to write, of course. However! It could not run Halo: Combat Evolved. Which led me to more purchases, lmao. I have considered doing a logic board swap to a faster CPU but that would be a daunting task...
It ended up costing me about $90, after the laptop, ram upgrade, charger, and working batteries.
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Number three! 14" iBook G4/1.07, "Ghost"
Ghost is a funny one. Also driven by impulse, in this case, to have an old Mac laptop that could play Halo. I actually received it on the same day as the next one on this list. This is a 2004 1.07GHz 14" iBook G4 with 256MB of built-in RAM and a 256MB module for a total of 512MB, and a combo drive, I believe. This one actually came with a 1GB module in it, and an Airport card, but I swapped some parts around to make my G4 PowerBook more usable.
It was incredibly cursed, including weird freezing and crashes, refusing to install updates and to mount USB devices, and then it just stopped seeing the hard drive all together. I took it apart twice, once to take the hard drive out to discover it was the original 40GB Apple branded hard drive, and another to put it back in once it started booting in my PowerBook G4 (number 4 on the list), and all the cursedness went away somehow!
I still named it Ghost in honor of the cursedness.
I don't have a good battery for it at this time. Right now the only working 14" iBook battery I have (which I paid like $35 for) lasts about an hour, and the 12" battery I have in there now dies at a seemingly random percentage around 60% because the battery isn't reporting its capacity correctly. I did design and order a 3D printed adapter bracket thing so maybe I can stop using fucking masking tape to hold the battery in. It may become more used than my 12" once I get the battery, entirely due to the larger screen and faster processor.
I did have to replace the F12 key, because the original one was missing. This was made a lot easier by having the PowerBook G4 which we'll go over next. Now it's like an accent escape key for a fancy mechanical keyboard, or a gold tooth!
This one actually cost me the least out of all of them, at $69, including the battery I'm not even using, and it came with a second charger, which is good! Though, I guess with the 3D printed battery adapter you can up that price to $80. Or lower it to $44 if the battery doesn't count!
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Number four! 15" PowerBook G4/1.33G, "Alice"
Alice was purchased just days later than my iBook G4, but showed up on the same day. And boy, she was a basket case. I have named her Alice because of "Al" being the elemental symbol for Aluminum, as she's a 2004 Aluminum PowerBook G4, with a 1.33GHz processor and 1.5GB of RAM. It originally came with 512MB of RAM in two modules, but I put in a 512MB stick I found in the trash, plus the 1GB module and the Airport card from the iBook G4 to make it a more usable laptop in the modern day.
The problems were immediate when I got it plugged in for the first time, as there was seemingly no display, until I noticed the dark screen started to change colors. There was a picture... there was just no backlight. To my surprise, the sketchy looking aftermarket battery actually worked fine still, and it was good for about 3.5 hours of use.
Getting it hooked up to an external display, I started to notice that the trackpad button didn't work either. It's a good thing these parts were cheap.
I actually tried fixing the backlight inverter myself, as the issue was there was a coil that had detached itself from the board. My jank soldering work lasted about 15 minutes before it made a buzzing sound and one of the little wire stubs came detached from the side of the coil. RIP.
A week or so later, the backlight inverter and trackpad cable show up, and me being able to actually use the laptop properly shows even more problems. It won't sleep when it's plugged in. But only when it's plugged in. I can't get into the boot picker. Five of the keys on the keyboard also don't work. As it turns out, all of these problems are keyboard problems, and that fixed all of them.
Basket case-ness is different from cursedness. I knew what parts needed replacing on the PowerBook. The iBook just misbehaved until it suddenly stopped misbehaving.
It cost me about $95, including the laptop itself, the backlight inverter board, trackpad ribbon cable, and a glorious (pure sex to type on) new-old stock keyboard.
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Number Five! Late 06 15" MacBook Pro, 2.16GHz C2D, "Dolores"
My MacBook Pro. As with the others, it was an impulse purchase, though it's required the most extreme repairs of any of these laptops so far. It's a Late 2006 15" model, with a Core 2 Duo T7400, and pre-upgraded to the maximum of 3GB of RAM and a 120GB SSD. It came with all sorts of goodies, including an 85-watt MagSafe charger, copies of iWork and iLife 2009, the original recovery DVDs for 10.4.8 Tiger, and a hard copy of OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard. What it did not include was a battery.
Initially I tried booting it up from nothing, and it would get stuck on a white or blue screen sometime after the Apple logo disappeared, and the same would happen when I put the Snow Leopard DVD into the drive. When I put the Tiger DVDs in, it would install the OS fine, but the resulting install wouldn't boot either. And then I noticed the artifacting.
I knew that this was a possibility with basically any model of pre-unibody MacBook Pro. All of them have graphics issues, though the '07 and '08 models have it a lot worse than the '06 models. I end up complaining about this on a Discord server, and another queer nerd tells me that the boot failure is probably because of the GPU being marginal, and since it's an ATI Radeon GPU instead of an Nvidia GPU, a reflow might help it.
So... I take it apart for the second time that day, after the first time to repaste the CPU, Northbridge, and GPU, and I bathe the GPU in 350°C air from my rework station for about 6 minutes, letting the board rest for 20 minutes before I reapply thermal paste again and reassemble it. Now it boots into MacOS fine. I installed Snow Leopard and updated to Lion, and it's been fine since, though the 32-bit EFI firmware has caused some issues with attempts to get Linux working on the damn thing, though I'm told the GPU could just be playing nice with MacOS but still not good enough to work in Linux.
I tried getting a battery off of eBay, a cheap replacement battery, but it only half works. It powers the laptop, but it won't show up in the OS to show any percentage or capacity, and it won't charge either. So I bought a single-use battery. I'm trying to message the seller and get my money back right now.
It has cost me about $74 including the cost of the crappy essentially single use battery. I'll probably get an actually good one from OWC eventually, because I want to be able to use this laptop as a daily at some point.
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Well, that's it! For now. I also have my eyes set on a mid 2009 white MacBook but that will be a later kind of thing. Not right now, while there's still work to be done on my other laptops.
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These days if you own a laptop—any laptop—and you would like it to have a newer, faster CPU, your only choice is to buy another laptop.
But back in the 90s, we had options.
Imagine that it's 1999 and you've got a Macintosh PowerBook 1400 that you paid $2499 for when it was released 3 years earlier. Adjusted for inflation, that's over $4700 at 2022 prices. You'd love one those speedy G3 processors, the ones that Steve Jobs is always calling "screamers" at his keynotes, but you can't afford to shell out another $2500 or more for a new machine. But for a mere $799 (less than half what a new laptop would cost) you could get a G3 upgrade card for your existing machine.
Obviously modern laptop design simply doesn't allow for this kind of modularity, but back when laptops were less for consumers and more for businesses, it made sense to offer it.
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I love my computers. they're like friends to me. I wish only the best for them. I want them to be happy. I love you iMac G3, i love you Apple IIe, I love you Macintosh SE/30, I love you PowerBook 170, I love you Macintosh Plus, I love you Apple IIc, I love you iMac G4, I love you iMac G5.
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My Favorite/Best Mac Model Ever
Inspired by Episode 496 of Upgrade, “40th Anniversary of the Mac Draft,” I got to thinking about my favorite Mac. I’ve had a solid run of Macs:
Color Classic (my first)
Performa 630 CD
PowerBook G3 333 Lombard
PowerMac G4
Titanium PowerBook G4
Aluminum PowerBook G4
PowerMac G5
MacBook (the “Blackbook”)
MacBook Air
2013 MacBook Pro 13”
2015 MacBook (the MacBook Adorable)
2019 MacBook Pro 16”
2021…
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Greetings, Mac enjoyers and welcome to Day 5 of the Racer Cinema Productions PowerPC week. Bad news arises as there will be a snowstorm in my area tomorrow. Hopefully this PowerBook G4 will last me through the final two days of the week itself even during a blizzard. But, more great news will follow as I am finally going to get Mac OS 8 running on the iMac G3! So, stay tuned for more news about the iMac G3!
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...pick 1 or 2...yeah butchu not gettin'...the better word though uhh uhh quite..."a word it is"...dem 1z 4 'em right?? 128k G3 G4 21 Pismo PowerBook 12 MacBook Pro 13 MT8x uhh uhh D888 TLM 102 uhhhh...M130 which don't sound Rice...uhh uhh DVX100 DV900 RR US360 uhh...Mysterium X might...whichever The H uhh uhh...hand then soak...
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I am a Low Key Nerd and Naturalist
Nerd is so passé, I prefer 'complex human being'. But what I do know is, I am not apologizing to anyone for anything I wish to post. I ain't got no kids, and my parents is long dead. Last I checked ain't a single person paying one bill up in this house except me, I have no one to be beholden to regarding my activities.
Generally speaking I like to stay away from including nudes on this particular blog since I have posted more than enough of that other places on the internet. But, I feel no need to pretend that if I am going to get the opportunity I am going to celebrate my work before anything else.
Meaning I am mildly excited about iPad iOs 17, which in all actuality only has like really five cool updates, but one of them that I am not sure if its been on the phone for a minute or not, is the changing lock screens.
On my early 2008 Macbook Pro I had my desktop changing like every ten seconds with a bunch of photos from my porn archive which I had on an external drive. I always love to have an electronic device with some changing element. Traditionally on my tablets, and this is my third, I utilize my abstract work as lock and home screens. Usually two different images that will be unique to that specific device.
This Os update now allows me to indulge myself and my body dysmorphia, or put a more public face on my tablet. Albeit I plan on never leaving the house after that damn flu I caught on my daily walks, I think the public face for my tablet will be rarely used.
Another feature which is solely a personal fav is the ability to run more than one timer at a time. Sometimes I am washing something and want it to soak for four hours and during this time I may order some food and need to set a ten minute timer so I can perfectly time getting dressed for the delivery person. Now I can do that!
I also love how they show the countdown on the lock screen. I am going to be honest since I don't have a phone the lock screen was never a big thing to be, but with the tweaks to the clock and the widgets Apple is making it a more welcome place for a bit more creativity and self expression.
I love how they took into consideration the vertical and horizontal orientation that tablet user utilize and made sure the screens could be formatted to the orientation of the device, it took me playing on my second tablet to find the fully tweaks, but I enjoyed the intuitiveness in the design.
Eighteen page PDF, I read the whole thing about all the new features, so many things I don't use like the health app, air pods, Safari, FaceTime or rarely use if at all. I did try out the new iMessage tricks and tried out the new tool bar they have changed out the old one for.
I love how we can do voice notes that are sent with transcriptions. It makes the audio a bit more permanent, since I am sure the transcript can be copied and pasted. But I enjoy sharing my voice with folks so they can get all the nuance of exactly what I am saying and most importantly HOW I am saying it.
Technology and me have always been friends but I think it wise to use it smartly and don't overdo it. My twenty-seven year old nephew has a Macbook Air, AirPods, Apple Watch, iPhone, and iPad. I told the nigga straight up he needs to buy some stock in Apple with him putting so much money in their pocket! #ForRealThough
I have only had like five computers and three tablets:
Mac SE (91 - 97 | returned to Campi)
Apple Powerbook 5300 (96 - 97 | recalled by Apple)
Apple Powerbook 1400c (97 - 01 | still have)
iMac G3 (02 - 09 | lent to Techu, never returned)
Macbook Pro (08 to present)
Tablets
iPad - 16 GB (2008 to present)
iPad Pro - 256 GB (2019 to present)
iPad Pro - 1 TB (2022 to present)
Currently I still use two of my tablets, and now that I have deleted a lot of data I can use my Macbook Pro to take trips down memory lane in the form of old photos, designs, videos and memories. I am a bougie bitch and primarily only deal with Apple. I could have bought a new laptop but my iPad Pro especially with the Apple Magic Keyboard really has all the computing power I need for my current needs.
I did win a FreePC through that advertising scheme years ago, where they gave away "free" Windows computers that had very heavy advertising on them. Anyway my yoga was shot today because I spent the morning on my laptop then got caught up in iOs 17 and that was all she wrote.
Today is supposed to be my regularly scheduled program day and I only got through two episodes of Killing Eve. Anyhow let me attempt to watch my shows, albeit I am excited I have a new distraction that is creating great content for my mini-blog and allowing me to reconnect with some folks who I am sharing what I find.
[Screenshots by Brown Estate]
#ios 17#ios#apple#ipad#apple ipad#apple ipad pro#os update#nerd#technolovers#technology#user experience#smart design#lock screen#home screen#ipad ios 17#new features#updates#voice transcription#voice notes#timer
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Macworld February 2000
iBook tips pitched at “first-time” laptop owners and an article about MP3 music files (mentioning that “some have been posted in violation of copyright laws”) that went into some detail about portable players for them featured in this issue. David Pogue’s back-page column pointed out some of the more dubious “Apple rumours” reported online, including early speculation about “executive” iBooks in “mocha or cranberry.” (“The suggestion that Apple would release a transparent brown laptop should have set off bogosity alarms immediately...”)
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My G3 PowerBook still fires up! by Tina & Joe
Via Flickr:
It has SCSI and a Zip Drive!
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Apple PowerBook G3 Replacement Laptop Battery
Apple PowerBook G3 Replacement Laptop Battery at lowest price in Dubai UAE. Order online now or WhatsApp/Call 0509820364 http://meelja.com http://facebook.com/meeljaonline http://twitter.com/meeljaonline http://instagram.com/meeljaonline/ http://instagram.com/meeljaonline
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Mmmmm thinking about Macs again. Adding some new stuff to the collection soon, and I've got more stuff for my wanted list >:3
Current Collection, in order of acquisition:
2001 12" iBook 500MHz
2003 13" iBook G4 1GHz (Soon to be gifted to a loved one)
2004 15" PowerBook G4 1.33GHz
2006 15" MacBook Pro 2.16GHz
2009 13" MacBook 2.13GHz (deceased)
2009 13" MacBook 2.13GHz (living)
2012 13" MacBook Pro
2014 11" MacBook Air (Soon to be received from the same loved one)
Ghost, my G4 iBook, is gonna go to a new home soon. A lovely puppy is gonna take it and give it a good home in her collection once I give it a few upgrades, like more RAM, some solid state storage, and a WiFi card, and I'm gonna take the 11" MacBook Air that she "rescued" from her workplace's recycle pile. Which is a 2014 model with the i7-4550U and 8GB of RAM. Should be a pretty sweet little machine.
I may sell the dead 2009 for parts. I'm not gonna get much use out of it the way it is now.
Those That Remain™, in order of release,
Titanium PowerBook G4 (not picky on spec)
2015 15" MacBook Pro (with dedicated graphics)
2021 14" or 16" M1 Pro MacBook Pro (not picky on spec or color)
So of course I gotta have a TiBook on here, right? I'm a Mac laptop collector, that's gotta be one of them, right up there with a clamshell G3 for some people. I'm not personally interested in a clamshell G3, though.
The 2015 15" MacBook Pro with the R7 M370 graphics is just like... the highest end Apple laptop that was made before they switched to a USB Type C-only port arrangement and got rid of the function keys and used a fragile shitty keyboard. It's right at the end of that gap between "the old Apple" and "Apple is back". These hover around $200 right now.
The M1 Pro MacBook Pro is my Holy Grail right now. They're still pretty expensive to pick up secondhand of course, $1100 for one that's pretty beat up on eBay, with lots of little nicks and dings, a scratch in the trackpad, and no included charger. But that's a laptop with an M1 Pro, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. Apple still wants over $2000 for these in the refurbished store, and $1100 is also what Apple charges for a base model 13" M2 MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.
It's not gonna happen soon, I'm still saving for a car, but maybe somewhere down the line, it'll be a little bit easier.
Updated Feb 3rd:
I decided to snagg a 2009 MacBook Air because I'm a little impulsive, I got a discount offer from an eBay seller, and I saw it was supported by OCLP and had INCREDIBLE morbid curiosity about how the machine would handle Big Sur through Sonoma.
We'll see how THAT goes.
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Can Apple Continue to Expand?
For years Apple has been the poster child of tech success. Not only have they pioneered cutting-edge hardware, but they have redefined our relationship with music, gaming, and communication. Unlike many of their competitors, they have not nailed themselves into one horizontal niche. Instead, their success has been in the vertical nature of the business. Customers who use Apple products tend to use products are every level, from computers and phones to email, storage, word processing suites, and e-wallet.
However, Apple faces stiff market competition. This is not news. For years competitors have been trying to unseat Apple from its position as the premier tech brand. In the early years, Apple was niche and not seen as a threat to the computer manufacturers or software giants. Only creatives used Macs, allegedly.
In 1997, Steve Jobs delivered an inspirational speech about the future of Apple, and the world woke up to the vision. At this point, Microsoft invested $150 million in the company. By 1998, the Apple iMac and Powerbook G3 were increasing the popularity of the brand, and the company was hugely profitable.
In 2001 Apple officially became a big company. That was the year it released the iPod. With a 5GB hard drive, it could hold one thousand songs. Then came the iTunes Store. When Intel Chips were integrated into iMacs and MacBook Pros in 2005, Apple's machines could run Windows software. Apple Computer Inc. became Apple Inc in 2007 to coincide with the launch of the iPhone and then the iPad. The rest, as they say, is history on the hardware side.
Probably the most significant development of recent years has been Apple's entry into the world of banking and finance. ApplePay has allowed customers to ditch their physical wallets and payment cards. Instead, the Wallet facility gives users full access to various financial products. As well as offering a contactless solution when paying in physical stores, ApplePay is a fully integrated online payment solution.
Wherever people are paying online, they usually have the option to select ApplePay, which can be linked to a range of bank cards and accounts. So whether paying for the latest fashion, booking a holiday, or placing a bet at a casino, for many people, this is their preferred payment option. For those who enjoy a flutter, a quick look on Time2Play will bring up a comprehensive list of the best ApplePay casinos.
ApplePay has also recently launched a new feature to bring it into line with many of the other fintech payment solutions. It is the latest major platform to offer customers a Buy Now Pay Later scheme. Using Apple Pay in 4, customers can split purchases into four payments without incurring interest or fees. The total amount is repayable within six weeks.
Apple has said that loans of between $50 and $1000 could be applied for online or through the Apple Store. The loans can be used for online and in-app purchases when the purchase is made using iPhone or iPad. A selected group of users have been invited to access the pre-release version. Apple indicated that it would be available to all eligible users in the coming months.
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