[HN Gopher] Ode to the Clamshell iBook G3 - a.k.a. "The Toiletseat" ___________________________________________________________________ Ode to the Clamshell iBook G3 - a.k.a. "The Toiletseat" Author : GuyNumberFive Score : 51 points Date : 2021-09-06 19:37 UTC (3 hours ago) (HTM) web link (lunduke.substack.com) (TXT) w3m dump (lunduke.substack.com) | CTOSian wrote: | I highly recommend the forum : http://macos9lives.com/ there are | custom ISOs that you can install and -directly-boot MacOS 9 on | unsupported models. | codezero wrote: | I still own mine and it still boots and works well. I did have to | replace the battery, but surprisingly it's still available from | third parties. | | It blows my mind a little that I can plug it right into my | network and access my modern synology NAS without any special | configuration on either side. | | It was the first device I owned that had WiFi but I never used it | back then and sold the airport pcmcia card. The screen resolution | was decent for the time, and it was as expandable as PC laptops. | pavlov wrote: | The toilet seat iBook is a cute retro object, but it wasn't very | popular at the time. It was bulky even for a 1999 laptop. | | When the "iceBook" replacement finally shipped in 2001, the new | rectangular, lighter and thinner design was universally praised | as much better: | | https://lowendmac.com/2001/12-500-mhz-ibook-g3-dual-usb-mid-... | | I remember this 2001 iBook was the first Mac for a lot of people | who wouldn't have considered buying an Apple product previously. | The Titanium PowerBook G4 with Mac OS X had started creating some | interest in the new Apple, but it was way too expensive. The | $1,299 iBook was a much more reasonable entry into the world of | Unix Mac. | LeoPanthera wrote: | Unless my memory fails me, this was the first laptop with built- | in wi-fi. (Which, at the time, Apple called "Airport | Networking".) | | They were incredibly robust, the claim was that they were made | out of the same plastic as crash helmets. I don't know how true | that actually was, but they did seem to be able to withstand | knocks pretty well. | | A great laptop for people who actually travelled around with them | rather than using them as desktop replacements. | seltzered_ wrote: | "the keyboard just flips up after pushing on two tabs." | | This allowed for third party keyboards to be installed - | https://web.archive.org/web/20060216223326/http://www.finger... | | I get that they removed this feature to facilitate a unibody | design later (weight/thinness), but I sorta wish they brought it | back so one could possibly 'detach' the keyboard for desk / | laptop stand use. | AdamJacobMuller wrote: | I had a later Macbook which had that same feature. | | Beyond the ability to swap in an alternate keyboard the ability | to pull out the keyboard and clean it well was amazing. The | amount of junk which came out of that keyboard when you removed | it and tapped it on the table was equal parts fascinating and | disgusting. | | Overall I don't lament the old laptops too much. While they | made it easier to clean, the newer laptops seem to catch far | less stuff. | | Plus, the power cable on that generation of computer was... | Awful. This was pre-magsafe and the center pin of the cable, | which looked like a headphone connector, would break off INSIDE | the computer. It was a huge hassle resulting in multiple | returns until someone from the apple store figured out a trick | with a toothpick and some super glue. | flemhans wrote: | It had a crazy battery time. 10+ hours. | jeffbee wrote: | Everymac lists its battery life claim at 6 hours. I don't | remember it being that great, despite the fact that these old | books weighed as much as three modern laptops. | don-code wrote: | I got to liquidate a broken stack of these back in the late | 2000s. For some reason I couldn't get one of them to power | off, so I pulled the power cable and waited. Then I went to | class. | | Four hours later, I came back home, and the thing was still | running. | | You could argue that it was just sitting at the folder- | question-mark icon and doing nothing useful, but I'm assuming | that it also meant no power saving features were enabled by | the kernel (at least, that's how it works in the PC world - I | was quickly disparaged of the notion that running DOS instead | of Windows 98 just for my text editor would give me better | battery life). | 1MachineElf wrote: | I'm amazed. I recall the mid-2012 Macbook[0] also had 10 hours | of battery life, but I didn't know the same feat had been | achieved by earlier Apple laptops. | | [0] https://support.apple.com/kb/sp584?locale=en_US | forgotmypw17 wrote: | I have one of these in my testing stable, including Mac IE. It's | quite usable on many websites which are simply built. | 1MachineElf wrote: | I didn't get much experience with these aside from playing | Bugdom[0] on them, which was a lot of fun. | | [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugdom | mattl wrote: | I have one of these (Key Lime). I'm using it to watch the videos | for my WebObjects training course while I complete the classes on | my Aluminum PowerBook G4. | | https://twitter.com/mattl/status/1432507439929303042?s=20 | | Working optical drives in these older machines is an issue. | BuildTheRobots wrote: | Possibly off topic, but does anyone remember a very similar | looking laptop but with a black and white lcd screen which was | potentially touch screen too? I've got half a memory of them from | around Y2K but I'm now I'm thinking that I'm mashing together a | clamshell G3 with a Palm Pilot in my head and it might not of | existed. | | I do miss the colourful, cutesy but extremely capable Mac's of | the G3/G4 era. I'm sure it's rose tinted glasses on my part, but | computing seemed much more fun and positive back then :/ | dunnevens wrote: | Definitely the eMate. The clamshell Newton. I very much wanted | one back in the day but could never really justify it. Settled | for a Palm + folding keyboard combo. | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMate_300 | mattl wrote: | Yeah the Apple eMate? | robertoandred wrote: | > I do miss the colourful, cutesy but extremely capable Mac's | of the G3/G4 era. | | The new M1 iMacs bring that back a bit. Wouldn't be surprised | to see it spread to the MacBook Air. | bluedino wrote: | I thought of these things the same way as the original iMac. | Cutesy, but underpowered and nothing to get real work done on, | especially with the low screen resolutions. | jeffbee wrote: | Indeed, the contemporaneous PowerBook G3 "Pismo" was the better | machine all around. It was faster, more expandable, more | upgradeable with the CPU on a daughter card, and even with the | larger 1024x768 display it weighed 1 pound less than the iBook. | Of course, it also cost $900 more. | dylan604 wrote: | This was from a time period of an upside down logo. That one | always made me wonder who at Apple allowed that, or why nobody | noticed that when the lid was open the logo is upside down. | Ultimately, it came down to the imagery of when someone was | carrying by the handle I guess. | rob74 wrote: | Which neatly fits the toilet seat analogy - you generally can't | see the back of a toilet seat lid when it's open, so images | printed on toilet seat lids have the same orientation as the | Apple logo on the iBook G3 lid. | adzm wrote: | That way the logo was the correct orientation when you look at | the laptop to open it up! | sircastor wrote: | The thing that I remember about this computer is Steve Jobs | demoing the WiFi by passing a hula-hoop around it. He was a great | showman. | Lammy wrote: | "Boom." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iTNWZF2m3o&t=904s | bri3d wrote: | A coworker gave me one of these awhile ago, and I spent some time | setting up OS X 10.4 and TenFourFox on it as well as OS9 and | Classilla. It runs surprisingly well for the timeframe and specs | - TenFourFox in particular was a ridiculously impressive porting | effort to keep around. | | These had pretty fun power adapters too - they were round and the | laptop-side cord looped around the adapter itself. I miss the | days of Apple adapters having built-in storage for the laptop- | side cord - they seem to have dropped this functionality with the | switch to USB-C. | | The keyboards on every generation of Apple computer with under- | keyboard memory were atrocious though - like truly amongst the | worst keyboards of all time. | zitterbewegung wrote: | Huh I was using Camino during the PPC 10.4 days. | titzer wrote: | Both generations of magsafe adapters were by far superior to | USB-C. I feel like both ends are pretty fragile now. | [deleted] | codesnik wrote: | but now you can switch them. twice the longevity! just | kidding, I recently wrapped both ends in shrinking tubes, | seem to stop fraying (for now) | nextos wrote: | I loved the keyboards from the first Intel MacBooks. In my | opinion, even better that classic ThinkPads. | | Great feedback, spring-like feel and good travel. | johnzim wrote: | I loved lugging this computer to school. Definitely made good use | of the rubberized edges with a few "drop tests". | | The only bad part of the design was in the power chord, which | like many of those era's cables, suffered from fraying at the | point of connection. | | It was particularly great to be able to save school work to an | FTP server (or run one yourself from the iBook) and then print | from the network computers in the lab. No floppy, no problem | prvc wrote: | >These machines were... magical. Heck. Still are. | | He never bothered to explain why he thinks so. Apple fans are a | little too fond of describing their favored products using this | word. Counterpoint: like most other technology, they actually | work (or fail to work) according to laws which are known, and do | so in comprehensible (in principle) ways. Enough with the | "magical", already. | dm319 wrote: | I have similar feelings for some things. My old Amiga. My early | experience with Linux. Maybe even my time on OS9 and selecting | the background wallpaper seen in the article. | | It must be a combination of the delight when I used them, a | quirkiness which means I don't experience it anymore, and | nostalgia. But I think I know what Lunduke means when he says | magical, so I'm ok with that. | ffhhj wrote: | > He never bothered to explain why he thinks so. Apple fans are | a little too fond of describing their favored products using | this word. | | Learned programming in an Apple IIc, and I still remember how | much I liked the Apple's and Macintosh computers. Anyway my | second computer was an IBM PC, because I wanted to keep up to | date with tech. Never liked the colorful clamshell, the lamp, | or the fish bowl. But looking at the pixaleted rainbow apple | logo in the UI brings the magic back. | | How fast we moved from a world of computers are our friends, to | computers want to spy and take money from us. | sneak wrote: | https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/je_ne_sais_quoi | | It's not simply a placeholder, but refers to a very specific | Apple-ness which most are insufficiently articulate to describe | in detail. | | You know it when you see it, even in non-Apple products (like | DJI, for example). | adwww wrote: | Telsa, Fuji cameras, Italian bikes... | prvc wrote: | In that case, let them say "je ne sais quoi", which has a | different meaning than "magical". Don't discount the effect | of priming (how many times has Apple used "magic" in their | product names or ad copy?). If they're trying to make a | reference to the hoary old nerd quip, "Any sufficiently | advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", then | I'd counter that it doesn't reach that threshold for me. | inspector-g wrote: | I promise I'm not trying to be terse, but... I think the entire | article was his explanation for why he felt them to be magical? ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-09-06 23:00 UTC)