Ancient iBook, The Cult of Mac hardcover, Lego cars — what’s not to like? [Setups]

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Spot the old iBook on the shelf to the right and The Cult of Mac hardcover under the display.
Spot the old iBook on the shelf to the right and The Cult of Mac hardcover under the display.
Photo: 17parkc@Reddit.com

We last saw Redditor 17parkc after they took delivery of their lovely new blue 24-inch iMac in May. Now it looks like they moved to a new studio apartment with a few new toys. Actually, in one case, an old toy — an iBook from back in the day, sometime around the turn of this century.

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And, really, the old iBook — though apparently only on display and not in use in the 17parkc’s setup — is all Redditors could talk about. That, and the toy cars, a collection that appears to be a growing.

New M1 iMac, old iBook

Pretty blue iMac

17parkc was part of our Setups article about the new wave of M1 iMac’s entering people’s workstations in late spring and early summer of this year. That’s when a whole lot of people took delivery on the colorful new powerhouse desktops.

Back then, 17parkc posted a comparison photo with his new blue iMac and his old iMac. They even posted a video showing off the upgrade. Apple’s return to colorful hardware with the new iMac seemed overwhelmingly popular among Redditors.

And so were the M1 chip’s capabilities, of course, as well as the new machine’s slender form factor. You can read more in Cult of Mac’s M1 iMac review roundup.

As for 17parkc, they use a Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse 2 with the iMac. Off to the right of the display an iPhone 12 mini sits on a charging stand. On the left, a pair of nice-looking over-ear headphones sit on their own stand.

The ol’ ‘Clamshell’

The old machine displayed alongside 17parkc’s setup in the new photo is, of course, a legend. The iBook first came out in 1999. The last of its line, the iBook G4, came out in 2005.

From the design of 17parkc’s iBook, it clearly came out in the model’s earlier years, with its original “Clamshell” design. It initially rolled out in Blueberry and Tangerine colors, then added Graphite, Indigo and Key Lime in 2000. It’s tough to say what color 17parkc’s is, as it sits on a shelf in shadow.

Aimed at entry-level user and the education market, the iBook carried a lesser line of specs and a lower price tag than Apple’s PowerBook. But the iBook was the first mass consumer product to offer Wi-Fi network connectivity. At the time, Apple branded its Wi-Fi as “AirPort.”

The Cult of Mac hardcover

And right in the middle of the setup, under the stand supporting the iMac, we found a surprise when we zoomed in. It’s The Cult of Mac in hardcover.

Published in November 2004, it’s the namesake publication of this very website, authored by Cult of Mac‘s editor and publisher, Leander Kahney.

New toys

Aside from the iBook, most of the excitement over 17park’c post centered on the toy cars on the shelving on the right.

The old setup featured an old-school iPod, a Porsche 911 model race car and a tiny toy G3 iMac. The new setup has the little Porsche, but adds a big Lego Porsche 911 as well as a Lego Land Rover Defender, a diecast classic Aston Martin car and what may be a diecast modern Aston Martin toy car.

People love that stuff.

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If you would like to see your setup featured on Cult of Mac, send some high-res pictures to info+setups@cultofmac.com. Please provide a detailed list of your equipment. Tell us what you like or dislike about your setup, and fill us in on any special touches or challenges.

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