The Apple iBook was a consumer-oriented line of laptops introduced in 1999 as a more affordable, approachable counterpart to Apple’s professional PowerBook series. The first-generation iBook G3, designed under the leadership of Steve Jobs and Jony Ive, became instantly recognizable for its playful, colorful “clamshell” design, available in bright shades like Blueberry, Tangerine, and later Graphite, Indigo, and Key Lime. With its rounded plastic casing, built-in handle, and rugged durability, it was marketed toward students and home users rather than business professionals. The clamshell iBook was also notable for being the first mass-market laptop to include built-in Wi-Fi capabilities, thanks to Apple’s AirPort technology, which made wireless networking far easier for everyday consumers.
In 2001, Apple replaced the clamshell with a more conventional, rectangular “dual-USB” iBook design, still targeted at the consumer market but lighter, slimmer, and available only in white. These later models offered faster G3 processors, larger screens, better battery life, and more modern styling, which appealed to a broader audience. The iBook line remained Apple’s entry-level laptop option until 2006, when Apple transitioned to Intel processors and replaced it with the first-generation MacBook. While the iBook is often remembered for its quirky clamshell debut, its real legacy lies in bringing portable computing — and Wi-Fi — to mainstream users in a friendly, approachable form, paving the way for the consumer laptops that followed.
July 26, 2005: Apple debuts the opaque white iBook G4, the last of its laptops to launch under the iBook name.
The portable computer adds Apple’s scrolling trackpad for the first time. It also incorporates Bluetooth 2.0 as a standard feature, and becomes the last Apple laptop with a PowerPC chip.
July 21, 1999: The iBook, Apple’s colorful clamshell laptop that’s a hybrid of the iMac and the PowerBook, arrives and launches a Wi-Fi revolution.
Apple’s new AirPort networking card is the key component that delivers cable-free internet access to the masses for the first time.
May 10, 1999: The third-generation PowerBook G3 comes in 20% slimmer and 2 pounds lighter than its predecessor, but most people remember the laptop for its “bronze” keyboard. Although it doesn’t get a new name to distinguish it from previous laptops in the lineup, fans call it “Lombard” after Apple’s internal code name (or simply the “PowerBook G3 Bronze Keyboard”).
December 5, 2002: Cupertino says it served its millionth unique customer in the Apple Store online, marking a significant milestone for the company. It is a benchmark worth celebrating for Apple, which launched its online store just five years earlier.
“Reaching our 1 millionth customer is a major milestone, and is proof positive that our online shopping experience is second to none,” Tim Cook, Apple’s executive vice president of worldwide sales and operations at the time, says in a statement. “The Apple Store is a popular way for a growing number of consumers and businesses to buy Apple products, and with extensive build-to-order capabilities, easy 1-Click shopping and free shipping on orders, it’s never been easier to buy a Mac online.”
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.
Today marks 35 years since the launch of the original Macintosh computer, the product which most defined Apple until the iPod and iPhone came along years later. The Mac changed the course of personal computing history, and started a product line which Apple continues today. But which Macs along the way rank as the biggest game changers?
We went right back to the start to bring you our picks for the top 20 most important Macs of all time.
How many important moments at Apple started with Steve Jobs being late to a meeting that ended with him making a seemingly impossible demand?
This is exactly how one former executive of Lucent Technologies describes the birth of commercial Wi-Fi, which took place in a meeting room at Apple headquarters in Cupertino on April 20, 1998.
Reading books. It’s something we’ve all done at some point in our lives. People read for fun, learning or taking a break. The trouble is, having a huge collection of books takes up space and can literally weigh you down.
E-books are the solution, and the Kindle app is an excellent way to enjoy the world of literature without straining your back or your physical space. With the Kindle app, you can carry an entire library’s worth of books on your iPad or iPhone.
Steve Jobs was a mercurial genius with a singular knack for turning bright ideas into shiny new products. Tim Cook is an operations wizard who hammered Apple’s supply chain into a manufacturing powerhouse.
If you’re an Apple fan, you know the widely accepted narrative. You’ve heard the stories about these powerful CEOs and their various strengths and weaknesses. But who helmed Apple most successfully?
We put Cupertino’s most capable execs head-to-head to determine which Apple era was really the best. Get ready to settle things once and for all!
It’s been some time since Apple delivered something really revolutionary. Every product in its stores looks just like it did last year… and the year before that… and the year before that.
Fans will pin most of the blame on chief design officer Jony Ive. After more than two decades of spectacular and unparalleled ideas, it seems Steve Jobs’s best friend is running on empty. Is it time for him to go to make room for fresh blood and new ideas?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we battle it out over whether Apple’s design team needs significant change.
The departure of veteran Apple industrial designer Daniel Coster is significant because, like the Mafia, no one ever leaves Jony Ive’s design studio.
Coster, a core member of Apple’s design team for more than 20 years, is perhaps only the third member of Ive’s tight-knit industrial design group to leave in almost two decades. And one of the others died.
Apple’s nearly three year legal battle over charges that it conspired with publishers to raise the price of e-books is finally coming to end.
This morning the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Apple’s appeal, which leaves the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in place. Apple will finally have to pay $450 million as part of the settlement.
It seems like there’s a revolt among a segment of diehard Apple fans every time a new app comes preloaded in iOS. No one likes bloatware, and Apple is usually good about keeping crap out of its software. The main problem is that iOS apps can’t be deleted and phone storage these days is precious.
Yet it turns out that choosing to include iBooks as a stock app in iOS 8 was the best thing Apple’s ever done for its ebooks service.
Apple was found guilty of e-book price fixing by federal judge Denise Cote earlier this month, and it looks like the total bill for colluding with book publishers for the launch of the iBookstore will be pretty steep.
The five publishers in the case – Hachette, Penguin, Random House, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster – have already paid out $166 million, according to figures obtained by GigaOm. Based on the settlement payments publishers have already shelled out, it looks like Apple might have to pay $500 million to the states and class action lawyers in the case.
There are a lot of budding entrepreneurs that are taking their ideas online – but many of them do not have the tools or skills to make a real go of it. Simply surfing the web looking for tips and tricks isn’t enoguh these days, you need to have more at your disposal than that. And Cult of Mac Deals has put together a deal that will really help out anyone who is looking to build their knowledge – and a business – online.
The Online Entrepreneur eBook Bundle contains three eBooks that will help turn your website into a marketing dynamo. And you’ll get them for just $20!
Remember that early iPad prototype we showed you yesterday, built between 2002 and 2004, which looked like an old white iBook with a touchscreen? Now some new shots have surfaced that show a comparison between this and the iPad 2, and there are some interesting differences.
First of all, Apple originally built the iPad with a 12-inch display, and it was huge.
If you’ve ever wanted to own a rare piece of Apple history that looks like totally rad then this new eBay listing for a Prototype Apple eMate 300 might be the perfect. The only eMates Apple produced had a solid dark green casing rather than the clear casing you see above. The seller estimates only 6 or so of these clear eMate 300s were produced and it looks quite similar to the first generation iBook that derived a lot of inspiration from the eMate series.
If you got fat stacks of cash that you’re just looking to throw around, you can buy this bad boy on eBay right now for a whopping $8,499.00. Take a peak after the jump for even more pictures of Apple’s crazy touchscreen eMate prototype.
The latest class action lawsuit against Apple has been filed by law firm Hagens Berman and accuses Apple and five major publishers of conspiring to raise the price of ebooks.
Smoking Apples has published a lovely post extolling the virtues of an ancient iBook G4, which given a little TLC and a wipe-and-install has been reborn as a perfectly functional household computer.
In a bid to preserve some of the best modern industrial design for future generations, Smithsonian’s National Design Museum, the Cooper-Hewitt, is asking Apple fans to donate their old and not-so-old devices.
Aptly, webmaster William Berry calls the request a “wish list:”
Newton Message Pad (1993)
iBook (2001, white)
iPod, 1st generation (2001)
iMac G5 (2004)
Macbook Pro (2006)
iPhone, 1st generation (2007)
Macbook Air (2008)
While you can get rid of something that has given up the ghost, your device should still be in excellent (external) condition, with original parts and power cords or batteries. All donors will be listed on the credit line whenever the works are displayed or published.
The generous-minded can get in touch with Cynthia Trope, Associate Curator of Product Design and Decorative Arts, at [email protected].
What, if anything, would you be willing to part with for a museum?