The PowerBook G3 Lombard brought a "bronze" keyboard and some real enhancements. Image: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
May 10, 1999: The third-generation PowerBook G3 comes in 20 percent 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”).
Things have come a long way in 35 years. Photo: iFixit
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.
The first commercial product with Wi-Fi connectivity. Photo: Apple
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.
The Kindle app is the perfect platform for reading e-books on iPad or iPhone. Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac
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.
Both great leaders, but who managed Apple better? Photo illustration: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
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!
Is Apple in desperate need of new ideas? Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
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.
Daniel Coster, fourth from left, is leaving Apple's vaunted industrial design team. Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
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 e-book legal battle is finally over. Photo: Apple
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.