Macopinion

Apple And The Magical Colored Laptop

It's a funny thing about how perceptions can turn into misconceptions. Last week a business columnist for my local newspaper remarked (in a column about products designed to appeal to women) that "Apple is competing with notebook computers in a variety of colours, a great follow-up to their brightly coloured desktop computer offerings."

Uhhh.... no.

Now, the fact he is that Apple hasn't built a colored laptop since May, 2001, nor for that matter a colorful desktop machine since the Ruby and Indigo G3 iMacs which bowed out in January, 2002. Indeed, of the roughly two dozen notebook computer models Apple has built since 1991, just one has been available in colors other than charcoal/black, white, or metal, that being the original clamshell iBook that was sold for less than two years between July, 1999, and May, 2001.

And for that matter, even the clamshell was not exactly available in a rainbow of colors. The first-generation 300 MHz models came in your choice of Blueberry or Tangerine two-toned with white. In March, 2000, the 366 MHz iBook SE was introduced in a third color, or so to speak, since it was Graphite, - a shade of gray. Then the third revision "Paris" September 2000 366 MHz iBook and 466 MHz iBook SE FireWire models came in Indigo and Graphite respectively, as well as sharing an optional Key Lime green which was available only through the Apple Store, and which I consider the best-looking of the five clamshell iBook colors.

Nevertheless, some folks, seven years later, still associate Macs with the idea of brightly-colored computers, even though today that would be more like Dell, currently offering laptops in eight designer shades (including pink).

Getting back to the clamshell iBook, besides being the most colorful Apple laptop ever, it was also one of the best and most reliable. It had very few bad habits; some of the early units had problems with key caps coming adrift, the quirky "flying saucer" AC power adapter (shared with the Pismo PowerBook) could be troublesome, and getting at the hard drive for repair-replacement or upgrading was a nightmare job best preserved for trained technicians with experience and the proper tools.

Another aspect of the clamshell iBook that some folks found off-putting was that it was a hulking big and heavy notebook (with a larger footprint and weighing more than the contemporaneous "full sized" PowerBook G3) with a small - (12 inch), low resolution (800 x 600) display screen.

The first revisions were also distinctly connectivity-challenged, with just one USB port (sound familiar with reference to a recently-introduced Apple notebook?), Ethernet and a modem port (neither of which the MacBook Air has), while the standard 3.2 gigabyte hard drive was marginal even in 1999, which made the difficulty in hard drive upgrading loom larger.

Those complaints were answered somewhat with the September, 2000, third-generation iBook which finally came with a FireWire port, DVD-ROM on the SE model, more respectably-sized 10 GB hard drives, and faster processors, and the iBook finally had \ an "AV" video-out port (not a VGA or ADC monitor port, however). I was tempted, being in the market for a system upgrade in early 2001, but eventually went with a G4 Cube that I swapped for a Pismo PowerBook a few months later. I still have the Pismo, but I expect that had I gone with a Paris clamshell, it would likely still be on the go as well.

Last week, the PowerBook Guy had a Key Lime 366 MHz Paris iBook in stock for $249, which got me thinking, for a few minutes at least. The Key Lime iBook is one of the most distinctive and relatively rare Apple laptops ever. Had that one been a 466 MHz SE, I would have been even more tempted, but I really don't need any more superannuated laptops around, and that 800 x 600 display is just not satisfactory, at least for my purposes, which would include running OS X. That said, aside from the small screen issue, and thanks to its ATI Rage Mobility 128 video card (same video support as in the Pismo) I expect OS X 10.4 Tiger would run decently on a 466 MHz iBook with its RAM maxed out (the official RAM limit is 320 MB).

So, does a clamshell iBook still make any practical sense two years into the MacIntel era? Probably not, unless your computing needs are very modest. It would still be perfectly fine for word processing, fetching and sending email, casual Web surfing, and even some graphics editing with appropriate software such as Color It!, which makes very light hardware demands. However, don't even think about it if you're at all interested in video (although the Paris iBooks din come with Movie 2). The G3 processors, low RAM ceiling, and that small, low-resolution display all conspire against it as a video platform.

The clamshells are really now special interest Macs almost certainly destined to become collectibles, especially particular models - the first-generation units because they are first-generation, and those ultimate Key Lime examples, although I think that any clamshell iBook in top condition has a future as a collectible Mac.



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cmoore@macopinion.com


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