MacBook Replaces PowerBook: The Name Grows on You
- 2007.12.04
Bookmark in del.icio.usLow End Mac Reader Specials
Download Typestyler, still the Ultimate Styling Tool for Internet, Print and Video Graphics. Works great in Classic with a Native OS X Version on the way. Free Tryout: www.typestyler.com
LA Computer Company: LA Computer Company: Specials on AppleCare, Apple Displays, MacBooks, iMac's, MacBook Pros, Laptop and iPod accessories and more. Apple A/C Adapters for laptops starting at $25.00 Call 1-800-941-7654 or Click Here.
OWC: Top Quality Memory for Faster Mac Performance 1GB/2GB/4GB Kits from $23.99/$47.99/$94.99 Expert Support, Free Installation Videos & Guides, Lifetime Advance Replacement Warranty - www.MacSales.com
Mac users can finally play Party Poker for Mac. Not only that, they can also learn how to play PokerStars for Mac.
Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.
Compare products like desktop computers, laptops, and LCD TVs side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for a new cell phone GPS products or MP3 players. The Ciao network makes searching products easy for you.
New MacPro Memory 800Mhz With Apple Spec Heat Sink 2GB $104 / 4GB $172 / 8GB $338. Click to Maximize your Macs...
A Mac by any other name?
It's hard to believe, but the MacBook Pro has been around for almost two years now. I can still vividly remember watching the Macworld keynote in 2006 when Steve jobs used his trademark "one more thing" technique to surprise the audience with a final Mac revelation. As a result of Apple delaying the release of the keynote online until the day after the event, I did my best to avoid any kind of news regarding what was announced during the presentation.
Unfortunately, practically every news site on the Web with a technology column posted the new products Steve revealed as soon as it happened. This meant that I was already aware that there was a replacement for the PowerBook G4, and it was called the MacBook Pro.
"The MacBook Pro?" I thought to myself. "Could Steve find a cornier name?" Straight away, I didn't like the name change. The PowerBook tag sounded professional, demanded respect, and was synonymous with the Macintosh. To me, PowerBook was an Apple institution - but I would reserve judgment until I watched the keynote. I also avoided any other details regarding Steve's announcements that day.
Finally, Apple posted the streaming QuickTime video of the keynote presentation, and I couldn't wait to get it started. A simple click on the link, up popped QuickTime, and the video started buffering. All the way through the presentation, the video was choppy and kept dropping frames, thanks to the huge volume of Apple fanatics (such as myself) eating up the bandwidth available to Apple's server.
I watched, and I was blown away by the introduction of the MacBook Pro: finally an Apple portable that would allow us to reclaim the title of most desirable notebook from the PC sector, a title Apple had lost when the G4 chip was bled dry from minimal successive PowerBook updates. It looked the same as the PowerBook G4 (how can you improve on that design?) while adding everything we wanted from the Intel transition - and then some.
So the dust settled, Steve walked off the stage, and we were left with a brand new Apple notebook with the processing power to beat its Windows counterparts. It was an awesome machine, 4-5x faster than the latest 1.67 GHz G4 PowerBooks Apple had been touting as state of the art just days before.
But I still didn't like the name, and Steve's dismissal of "PowerBook" didn't sit well with me.
"We're kinda done with Power," he said, "and we want Mac in the name of our products."
A fair point, but PowerBook still sounded cooler then MacBook Pro.
Two years on, I'm eagerly anticipating Steve's keynote at Macworld next month, as I do every year, and now I feel at home with the MacBook Pro name. This happened by accident: I didn't decide one day, "Hey, I think I'll try to like MacBook Pro." All of a sudden I simply felt totally at home calling an Apple portable a MacBook.
I still have fond memories of the
PowerBook brand, but I like the way that MacBook tells you exactly what
sort of computer you're talking about in a way that PowerBook didn't.
Right now I'm in the throes of upgrading from the 13" MacBook I reviewed on Low End Mac this past may to a
beautiful 17" MacBook Pro,
reclaiming my beloved huge screen and the dedicated graphics card I
lost when I moved from my 17" PowerBook
to the MacBook. I'll post a review on LEM when I've had a few days with
it.
The PowerBook is dead; long live the MacBook Pro.
Recent One More Thing articles
- Introduction to emulation on the Mac, 01.02. No games for the Mac? With console and PC emulators, that's anything but true.
- My experiences with Mac OS X, 12.24. Frustrated with Windows, the author plunged into Mac OS X Panther in 2005, and he's never regretted the switch.
- The roots of the Mac OS, 12.21. Mac OS X has long, deep roots going back through the Classic Mac OS, the Lisa Office System, and work at Xerox PARC.
- More in the One More Thing index.
Recent Content on Low End Mac
- Mac Pro overclocking, Windependence with Darwine, Blu-ray for Macs, and more, Mac News Review, 07.04. Also more on running Leopard on non-Apple hardware, Ubuntu on a Mac mini, the first autofocus webcam with Zeiss optics for Macs, and more.
- Wouldn't life be great with an iSlate?, John Hatchett, Recycled Computing, 07.04. PDAs and smartphones are too small for some tasks, full-fledged Tablet PCs are overkill, and ebook readers are too limited. Apple has the tech to own this niche.
- Mac of the Day: iMac G3/266 MHz, Jan. 1999 - The first multicolored iMac runs at 266 MHz, loses infrared communication.
- List of the Day: G4 List is for those using Power Mac G4s or G4 upgrades.
- July 6 in LEM history: 00: 3 user accelerators - 01: SCSI and FireWire Disk Mode - Stick with the Mac - Computers for college - 05: Optimizing OS X performance - Return of the bumper snicker - 06: Can consumer MacBook replace 2 PowerBooks and a ThinkPad? - Vintage Macs with System 6 run circles around 3 GHz Windows PC - Run Windows apps without Windows
- The Macintosh Portable started a notebook revolution, Carl Nygren, Classic Macs in the Intel Age, 07.03. Before Apple introduced the Mac Portable, notebook computers were text-based and ran MS-DOS. Ever since, graphical interfaces have been the norm for laptops.
- More links in our archive.
About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts
Have a question?
Ask an expert!
Navigation
Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Best Used Macs
Video Cards
Email Lists
InfoMac's Low
End Mac Forum
Favorite Sites
MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System
6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
Mac FAQ
Abandonware
Petition
Mac vs. PC Info
Affiliates
The Apple
Store
Mac
Connection
MacMall
TechRestore
MacResQ
ExperCom
Crucial
Memory
batteries.com
Advertise
