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In late 2001, I purchased my first Apple computer. The iBook G3 Snow with a (whopping) 20 GB hard drive and 384 MB of RAM. What a beauty. After tax, spent upwards of $1700 for it. A crazy amount of money for a laptop at that time.
Why am I talking about an almost 20 year computer? Well, in a post a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned the purchase of The Larry Sanders Show on DVD and unfortunately, due to the lower resolution of the show, it didn’t look very good playing the discs on my Blu-ray player. I spent a day trying to figure out how to play it on my TV without going out and buying a non-HDMI DVD player.
Enter my Apple iBook G3 Snow. I remembered (and somehow still had) it came with an A/V Port output cord which was a 1/8 inch plug from the computer to video RCAs. Now, the question is, would a 19 year old computer still work?
Fired it up, dropped the disc in, hit play…and THANK YOU Apple. It worked perfectly! Now, I’m not sure the exact number, but how many PCs might still be around and operable after 19 years? I’m thinking not many.
For a little history of the iBook, it was a line of laptops sold by Apple from 1999 to 2006. The line targeted entry level, consumer and education markets, with lower specifications and prices than the PowerBook, Apple’s higher-end line of laptop computers. Three distinct designs of the iBook were introduced during its lifetime. The first, known as the Clamshell iBook, was influenced by the design of Apple’s colorful iMac G3 line at the time. It was a significant departure from previous portable computer designs due to its shape, bright colors, incorporation of a handle into the casing, lack of a hinged cover over the external ports, and built-in wireless networking. Two years later, the second generation abandoned the original form factor in favor of a more conventional, rectangular design. In October 2003, a third iteration was released that added a PowerPC G4 chip and a slot-loading drive. Apple added a PowerPC G4 chip to the iBook line on October 23, 2003 with the iBook G4—finally ending Apple’s use of the PowerPC G3 chip. A slot-loading optical drive replaced the disc tray. The iBook G4 also features an opaque white case finish and keyboard, and a plastic display hinge. Apple replaced the iBook line with the MacBook in May 2006 during Apple’s transition to Intel Processors.
And for you Apple lovers, you can still pick one on eBay for about $100 or less.
An avid record collector, lover of all desserts and sometimes seen wearing multiple Swatch watches, Dave has been lending his voice for over 20 years heard on such prominent brands as Intel, RCA, Eddie Bauer, Kellogg‘s, Pizza Hut, Lexus, and infomercial giants Guthy-Renker and Beachbody. His narration projects include Japan’s preeminent automobile series Best Motoring International and Hot Version, along with GTChannel, QVC, Universal Music Enterprises, and ViSalus Sciences.