Introduction
On September 16th, Apple introduced the long-awaited successor to its 15-inch Titanium PowerBook. The TiBook is a hard act to follow. Not since the original line of PowerBooks, one of Apple's strongest product introductions ever, has a portable computer so ignited the interest of Mac users and computer enthusiasts in general. If you'll allow me a brief digression, I'd like to take a look back at some of the important milestones in the history of the PowerBook line.
Apple's original PowerBook lineup consisted of three products. On the low-end was the tiny (for its time) PowerBook 100, a subnotebook that quickly garnered a cult following among the "small is beautiful" road-warrior set. For the rest of us there were the two full-sized, full-featured notebooks: the PowerBook 140 and the PowerBook 170. The top-end 170 had an active matrix (gasp!) LCD that provided a level of responsiveness and clarity well above the contemporary norm.
All PowerBooks included a trackball pointing device in front of the keyboard, with buttons above and below for easy access when typing (thumbs on top button and trackball) or when just using the trackball (fingers on trackball, thumb on bottom button). To either side of the trackball was an expanse of empty plastic.
This arrangement was absolutely unheard of in 1991, as was such a prominent integration of a pointing device. Over the next decade, other notebook vendors would dutifully ape the design of PowerBook line. Pointing devices quickly appeared, initially as awkward snap-on appendages for existing notebook designs. Eventually, the "keyboard forward" arrangement became widespread, making room for the now-ubiquitous center-mounted pointing device. The move from the trackball to the trackpad spread in a similar fashion.
During this time, the PowerBook lineup expanded and contracted several times, eventually losing its way in the late 1990s along with the rest of Apple. With the widespread adoption of the features it pioneered, the once-revolutionary PowerBook product line degenerated into a series of also-ran black notebooks whose best hope for causing excitement was to burst into flames.
PowerBook G3Fast-forward a few years, allowing enough time for the triumphant return of Steve Jobs and the introduction of a certain Bondi blue bombshell, and Apple is back in the excitement business. The PowerBook line was fitted with a speedy G3 processor, and it eventually evolved into a sleek, well-loved black slab with a bronze keyboard.
But the iMac was not merely a refinement of earlier beige desktop Macs. As good as the PowerBook G3 was, it was certainly not "the iMac of the PowerBook line", if that makes any sense.
Enter the Titanium PowerBook, sporting a G4 processor and a design that immediately made the PowerBook G3 seem like an ungainly relic. At one inch thick, it was described as "unreasonably thin"--Apple's thinnest notebook ever. It also included the largest screen ever offered on a PowerBook. Down to its smallest detail, the TiBook was a work of art. Throw the exotic metal titanium into the mix and you have a PowerBook lover's frenzy of epic proportions.
After two years of refinement, the PowerBook line expanded once again to include a 12-inch and 17-inch model, but this time using the more pedestrian metal aluminum: the AlBooks.
PowerBook G4 Titanium But while the 12" and 17" PowerBooks included all the latest interface, processor, and bus improvements, the TiBook was left to languish with "last year's technology." In the face of the even more refined and elegant AlBooks, the TiBook began to look positively dated, an idea that seemed inconceivable a few years earlier. For nine long months, the irrepressible Mac rumors community repeatedly predicted the imminent arrival of a TiBook successor: the fabled 15" AlBook.
When it was finally introduced at Apple Expo in Paris, it was anticlimactic. It was a 15" Aluminum PowerBook G4, no more, no less. The whole line was refreshed with the latest technology, leaving a nice family of uniformly clad PowerBooks in three sizes.
That's the high-level story, anyway. But notebook computers are unlike desktop computers in that a significant part of their value is derived from their physical attributes. Indeed, this is their very reason for existence, and every feature is seen through the lense of old fashioned mechanical usability. Notebooks are tools in the oldest sense of the word: objects to be carried, touched, manipulated, wielded.
Hand-tool-like durability and convenience is a tall order for a high-tech device that has to cram the entire contents of a traditionally-stationary and rarely-touched desktop computer, including all input and output devices, into a stylish container the size of a small stack of paper. When things go well, the notebook seems almost magical, like an impossible object. But there is a vast potential for things to go wrong. This is the low-level, down in the trenches story you won't read about in press releases or on product information pages.
The TiBook is a perfect example, and a cautionary tale. The flip side of its sleek looks and exotic metallurgy is that (surprise!) it's apparently not easy to get paint to stick to titanium. The results were ugly. There were also hinge problems, heat problems, keyboard issues, and all the rest of the little things that can add up to a lot. It's these details of design and manufacturing that make or break a notebook computer, both as a product line and especially as an individual, physical object owned by a particular person.
Battery Specifications for APPLE PowerBook G4 Series (15-inch Titanium) Laptop:
- Capacity: 4400mAh
- Volts: 14.8 V/14.4V
- Battery Chemistry: Li-ion
- Color: Grey
- Dimension: 115.70x109.15x19.00 mm
- Net Weight: 415.5g
- Brand: Apple Laptop Batteries
- Manufacturer Part No: Apple Powerbook g4 Series (15-Inch Titanium)
