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Welcome to Macintosh

An Indigo iBook: My First Modern Notebook Mac

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- 2007.12.04

Bong! . . . :-) . . . Welcome to Macintosh!

I hope everyone had a safe and blessed Thanksgiving!

iBook After another hiatus, Welcome to Macintosh is back - this time with Low End Mac's very own Clamshell iBook in hand. Thanks to Dan Knight, LEM's publisher, I've had in my possession the official Indigo Clamshell iBook from LEM's headquarters for about a month now.

I love the little bugger. The hard drive tends to whine, and with 128 MB of RAM, it's not exactly a speed demon under Mac OS X 10.3.9, but it's convenient. Ya just gotta love the thickness and the handle on it. This was one of the more cool and practical designs Apple came up with for a laptop. I'm all for thin, but give me something durable. The Clamshell screams durability.

This iBook is my first modern Mac laptop. I'm very impressed with it so far.

One drawback was that it suffered from the infamous power plug problem. For those who aren't familiar with it, the power plug on the motherboard isn't soldered on very well, and over time one or more of the "legs" will come loose, in which case you'll have to have it resoldered, which is a repair I did on this one. If you have a clamshell that has this problem, it's a somewhat challenging repair, but it can be done. (If you don't feel comfortable doing the repair yourself, email me, and I can do the repair for you. If you'd like replacing a hard drive or CD drive yourself, I can do that for you as well.)

There will be more on the Clamshell as time goes along. In the meantime, if you have any stories about your Clamshell iBook, send them to me at thomas (at) lowendmac (dot) com.

I'll be cranking out more reviews this month as part of the Low End Mac Reviews section, stay tuned for the next Welcome to Macintosh, and stay safe out there this holiday season!

Recent Welcome to Macintosh articles

IBM Model M: The One True Keyboard, 05.12. Many consider the IBM Model M keyboard the finest computer keyboard ever made. Here's why.
I Still Use My LC, 02.20. An interview with Scott Baret, who has been using the same Macintosh LC since 1991.
Hooked on Classics (Classic Macs, That Is), 02.02. An interview with John Meshelany Jr, who has been hooked on Macs since kindergarten.
25 Years: The Macintosh Legacy, 01.23. On January 24, 1984, the world said hello to a new kind of computer that reshaped the personal computer industry.
More in the Welcome to Macintosh index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: 17" iMac G4/800 MHz, July 2002 - The iMac 'grows up' with a 17" 1440 x 900 display.
Group of the Day: LisaList supports Lisa users.
November 8 in LEM history: 99: OS 9: I think I like it - 01: The simplified Mac life - Soured on Windows - Flea market Mac - 02: Little room for improvement in new 'Books - Combo drive upgrade for iceBooks - 04: Re-Porter - 05: Fix the old iMac or buy a Mac mini? - Apple's Copland project - 06: MacBook Core 2 - MacBook value equation - Cheap is as cheap does - 07: Problems with Classic mode in Tiger - The G4 Power Mac that won't run Leopard
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Recent Deals

Best Mac Pro Deals, 11.03. Used 2.66 GHz 4-core, $1,300; 3.0 8-core. $2,299; refurb 2.66 4-core Nehalem, $2,149; 2.93, $2,549; 2.26 8-core, $2,799; 2.93, $4,999.
Best iPhone Deals, 11.03. New 8 GB iPhone 3G, $$99; refurb 16 GB 3GS, $149; new, $199; 32 GB, $299.
Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, 11.03. Used 867 MHz SperDrive, $348; 1 GHz, $499; 1.33 Combo, $298; SD, $559; 1.5 Combo, $448; SuperDrive, $589.
Best Power Mac G3 and PCI Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used beige 300 MHz, $25; G4/366, $49; blue & white 350, $80; 400, $90; 450, $105; PCI video cards from $15; shipping additional.
Best Power Mac G4 and AGP Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used 400 MHz, $50; 733 MHz, $69; 933 MHz, $209; 1.25 GHz dual, $299.
Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 11.02. Used 2.0 GHz, $800; 2.2, $900; 2.4, $1,000; refurb 2.53, $1,449; 2.66, $1,699; 2.8, $1,949; 3.06, $2,169; new 2.53, $1,579; 2.66, $1,799; more.
Best Mac mini Deals, 10.30. Used 1.33 GHz G4 mini, $379; 1.42, $389; 1.5, $419; 1.83 GHz Core Duo, $350; Core 2, $439; new 2.26 GHz nVidia, $580; 2.53 GHz, $770; Server, $990.
Best G4 iBook Deals, 10.30. Used 12" 1.07 GHz Combo, $225; 1.33 GHz, $298; 14" 1 GHz, $349; 1.33 GHz, $398; 1.42 GHz SuperDrive, $498.
Best Classic Mac OS Deals, 10.30. System 6.0.8 floppies, $10; 7.1, $12; 7.5, $20; 7.5 CD, $4; 7.6 $13; 8.1, $11; 8.5, $20; 8.6, $90; 9.0, $20; 9.2.2, $30.
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