Feb

The Compact and Smart Apple Ibook G3

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Misc

When Apple first launched the Apple iBook G3 in July of 1999, the world saw a change. Available in different colors and for the first time there was a laptop with a trendy and sporting look that became instantly popular with the youth. The five colors of the apple iBook was Tangerine, Blueberry, Graphite, Indigo and Key Lime.

Two different versions of the G3 were launched in a period of 3 years. The Apple iBook G3 clamshell was launched in 1999 was aimed at children and basically the youth. With an innovative, child-like design, the iBook G3 clamshell is more than just a small notebook; it is a powerful computing machine. The main component of this iBook is the PowerPC G3 CPU. This is a third generation PowerPC microprocessor that belongs to the PowerPC 750 family.

The standard components of the Apple iBook G3 clamshell included Ethernet, USM, modem ports and an optical drive. Codenamed as P1, running on 366MHz M2453, it has a 12.1″ TFT (Thin Film Transistor) that provides 800×600 resolution. The G3 is available with RAM of 32MB or 64MB; Hard Disk space of 3.2GB or 6GB; VRAM of 4MB and 2X AGP ATI Rage Mobility graphics. Another salient point of the G3 is that they were the first to be sold with integrated wireless networking. Even today, there is no other notebook that can be compared to the G3 clamshell in performance as well as advanced technology for the children’s segment of the market.

The second G3 model was the Apple iBook G3 dual USB, which was launched in the May of 2001. Unlike its predecessor, the dual USB model was devoid of any theatricals and was aimed at a more technology driven and serious market. Weighing at 2.2kg, G3 dual USB is available with RAM of 64MB or 128 MB; hard disk space of 10GB; a 256KB L2 cache; and a 12.1″ TFT (Thin Film Transistor) display that provides a maximum resolution of 1024×768. The iBook is powered by PowerPC G3 500 MHz and has the regular features like Ethernet, USB 1.1, Video Out, FireWire, AirPort (802.11b) and optical drive consisting of a CD/CDRW/DVD/Combo. This is one of the first notebooks to have a dual optical drive. The operating system is Mac OS 9.1.

There were some more versions of the Apple iBook G3 taken out later like the iBook G3 Dual USB with 600MHz and 15GB hard disk; the G3 14″ TFT with a maximum resolution of 1024×76; the 700MHz G3 in 2002; the 900MHz G3 in 2003 with 40GB hard disk are some of the many different configurations that came out in the market. The truth is that at the end of the day, there is no other notebook as sturdy, as strong in performance, as durable as the Apple G3 iBook and it shows!