July 26, 2005: Apple debuts the opaque white iBook G4, the final of its laptops to launch beneath the iBook title.
The moveable pc provides Apple’s scrolling trackpad for the primary time. It additionally incorporates Bluetooth 2.0 as a typical characteristic, and turns into the final Apple laptop computer with a PowerPC chip.
iBook G4: A rugged Apple laptop computer
In comparison with at present’s slender MacBook Execs, and even 2008’s MacBook Air, the 2005-era iBook seems fairly chunky. To place it into perspective, the now-discontinued 12-inch MacBook was thinner than simply the lid of the iBook G4.
Nevertheless, what it lacked in skinniness, this rugged laptop computer made up for with loads of energy beneath the hood. In comparison with the late-2004 mannequin launched only a few months earlier than, it boasted a sooner processor, twice the RAM (512MB versus 256MB), an additional 10GB of arduous drive house and superior graphics.
Along with the brand new trackpad — which let customers scroll utilizing two fingers — the ultimate iBook additionally included Apple’s intelligent Sudden Movement Sensor expertise. Designed to cease the arduous drive heads from shifting if the laptop computer sensed it had been dropped, it protected in opposition to information loss.
Each of those options beforehand debuted on Apple’s high-end PowerBook G4 computer systems. Their arrival on the iBook made them obtainable to common customers. A scan of the unique iBook G4 instruction handbook (.pdf) exhibits all of the options.
iBook is a crucial step towards MacBook
Beginning with the very first iBook in 1999, the road of fashionable laptops marked an necessary period in Apple historical past. From the colourful iMac-lite unique to the plasticized iPod-style white variations afterward, the iBooks helped make Apple laptops cool and ubiquitous throughout their seven years in the marketplace.
Apple discontinued this explicit iBook mannequin on Could 16, 2006. The corporate then switched to Intel processors and rolled out its MacBook product line.
Today, Cupertino’s laptops run on highly effective and very environment friendly Apple silicon. The corporate launched its M1 chip in November 2020, then shortly iterated with more and more highly effective Professional, Max and Extremely variations. The M2 chip arrived in June 2022, and the M3 adopted in October 2023. (Considerably surprisingly, the M4 chip debuted within the iPad Professional final Could.)
Did you personal an iBook G4?
Did you personal an iBook G4 or every other mannequin within the lineup? Which mannequin was your favourite? Go away your feedback and reminiscences beneath.
