I owned one for a brief time. The Mac Portable looked like a suitcase and had a 3 lb battery. Supposedly it was the Mac taken by NASA on the shuttle missions. I sold it to a mate and bought a power PC with a whopping 4 meg Ram and 40 meg HD all for the low price of $3500 with my education discount.
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Anyone remember the Mac Portable?
- Thread starter DCMDan
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PC World named it #17 on their list of The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time, but then all of the "luggables" were deserving of that same sort of dubious distinction. Those pioneering days were hell...
I agree that it should be on the list, didn't they originally ship without backlights? WTF?
but still, the Puck mouse is worse.
Sure did. I remember the guy I worked for at the time ('90-'91) had one. You had to have the lighting right near his desk or it was unusable. POS.
Snippet from another thread here, yes I bought one new:
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/8725772/
Look at that thread, I have posted some Apple original MacPortable marketing material also.
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/8725772/
Look at that thread, I have posted some Apple original MacPortable marketing material also.
My desk at work circia 1992 with my MacPortable being used.
(I got a tax write off for using it as a work computer, that passed IRS audit also)
I bought mine 11/30/1989 only for $5.4k, original 1MB Static RAM with 40MB internal hard drive, upgraded to 4MB Static RAM via 3MB card.
you can get some ads here:
http://84.77.245.163/Cube%20of%20Movies/Archives/Apple%20Hardware/%20Discontinued%20Products/Portable/
http://84.77.245.163/Cube%20of%20Movies/Archives/Apple%20Hardware/%20Discontinued%20Products/Portable/
It was taken on a Shuttle mission a long, long, time ago. I recall a famous video taken of them ejecting a floppy. The drive ejected the disc, and it floated gently away from the Mac Portable.
Gotta find that vid someplace...
Found it!
Mac Disk Eject in Space on YouTube
(If the link doesn't work just search for "Mac Disk Eject in Space" on YouTube.)
Exactly. When PC "portables" were mere shadows of their desktop brethren, the Mac Portable had a real Mac in there. Same processor, same screen resolution, and a lead-acid battery that probably still keeps a charge 20 years later.
And those old monochrome LCDs didn't need backlights. Not only that, take it outdoors, and the screen looks even better. Doesn't wash out.
A neat old Mac.
flying floppies.
that was the single most bad-ass thing i've seen on the internet in a long time. thanks!
that was the single most bad-ass thing i've seen on the internet in a long time. thanks!
Someone who used to occasionally come into where I worked at the time (an all Mac office) had one of those portable Macs.
There were worse "portables". The early models from other companies had tiny little CRT screens and 5.25" floppy disk drives.
There were worse "portables". The early models from other companies had tiny little CRT screens and 5.25" floppy disk drives.
I was on the IT Support staff for a company that used them - back in the day when a lot of companies were Mac instead of Windows 3.1...
We had a whole bunch of them, some original and some back-lit. We got rid of them for nothing when the PowerBooks came out. Wish I had snagged one...
Some guy sold one mint complete-in-box for reasonable on eBay several years back right before Apple Collecting became really popular. Should've bid on it...
We had a whole bunch of them, some original and some back-lit. We got rid of them for nothing when the PowerBooks came out. Wish I had snagged one...
Some guy sold one mint complete-in-box for reasonable on eBay several years back right before Apple Collecting became really popular. Should've bid on it...