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I never knew anyone that had one of these and I went straight from a g4 iBook to a 2008 Unibody MacBook, but I do remember looking at them at the Apple Stores and thinking about buying.

Didn't really need a Pro then, and still don't, but it sure did look nice.
 
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That was a buttery-smooth keyboard. Sure wish they kept it on the unibodies and made the whole thing thicker but ultra-thin was the religion then.
 
My 17” 1Ghz PowerPC Titanium PowerBook G4 was still rocking until 2018.
Was using it as an iDVD encoder burner at work. I think the thermal taste has dried out because it turns off right away, probably could be resurrected. :p
Errm....Apple never made a 17" TiBook. The big fella was only released in 2003 after the switch to Aluminium a year earlier.

Back to the nostalgia-fest, I remember it less as the announcement of the MBP and more the death notice of the G5 PowerBook 😢 I still have my pristine TiBook and she's still functional.
 
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I had the first 17". It was junk. I had to replace the screen multiple times and the bezel around the screen cracked on both sides. I used binder clips to hold it together. Nostalgia.
 
For the longest time Cook would say “Macintosh” during keynotes but in recent years even he has just said “Mac”.
Nickel 'n' Dime Tim finally realised he could streamline his speech pattern for maximum efficiency and broca-to-hyoid cost-effectiveness.
 
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I had the first 17". It was junk. I had to replace the screen multiple times and the bezel around the screen cracked on both sides. I used binder clips to hold it together. Nostalgia.
Loads of my colleagues plumped for the bigger beast and had similar experiences I recall. They were manufactured elsewhere and the poor QC showed. I stuck with the tried and tested 15.
 
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I had the second model of this. I believe it was the core 2 duo 15". Took it around the world and one of the best Macs I've ever had.
I remember the core 2 duo being a meaningful bump to the original with the introduction of x86-64 to the Mac.
 
Wow, in my head MacBook Pro's were around a lot longer than the iPhone but only a 1-2 year difference. That' crazy. I feel like I remember drooling over Intel Macs well before iPhones, but maybe that was just the 16 year old time delusion.
 
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The big thing I remember about this machine was the introduction of Intel (obviously) but also the introduction of MagSafe, which I think is a big item for Apple laptops—probably it’s most lasting contribution.

The design of the machine itself was mostly inherited from the aluminum PowerBook G4 15”. The unibody machines after it felt really solid and I think the original retina MBP might be the most meaningful update ever to the MBP line.
 
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Great computer with a dumb name. PowerBook was a pretty good name, but obviously they couldn't retain it.

My dream (which I know will never happen, so no need to tell me) is for Apple to return to using the full name "Macintosh". Seeing that full name in the font that was used on 1980s Macintosh computers just seemed very classy to me. My first was the Macintosh IIsi. It's fine to use 'Mac' in conversation, but I like seeing the full "Macintosh" spelled out for the official name of the product itself.
Agreed! I love the name "Macintosh" -- it just feels more classy and meaningful for some reason. "Mac" is okay, but there's just something about "Macintosh" that sits better with me.

The only two remaining traces of the "Macintosh" name existing within the OS now would be the Finder about dialog box, and the default "Macintosh HD" name for the internal drive. Oh, and in their newsroom press releases, Apple sometimes includes this text:

Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984.

Other than that, the "Macintosh" naming pretty much is a fading memory.
 
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My mom’s first Mac. This is the laptop she upgraded from-


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I think the display on that thing is thicker than her current MacBook Air.
 
From design / durability perspective, these were the least solid chassis in my experience. The thin aluminum enclosure combined with plastic rims was really prone to bending / bumps / cracks. I remember carrying this machine brand new, inside an Incase neoprene sleeve, dropped it from less than 2ft and had a massive dent around the display connector. I found the built quality inferior to previous Titanium design. The unibody was a massive leap forward in terms of durability / number of parts / industrial design – no wonder it occurred relatively quickly after this one.
 
There is a slight error in this article.

When the MBP 15 was announced, it had 1.67 GHz and 1.83 GHz CPU’s when pre-orders opened up.

But when it actually launched, they were silently speed-bumped to 1.83 GHz and 2.0 GHz respectively. Everyone’s order was upgraded to the faster speeds.
 
“The 15-inch model weighed just 5.6 pounds and was only one inch thick.“​
LOL! “Just” 5.6 pounds and “only” 1” thick! 🙈 😂
 
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They needed to be repairable because they needed frequent repairs thanks to NVIDIA.
Did not the fist gens come only with the ATI Mobility?
Much preferred the name PowerBook though - much nicer ring to it..
 
I understand that moving away from the PowerBook moniker was meant to create a delineation between Intel and PowerPC Macs (even though the PowerBook nomenclature preceded PowerPC), but I also saw it as Apple shedding the last vestiges of the non-Jobs interregnum.
 
The initial MacBook Pro was fundamentally a PowerBook G4 with an Intel Core Duo motherboard, a built-in iSight webcam, and a MagSafe power connector, albeit without a FireWire 800 port or S-Video out port. I've got a similar model in my collection of older operational Macs...
35E99FBD-3B99-4574-A3F0-1535FE640BBD_1_105_c.jpeg

It's got a 2.16 GHz Core Duo chip, and the RAM maxed out to 2 GB, and it runs Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. When I got it, the SuperDrive was busted, so I replaced it with a new one, along with putting a 256 GB SSD in there. Because of the limitations of the old Core Duo systems, I treat it the same way I treat my PowerPC Macs, largely for retro/throwback purposes.

2792C546-57C1-496D-86EE-614214CD9601_1_105_c.jpeg

Apple Front Row was pretty cool.
 
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