My wife owned that generation. I hated what the keyboard felt like and the touch bar felt superfluous to me.
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Apple's MacBook Pro Turns 20 Years Old
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I am one of those people who argues over word choice. With no apologies for that: the original Macintosh was revolutionary. The iPhone was revolutionary. (And unlike national revolutions, no one died.) The Touch Bar and things like that are evolutionary. They influenced no one's lives outside of those who used them, and the fact that they did not find widespread use underpins their being evolutionary attempts, not revolutionary change.
I will now step down from my soapbox. Thank you very much for your attention to this important matter.
I will now step down from my soapbox. Thank you very much for your attention to this important matter.
It was a "courageous" decision considering that the PowerBook name was so well established, and the PowerBook 100/140/170 series pretty much defined the design of the modern laptop, (full-depth clamshell, set-back keyboard, large wrist-rest area with central pointing device).
I guess one reason was that - although the PowerBook name started with the 68k-based 100/140/170 - the "Power-" part of the name had since become associated with the PowerPC processor (the PowerMac name started with that switch), which was yesterday's news by then (and the non-appearance of a mobile PPC G5 was part of the reason for the Intel switch)... I guess the PBs had to be re-named to match the Mac Pro...
Ahhh those were the days. I was here 20 years ago when half the members lost their minds over the name “MacBook Pro”. Never owned this generation but have owned all the ones starting with the Unibody.
Hmm.
Don't downplay "evolutionary"... Many revolutions fail, or the result is short-lived, or they make things worse. Evolution implies something that goes on to flourish.
I'd go for "incremental" for something that just nudges the art along in the direction it was already heading.
Or, just plain "failure" for something that just fails to fly, like the Touch Bar... even if it didn't deserve it...
The original PowerBook 100 series was "evolutionary" - they weren't the first clamshell laptops (and the 100 at least was, tech-wise, just the Mac Portable in a smaller box) but the novel keyboard/pointing device layout went on to be adopted by the entire laptop industry.
The 2006 MacBook Pro was not remotely revolutionary or evolutionary. Doesn't mean it wasn't a great product - but it was ultimately just a (maybe nice) portable x86 system using the same design language as the PowerBook and running substantially the same OS. Didn't really intriduce any new ideas to the industry. The later unibody MBP is another matter - no staggeringly different tech but you can see the influence across the entire industry. Ditto the MacBook Air - created the "ultrabook" form factor that spread across the PC industry.
Original Macintosh? Much of what made the Mac remarkable had already appeared in the Lisa - and while the Lisa flopped it received huge press attention and put the idea of a GUI (previously buried in a Xerox lab) out there. Microsoft Windows was announced before the Mac appeared - but after the Lisa.
I think Apple's main claim to "revolutionary" is the iPhone - not so much because of the hardware, or how it influence moder phones but because of the sheer amount of disruption (for good or bad) it caused in industry and society. The App Store concept & the modern app industry. Intel and Microsoft losing control of the mobile market (and the start of the erosion of the Wintel monopoly). Accelerating the death of Internet Explorer and Flash and improving standardisation on the Internet...
Oh man, so many thoughts!
- 20 years! Ouch! Time is flying
- Apple swapped the processors at launch vs what was announced. I wonder why? Last minute testing showed that the machine could handle more? Better chip availability? Such a last minute change is wild at the scale Apple works at.
- Interesting to see the crowd reaction at iSight camera vs speed gains. They definitely were very interested in the camera.
- Steve is a world class presenter. I also wonder how he would feel about the pre-recorded keynotes now? I know we avoid the whataboutism here on MR but there is a human element here that’s hard to not fall in love with. It feels raw and genuine. The current shows are so cold and scripted that it loses my attention.
- I miss Steve.
The only people who “hated” on the Touch Bar were those tech reviewers like MKBHD and other YouTubers. IMO, these negative reviews were just for the clickbait and to generate controversy. Touch Bar in practice is a great idea. Who uses the FN keys to begin with? I mean they default to the other functions like volume up/down and display brightness over true FN keys
The Touch Bar - as many others have said, didn't make sense as a feature specific to one product line.
It has, in my experience, been unreliable, it has failed on all three laptops I've owned with a Touch Bar. (the newest is from 2019 so I cannot comment on M1 touch-bar based Macs).
The Touch Bar does not do the actions that the volume/up/mute or brightness keys do more reliably, in fact, it is often less reliable as you cannot easily learn the key location by feel alone.
It is not a good idea in practice, it is a mediocre idea. I am not a tech reviewer, I am not a YouTuber. The fact that the function row defaults to other keys is not a point in favour of the Touch Bar as the actions that the function row keys default to are easier to do with physical keys than with a Touch Bar.
There are a few major complaints:
1. It was slower, eg adjusting the volume could take a few taps vs one with the physical keys
2. Physical keys could be used without having to look down
3. Touchbar could freeze, leaving you stuck and in need of a restart
Additionally, the feature was never improved upon; Apple released it, and then let it die on the vine.
Good riddance as far as I'm concerned.
Or absolutely anybody who got the first-generation ones and at any point needed to press escape.
I would be willing to give up iOS, but can't go without my Mac. I use a Windows PC for work and hate it.
I still miss mine, stuff from that era was superior, well designed, the ergonomic keyboard and I/O, the versatility ... just superior machines. Still don't like chicklet keyboards. The UI may have been skeuomorphic or whatever, but it had color and consistency. My heart melts each time I boot up an old mac mini.
People would have loved it if it was in addition to the f-keys instead of replacing them.
As ryanel2003 pointed out ... I vividly remember the MR members reactions 20 odd years ago after Steve Jobs said "and we going to call it MacBook Pro" ... they tore the name to pieces like a pack of hyenas.... "OMG" ... "WTF" ... haha!! Fortunately, Apple had the common sense not to put those stupid "Intel Inside" stickers on once they made the transition.
The beauty of the keynotes back then was that they were meticulously rehearsed because the events were LIVE STREAM.
Now we just premade produced video crap that is drop dead zero on vitality and participant interaction. The Apple team in the past sat together in the auditorium while Steve presented....
And now? .... Zzzzz.....
The beauty of the keynotes back then was that they were meticulously rehearsed because the events were LIVE STREAM.
Now we just premade produced video crap that is drop dead zero on vitality and participant interaction. The Apple team in the past sat together in the auditorium while Steve presented....
And now? .... Zzzzz.....
I remember the Motorola G4 PowerBook - it is what swayed me from PC. They were pretty slow, but the fan noise was non-existent which I loved.
The most fascinating thing is exploring the original Macrumors post from 2006 and reading those comments!
Lots of people complaining about lack of Firewire 800 ports and a modem. How times have changed...(and also, how they haven't 😆 ).
Lots of people complaining about lack of Firewire 800 ports and a modem. How times have changed...(and also, how they haven't 😆 ).
Brings a tear to my eye... I am watching this video in a café, editing a 61mp image in Photoshop on battery power on my 2025 16" Mac Book Pro M4 Max with MagSafe. It's awesome!
The Apple events were so much better with Steve. He had the aura and the right attitude and he was a great salesman. I miss that.
The Apple events were so much better with Steve. He had the aura and the right attitude and he was a great salesman. I miss that.
If Apple were to produce a "Magic" keyboard with a Touch Bar, I would buy it; otherwise, I never will, as there are many far better magical keyboards with backlighting available, and at much cheaper prices. I’ve never felt the need for the function keys, even with Windows and Linux.
Apple is constantly doing this - hamstringing a piece of their own tech and then saying “well, no one bought it” and using that as excuse to axe it. If their not going to put their full weight and support behind something, they shouldn’t release it at all.
Let's agree to disagree.
I use my laptops both docked and undocked, depending on where I am. With the touch bar, I would keep the laptop open because some apps unlocked ease of use.
I use those keys too. And while I type with 10 fingers (quite fast) I still cannot find these keys blind and by touch (well I can find Escape by touch). So for me, the added value of physical keys is limited while the Touch Bar did give me value. I do understand the criticism of the first version where the escape key wasn't a physical key. It never bothered me and I could still find the key just as easily as a physical key, but I can imagine that that wasn't true for everyone.