Idiot, he posted an extreme closeup of the logo dead-on a few pages back. The logo is recessed and the silver lettering is slightly off, so from certain angles where you simply catch the reflection of light off the silver it looks slightly off, because it IS slightly off. Sorry that Apple didn't make the logo on the prototype up to your standards, but you'll just have to deal. Perhaps the moon landing conspiracy people have some work they can give you.
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Is this a Powerbook/Macbook Pro prototype?
- Thread starter jpo287
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Idiot, he posted an extreme closeup of the logo dead-on a few pages back. The logo is recessed and the silver lettering is slightly off, so from certain angles where you simply catch the reflection of light off the silver it looks slightly off, because it IS slightly off. Sorry that Apple didn't make the logo on the prototype up to your standards, but you'll just have to deal. Perhaps the moon landing conspiracy people have some work they can give you.
I can tell you from personal experience that the printing on those letters may be wacky - meaning it is not necessarily a fake. I purchased a refurbed, 1st gen MBPro (2GHZ) in 2006 and two of the letters on "MacBook Pro" looked crooked and odd. On closer inspection I could see that the reflective foil is not laid correctly in the bevel of those letters making them look crooked. Interestingly, the MBP I am typing this on is an early 2008 model and the lettering is more pristine, but the beveling is gone, so it is printed flat now. Obviously Apple realized the crooked lettering problem with the beveling and ditched it.
UPDATE with answers
UPDATE:
Someone who is familiar with the laptop contacted me and explained what I had. I can't go into too many details but the jest of it is.
Apple uses several "stages" to designate where the product is in the design phase. This particular unit is/was at the second round of the second stage of design (if you go back and look at the pictures of the memory slot, you can see the EVT2 printed on the sticker attached to the top of the memory slot. EVT is the second stage and EVT2 designates the second round of the second stage.) EVT was described to me as the "what's wrong with it now" stage. It's fully operational but it still contains bugs and/or faulty chips that need to be ironed out (I can only guess the trackpad issue is an example of one of those bugs or pre-production faulty chips). There are a couple of stages after EVT so needless to say, the laptop wasn't ready for mass production.
The "ADP" in the M1ADP1,1 you see under the system profile stands for" Apple Development Platform" and M1 is the project identifier.
As far as the name goes, the way I understand it is Apple had already decided to change the name but didn't want anyone to know so they simply kept the original name on the pre-production units.
One last thing they told me--in no uncertain terms--was that the laptop was stolen. Apple does not and would not ever sell a pre-production unit. If someone has one and they are not an Apple employee, it was either stolen or obtained through the violation of a contract (which again is through illegal means). So I guess I am at the mercy of Apple at this time. Technically/legally it's theirs. I can only hope that given the time span involved and it's historical significance, they will let me keep it and/or sell it. Given it's age, I couldn't imagine there being any proprietary hardware or software worth worrying about but you never know. So I am in the process of once again trying to contact someone at Apple. I am supposed to hear back from them in a day or two. Hopefully they can tell me something at that time.
I'll post an update as soon as I hear something.
UPDATE:
Someone who is familiar with the laptop contacted me and explained what I had. I can't go into too many details but the jest of it is.
Apple uses several "stages" to designate where the product is in the design phase. This particular unit is/was at the second round of the second stage of design (if you go back and look at the pictures of the memory slot, you can see the EVT2 printed on the sticker attached to the top of the memory slot. EVT is the second stage and EVT2 designates the second round of the second stage.) EVT was described to me as the "what's wrong with it now" stage. It's fully operational but it still contains bugs and/or faulty chips that need to be ironed out (I can only guess the trackpad issue is an example of one of those bugs or pre-production faulty chips). There are a couple of stages after EVT so needless to say, the laptop wasn't ready for mass production.
The "ADP" in the M1ADP1,1 you see under the system profile stands for" Apple Development Platform" and M1 is the project identifier.
As far as the name goes, the way I understand it is Apple had already decided to change the name but didn't want anyone to know so they simply kept the original name on the pre-production units.
One last thing they told me--in no uncertain terms--was that the laptop was stolen. Apple does not and would not ever sell a pre-production unit. If someone has one and they are not an Apple employee, it was either stolen or obtained through the violation of a contract (which again is through illegal means). So I guess I am at the mercy of Apple at this time. Technically/legally it's theirs. I can only hope that given the time span involved and it's historical significance, they will let me keep it and/or sell it. Given it's age, I couldn't imagine there being any proprietary hardware or software worth worrying about but you never know. So I am in the process of once again trying to contact someone at Apple. I am supposed to hear back from them in a day or two. Hopefully they can tell me something at that time.
I'll post an update as soon as I hear something.
This threads so long and old (Luke is now 4 months old--funny how time flies) I doubt anyone will read this but regardless, I was finally contacted by someone from Apple today. They were very nice about everything and pretty much told me what I thought they would: they do consider the laptop stolen and as such, I can not sell it. They did offer me an iPod Touch for it but they also said that if I preferred to keep it, they would not pursue recovering it. And while I do think the Touch is a nice little device, I have decided to keep the laptop.
I appreciate all the comments and info
I appreciate all the comments and info
This threads so long and old (Luke is now 4 months old--funny how time flies) I doubt anyone will read this but regardless, I was finally contacted by someone from Apple today. They were very nice about everything and pretty much told me what I thought they would: they do consider the laptop stolen and as such, I can not sell it. They did offer me an iPod Touch for it but they also said that if I preferred to keep it, they would not pursue recovering it. And while I do think the Touch is a nice little device, I have decided to keep the laptop.
I appreciate all the comments and info
Good choice.
Hold on to it, and in 10 or 15 years it'll either be worth a ton of money or it'll be just like any other 10-year-old computer.
Have you tried putting Snow Leopard on it yet?
It would be worth it, IMO. Just to see what happens. I'd clone the HDD before installing SL though, just in case something goes awry. So if you've got a SL disc, go for it. If not, just go out and spend the $29 and get the upgrade disc (which can do full installs).
I can understand why you'd want to keep it but I would have traded for no less than a 64GB Touch.
The thread you are talking about was for a Macbook AIR and they traded a refurbished AIR for his as they considered the AIR as still having "usable" value. Unlike the AIR, the Powerbook/Macbook is several years old and not worth that much--at least to them: no more than an iPod touch.
I thought about it for a second or two but decided I would rather have a functional MacbookPro that was "one-of-a-kind" than the Touch.
I would definitely clone the drive first! In fact, I think I'll clone it regardless as I doubt I could ever get anything to work on it again if the current HD failed. Someone who knew what they were doing could but I just don't have the technical know-how any longer.
MBA = Macbook Air.
I don't think that's why Apple did that. A prototype has almost no usable value once it's final product is released. Apple did it because they want the prototypes back to store or destroy, but they send out something as goodwill for the consumer cooperating and not feeling ripped off.
That's a good idea. But the fact that leopard is running on it might give some hope. The old intel Dev Kits had BIOS, and therefore would not boot anything but the 10.4.1-10.4.3 Intel builds of OS X. 10.4.4 was the first one shipping on Intel Macs with EFI.
ADP is picked up as a valid Mac by OS X's installer. You might be able to run SL on it.
I actually discussed the MBA prototype with the rep and he explained that they traded out as they had something "comparable" to the prototype whereas, given the Powerbook's age, they didn't with it.
That would be great if so. I just happen to have an extra HD at the moment so I'll save it and see if I can get SL installed on it. Thanks!
Interesting, maybe they salvaged parts out of it.
Yep, smart idea backing it up, just in case the ADP only works with the current version of OS X when it's released as prototype, but it'll definitely be interesting to see, and cool to have. Amaze people with your "Powerbook" running the Intel-Only 10.6. Definitely let us know how that works out!
Apple will be fine, they don't need it, it's been leaked all over the net now anyway, and they let the MBA guy keep his.
Enjoy your prototype, I really wish I could get one of these some day!
A observation though: the threads about these things, no matter what forum they're on, always make me laugh! There's a pattern with all of them: guy posts prototype, others say "AWESOME!", others will say "call Apple and see what they think", then inevitably someone will go "ZOMG CONSPIRACY ITS FAKED!", so the OP and/or other members spend the rest of the thread arguing over it
Enjoy your prototype, I really wish I could get one of these some day!
A observation though: the threads about these things, no matter what forum they're on, always make me laugh! There's a pattern with all of them: guy posts prototype, others say "AWESOME!", others will say "call Apple and see what they think", then inevitably someone will go "ZOMG CONSPIRACY ITS FAKED!", so the OP and/or other members spend the rest of the thread arguing over it
I've had my hands on one of these before. I didn't realize what it was at the time. But I quickly put two and two together iSight camera and powerbook logo. Almost bought it for a good deal. Might see if they still have it for sale. Anyone interested in purchasing?
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ARnlKaBGGBorZGZ3aGttal8zZ2MzaGZzc3I&hl=en
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ARnlKaBGGBorZGZ3aGttal8zZ2MzaGZzc3I&hl=en
I don't see how they could legally take something you legitimately bought without paying you for it.
Then again, I don't know much about the laws pertaining to that sort of thing.
I have one like this one but mine still has the stickers and labels from the apple development team with the configuration they used for that machine. During the engineering builds, they use different combinations of components to run tests. This one is a fully functional MBP with the 2.16 Core Duo and a glossy LCD, and, the Powerbook logo. I really can't tell you much about it because it may be confidential. It's the same as the other one they were showing here except this one still has some of the labels from the apple development team. This is a very nice souvenir from some very interesting times at apple.