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Powerbook XXXX
- Thread starter steveca
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the advert in ebay was done completely wrong. Most people wont search for a Powerbok XXXX. In fact there was just one bid. About the machine being fake is in my opinion impossible. It is running 7.5.4 which is not found and why would a fake take the hassle to install this, it could just run 7.5.5 as easily. If it was a fake it would not have an official Apple installed OS and wouldnt have the code "Omega" in the About screen and if it was a fake the body itself would not have the shiny palmrest. As far as authenticity goes this is spot on
thanks a lot for the info... i never heared about that either... makes this thing even rarer I believe... Sorry for the bad pic but the one near the C:\ONGRATLNS.W95 says "I dont do Windows"
Just seems odd to me, Im sure it could be a prototype but I highly doubt it is from ID4 or MI they dont look the same and most things that come off a movie lot legit have some kind of certificate or inventory tags or stickers, I could be wrong either way whatever or where ever it came from I would have liked to get my hands on it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1mdWkW5NPY
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26gQATqxE-c
And a little retro webpage.. http://web.archive.org/web/19961111063127/http://mission.apple.com/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116629/trivia
From the internet movie database for Independence Day:
The Apple ad in your youtube link for MI shows 'PowerPC' on the unit. Interesting point made by the commenter on the Mission Impossible youtube page that they used a Powerbook 550 which was only available in Japan, but they used the 5300 in the ad. They were trying to sell the 5300 after all!
When this thread started, I googled Powerbook XXXX and found a MI promo video (not an ad) from Apple made at the time with the Powerbook XXXX clearly visible. I've tried finding it again but gave up.
PS. Seems someone picked a Powerbook XXXX up for $10 for christmas in 2007. You may want to revise your valuation based on this! Unless it was the friend you mentioned. Refers to it as an 'M2 seed unit'.
http://www.powerbookmedic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1737
From the internet movie database for Independence Day:
The Apple ad in your youtube link for MI shows 'PowerPC' on the unit. Interesting point made by the commenter on the Mission Impossible youtube page that they used a Powerbook 550 which was only available in Japan, but they used the 5300 in the ad. They were trying to sell the 5300 after all!
When this thread started, I googled Powerbook XXXX and found a MI promo video (not an ad) from Apple made at the time with the Powerbook XXXX clearly visible. I've tried finding it again but gave up.
PS. Seems someone picked a Powerbook XXXX up for $10 for christmas in 2007. You may want to revise your valuation based on this! Unless it was the friend you mentioned. Refers to it as an 'M2 seed unit'.
http://www.powerbookmedic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1737
Just seems odd to me, Im sure it could be a prototype but I highly doubt it is from ID4 or MI they dont look the same and most things that come off a movie lot legit have some kind of certificate or inventory tags or stickers, I could be wrong either way whatever or where ever it came from I would have liked to get my hands on it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1mdWkW5NPY
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26gQATqxE-c
And a little retro webpage.. http://web.archive.org/web/19961111063127/http://mission.apple.com/
I believe you cant compare the laptop with the ads, because the ads will feature the ready made production version which people can buy.
As you say it is sure to be a prototype of some kind... Now if ready-for-production prototypes feature a clear casing then this is some other thing... In the movie ID4 they used a powerbook xxxx for sure and it is the same as this one. Now if the production of this XXXX was very small it will definitely have been at least in the props, as already pointed out by other members in the thread... however about having tags etc I am not sure, but it could be... once again a number of other props that I checked on the internet do not have tags or anything...
not my friend but we didnt get it for much more
. i believe that as you said it depends on how you advertise it. if you go on ebay and advertise the laptop as "powerbok XXXX" you wont get a lot of hits and i was lucky... About the valuation it all boils down to whether this thing was on or not in the props department. If not I believe it costs some thousand $ for all of its history... li-ion battery (wont find this...); OS installed 7.5.4; similar to the ones used in movies (preproduction); itself not being available for sale; and also the C:\ONGRATLNS.W95 which make it an intersting Apple history item...
Being in a movie or prop would make it cost much more... I believe anything between $100,000 to $400,000. I am not qualified to give estimated values but if you check ebay and some other movie things which sold in the recent past you do get astronomical values...
Just a thought... I am not sure Apple would have let its preproduction models go with the other props... even the FCC says it is not safe for use so I guess the fully functional powerbook with a battery likely to catch fire would have returned to base... as i said this is just my 2c...
The picture with the specs shows a 68040 processor, which if accurate makes this the equivalent of a 190.
not only that but even the model number marks it as a 190...
the thing is what did they really use in the movie... they want people to think it is the 5300 but it is clearly the XXXX
In case people hadn't noticed, Apple model names with 3 numbers were 68K Motorola CPUs and 4 numbers were PowerPC CPUs.
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Ferrari 158 specifications
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In case people hadn't noticed, Apple model names with 3 numbers were 68K Motorola CPUs and 4 numbers were PowerPC CPUs.
I think you are right... so how come I have what seems to be a powerpc laptop (XXXX) but in reality it is not (Model number and specs). Why would Apple want to label this laptop in such a way? It is not helpful even for their development stuff, so is this enough to confirm that this laptop was made in such a way to be used in the movie before the other powerpc (5300) laptops were being finished?
Well, yes... and no....
Who knows what went on in the engineering dept back then? Those small badges left & right of the colored Apple badge actually clip out very easily. It's possible that that form-factor was originally intended to be PPC only (hence the xxxx badge being produced) but at some time during the process it was decided to also make a 68K motherboard for the same form-factor.
It would seem clear that when the badge was printed, the machine was designated to be a PPC.
Of course, all that's purely speculation on my part.
If Apple handed these out to appear in movies, then I'd also speculate that the final "5300" hadn't been decided. It would be a greater advantage for Apple to have the full model name splashed on the big screen than some engineering moniker. Though I'm surprised that the model that appeared in the film wasn't simply "PowerBook". I'm still confused.
EDIT: Oh, BTW, some pics of the Li-ion battery's look and labeling would be nice. I believe they had a button and LED indicators too. (This was how the PB 3400 & 1st G3 PowerBook batteries shipped)
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mac game
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This is a PowerBook 190cs pre-production unit. The display is a Sanyo 10.4" dual-scan, 256 color 640x480 display. The OS is a pre-release version of 7.5.4 which was ditched at the last minutes, some crucial omissions and fixes were touches, and it was released after the weekend as Mac OS 7.5.5 (there was no 7.5.4 ever released)...
we had 7.5 (box unix), then 7.5.1, the installed version on Many 601 Macs. Mac OS 7.5.2 came standard on the PowerMac 7200, 7500, 8500, 9500, and the PowerBook 5300 and 190 series. OS 7.5.3 was a free update through Apple, and there was a revision 2 to 7.5.3 later released. Then, 7.5.5 came out (skipping 7.5.4). There was a 7.5.5 update 2.0 after that. No 7.5.6 came out -- the next release was Harmony (7.6) which was a retail upgrade. There was a 7.6.1 update to this, before the next major release of Mac OS, Mac OS 8. The developers had an internal version called 7.7 (Tempo) for awhile, but once it hit the a2 stage it became Mac OS 8.0. Then 8.1 came with HFS+ support, there were no sub-updates or 8.2. The next release was 8.5 which was a retail release (like 7.6 and 8.0). After 8.5 came 8.5.1 (this was default on Bondi iMacs in 1998). 8.6 was soon released as the next update. Apple released an update to 8.6, 8.6.1, but Mac OS 9.0 came out shortly after this in 1999. 9.0 was quite buggy, and it took a series of updates, 9.1, 9.2, 9.2.1, and 9.2.2 to iron this out, and Apple ended the Classic line of Mac OS at 9.2.2.
OS X had a rough start with 10.0 and 10.1, but after many updates and fixes to the 10.2 Jaguar release, things were beginning to look good. 10.2.8 was the last release of Jaguar. 10.3 was the first release os OS X that was really taken seriously as solid, stable, and speedy. Updates through the Panther line went from 10.3 to 10.3.9. Then Tiger was released, a major overhaul and speed boost to Mac OS overall. Many regard Tiger highly and think (10.4.11) is one of the most stable operating systems around. Many were hesitant to upgrade to Leopard. Leopard to many seemed a plethora of prettiness, bells, and whistles, but did not offer much internal improvement. Currently, the Mac sits at 10.5.6 and we are waiting for 10.5.7 shortly. Snow Leopard (10.6) is on the way, to deliver an experience for the Mac user like never before.
OK, enough of that.
Don't ask me how I know all this, just a Mac Addict.
we had 7.5 (box unix), then 7.5.1, the installed version on Many 601 Macs. Mac OS 7.5.2 came standard on the PowerMac 7200, 7500, 8500, 9500, and the PowerBook 5300 and 190 series. OS 7.5.3 was a free update through Apple, and there was a revision 2 to 7.5.3 later released. Then, 7.5.5 came out (skipping 7.5.4). There was a 7.5.5 update 2.0 after that. No 7.5.6 came out -- the next release was Harmony (7.6) which was a retail upgrade. There was a 7.6.1 update to this, before the next major release of Mac OS, Mac OS 8. The developers had an internal version called 7.7 (Tempo) for awhile, but once it hit the a2 stage it became Mac OS 8.0. Then 8.1 came with HFS+ support, there were no sub-updates or 8.2. The next release was 8.5 which was a retail release (like 7.6 and 8.0). After 8.5 came 8.5.1 (this was default on Bondi iMacs in 1998). 8.6 was soon released as the next update. Apple released an update to 8.6, 8.6.1, but Mac OS 9.0 came out shortly after this in 1999. 9.0 was quite buggy, and it took a series of updates, 9.1, 9.2, 9.2.1, and 9.2.2 to iron this out, and Apple ended the Classic line of Mac OS at 9.2.2.
OS X had a rough start with 10.0 and 10.1, but after many updates and fixes to the 10.2 Jaguar release, things were beginning to look good. 10.2.8 was the last release of Jaguar. 10.3 was the first release os OS X that was really taken seriously as solid, stable, and speedy. Updates through the Panther line went from 10.3 to 10.3.9. Then Tiger was released, a major overhaul and speed boost to Mac OS overall. Many regard Tiger highly and think (10.4.11) is one of the most stable operating systems around. Many were hesitant to upgrade to Leopard. Leopard to many seemed a plethora of prettiness, bells, and whistles, but did not offer much internal improvement. Currently, the Mac sits at 10.5.6 and we are waiting for 10.5.7 shortly. Snow Leopard (10.6) is on the way, to deliver an experience for the Mac user like never before.
OK, enough of that.
Don't ask me how I know all this, just a Mac Addict.
I agree with all else except this one.
The original Bondi 233Mhz iMacs shipped with 8.1 with the MacOS ROM File.
EDIT: oh, and you forgot the poor attempt at a bug-fix in 9.0.4.
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Toyota Platz
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I agree with all else except this one.
The original Bondi 233Mhz iMacs shipped with 8.1 with the MacOS ROM File.
EDIT: oh, and you forgot the poor attempt at a bug-fix in 9.0.4.
Yeah, I am wrong and you are right on this one. the 233MHz original ones all shipped with 8.1. It wasn't until the later 266MHz and 333Mhz (lifesavers) iMacs later came in ~January '99 that we had 8.5.1 show up as the default OS.
And, yes, I remember 9.0.4. There was was 9.0 and 9.0.1 and no 9.0.2 or 9.0.3, it jumped to 9.0.4 and then the major 9.1 update.
sorry for not replying before. was very very busy and will take some other pics of the powerbook pretty soon...
Reading this thread I dug out some old system disks:
Top row: 7.6.1, 8.0, 8.1, 9.0, 9.2.1
Middle row: 8.1, 1st G iMac install; 8.6, Slot load iMac; 10.1.3, early Flat panel iMac.
Bottom row:
Cheetah, 10.0, (you needed 9.2 to do anything useful);
Puma, 10.1, (this version actually sort of worked with a 10.1.3 update);
Jaguar, 10.2, (by 10.2.8 it had evolved into something good).
JMHO.
The System 6.0 floppy is long gone.
Top row: 7.6.1, 8.0, 8.1, 9.0, 9.2.1
Middle row: 8.1, 1st G iMac install; 8.6, Slot load iMac; 10.1.3, early Flat panel iMac.
Bottom row:
Cheetah, 10.0, (you needed 9.2 to do anything useful);
Puma, 10.1, (this version actually sort of worked with a 10.1.3 update);
Jaguar, 10.2, (by 10.2.8 it had evolved into something good).
JMHO.
The System 6.0 floppy is long gone.
Attachments
btw... talking of rare and cool apple stuff there is an iphone proto on ebay... pretty sure you know about it... i am checking how high that might go to get an idea for a value of the XXXX...
here is the link:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=170308425742
here is the link:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=170308425742
I collect the OSs as well, like a stamp collection (so I need to get a life, I know). It's almost complete - starting from system 1.0 through to 10.5.6. I'm only missing 7.1 now as far as I can tell from all the available info.
And 7.5.4 of course. The only place I've ever seen a working version of it so far is on this Powerbook XXXX. *hint* * hint* if you ever decide to burn a backup copy of it to CD, steveca.
I've also managed to acquire the original CD releases of 7.1.2, 7.5 and 7.5.3. Hard to come by as they were mostly on floppies as CD drives weren't so common at the time.
One thing many hardware manufacturers do is send full-production-quality hardware out to various places for testing; but marked "preproduction, not approved by government agencies", etc, etc. I know I've worked for one OEM that does just that; even when the hardware is 100% production.
WOW!!! this is so cool, aside from the fact that i love the movie Independence Day i love this comp too. i wish i could get a prototype Mac. Keep us informed on what your going to do with this machine because its a very cool find
if that is the case (and believe me I hope you are right
Hi, in case no-one has said yet. I've taken apart many 5300's and 190's in my day.
The PB190 and PB5300 are identical apart from the Motherboard (and RAM expansions - the 48 MB 5300 one won't work in a 190 and vice versa). Also, the PB190 has a clickable trackpad, and the PB5300 doesn't!
Cool find anyway. I had a few prototypes some years back, and sold them for around $400 each about a year ago.