hey guys it's Greg with Apple explained
and today we're gonna explore the
history of the MacBook this topic was
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so the first MacBook was released in
2006 it's worth talking a little bit
about the history of notebooks in
general before diving in as early as the
70s engineers were looking for ways to
bring the power of a computer into a
smaller more portable form almost every
computer engineer had their own approach
and some were more successful than
others
one of the first portable computers was
the Xerox note-taker it had a built-in
monitor floppy drive keyboard and mouse
although there were only 10 prototypes
of the note-taker ever made its debut in
the late 70s influenced a whole
generation of transportable computers
one of the next most influential was the
Osborne one in 1981 which included
bundled software a modem port and two
floppy drives coming in at a whopping
1795 dollars that's almost 5000 dollars
today adjusted for inflation the Osborne
one is considered by many to be the
first real portable computer and it
helped create a demand among businesses
for that type of machine a few years
later the grid compass was released and
introduced the clamshell design which is
still the standard notebook form factor
used today now by the time Apple entered
the portable computer industry there
were already quite a few options on the
market in 1989 they released the
Macintosh portable and then the power
book series in 1991 by the end of the
90s Apple had a pretty substantial
amount of products on the market but it
was clear that there was at least one
niche that the company still hadn't
filled at this time Apple was adopting a
two-by-two matrix product strategy
basically they wanted to offer for
computer models one desktop for
consumers in one desktop for
professionals one notebook for consumers
in one notebook for professionals up to
this point Apple had already filled
three of the four categories and the
last computer model to be introduced it
was the consumer notebook finally at the
1999 Macworld Conference & Expo Steve
Jobs announced the iBook the direct
predecessor to the MacBook there had
been rumors of its release for a while
before the announcement so it didn't
really come to a surprise to anyone but
nonetheless the iBook introduced some
unique and pretty revolution
a features into the notebook market
first the iBook was $1,599 almost $1000
cheaper than the most affordable power
book at the time this alone made it
accessible to a much wider range of
users and its specs were just as good as
a consumer desktop the first iBook
featured a PowerPC g3 CPU and introduced
the unified logic board architecture to
Mac computers which condensed its core
features onto only 2 chips another major
feature was integrated wireless
networking also known as Wi-Fi and the
iBook was the only mass-produced
computer at the time to habit
so the first iBook was a commercial
success it had a fun colorful clamshell
design with transparent plastic
highlights and integrated handle and a
lid that shut without a latch the next
generation of the iBook however came
with the changes that were met with
mixed responses the first follow-up to
the iBook was the iBook g3 snow this
model was lighter and less bulky
included an extra USB port and had a
higher resolution display but it only
came in white and many users preferred
the fun colors of the previous
generation the final iBook model the g4
also only came in white and included a
PowerPC g4 chip instead of a g3 while
the later two models may have had some
upgrades to their processing power they
were known to be less durable than the
original iBook Apple actually faced a
lawsuit in 2008 for faulty memory slots
in the g4 and there were widespread
complaints about faulty lid latches
despite these issues which were pretty
minor in the grand scheme of things the
iBook did well it was extremely popular
in schools and in some districts an
iBook was given to every student but the
iBook model didn't last forever in 2006
Apple was in the midst of a major
transition from PowerPC to Intel Apple
was working on rebranding some products
to reflect this change and it wanted the
Mac name in its new products and so the
iBook became the MacBook and at the
Macworld Expo in San Francisco that
January Steve Jobs announced the MacBook
Pro the first Intel powered Apple
notebook ever which replaced the
PowerBook g4 so the first generation of
MacBook was a departure from the iBook
and more than just its name
besides the processor the MacBook
featured a polycarbonate body that was
thinner and lighter than its predecessor
it utilized the new MagSafe power cable
that attached and detached magnetically
a new glossy 13-inch display a sunken
keyboard
in a magnetic latch it improved on the
ibooks Wi-Fi networking abilities
offering Bluetooth 2.0 and included two
USB ports instead of just one it also
came with a built-in iSight camera that
allowed for a video recording in a
sudden motion detector that would
protect the hard drive if the notebook
was dropped but despite all its new
features the first MacBook had some
problems first early models would shut
down randomly due to firmware issues
which I will responded to with the
firmware update but then many MacBooks
would overheat and shut down because the
graphics card and hard drive ran too hot
eventually Apple issued a recall of
early MacBook models because of the
issue in 2008 Apple released the second
generation MacBook this model borrowed
some design cues from the higher-end
back Book Air since the keyboard was
backlit and it featured an aluminum
unibody housing and self polycarbonate
the trackpad was covered with glass and
had multi-touch capabilities as well as
an integrated click button which meant
this was officially the end of dedicated
trackpad buttons as far as technology
inside the MacBook the second generation
offered some improvements over the first
but it still fell behind the higher-end
macbook pro and heir models compared to
the first macbook the second generation
brought a faster graphics chipset and
more hard drive space but it also did
away with a firewire port which had been
on almost every Apple notebook up to
that point and as you might expect this
caused quite a bit of backlash from the
tech community since it made certain
tasks like data transfers a little more
complicated but most casual users didn't
miss the Wi-Fi port since they never
used it anyway now at this point the
MacBook was one of the most popular
notebooks in the world
in 2008 it was the single best selling
model beating out all the other
competitors including Dell Lenovo
Toshiba Sony Asus and HP the macbook
success was in part due to the fact that
it was still fairly affordable compared
to its competition but offered a much
more attractive design and user
experience the next generation of
MacBook was released in 2009 and Apple
decided to reintroduce the polycarbonate
material but this time with a unibody
design it was rounder and thinner than
the other models and it finally
addressed one of the biggest cosmetic
complaints the MacBook Linus faced so
far greasy palm rests all the previous
models of MacBook had received
widespread criticism from users for how
quickly the palm rest became faded
smeared and covered in fingerprints
Apple responded to this issue by
featuring
fingerprint-resistant glossy palm rest
that was easier to clean and resistant
to fading this model also include a
rubber bottom to prevent slipping but
the rubber piece tended to peel off and
ended up costing apple quite a bit of
money in free replacements the company
also faced a class-action lawsuit
regarding MacBook power adapters during
this period the introduction of the
MagSafe power adapter was touted by
Apple as a revolutionary safety feature
which it was but they didn't hold up
well over time users complained about
the durability of these adapters which
could split and fray after a period of
normal usage Apple responded by not only
redesigning the cables but settling the
lawsuit by issuing an adapter
replacement program for US customers
unlike previous updates this model got
some upgrades and some downgrades it
still included an intel core duo
processor 250 gigabyte hard drive 2 USB
2.0 ports and an iSight camera it still
had the same pricing as the last
generation starting at 999 dollars and
it was a bit lighter at 4.7 pounds and
included upgraded Bluetooth 2.0
capabilities but unfortunately it didn't
bring back firewire which many people
were hoping for an apple also eliminated
its dedicated audio input which wasn't a
very popular move but other features
like improved display brightness and
viewing angle overshadowed the MacBooks
deficits now the biggest point of
controversy with the third generation
macbook was its battery the previous two
generations had featured removable
batteries that were estimated to last
five hours and this model had a battery
with an estimated life of 7 hours which
was a good improvement but the battery
was no longer removable and this
decision by Apple was met with many
complaints since the claimed seven hour
battery life was thought to be an
exaggeration when outlets like Macworld
found that the MacBooks battery only
lasted four hours in their testing also
many people understood that this model
marked the end of removable and
replaceable batteries in Apple notebooks
which meant replacing your MacBooks
battery was about to get much more
expensive and inconvenient now in the
early 2010's the standard MacBook was
losing popularity to the MacBook Air and
MacBook Pro because of its decline in
popularity Apple discontinued the line
in 2011 for everyone except educators
and discontinued educator access in
February 2012 for three years the
MacBook Pro and MacBook Air were the
only notebooks Apple offered but in 2015
they reinvigorated the MacBook line with
a completely new model it was a big step
up from the original macbook featuring a
12 inch Retina display new butterfly
keyboard mechanism a USB C port an Intel
Core M processor a force touch trackpad
and Bluetooth 4.2 it also featured an
unbelievably thin and light aluminum
design and it came in four colors silver
space grey gold in rose gold this was
the first time Apple offered a notebook
in different colors since the original
iBook in response to criticisms about
the earlier models battery life this
MacBook model featured a terrorist
battery that squeezed in 35% more
capacity than previous technology would
have allowed resulting in a full 10
hours of battery life but all those new
features came at a cost
since this model had the highest price
of any prior MacBook starting at $1,299
now the biggest problem this model faced
had to do with its keyboard it had
extremely shallow key travel which meant
typing took some getting used to
while some users never truly adjusted to
it but that was only the beginning the
new butterfly mechanism was fragile and
could malfunction if too many crumbs or
too much debris entered inside a key cap
and repairing the malfunctioning
keyboard could cost up to $700
eventually Apple faced a class-action
lawsuit from users who claimed the
company knew about the keyboards of
honor abilities before it was released
but chose to do nothing about it
the lawsuit is still ongoing and came to
include MacBook Pro models that shared
the same fragile keyboard mechanism now
I want to talk about a controversy that
has plagued almost all MacBook models
and it concerns the iSight camera which
has been the target of a serious
vulnerability nicknamed ICU the bug
allowed hackers to remotely access users
webcams without turning on the green LED
light this meant strangers could watch
and record you whenever your notebook
was on without you ever knowing it the
vulnerability came to public attention
in 2013 after Miss Teen USA Cassidy wolf
received nude photos of herself in an
extortion attempt she discovered that
the perpetrator her high school
classmate used a remote administration
tool to hack into her Mac books iSight
camera a similar tool was used on Mac
books provided to students by a
Pennsylvania School District in 2008
which initially was meant to be an
anti-theft protocol but it ended up
causing the school to inadvertently take
over 56,000 photos of high school
students in
privacy of their own homes so the Matt
Bacchus had quite an eventful past and
it shows no sign of slowing down
Apple has given the MacBook to spec
bumps over the past two years and we can
expect a redesign in the near future
it's already set a new standard for
portability in the notebook computer
market but Apple never rests on their
laurels and I'm excited to see what they
have in store for the next generation so
that's the history of the MacBook and if
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for watching and I'll see you next time
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