Here's why this 20 year old Mac looks like a new one 

If you saw a TiBook in the wild without knowing what it is, how old would you think it is?

I switched to G4 Titanium from my previous Power Book 3400c in 2002. I bought it used from my Canadian friend. Initially, it came with 9.2.1. MacOS, later I upgraded to Cheetah -> Puma -> Jaguar -> Panther, and finally Tiger (10.4). It was damn good looking and fast for that time. In 2009 the left hinge finally broke off, but I still have it, and it still runs. Was used primarily as a Final Cut editing station for my documentary and commercial works as it was easy to capture material via FireWire straight from DV/DVCAM. Great machine! Thanks, Luke!

I think the most modern part is the keyboard font. It's cooler than the current one. I really like it.

Is it just me or does the TiBook actually look pretty cool when when it is beat up? The second unit Luke shows has a very cool, almost cyberpunk vibe to it.

The TiBook was one of my absolute faves, and looking back I wish I’d hung on to it! But, as you say these weren’t cheap and power was ramping *fast* … at the time I was alternating buying new PC and Mac laptops every year so had to sell stuff off to afford the cycle!

I’m extremely impressed by how thin the Bezels on the G4 are My M1 13” Pro had bigger bezels This is surely the most narrow MacBook bezels until the new M1 Pro 16”

I love these videos featuring old hardware. I started using Macs a bit over 20 years ago, so I had a lot of this hardware when it was new. It's a nice trip down memory lane. Thank you!

I've got a final revision Titanium G4 with the 1GHz chip and in very good condition for its age. No chips in the white paint and everything functioning perfectly. Still use it pretty frequently for some writing projects and to play around with the classic environment. Great video as usual, Luke!

You knocked it out of the park with this video, I was there in 2001 following that keynote and the stoke was massive. The design was a big deal (and I’d just bought a Pismo PowerBook G3 about a month earlier) and I eventually sold my G3 and bought the second revision in late 2001 (550Mhz version). I loved the Titanium PowerBook G4, it was glorious to use and the industrial design (as you say) still holds its own today. I still have mine, but it doesn’t look as good a condition as yours. Iused mine for years and years and it was only the battery failing that led me to get a MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo in 2007 and I never liked it as much as the G4. Mine never had any build issues, it was faultless. But the case wore very badly where the wrists rested on the chassis.

Yes definitely make a video with it, but watch out for high bit rate even with 480p. I reckon it couldn’t handle it.

I love that Apple’s brought back much of this design and improved upon it in their 2021 MacBook Pros.

I loved my TiBook. After a few initial problems (the motherboard was replaced a couple of times) this was a great machine. I upgraded to a unibody MacBook only because OS support fell behind and I wasn’t able to run modern versions of the Adobe Creative Suite. Titanium might not have been the best material choice, but you are right to say the design is timeless.

Great video Luke! I have 2 of these bad boys, and they are one of my favourite Apple designs. Nice touch on having a early version of the Mac OSX to showcase. Keep up the retro videos, there’s lots of cool stuff to cover.

Fantastic video, Luke! Thanks. I remember the excitement when they where announced, the future had arrived. Such a thrill ♥️

Everyone's talking about how MacBooks look so good, but not about how Luke looks so good.

That drop down door is cool.

I used to have a TiBook. You forgot to mention that they got VERY hot on your lap. Their hard drives didn't last long, either. But I still loved mine.

Wow, the transitions between the conserved model and the really used one is so impressive. Video edit 10/10

Your enthusiasm is akin to vinyl record collectors talking about their albums. I had that 15" in 2003, it was given as a gift by Apple. My first Mac and have stayed with their products since as well.

That b-roll is absolutely stunning. Great job Luke!

WOW I was amazed when you popped that keyboard up I didn't know the TI book had that feature. I love this design I think it looks modern, the only thing I don't like is it kinda looks like two laptops stacked together when you close the lid

Absolutely, this laptop holds up well 21 years later. I also love the vents on the side. Makes it seem so sleek as well, like it has industrial gills. Am I the only one who loves the idea of ports on the back? I would love to see this on a modern laptop.

I worked for Dell in the early 2000s, and I remember when they first started copying this design. Only instead of actually being made of metal, the systems were just made of silver-colored plastic rather than the old dark gray plastic.

Awesome video, as always, Luke! This laptop certainly was ahead of its time and it's no wonder that Apple has retained some design elements from this for so many years.

love this guys reactions and enthusiasm

THANK YOU 🙏 LUKE FOR ALL THE AWESOME INFORMATIVE VIDEOS!!! 👏🔥🥊

You found a nice clean one there. Very nice. I have one just to use OS9 when I am feeling nostalgic. Mine is the last gen one. It was having display issues one time so I opened up the back and just pulled out what I thought was the display plug to the board and resested it. Working great now. I have OS9 and leopard running on it.

I've got a mint TiBook 867mhz which I restored with NOS display housing and lower case... it's a joy to use and those keyboards were better than anything before and most models after... running Sorbet Leopard I find myself opening it up more often than most in my collection. I was an Apple sales/service guy for CompUSA when the TiBooks were released and let me tell ya... the first two generations were problematic to say the least. By the final gen a1025 they'd solved most of the paint and hinge problems! Worth mentioning, the original G3 series WallStreet made in Ireland was a disaster as well. Not only the shortcomings of the device itself including lack of zoom video support, but overall quality control and even poor design such as an over-short ribbon cable for the displays on the 13.3 inch models. The second revision WallStreet PDQ, that was the real winner. Best machine they made (maybe ever)... So long as you don't mind an 8 pound chunk of lead in your backpack, but back then that's all we had lol... If you saw my PowerBook collection you would probably have me committed.

My family has been an Apple family forever. My grandma used an Apple II in her classroom back when those were the hottest thing. She also happened to own one of these Ti PowerBooks, a fact which I discovered when I came across it a couple years ago. I had no idea it still worked since the screen hinges are both broken, but I plugged it in around a year ago and what do you know, it booted up just fine! It must have broken early in its life because the paint is still in excellent condition. After that one broke, she bought an aluminum PowerBook, which still works perfectly.

I just love these super thorough throwback videos. You must have an epic Apple HW museum. 🙂

I love the sound the HD in this era of machines made. Takes me right back!

I remember that laptop very well. It was my first MacBook ever and it was also the way I learned final cut pro. Thanks for making this video brought back a lot of fun memories

That was my first laptop and it served me very well. Great video!

Great video Luke, I found this really interesting!! Design language from the Ti definitely can be seen in later MBPs.

The Titanium Apple laptops were surprisingly modern for their time, I wouldn't think my family's old core 2 duo beast that weight several pounds were similar age if I didn't know when the TiBooks were out 💀

When these were current, we were just starting to become interested in Apple computers (PCs really started sucking at this time). I had just purchased an iBook G3 Snow, and my wife wanted one of these Powerbooks. We probably would have gotten one, but right when she was about to pull the trigger, the 12" Powerbook was released, and she snagged one of those instead (we still have it!)

Bus speed and video were both addressed with the 3rd revision, and they did make improvements to the paint bonding process and the hinges, so those all got better by 2002 (although never perfect). I used a DVI model 667mhz through college and into solo life. I didn't replace it until upgrading to a late 2007 MBP. The only reason I did so was because the G4 was becoming software-obsolete going into grad school. Otherwise I would have been able to use it another year or so. It's still running now with an 867mhz logic board, SSD, and Sorbet Leopard OSX. These have been developing a bad rap with some younger Mac RU-vid personalities, but I thought at the time it was one of the best all-round Macs they had ever made and I would defend that now. I still think this was the perfect size, too. Even going from the 15.2" Powerbook to the 15.4" MBP, the latter felt big to me. Now my 16" might as well be Vern Troyer's 17-incher from the commercial with he and Yao Ming. I wish they would develop something that felt a little more like this to use again.

Yes, make a video in 480p on that titanium MacBook! That would be fun to see, and I’d really enjoy hearing what you had to say about the process.

I lusted after one of these back in the day. I was studying foundation art and design at college back then, imac G3s and G3 towers were ubiquitous.

I owned several TiBooks in the day, and a couple Pismo G3 ones before them. Loved, loved the TiBook. So sleek, so professional. I liked the feel of the power button which was more jewel like than anything since. The backlit translucent keyboard. The clean design with ports behind the metal door on back. That screen. The size was just right.

I remember using the desktop G4 in Blue in college. We were being taught FCP 4.0 and Photoshop 5.0...it was a great time and the laptop were only in the professors room. I was just amazed at how fast it booted and worked, it was really revolutionary!

When I first laid eyes on a TiBook the design reminded me of modern airliners, the trim with matching bevel, the engineered hinges, the recessed lock, the drilled out speaker grilles, that level of detailing is now the norm. Back then most laptops looked like they recycled the dashboard out of an RV. I love the utilitarian and superfunctional aspect of the design. Definitely that superbright, large screen was something we hadn't seen before on a laptop. It was probably my favorite laptop ever, it was such a leap in design and capability. And heat generation.

So pretty! That thing looks like a 2020 - modern and I’d never have guessed how old it is. And titanium!? Holy $h!t its nuts!

Absolutely make a video on you iPhone 2g and edit it on that machine love to see how it handles it. Keep up the these video! Very interesting to watch!

Great Video! I started using Apple around 94 with the Performa 630 .. but the Ti PowerBook was my first Apple laptop. Mine was the 2002 (2nd version) like yours. I absolutely loved mine. Unfortunately in 2005 the video card fried. So I sold it for parts. I ended up getting the Aluminum 17” G4 PowerBook.

I have been piecing an original 400mhz G4 Ti (non-booting) back together, it was missing most of the screws and the disc drive is non functional. I ended up having to replace the logic board but the hinges were replaced at some point in its life so they're super strong. The backlight is still very good and it included the yo-yo power adapter. The paint on the top case isn't too bad but it does have cracks that will need gluing. Most importantly, it now functions.

A really great feature was the magnetically activated hook in the lid, as the lid comes down, a magnet in the lower body pulls out a little hook that keeps the lid down till released.

Geez… how to make me feel old! I had one of these running mainly Logic & Ableton back in the day, when the M1’s came out last year I thought how similar some of the design cues were, classic!

Yes, definitely make a video using that MacBook

Love Your stuff Luke. I have Powerbook G4 15", MacBook Pro 2008 c2d, Macbook Pro 15" i5 2015. Keep a good job!!!

Worked in a music/tech shop back then. Saw them fitted with a PCMCIA card that attached to a 12(?)-Slot PCI 19-Inch enclosure which was loaded fully with Digidesign (now Avid) TDM cards for music production. They were flying of the shelves. And a fully propped one could set you back easily 50+ grad. Crazy times.

You should edit a video on it! That would be awesome. I also want you to revisit unibody MacBooks in the future to find out if they are still a viable option in 2022, like you mentioned in the 2014 MBP video (that one was awesome btw)

I had a G3 Pismo 400 MHz and a G4 Titanium 400 MHz and I loved them both. Yes, that G4 you have there is CHERRY sweet! and could pass for a modern laptop.

TiBook was my very own first Mac. The only bad thing about it was where the lid hatch was - Titanium is actually quick “soft” and my lid developed a wing shape over time.

Late 2001 OS X was new, Powerbook G4 and iPod. My first Mac $2295, bought the iPod 5 gig $399 at the same time. The iPod came with a CD with iTunes 1. something on it. After many upgrades, those oldies still fire up. Amazing.

The design is shockingly modern. It could easily pass of as an early 2010's laptop. Crazy

I owned one, and is still one of my fave apple laptops of all time. I am trying to find one in the U.K. that isn’t beat up (very difficult) and is a later DVI model

I owned one of these for a few years as a high schooler in 2008ish. Was a nice upgrade from the iBook I had previously. Ended up selling it and getting a first gen intel mac mini.

I got a next gen g4 PowerBook ..loved it

Followed a CL advert years ago to get the 17 inch version for $75 because it was broken. And I guessed right it was a power problem. But the catch was I had to disassemble it and get the hard drive out for the seller. First one I had ever worked on and it was a challenge with his whole family watching me work. It was not designed for the consumer to take apart. The screen on that machine was absolutely amazing and it served me well for many years before it finally gave out. Such an amazing display for the era. Thanks for the reminder.

That G4 was the very first Mac i got and was an awesome device that looked as nice and attractive as current models. Loved it

I had a Dell back in the day before I switched to Apple (somewhere around 2009). Probably something like a 2002. I don't remember the model. But they had a similar idea to the TIBook with the bays, except they were on the front. And it was awesome for the time. Most of the time, it would be configured to one DVD drive and one battery. But I had three batteries, which, at the time, using it at a college - it was a necessity. I could pop out the DVD drive, toss it in my bag, and throw in a second battery. When battery life was getting low and no charger was to be found, I could just replace one of those dying batteries with a fresh one. Then charge them all up that night for the next day. For the early to mid 2000's... it was amazing. Now I have a laptop that I don't even have to think about a charger for hours and hours on end, but I still want to compulsively plug it in because of PTSD of having *maybe* two or three hours of battery life on the most conservative of settings from almost two decades ago.

I had one of the later models of these. I sold it to a friend around mid 2004 and got a 12" aluminum powerbook G4. The Ti-book definitely scratched pretty easily. The aluminum powerbook on the other hand was easy to dent.

The TiBook was between my laptop replacement cycles. Went from a PowerBook Duo 210 (9-inch screen, trackball, 25 Mhz processor) to a G3/400 Lombard in 1999. Skipped over the first G4 and got one of the first available 12-inch aluminums. Of all my first laptops, I miss the Lombard the most. It had everything I needed - and it was organically stylish. Others at our newspaper that year had clunky-boxed IBMs and a Sony Vaio, but mine was just sooooo thin at 1.7 inches and lightweight at 6 pounds.

Yes! Absolutely make a video on the PowerBook G4 Ti Would love to see a Final Cut 3 workflow

This was my first laptop for college! Used it through all of undergrad and part of my masters. It was a BEAST! The only reason why I upgraded we because of the change to Intel. Unfortunately the hinge was a bit crap, so I had to get that fixed a few times. Such a great laptop!

the bezels were just insanely small for the time

I had a Powerbook G4 and one of the first G4 MacMini's. There was not so much difference in speed as I can recall. Changing RAM in that Tibook is awesome. Changing RAM or a HDD in the old MacMini was quite a task!

I had one of these in graduate school. It was SOOO much better than the previous Dell plastic crap I had prior. It served me well for years until I dropped it onto concrete one late night working in lab when I was crazy exhausted. Tears were shed. Then I got one of the first Intel (15”) MBPs.

Love the ppc platform, just got 4 powermac g4, such interesting machines.

Definitely do more videos on this and maybe the G3 as well. Maybe a video comparing Mac OS 9 to early OS X? I think there’s quite a bit of interesting material for videos between these two machines.

Great video. Would be cool to see you edit a video, do some basic multitasking like switching between safari and the word processor.

Of course they did the easy to change RAM under the keyboard thing again! I had a TiBook 667 and an iBook G4 12" 800 and an iBook G4 1,25, and they both had this feature

This was my very first Apple laptop back in the day, my 2nd love after the 128K Macintosh. I remortgaged my house to get this, but worth every penny. YES, I think it looks even sexier than most modern laptops today. And that BEZEL....NOTHING comes close even by modern standards!

I loved my G4! Sucked it was on Mac OS 9 out of the box. Granted X was a shell of an OS when it launched and no programs supported it by still, it felt old a year later. I also loved the accessable internals under the keyboard. Just needed two fingernails to pop it off. So easy!

I still have mine in the loft, with broken hinges, I will never get rid of it as beside data it hold so many memories.

I noticed that when you close up the screen, the pixels are not divided into sub-pixels. All the laptops and screens I have had until a few years ago have red, green and blue sub-pixels, but newer ones have managed to merge the red green and blue into a single pixel.

A overview of editing on final cut 3 would be great 😀

My 400mhz TiBook from 2002 still works like it just came out of the box running OS9.5. It will still do things like run Office etc but I retired it about 5 years ago - still love the thing to death! It's a great form factor and the current Macbook Pro is closer to a TiBook in terms of size than anything that has been made since Apple stopped building it.

You should make a video, show casing every apple laptop you own, stating the evolution of apple laptop.

I love the look of those Ti powerbooks and been looking here and there for a good condition one but they are so expensive.

This Powerbook received some inspiration from the Sony Vaio design that was getting popular, I remember hearing some people calling it the Powerbook Vaio. It was a beautiful computer, and yes it is amazing that it took 20 years to get those thin bezels back.

My first PowerBook was the "Lombard G3." Black is Beautiful ! The keyboard was the best, the dark curves real sexy and you could change the battery on one side and you could change the optical drive on the right side to a faster burner drive. Then I got the PowerBook G4 Titanium, keyboard not as good, great big screen, a different sexy though. Weak hinges, and one of mine broke and of course the white outer rim paint bubbled up and looked very bad.

I still have mine! Works like a champ.

12:20 can't find time? Hmm we would love to see the first ever Luke Miani documentary 🤩

This was my first ever Mac :D Used to edit skateboard videos on it in 2010. Still the best design of any mac portable in my opinion - thought admittedly it had many flaws.

You should make a video detailing the Final Cut editing process with that laptop

A great computer, good job the keyboard popped open so easily since doing anything heavy it had to be off to keep it cool enough.

I have the original 400mhz model......... found one in mint condition two years ago....... it's pretty amazing

I had just started my architecture degree when these came out. Whilst one or two students (literally one or two) had one, the rest of us were dribbling over them. I had occasionally used an employer’s PowerBook G3 (OS 9) which did feel really luxurious and a quality product, especially next to a white plastic PC desktop. I bought a 12” 1Ghz G4 PowerBook (Jaguar) when it came out, it felt really special to be part of the Apple buzz / community. Yes, do edit and publish video on your G4 Ti… they were used for real work back then!

100% agree with you on this one Luke, I got one of the last ones in about 2004, and absolutely loved it. I used it to run Final Scratch, the earliest DVS system and it worked beautifully. Unfortunately as they were so expensive I had to lease the machine, which meant when the lease was up I had to return it to the lease company as the payout figure was ridiculous. Definitely the start of sexiness in the Apple laptops!

I've got one of the earlier ones, though not the really early one with the hinges that spontaneously disintegrate. Not nearly in this nice of condition though, especially the paint on the hinge etc. I definitely prefer the TiBook over the first generation macbooks pro.

Yup ! I had one back in 2008 that I got with a joblot of iBook G3 and G4's, it was sold as not working but actually I got it running pretty well. I sold it for way more than I paid but really should have kept it. I can't find one for love nor money here in the UK now.

This was so cool!

Good Vid!!! How 'bout a 480p snippet to show the difference with the how done from back in the day retro. (or not if too much trouble. ;~)

I had that in 17 inches, it was incredible and stable as can be

Great video.

You bought three! Geez, you must have paid a premium, because they go for quite a lot on Ebay and yours is in very good condition. I have two, one I left in my childhood home running in 10.1 and 400 MHz model (had to swap out the optical drive) running Jaguar. I like playing with it for nostalgia and learning about the earlier releases of OS X. I could never afford something like that back in 2001, was just too astronomically expensive. But I loved seeing them in ads, tv shows and magazines like Macworld. I brought mine to the Apple store when the new M1 MacBook Pro's launched last fall. Just striking how much of the lineage they share and a big part of that is the software.

I have an early 2006 black plastic MacBook, and it also holds up pretty well design wise. It’s super heavy and thick, with much larger bezels than this, but it’s overall a neat design that’s not too disimilar to MacBooks made today. I love how well apple products age, it makes me actually want to hold onto my 16 year old laptop because it doesn’t look like a piece of outdated junk.

Luke is actually the same age as the G3 powerbook from 1998 and was 3 years old when this titanium came out ,very strange