@@puciohenzap891I worked at Apple from 1987 to 1996. I first worked for Tech Support (Supporting Certified techs in the field) and then worked in the DTS group (Moof) working with third party developers with hardware and software issues. My Apple job moved to Austin, TX ,but I wanted to continue to live and work in the bay area. I worked in biotech for many years and now am retired.
I worked in sales at Apple at the time the Mac Portable was introduced. The Portable was an amazing bit of engineering - the entire thing was assembled with no screws - all the parts snapped together, including the mounting of the boards and drives. The subframe was the most complex plastic part Apple ever produced, and it quite a thing to behold when it's seen by itself. If you can work out how to disassemble it all (it's not that hard), you can see how it was designed. It's pretty cool. Driven by product chief Jean-Louis Gassée, the Portable's design was meant to be free of compromises. In reality, it was filled with compromises, and all the wrong ones. Gassée assumed (wrongly, as it turned out) that portable computer users were more concerned about battery life than size and weight, and he directed the product team to build the product on that basis. To that end, they used very expensive static RAM (SRAM) instead of the more typical dynamic RAM (DRAM), because SRAM's contents could be held indefinitely with a small voltage, and almost zero current draw. This meant that while sleeping, the computer would draw almost zero power, allowing it to remain in sleep for weeks without discharging the battery. The large and heavy lead-acid battery was chosen because that battery chemistry could be charged from any level of discharge, to any level of charge, without ill effects on the battery. The nickel-cadmium batteries used at that time in competing designs had the well-known "memory effect," which meant that if you charged a NiCd battery without fully discharging it first, it would not be able to reach full charge. This created a state of what Gassée called "battery paranoia" that the Mac Portable sought to avoid. He was right about that, but the reality of the weight penalty imposed by the heavy lead-acid battery was not worth the benefits. The Active matrix LCD used by the Portable was groundbreaking, as all competing LCD-based laptops at the time used super-twist passive-matrix LCDs which, as anyone knows, were complete crap. The refresh rate was terrible, and they had awful image artifacts. The choice to use a reflective-back display without backlighting was driven by the battery life penalty it would impose, and again, it was the wrong choice. Active matrix displays later became industry-standard, but the Mac Portable was the first mainstream portable computer to offer this feature. The main drivers of the high price of the Portable were the AMLCD screen and the SRAM memory. These were (especially at the time) very expensive components. They were "interesting" choices to have made at the time, but the AMLCD later was adopted by the rest of the industry, showing Apple's leadership, at least in *some* areas. It wasn't a great machine, but a Mac Portable was definitely a cool status symbol. I hope you get to hang on to the one you have - it's a very fun artifact to have in your collection. Thanks for the tour and trip down memory lane!
I added some paragraph breaks to make this easier to read I worked in sales at Apple at the time the Mac Portable was introduced. The Portable was an amazing bit of engineering - the entire thing was assembled with no screws - all the parts snapped together, including the mounting of the boards and drives. The subframe was the most complex plastic part Apple ever produced, and it quite a thing to behold when it's seen by itself. If you can work out how to disassemble it all (it's not that hard), you can see how it was designed. It's pretty cool. Driven by product chief Jean-Louis Gassée, the Portable's design was meant to be free of compromises. In reality, it was filled with compromises, and all the wrong ones. Gassée assumed (wrongly, as it turned out) that portable computer users were more concerned about battery life than size and weight, and he directed the product team to build the product on that basis. To that end, they used very expensive static RAM (SRAM) instead of the more typical dynamic RAM (DRAM), because SRAM's contents could be held indefinitely with a small voltage, and almost zero current draw. This meant that while sleeping, the computer would draw almost zero power, allowing it to remain in sleep for weeks without discharging the battery. The large and heavy lead-acid battery was chosen because that battery chemistry could be charged from any level of discharge, to any level of charge, without ill effects on the battery. The nickel-cadmium batteries used at that time in competing designs had the well-known "memory effect," which meant that if you charged a NiCd battery without fully discharging it first, it would not be able to reach full charge. This created a state of what Gassée called "battery paranoia" that the Mac Portable sought to avoid. He was right about that, but the reality of the weight penalty imposed by the heavy lead-acid battery was not worth the benefits. The Active matrix LCD used by the Portable was groundbreaking, as all competing LCD-based laptops at the time used super-twist passive-matrix LCDs which, as anyone knows, were complete crap. The refresh rate was terrible, and they had awful image artifacts. The choice to use a reflective-back display without backlighting was driven by the battery life penalty it would impose, and again, it was the wrong choice. Active matrix displays later became industry-standard, but the Mac Portable was the first mainstream portable computer to offer this feature. The main drivers of the high price of the Portable were the AMLCD screen and the SRAM memory. These were (especially at the time) very expensive components. They were "interesting" choices to have made at the time, but the AMLCD later was adopted by the rest of the industry, showing Apple's leadership, at least in some areas. It wasn't a great machine, but a Mac Portable was definitely a cool status symbol. I hope you get to hang on to the one you have - it's a very fun artifact to have in your collection. Thanks for the tour and trip down memory lane!
My Dad bought a Mac Portable when I was a kid, I came home from summer camp to him using it on our dining room table. I was very excited to to play with it, the screen, even without a back light, was so amazing for the time. When he went on a business trip and took me with him, I offered to carry the Mac Portable through the airports for him, which I quickly learned was a mistake. He did end up buying a small, simple clip-on lamp so he could use it in a hotel room with the rest of the lights in the room off while my Mom and I slept.
6:13 There's no risk. That's not how current works. The load determines "amps". You could connect a 7.5v Portable to a power supply rated for 1000amps@7.5V ...the device will still draw the same amperage. i=v/r -> The 'r' is determined by the load (Mac Portable); the only question is: can the adapter supply enough amperage. ...not whether it has too much capacity. ...what you wouldn't want to do is connect it to a power supply that can't supply enough current, and of course, in general you want voltage to be pretty close. ...although there are a lot of devices with a much larger acceptable voltage range than you might guess.
@@yay4this many people get this wrong, especially anyone that hasn't gone into how electricity works (you can know electronics and basic board level repair without knowing how electricity works) Now where it could potentially be a problem is in a situation of a short, as the higher current PSU could damage more if there was a dead short compared to a low amperage PSU. but usually as long as the new PSU is at or only an amp or so more than an original that itself shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Asking because I don't know, (but I already believed what you are saying): Could it be that the computer will draw 2A+ if "given the chance"? Surely that can't be, right? Because if that were so, it would be trying to draw 2A even on when running on its own "correct" power adapter and would be frying those left and right. Right??
@@dgpsf yep, now if there is a short, or something in the computer drawing extra amperage (more drives, or added components, an overclock) then it would draw more than originally rated which might cause the original power brick to fail and a higher amperage one to keep working. another way to look at it is the PSU wattage. as you add more stuff to a computer the wattage goes up (volts*amps) if the case of having a PSU with higher AMPs / higher watts was an issue no one would buy higher wattage PSUs for their desktops. (you can usually use a higher wattage PSU for your laptop as long as the voltage is the same, and sometimes a lower wattage one but performance or battery charging will be sacrificed) Voltages are basically the only thing needing to be close to spec as the VRMs are designed for a certain input range. Sometimes you can run slightly higher voltages but not too far.
Minor clarification but It was a swappable trackball/keyboard not a mouse/keyboard. I known It’s been a while since trackballs where much of thing though I believe a few models are still sold these days.
@@babyboomertwerkteam5662 Apple has always prioritized end-to-end-control of the user experience over upgradability. In instances where they see the two as not being mutually exclusive, they sometimes make an exception. There is no "back when" on this. Macs of this era were notorious for their lack of expandability because Jobs hated slots. The upgrades available to Mac users who didn't want to void their warranties in the 1980s were extremely limited, and could only be had via Apple Service Centers.
@@user-dx8br5vb3n Jobs hated slots - good thing he wasn't at Apple when the Macintosh Portable was made. Or the Macintosh II series, or the Quadras, or the early Power Macs, almost all of which featured between three and six expansion slots depending on the case size. Apple's engineers did care about upgradability when Jobs was out of the way. And even when Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, their "pro" line-up of machines kept the upgradability, while the consumer machines (most notably the iMac) lessened it.
Count me among the very happy, non-business owners of the Portable backlit edition. As a college student, this machine was everything to me in the early 90s. I used it to write, play games, CREATE games, interact online (AOL was in its formative years), manage my money, and everything else. The unit sadly failed while driving it a long distance in a vehicle on the highway a number of years after I bought it, but I still have it and would one day love to refurbish and restore it back to health and fully operating condition. So many people love to dunk on the Portable in retrospect. Yes, it was relatively heavy and bulky. But compared to EVERYTHING else on the market? Apple wanted to make a Mac that could travel, with NO COMPROMISES. And that's exactly what they did. Everyone hating on the Portable back then was willing to trade off lots of functionality in exchange for light weight and ease of moving it around. This computer was not built with that mindset. It irks me that it constantly shows up on current-day lists of Apple missteps and failures, because the machine was so good at what it was designed for.
The SRAM was the #1 reason why the sleep mode was so effective. I've got many sweet memories playing Shufflepuck on a Mac Portable back in the University computer store.
Our marketing department had one of these at the office in the early 90's and I remember taking it home to work on when the Paris trains had one of their regular strikes. I was writing a proposal and collaborating with people in Singapore and Texas so the modem and email were also used. It was great to type on but very heavy to lug home and back!
My dad had this. It was the coolest thing ever. I remember busting it out on a flight to play Glider. It felt like the seat tray table was gonna snap but I got a good 25 mins of playtime out of it.
It's my understanding that Apple basically gave Sony a Portable and said, "make it better," and Sony came back with the prototype for the PowerBook 100.
Great video sir!!!! I have several of these machines, both model types…and let me tell you they are the most finicky Apples I’ve ever worked on. Usually though, once you replace all the caps, install fresh battery’s and say a prayer it will usually fire right up. Luckily the M5126 used A much cheaper ram and by 1992 the price had dropped significantly.
As a person who 3d prints occasionally: what's going on with that blue part of the battery case? I know it's hidden inside the computer, but someone needs to work on those printing settings.
It looks like they either have some extrusion issues, bad z-offset, or they printed it in the wrong orientation and that top had to be printed as a bridge.
The greatest irony being that the Portable's guts were the basis of the PowerBook 100--so going from their largest to their smallest portable in one generation.
Thanks to the magic of Sony’s engineers - Apple contracted out the PB100 to Sony, while developing the 140 and 170 internally themselves - at the time :P
Active-matrix screens were pretty rare back then. The Mac Portable screen had no backlight, but it was readable even in direct sunlight -- which you couldn’t say for nearly any other portable out there. And that lack of a backlight was a factor in its long battery life. Also the battery was a lead-acid one, like that in your car. Why? Because the more common type of battery for portable PCs in those days was the NiCad battery, which needed to be periodically run down to avoid the dreaded “memory effect”. There was no such issue with lead-acid, which could be kept at full charge all the time. Though it did add to the weight. Fun fact: when the ground-breaking PowerBook laptops were released in 1992, the lowest-end model, the PowerBook 100, actually had the ROM (and possibly other electronics) from the Portable. This meant that, even though all the machines in the range shipped with System 7.0.1, this one could run older OS versions back to 6.0.5 (same as the original Portable), though I think the battery management didn’t work completely efficiently.
Great video Colin, such an interesting machine! Ironically, given how small the Macintosh SE is, this didn’t provide much extra portability. Especially given the price back in the day!
They also weigh about the same! I guess though if you wanted to type up a document on the go you won't need to find a power source for the Portable. I guess this is why "AlphaSmart" keyboards became a thing!
Thanks for the video. I believe the first Mac doesn’t get the credit it deserves for being portable. It came with a messenger bag that was designed to fit the mouse, keyboard, and external drive in pockets that would fit together to reduce space. It was designed to be put together quickly. It had a small footprint and a handle to carry it. It was 1984 when there was nothing like it (I was a teen then and into computers). The Osborn does deserve credit for being the first portable computer, I did see one in action once. However the first Mac solved some of its problems. Portability has always been important with the Mac.
10:10 "... an uncharacteristic flop...." Apple III, IIGS, Lisa... Not at all uncharacteristic. Apple flopped quite a lot. Usually it wasn't even flop so much as a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The Apple III is probably the 2md worst example of any personal computer failure company ever. Perhaps comparable to the infamous "Peanut" in self-inflicted wounds. The story of the IIGS is a similar self-inflicted gunshot wound.
@@AaronOfMpls It really doesn't even make any sense. It wasn't ever going to be even as fast as a mac with an 8mhz 68000. But they deliberately crippled it and overpriced it for no real reason. OTOH, I think the II line was doomed from 1977 onward. The PC juggernaut was just unstoppable. But at least they would have gotten a few more years out of line, probably well into the 90s. In many ways, the IIgs is a fascinating system and could have been a worthy successor to the regular II and IIC.
@@ps5hasnogames55 Are you an anti-white/anti-Russian bigot? It's convenient for me that the flag is red, white and blue, which are the same colors of old glory. Every SJW on Twitter has the Ukrainian flag as their icon. I don't pretend I know the first thing about that conflict. I just know all the evil people support one side.
8:55 Not just businesses. There was this entity called the Apple University Consortium, and at the time, all the universities in 🇳🇿 were members, including my employer. We could get Apple hardware at pretty good discounts, which were available to both staff and students. And for some reason, ours bought a total of five Mac Portables, which was possibly more than all the other 🇳🇿 Universities put together. And I remember one lecturer who was so attached to hers, she was very disappointed some years later when the battery failed, and it became hard to find a replacement.
Despite the flaws that it had since it’s inception, to say nothing of modern advances, there’s something so charming about these. Visually there’s just a real beauty to monochrome, active low res LCDs that modern monitors can’t capture.
It looks dated now, but it's the only Mac that's really tempted me. The screen was much better than on the Toshiba laptop I had and worked quite well in normal office lighting and outside. It was way too expensive though.
Colin I’ve been a fan of your videos for a while now and I want to thank you for making this video 🙌🏻 and for featuring my photo of the Macintosh Portable 😁😁 It’s one of my favourite retro computers (my Mac Portable sits on my desk permanently). I was planning on making a video on it after my blog post but you did a better job than I ever could have. You should really pick up a backlit version, the backlight really gives the computer a different level of usability. Keep up the amazing work!
Thank you for making this video! I've had mine for a while now and I never realized that the floppy drive side cover was removable! Maybe I'll design a 3D printable replacement that supports something like a built-in Floppy Emu or Gotek. RIght-on!
My favorite video on the internet is still astronauts on the space shuttle ejecting a floppy from one of these in 0g because it’s funny to watch it fly away
This was the first Mac I used! FYI, this was considered a “laptop” back then, but not a “notebook”, which was the new marketing term for thinner laptops.
One thing that probably explains the market failure of this amazing unicorn of a Mac, is that, being “luggable” rather than a true laptop, it weighs almost the same as the compact macs of the day, the Portable and the SE both clock in at around 8 kilos. Don’t quote me on this but they would be almost the same volume too, though the portable is nice and flat. In fact, I remember lugging your Mac Plus/SE around being a thing back in the day, they even had a carry handle and an optional shoulder(-killing) bag. Of course there would be no battery power but with machines of this size and weight you would be needing a table for it to rest in anyway, there would be no cozying up in the armchair with either machine. Which pretty much leaves battery power, if you really needed it, or the few other tech feats like outdoor-readable screen, external monitor port to differentiate. And this at a quite hefty price markup.
Great video Colin! I love the portable! it is a very unique Mac. The 3d printed battery container is an awesome idea!! The only thing that I wish the first version had was a LCD backlight like you mentioned. I wonder if we could find a way to add a backlight to the 1st version?
At the time, I think most portable computers were ironically named. I remember a friend used to bring his "laptop" to college. It weighed enough that most of us needed two hands to lift it, what with it weighing several kilos. That said, I'd still have had one in a shot. At the time, I wasn't really a mac user, so wouldn't have been interested in a mac portable. I was using a PC at college, so a PC portable would have been handy, and I had an Amiga at home, which I would have *loved* to have in a portable form. I use Macs now though, so it would certainly be interested to use one of these.
I remember the first time I saw one of these was in the 1992 film “Single White Female.” It seemed so extraordinary and futuristic that she could dial into CompuServe, key in an address, post her message, and it appeared in the print edition if the New York Times on the day following!
Fun fact: the Macintosh Portable went to space on the STS-43 Space Shuttle mission. Was responsible for sending the first email in space and launching floppy disk projectiles across the crew cabin, among other things.
I have the backlight version. Current draw from an AC adapter is dependent on the load. Just because the power supply can handle more current doesn’t mean that somehow more current is going into the Mac. You’re thinking voltage. It’s common to run the portable off newer supplies that can actually power the machine. Otherwise you have to wait for the battery to get enough charge to boot it. Mine has the original adapter.
I was in the Apple dealer channel back then. I liked the display at the time, but as you say, good lighting was essential. I'm still a fan of the old simple, clean software interface of that time which worked well with the backlit display. Those lead acid batteries definitely made it a luggable, but so were most of the competitors like the Compaq 386.
Very informative video as always. In retrospect, I can definitely see how with the PowerBook series, Apple learned from the Mac Portable and tried to offer a true laptop experience. The funny thing is that these cost twice as much as the PowerBooks did at launch and it was only released two years earlier.
my father-in-law gave me two Mac Portables a fair number of years ago - he had them at the workplace he was at (provincial government ministry) and decided to keep them when they were being sent for scrap. The carrying case that accompanied the computers were bulky enough to carry a small printer. Sadly, I didn't bother hanging onto those computers as they were taking up space that could be otherwise used. But they didn't go for recycling. A friend of mine collects old Macs and was willing to drive an hour and a half to come get them when I offered them to him. I can't help but think those laptops, with the backlight, could be made quite usable again with retrofit BlueSCSI "hard drives" and Lithium Ion batteries...Though that might explain why the AC Adapters are so pricey.
I used a Mac Portable with a backlight in high school, and I was really impressed with the thing. Unlike PC portables of the time, it was every bit as capable as its desktop counterparts. The screen was much nicer than the AOI Macs, with their smaller, blurrier, and more flickery CRTs. But yeah, ultimately it really wasn't that much more "portable" than they were.
During my B.S. there were no portable computers I know of (76-79) or at least could afford. By the time I was in my masters program I tried a RS WP-2, a Macintosh Portable, and eventually a Macintosh Powerbook Duo 270C. The portable was a monster to carry around, but it served me well taking notes. That said, I was delighted to switch to the 270c eventually. Note that I bought both macs long after they were "new" and both were bought at a reasonably bargain price. At $7K they would have been non starters! I still think fondly of that old machine.
76-79 would be really early for portables, but Wikipedia's page on the Portable Computer cites the IBM 5100 released in 1975, 55lbs and $8,975 to $19,975. Also the GM Research Micro Star in 1979, no info on price or weight. Neither had a battery though.
Great video! I even had a PowerBook 100 once, too. I read a story and don’t know if it is true: when the Portable was first announced, Apple held a contest to give one to one of it’s employees. When it was announced who it was, they held an an event for the employee to come to the podium and take the portable from the President. The poor employee went up to pick the prize…and almost dropped i to the floor, given how much it weighed! The person had to carry it with both hands on the handle off the stage! I guess that should have been a warning to all right then and there. ;)
One of the more unique claims to fame for the Portable is that it was the first computer to send an email from Orbit. NASA launched a Macintosh Portable on the Space Shuttle on STS-43 in 1991. You can find a video of it ejecting its floppy here on RU-vid
Max spec Mac Portable in 1987 was $7000. If adjusted for inflation, that is equivalent to $18,290 dollars today. That kind of money could by a used car. A max spec 2021 MacBook Pro 16” is $6,100. I think that shows just how much technology has improved, and how much value the dollar has fallen in 34 years.
I remember the Outback being one of the first Macintosh laptops. I think either Apple bought or sued Outback just before the Macintosh portable was available. I don’t have all of the details but I remember seeing the Outback and comments were why Apple had not yet released a Laptop or portable Mac yet.
Correction, I said Outback it was Outbound that was the original clone of Macintosh just before or at the same time Apple released the Macintosh Portable.
Providing the voltage is correct, an adaptor can be used in place if the Amperage is equal to, or greater than the original.... the Amperage is only what it's capable of, it won't always put out that much, only what's required of it.... so it should be perftectly fine to use the other
The first "portable" computers from back in the early 1980s weighed in the 20 to 25 pound range. so this is not that much lighter. The main weigh savings were likely in the difference between the CRT and its needed components and the LCD and it's.
I have one of these... carrying case and all. I sent the logic board off to get recapped, but I'm still having issues with it. It won't do anything. Gotta get it fixed and running one of these days as it is one of my favorites in my vintage collection.
Why is it harmful to use a power supply with more amps? Is it not to damage the battery? Because from from my understanding higher amperage of a power supply does not damage a circuit. It simply only draws what it needs.
Exactly my thoughts too. Voltage is what a power supply regulates, amps is just the limit of how much wattage it can deliver at that voltage before it fries/melts/misbehaves.
You’re thinking in terms of circuits with proper integrated voltage regulation. This thing didn’t have that: it relied on the battery being in parallel to soak up excess voltage so the result is a constant supply voltage. I think that’s a characteristic of lead-acid batteries, or something.
Short circuit a 5 amp 12 VDC power supply and short circuit a 100 milliamp 12 VDC power supply. The ability to provide current is only safe if there's something limiting it. Google "variac" and "limiting current" to understand why limiting current is important, and why some devices don't have enough limiting.
Aww man, why did you have to make a video on this? I've been looking for a dead one for a while to modernize to a new m1 or pc. Now EBAY will have the prices boosted for months... oh well, I'll keep watching the ibm convertible prices.
The size and weight isn't an issue to me however the display panels are just terrible for the period with the exception of the plasma displays which are pretty cool but at least later on with TN panels things gotten a lot better. The one I hate on the most is the DSTN that loves to degrade with age to the point of being entirely unusable then there is the ghosting.
What you mean "fed too much curren" ? Amps dont work that way. If you use too weak of an psu amps wise it'll fail the voltages or shut down. Having too much headroom in amps in the psu doesn't matter unless the machine is shorted somehow (and you could just use a 2 amp fuse anyway).
LOL, I owned one of these. It along with the Compaq Portable III were awesome. The durability of the III was really the selling point, this thing was a bit fragile.
