PowerBook 800?

[joecool85]

I am reading a Tom Clancy novel that was written in 1994 and it mentioned that the lady had an Apple PowerBook 800. I was curious on the specs, and noticed the only PB800 I could find is a G4 that came out in 2002! Is there an old 'book I can't find info on or something?

 

[WildCowboy]

I am not familiar with a PowerBook 800. That book was released around the time of the PowerBook 150 or so.

 

[FocusAndEarnIt]

I looked on mactracker and there was never a powerbook 800.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

It was Tom Clancy (incorrectly) predicting the future. Most of his novels take place '1-2 years in the future' from when they were written. So apparently he expected a PowerBook 800 to have been released by 1996 or so.

 

[joecool85]

It was Tom Clancy (incorrectly) predicting the future. Most of his novels take place '1-2 years in the future' from when they were written. So apparently he expected a PowerBook 800 to have been released by 1996 or so.

Ah, thats a good point.

 

[RacerX]

So apparently he expected a PowerBook 800 to have been released by 1996 or so.

That would be my guess too.

PowerBooks of that period were the 150, 180, 180c, Duo 250, Duo 270c, Duo 280, Duo 280c, 520, 520c, 540 and 540c. There wasn't a lot known about where the line was going and that Apple was going to adopt four digit model numbers for all PowerPC based products (in the PowerBook line this started with the 5300/5300c/5300cs/5300ce and Duo 2300c).

Thinking about it, the PowerBook line had jumped from the 200s to the 500s in a couple years so adding a few more years would put the model numbers in the 800s.

Plus the first of the PowerPC systems would have been coming out about the same time as the book, and those (the 6100/7100/8100) were the first to start using the four digit model numbers (and the first macs to include their clock speed in the model names... Power Macintosh 6100/60, Power Macintosh 7100/66, and Power Macintosh 8100/80).



Plus all that stuff changed when Jobs returned to power. He pushed for simple names... like Power Macintosh G3 (which covered the beige desktop, mini tower and blue & white models) and the PowerBook G3 (which covered the 3400c form factor, Wallstreet, Lombard and Pismo models).

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Plus all that stuff changed when Jobs returned to power. He pushed for simple names... like Power Macintosh G3 (which covered the beige desktop, mini tower and blue & white models) and the PowerBook G3 (which covered the 3400c form factor, Wallstreet, Lombard and Pismo models).

Minor (really minor) correction: Pismo was just 'PowerBook', it dropped the 'G3' part of the name. Apple officially referred to it as 'PowerBook (FireWire)'. Only after the release of the PowerBook G4 did they go back and refer to it as the 'PowerBook G3 (FireWire)' (Although the PowerBook G3 Computers: How to Identify Different Models knowledge base document still calls it just 'PowerBook (FireWire)'.)

Similarly, the original iMacs were just 'iMac', until the release of the iMac G4, when the older ones got renamed 'iMac G3'. (With the new Intel iMacs, Apple has gone back to just plain 'iMac'. I'm sure when a Core 2 Duo model comes out, these current ones will be back-named 'iMac Core Duo'.)

The best place to find Apple's 'official' names is their Support - Specifications page, which shows the 'original' names, rather than the back-named ones. (It appears the only iMac to have originally had it's processor in it's 'marketing' name was the iMac G5.)