The winner of MobilePCMag’s Top 100 Gadgets of all time is Apple’s 1991 PowerBook 100. I really hate to brag . . . . but . . . I bought a 1993 PowerBook 180c for 7 pounds at a London auction last year. I haven’t got it working yet, but it sure is fun having it here. I just bought the OS 7.0 from a MacAddict writer who was selling his 93 Apple Classic. But still . . the computer is not talking to me. One day . . .
I had a Powerbook 150 that I loved until I dropped it and it died. There is something wonderful about the old Mac OS 7.5 that I miss.
I am amazed that fax machines didn’t make the list. So primitive, yet still in daily use by so many people.
I’ve had a Powerbook 520c, a white iBook and a Powerbook 150. The PB150 would have to rate as the best of the three for churning out text – basic monochrome display, a laptop keyboard that took serious punishment and a snappy Word 5. Open it up and start typing. Had a PowerPrint cable to print to PC printers.
I remember when I went to the PB100 launch in NZ that I was overwhelmed. It sure beat the Mac Portable that I was lugging around for work (but that had a state of the art screen). The PB100 was small (sans floppy) and looked great. The 520c never really did it for me in the same way – but it had ethernet.