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Apple IIGS – laptop version: I found Benjamin Heckendorn’s site by chance, as I was looking for some Apple IIGS images in Google Images search. When I saw the first picture, thanks to the particular white design and the all too bright and almost hyper-defined image on the LCD display, I thought this was a mockup. It isn’t. Apparently, modifying old computers and consoles is Heckendorn’s speciality (take a look at all his other projects) and I’m really in awe looking at what he did with the Apple IIGS. I love the keyboard and the “][” glowing blue when the computer is on. I love the overall retro look, and that white portable could very well fit in 1970s sci-fi series like Space: 1999. Heckendorn writes:
The basic idea with this unit was to make it look like an laptop that had been designed in the 80’s. The large amount of vertical air holes (basically pointless since this machine gets about as hot as your average pocket calculator) are meant to subconsciously remind the viewer of the fairly compact Apple IIc. You can see the speaker slits from this angle as well.
By the way, I recently acquired the original ADB keyboard that came with the IIGS (for a sample, see this photo — no, it’s not my system, sadly!) and, as I well remembered, it’s a joy to use. Ben Heckendorn agrees:
Upon taking apart the original IIgs keyboard (also used on old Mac Classics) I must say that it is without a doubt the best built keyboard I have every come across in all my days.
That Apple IIGS project was posted in April 2008, and I’m sure it was widely publicised throughout the Internets, but I missed it because I was getting ill at that time. So probably it won’t be new for many of my readers. If you missed it too, though, please enjoy. It’s really a beautiful modification — and I’m usually against hardware hacks.
Happy New Year!
The “featured letter” of MacFormat’s Issue 63 [May 1998] is rather funny. It’s titled What in the (PC) world…?, and the reader indeed shows an ingenious, albeit complicated, form of promoting Macs:
I am always dismayed when I go to our local PC World computer superstore by the lack of things Apple, and the fact that the only two Macs on display are always tucked away in a corner and ignored. So this is what I’ve taken to doing…
First, I take time to go through all the Control Panels to set things up correctly on each Mac, including turning the speaker volume up to full. Then I find the SimpleText application and open it. I type something like: Apple Macs are the world's best computers; ask for them by name. Apple Macs -- designed by geniuses, marketed by morons! I then select all, copy it, paste it five times; and select all again, copy, paste five times; and go back and repeat it again and again. In just a matter of seconds I have over 250 copies of the phrases. Next I make the window quite small and invoke the “WindowShade” feature to roll the window up into a tiny title bar. I can then position it right down by the Trash can, sticking off the edge of the Desktop. This is repeated on the other Mac, too.
All that’s left to do is select all the text and, after a quick tour of the store, come back and press Command-J (“Speak Selection”) and walk away. Just a glance over the shoulder before leaving the store and you’ll see salespeople wondering what’s going on!
Another way you can annoy them is…
Peter Bell
United Kingdom
The letter is interrupted, probably edited by the MacFormat editorial staff. Their answer, in fact, is: We’d just like to say that all the opinions expressed on this page are those of the writers, not necessarily those of MacFormat or Future Publishing Ltd, and we cannot possibly condone hooliganism or endorse the commission of pranks. Just thought we’d make that clear.
But where is their sense of humour?! Heh, probably in choosing this letter as the “featured letter”, thus granting the guy a prize. For this issue it’s a Pace 56K Voice modem and a year’s Internet access account with leading service provider Direct Connection. (Apparently a worthy prize, by the way: This great prize is worth over £300 and comes courtesy of Direct Connection.)
Probably the letter was picked at random — I can’t help but pointing out the irony of not “condoning hooliganism or endorsing the commission of pranks” yet granting the reader a £300 prize…
One of the consequences of the huge spread and success of the iPhone is that a lot of popular Websites have started implementing a mobile interface, so that it’s better displayed on portable devices with smaller screens, and most of these scaled-down versions are rendered beautifully in iPhone’s MobileSafari. Not only that, they retain all their major features and are more accessible at the same time.
A very nice side effect is that mobile versions can be quite useful if you’re using a vintage Mac with a vintage browser. They usually load faster (especially Gmail), render better, and are overall more compatible with the limited capabilities of older browsers. What’s more, they’re usable: from my PowerBook 5300 with Mac OS 8.1 and iCab 2.99 I can tweet, read and write email using Gmail, enjoy a decent experience in Flickr, and so on. See some examples below:
Search Results in Google mobile -- iCab 2.99
A stripped-down Gmail interface. But it's usable and Gmail doesn't complain about browser compatibility...
The flickr mobile interface is much better on the iPhone, but iCab 2.99 on my PowerBook 5300 now loads my photostream and my friends' photos much faster; admittedly, the page looks unattractive, but it's definitely usable.
"What are you doing?" -- Twittering from my PowerBook 5300, of course.
And a quick look at the news, why not?
