I’ve always preferred fully functional integrated laptops for my own use, so I wasn’t very familiar with this series.īesides the elegant engineering of the dock itself, what really caught my attention was the design of the AC adapter. The Duo hit a niche for many PowerBook users and was a popular model during the 68k and PowerPC eras. The computer just has the CPU, keyboard and screen, and used a dock (full or mini) to connect to monitors and other peripherals. The Duo was Apple’s first sub-notebook sized computer, similar to the 2400c and 12″ iBook/PowerBook G4. But I do appreciate the matching dark grey ethernet and phone cables which were included – a classy touch!Ī few weeks later the Museum was given a PowerBook Duo 230c along with a box containing the dock and many accessories. Sometimes the way Apple thinks is, well, Just Different. It saves about a half inch of space on the back of the laptop but instead creates a new, custom adapter.
While ethernet ports and modems are both communications devices, it’s rare to see them combined in this fashion. Among the pile of cables in the box was a combination RJ45 ethernet jack and RJ11 phone jack, which used an RJ45 jack to connect to the computer. The 3400c wasn’t done with it’s surprises yet.
Definitely a better use of space than the PowerBook G3 (Pismo) Weight Saving device – essentially a hollow battery case that nobody ever used – but I still would have used a Zip module myself. However one thing I’d never seen before was this unique module, which mimics the floppy disk module but is (apparently) meant to store business cards or other similarly sized items in your laptop! The donator didn’t know the history of this computer, so we don’t know who made this acccessory or how popular it was.
A CD-ROM drive, spare batteries, floppy drive and Zip drive modules were common on this series, and the expansion bay design survived across the G3 Wallstreet, Lombard and Pismo models. The 3400c was the top of the line PowerBook in the pre-G3 era, and vendors really took advantage of it’s ability to add capability via expansion bays. Greetings and Happy Holidaze from Boston! A few recent donations to the Mac Museum got me musing about unusual bits of PowerBook Esoterica, and how good ideas are often repeated but skip product generations.Ī colleague of mine recently donated a PowerBook 3400c and assorted box of Mac items to me, which I was happy to give a good home.
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