Apple PowerBook 1400cs
Hi everyone! For my next entry in the never-ending “Zscaler Logo On A Weird, Old or Obsolete Computer” series, I thought I’d lean into the fact that I’m deep into travel-prep for Zscaler's SKO next week, by highlighting a portable computer that I really love.
This is an Apple PowerBook 1400cs, which I bought used in early 2001. It was already obsolete when I bought it, but I’d just started college and needed something I could type notes with. This was my main computer for about a year, and I quickly fell in love with it.
The PowerBook 1400 is remembered as one of Apple’s best laptops from the 1990’s. It was released in 1996, and made history as the first mass-produced laptop to offer a CD-ROM drive as an option. Adding to its beloved reputation are a number of other cool factors:
The PowerBook 1400 had “sleep-swappable” expansion bays - I can put the machine to sleep, pop out the floppy disk module and replace it with a CD-ROM drive, a Zip drive, or other handy expansion modules
The PowerBook 1400 has one of the best keyboards ever in a laptop, with keys that feature a lot of travel and a fantastic “clicky” feel
The plastic on the back of the display can be popped off and swapped with cool replacement options - different colors, a see-through plastic panel, or even a solar panel!
Unlike most modern laptops, the CPU is on a tiny card which can be removed and replaced. In fact, a few years ago I replaced the slow 117MHz PowerPC 603e CPU with a MUCH faster 233MHz “G3” chip - the difference in performance from this upgrade is super impressive
The 1400 has two PCMCIA slots, so it’s easy to add modems, Ethernet cards, early WiFi cards, etc. In fact, when I was using this as my school computer, I saved battery power by installing my word processor and a copy of MacOS onto an tiny PCMCIA hard drive, which used the same itty-bitty disk mechanism that was later used in the original iPods
As a full-fledged “desktop replacement” machine of the era, it has many ports built-in, including video out, SCSI, serial, Apple Desktop Bus (“ADB”), and even an Infrared transceiver for wirelessly syncing to your Apple Newton
Despite its limited performance (especially before I did that G3 upgrade), I was totally smitten by this chunky little laptop. I could take a full day’s worth of school notes, or play low-bitrate MP3’s between classes… but not both at the same time - that would crash the machine! I eventually upgraded to a “Titanium” PowerBook G4 and retired the 1400, but I never parted with it - it’s still fun to use, still feels great to type on, and it comes in quite handy when I need a “bridge machine” between the modern world and something even older.
I’m not sure I’ll bring this machine to SKO next week, but I’ll definitely have at least one or two other vintage gadgets with me. Be sure to flag me down and say hi in Chicago if you’re there too. Have a great weekend, everyone!
