The Powerbook 520
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- čas přidán 26. 03. 2022
- In celebration of vintage Macintosh month, #MARCHintosh2022, I discuss the Powerbook 520 that was found in the ancient Denfield Hoard.
Joe Kudrna's Powerbook 500 series site:
web.archive.org/web/200903091...
#MARCHintosh2022 Event Logo concept and design by Javier Rivera | CZcams: / @arcjavmaster | Twitter: @javierivera - Komedie
Oh man, a shout out for my Apple VHS Archive channel. Thanks!
I haven't uploaded to it forever since Apple's legal goons contacted me and gave me 2 copyright strikes. Way to protect your important 30+ year old content, Apple. Haha
Wow! I didn't expect to hear from you, Peter! I much appreciate all your preservation efforts even if the company you are trying to honor does not. It was funny that I saw a reference to the video in the parts manual, looked it up, and of course you have it. Great work!
@@65scribe At some point (probably 2049 at the rate I get stuff done) I am going to remove the videos from that channel and make an exact clone of it. The VHS channel is attached to the same email address as this account and therefore my main YT channel, I never did get a clear response on if a brand channel attached to an email getting shut down takes out all the others attached to the same email, so I want to move it to a different account. Then I might actually risk uploading the ~10 or so new tapes I have recorded. haha
Peter Brockie I'm not sure if cloning would work either. But wherever you move, the Apple fans will find you long before Apple does.
Peter, your channel is so amazing, so sorry about the stupid legal trouble! 💔
@@65scribe Cloning won't help with the goons, but at least it removes the worry of them killing my main channel along with the VHS one if they strike it. :D
It's a good day when a 65scribe video drops! I used to use one of these in my job at a university in the mid 90's. I remember it felt so 'space age' to be to be able to take a laptop and use it at home.
Thanks! And yes, this would have been really cool to fold it up and take it home in the mid-90's. It's easy to lose sight of that with today's portability explosion.
"We talked about track balls last time" WHAT AM I MISSING?!?!
I was doing 'The Denfield Hoard' on Patreon, and decided to release the second part to CZcams because of Marchintosh. The first part talked about trackballs and keyboards.
@@65scribe I guess it's off to patreon then!
czcams.com/video/BGtJpQkmSRI/video.html - I had the same question, mystery now solved!
I literally look forward to your videos, mainly because they're so rare. You don't adhere to a schedule, and I appreciate that. Very entertaining. Not rushed. And I know it's your thing, recording on a late 90's/early 2000's camcorder...clutch!
But as to what you acquired...the 520, as well as the "broken" 520, and the other accessories and guides...good deals.
And why did the training video sound like "Unsolved Mysteries"? I keep waiting for Robert Stack to show up...
Thanks for the feedback! Glad you like my 'method of operation', and it seems many others agree based on the up-votes.
I could not quite place that music, but it was very familiar. I'll have to check Unsolved Mysteries.
so me and my friends literally cancelled our plans, ordered some food and stayed in to watch 65scribe's new video. three guys from the amazon rainforest watching a video about a laptop as old as we are like we would watch an episode of game of thrones or something. we like you a lot down here
Wow, that's amazing, Peter! I love how you contextualize your viewing of the video. You cancelled plans for a 12-minute video? I'm honored, and I hope it was worth it!
@@65scribe Yes it was worth it (and I saved some money too so thanks a lot)
A new 65scribe video means putting off sleep for 20 more minutes… and its about one of my favorite Apple portables to boot.
That little kid’s voice, while the Mac was shutting down, was scary.
From other sound recordings, I was able to determine the kid was singing the final line of ‘Tomorrow’ from ‘Annie’.
6:15 "This guy wasn't fooling around" lmafo brutal
I was about to go to bed because I have work in the morning. Then I saw that you posted a new video. Now I have to stay up and watch it. Damn you.
lol. Sorry J D.
A new video! Still in 4:3 too, all is right in the world. Also, your last shot of that mac collection made me drool. Its like a room of happiness. I think that AST bag might be the 8 bit guys.
Ha! Thanks for watching. Still 4:3 and I figured out how to trim the black bars off the sides to make it even more 4:3.
Damn! Absolutely makes my day every time you post! Hysterical ibm trackpoint shade lol!
I actually didn't know there were any 500-series models with monochrome displays. That was a bit of a surprise to see.
I actually thought the same thing. I bought it "cold" knowing nothing about the 500 series laptops, and thought it was maybe set to monochrome in the control panel.
The pricing shows the stark truth - I don’t think the LCD cost difference, and tiny processor speed bump, could have justified the doubling of price from base 520 to top-of-the-range 540c. That was fascinating. I suppose there was RAM and hard drive too :)
Interestingly the cheaper passive-matrix greyscale LCD of the 520 has turned out to be longer-lived than the active-matrix greyscale LCD of the 540. Spending extra was rewarded by a vignetting effect in old age known as ‘tunnel vision’, where the image darkens around the edges
My only regret was not seeing this was uploaded for 8 days before watching it.
Sometimes it's better a week later because I can answer your comment in a reasonable time frame, which I am doing.
@@65scribe Fair enough. Thanks for the continuing great content.
I was looking at a Motorola-based mac laptop to run Cubase for basic midi sequencing. Thought it would be a nice to have - then I saw the insanity gymnastics required to get MIDI and basic VGA out (and the absurd associated costs) and decided my money is probably better spent on beer to cope with the experience.
This is some of why retro mac collecting is so niche. Apple's insistence on being a special snowflake and refusing to use common, widely available, widely understood standards can make just getting cables a huge hassle.
To be fair... a decent number of sound modules in the 90s had the Apple serial port. But don't mind me :)
You're back! Love your humorous vintage Mac explorations; As always, great info and research resources. Looking forward to the next installment.
Thanks for the feedback! Glad you enjoyed this mini-review in a mini-series format.
imagine the Dad watching this video and hearing his toddler daughter's voice all those years later.
As always, a masterpiece. Don't ever change, this is gold.
Hey, thanks so much Mooch!
im in! perfect sunday night watchin right here!
I was honestly expecting the childrens close sound to play at the end of the video. lol
That would have been a good bet. I'm trying not to be too predictable. lol
@@65scribe You surprised me lol.
back at it again with another 4:3 video about old macs and good humor
Love your content :)
I love my PowerBook 520c. Very nice presentation.
Thank you, Eric.
Best Retro Apple channel
Thanks very much!
@@65scribe Yah. I used to work for a reseller out west back int the PowerPC days and I caught a little bit of the intel transition - Apple used to be an awesome company - full of innovation. I think after Steves passing, it went to crap. Now its full of bean counters and computers that you can get in any colour - thats innovation? Anyway. Thanks for all your work!
I agree with your view on Apple. I watched last Apple announcement and wished I had saved my time and just read a summary. The funny/sad thing was that Apple got in trouble for having not enough female representation at the iPhone 7 launch, so now everyone at the announcement was female. By overcompensating, it looks even worse. If I didn’t know better, I’d get the impression that Apple is using women to sell their products like an 80’s beer commercial.
@@65scribe Smashed the nail on the head my friend. I haven’t watched an apple presentation since the infamous “trashcan” mac pro - I knew from that very moment Apple became a boutique company and not a company that was built on the backs of prosumers - “Liberal Arts meets Innovation” was complete dead, and everyone wanted to get on the woke train by then - I still use an iphone 6s (on my third battery) and loving my headphone jack everyday.
That was the best Mac chime of all. I’d give anything for Apple to resurrect it. Thanks for another great video. Cheers!
That was a pretty cool chime. Glad you liked the video, David!
A new 65scribe video? And it's about a PowerBook? Today must be my lucky day.
Oh happy day. New video from 65scribe! This was a great look back into some classic hardware. I remember my college roommate bringing home a MacBook 520 and it was so much fun to tinker with. Great use of that creepy VHS music at the end. I gotta check out the Apple VHS Archive. Never knew about that.
Glad you liked the video. It looks like this machine was part of many viewer's lives back in the day. Thanks for the feedback!
Oh hey, finally a computer I have on hand right now (I have the 520c)! Gotta be careful with the little lid latch, I lost mine and now it'll never stay 100% closed.
520c! Nice! Too bad about the latch.
I will drop whatever video I'm watching soon as a new one drops here. I learned almost everything I know about Apple here. Thanks man keep em' coming
That song sounds like tubular bells, which is the exorcist theme. So pretty spot on about it being like a horror movie theme.
Ah! Yes! It was driving me crazy where I had heard that before. Thanks for solving that mystery.
Loved the video. I have a soft spot for any model of PowerBook. The first Mac I purchased with my own money was a PowerBook G3.
Kept me waiting for the “DAMN!’
Yes, and a last minute addition, too!
Your videos are funny. I had IBM ThinkPad that looked like that when I was a wee lad
Thanks! That IBM ThinkPad is sitting on a shelf in my office at work.
HOLY SHIT ARCHICAD!
I use that software today! It’d be interesting to use an older release on an old machine like this
I love the humour at the end - ‘rescued from that terrible hoard and appreciated’ - ‘ok, we’re out, now put a label on and stack in this box that’s stacked in an even bigger hoard’ :D
At least some of us know about the code name ‘Blackbird’, so could appreciate the song :)
Great video
Thank you, Alex. I'm glad you appreciated the music cue and final irony.
Love your classic Mac video collection!... have rewatched them so many times over the years. Can't wait to (hopefully) see more soon!
Thanks for the message! Good to know you’ve enjoyed the videos for awhile now and that they have some replay value. I am in the midst of a new Mac video and an update to the Marathon video, so, more to come.
🎉🎉🎉 can’t wait!
The retro CZcams look and feel to your videos is very charming. That’s one reason I like your channel, along with the actual content.
Thanks for the feedback, Kaiser! Good to hear the retro look and feel compliments the content.
Here’s a fun fact 65scribe kind of hinted at with the Beatles song that played, the PowerBook 520’s code name was Blackbird, thus, blackbird singing in the dead of night
11:55 I called it!! :D Thanks for another great video!
Thanks! And good job calling it! Ha!
Late to the party on this one! Also to Patreon - subscribed!
The 520 is a lovely looking machine indeed.
Well, look who just showed up! No, seriously, that's awesome! Thank you! I will see you on Patreon.
I missed shareware parties when I was in the Army. Great source of disks for Macintosh, Amiga, and C64.
One day, scribe will upgrade to a 720p camera. Of course, by that time, smartphone cameras will shoot 16K video.
Just as I was missing this channel and rewatching your old videos, a new one emerges! Thank you, thank you!
Good timing. Thanks for watching!
Oooh ! New Video !
Awesome video, as always! I literally drop what I'm doing when I see a new upload.
If you have ANYTHING Apple A/UX-related, or if you ever come across anything A/UX, please keep me in mind. I am trying to preserve it, and there's a lot of physical stuff for it that isn't online.
I loved the PowerBook 500 series the moment I saw them in 1994. I worked at an electronics store at the time and got to play with the latest machines as they were released. I bought a 540c last summer, and the screen is quite noticeably better than the 520c and grey 520. But in 1994, even the base 520 was a superior machine.
We sold a bunch of them by putting Links golf on our demo unit and showing executives they could play golf on an airplane. Quite ahead of its time vs. Intel laptops.
Thanks! And I appreciate hearing your experience with the machines. Very interesting stuff!
I will try to keep an eye for any A/UX stuff. I don't think I saw anything in the hoard, though. There was a fairly long description in an ad brochure for the WGS95 in one of the binders. When I see anything A/UX, I think of you anyway. Good to hear from you!
Still in 4:3, love it!!!
Thanks Kevin!
Its 1am for me and i cant wait morning to see the video
Yes, I posted a bit late, but figured there would be enough stalwart viewers who would notice. Hope you enjoy it!
Nice video. I always wondered about those models. I thought you weren't going to use your famous "damn" sound byte but in the final seconds you didn't disappoint! LOL
A late addition but it made it in. Thanks for watching!
dropped everything to watch this vid
Thanks dj!
YESSS! YOU ARE THE BEST REVIEWER!
Thanks very much!
2:40 drink went up my nose laughing
Ha! Sorry about that.
lol I’m loving the theme of ‘system sounds that are just kids yelling’ this channel has going, won’t get that with PRISTINE, NIB that so many other tech channels prefer
Ha! Yes, they get me every time with those alert sounds. Good point about machines that have some history behind them being more interesting than the mint models.
This quality gives me some real 2012 CZcams vibes.
Always good to see the Unofficial Apple VHS Archive get a shoutout; lots of excellent content there.
Wonderful work, Scribe, and thanks for it, as always.
EDIT: Ooooooo, *and* a tease for more of the Denfield Hoard!
I’m glad to see the shout-out got him some attention. Thanks for the feedback on the video, Paul. The Denfield hoard will continue… and you saw part 1 already.
That broken PowerBook 520: CAME A LONG WAY FROM THE TRENCHES MMMMM CAME A LONG WAY FROM THE TRENCHES
Always nice to see some PowerBooks getting some love, especially on your amazing channel! You should definitely take a look at the G3 PowerBook and iBook units. Each of them were quite unique with each iteration. Plus if you ever need to do work on a PowerBook but wanna avoid dealing with SCSI, the 190 and 5300 series use IDE so it makes it easier to install an SSD.
Great advice! Thanks for that!
@@65scribe anytime! I’ve found that a lot of older PowerBooks are fairly easy to install SSD’s into so long as they use IDE. My best recommendation would be to use the Msata to IDE adapter method, as they are fairly cheap, work well, and are easy to install. I installed a 16GB SSD into my PowerBook 190 and it cost me only about $10. I would say though that many of the iBook models and older G4 laptops don’t really seem to handle SSD’s very well for some reason… newer G4’s like the iBook G4 seem to be more accepting of them though. Meanwhile all my PowerBook G3’s accepted SSD’s without much fuss.
Thanks for a wonderful video!
Glad to see another upload, love the videos!
Thanks Aaron!
Loved it! Awesome video
props on the usage of that training music at the end! :D
Awesome video, glad you were able to rescue the PowerBooks! Did you happen to grab all of those boxes of documentation too? :O
I did get two binders.. the 'Parts List' one I showed and another with Apple Dealer promotional pamphlets/booklets. I quickly used up my disposable income on other things, but I know someone bought them. Well, no one bought the "Macs for Dummies" book, but you probably weren't referring to that..
My take-home computer when I was teaching back then! Loved it but it fell apart with various issues and when I put it in to my school district for maintenance they gave me back a PC laptop. I miss it.
That's a sad story, Doug. But I'm glad the video brought back some fond memories.
Another great video!
Thanks Kevin!
Your videos are gold!
Thanks for watching, Nathan!
Super happy to see a video from you. Good combo of information and humor.
Thanks for the feedback, Brian!
A 65scribe video! I’m so happy!
OK Ok. Its meant to be. I just got done re watching a couple episodes and 16 minutes ago one was posted? EFFIN HELL Today's a good day!
Ha! We're operating on the same brain-wave frequency, I guess.
Nice, have both a 520c with 8MB and the passive matrix color LCD and a 540c with 12MB and the gorgeous active matrix display, really love that design. And one still working battery!
Well done! It'd be very cool seeing those running side-by-side.
hey man keep it up with your cool videos i will always look forward to your videos!
Thanks very much, Brian! I am still working away on new stuff.
i wish i had as easy of a time getting these macs as you did! they never show up on local listings in my province, i guess they just weren't popular here.
That’s too bad. What province? There’s definitely not a lot here either, but it doesn’t hurt to check things out. I did need.. er… want an Apple 12” RGB monitor to go with my LC and been looking for 10 years. Finally someone posted 4 on the classifieds but “untested” and a steep price of $100 each. I hesitated but took the PowerBook 540c and tested the monitors. Then he offered me a beige G3 tower that he had not listed yet! Or I went to get a iMac G3 and “by the way, since you’re interested in this stuff”, they offer me a Macintosh 128K. Or checking out a copy of HyperCard and they have 30 macs they are planning to post. That sort of thing does happen a lot.
youre back! woohooo :) thank you for the video!
Hi Max. Thanks for watching and thanks for supporting on the Patreon! You'll find a few other videos there, with the third episode of the Denfield Hoard coming soon.
Those MUGLO diskettes look neat - hope you have a chance to archive those some day!
The combination of "The Denfield Hoard" and that music makes it sound like a Left 4 Dead campaign
Sometimes these old bags come right back around if you run them through the wash inside out in a knit bag. I have an old "Checkpoint Technologies" laptop bag that was in a similar condition
Good tip, Judith. Yes, smells terrible and I don't believe it gives the bag "character" or anything like that. :)
I like the midi synthesized intro tunes of the vhs.
LOL Bin #39 stored safe for future generations! (It belongs in a museum !!!!) If I could only keep my collection so organized. I loved the video, "The Denfield Hoard" will always be remembered for its collection provenance. Keep up the great work @65scribe be sure to put that AST bag in sealed plastic so it can retain its original musty smell 🤣
lol! That AST bag...
Nice
Awesome
More please.
I had that track ball. It was the best.
The emac Silhouette? Cool!
Fun Fact: The Powerbook 500’s were the first laptop to have a trackpad.
i remember the power macintosh lc/520
The LC520 is one of my favorites!
For some a 4:3 aspect ratio is unliked due to the borders, for me, i simply look through the horde of laptops I own, and whip out a ThinkPad T60 to see it in all it's glory.
I have a powerbook 540c that was given to my dad when it was basically brand new, he says i used it as a kid but i dont remember that at all. I have been really wanting to boot it up as its in near perfect condition except the broken hinge on one side, however we think we threw away the power adapter for it a long time ago and i cant find it or one that would work sadly. Maybe one day
I would have a look at Tech By Androda. They make a modern solid state version of the PowerBook hard drive and work wonderfully.
Excellent video! I love the retro VHS menus you did at the end, how did you create those? I can’t seem to remember where those templates were from, but I used to have them. iMovie?
I wish my iMac hoard would fit in those type of plastic bins.
Thanks Mikael! Actually the VHS title sequence was simply using the title sequence from the PowerBook training video but grabbing a blank frame after the animation and putting my own titles over top with the same font and a bit of blur.
The plastic bins are mostly for keyboards and CD drives or other accessories. Yes, not much use for iMacs :)
65scribe The title sequence was very well done, I could not tell it was just edited. I did training videos back in 95, our department had that same, or very similar template.
I picked better music than Apple’s ‘Exorcist’ theme though. :)
Some of the apps on that disk don't look like they've been archived anywhere else on the Internet, like Circuit Maker 4 or Electronics Workbench. Are they in a state where they could be saved to Macintosh Garden or another archive site?
That's a good observation, Joe. I can see if they can be extracted from the hard drive and shared...
Is there a webcam under the PowerBook 500 plastic pieces? If so, that would likely have been another first in the world of laptop PCs, to have implemented webcams in the early 1990s.
No webcam, because it wouldn’t have been practical to use it :) QuickTime had only just been released on Macintosh models, like this one, for playing back videos (if you had some way to store and load all the data, like an external CD drive).
Capturing video even at 160x120 and compressing it in real-time was a gargantuan task for processors of this era; which is why a Quadra 840AV (with more powerful ‘040 than this Powerbook had) still needed a dedicated DSP card for the video capture task. The things we take for granted today; having enough processor power to compress a video stream! :)
I remember this because I made a school project featuring a number of movie clips showing how helicopter flight controls worked, mostly captured with a huge VHS camcorder.
I’d then take the tapes to the Apple dealer in town, where I could use the aforementioned Quadra 840AV to capture and compress the video, then store on an external hard drive that I could use with a (borrowed) LC575 to put the Hypercard stack together. 320x240 at 15fps with Cinepak was the best compromise that could be achieved between quality and the bitrate for playback which had to be kept within the LC575’s capabilities (it would eventually be an interactive kiosk at a science fair).
Incidentally I turned up one week to find the 840AV had been replaced by a Power Macintosh 8100/80AV, which actually did not work nearly as well for video capture because it didn’t have the DSP card. It still coped with the 320x240, but the older 840AV could do 640x480 at 24fps etc. Also, the compression took longer and applications such as Adobe Premiere ran slower on the PPC than they had on the 40MHz 040, at least in the early days of Power Macintosh (1994)
More videos like this!
I randomly came across a PowerMac 7300 and 7600. I wonder if there's anything interesting about it. I don't have a video out adapter for it, so I can't see if it boots.
I actually had a well-used 520 years ago. Cool looking computer, but the plastics were thinner IMHO than those of the 100 series Powerbooks. The screen's image quality on yours looks pretty sharp for passive matrix. The display on mine was really smeary and murky, with a purplish tint. I think mine had 20 MB of RAM, which was a good amount for a 68k Mac.
This owner seemed to be doing serious stuff on this laptop. 36 megs of RAM was a power user amount back then. And ArchiCAD is installed, serious stuff.
Is it just me or is there a video missing? I swear I remember a video where 65scribe talks about a Quadra 840AV...
"With a PowerPC add on card, the chime changes to a deeper one."
(footage of shocked baby)
Hi Manuel. The video that you are looking for is the Power Macintosh 6100 video that I recently re-released. I did not mess with that scene, so don’t worry. :)
@@65scribe Ah, wow
Thanks for the response! I have no idea I was remembering wrong!
As always, thank you for your content! Very fascinating and entertaining!
Excellent video as always. In that 166-stong collection you wouldn't happen to have a 6400 or 6500 to do a video on? Always thought those were the best looking of the beige Macs.
Thank you! I'm afraid the 6400/6500 towers have always eluded me. At the top of my list, though (see PM8100 video opening). I've half-written a script for the tower in my head, but I pretty much need a machine to do a video. I've learned time and again that patience often pays off when looking for vintage Macs.
@@65scribe That’s all good then. Looking forward to a future video if you find one.
that's some creepy banjo, might be too spooky for me
From one hoard to another.
Would have been nice to seen the SCSI Disk Mode in action, the predecessor to Target Disk Mode.
Yes, I was adding stuff to the video up to the last minute , and I didn't even get to trying the SCSI cable. I'll file that for the sequel!
I had a 5300. It heated up quick!
Out of one hoard and into another. At least yours is better managed and so can be more fairly labeled as a "collection."
The 500 series is probably my favorite of the mid-'90s PowerBooks. With the 183MHz PPC upgrade it was faster than the top-end 1400c/166, not to mention the dreadful 5300 series (seriously give that whole line a miss unless you're going for the completionist achievement), and though it lacked IR it had more useful built-in features (video out and Ethernet standard, internal modem optional). Dig up a Rev. C PCMCIA card cage for it and you can even use wifi cards. The low RAM ceiling was really the biggest downside to these.
Thanks for sharing your expertise on these machines, Frank. I didn't folllow Powerbooks at the time, so it's great hearing some first-hand experience.
Hey, I'm not sure if you'll see this, but I may have a power macintosh 8100. I'm not sure because on the front it says 'power macintosh 8200/120. But i can't find a Macintosh 8200 anywhere on the internet.
Hi Lenn, The 8200/120 was a 7200/120 in the 8100’s minitower case for the Asian/ European market. Made in 1996 it was pretty low spec by that time. Still an interesting machine, and uncommon to find in North America.
ahah that processor manufactured in Malaysia. great.
No Orsen Welles this go around?
He was in the previous episode, which I did for my Patreon. He was trying to use the mouse and trackball at the same time.