August 25, 1995: Apple releases the PowerBook 5300, the Mac laptop computer that can save the world from alien invaders within the 1996 blockbuster film Independence Day.
The pc will make many extra big-screen appearances, too. See among the laptop computer’s most high-profile Hollywood cameos beneath.
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PowerBook 5300: Apple’s Hollywood laptop
Apple at all times did an incredible job getting its merchandise in films. However 1995’s PowerBook 5300 did quite a bit higher than most, primarily because of its starring function in so many movies. In Independence Day, for instance, the Mac (a platform that was simply starting to get higher at interfacing with Home windows PCs) plugs into an alien mothership, courtesy of its 100MHz processor, 64MB RAM and Mac OS 7.5.2 working system. (Spoiler alert: The pc then deactivates the enemy ship’s shields by importing a virus.)
Not all on-screen appearances by Apple computer systems proved so auspicious. As Owen Linzmayer relates in his glorious (though now significantly outdated) ebook Apple Confidential 2.0, the largest missed alternative for the PowerBook 5300 on the massive display got here in 1996’s Mission: Unimaginable, during which Tom Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt makes use of the laptop computer.
Why deem this a missed alternative? As a result of Apple made the $15 million sponsorship deal late within the film’s manufacturing, and subsequently had no say over the Mission: Unimaginable screenplay. Because of this, the Mac reveals up on-screen working a command-line interface as a substitute of Mac OS, making it look means behind the Home windows 95 working system working on PCs on the time.
Even worse, when a very robust job turns up later within the film, the Mission: Unimaginable crew’s laptop knowledgeable prescribes using nonexistent “Pondering Machines laptops.” Supposedly solely these computer systems are as much as the duty at hand.
The PowerBook 5300 will get some main display time in films
You’ll be able to see among the PowerBook 5300’s big-screen cameos within the photos beneath.
Photograph: Starring the Laptop
Early issues result in a $100 worth reduce
Befitting Apple’s unhealthy luck on the time, its most high-profile Mac in years (a minimum of when it comes to display time) suffered some embarrassing failures. After Apple shipped the primary 1,000 items to sellers round the USA, information broke that two manufacturing items caught hearth. One went up in flames on the residence of an Apple programmer. The opposite burned up at Apple’s manufacturing unit in China.
“The primary hallmark for Apple is ease of use,” wrote Pieter Hartsook, editor of The Hartsook Letter, on the time. “In case your machine doesn’t work, it’s not simple to make use of.”
Apple issued a recall on the 100 PowerBook 5300s already offered and changed them. When the replacements turned out to have solely two-thirds of the onerous drive capability of their predecessors, Apple was pressured to decrease the worth of the laptop computer by $100. Because of this, when potential patrons noticed the PowerBook 5300 plastered over film screens, they may not purchase one of many computer systems. Sponsorship offers typically don’t work nicely when this form of factor occurs!
… nevertheless it’s nonetheless the costliest Apple laptop computer of all time
As soon as Apple sorted out these issues, nevertheless, the PowerBook 5300 grew to become a stable instance of a mid-’90s Apple laptop computer. Considerably, it was the primary PowerBook based mostly on Apple’s PowerPC CPU — the identical processors that continued for use by Macs till 2006, when Apple made the swap to Intel chips. (Cupertino started its extremely profitable transition to proprietary Apple silicon in 2020.)
The PowerBook 5300 holds one different doubtful distinction. The highest-end PowerBook 5300ce got here with a $6,500 price ticket, making it the costliest Apple laptop computer ever. (Adjusted for inflation, that’s greater than $13,400 in at the moment’s cash.)
Do you bear in mind the PowerBook 5300? Drop us a line along with your ideas and recollections beneath.