Unboxing videos are a useful resource for consumers who want to know exactly what they’ll be getting in the box when they buy the latest expensive piece of technology (or fancy doll or Disney-themed ice cream accessory). Videos of old technology are also fun, because it’s interesting to see what top of the line products used to be like and how far we’ve come. Unfortunately, those types of clips are rarely combined because, if you happen to get your hands on an older product, odds are it’s already endured a long life of use.
However, iJustine teamed up with fellow YouTuber MKBHD for an unboxing video of a rare product that some of our older readers might remember having used: an iBook G3 laptop from Apple (via BoingBoing).
Before Apple’s MacBook laptops adopted the sleek, silvery aesthetic the company now goes for, the computer maker went full plastic, as is evidenced by this white and blue iBook that was released in 2000 (the iBook G3 first came out in 1999).
For fun, let’s compare the specs on an iBook G3 with the laptop I’m using to write this post, a late 2013 13-inch MacBook Pro. The G3 sports a 300 MHz CPU (mine is 2.8 GHz), 64 MB of RAM (8 GB), 6 GB hard drive (500 GB), and optional WiFi (a core feature now). The iBook does have something my MacBook Pro doesn’t, though: a CD drive.
After unboxing, they fire the thing up, and it’s fascinating to see what the setup and use of an almost 20-year-old computer looks like.
What’s the oldest piece of working tech that you have? Let us know in the comments!
Featured image: iJustine
