Restoring a 20 year old Apple time capsule

[@lukemiani]

I hope you guys enjoyed this more casual, laid back video! We've got about a week and a half until new M2 MacBook Air content drops so wanted to take a break and do some relaxing retro stuff this week! what do you think about the Titanium PowerBook?

[@myrealusername2193]

My grandpa owned one, he actually recently got rid of it sadly before I found out he had it. He kept the charger for some reason so now I only have a PowerBook charger In fact I'm pretty sure his hinge completely broke too because he ended up having to buy an external monitor for it

[@hani5598]

I think you need to update maOS

[@chaptersawaiting6787]

luke's nose comes into frame at 5:01

[@myrealusername2193]

@@chaptersawaiting6787 ok

[@diinm]

It looks gorgeous. Please try and make it usable today!

[@blakebates1085]

not to be confused with the Time Capsule, the router + hard drive

[@myrealusername2193]

Yeah I was kinda confused lol

[@CMBurns1000]

Me too 😅

[@DanZimmerli]

I know that’s what I expected as well 😂

[@Tantuhard]

Yup me too🤣

[@franckdiboues1201]

+1

[@Navid_AG]

I like that these less popular products see some attention. I though I was gonna see Apple's Time Capsule router!

[@dukeseb]

The titanium was not a less popular product…. It’s was hugely popular

[@ethangeorge6313]

Can we just take a moment and appreciate how thin those bezels were for 2001-2002? They're nearly the same, if not thinner, than those of the 2016 Macbook Pros; that are basically identical to the 2019-20 MacBook Pros. That's just phenomenal. Also, if you look closely, the display assembly shape and large apple logo greatly resemble the new 16-inch M1 Max/Pro Macbook Pros.

[@EvilTurkeySlices]

I think that was the intention.

[@bigeasycov]

I've just compared them side by side with my 2018 15" macbook pro and the side bezel is exactly the same size, the top bezel on the pro is much bigger.

[@kuchenblechmafiagmbh1381]

It's great, a few months ago I got an Early 2008 MacBook Pro 17" (the last pre-Unibody revision with a then-new LED-backlit 1920x1200 screen) and it's bezels are pretty narrow for late 2000s, after that with the introduction of the unibodies they got really wide. And the pre-Unibody MBP weren't made from scratch but rather x86'd PowerBook G4s with some minor changes like MagSafe.

[@ryankery5052]

Agreed

[@bigbubba0439]

It's great that people are taking care of these old electronics, since I recently visited a friend's place, and they had a PowerMac G5 outside in their garden as a table, and it was 80 degrees with 70% humidity, and I saw rust in the ports and on the graphics card and I felt such pity for it, as it's such an elegant machine

[@adredy]

taking care ? guy was i jail 20 years laptop was stolen "time capsule " XD

[@cxt2210]

using a mac as a... table?

[@adredy]

@@cxt2210 i think so old one mac pro tower version people put piece of glass on the top looks nice :)

[@adredy]

​@@cxt2210 "www.mygeekmate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/IMG_0940-400x516.jpeg"

[@bigbubba0439]

@@cxt2210 Yup. No joke. That's exactly what they told me, and they had some gardening equipment (like pliers and stuff) on top of it

[@平和-v1z]

The videos where you fix/restore tech, to make it usable again, is the content I enjoy the most! Keep it up, man!

[@adnamamedia]

No joke my jaw dropped when you removed the keyboard. Never in my life have I seen something typically so integral being replaced so easily

[@IMDYT420]

The older/retro videos are the best. Can’t wait to watch. :)

[@Sisamuth]

Man I used to comment on your videos about the titanium powerbook and now you have made many about it. Thanks a lot, I am a big fan of that laptop

[@vinaywadhwa99]

Dude, how come the Bezels are so small for a laptop from 2002? 😱

[@AaronPinero]

Makes me miss my TiBook. I definitely remember the easy flip up keyboard. Great machine. Great video.

[@nicholashoi3155]

Oh, I though Luke was going to restore a Time Capsule (Router Hard Drive combo)

[@muuid1sk]

Sane

[@muuid1sk]

*same

[@giovanimontoya4517]

I don’t know why I wasn’t subscribed I’ve been looking at all of your videos recently and old ones and so good quality the videos you make bruh

[@adamr4198]

When I was in college in 2003-04 I would go to the main library and checkout out one of these titanium PowerBooks to use in the library. I was such a regular customer that the staff would pull it out of the storage area before I could ask for it. 😄 I loved it and ended up getting a first generation aluminum PowerBook.

[@dosdude1]

It's possible to upgrade the CPU in these to an MC7457 running at around 1.5 GHz or so. Also, it's more than likely possible to upgrade the L3 cache to 2MB as well. Would be a pretty nice upgrade for a nice TiBook such as this.

[@bradnelson3595]

Do you know offhand if it's possible to upgrade the older-model Titanium with a 867 MHz CPU?

[@dosdude1]

@@bradnelson3595 Yep, any of them with a 7451 or 7455 can be upgraded to a 7457. Also the rare models with the 7440 can be upgraded all the way to a 7448 running at around 2 GHz.

[@EvilTurkeySlices]

@@dosdude1 I’m pretty sure the cpu is soldered in these.

[@dosdude1]

@@EvilTurkeySlices It is... Doesn’t mean you can’t upgrade it haha. I’ve done many PPC CPU upgrades on these, most of which I show on my channel.

[@EvilTurkeySlices]

@@dosdude1 oh, I didn’t even see who I was replying to. It’s not that easy for the average person though.

[@PaulBarlow74]

A very fine example of a Titanium Powerbook. The keyboard design is vey similar to the Wallstreet Powerbooks with those access tabs. I still have and use my pristine 1999 Wallstreet Powerbook G3 with OS9.1 regularly for retro gaming

[@CommodoreFan64]

I love seeing older systems getting restored, and made useful again, so I would love to see a video with you upgrading this machine as much as possible, and installing either Linux, or a FreeBSD on it.

[@midnightsnack1306]

I'm envious. The Tibook was a gorgeous piece of hardware especially in its pristine state. Wish I took extra careful care of mine when I owned one back in the day.

[@mattpipes5106]

Yay Titanium G4 content! I would be interested to see what you can do with one of these running Linux. Also these PowerPC Macs were supposedly very easy to upgrade the CPU… Not that these upgrades are likely to be widely available today.

[@michaelreaves6212]

This is fun! I have a Titanium G4 Powerbooks sitting right next to me, I use it as a night stand, but it still works when plugged in, watch DVDs on it from time to time lol.

[@lbsiuk]

Should make a video on restoring the actual Apple Time Capsule with the same video name lmao

[@jasonhbush]

Great video. Repaired lots of these in my days at an Apple VAR

[@Hektormydog]

Just brought out to sell, in the closet shelf for a long time, a PowerBook G4 15” Al 1.5GHz. I’d forgotten how great this was for its time; nice screen with thin bezels, all those ports!, switchable battery unit and RAM access from the outside!, nice backlight keyboard, just a nice looking unit.

[@jsking306]

If I had other computers for productivity, I'd preserve this one as a time capsule. Anoter great video. Thanks!

[@edsart8174]

Take the wrecked chassis and have it powder coated/painted as if it were made today... using the iphone 13 pro blue or green. Buy replacement parts for the hinges etc and replace the internals for an m1 macbook pro. (only usbc connectors so not much to complicate things) The keyboard is about the same size and it would be an honest thing of beauty. 3d print the mountings for the insides of the tibook to mount the m1 macbook pro motherboard and route teh usbc ports to the original port plate. This would make a great project thread and look at the possibility of bring back old tech to life in a usable way. Having the old frame and plates media blasted and powder coated would leave a flawless finish (with a little filler) I always loved these and wanted one... at the time i had a g3 ibook but these looked great! Let me know if you want more on this idea, i could even visualise it for you to give you an idea.

[@Saukaron]

wow this unit looks goood! flawless, much much better than mine, i'm a little jealous One notion: You mentioned the DVI port as "THE" one reason why this machine is longer lasting than a >20y old should. IMHO the addition of L3 cache to the 1GHz G4 is the ultimate reason this machine runs faster than it should und therefore lasts longer

[@bobcubsfan]

Hi Luke. Blast from the past. I have a PowerBook 165 and a PowerBookd 5300ce. Oh, and a Radio Shack Model 100 with a 4-line LCD display! Wahoo!

[@Stevel_]

The most powerful laptop that will natively run 9.2.2. I'd love to see a video on the G3 PowerBook sometime Luke, or even the 3400. 80s and 90s mac's were top shelf.

[@linux42069]

I would really enjoy seeing you play with Linux on one of those old machines! Be forewarned that Mac can be a tough experience post install. I've had a lot of troubles with various drivers, more specifically with early Intel mac's

[@atschram]

I LOVED my Titanium PowerBook! I wish I still had it.

[@flysky6248]

Appreciate your content LUKE

[@LKBRICKS1993]

Great video. The laptop looks in perfect condition i love the gray with the whiteon the sides. I would upgrade it.

[@EvilTurkeySlices]

Mine is in pretty good shape. The top is a little scratched, but the hinge is solid, and the paint isn’t chipping much if at all.

[@enkei54]

Would love to see a whole restoration series of other historically significant apple devices, esp if they can be built toward lending your collection to a tech museum

[@ultraviolettp3446]

Once again you show why you are the man when it comes to all things Fruit. While it seems that Fruit afficiandos (Fruit Flies) tend to get moments of breathlessness over the slightest hint of change, you at least are in control most of the time of the mouth breathing and instead you offer compelling videos that even go down Fruit history and appreciate good products from yesterday's Fruit company. I do marvel at the efficiency of Fruit ARM processors, but I clutched my pearls in disbelief at the rancid actions the Fruit company did with the M2 and its insidious cheapness when it comes to onboard storage going to single channel and actually being slow to use. Because of you I have two 2012 13 inch Macbook pros that I have "fully slammed" with max ram and replaced the DVD drives with another ssd for data storage (I learned the hard way not to store data on a boot drive that has the OS). Thanks for all you do and for being the only Fruit Fly worth spit on youtube!

[@babyboomertwerkteam5662]

What

[@QUANTUMJOKER]

I recommend installing an SSD if you haven't already. My Lombard Powerbook G3 (and my own Titanium Powerbook G4, before it broke) ran beautifully with a Compact Flash card for an SSD.

[@TraneFrancks]

Linux on Apple hardware is always a welcome topic. There are plenty of 13" 2012 MBPs out there, for example, that when stuffed with 16 GB RAM and an SSD would be a solid performer if all the bits and pieces are able to happily run a modern Linux.

[@GuillermoPaulman]

I have the last, most specced out version of this laptop but in a bit more worn condition. I put SSD on it and installed Sorbet Leopard and it runs absolutely great. You can even do web browsing and play KZbin videos on it (although anything above 240p will be super choppy). I love this machine and design. The only other vintage laptop that I'd like to own is the iBook Clamshell.

[@gusdelc]

What a genius! I no longer remember where my old Powerbook Titanium went. Indeed a great machine (very expensive). Great job!

[@gusdelc]

Just checking. Is this you on my Telegram?

[@Garrettdx1988]

The fact that the rough condition computer just so happens to have the only parts that the nicer one needs is what we call Miani Magic

[@danieleppelsheimer9273]

Please leave it in it’s time This is a site which has a personal touch and is so educational

[@DistrosProjects]

5:45 2012* the retina macbook pros were the first to rivet the keyboard afaik. its possible the 2008 macbook air was first, but all other models had replaceable keyboard until 2012.

[@joeprete7424]

I have one just as clean. Battery still holds a charge too, but with the old software, I didn’t think it was secure enough to use. Linux would make it secure?

[@rml695]

I used one during a summer break once and I remember when these were new. I was in high school at the time. :)

[@pierre68299]

Never throw away tech. Luke,a shout out to you,great content

[@QUANTUMJOKER]

I would also advise installing Mac OS 10.2 Jaguar or later. Mac OS 10.1 Puma is cool and period-appropriate, but if you have a handy USB PCMCIA card, the ports will run at full USB 2.0 speeds in OS 10.2 and up.

[@chipandrews2892]

I'd keep it as a Time Capsule...I have an old 2011 17" MacBook Pro. I have been running Ubuntu Mate as my OS for almost two years and it is pretty awesome...I'd say it performs better than the original MAC OS that came with the machine. I use it for keeping track of my vehicle maintenance, surfing the web, watching KZbin, etc. I enjoy keeping my old hardware functional beyond it's expected life cycle!

[@johnaistrup9250]

Great vid! See I remember those, they were the first Apple product to really engage me. Stunning design for its day. However my actual first Mac was a Green Jelly Bean which I had to repair and restore. It was a great learning curve on Mac Internals too. I can definitely see you using linux on this machine, I'd see what I could do to maximise performance with some upgraded RAM and maybe an SSD if it'll take it. I'd like to see you do that with Linux Mint Cinnamon using the various interface skins to make it look like a modern MacOS. Think you'll be surprised at how good it might be with it! Thats what I did with my late 2008 MacBook and its still running perfectly three months on, with no issues! Awesome!

[@ahscott2001]

20 years from now Luke: So I got one of the last Intel MacBooks…

[@shanedesign43]

you rock dude , well done , i remember my Macbook G4 Titanium it was the best time and love it, I remember mine, I had the same paint problems, I was very careful about it but ... I really miss the steve jobs period :(

[@davidneven5545]

A gem from the past.

[@mintgreen292]

Watching you remove that keyboard on a 2017 MacBook pro makes me want to cry. If only it were still that easy.

[@ericbauer4559]

Sweet machine. My mom bought a 400mhz version when they first launched. We opened it up at the mall and checked it out on the bench outside the Apple Store. I immediately ran to buy a dvd (Shrek) just so we could try out the dvd player.

[@vicflrs]

Love this content, my wallet not so much though since every time you post something like this it's a trip to Ebay

[@shxdow112]

idk whenever i started watching you i became obsessed with apple products

[@rpst39]

honestly, why not. it will be fun to see what it can do nowadays.

[@Kratholm01]

Let’s see a Geekbench 1 score 👀

[@kkolakowski]

I would be curious to see how it would perform with a period-correct software, from 2002-2004 era lets say. What was the "original" experience for this laptop? How fast it was to do some basic stuff, how it compares with modern Macs for example?

[@kwahaus]

My first laptop and one of my favorites.

[@SamsonCBLau]

I have this one before when I study in university [G4 667mhz. Version] , I think the design much more that many powerbook[ even some macbook pro] , it is very hot, sometime I need to open the keyboard to cold down, oil painting also easy riff off, anyway, it is a good collection item.

[@always4eternity1]

I genuinely think that Luke makes love to these macs at night.

[@RirtyDascal]

I was just researching Apple Airport Time Capsules this morning and seeing the title for this video immediately made me think that’s what this was about. That would’ve been a neat little coincidence. Cool video though.

[@bhavkaran4347]

Nice work bro you give device a new life

[@stonersiren]

sometimes i wish i could've just lived through the 90s and then died like all the iconic people, but then i see things like this and look at my macbook air and i feel better

[@mhtweeter]

maybe try to fit a mba or mbp m1 logic board in there? use adapters for the screen, keyboard battery etc. that would be a super sick project

[@michaelbeiyt]

we skipped the titanium books at work back then. Instead we had the iBooks clamshell and later the translucent ones. But when the G4 PowerBooks arrived, everyone wanted of those. The first Intel MacBook where quite disappointing tho.

[@georgeh6856]

Use a very small brush to apply clear sealant to the white paint. Tape off the edges first.

[@rkilbrai]

Cool. It'd be fun to see all the updates possible (ram, SSD, etc.), while still running the highest version of OSX possible (whether officially supported or not). Can this 20 year old machine still actually be usable? Maybe even some benchmark comparisons (if that's even possible).

[@Di_Genius123]

Hair on point Luke!

[@adamhutton4165]

A translation for you viewers: Silakin is the way Luke pronounces Silicon (which is pronounced Sill-A-Con by everybody in the world except for Luke and Tim Cook).

[@Epicgamer_Mac]

I love these old Apple Pros Mac EDIT: PowerBook lol, wtf what I thinking

[@Epicgamer_Mac]

Originally I meant Apple Book Pros. Nothing about “Pros Mac” or whatever the sh!t I said. But it’s PowerBook so I was just plain fucking wrong I guess. Thx for the great vid luke

[@petitjoe]

Great video, what about upgrading the HD to SSD? Plus the Linux thing sounds like a good idea. Thanks for the content

[@Slurkz]

That makes me wonder (and Google it): would Ultra ATA SSDs that fit this machine actually exist? And would OS 10.4 support them?

[@valdir7426]

linux works on ppc?

[@babyboomertwerkteam5662]

@@valdir7426 back when PowerPC was relevant, most of the major distros (Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, etc) fully supported it for quite a while, but these days there's no real distros that fully support it. Debian Sid has an unofficial community port that almost works (read: some things are broken but what does work, works well enough), Gentoo supports it but you're going to die from old age before it compiles the base system, and there's some small indie distros like Void Linux PPC that support it, but that's about it. The 3 major BSDs (FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD) all support PowerPC but FreeBSD has no packages pre-compiled for PowerPC. OpenBSD has some packages (but not a lot) and works decently enough too, and I haven't tried NetBSD on my iBook yet.

[@valdir7426]

@@babyboomertwerkteam5662 I mean that's a super niche use case; so that's understandable

[@imixmuan9081]

@@valdir7426 Void Linux has a PPC port, Adelie also has a PPC build, and Debian Sid still has a community supported build. Fienix PPC is Debian based, and has a 32 bit build but probably would require a FAST G4. All would likely be miserably slow on this particular Powerbook. Wicknix (of Interweb/InterwebPPC, Arctic Fox, Spiderweb and Snowmonkey web browsers fame) has released "respins" of 16.04 Lubuntu XFCE and even a 12.04 "macbuntu" with the JWM window manager (and modern security patches/updated apps and functioning browsers) which would be usable on this machine. FTW Xeno74 has backported Arctic Fox to 10.04 Ubuntu (which has the old Gnome 2.0 user interface) which would work on this old hardware. You are probably better off sticking with OS X and Panther, Tiger or Sorbet Leopard though. Sorbet Leopard has a modernish webkit and Tiger has InterwebPPC (including "inthebox", a way to strip out the browser chrome), PPC media center and the still usable Links2 browser.

[@johnmckay1961]

Great video! The laptop definitely does not look 20 years old, neither does the OS!

[@RBVJnt]

I expected a literal Apple Time Capsule, but this was better

[@debugdud]

Loving the time capsule idea. My old Ti G4 is begging for some attention.

[@21dazzer]

Still got my 2002 400mhz. Still works perfectly.

[@squanchy474]

@6:15 you would also have to turn the little flat had in the middle of the top of the keyboard between the f5 and f6 key, but it looks like someone already did that for this computer. But still definitely a feature I miss. A much better keyboard than Apple's now a days, more travel distance too.

[@BadDuet]

Makes me think about what was the best MacBook to run bootcamp and game on.

[@BadDuet]

Or even steamOS

[@Lesydian]

I'm almost a week late to this, however I bought a 1.0 GHz PowerBook Ti (I already had 1GB Ram ready to drop in) a couple years ago and in my opinion it is in excellent condition. Needs new PRAM battery (a rechargeable 3035? if I remember) and new battery. Aside from that I have no lines on the display or light/dark spots and only 1 tiny chip in the paint on the same hinge you showed, but the keyboard looks new. I paid.... $50 for this gem. The reason I wanted it wasn't to run OS 10.2.1, but rather run OS 9.2.2 on the last, most powerful laptop to support it on boot. There is a huge difference, in my opinion, between boot & "classic" mode and I'd much rather run it natively from boot. I also did a bit of an upgrade to a 128GB M.2 SSD (not NVMe). Cost to upgrade? Just under $30 for the drive and adapter. The hardest part for this was finding original recovery CD's to reinstall the OS's from, but I have those too now.

[@Lesydian]

You mentioned the one you have was the last, most powerful Ti, but then installed OS 10.1? That would be the PowerBook 3,4 (800MHz G4) that came with 10.1, while the PowerBook 3,5 (1GHz G4) came with 10.2.1 installed. So my question is which do you have?

[@thatoneyoutubecomment4403]

Can someone explain why the bezel is so much thinner on these machines vs the ones 10 years later (2010 MacBook Pro and MacBook Air)

[@terrencegillon]

Excellent video as always man! I also have a final revision 1GHz TiBook in near pristine condition and would be more than happy to share some photos and details on it. If you happen to come across a solid source for replacement system batteries and the PRAM module/battery, please let us know!

[@lissitwrld]

yes try to make this thing usable in 2022 bc id use this mac as a daily driver if it can be used on a later version of linux

[@matteobarbieri1190]

I restored last week an old Macbook 2008 (the one was black). I couldn't use with Mac oSX because I had no browser to instal. I used chrome Flex and it's amazing (but still very slow)

[@KayvonJavid]

A lot of the design elements here are shared with the new 2021 MacBook Pro. The flat screen, the flat rounded corners at the bottom as well.

[@Navid_AG]

And the keyboard

[@WrenchesAndRiffs]

I think you should update it and use it in 2022

[@JohnMHammer]

Is the PRAM battery still good? Is there a source for replacement PRAM batteries for these old machines? I have a PowerBook G4 that I bought in late 2003 and would love to set up for some ancient games but the PRAM battery is completely kaput which causes all sorts of issues every time it is booted. It could use a new system battery, too. Plus, it's currently loaded with 10.5.8 Leopard which doesn't run that well on it, is there a way to get 10.3.9 Panther or has Apple still not released it as a free OS?

[@StrangerNoises]

I had one of those when new, for work, but I didn’t like macs back then so put Linux on it right away. (Tried macOS again with each version and Panther was the one that stuck.) Problem you’ll have *now* is even Linux dropped support for ppc32 a few years ago so you may have problems finding a maintained distro for it. That, btw, was the point at which I sold my G4 Mac Mini a very few years ago. It had spent far more of its life as a Linux box than it ever did running macOS. But it was telling when even an old-model Raspberry Pi 2 running the then same Linux drstro/version just stomped all over it. BTW my tiBook also fell apart at the hinges.

[@TheMetalMag]

at least no ads / sponsors! shame utube ad them for you...time capsule never used it. the G4 were and still are the best.

[@tkusterb]

I had a 400MB Titanium PowerBook G4 new back in 2001. It was SO nice at the time. A privilege to use. Seems a shame to "update" it. I'd keep it as a pristine time capsule and maybe install some vintage software of the day, like Final Cut Pro 1.5 (which I had on mine and used it to edit video...I still have the install disc!). Don't turn it into another dime-a-dozen modern laptop. Thanks for the nostalgic video.

[@rollingtroll]

I'm all for updating it. It won't be useful today though, but it will be a fun video. 1gb of ram, ssd, lightweight Linux distro, maybe some external wifi solution... Why not? :D.

[@joaobfontoura]

Nice video! just try to adjust the focus on camera, please. Also, super glue? guess you should get better results using silicon glue, but nailed anyway

[@fadeddave]

If it’s reversible, upgrade for the video and see what it’s like, but then restore back to time capsule to keep in your ever growing Apple museum

[@rcjmack847]

My vote would be for Time Capsule.

[@kingneutron1]

Luke you should triple-boot it -- original OS, latest OSX that it can run, and Linux - so it can actually run modern software :) Doesn't all have to be on the internal HD tho, a Samsung T5 runs pretty decent even on USB2

[@fVNzO]

I was really hoping for a teardown and cleaning but it probably doesn't need one. Only other manufacturer I think made some really nice looking laptops for the time would be high end Sony stuff. Samsungs initial ultrabooks also had a pretty striking design.

[@Mark-mu4pj]

It still looks really good for its age.

[@iseptimus]

Timecapsule for sure.

[@eXist3nZ]

That was my first apple laptop. What a trip to memory lane :)

[@live4mint]

try to move data from oldest supported powerbook backup in Apple Time Capsule device and apply that backup on newest MacBook that you have

[@abart4447]

Try to fix(make working) the second g4 titanium.