PowerBook G4 (titanium)

The Titanium PowerBook G4 was introduced in January 2001 as a laptop that was one inch thin and had a superwide display. It became an instant hit -- so much, that supplies only trickled to customers well into March 2001.

TiBook is a nickname for Apple's titanium line (first revision) of the PowerBook G4: laptop computers using the G4 processor. The name is derived from the chemical symbol of the element titanium, Ti, which the computer's case is made from, and the brand name iBook, Apple's other product line of laptop computers.

There were three updates of the TiBook specification, featuring CPU speed increases and other upgrades such as Ethernet and DVI. The four releases are referred to by Apple as follows:


 * Titanium, January 2001
 * Gigabit Ethernet, October 2001
 * DVI, April 2002
 * 1GHz/867MHz, November 2002

In 2003, the next generation of the PowerBook G4 was introduced, with an aluminium enclosure.

Titanium PowerBook G4 (January 2001) (Mercury)
When it was released in January 2001, the PowerBook G4 received rave reviews. Many claimed that it was powerful and sexy, with much of the praise focused on the one-inch thickness and the supercomputer speed.

The PowerBook G4, in its first edition, came in either a 400 MHz or a 500 MHz version. The 15.2 inch screen provided for up to 1,152x768 pixels of real estate place.

The first edition of the PowerBook G4 (Titanium) set the "Titanium standard": a black keyboard (with white letters) on a titanium tray. Greyish titanium became the dominant color scheme.

The microphone was hidden away in the left speaker.

The ventilation was tucked away in the back flip -- a feature that would be improved upon with the next revision. Also, this revision of the PowerBook G4 would be the only revision to have an infrared port.

Titanium PowerBook G4 (October 2001) (Onyx)
Display: 15.2" TFT matte LCD display, 1152 x 768

Processor: 550MHz or 667MHz PowerPC G4 with 256KB backside L2 cache

Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon with 16MB of SDRAM, AGP 4x

Storage:20GB or 30GB Ultra ATA/66. Optional 48GB drive available.

Memory:128MB (two 64MB) or 256MB (two 128MB) of PC133 SDRAM

Airport: Optional or Integrated 802.11b

Internal Drive: 2x DVD-ROM. Optional 24x CD-ROM read, 8x CD-R write, 8x CD-RW write.

Ports: 2x USB 1.1, VGA Output, 1x Firewire 400Mbit/s, 1/8" audio output, Gigabit Ethernet.

Titanium PowerBook G4 (April 2002) (Ivory)
Display: 15.2" TFT matte LCD display, 1280 x 854

Processor: 667MHz or 800MHz PowerPC G4 with 256KB backside L2 cache and 1MB backside L3 cache.

Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 with 32MB of DDR SDRAM.

Storage: 30GB or 40GB Ultra ATA/66 at 4200-rpm. Optional drive available at 60GB at 5400-rpm.

Memory: 256MB (two 128MB) or 512MB (two 256MB) of PC133 SDRAM

Airport: Optional or Integrated 802.11b.

Internal Drive: 8x DVD read, 8x CD-R write, 24x CD-R read.

Ports: 	2x USB 1.1, DVI Output, 1x Firewire 400Mbit/s, 1/8" audio output/input, Gigabit Ethernet.