Help Identifying Macintosh Notebook

[CosmicJake]

Hi Everyone, apologies if this is the incorrect forum for this.
We have the attached Macintosh computer we’re trying to identify for its owner, her husband acquired it from his time working with for a computer magazine in the 80s and 90s. It’s not labeled or marked in anyway besides the single Apple logo on the front. It only has a screen and it’s board hot glued into place, the rest of the enclosure is empty and appears to never have housed the main board or drives. It isn’t glued or screwed together either. It kinda looks like an LC but with a folding screen attached along with a keyboard. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

This is not apple official, it’s some sort of 3rd party conversion made out of a Mac LC. Never seen anything like it though!

 

[Byrd]

More pics please of the inside and out! It looks like a hack and LCDs of this era were rare but does have some nice design ideas suggesting more. Is the lid plastic?

 

[SuperSVGA]

The top case does seem a little to suspiciously well made to be third party and still include the Apple logo. Seeing the inside and injection mold marks will probably reveal more.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Yeah but my main question if it was an apple Proto of some kind would be why?

PowerBooks were already in development by that time I’d assume. Unless there were working on an LC-based portable 2 for whatever reason.

@haplain
@Performa450
@maceffects

 

[Forrest]

PowerBooks were too expensive for schools, but an LC with attached screen would probably be far less expensive. Too bad Apple never built it.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

That could make some sense. Why not just use LCs though? I mean, that’s what many schools did? The whole give the students laptops thing really didn’t start until later.
Then again, if this was apple, it would have been cancelled for a reason. And apple products in the 90s didn’t always make sense.

 

[nickpunt]

Looks like a Dynamac IIsf or Dynamac LC Display, a type of macintosh conversion. No pictures known but matches description

 

[Performa450]

Yes more pics please! It would be interesting to see pics from all angles.

I’ve never seen anything quite like that before. Looking at the photo it appears that the upper/front case may be in two parts - the top ridge on the LC doesn’t go right the way round to the front of the case.

It doesn’t even seem to be a standard LC lower case - the front foot appears wider then I’ve seen on an LC.

I’d be really interested to see pics of the bottom of the machine and the empty insides just to check for case markings.

This looks like an industrial design prototype to me, maybe Apple produced and maybe not? The build quality looks very good. The keyboard placement does not look ergonomic at all, but perhaps it is for a comms device… was the screen to be a touchscreen?

 

[cheesestraws]

You've certainly got something odd there!

I don't entirely buy the dynamac hypothesis: there's no touchpad. And the previous dynamac laptops were total conversions, not just case mods.

An odd feature nobody has yet remarked upon is that that keyboard doesn't look like a US one. Look where the return key should be and the space is L-shaped; also the arrow keys are in an L shape. This is an ISO powerbook keyboard. Compare this German one - ignore the F keys, this is for a later PB, and ignore the key labels, and just look at where the keys are and the shapes of the special keys:

 

[stepleton]

I wonder if it would be useful to know which computer magazine it was that the owner worked for? Maybe this device turned up in an article. In fact, if it was built with hot glue, maybe it was a prop they made for a graphic.

 

[Byrd]

More picking (I love this thing)

The screen bezel looks like it's made of wood (chip in the top left?), with overspray at the back. The case back case top/riser appears to be plastic from the hinges and pack panel. Be interesting with the screen folded down if it continues the "snow white" lines like a normal LC case.

 

[joshc]

It’s also worth noting the case itself is of good quality, not something homemade from what I can tell. The bottom case particularly really looks like it was made to be that way, not just a standard LC case that’s been chopped up. I wouldn’t rule out this being something that originated within Apple, although so far it doesn’t seem to follow what we tend to see with Apple prototypes.

 

[cheesestraws]

The screen bezel looks like it's made of wood (chip in the top left?), with overspray at the back.

That's a good spot. Think you're right.

 

[Byrd]

I meant top right but glad you could see it too Mr. cheese . Hot glue also doesn't sound too fancy.

 

[cheesestraws]

I meant top right but glad you could see it too Mr. cheese

Ah, well, I've never reliably been able to tell the difference between left and right ;-)

 

[CosmicJake]

Thanks everyone for your replies. The screen bezel and the rest of the case are made of the same type of plastic. Attached is the full breakdown.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Couple things I notice:

- LCD is an active matrix Hosiden panel, specifically the same part number as the Mac Portable’s LCD. That LCD is also the non-backlit version.

- That keyboard is a PowerBook 100 series cable. You can see the breakout cable off it for where the trackball would hook in, only there is none.

What a weird hybrid.

 

[Performa450]

Also : the keyboard is an engineering sample and the lower case is roughly finished and appears to have an August 1990 date stamp and (TOOL#1).

I reckon it’s an apple concept/prototype

 

[Performa450]

It predates the LC, which makes it being an internal apple prototype all the more convincing to me.