Apple iBook G3 Clamshell "Blueberry" & Apple AirPort Base Station "Graphite" (1999-2001)

Apple iBook G3 Clamshell

🥇First Commercially-Released Computer With Integrated WiFi Capabilities 

The Apple iBook G3 "Clamshell", released in July 1999 for $1,599, was the rugged, rubber-clad "iMac to go" that brought Wi-Fi to the consumer masses. Designed to withstand the rigors of a student's backpack, the iBook featured a built-in carrying handle, a spring-loaded lid with no mechanical latch, and a translucent housing available in vibrant colors like Blueberry, Tangerine, and the ultra-rare Key Lime. It was famously the debut platform for Apple’s AirPort networking, demonstrated by Steve Jobs passing the laptop through a hula hoop to prove the absence of wires. Beyond its striking aesthetics, the iBook G3 was a pioneer in portable design, moving interface ports to the sides and introducing a fanless, silent architecture that relied on its magnesium frame for heat dissipation. However, modern owners frequently face "Vinegar Syndrome," where the internal polarizing film of the LCD degrades and emits a pungent odor, and a failing "supercapacitor" on the logic board that can prevent the machine from powering on entirely without a specific PMU-reset key combination.

Source: Byte Shop, Jamaica Plains, Boston, MA 

Apple AirPort Base Station "Graphite" 

🥇First Mass-Market Wireless WiFi Router 

The Apple AirPort Base Station "Graphite", unveiled alongside the original iBook in July 1999, was the "flying saucer" that effectively launched the consumer Wi-Fi revolution. As the first affordable, mass-market 802.11b wireless router, it allowed up to ten users to share a single internet connection at speeds of up to 11 Mbps—a staggering feat when most homes were still tethered by phone cords. Its translucent, silver-grey chassis was designed to complement the high-end Power Mac G4 and featured a built-in 56K modem and a single 10BASE-T Ethernet port. Internally, the Graphite model was essentially a specialized enclosure for a Lucent WaveLAN Silver PC card, which relied on 40-bit WEP encryption that has long since been cracked by modern security standards. While its successor, the "Snow" model, added a second Ethernet port, the Graphite remains the definitive artifact of the era when "unplugging" first became a reality for the average person.

Source: eBay.com