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- BUSINESS, Page 57Business NotesCOMPUTERSHave Mac, Will Travel
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- Almost from the day Apple Computer introduced its Macintosh
- line in 1984, aficionados clamored for a portable version of
- the popular machine. This week Apple will finally unveil one.
- The delay was caused by the difficulty of producing a
- lightweight Mac with a graphics display as vivid as the larger
- models'. To achieve that clarity, insiders say, the new machine
- has an active-matrix screen, in which each of its thousands of
- picture elements will be controlled by an individual transistor.
- Instead of Apple's famous mouse, the new Mac has a
- cursor-control device called a trackball mounted on the
- keyboard.
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- Users of the new Mac (estimated price: $6,000 or more) will
- have to develop their biceps to handle the machine, which
- weighs about 16 lbs., compared with 4 lbs. for small
- IBM-compatible portables. Apple is taking pains to call the
- machine a portable rather than a laptop, but computer-industry
- wags have already dubbed it a "luggable." Even so, experts
- believe the Mac is likely to be a walkaway success.
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