Step aside, Bilbo Baggins and Frodo: Here at Gadget Lab we don't care that today's your birthday. We're more psyched about the 20th anniversary of the Macintosh Portable, the first portable Macintosh.

That's right: The ancestor of those slick MacBooks we see today was a bulky, clamshell device sporting a 10-inch monochrome screen. Apple released the Macintosh Portable on Sept. 20, 1989, and it wasn't a hot seller: It cost $6,500 at the time ($11,313 in today's dollars), and it weighed 16 pounds. Apple, and the entire tech industry, sure has come a long way.

The tech community this week has been celebrating this important gadget's anniversary. Technologizer has posted a teardown looking at the insides of the Macintosh Portable, and both Ars Technica and Macworld reminisce on the most significant Mac laptops in history.

So, Mac users: What's your favorite Mac laptop? The 12-inch PowerBook G4 perhaps? The current unibody MacBook Pro? My favorite was the 12-inch iBook G3 (500MHz): As a student at the time, this machine was the perfect size and weight for me to tote around everywhere. I was quite fond of this notebook before the logicboard crapped out completely.

*Photo: Vokabre/Flickr

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