2006 Intel MacBook Pro

For years, Apple had snubbed the world of Intel processors and stuck with Motorola’s PowerPC CPUs for its Macs. But, as Jobs explained at Macworld 2006 in San Francisco, they were no longer good enough. For one thing, they used too much power for what Apple wanted to do with them. It was time for a change.

After unveiling Intel-based iMacs, Jobs turned to the ace in his pack. Not only was Apple revealing a new laptop powered by Intel, but it would be the first ever MacBook Pro. One momentous change begat another.

Explaining the shift in naming convention from the previous “PowerBook” moniker, Jobs stated with more than a hint of sarcasm: “We’re kinda done with ‘Power’.”

What did this mean in practice? The new MacBook Pro would be four to five times faster than the PowerBook G4, with a 15.4-inch screen as bright as Apple’s Cinema Displays. Yet it still somehow managed to be a mere one inch thick. But the real crowd-pleaser? The MacBook Pro’s built-in iSight camera, which elicited rapturous cheers and applause from the enthusiastic crowd.

It was one great announcement after another, but perhaps the key reveal was one of the smallest, and that was MagSafe. The ingenious magnetic lead connector instantly became a firm favorite among the Apple faithful — just look at the pained response when Apple dropped it in the 12-inch MacBook in 2016. So simple, yet so seemingly obvious. It was classic Apple.

And to cap it all off, Jobs reminded the audience of Apple’s impending 30th anniversary, noting that his company had been going for “30 years making the best personal computers in the world.” The cheers echoed throughout the auditorium.