We’ve had quite the Powerbook-fest here on OS News over the past few days. I also ordered a 12″ Powerbook, and I would have received it several days before Eugenia if Airborne hadn’t sent it to the wrong state and then lost it somewhere between Ohio and my house. But it finally arrived, and mine is the hot commodity, a 12″ Powerbook with Superdrive (DVD Burner), 640 MB RAM, Airport Extreme (802.11g), and a 60 gig HD. My impression is a little different than Eugenia’s and I’m approaching from a different angle.
First off, every time we post something on OSNews that isn’t strictly “OS news” there are always a couple of people who post and complain about it. Note to these people: yes, I know this is off-topic, but since so many people have been interested, we’re temporarily changing the name of the site to “OSNews: Exploring the Future of Computing and also 12″ Powerbooks.” If you don’t want to read about Powerbooks, please skip to the next story. And yes, someday when two OSNews people order the same dishwasher, we will probably treat you to dueling dishwasher reviews.
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I was able to review it with my new airport extreme base station, which I have thanks to the attentions of a sympathetic customer service representative at Apple who sent it to me for free when Apple refused to let me return a computer I bought online at the Apple Store because I had upgraded the hard drive, when the terms and conditions were not clear on that fact at all. So remember, if you customize your system you can’t return it, but Apple will go to great lengths to make you go away happy anyway. I sold the computer in question on eBay, and only lost about $100, while the new Airport is worth $250.
All I can say about the Airport Extreme card and Base station is that they work just as well as the old Airport, but faster. That’s a high complement. The new base station also has a couple of nifty features: a print server that uses Rendezvous to share a USB printer with all the computers on the network and an external antenna port that’s very welcome since I had to hack a hole in my old Airport to plug an antenna in when I needed more range. I also love the built-in modem, because I take the Airport with me when I travel, so I don’t have to sit at the desk in my hotel.
Let me preface this review by dispensing with the ridiculous notion of an “objective” review. There is no such thing. A review is an exercise in subjectivity, otherwise it would just be a recitation of specifications. My bias is that I am a hard-core laptop user, who has carried laptops on over 250,000 miles of plane travel and 50,000 miles of road travel, and used them on four continents, and countless networks, wired and unwired. I have also owned more Powerbooks than anyone else I know. I have owned every major version of the Powerbook since 1995 (except the 2400). I have owned the following Powerbooks: Duo 2300c, two 1400s, three 5300s, two 3400s, G3 Wallstreet, G3 Lombard, two G3 Pismos, G4 Tibook 400, iBook 500, G4 Tibook 667. I have also owned two Dell Latitudes and four Sony Vaios, two 505s and two 540s. I ran Windows 98, NT and 2000 and Red Hat Linux 7 and 7.1 on the PC laptops. So this view of the 12″ and its suitability for me is subjective, but also based on a lot of experience with laptop computers.
I have spent the afternoon transferring files from my old machine, a 667 Mhz Powerbook 15″ Titanium with 768 MB RAM. If you embark on this, be sure to check out Carbon Copy Cloner, a little Applescript-based app that makes “cloning” your system from one machine to another a snap. With the built-in Firewire connection, it’s easy as pie. One of the major advantages to the Mac platform (that has miraculously been mostly preserved from OS 9 to OS X) is that for the most part you can drag an app from one machine to another and launch it and it will work, without having to be “reinstalled.” Applications that install kernel extensions are the exception, but in some cases, the application merely prompts you to install the appropriate bits once it is launched for the first time on the new machine. This is the way that things should work, but you don’t always notice how nice it is when it does.
Funny that I would call the 12″ Powerbook at “hot commodity,” because one thing I notice after having it running for a couple hours, copying files, is that it’s HOT, particularly in the lower left-hand corner, top and bottom. It’s not hot enough that it actually hurts my palm to rest on it, but it’s certainly a little hotter than I want it to be. I will probably need to install some kind of insulating palm rest on there for all-day use. Now, most of the laptops that I’ve used have been heat producers, particularly on the bottom. My Tibook heats up down below, but since I keep it on a desk most of the time, it doesn’t bother me too much.
One thing I’ll miss from my Tibook is the Tote and Tilt handle that I installed. I never owned one of the original “toilet seat” iBooks, but I am of the opinion that every laptop should come with a handle. Though Apple hasn’t made a factory-installed handle since that iBook, there are some aftermarket options available, and the one for the Tibook is the nicest, due to the location of the bolts that hold the monitor hinge on, that can be removed and replaced with longer ones that will also accommodate a handle. See this site for photos. Due to its design, it is unlikely that the 12″ will accommodate an aftermarket handle, and that’s a shame. Apple: please put handles on Powerbooks! We carry these things!
One thing I won’t miss from the Tibook is the painted border around the corners that chips from contact with my watch band. All in all, the Aluminum seems to be a better material for the case than the titanium Apple was using, despite the reduction in cachet. Everybody seems to think that titanium it like Mithril, some sort of magical metal. Truth is, it’s no better than aluminum for many applications that don’t require high structural strength.
The feature that I loved from most of the G3 Powerbooks (and some of the Vaios) was the ability to remove the CD drive and replace it with an extra battery. I realize that the engineering demands of the smaller form factors make this more difficult, but I really liked having 7-8 solid hours of battery life when I carried my laptop from conference room to conference room, or on a flight from Miami to Cape Town, South Africa. I rarely use the CD/DVD drive anyway, so I’d love to see that feature return in my Fantasyland Powerbook.
I love the return of the small form factor. I really loved the Powerbook Duo 2300c, which is a well-beloved machine in Powerbook-land. It had almost no ports or expansion, which is one area that this compact Powerbook shines. True, it has no PC Card/Cardbus slot, but has built-in what you’d probably need one for. I use my PC Card slot to read Smartmedia cards from my camera, but I can get by using USB for that. Everyone can make a short list of the connectors that this Powerbook could have but doesn’t: USB 2.0 (probably because of Apple politics and weak demand from Apple users), DVI (too expensive considering that few Powerbook owners use it, perhaps?), Firewire 800 (too new), PCMCIA/Cardbus (no space). Personally, I’d pick a handle over any of those ports. My computing experience is not diminished for their absence. Truth is, with USB and Firewire, you can plug almost anything into it that you might need to.
I really like the latest Apple power adapters. I love the flip-out plugs with the optional extended cord. I love the flip-out wraps for the cord. I really love the light-up plug that tells you whether your Powerbook is charging or not. It’s small, self-contained, and feature-rich but simple. It’s represents the best of Apple engineering.
I’m so excited to use the built-in Bluetooth I can’t stand it, but I don’t have anything to use it with. Bluetooth phones are pretty rare in the US, though I really wish I had one now, and other bluetooth accessories are rare everywhere. Of course, before the iMac came out, USB stuff was rare. Maybe Apple can give Bluetooth the boost it needs too.
I’ll second what everyone else says and say that the keyboard is great. I kind of wished it were dark-colored like my Tibook, but that might just be prejudice that will wear off with familiarity. I am deeply disappointed that the 12″ Powerbook does not have the backlit keys like its 17″ cousin. In fact, I bought it after Steve Jobs failed to mention that the 12″ Powerbook did not have this feature when he announced it. Nevertheless, the keyboard has a great feel and a good size. It still has the silly “fn” key in the lower left hand corner where the “ctrl” key should be, but I’m already used to that. Aesthetically, I think the keyboard is a bit ugly, both in color and shape. We Mac users are always whining about aesthetics, aren’t we? I didn’t want to disappoint anyone by not having an opinion on this subject.
Overall, though, I think the 12″ Powerbook is a nice-looking machine. The Aluminum skin gets a little smudgy, but it cleans up easy. Frankly, I think that the purple magnesium skin on the Sony Vaios was a pretty nice finish: light, strong, resistant to smudges, scratches, and dents. As I recall, the newer Vaios are more plasticy than the older ones, so maybe it turned out to be a little too expensive. On the Powerbook, the grey plastic trim around the edges is not quite of the same quality and fit and finish that I expect on a Powerbook. There are small gaps, and the gaps aren’t totally even. The plastic trim is a good idea to protect the edge, but the execution isn’t 100%.
The recessed screws, the battery, and the RAM door on the bottom are all very nicely engineered, though. I also like the ports on the side. The rear ports on the 15″ Powerbook with their flappy little cover were always an annoyance to me. It made plugging things in a chore. Truth is, some ports are better on the side, and some are better on the back, and that preference changes depending on how you use the laptop. The move of the ports from the back to the was certainly a hinge-design decision, and the hinge on the 12″ Powerbook is very nice. The location of ports can really be a sore point for me. That’s one of the reasons I hated my Dells. The power cable always got tangled up with my mouse cable. And Sony just stuck ports all over the place. Sloppy.
I’ll also echo everyone else and say that the speaker placement is a neato idea (on the back edge with the sound bouncing off the screen), and the speakers sound pretty good for a laptop. Some companies put big speakers into their laptops to make them sound good. Apple still saved space and made it sound good anyway. Not that I care. I keep my sound very muted and use headphones for music, but I appreciate the effort.
Now let’s talk about Performance. In the days and weeks following the release of this machine, we’ve been up to our ears in benchmarks, so I won’t do any new ones. Suffice to say this is not Apple’s fastest Powerbook, and Powerbooks are not the fastest laptops. We were all disappointed to learn that Apple was not putting an L3 cache into the 12″ Powerbook. However, this is not a slow machine by my standard of judgment. Truth be told, it’s pretty hard to find a machine these days that is slow by my standard. Processor speed is no longer near the list of the computer industry’s problems, except for the fact that computers are now so fast that they’ll have to think up some other reason to get us to upgrade (not that it’s a problem for us consumers).
Now, the machine that this Powerbook replaced, the iBook 500, that’s a slow machine. It simply did not run OS X with acceptable speed. OS X is still a resource hog, and although I have grown to love its beauty and usability, you need a really fast computer to really live with it. My 15″ Titanium Powerbook 667 is a perfectly acceptable performer, and the new 12″ Powerbook is quite a bit faster, though the only place I’ve noticed it so far is in VirtualPC performance. The 12″ Powerbook runs Windows98 on VirtualPC 6 at least as fast as the last computer I ran Windows 98 on, probably a 450 or 500 Mhz Pentium. The new Powerbook is almost fast enough to do a search of a large Entourage email database (not really). Entourage is slow, and until Microsoft ports it to some mainframe OS so I can use 128 processors, I think the search will always be too slow. Nevertheless, I still find Entourage to be the best email client for my needs on any platform, but that’s only because all the email clients suck so much. Too many sucky ones available for free or “included” to make it worthwhile for someone to make a really good one you’d have to pay for.
Now, Eugenia, in her review, mentioned her disappointment with the monitor quality of her 12″ Powerbook, and she discussed it at great length with other people in the comments. She’s a level-headed person (no, I didn’t say cool-headed) and I believe her when she says that her monitor does not compare well with the other LCDs she’s held it next to. However, I must say that after peering and squinting, and trying as hard as I can to hate it, I think the monitor on my 12″ Powerbook is pretty good. It doesn’t have quite the same view angle as my 15″ Powerbooks’ monitor does, and the resolution is not enough to make the anti-aliasing in Entourage not look blurry, but the brightness is good and I have no complaints about the quality.
There’s an inherent problem with monitor resolution in an LCD, and it’s that an LCD only looks good at its native resolution. Sure, you can release a laptop with a teeny tiny resolution like some people like, but then other people, perhaps more people, will have to choose between squinting and blurry. I think Apple is prudent to go with a slightly higher resolution than I would otherwise choose. Nevertheless, in the Fantasyland Powerbook, I’d probably go with 1152×864 for a 12″ monitor. So for the quality issue, I think we may have to wait until I go visit Eugenia later this month, and we can hold our Powerbooks up side-by side and see if mine really is better than hers or if my standards are just lower. Although, one of the reasons that I have stuck with Apples and Sonys is that I can’t stand a crappy monitor.
I tested out the problem with DVD playback that Eugenia mentioned in her review, and my DVDs play smoothly. Software-based DVD decoding has always proven to be a little flitty, so I’m not surprised to hear of strange behavior, though.
I’ll have to express some solidarity with Eugenia on one topic: I also managed to crash my new Powerbook in the first few hours. I was doing a big file transfer over Ethernet and also installing some new software. I clicked the button to enter my registration code for LaunchBar and I crashed hard. By the way, if you’re using OS X and you don’t use LaunchBar, you don’t know what you’re missing. I was also doing a lot of other things at the same time, so I don’t know what caused the crash, but its been rare enough that I think it might be worth mentioning. It may be that the 12″ Powerbook has newer hardware on it that really wants 10.2.4, but it shipped with 10.2.3.
Probably the stupidest thing about the 12″ Powerbook is the fact that the regular configuration comes with a “throwaway” 128 MB DIMM. 256 MB RAM is not really enough these days (though the Powerbook seems to run well with it for routine stuff) so most users will want to upgrade, and to do so you have to remove the included 128 Meg DIMM. The only excuse I can think of for this is that Apple got a quantity of 128 Meg modules at a fire sale and wanted to use them instead of just including 256 Megs on-board. Now, I must give Apple kudos for not completely screwing build to orderers on the RAM prices. Upping the RAM on a BTO Powerbook to its 640 MB maximum costs a reasonable $150. The best price I could find on a 512 MB module was $135 shipped. So it’s still more money to buy from Apple, but it’s not a complete rip-off like it usually is when you buy RAM from the computer manufacturer. It’s a shame there’s only 128 built in. It really should have been 256. I hope you saved a lot of money on this one, Apple!
I haven’t burned a DVD yet, but iDVD looks great. Someone mentioned something in one of the comments on Eugenia’s review, and I must say that I agree: Though Apple makes great hardware (let’s save the obvious problems with the PowerPC for another discussion), most people really buy Macs for the software. Apple software like OS X and the iApps is really great, but just as important are the non-Apple apps like Watson, LaunchBar, BBedit, Transmit, and (gasp) Office X. All these apps are better (in my opinion) in important ways than their other-OS counterparts, if they even have counterparts. Not only that, the way that these apps interact with the OS, and the intangible way that the whole system fails to get in the way of my productivity is the thing that brings me back to Powerbooks even though I have owned and still own several PCs running Linux and Windows. So it’s important to me that the new Powerbook be good. I’ve had some bad ones (like the poorly-built 5300 and the well-built but dog-slow 1400), and this 12″ Powerbook is not a bad one.
Many people have noted that the 12″ Powerbook is just a new iBook with a Powerbook name on it. I think that’s a silly thing to make a big deal out of. I don’t really draw the separation between the two lines like that. It’s true that Apple deliberately leaves features out of its lower-priced laptops (like monitor spanning) that I like to have in order to maintain a market for its higher-priced models. In my opinion, whether the 12″ Powerbook started out intended as an iBook or not, it’s worthy of the Powerbook name. It has monitor spanning, a nifty metal exterior, plenty of ports, performance beyond what I would expect without an L3 cache, an available Superdrive, a small form factor–everything I would expect from the lowest-priced member of the Powerbook line.
Could this Powerbook be better? Of course. There are trade-offs, and every person has different desires, and there can only be so many models. What do I wish the 12″ Powerbook had that it doesn’t? My Fantasyland Powerbook has:
- Backlit keyboard like the 17″ Powerbook
- A folding handle like the original iBook
- 1152×864 resolution
- Removable DVD drive replaceable with a 2nd battery
- DVI video out
- USB 2.0 ports (since they don’t take up extra space)
- Translucent black keys like the Tibook
- Included Bluetooth-based Mouse (with two buttons and a scroll-wheel)
- 1 MB L3 Cache
- 256 MB RAM built-in
What does the 12″ Powerbook have that it shouldn’t?
- A hot palmrest
- Gaps in the plastic trim around the edge
My Fantasyland Powerbook could also have a faster processor, gigabit Ethernet, space for more RAM, a better graphics card, Firewire 800, a slightly larger monitor, and plenty of other bells and whistles, but I don’t think I would care about them enough to pay for them.
My rating of the new 12″ Powerbook: considering its price and size, I give it an 8/10.
IMHO apple charges too much for their products. I can see that the new Powerbooks have alot of features but then again aren’t they horrible when it comes to actual performance? It seems as if people are making excuses for apple just because it isn’t microsoft. If you ask me they both use similar tactics although apple isn’t nearly as successful at it as microsoft. If apple had their way they would be a monopoly too, people seem to forget that…
If you notice some problem’s with Apple’s DVD player, then take a minute or two to download videolan client for OS X it’s really a better dvd palyer than apple’s bundled one.
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http://homepage.mac.com/softkid
sirmikester: You haven’t actually used an powerbook, have you? I have a Intel P3 800Mhz that I think runs fine and belive me, it isn’t faster than my 1ghz PB wich I love. Sometimes I just can’t see what I would need all the speed for.
And the price bullshit, everytime I actually compare an IBM, Compaq or other branded laptops the Apple one are really better deals.
Sure you can buy a Dell, but they really fell plastic and badly built. I’ve never been happy with a Dell.
There are more people with the same problem I had, when running DVD fullscreen:
http://discussions.info.apple.com/[email protected]@….
would need all the speed for
dnetc and other distributed computing projects
Sure you can buy a Dell
Agrred plus, how much will the dell worth six month later ?
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http://homepage.mac.com/softkid
Eugenia whatr is your favorite os X browser ?
David same question .
http://islande.hirlimann.net
You obviously haven’t used apple powerbooks in the last few years. I won’t make extremely challenging claims (those having to do with photoshop, mips, supercomputers or the Mhz myth), but I will say that (especially now with Jaguar) the g4, even at a lower mhz, can still provide more than enough speed (even is some of it is perceived speed rather than some crazy 3dmark number or whatever) to provide quite an enjoyable daily computing experience. For that matter, with your claims, I wonder how much time you’ve spent outside windows or even the “flavor of the month” linux.
Ludovic, you asked me the exact same question yesterday. I didn’t change my mind in 25 hours from my previous answer:
http://www.osnews.com/comment.php?news_id=2781#72553
@sirmikester, your post is your opinion and not fact. They are not a monopoly so it doesn’t matter does it. As long as they support open standards who cares?
@David Adams, i was going to buy this 12″ beauty but have decided against it now. Instead i was going to get a 12″ iBook instead, but have decided against that also.
The one thing i do know is that my next laptop is going to be an Apple one. You are right about processor speeds not being important, it doesn’t concern me, i understand that with the advantage of portability you can in some cases have to lose upgradability and speed.
My current laptop is a 1ghz NEC, weighs 3.5kg and the battery…well lets say its not worth using.
What i was wanting out of any laptop on the market was low weight, long battery life and to come without a copy of MS.
There are a few companies that will sell without windows however their x86 laptops fail on the first 2 of my requirements and that the low weight and long battery life.
Apple however fits the bill perfectly but looking at the line up and thinking about it at the moment i am not totally happy with whats on offer.
To me the current iBooks are lacking but this is to be expected with them being older models but the 12″ PBook in my opinion has been crippled beyond all hope and thus if it weren’t for my sitaution i would have to wait for the obvious upgrade 6 months later where these features would be included. The 1MB cache being all the more important and i would expect a 1Ghz processor as a minimum since this seems to be the standard on the current lineup of newer models in their entire product range, i’m not going to wait for the 970, include a GB of RAM in that as well.
So here’s to me waiting for the 15″ PBook or the new iBooks and see what they will offer. It’ll probably be the 15″ though, the 17″ is far to big and nearing the weight of my current laptop thus it won’t meet one of my requirements.
Enjoy yours though and thanks for clearing up the monitor issue.
my, that is small nowadays even for a notebook, ‘better catch the right angle there.
>>
I don’t know what caused the crash, but its been rare enough that I think it might be worth mentioning. It may be that the 12″ Powerbook has newer hardware on it that really wants 10.2.4, but it shipped with 10.2.3.
>>
yeah, I remember that voodoo feeling, about six years ago when using MS Windows 9x OSes, or back a few years when using various Linux distros (RH, Libranet, Icepack, Debian, Mandrake). G luck and don’t forget to double check the graphics video accelerator, number one guilty of most crashes.
I use several browsers. I like Safari despite its bugs for routine lightweight browsing. I like its speed and bookmark management. Once i overrode its ugly brushed metal look I also liked its clean look. But I like IE for its auto-fill adn autocomplete options, which I use all the time. I like Mozilla’s password management, so I use it for a lot of my my password sites. I also like tabbed browsing. I like Omniweb for some of its cool features like spellcheck and the new feature that lets you zoom text fields open. It’s auto-fill is more configurable than IEs, but it has problems rendering sometimes. So I need a lot of browsers to make me happy.
Having ordered the ibook800 maxed out, after reading the first pb review. I wonder if will regret it? Surely it cant be that bad? I just want a general workstation, browser,media player, vim mutt and a few other console apps. I dont expect it to be amazinly fast, but I dont expect to have to wait a long time.
Guess i’ll find out in a few days.
Will
Surely Apple or any of the 3rd parties could provide a small fan. Fans can be incredibly quiet when run at 7v rather than the noisier 12v std in PCs. Even with the low power of ppc, I would certainly add one myself just to improve comfort & life of such a thing.
FWIW my Mac laptop is a PB100, so it hasn’t been used in a decade, if the new Mac laptops had video out that would far exceed LCD rez I could get interested.
Yeah, I had that problem too. I need to login to a website with fucked up security certificates. There is a program though “Safari Enhancer” (see versiontracker) that will enable the Debug menu. Go to Debug-Security-Perform lax certificate checks, and you will be able to use those https sites just fine.
Having ordered the ibook800 maxed out, after reading the first pb review. I wonder if will regret it? Surely it cant be that bad? I just want a general workstation, browser,media player, vim mutt and a few other console apps. I dont expect it to be amazinly fast, but I dont expect to have to wait a long time.
Guess i’ll find out in a few days.
<funky music>
Trust me, you won’t be disappointed. I recently bought an iBook myself for the first time. (800MHz, 12″, 384MB ram)
But keep reading all those “apple is slow” posts. Then when you first power up your ibook, you will say like “wtf? the speed is just fine, what are all those crazy people complaining about?”..
I love my ibook 🙂 I’m a cs student, and I’m a switcher 🙂
</funky music>
Well, I’m going to join the chaos and mention I just got a 12″ powerbook as well.. and… I LOVE it.
I have no complaints, except that the palmrest gets hot, which is more disturbing than uncomfortable. The lcd is better than ANY I’ve had, including MORE expensive Dells and Thinkpads (both cost more than 2k). It’s more powerful than anythign I’ve owned. It’s better built than anything I’ve owned. It’s smaller than anything I’ve owned.
And, for first the first time ever, I have a machine I can do unix(y) programming on and still play 3d games and run paid-for professional commercial software. Further, I’ve installed X11 and KDE and as such I’m able to handle my email through KMail, which is my favorite.
And, for once, I have a laptop where the powermanagment JUST WORKS. My old thinkpad and inspiron, even when they briefly ran windows, couldn’t make that claim.
It’s not as fast as a comparable PC but I don’t care. It’s 300% more powerful than I need, since 90% of my work is development; and frankly, the extra horsepower would just shorten battery life. Everything works, well.
And, the experience is top notch. I’m 75% eady to ditch my gentoo thinkpad on ebay and just go 100% mac. All I need is to get a valid qt/kde dev environment working and I’m set.
I have a 700mhz IBook which I bought at the end of August, and I am completely happy with it. With OS X, RAM really matters though; using the Ibook wasn’t very enjoyable with only 128MB, so I got a 512MB DIMM from Crucial. If you are worried about heat, I would probably go with the IBook because it rarely gets hot, and when it does the fan turns on and it cools off within a matter of a few minutes.
Well, we’ve had two really thorough reviews now. My experience with my 12″ PB is pretty much exactly as David describes his. 8/10 is a fair score for it, I’d say.
I burned a DVD last night with it. It’s slow, but it works!
I haven’t had the DVD Player problem show up yet, but can see how that could happen.
I was also disappointed the 12″ doesn’t have the illuminated keyboard – that would be so cool and practical too. I hate having to turn on an overhead light just to see the keyboard.
Also *strongly* agree about Apple skimping on base RAM. I’ve got 640 MB, but 768 would be better. I’m anxious to see if Eugenia will have performance improvements when she puts her extra RAM in.
I like the default resolution – I have to wear “computer glasses” as it is, but I can see how others might want a little higher resolution.
I bookmarked that site that has those gel palm rest thingies that someone posted. I might get those.
It is an excellent laptop though – the small form factor, better performance than expected, nice LCD (in my case ;-).
And an excellent review!
@Will – You won’t regret getting the 800 MHz iBook – it’s very durable, a really good user experience.
@Eugenia – OWC has *again* slashed the price of the Cube 800 MHz upgrade – resistance is futile!! 😀
I have put the 512 MB DIMM in it, it is ok, I can now have more apps open in my virtual desktops without the lag because of swap.
I like the idea of an Apple laptop, I really do. But to me, at this point, there is just one absolute deal breaker – I NEED USB 2.0 – I do a lot of digital photography, and I want to be able to download my CF cards to the laptop in reasonable time when on the road. Without fw 800 and usb 2, this is a deal-breaker. Also, I really would like more RAM and cache, but that’s fixable to a degree. Lack of usb 2 is not. Longer battery life would be nice too, but I guess we’ll have to wait a long time for this, since there’s really only two ways to go – reduce the power-drain, or extend the battery life – of the two, the laptop makers are dragging their feet on power consumption, and it is not realistic to think that’ll ever go down. Meanwhile extending battery life is hard – we need some breakthrough in physics not just technology. So I’m pessimistic on battery. Ideally here’s a battery I’d love – I can work a laptop for 6 hours straight on an airplane, watching DVD movies as well as some light word-processing, photo filing etc., get off the airplane, sit at the airport for a couple of hours – watch a DVD movie, get on an airplane for another 3 hours of work/movie – total of 11 hours straight without re-charging… yes, I know, they are still at the lab working on such a battery.
Anyone knows if there is a way of running streaming Windows Media on the Mac? I download the Windows Media Player, but NONE of the browsers are able to load the music video clips on http://launch.yahoo.com
They recommend to use Netscape 4.x and the OS9 media player plugins, which is of course unacceptable. I want to do it with either IE or Mozilla or Safari under OSX.
Well, using mozilla with the mplayer plugin works nicely for me but then thats under linux. Should work fine under osx too i guess?
Will
On second thoughts I dont know if that works with streaming media, but i think i read somewhere it did, or i’ve completely lost it.:)
Will
I don’t think that launch.yahoo.com will work well with mPlayer. And I need universal support, OS-wide, not just for Mozilla…
stopdabombing, that would be a big drawback in your situation. Everyone now is anxious to see what the new 15″ PowerBook will bring. Perhaps it might be the one for you.
Eugenia, that is good to hear.
…2 button mouse… ?
people complain about the heat, but this thing is cased with aluminum for god sakes. you know, the metal used to keep soda cool? when i wake up in my 65-degree apartment, the thing is too damn *cold*. resting my palms brings chills. have to rip a couple CDs to get it warmed up.
I haven’t had a modern release of Windows crash on me for several years if I use high quality hardware (good up to spec ram, P4 or Athelons). I think that WinXP is catching up fast to the stability of the MacOS, and with the lower prices of x86, and more quality software available, why switch?
I have been using an iBook for writing C++ and Python code, and the development enviroments for these languages hardly compare to what is available for Windows, so why in the world would a CS major use an iBook? As for performance I have to comply that these machines (iBooks) seem dog slow when you get a many programs open (running at 640mb).
And the only real advantage Mac has is the “Unix” operating system. But, is no where close to being able to compile your favorite Unix utility on Mac X. Heck, TKinter took my friend hours to get running right after he upgraded to 10.2.
From what I have seen the new “Jaguar” line of hardware/software from Apple, looks pretty, but simply is not compatible enough to get real work done.
Sure you can buy a Dell, but they really fell plastic and badly built. I’ve never been happy with a Dell.
What puzzles me is that my iBook can hold more RAM than my Inspiron 8100, where the Inspiron cost more than twice as much and is a month younger.
I am using Toshiba Satellite 5105 S701(P4M 1.8G, 440Go, 1G RAM) which is a quite powerful PC laptop 6 months ago. Even though it is idel in XP, its fan will turn on every few minute and it is very LOUD. With a strong fan, I can still feel the heat underneth the 2cm thick wood table. It is heavy (7.2 lb) also. I bought this since I waht to have a powerful machine to replace my desktop. Imaging that XP is doing something similar to Quartz, how fast will it be. (Think about what Quartz does, before you answer this question.)
Comparing TWM with KDE can have many different results depends on your focus (point of views).
I know that OS X is not fully optimized and its UI may seems slow sometimes.
I have a dual PIII 933 running linux. I used to help people solving problems related to X-window, driver, and instaling software (rpm hell). If I want to find an UNIX like alternative, it may be OS X.
What I want to say is that buy whatever you like and take full advantage of that machine. There will be many reasons for people to choose different machine/OS, and there may be no single right or wrong answer.
Writing program in Cocoa is easy and fun. I also Borland C++ builder and JBuilder in school.
If you are running “dnetc” (www.distributed.net), you will NOT think that G4 is slow. If you are using word, any recent Mac is able to handle it. If you are talking about something is available only to PC/SUN/… or perform much better in PC/SUN/…, go ahead and use them.
There is no reason to fight based on different point of view. Anyway, I will get PB G4 12″ since I want to bring it to school every day. 7.2lb notebook + textbook will be TOO heavy…
🙂
More about Mac OS X.
http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/macosx/Essentials/SystemOvervie…
@Stopdabombing, USB2 can be put into the 15″ or 17″ model, you just need a 3rd party expansion card.
@Brandon Philips, its personal taste, XP treats people like a kid and it isn’t as polished os OSX. Besides, the laptop batteries on the x86 platform don’t last long enough.
Brandon, there’s nothing wrong with XP. I don’t understand what you’re saying though. I don’t understand why you’re doing that kind of work on a consumer laptop…with all kinds of programs open? iBooks are just supposed to be for iApps and AppleWorks. What do you mean the Jaguar hardware/software are not “compatible enough”? Compatible with what??? Me no understand 🙂
“Sure you can buy a Dell, but they really fell plastic and badly built. I’ve never been happy with a Dell.”
Ditto that!!!
I have a PC notebook and it is built like crap when compared to any of the Apple notebooks. Period.
I love to stir it up!!
anyway I’ve been using linux for about a year now, and I have to say that I love it. I’ve tried a couple different distros and I have to say that having a choice is the best thing about the os.
As for apple price/performance vs x86 I have to say that i still don’t see it. I’ve used G4’s in the past and OSX runs like crap on them and I think that the aqua interface is very much to blame. I would rather buy a used IBM thinkpad p3 (~800 Mhz) from ebay and throw a flavor of linux/bsd on it and have a system that would rival the Powerbook but at 1/3 of the cost. The performance should be about the same on it as well. Does anyone see the problem here?
Yeah, we don’t give a sh1t, but you keep telling us over and over again.
If you aren’t going to switch to a Mac, don’t know sh!t about them, and are happy in your own little world, we’re happy to. We don’t care. You are a pathetic little troll. That’s the only problem here.
Hi,
does anyone know, when the 15″ TiBooks are replaced by the AluPBs? Some rumors?
Cheers
Happy
stopdabombing: I like the idea of an Apple laptop, I really do. But to me, at this point, there is just one absolute deal breaker – I NEED USB 2.0 – I do a lot of digital photography, and I want to be able to download my CF cards to the laptop in reasonable time when on the road. Without fw 800 and usb 2, this is a deal- breaker.
Here are two FireWire CF readers that work with OS X:
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/dynadirect/st-fwcf.html
http://www.expansys.us/product.asp?code=MDCF-FW
You don’t need FireWire 800 or USB 2. In either case, the bottleneck will be Compact Flash, which has a sustained transfer rate of about 40Mbps, 1/10th of (400Mbps) FireWire’s maximum bandwidth.
kevin: …2 button mouse… ?
This has been my biggest complaint about Apple laptops from the outset. The only thing Apple has done to help this problem is integrate Bluetooth, which makes it possible to use a Bluetooth mouse, but that’s a less than ideal solution.
Here is a screenshot of my 12″ Powerbook, this is the setup on the screen i see most of the time:
http://img.osnews.com/img/2547/powerbook.png
Safari on the left (thanks for the login tip).
Fire on the left which allows me to connect to all 4 main IM services.
Underneath it is CodeTek’s VirtualDesktop application which allows me to have 4 virtual screens and compensate for the low resolution of the laptop. On the other 3 screens I mostly open other apps to work with, but the first virtual desktop is my main one.
Underneath all that, there is MacAmp LiteX playing my favorite internet radio station.
The Dock is on auto-hide mode.
Sorry about my last post, I was up until 1:00 am last night (first class at 7:00am) and still havent recovered!
*Butter: The whole thing about Apple laptops having longer battery life is not true in any way. Sure PC computers get horrible battery performance if you are running a P4 @ 2.4 ghz with all the cache on. Get a system that is more suited to the power of a Macintosh, possibly a PIIIM 1ghz? Then the battery performance will be a wash. Try turning off all the power saving options on your Apple and see how the life is. And secondly at least PC manufacturers think to put a fan on a blazing hot processor (common sense here Apple? put a fan on your processor, it might not be “sleek thing to do” but it makes sense!)
Jay: By standards I mean Unix standards. Don’t put Unix on the label unless you mean it Apple! A bash console and a deprecated top program does not mean Unix.
MacOSX Server is a real unix. The consumer OSX is also a Unix. Sure, it has been modified and added more layers, and it doesn’t use X11 by default, but the underlying architecture and POSIX compliancy would qualify OSX as the “next gen” Unix of some sort. What is Unix anyway? How do you qualify an OS as a Unix and not another one? By paying royalties to SCO? I doubt it. It is all about the architecture baby!
Unlike E., you know what you are talking about.
Oh, give us a break, will ya?
David wrote a good review and he likes the product, I have other gripes and I fully explained them. David is coming over to CA in a few weeks and we expect to compare our two 12″ Powerbooks side by side regarding the LCD. And in fact, David agrees that the LCD used on the 12″ is not as good as the one on his 15″, mostly the viewing angle.
I could swear he just trashed it (although in different ways than eugenia) and then gave it an 8/10 … can you say mindless mac drone
This has been my biggest complaint about Apple laptops from the outset. The only thing Apple has done to help this problem is integrate Bluetooth, which makes it possible to use a Bluetooth mouse, but that’s a less than ideal solution.
I’m not sure that I understand what you’re saying, but I think that the standardization on USB and Mac OS X’s complete support for multi-button mice (from 3rd parties) did way more than bluetooth will do.
This is a Steve Jobs thing. He is stuck on the one button mouse. Now it’s true that it’s easier for novice computer users to do the mouse thing with one button, but I think Steve is a little extreme on this issue. Most Mac users that I know are power users, and we all use 3rd party mice, like the Microsoft Intellimouse, with lots of programmable buttons. Franky, I don’t want two buttons on my trackpad. You just can’t do a right click on a trackpad anyway, so the click+ctrl actually works better. But with the mouse, I’d like multi-buttons.
I mentioned the two button mouse in my Fantasyland Powerbook mostly as a joke, because I think it’s unlikely that Steve will let a multi-button mouse slip by. To be honest, with the good third party ones available, who cares if they ever do.
I take offense at that. I happen to be a very thoughtful and intelligent Mac drone.
I didn’t trash it, and neither did Eugenia, we just looked at its faults with more rigor than the average reviewer. Believe, me, there is hardly a single tech device that I wouldn’t find at least that many faults with. It’s true, an 8 out of 10 is a good score, but it’s not a 10, and there are good reasons why it’s not. I came very close to giving it a 7, but overall it’s a good machine, and almost as close to being a great laptop as any laptop I’ve had, PC or Mac.
@Bascule
>> kevin: …2 button mouse… ?
> This has been my biggest complaint about Apple laptops from
> the outset. The only thing Apple has done to help this
> problem is integrate Bluetooth, which makes it possible to
> use a Bluetooth mouse, but that’s a less than ideal
> solution.
This answer confuses me. Can’t you just plug in any USB mouse with as many buttons as you want?
Can someone explain why everyone is making a big deal out of this machine with a 12″ screen? I can’t imagine staring at a screen that size for an extended period of time.
And 1152×864 resolution? Going above 1024×768 is too small for comfort on my 17″ monitor. How can anyone stand it? I could never spend 2K on something like that.
yes we have all heard about the 2 button mouse. Like others I think apple needs it on the laptops. Yes on a desktop you can just change the factory mouse no big deal, except for the silly ness of throwing out a perfectly good mouse. For a laptop it’s much differant. Soon as you have to start plugging things in it does work. A laptop is a portable computer. If your hooking things into it, that means it’s missing something. It boggels the mind that many people buy a laptop put it on their desk and start hooking a mouse in, bigger monitor, real keyboard, external drives…. And it stays there, it never gets used as a laptop. Don’t belive me? Walk around a dorm at a University or ask someone that Is at school and they will tell you. The only thing that should be plugged in is Power and Printer, and ethernet. The day they have built in printer or wireless power will be interesting. If I buy a laptop I want it to be fully functional. That means a real mouse. If apple doesn’t want to have them all come with two buttons fine. But make it an option. Let people decide this one. It would not be hard to make this an option. Let two buttons be a feature on the Al’s and leave the iBooks with 1 button if you like. In a little over year i intend to get a powerbook, the 17″ or whatever the biggest thing they have is then, I hope they have done something with the mouse by then. Other wise I will find myself developing a replacement mouse for it.
And yes I like the 17″, people seam to wonder why people would want it. Well many like myself can’t understand getting a 12″ laptop. Thats insanely small. The world is used to 17″ monitors. I and many I know have always complained about laptop screens being to small. 12″ vs 17″ is no more portable. It’s the fundementals of the design that make it portable, not the size of the sceen. Both fit in a backpack the same. I would not be surprised if the 17″ is a great seller and a much bigger draw for switcher then any of the other models. It finds itself having something no other laptop does.
I use 1152zx864 on 17″ screens, and 1280×1024 on 19″. Of course, to use these resolutions on these screens, they will have to be able to do at least 80 Hz. If they can’t do these res for these sizes, I don’t buy them or shop better model.
As for laptops, the story is different and 1152×864 is easily acceptable when the LCD quality is good on 12.1″ or 12.6″. SONY does 1280×768 on 10.4″.
>and the resolution is not enough to make the anti-aliasing in Entourage not look blurry
David, smaller resolutions doesn’t make the fonts look blurry. LCD quality makes it as such. You are complaining about the same things (blurry fonts, bad viewing angle) but at the end you say you are happy with it, even after you experience and mention the problems exactly as I have.
Another test is to take a Finder window (Applications folder) and move it around on your empty screen and you will see how motion blurred it becomes! Do the same on your 15″ Powerbook or another non-Apple LCD screen that is of good quality (and not a cheap-a$$ laptop/screen) and you will see that the lag of the refresh won’t be as bad.
These are the 3 problems I have with this LCD screen and while you have experience them, you mention that you don’t mind them. People should understand (instead of trolling at me) that I DO mind it. These 3 problems are just the spec of what this LCD can do. And these are the specs of what a cheap LCD can do. And while it works (I use this powerbook exclusively now), I find it unacceptable to be used in a $2000 laptop.
There is always that HP laptop that is faster than this Powerbook and has pretty much the same specs and better LCD, for $999. If I knew about the LCD status I would have buy either that cheap HP or the Compaq 1525US which costs even less than this laptop and has res at 1440 and P4 at 2.4 GHz.
You know considering the price of ram and the fact Apple Computers Inc. builds its on mother boards. They should just go ahead and stick 2 GB of ram on all the laptops. and on the higend models put 4 GB. They could also tweak the OS so it
dosen’t refresh the ram when not being used. (cut power consumption)
Hey just a thought.
Now if I could just get bigger ram modules for my 164LX. Would love to have 16GB of ram on that bad boy.
Leslie D. aka anon
<quote>David, smaller resolutions doesn’t make the fonts look blurry. LCD quality makes it as such.</quote?
Eugenia, have you played with your font and text smoothing prefs under “General” in the sytem prefs? I have had good luck with getting my ibook text more to my liking using those controls. It maybe some of the quality issues you are experiencing are due to too much text smoothing. The shake a window motion blurr problem is an lcd quality issue. But out of curiosity, was it cool in the room? I have found temp does impact lcd performance.
I have an ibook with a 12.1 inch screen that I think is lovely. Sharp and bright. And though I like more pixels, I think more than 1024×768 in such a small screen would make text too small. I briefly played with a 12.1 inch powerbook in a store and in that short period the powerbook screen struck me as just as nice. I’m curious to see how your side-by-side with David goes.
best,
Cedar
You know by this point in the thread (and thread number 2 I might add)
Eugenia HAS PLAYED WITH THE FONTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
good gawd people. She has played the fonts more
than is legal in 30 States and 2 teritories.
On the issue of battery life. I think Apple Computer Inc. has a good thing going there. I have been shopping around the laptop world (Checking out ia32 based ones) and they are pretty sad. I would like a P3 1ghz with the latest ATI portable chipset one spindle and three batteries. This defines exactlly what you can’t get in a laptop. Maybe it’s time to take dremel to my laptop and remove the dvd drive. and install a 3rd battery pack. hmmmm
Time to go look up the circuit for recharging batteries.
L. Donaldson
Yes, I played with the font prefs, no fixing. And the fact that David says the same about his, it only means that the LCD sharpness is not as good. Resolution doesn’t have to do anything with fonts, quality does. The same thickness of pixels will get shown on a 1024 screen or on a 1440… Just fewer.
to read a review that doesnt talk about things which may annoy you?
There are a ton of things I dislike about my ibook, but I still love it.
Icon placement bug (moves the icons in all directs for no reason)
How I cant shut the lid when the laptop is plugged in and leave the thing in a non-sleeping state (so I can receive instant messages, stay connected to servers, and transfer files etc).
How scratched up the outer shell gets all the time (I have a 5-6 year old thinkpad that is spotless, and this damned thing didnt last a week).
I would also like to put in an extra battery instead of cdrom on this laptop too, since I very rarely use the cdrom anyway.
I wish installing ram wasnt a pita (screw was partially covered by casing, had to do some creative angling to take it out).
How the power cord’s connector to the ibook got damaged with light use and is now being held together by loads of duct tape and no longer lights up green.
The damned beachball.
But I still love my ibook to death. I have had sooooo much crap happen to my pcs which take hours or days to fix, that even these annoyances in comparison are nothing. Yes the LCD is not a awesome one from sharp, but its a hell of alot better then any CRT Ive used (possibly due to using crappy fonts on win2k or older OSes when I used em). And it was an extremely cheap laptop for it’s features and size, so I think I could put up with the crappy lcd. But I would not buy something that gets annoyingly hot after long periods of use.
What is the name of the trillian like software on your pb screenshoot?
fire.sf.net
Has anyone bother to really compare the resolution of the screens? And what I mean is this:
> Cut from my XF86config file
Section “Monitor”
Identifier “ViewSonic P225f”
DisplaySize 400 300
EndSection
My laptop is smaller but the Size of the display refrenced
to the “native” resolution of the LCD gives your DPI.
for example my P225f at 1600×1200 is at
screen #0:
dimensions: 1600×1200 pixels (402×302 millimeters)
resolution: 101×101 dots per inch
so I was wondering about the 12″ laptop.
so I was wondering about the 17″ laptop.
etc
Note I’m using X terminology because that is the machine I’m currently sitting in front of….
L. Donaldson
Hello,
Just wondering Dave, you mentioned that you were disappointed there is no illuminated keyboard on the 12″ – how relevant would you find this is in the day and age of people who can touch type? (And in general, barely look at the keyboard anyhow?)
Curious,
PC
Not all can do that. Plus, it is impossible to position your fingers to the right position to start writting without seeing which key is behind your figers in the beginning.
for touch typing ther is a bumb on the f and j key
to position your hands( My nails are too long so I can’t use
these bumbs.
L. Donaldson
I write very fast, but I don’t use the standard of F and J keys, I got my own style.. I don’t know if in US people are learning typing at school, but on other countries they don’t, so the people who type fast, they just get there by having their own style.
Many people are like that, so it is one of the reasons to have some light in order to position your hands before start typing.
okay more screen data for the dye hards
12.1 inch 1024×768
15.2 inch 1280×854
17 inch 1440×900
now just to get the mm per side. (Apple dosen’t seem to have that info handy.)
L. Donaldson
even for self taught… its a pain to find the keys in the dark when they are all the same level, and the fkeys are right next to the number keys, and there is no gab like on my desktop keyboard between a and capslock. Its very easy to get uncentered on a laptop in the dark.
I have been using an iBook for writing C++ and Python code, and the development enviroments for these languages hardly compare to what is available for Windows, so why in the world would a CS major use an iBook?
The important elements of a development environment are a decent text editor, a flexible build tool, the compiler/interpreter itself, a smart programmer, and lots of thinking. Everything else is fluff: sometimes nice to have, but not essential.
But, is no where close to being able to compile your favorite Unix utility on Mac X.
By this standard, IBM’s AIX is nowhere close to Unix either 🙂
Well lets see, it took them till version 2.5 of their
compiler to get strcpy to work…
Windows developer has an column dedicated to the latest greatest compiler bug. My personal favorite was the integer to float comparsion always takes the first branch.
Also it’s nice to have a well developed command line and makefile system. (printf was made to go to the command line.)
ipcs makes debugging shared memory assignments a lot easier.
MS has some nice high level packages and libraries but for learning C++ I always recomend unix so students get the real feel for the laguage. libc libm and a compiler baby.
You won’t regret getting the iBook… just make sure you max out the RAM to 640 and then decide if it’s slow or fast.
I love using mine… and i have an FP iMac 800MHz at home.
The 12″ Powerbook would be a nice upgrade, but not a must-have.
Many people here in the U.S. sort of do it half and half (which is what I do). Do they teach touch in high school? I’m so old that, when I was in high school, not only where there no computers, but our typing class used *manual* typewriters! Once you learn that, you never totally forget 🙂
I touch type, but when I have to start doing key combinations, type numbers and symbols, and other wierd stuff, that’s when I need to see the keyboard. And I do like to use my computer in the dark. Truth be told, I think that most typists would have to muddle a bit to type in complete darkness. I do have a usb-powered led light, and that’s also good for illuminating the general area, but it’s not as convenient. 🙂
I got a 800 mhz ibook with 640 ram to replace a k6 vaio laptop running Mandrake (it was SO slow and crappy). For a G3 800 mhz, (I never have enough money to buy the fastest processor anyways) it is fast in OSx. But the real deal for me is the small size, light weight, battery life, low low heat and the low level of noise when it’s on. Is the PB so much hotter than the ibook>?
This is not powerbook related, but Mac related. What does Jobs expect Mac users to do when using native Mac mice (which I assume is what he would like) when using mouse-button intensive applications such as 3Dsmax, or games such as Unreal Tournament or WC3? I understand there is a ctrl-click equivalent for right click, but that kind of combination doesn’t cut it when things like 3dsmax require a lot of hotkeys along side multiple mouse buttons (middle, thumb, and scrolling wheel, in addition to right clicking) to be able to design quickly. Also, games where keyboard control moves the character leaves no room for also hovering over the control key.
Maybe I’m missing something, I admit I’m definately uneducated about the issue… I understand you can just buy a MS or logitech fully featured mouse, but the desktops come with Mac Mice, and for Mac enthusiasts, it must suck having to trash the “nice looking” mouse and install an MS or 3rd party USB mouse.
Also, on the laptops, some people may not use right click, but many do (I for one), along with other nice features that I’m not sure Apple designers will ever permit in their laptops. For example, I have an HP laptop with 2 buttons, touchpad, and a touch-mouse wheel. Move your finger (like the touchpad) and it simulates moving a wheel – very cool, but very sensitve. I see no immediate way of gaining the functionality described above on a portable machine where plugging in an external mouse is undesireable, or not possible. It also seems strange that the expansion options that users seek, in terms of mice, never come from Apple (but from PC mouse makers).
Title says it all!
It is weird. When Jobs left Apple, ’85, Apple continued with the one button mouse. Yet, at NeXT, they used two button mice.
On OS 9, there is a freeware utility called FinderPop. With it installed, you press the mouse button and hold it and contextual menus pop up. I don’t know of anything similar for OS X. I have a Kensington Studio Mouse, which is wonderful, programable, etc. It’s always been that way with Apple – it’s always been a third party area.
On OS 9, there is a freeware utility called FinderPop. With it installed, you press the mouse button and hold it and contextual menus pop up. I don’t know of anything similar for OS X.
This is built into OS X per default
This is not powerbook related, but Mac related. What does Jobs expect Mac users to do when using native Mac mice (which I assume is what he would like) when using mouse-button intensive applications such as 3Dsmax, or games such as Unreal Tournament or WC3?
I think it’s very sensible to stay with the 1-button mouse. Many people overestimate the majority of computer users. Whenever you deal with actual users, it’s very eye-opening, how unsophisticated they are.
This is a good review, but I wished it compared the Powerbook to the Thinkpad — probably the most sensible review since the Thinkpad is generally considered the highest-end PC notebook in terms of design and reliability.
>>Many people here in the U.S. sort of do it half and half (which is what I do). Do they teach touch in high school? I’m so old that, when I was in high school, not only where there no computers, but our typing class used *manual* typewriters!<<
Well you don’t have to be to old for this. I graduated HS in 1999. When i took typing it was on typewriters. My school didn’t have any real computers till my senior year. Before that they just had the random computer they got for free. When i left teachers where still using macs from the 80’s those all in one keyboard deals with a tiny green monitor. They still were using the macs that i learned logo on in 1st grade and played oregon trail on there after. I guess the funny part is they didn’t buy anymore macs after 1986. If we didn’t have back water hick schools we would loose touch with the 1950’s, we must preserve them.
Not for the reason you think. The reason I don’t want to read any more of these is I’m using my 15″ TiBook 550Mhz and keep thinking I need the 12″ to replace it with.
I’m trying to hold out in the hope there will be a 15″ AlBook soon. I love my wide screen, but the 17″ is just too big for me.
But that 12″ is so perfectly small. I loved my Duo 280c years ago. Best sub-notebook of it’s era. period
And don’t know what laptops you all have been pricing, but intel laptops are comparable in price and most performance until banias comes out. I know, I did some comparison.
This answer confuses me. Can’t you just plug in any USB mouse with as many buttons as you want?
Yes, but this is a laptop and an external mouse (especially one you have to plug in) is a cumbersome solution.
Which is why a Bluetooth mouse is nice… just set the laptop down next to the mouse and you’re ready to go.
I DO have a 1Ghz processor in my laptop, its an Intel P3. Battery life sucks, its lasts 45 minutes.
Another case in point, the G4 is one processor, Apple uses it for the laptops and desktops, they don’t have to make 2 seperate versions like Intel does.
Apple did use to put fans on their laptops, people complained about the noise and wanted rid of them, look at the result now, hot palmrests.
Picture who you’re selling your product to: NeXT vs Macintosh. This is the distinguishing factor between the 2-button and 1-button mouse (respectively).
I use a 1600×1200 resolution screen (15″), and I can read 8-PT fonts with comfort and ease. That’s even with my font-DPI set to 75, while in reality it’s about 132. Then again, most people don’t have my vision, and vision correction can’t get to 15 yet. I’m not accustomed to virtual desktops, so I like to have all my windows comfortably on the screen.
I could still go for a higher resolution without any eye-strain…
The computers you describe were Apple II’s, not Macs.
The mouse button argument is only a semi-argument. Windows didn’t make any use of the right button until 95. Before that, it just sat there, unless you happened to be using some special application.
The point is that the MacOS is designed around a one-button mouse, and thus the need for any more buttons isn’t all that great. Windows 9x and its siblings are designed around two-button mice, but an unknowing X-Windows user would criticise the common PC for not having a three-button mouse. In effect, a third button will just lay dormant, again unless the user is running some particular application which makes good use of it.
I’ve been involved in one of the Mac strongholds – publishing. There, the lack of mouse buttons has never been perceived as a problem. I once used a two-button equipped Mac for Photoshop, but barely ever touched the second button. The OS didn’t make any particular use of it anyway, it was just used as a “caps lock” for the first button. Just a waste of microswitches.
Well, that’s not true!
I am an OS X user as well, and I use it all the time! The idea behind a right-click is that whatever you right-click on, every option you can perform on that object is displayed for selection. This is true of all interfaces. Without it, many options lie undiscovered.
First Im going to say this, dont bother flaming me because it is my opinion and opinions are like —holes everyones got one. I find this review to be a grudge review Eugenia didnt all that much care for some of the powerbooks shortcommings and it appears that some Macheads didnt like her review so they posted their own and gave it high marks. I have never known Eugenia to give a unfair review, most of her reviews I either agree with what she is saying sometimes I find something cool that she finds annoying. But her 12 inch PowerBook review was very fair and right on the money, because even tho I dont own one, I work in the computer industry and I have heard the exact same thing she said about its shortcommings from other people, One of the ladies where I work bought one and I looked at it the other day and yes the thing is way to hot. Yes the LCD is crap. But instead of jumping on Eugenia and wasting energy and time, Why not go ahead write to Apple gripe and complain and hope they change it. There is nothing Eugenia can do about the Powerbook seeing as tho she doesnt work for Apple computer.
_________________________________
http://www.geocities.com/kane121975/
640mb is an unusual configuration: 512+128 i suppose,
i remember in the 80s bringing home the Tandy 1000sx, and upgrading its memory to a whopping 640k of Ram.
640k was the most my tandy pc would accept.
Roberto, I don’t think it was a grudge review. I think it was just a confluence of things that happened – both Eugenia and David both got the PowerBooks. Doing a hardware review was a change of pace in the first place. And then came the storm of controversy about the LCD. So, when they meet in California, they’re going to put them side by side. It has been a welcome change of pace. And, being OS News, even a change of pace stirs the pot 🙂
http://www.codewarrior.com/MW/Develop/Desktop/Macintosh/Professiona…
What do you mean tools are not available for the Mac OSX.
I am a linux head and I know that CodeWarrior makes a rocking Mac IDE.
It is for C/C++ and Objective C.
For Python look at:
http://www.cwi.nl/~jack/macpython.html
There are others but that is literally my first hit.
Sure it has its issues but for the money and the size there is NOTHING equivalent. Do some research.
Of course, thinking with one’s head instead with one’s heart, a factory refurb Thinkpad T23 or HP Omnibook 6100 are bigger but much better made and cheaper (around $1K for a decent box). They won’t do decent 3D, or write DVDs or have firewire of course.
The smaller PC notebooks don’t come anywhere near the number of features of the new PB, though the screens in IBMs, Toshibas and HPs are way nicer than the PB.
The better Thinkpads have absolutely fantastic keyboards and excellent build quality.
If you need a small, fairly powerful mac though, the new 12″ PB is pretty much the only thing you can get.
Replace the drive with an IBM 40GNX and see the thing fly.
D
It seems to me that the review went like this:
1) There are many design flaws in this overpriced machine
2) But, it’s a Mac, so therefore it must be good
Everyone acts like this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. PC makes have been building small, ultraportable laptops for years. Then Apple comes out with the iBook-renamed-Powerbook and that stupid add campaign and everyone’s rushing to buy one …
David, I think you were fair in your criticisms, but I don’t see how it got an 8. Maybe to make yourself feel better about getting ripped off…
Has anyone ever tried running MAYA on one of these laptops? Im thinking of purchasing one of these Powerbooks IF they will run MAYA decent. If not i will have to stick with a tower.
http://www.aliaswavefront.com/en/Community/Support/qualified_hardwa…
There’s a rumour that 10.2.4 will contain fixes for OS X’s prebinding tools which I believe are responsible for the OS X crashes everyone has been experiencing.
Someone pointed me to a workaround to disable enforced prebinding entirely. After enabling this workaround, I haven’t had my system crash since.
The reason Apple hardware is still close to the purchase price even years later is that Apple hasn’t actually progressed much in that time. In a years time, that Dell laptop is totally obsolete, while the PowerBook is no longer rated “fastest”, just “faster”. It’s NOT a good thing that Apples hold their value so long. It means the new ones are barely superior to last years offerings.
Some of you say “I have an IBM P3 800Mhz and it’s not any faster than my new PowerBook”. Well, duh. Compare the Mighty 1 Ghz PowerBook with the 2 or 3 Ghz Laptops on the PC side. No contest, RISC or not. Not to mention the PC’s better cache, bus and memory speed, faster HDs, etc. And Eugenia is right – Apple DOES use cheaper parts in their products. Think about this – if Apples really are as competitive with PC’s as you all claim, yet Apple’s own financial statements say they make a far greater markup on their products, THE ONLY POSSIBLE EXPLANATION IS THAT THEY USE CHEAPER PARTS!!!
If you guys could look at the information objectively, you’d see that your defence of Apple’s business practices only permits them to continue ripping us off, since you are okay with it. They don’t ever have to improve or get competitive because you don’t CARE about their product quality. You only care that it was made by Apple, and that’s enough to get the sale.
And Jesus Christ in a Jumpsuit, Soda makers didn’t choose aluminum because it has some magical ability to keep things cool, they chose it because it’s very very inexpensive.
And for God sakes, this reviewer is insanely excited about Bluetooth, but doesn’t have any bluetooth devices! WTF? Is Apple brainwashing you guys? Tell me, I’ll sell my iMac before I turn into a gibbering fanatic too. I understand the guys excited, but unless it’s actually USEFUL in a way that regular stuff can’t compete with, aren’t you wasting your money paying for this stuff?
Glad to see your concern for others people finances.
Thats nice and commendable.
But you also write “gibbering fanantic”, so I’m confused about your intentions.
Here is a screenshot of my 12″ Powerbook, this is the setup on the screen i see most of the time:
http://img.osnews. com/img/2547/powerbook.png
Safari on the left (thanks for the login tip).
mmm, compared this shot with the same page rendered by IE on my 14inch aldi laptop (running winxp and cleartype enabled) and that one looks a lot nicer, did the .png compression added any blur or is the text rendering in OS-X
that bad…
It is that bad compared to ClearType, because of all this smoothing going on, and if you have an LCD like the 12″ Powerbook’s, it gets worse.
Hmmm.
Those TV commercials where they show the latest and greatest TVs in action dont look any better than the TV I have.even the HD TV commercials look the same to me.
Who are you directing your remarks to? You are the one who’s all bent out of shape. There’s nobody in this thread that has been praising Apple to the skies and saying they can do no wrong. Your comments sound like they should be in some Apple flame war thread. They’re just doing something for a change of pace and having some fun.
lame attempt at humor—
I was trying to convey the futility of TV advertisments by television manufactors showing off their great picture quality.
And I was trying to connect that to screenshots on the web.
never mind…sorry.
http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/review/2/2/2844.html
http://www.macopinion.com/columns/roadwarrior/03/02/11/index.html
For you to enjoy!
Ralf.