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12" Powerbook: Slick and Sexy, But Not Without Issues
Gentu writes "Two very good reviews on the 12" Powerbook have been published today. The first review can be found at the Washington Post and is very positive but not very thorough, while the second one found at OSNews is an in-depth review of the popular Mac laptop, tackling down many issues that future purchasers should be aware of. 'The new 12" Powerbook is nothing more but an iBook on steroids with a G4 in it' OSNews concludes, but the overall read is very interesting."
What's with the AMD logo. Did they get an Athlon in one of these things?
Pedro Côrte-Real.
> Slick and Sexy, But Not Without Issues That reminds me, I need to call my ex.
The 12" is really just a hopped up iBook. It doesn't have DVI, making it incompatible with all of Apple's displays .. including the Cinema display. I don't know why Apple did this.
Lots of people have bitched about the scaled back memory too. There probably isn't a technical reason why it was limited to 640Meg, and there's no L3 cache onboard. Those issues wouldn't have bothered me as much as the lack of DVI.. I mean, apple themselves have sold it pretty heavily.
Anyhow, my TiSD should be here soon.. I won't even get into the mystery shipping on the 17". 17" makes a great desktop replacement, but if you're going to multihead it with a very large display it's kinda moot.
..don't panic
Well done slashdot!! An extremely relevant news article (im not being sarcastic).
:)~
I'll go read the articles and see... I was planning on ordering the 12" Powerbook this evening
So does anyone here that owns a 12" PB have anything that should be brought to my attention before buying one? I've never owned a mac before but Im quite interested in this Powerbook because of how small it is and also it means I'll have a portable Unix based laptop. Im a student learning C++, Java and AWK right now.
Thanks for any info.
... I don't own one.
There are fewer illiterates than people who can't read.
Call me naive or whatever, but this new powerbook comes with a 867MHz processor.
And while I realize that's not a direct measure of speed, I have to ask:
Is apple falling way behind? How do these systems compete with the 2 and 3 GHz intel systems coming out?
The reviewer stated that this model was much faster than their 450. Well, ya, its double, but its not a 2.4GHz chip or anything....??
Thanks for your comments,
mj
I have one of the previous 12" iBooks, (dual USB w/combo drive), and it appears to be one of the best kept stealth business tools around.
I originally headed out to buy a Ti, but this one was put in front of me, and discounted heavily, as it was a floor demo. Big deal, if it didn't work out, I'd just pass it along to a family member. Now, I'm in no hurry to let it go.
The 12" iBook has a form factor that happens to fit my needs exactly. I've had original PB's and Duo's, and felt I knew what I wanted when it came time to go portable, again.
In my case, I wanted a real portable...not something that shouted 'identity crisis'...something that was 1/2 desktop machine and 1/2 laptop, not doing either well. I wanted something to use with my digital cameras (still and movie), while adding as little as possible to the amount of tech bulk in the process. My iBook weighs a bit more than a Ti, but it's smaller, and that was what I really wanted. Performance is great...the screen is bright and it works...and works...and works. Long battery life. Outputs to the TV in the hotel room. Wireless networking in the airport. Burns CD's on demand. Command line if I need it. Nothing like a Unix based notebook to make you feel like you're toteing a tool instead of a wanna-be workstation. I've never thought about using it as a primary machine, but with all it has going for it, I'm sure it would do just fine. As soon as my Mac guy has a demo G4 12" iBook, I'm going to trade up.
"The new 12" Powerbook is nothing more but an iBook on steroids with a G4 in it"
Anyone else find this quote amusing? "The new Porsche is nothing more than a VW Golf on steroids with a much better engine in it."
The crimes of eBay are a disgrace to it's pig latin heritage!
>Yippee, I can resize Safari and even IE now with >not much lag
Because it should obviously take an 867mhz processor that fries your lap while working to redraw a 1024x768 window 'almost fast enough'. What is it with GUI designers these days?
One of his complaints was the lack of cleartype under max ox x. If I recall correctly, cleatype is subpixel rendering, and that has been supported since Jaguar was released. In fact, it's the primary reason I upgraded from 10.1.5.
Well, most PowerBook owners really don't seem to be concerned that an AlienWare desk/laptop with a 3.06GP4 can run Photoshop so-and-so times faster; they seem to be more into the idea of a gorgeously-designed machine with an OS that allows them the ease of use to actually work efficiently, while still allowing them all the power they could ever want. Laptop people tend to realize much more than desktop people that a computer isn't always and end unto itself; most of the time it's just a tool for getting the job done, and they'll choose the best one available.
Plus they have that great ad with Yao Ming and Verne Troyer...still can't figure out why they didn't premiere it during the Superbowl, though.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley
your biggest flaw ;-)
The iBooks are like models. They are nice to look at and nice to play with and fondle, but when it comes down to it, they have a lot of flaws and will most likely vomit after every meal and have a weird sexual past.
The PowerPC CPU can't be compared to Intel/AMD's since they operate very differently.
Still, yes, Macintoshes are falling behind when it comes to raw speed. But cleverly designed software makes it a lot faster to work with a Mac.
Ciryon
The question has to be why would you want it to boot into linux. Don't get me wrong, Linux is great, but if you've got OS X why do you want something that is basically the same (minor differences) but without the flexibility of running all your aqua apps.
Bob
From the article:
Number 1 issue is heat. The thing burns. After 2-3 hours of continuing usage, the laptop just burns like a hot cake on the lower left side
Kind of reminds me of this.
Maybe Apple will ship it with a pair of insulated iPants for true laptop comfort?
You're forgetting that the Alienware machine is 10 freaking pounds. That's not portable IMO.
because after you use it on OSX you'll grow disillusioned with other implementations thanks to Apple's improvements in the JVM and Swing/AWT :)
Click here or a puppy gets stomped!
They've also came out with a sweet-ass XServe RAID
I have Yellow Dog running on my 15" Powerbook, and it runs quite well. Bottom line is that I rarely use it, because OS X is a capable Unix and with Fink I don't really need to keep a second Unix around (even though I do). BTW the Powerbooks have a nifty graphical boot loader built in (I believe it's built in, could be a YD feature), so I just choose between the disk with the big X on it or the disk with the big penguin on it.
Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?
Well, this is a G4 laptop with no fan (according to the article). The larger 'books have fans, and so may actual cool down a little more.
Amazing, isn't it, how people end up on the CPU treadmill? I just bought a digital camera. Already have a film SLR -- decent enough, and certainly a better picture than any digital camera under $1800 or so. What I needed was a complement to that. The kids are nine, they're old enough to enjoy taking pictures but not old enough not to waste hundreds of worthless frames learning how on film. The SLR's big to lug around, too, so a decent little digital made sense. For what we were doing, a 3 MP model seemed fine, and small-but-not-ultra-compact -- emphasis on durable, for the kids. I narrowed the models down, read some reviews, and chose something at that sweet spot. It happened to be one of the Sony models -- because it has a nice little design that's easy to tuck in a pocket and a decent little interface. Seemed better-engineered than the comparable Canons.
Apple gets that. They understand how to pitch to different market segments. Their machines have design sense, they're meant to work with you. They're durable. The OS is pleasant -- the kids haven't given me much chance to use the new camera, but they tell me iPhoto is easy as can be... :-) And they're using it on the 17" iMac that's displaced the PCs in the household because it'll fit in a weird spot and it's better at the stuff we actually do.
But why do people not "get" the whole tradeoff idea except for portables? The hutch/shrines people set up for their computers are surreal. (Hide it in the basement, please, honey.) Or look at that /. article last week about upgrading your machine to play games -- that's technology for its own sake, for people who can only be satisfied with a shooter if they know they're getting a respectable FPS rate. For some reason people "get" it for portables, but not for desktop systems. Weird.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
The graphical boot loader is part of Apple's firmware, I believe; and I believe it is universal.
the HORROR.
Just raise the taxes on crack.
Let me say I am a happy owner of the 867 15'' PB. When these first showed up people were complaining that they were too loud. So Apple responded and removed the fans. Now it's too hot! Oh well, pick one, fans or heat. Seriously, according to Motorola the 1 GHz G4 (7455) outputs 30W max (unless Apple put in something else not listed on Moto's site). That's a lot for a laptop and definitely warrants a fan. My PB has two fans. One of them has two speeds and the low speed is almost constantly on but it doesn't bother me because it's almost completely inaudible (I can hear it only if there is absolutely no other sound in the room). However after 15 min of UT the other fan kicks in and that one *is* audible (not too bad though). When you stop UT the other fan dies...
Quoth the article:
Number 2 issue is the quality of the LCD screen... but the one used for this Powerbook is the same as the one found on the 15" iMac and the iBooks
Being a dual USB iBook owner here myself I am wondering where he's getting his information. The LCD on this laptop is exellent. Crisp, clear, AA works wonderfully and subpixel rendering is peachy as well.
As for whimpering about motion blur, even this iBook is a previous generation (G3 500) system, I get none of that here. Must be talking out his ass.
Yes I run Debian on my powerbook. Or used to. There's not as much point to it now because apple released their accelerated X11 server. Combine that with fink and their development tools and you can compile most of the common linux software (like I use gimp and a few functional programming tools). Okay so some things require a little bit o' porting still, but most of the common stuff will run.
About all you get by running linux on a powerbook is buggy power management, firewire, and no modem driver or video mirroring.
The Right Reverend K. Reid Wightman,
Based on this article it looks like if I add a $400.OO Sonnet g4 upgrade to my powerbook prism (g3, 266mh, 40GB HD, 392mb ram, firewire card, 14.1" screen) I will have at least as good a machine. Has anyone done this? If so what is your experiance with third party upgrades? Would you do this or buy a new 15 or 17 inch?
Ahhh... ibook on steriods. Does it mean that this new powerbook has little balls and dies after 40 hours of use?
All-in-all, the laptop does get warm, and I think people feel it a little more than other laptops because of the casing, but, I can touch the back of the LCD display without getting the "water effect".
As the VP of R&D said in a presentation this week, "I said we would support apple over my dead thinkpad. We are about to support apple, and it is cool!".
Mac OSX does sub-pixel font rendering (it even did this on an old clamshell iBook). This guy might need to change his font settings to actually do it though.
- AlanH
The new 12" Powerbook is nothing more but an iBook on steroids with a G4 in it.
I understand that this isn't necessarily intended as a positive comment, but isn't this exactly what a lot of potential Apple laptop customers have wanted? I purchased an iBook right after the revision in May 2001, and replaced it with a 15" PowerBook G4 last fall. I've enjoyed having the better performance, particularly when running Virtual PC, but I miss the smaller form factor and more convenient portability of the iBook. To me, an "iBook on steroids" would have been just what I was looking for, and my understanding was that a lot of folks who loved the iBook but needed better performance felt similarly. I think the bottom line is that, if you approach this from the high end of wanting a PowerBook, just a little smaller, you risk disappointment, but if you approach it from the lower end of wanting an iBook, just with a little more oomph, you'll be fairly satisfied.
{Only the Combo Drive comparison makes sense, and I'm only trying to list differences.}
12" Powerbook
867MHz G4
256K L2 cache
133MHz Bus
256MB
40GB Ultra ATA/100
NVIDIA GeForce4 420 (32MB DDR)
-- Dual Display & Video Mirroring Airport Extreme Ready
Bluetooth Built-in
$1799
12.1" iBook
800 MHz G3
512K L2 cache
100Mhz Bus
30GB Ultra ATA Drive
ATI Radeon 7500 (32MB)
-- Video Airport Ready
$1299
So the $500 extra upfront gets a faster processor, more RAM, larger & possibly faster HD, possibly faster video card with dual display ability, Airport Extreme ready, and built in Bluetooth.
Conclusion: there are differences. The question for prospective buyers is would they use the differences. For the record, upgrading the iBook memory to 256 is $50 and the hard drive to 40GB is $100, so the price difference for the other differences is $350.
On a side note, I personally want the SuperDrive, which isn't available on an iBook (most likely a G4 is required).
R: That voice. Where have I heard that voice before? B: In about 365 other episodes. But I don't know who it is either.
As for the heat, it's definitely not "among the hottest around" as the OSNews article claims - for one it's a lot less hot than the older TiBooks IMHO. He says he suspects his lower RAM configuration could be to blame. I suspect his suspicion is right - 256MB just isn't realistic for OS X. Furthermore, it's hard to hear (or even feel) the drive spin, so VM activity can easily go unnoticed.
I don't agree with his criticism of the display either. Admittedly I'm not too picky in this area, but I just don't see this supposedly outrageous difference in quality between my 17" Apple Studio Display and the PowerBook's display. Besides, it's hard to buy into the disappointment, since all it takes is a quick trip to the store to check it out (at least for people who don't buy computers just to review them ;-)
The rest of the criticism goes right at the price differentiation variables: "maxes out at 640MB", "no L3 cache", "not a 1GHz processor", "screen is only 12"" etc etc... Well guess what, that's why it's the $1799 model instead of the $3299 model... that's half as much plus $150. The better comparison is between the older $2299-$2799 TiBook inventory that Apple still officially carries and the 12". Would you rather have:
- A 15.2" screen, DVI connector, and Titanium enclosure, or
- A later gen with a faster bus, DDR RAM, Bluetooth, 802.11g compatibility, and $500 in your pocket
I don't but I recently "switched" to a 12" ibook when my Vaio was stolen - it's the best upgrade ever (I am also a student and my course requires a decent implementation of Java, plus I like UNIX tools - the terminal is my most used app). I feel slightly annoyed that the 12" powerbook costs the same as my iBook and only 3 months later but hey - that's progress for ya.
I did however get to play with one of the 12" powerbooks in my local Apple reseller the other day and they are *much* faster - go for it. OS-X is a reasonably "nice" version of UNIX (I normally use NetBSD) and it has the infinite advantage over Linux in that things (hardware) just work rather than having to spend hours compiling kernel modules when you really need to be working.
To be honest, I'm a little confused by the article. The reviewer seemed to be criticsing the machine for being what it is - a smaller, lighter, cut-down version of the 15" powerbook or in his words an iBook with a G4. He seemed to somehow think Apple had a magic "make it smaller" device so that they could cram a 15" laptop into a 12" one. Also he seemd to think that Apple should use two different 12" displays on their different laptops. I certainly haven't had any of the display problems he claims with my iBook...
The whole point these machines is that they are ultra-portable (I carry mine everywhere) and in fact the only thing that worries me slightly is that the iBook is not a rugged as I would like, but the powerbook solves this by being made of Aluminium.
The die-hard mac users are right you know - it is a better world...
I'm dual booting my tiPowerbook 400 between OSX and Mandrake Linux PPC 8.0. I use Linux for 90% of what I do, however, when I want to watch a DVD or mirror to an external dislpay I switch to OSX. There is probably a way to mirror the display in Linux, but OSX makes it so simple.
As for the 17" Powerbook.. is anyone buying these things? I can't imagine lugging a 17" iMac's display around all day.
As far as I can tell, the 17" is intended to be a mobile desktop not a portable. Combined with wireless networking, this is a computer which may be carried from room to room in one site (say your home or office). As such, this may be a great machine for many on Slashdot. The smaller units are more appropriate for travel (just try to open and use a 17" in airline coach seating).
The market for traditional desktop computers is shrinking quickly . The current segments are shifting to small handhelds (palm / cell phone sized), travel computers (sony Vaio), single site (powerbook 17"), and servers (often rackmounted). Presumably we'll see another shift in a few years as next generation display technologies become available.
Given one hour to live, the student replied: "I'd spend it with professor FP who can make an hour seem like a lifetime."
i have the same problem on my ibook, the heat in the front left corner is from hdd usage, (enable hd sleep and it wont get too hot), and the colorspace of the lcd should be changed to sRGB in the color tab of the display pref panel to make it look way better.
...And I love it.
Its lack of DVI is not really hard to figure. This is the travel-sized laptop. This thing goes anywhere. It's more rugged than most other laptops on the market. It's small. It's light. It's got a great keyboard and a great LCD (yes, that's right, I love the LCD. I think it's fine). But it's not going to replace your desktop.
That was never its intent. Desktop-replacing laptops start at 15". This is the laptop that you sync up with your dedicated desktop box and then take on the road. It does a great job of that, and honestly, at $1800.00, you can afford to have the 12" and a desktop machine.
Assuming that this is not going to be your desktop machine, then, what's the use of DVI? The only reason it has external video at all is so that you can give presentations with it (another good use of a truly portable machine), and towards that purpose, it has RCA- and S- video out. Even presentations made with the sexy new Keynote are not going to benefit from DVI.
This laptop fills a very specific niche (here's a hint: that niche is not "iBook replacement"). Even a cursory glance at the specs reveals that. If someone got sold on the thing to do something it wasn't meant to, well, sorry. They're going to be as unhappy with it as anyone is who tries to use the wrong tool for the job. For my part, I'm using it for what it was made for. And I'm quite happy with it!
--
I looked at it at the Apple store in SoHo this weekend, and it's a sweet little machine. Light, bright, nimble. Pulled up a terminal and wrote little perl scripts for twenty minutes. Completely forgot there was a candy-apple GUI grafted onto the ass of the BSD kernel.
Makes me sad for the lives the reviewers must lead that they can't be happy with the 12" powerbook. You know, the kind of people who let their whole day be ruined because the color of one of their cocoa puffs was off by a shade. For Pete's sake, they could, **horror** of horrors, be saddled with an IBM thinkpad!
Think on that, and wonder.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
But it wasn't a good review.
Too much time on irrelevancy (it seems like he went on for page after page about the two lock-ups he experienced...well, it only seemed like page after page). He could have handled it like this:
"The powerbook locked up twice unexpectedly; I called Apple, and they said it was unusual..."
Note that he didn't call Apple about the problem; which might have been helpful.
And another dozen pages (exaggeration) about frames being dropped in full screen mode for DVD's. Its okay to mention, but it could have been summarized in 2 sentences.
After reading it, the only think I know for sure is that screen stinks. But he didn't compare it to anything, so I can't judge whether he's picky, if there's a problem with is computer, or if he's nuts.
The guy's heart is in the right place, but he needs to be more self-critical of his writing. The review isn't.
there is no pcmcia slot.
Low-end laptop from company is lower-end than the high-end models!
READ ALL ABOUT IT!
People with over-priced processors running at insane speeds trying to justify purchases by mocking those will lower-clocked but still completely sufficient processors!
READ ALL ABOUT IT!
Big Bear: He's iron tough. Big Bear: He don't take no guff. He's BIG BEAR.
Justin Dubs
The 12" Powerbook has USB, Firewire, Bluetooth, AirPort, and Ethernet all built in. If you need a modem, buy a USB modem. If you need an external hard drive, pick up a Firewire drive. Ad nauseum.
The lack of a PCMCIA slot sure seems to be a nitpick to me. If you didn't have external disk, serial, peripheral wireless, and network wireless stuff built into the machine, maybe it would be an issue. From where I sit, though, leaving out the PCMCIA slot was a smart decision so that they could keep a dramatically reduced form factor. Sure seems full-featured to me, I can't think of anything I'd want a PC card for that this laptop doesn't have a connection to handle, and I've been using PC laptops since my first 386SX-25 (no PC card there, either, had to wait till my 486SX-33 upgrade to get a PCMCIA slot. Of course, I don't think such a thing existed yet when I got my 386).
Matthew P. Barnson
I learn what I think when I read what I write
I'm also told by an informed friend that the 12" powerbook is on the fragile side, which certainly makes sense (and seems reasonable). Nice thick plastic has to offer more of a cushion than thin, flexible aluminum.
Yeah, it's a very big problem.
You see, Apple has two lines-- the ibook and the powerbook.
One is designed as a lowest-common-denominator system for students and average folk, the other is designed as a power-user system.
Granted, it's nice that they've released a good new upgrade for the common user, but they REALLY should have released it under the ibook name with all of the missing features it SHOULD have had-- this is being marketed as a professional user's tool. That's what everyone's complaining about.
Since that time a student of mine showed me his new 12" AlBook. I only held it for a minute - any longer and I fear that I would just run off with it. The form factor is perfect, the weight is perfect. It is a wonderful machine.
My conclusion? Who cares if it could be described as n iBook on steroids? It is a wonderful second computer to compliment (not replace) a full dektop machine.
- (c) 2018 Hank Zimmerman
Is necessary. On my old PB G3 Bronze (still going strong) I use the slot for three different features: firewire, 802.11, SmartMedia adapter for my digital camera. Yes, the first two are included in new notebooks from apple; but when I bought the PB in '99 they were not in common use. Similarly, other stuff will be invented in the next several years that will fit into a PC Card slot, and it would be a damn shame not to be able to use it.
sulli
RTFJ.
Does everyone need PCMCIA? No. Do most people need PCMCIA? No. Can you reasonably call a laptop full featured without PCMCIA? No.
Page 3 of second article:
* Max of only 640 RAM
What's he complaining about? 640MB ought to be enough for anyone!
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
Photoshop isn't the reason I love my Mac and will never buy another PC. The reason I love my Mac and will never buy another PC is that it just works. The OS is effective, the apps work well and consistently I just don't have the problems that I have in Windows. I don't care if it's a bit more expensive or if it's a bit slower. I care that I can get more work done and I experience a tenth of the frustration. That's the difference between a Mac and a PC. No numbers, just results. Plugging my parents' DV camera in the FireWire ports on my PowerBook and making a really neat movie result just because I have a spare hour to kill is the difference. I wouldn't conceive of doing that on a PC. I know that it would turn into two hours of frustration and irritation. I don't have the time or the patience for that, I just want to do something that works and have fun doing it.
Here's the thing - I still have to boot into OS 9 to do sound recording, because the software I'm comfortable with there (mostly Coaster) has not been ported to X yet, and it doesn't run under Classic. I'd like to install linux so I can run OS X and 9 side by side in separate mol windows. Does that make sense? Or is OS 9 under linux the same as classic -- i.e. you can't run anything you want to without booting into OS 9 directly. It would be nice to not have to reboot. Then again I don't want to lose speed on OS X but my understanding is that mol runs OS X natively so there isn't a change there. I don't know and I haven't had the time to install it and see; does anyone here know if I would be wasting my time?
From the OSNews review:
For those who didn't know, Apple is using two different models on their LCD products, one great quality (older powerbooks, Cinema Displays) and one crappy/cheap one (imac, ibooks, 12" powerbook and the new 20" Cinema Display (that's why it is so cheap and it even competes price-wise with the PC LCD monitors in the range))
Interesting, because on MacInTouch, there is a reader report in which many are noting that the 20" Cinema Display looks better than its older counterparts.
If the reviewer is correct in asserting that the 12" PB display and the 20" Cinema Display are the same, then the quality issue would appear to be more subjective than he thinks.
It should have read "less than 1 1/4 inches thick." That was a stupid mistake that nobody noticed before it went to print, but which was then obvious to numerous readers afterwards [smacking self in forehead]
- R
I got my 12" PowerBook last Monday. Having had it now for a week I have to say this is simply the finest piece of hardware I have ever owned.
Granted, it's probably not as cool as a 17", not as fast as the 15", etc.
But it fits in my backpack and doesn't weigh a brick. With the leather notebook (pen and paper) and a hardcover book in my backpack, the 12" makes no difference in weight.
Having upgraded from an old Dell Inspiron 5000, this is key. My fucking Dell is a brick.
The issues on the LCD I can't agree with. The first thing I noticed, and everyone in my office remarked on was the spectacular clarity of the display. If this is Apple's low-end, cheap display, I'd kill for a high-end one. The clarity and crispness of display is better than any other I've seen. It is at least as good as the two 19" Trinitron CRTs on my desk here.
The font issue? I don't see it. I'm new to OS-X but the first thing I did when playing in the settings was find, in System Preferences, General, an option for font smoothing. There was a setting marked 'Medium - best for Flat Panel' which really improved the clarity of text on the screen.
Heat is a bit of an issue but I've found it's mostly if the machine doesn't have sufficient airflow. Sitting on a thick wooden desk, my PB heats up rather fast. Sitting on my lap on the couch it seems to stay fairly cool. As for being 'fanless' as I believe was mentioned, I could swear a few times when the machine got real hot on my desk that I heard a fan kick in and start blowing air to cool it down. There was no CD in the drive so I can't think of what else would spin up like that.
Overall, this is a great machine. While it may not compare to other higher end APPLE boxes, it is simply light years beyond any PC laptop I've handled recently. And it is the most meticulously, beautifully engineered pieces of hardware I've ever had.
And being completely uncreative the last week or so, I have yet to come up with a better name than MiniMe. Check it out at:
http://www.jacked-in.org/mini-me
In my opinion, they should put it in. I have a 12", 3 pound HP machine that has PCMCIA... clearly it will fit.
Yes, I know some Mac smartass is going to reply, "I don't need PCMCIA, I have USB/FireWire/ethernet built in". To which I reply that PCMCIA is for FUTURE technology - for example, Powerbook Titanium owners are going to be able to add 802.11g via PCMCIA. iBook owners (no PCMCIA) are out of luck.
The way I figure it, the 12" PowerBook actually is the new iBook, corresponding to the new iMac with its new form factor (the desk lamp) and other higher-end features.
When that happened to the iMac, the old version became the eMac. So now, the way I think of the 12" PowerBook is that the iBook made a corresponding leap to a new enclosure and higher-end features, to keep it in step with the desktop "i" machine. The old version now more closely matches the eMac, so it should be called the "eBook".
In short, the "i" prefix is sort of bumped up from denoting the entry-level machines to now denote the mid-range, and the "e" prefix has been introduced to fill the gap at the entry level. Except, of course that the names for the low- and mid-range laptops haven't oficially changed to fit this scheme.
David Gould
main(i){putchar(340056100>>(i-1)*5&31|!!(i<6)<< 6)&&main(++i);}
wanna see inside this thing? its very chic...
take a look at the pics in this article.
Large print giveth, and the small print taketh away
Ah well, 640MB ought to be enough for anybody.
sulli
RTFJ.