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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."
> 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.
Whilst you're right that the Motorola RISC architecture that Apple utilise cannot be compared MHz for MHz with an Intel CISC device, they have been lagging for a little while in trms of raw power (MIPS). However, their speed/performance ratio is quite high.
I think that the general feeling of the Mac-hardcore is that Motorola just do not invest enough time or money in development of their chips.
Someone more knowledgable than me can correct this fact though. Were Apple also not once considering swicthing to Intel (?!).
Probably all lies.
Smokey, this is not 'Nam, this is bowling. There are rules.
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.
Yeah, they finally crammed an Athlon into a laptop... the case is metal, so the whole thing acts as a 12" heatsink :)
If you overclock it, it does a cool impression of the T1000 from Terminator 2!
-- Shaun "Blessed are the geeks, for they shall Internet the earth"
"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!
This is true: Motorola has, over the past couple of years, been moving their focus more and more away from Apple, and desktop systems in general, to focus on the embedded market. It is largely because of this that this year's last models of PowerMacs (that is, the ones that will come out late this year) will sport IBM PowerPC 970 chips. IBM won't be leaving the desktop/server market anytime soon, and it looks like they are now forming a partnership with Apple that will benefit them both. (How weird is that? IBM and Apple...)
Dan Aris
Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
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 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
(How weird is that? IBM and Apple...)
How about "not at all?" From the beginning of PowerPC Macs, the PowerPC was the domain of "AIM": Apple, IBM, Motorola. They all had a formal agreement of some kind regarding the chip's development. I think it kind of fell apart, probably around when Motorola developed Altivec, but IBM has never stopped making PowerPC chips for themselves, Apple, and others. I think IBM makes all the G3 chips Apple buys today. IBM has long done a better job of keeping up with advancements in chip production and keeping yields at a higher level than Motorola. Higher yields means cheaper and faster chips. Unfortunately Apple needs Altivec and Motorola hasn't been sharing.
Use of the IBM 970 chip is still rumor, one I haven't really paid attention to though. Has Motorola finally licensed Altivec to IBM or did IBM make their own version of it? You can't have two different kinds of G4s so if the IBM chip doesn't have Altivec it would have to be called something else ("G5?") and the G4 would have to replace the G3 in the iBooks (or, as someone else mentions, the iBook dies in favor of the 12" PowerBook). Even so, if there's a new Altivec-like chip feature, it'll take a long time for apps to be updated to take advantage of it. Apple would use it immediately, followed quickly by Adobe Photoshop, but many apps would wait until their next upgrade cycle.
I'll bet you still can't watch a DVD straight through while on battery with those intel systems.
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
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!
The PowerPC 970 has altivec execution hardware.
They've also came out with a sweet-ass XServe RAID
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 HORROR.
Just raise the taxes on crack.
if there's a new Altivec-like chip feature, it'll take a long time for apps to be updated to take advantage of it.
Not really - most apps that are Altivec enhanced use vDSP from the VecLib framework rather than manually writing Altivec code.
Apple would just have to provide a new version of the VecLib framework that uses whatever vector processing is available in the new target CPU.
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,
Ahhh... ibook on steriods. Does it mean that this new powerbook has little balls and dies after 40 hours of use?
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...
...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.
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