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New PowerBooks, Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse
no_demons writes "This morning Apple iCEO Steve Jobs gave the keynote at the Apple Expo in Paris. The whole PowerBook line up got an upgrade, with the 15" model now sporting the much rumoured goods (1.25GHz, backlit keyboard, bluetooth, Airport Extreme), available from today. Apple also announced a new wireless keyboard and mouse."
But at least my 1GHz Ti can boot on OS 9 to play games.
Sob... sob...
I wonder if I'll be able to get a decent bluetooth adapter for my PC... no-one seems to carry them. And FP?
http://www.bistolas.net
This is everything i've been waiting for!
The updates for the 12" and 17" are also welcome. I wish Apple would allow a mix on the line however - that I can't get the 12" I really want with a 1.33...
Which I'm sure is due to heat and such when I think about it.
My school recently ordered 50(!) of these beauties, wireless network and all. Brilliant.
I have over 70 freaks, do you?
Not to slay a slashdot sacred iCow or anything, but isn't it kind of pointless to call Steve Jobs's Apple Expo/Macworld speeches "keynotes" when he gives them every flippin' time? I mean, who else is gonna give the thing? *half-heartedly hopes for Moof the Dogcow*
On a serious note, I'm thinking about getting a laptop and the Powerbooks are looking like a good bet; Unix core (so I can run apache & Postgresql etc; yes, I know they work on Windows too, just about) with a nice GUI and everything "just works"(TM) rather than having to download beta drivers to get wifi kind of working under linux.
News for nerds, or advertising opportunities for big corporations?
Everytime Apple scratches their butt, slashdot.org approves someones ravenously excited submission regarding the fact.
I'm all for posting pieces when major advances in technology are made, but what's next?
Dell makes 80gig standard in Inspiron 8500 instead of 60gig?
Come on...'Thats they exact same thing a banana wrench monkey.'
Nice thing, this 15" PB. Cutting the wires on keyboard and mouse is surely a good thing. We will see, if the index finger cancer rates will go up... As an owner of an rev. A 12" PB I don't feel an urge to upgrade, although the new RAM ceiling is nice (not sure, if the "old" 12" will work with 1.128GB RAM) as is DVI output.
Is it just me, or does the new wireless keyboard looks a lot like the old "Cassie" keyboard prototype? (white, almost frameless)
--
-Sid
What marketing genius thought that one up ?
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
OK. I switched (back) to Apple this year (in Feb) for many reasons, one of which was innovation.
Where's the innovation here? The mouse *still* has only one button (yeah, go ahead, start the button wars flame game) and, while the mouse has rechargable batteries, neither the kbd or mouse has a "dock" to plug in to so they can be recharged easily.
And, at ~140.00USD MSRP (more if you don't have a bluetooth-disabled Mac) for the Apple combo, it seems like the Logitech bundle would be a better choice.
Since Apple used bluetooth, they could have at least done something extra with the kbd (like add a mini-tablet area or speakers or *something*).
I sincerely hope this isn't the beginning of a (bad) trend.
Mind the gap...
to put the fastest processor in the biggest machine, you cannot sell them like powermacs and leave pro features out of some of the lower pro models just to make the 17"inch sell more. People might not want the weight that comes with the biggest and so the 17" isn't everybodies cup of tea, these have to be carried around remember. They should have near enough the same features across the board and have screensize, HD's, memory, BL keyboard as the features to set them apart. Apples strength isn't in processors anyway so why market their PB's them as such?
Jonathanjk.com
In the press release it's called "incorporating stable and mature technology into the Apple world".
I suspect cooling issues are the reason. There's less room in the 12" and 15" models for good cooling for the CPU. I remember the bottom of the 12" gets hot as hell as it is.
All I want is a slim, compact keyboard with basic functions. Like this.
Are there any keyboards like this for the PC? I would much appreciate being able to find one.
"People should be allowed to keep midgets as pets."
- Gov. Jesse Ventura
from http://www.msnbc.com/news/966392.asp
That seems like more of an announcement suiting the frontpages of this hallowed bytespace.
i'm at least getting the keyboard, now if only nextel offfered a blue tooth phone. anyone know if that's in the works????
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." - Rahm Emanuel
does it play OGG Vorbis?
The notes say the keyboard uses encryption. I'm a little curious how the key is shared between the keyboard and the computer? At first I thought it might use a standard USB cable to connect to the computer and maybe charge rechargeable batteries, (seems like a good idea!) but it does say "no cables". Maybe you have to type a key in that's presented on the setup control panel? Although I suppose it could be exchanging keys with PGP or other public key technology.
It'd also be a nice touch if they'd have put USB ports on the keyboard, that could "tunnel" through the bluetooth back to the computer. Sure it's slow, but if you happen to have some other peripherals like a touchpad or multibutton mouse etc., that'd be a nice way to deal with some of the cord issues while maintaining compatibility with existing non-bluetooth peripherals.
Kudos to Apple though on a bluetooth optical mouse + bluetooth enabled laptop. I don't use an external mouse on my powerbook, but I can see this as "one less cable to plug in" when getting the 'book out of the bag. As it is, when I arrive home I plug in my speakers, ethernet (yes, I have 802 but cable is faster), firewire (for my pod), and power.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
I thought Apple was supposed to set trends and innovations to the computer industry? Instead we have MS having their bluetooth enabled keyboard & mouse combo out what, a year ago? and really... a keyboard that lights up? I don't want to pay for that innovation.
I agree going to an x86 platform would greatly benefit everyone, it seems the PPC line has been like a rollercoaster as to its overall lifespan and the lack of dedicated focus compared to Intel and AMD.
I would assume now though it's more of a pride issue than that of logic-especially when their line seems to be named after the processor.
It seems a real shame that apple decided to put four heavy batteries in them. Couldn't they be more innovitve?
Why don't they generate the power from the users keystrokes, or send little eltrical signals over the bluetooth protocol?
My ordinary USB mice don't need batteries, so I don't think that a bluetooth mouse should.
Nero-burning ROM for Linux!
And it makes sense that Apple is the first to ship it (they seem to pick this kind of thing up much earlier than pc manufacturers or microsoft). Bluetooth was invented for this kind of connectivity.
Jilles
is this a real bluetooth keyboard unlike microsofts where they paired via hardware Apple might have done in it software...
can you use the keyboard with a t68i ?
regards
John Jones
12" Powerbooks 12.1-inch TFT Display
1024x768 resolution
1GHz PowerPC G4
512K L2 cache
256MB DDR266 SDRAM
40GB Ultra ATA/100
NVIDIA GeForce FX Go 5200 (32MB DDR)
Full size keyboard
10/100BASE-T Ethernet
FireWire 400
AirPort Extreme Ready
*Mini-DVI out
$1599 with Combo Drive, $1799 with SuperDrive
15" PowerBooks
15.2-inch TFT Display
1280x854 resolution
1GHz PowerPC G4
512K L2 cache
256MB DDR333 SDRAM
60GB Ultra ATA/100
ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 (64MB DDR)
Full size keyboard
Gigabit Ethernet
FireWire 400 & 800
AirPort Extreme Ready
DVI & S-Video out
$1999 with Combo Drive, 60GB drive, $2599 with backlit keyboard, SuperDrive, 80GB drive, AirPort Extreme, 512MB RAM
PowerBook 17" 17-inch TFT Display
1440x900 resolution
1.33GHz PowerPC G4
512K L2 cache
512MB DDR333 SDRAM
80GB Ultra ATA/100
ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 (64MB DDR)
Backlit Keyboard
Gigabit Ethernet
FireWire 400 & 800
AirPort Extreme built-in
DVI & S-Video out
$2999
*The miniDVI out is a smaller connector that reuires a dongle to connect to DVI cable or vga adapter.
These are not Pro keyboards! We need a PRO keyboard (and a multiple-button scroll mouse to boot) now.
And please make it match the feel of the new Powerbook-keyboards and aluminum-colored!
"I tend to think of OS X as Linux with QA and Taste", James Gosling, creator of Java
Huzzah! The future is here! Pack your bags and let's leave the past for a shiny new future where PC users can manipulate Apple devices via the text-entry slab for hours without so much as a single vulgar slur escaping from between their lips.
As a note: I'm typing this on a 12" PowerBook.
When I got this machine, speed was not the reason why I purchased it. Performance was part of the reason why I chose it over an iBook--which I am pleased to report it is much faster than my old iBook (with its 8MB graphics card and lack of Altivec, which I needed) ever dreamed to be--but you could have made it significantly faster beyond that and it would not have held more than marginal appeal over this model.
I purchased it for the form factor. The weight and the size. 802.11g and Bluetooth were both positive points in its favor but the true "killer app" here was that it was smaller than my iBook and I needed a small laptop.
Apple looked at their target market and said "who is buying each of these systems and why? How much does performance matter to them compared to size and weight?"
Integrate Keynote and LaTeX
He's not the interim CEO any more, he's the CEO.
...do they propose to create a Mac tablet PC.
;)
I'm sick and tired of having to admin an office with 10 Macintosh machines, and one stupid tablet PC running XP, because one of our staff members has severe RSI. The compatibility problems are endless and annoying, nevermind licensing one set of PC software among all the Macintosh apps.
Mac need to produce one, and fast, if only to satisfy me
I don't think it will happen anytime soon. The presence of Steve and the inertia built up at Apple to keep going in its own direction would prevent any porting effort to x86, x86-64 or IA64 from taking place easily. Mac OS X would be easiest due to its Unix origins, but other Apple tools might be more difficult (I'm discounting any old Unix/GNU software that has been massaged by Apple; that software might be very easy to port).
SCREW THE ADS! http://adblock.mozdev.org/ Proud user of teh Fox of Fire - Registered Linux User #289618
Is there no quicktime webcast this time around? Zoning out in front of Jobs sure beats working ;)
READY.
#
This never ceases to come up, and it's always from people who think that companies are in business to provide them with neat stuff at low prices. News flash! - companies like Apple (and MS, and Dell, etc.) are in business to *make money*.
If Apple went to stock x86 hardware, yes, their prices probably would fall. This helps Apple how?
Apple has assiduously avoided having to compete in the low margin, backwards compatibility nightmare, stock x86 hardware realm for a reason. Apple make systems with a level of hardware/software integration across the product line that is only dreamt of in the wintel world. Because their systems provide such a superior user experience, Apple can, and does, charge a premium for a premium product. This premium price makes Apple profitable.
Moving to x86 destroys all of Apple's advantages. Their systems would no longer work seamlessly because the near infinite combination of possible hardware would guarantee the same sorts of nightmares seen by windows users daily. And Apple would have to drop prices to compete with MS and Linux on the same hardware platform.
No wonder Apple have wisely opted to keep their platform different from the low cost, hardware incompatibility swamp that is the world of stock x86.
And I got it a little over a year and a half ago. The good old PB 667mhz and what now a redesign and faster processor. When will apple stop the pain!
On a more serious note. I don't really see to much of an improvement in powerbooks. A couple of extra features and the wireless stuff added is cool. But nothing really big enough to really need an upgrade yet. Probably when the G5 is able to shrink and run cool with less power for a power book. But right now the 667mhz power book meets all my needs and it is fast enough. For most of my use (The Maxed out RAM helps).
I don't have an issue with the wireless keyboards but I do with the wireless mouse. It seems way to easy to loose. Especially with mice because those are the things I drop all the time because of the fact they are always physically moved all the time. I would be happier if the wireless keyboard had a USB port on it to hook up the usb mouse to. I know the wired keyboards had that and Sun Had that on all their keyboards until they went USB and I really liked that concept because of where the keyboard is the mouse it close buy so you can sit back and still have the keyboard and mouse reach. Also when the mouse dropped the wire acted like a safety cord preventing it from hitting the ground, Also making it easier to pick up while typing because you just pull the wire up. Now with wireless you drop the mouse it goes clunk on the grown scratching its nice finish. and worse when you go to try to reach for the mouse you bend over and the keyboard then fall to the ground hitting in a way that some of your letters pop out. because you always touch type you have no real idea where they keys go back to. so you put them in First come First serve. But because one of the keys that fell off was the shift key you put it in replace of the V and B key so when ever you try to write any word with b or v in it will always put vb in it. This will make you look like a Microsoft guy which will then cause all your coworkers to loose all respect for you. So they work the political engine of your company and find a way to get you fired. Now without the job you cannot finish the payment on your powerbook so the Repo man comes and takes it. But after he looked at the keyboard he points out the keys are in the wrong spot. So you cannot even get full reboed value from it. Which puts you in debt.... When will apple stop hurting people!
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Damn! I can see it already...
My boss asking me to change the batteries in his mouse every day.
"I used to have that really cool,funny sig
prove it
until one of them encases a G5.
smd4985
Sorry, but you're not in The Club.
Go play with your Wal-Mart PC.
The difference is, Apple doesn't nessesarily make new products. They make new products that work well.
Take for example, USB. Apple didn't invent it, but Apple made it big. USB had been arround for a while on the PCs, but everyone in the x86 world is lodged into legacy hardware. Apple was in a very good position to start making USB only based computers and as a result gave USB the life it needed to take hold.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
From macNN's blurb: "Ready to use out of the box, the Apple Wireless Mouse features two Energizer e2 AA batteries providing up to three months of use. The Apple Wireless Keyboard features four Energizer e2 AA batteries providing up to nine months of use, according to Apple."
Not a big deal, even if you use disposable batteries.
>These are not Pro keyboards! We need a PRO keyboard
>(and a multiple-button scroll mouse to boot) now.
While I am not entirely sure what you are missing to make it a "pro" keyboard, I am sure that Logitech or Kensington would be happy to have your business when it comes to either a different keyboard or a multiple-button scroll mouse.
Look, you can even buy them from the Apple store! Wasn't that nice of Apple?
Integrate Keynote and LaTeX
Dude, I know it sucks, but ctrl-button = right button. I agree, yah, right mouse button wld be cool, but it's not that big of a deal. At least to me.
Frankly, the only place that ever comes into play is when my Tibook is not at my desk. Which might be 10% of the time. Plus, there's other things in other apps, even on the Linux side that could require a key + mouse button. Stuff like opening other tabs in Moz, etc..
I use a 2-button optical mouse with my Tibook at my desk all the time and it works perfectly. In fact, unlike XP or even Linux (I'm thinking Kudzu on boot), it never bugs me about plugging in this or not plugging in that. So, I'll gladly take a non-intrusive OS over 2 mouse buttons.
I will agree tho with you point about the new Apple mouse not being able to recharged. That's pretty lame. And I'm not sure I'd ever buy a Mac mouse or keyboard anyway; I much prefer split kbds and I've been quite fond of Logitech mice for some time.
While this might not necessairly be innovation, Apple is usually always first out of the gate with hardware changes, this one included. I don't think any major PC vendor is going completely wireless, which totally rocks. But they can afford to do this because of their loyal minions.
So yah, the non-rechargable mouse is a big boo boo. Second mouse button, mm, I'm not too worried.
I am wondering if the Bluetouth keyboard will work with a Plam TT? would it be just great to have a full size keyboard? If you happend to have both, tell me if the work together
Although 3000USD for a properly configured OS X box (1GB mem) is making me hope for a looting black-out after the hurricane!
This
Well, if my luck with Bluetooth synchronization is any indication, that means if I buy this wireless mouse and keyboard combo it won't be worth the trouble to use it.
I am severely disappointed with my Apple-based purchases of the last few years; perhaps I am too naive to make good purchasing decisions but it seems that the technology that has influenced my buying decisions doesn't seem to hold up to the promise. For instance, my T68i does not, as you guessed, work very well with iSync or with bluetooth in general. I have standard hardware, a D-Link bluetooth adapter, and the latest software. It's just too much work to get anything accomplished. And I should be able to tell iCal to send a single appointment to my phone!
I have trouble with Rendezvous too, but not time to detail the problem.
Even further back, my purchase of a PowerMac G4 450 DP in anticipation of OS X ended up being short sighted, as by the time OS X is actually usable (v10.0 and 10.1 were not, in a production capacity) the hardware is practically outdated. Top that with the fact that the software package that the facility I was working with dropped Lightwave in favor of 3DSMAX and I feel really burned.
So, I'm about to buy a PC. Custom built, AMD, NForce2, 400MHZ FSB, etc. In a nice, good looking case (without all that neon flashing window shite). And I will run 3DSMAX. And I will use my Apple for production while MAX is rendering. And they will be friends. And if you feel the need to flame me for that, grow up. They're just tools.
T-CEO (All your market share are belong to us.)
CEO 3.0
CEO 95
CEO (with @-shaped e)
iCEO
eCEO
CEO XP
CEO X
CEO Online
GNU/CEO
CEO One
and so on...
The new 15" looks great; but I bet its introduction means that there are some good deals to be had for those looking to switch over to Mac OS X to get an last-generation 15". Where is the best place to look?
You don't have to support more than one machine with one set of configurations.
Likewise, too many choices can almost be as bad as not enough choices. And when it really comes down to it, how many choices do you really have? AMD or Intel, Radeon or GForce, soundblaster or soundblaster.
Not a whole lot of real choice.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
As much as I distaste the evil empire, I've been using the same split Natural Kbd for about 6 or so years. It has the basic alphabet, plus nice, big, pg up/down, home/end, insert/delete and arrow keys. The Natural Elite sucked some giganto salty balls when they made these keys smaller. Oh, the horror!
And, the numeric keypad on the right is a good size too. Other than that, yr usual F-keys and the 3 scroll lock keys. That's it. No email or volume (altho, I'd like a volume key, but I can map over a key combo for that), web browser - whatever!
True, the Natural kbd is a little big and it's ps/2 (I bought a ps/2 to usb adapter and use it on all my machines via a usb kvm switch), but it still works. It has a nice feel and I've made a lot of ca$h on it. So, if it ain't broke...
>overpriced, plain and simple
A commodity is only overpriced if one of two things is true:
1) It does not sell.
2) You have reliable evidence that a lower price point would have increased your earnings (note I did not say "unit sales").
We don't know if these things will sell yet. Simply.
In absence of evidence whether they will sell at *this* price point, we *certainly* don't have evidence that they would make more money by selling it at a lower price point.
You think they are overpriced? Don't buy them. For me personally it wouldn't matter whether they sold them at $20,000 or $5+S&H: I don't have a use for them.
Integrate Keynote and LaTeX
Probably not because of the secure channel, but it's pretty much a given that someone will make some drivers for it. Watch versiontracker - sounds like a new project for Jonas Salling who made the3 ever so useful Salling Clicker for the t68i phone.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
2gigs of ram!! woah! in a laptop! I have a 15" 1Ghz with 1gig of ram and I thout I was cool. Now they got them with 2gigs of DDR333!? SWEET!
Microsoft Windows runs on stress and frustration.
I agree with the poster of the previous reply that your problems are PEBKAC errors. Bluetooth works great with my iBook, G4, and T68i-- and I'm using $25 Mitsumi Bluetooth modules that don't even mention Mac support in any of the docs (which are half in Japanese, and half in Engrish).
I had no idea. All of my Mac-toting acquaintances seem to have keyboards that squeezed the inverted-T cursor keys under right-shift... are they just behind the times?
I havent yet invested in wireless input devices since it seemed strange before that although the atual dvices werent tethered you had to have the reciever thethered- this is tru wireless. too bad my fastest mac desktop is a 333 g3 and my fastest mac laptop is a partially dead 5300 and i didnt get the bluetooth option in my acer travelmate 800 lci since my ipaq 3630 sure as hell doesnt have bluetooth...
Apple keyboards have had the home/del/etc since at least 1989, if not sooner. Check out the Apple Extended Keyboard II (codenamed "Saratoga" after the aircraft carrier, in reference to its size).
"and really... a keyboard that lights up? " In the environment I work in I would LOVE a backlight keyboard. But I bought my Ti powerbook about a year ago - the 15" 800 mHz model so i can't affortd a new one form a year or two.
My only point is there is a lot of diversity - Apple (nor any other company) can please everyone 100%.
As to the mouse issue - I originally bought the 'standard Apple optical mouse. It broke within 5 months, replaced it with a wireless Memorex 2 button with wheel and love it. Cheaper than Apple's as well. Since the powerbooks don't come with a mouse, it's a non-issue. Buy what you want. Personally I'd never go back to 1 button and - gasp - no wheel...
"Apple has made setting up Bluetooth devices as simple as turning them on and clicking through an intuitive setup assistant. The mouse and keyboard are no exception: The new combined Keyboard and Mouse system preference panel includes a Bluetooth tab that lets you set up your new wireless mouse and keyboard in a snap."
does this not bring into mind the classic x86 BIOS message "Error 5: keyboard not FOUND. [press F1 to continue]"
seriously though, wireless USB protocol keyboards frighten me due to your keystrokes being transmitted in "plain sight." how is bluetooth and the 128-bit encryption any different? are there plans to allow a single bluetooth keyboard to work with many different computers (i.e. for administration just hit a switch on the device and you can flip to a different channel or something).
sure, use this wireless keyboard, wireless mouse, but to get either working initially we're gonna have to require that you use mental psychokinetic rays for dialog navigation. i'm sure somebody has the real scoop on this
so what it is?
SIGERR: laziness exceeds quota
I don't know why people think this. The only parts of a Mac today that aren't "stock x86 hardware" are the motherboard and CPU. If Apple ever moved to x86, you can be damn sure they'd be having their own custom-made motherboards without all the proprietry crap weighing down current PC 'boards (ie: no ISA bus/bridge, no PS/2, no BIOS, etc). There would be no way their prices would fall, or feel any real pressure to.
Moving to x86 destroys all of Apple's advantages.
No it wouldn't. Apple wouldn't be selling PC clones, they'd be selling Macs that just happened to have an x86 CPU in them. There's no reason at all Apple couldn't make a product just as good using an x86 CPU as they do using a PPC CPU.
The only customers they'd lose would be the hardcore anti-x86 snobs and low-level developers - hardly a large or core chunk of the customer base.
An x86-based Mac would not be a PC clone. It would not be capable of running existing x86 OSes and the release of OS X for it would not run on standard PC hardware.
Their systems would no longer work seamlessly because the near infinite combination of possible hardware would guarantee the same sorts of nightmares seen by windows users daily.
Nope, you'd just have the same "proprietry" Macs you have now, only powered by x86 CPUs instead of PPC ones. They'd be just as seamless, just as integrated and have just as good industrial design.
Sure, people could drop their PCI cards into these new machines just like they could into todays Macs - but they wouldn't work any more than they do now.
And Apple would have to drop prices to compete with MS and Linux on the same hardware platform.
No, they wouldn't. The same people who pay premium prices for Macs now would pay premium prices for Macs if they happened to be using x86 processors (well, most of them would anyway).
No wonder Apple have wisely opted to keep their platform different from the low cost, hardware incompatibility swamp that is the world of stock x86.
These weaknesses of the x86 PC platform would not be an issue to Apple. Not having any care whatsoever for x86 backwards-compatibility, they wouldn't have to expend any effort catering to it - at which point pretty much all of the "swamp" dries out.
Apple almost certainly opted to stick with PPC primarily because of the problem of software and deloper support through another major architecture change. The impending EOL of 32bit x86 CPUs with no clear successor to meet their ongoing needs would have also been a fairly major factor. IBM having a fairly well performing, cheap replacement in the pipeline probably helped the decision along as well.
Despite what seems to be common belief, porting the OS and keeping hardware profit margins would barely have been worth a second thought - both issues would be trivially dealt with. A much more difficult issue would have been explaining away the last half-decade's worth of Intel/Pentium-bashing advertising. I'm amazed at how many people consider what would be trivial problems "serious" because they labour under the assumption an x86 Mac would just be a PC clone.
Having said that, Apple almost certainly still keep at least an x86 version of OS X in constant, up-to-date parallel development and probably keep such a product ported to a number of different platforms simultaneously, as Microsoft would with Windows. They'd (both) be stupid not to.
Heck, I wouldn't be especially surprised if Apple had (still have) complete, working, x86 based Macs running OS X in their development labs. Whether sticking with PPC (or even choosing it in the first place) was the right decision only time will tell, but I suspect it'll do them well enough for at least another 4 - 5 years.
When the old 12" powerbook came out, a major issue of contention was that the G4 was losing a significant chunk of its performance advantage over the G3, because it didn't have the 1 meg of L3 cache (google cache link) that the rest of the powerbook line came with.
My first thought about these updates was "maybe apple has finally put some L3 cache in the 12" model!" But when I went to check it out, they had removed every mention of L3 cache on their pages. I doubt that they took the cache OUT of the larger models, so is this just an attempt at obfuscation by no longer mentioning the cache, or did they finally equalize the chipset?
I was planning to wait for 10.3 to buy a powerbook (first time switcher) but I think my plans just got changed.
From the Mouse specs:
... Why not put two contacts on the bottom and create a USB powered charging base, like the Logitech etc cordless mice.
Power Source:
Uses 2 AA Lithium Non-Rechargeable Batteries (included), on/off switch
Another stunning lack of innovation
I suppose because most people still wouldn't get this for an aftermarket mouse as it has no scroll wheel. Come on Apple! Put your flat-scroll wheel patent to work! Let's at least see something!
I also hate the way they talk about having a single button as being "easy and comfortable to use, regardless of the size of your hand". What a way to talk up a mouse for simpletons!
Anyway... love the computers...
-Pete
the only bonus bluetooth gives over cheaper wireless mice etc is more bandwidth... I guess thats so those 133t mac guys who's coding potential was only limited by the number of keypresses their keyboard could transmit per second can now type at their full speed eh?
Well, I guess I have 867Mhz instead of 1Ghz, but I got such a good deal on it at my wife's university that I'm pretty happy anyway. Yay, my first mac!
www.clarke.ca
Hello.. Jean Louis-Gasse?
You've got a whole lot more choice than that. Think for a second. You've got four+ processor companies (add Via to the mix at the low/low power end and Transmeta, too) You've got multiple BIOS vendors - Award, AMI, Phoenix as the biggies, multiple chipset vendors, several different processor families from each of the big players, a whole mess of graphics card vendors (ATI and Nvidia are just the current biggest), and support chips from a whole host of little vendors. You have to support all of those in the x86 world, going back generations.
Apple has things a lot simpler. You have three currently supported processor families - G3, G4, and G5. Two companies make them, and they designed it together. Apple makes their own chipsets to spec. They _only_ use ATI or Nvidia, and have been that way for years. They supply their own NIC and a single modem chipset for each V.standard.
Has Motorola held them back in recent years? Yep That's why the IBM PPC970 (G5) was so timely - it gets them right back in the game speed-wise. Apple's strength was really never in raw speed, though. It's been integration and providing a superior out-of-box experience for most non-tweaker users. They charge a little more for their product as a result, moke higher margins, and keep on putting money into R&D. Not being on Intel helps them stay there. Had IBM not built the PPC970, Apple might have turned to Intel in desperation eventually. But not it ain't gonna happen. Period. For years to come if not forever. Forget about Apple/x86. No chance.
As for me, I've got a sweet P4 system here in my home. It's 1.6GHz, with a slick video card, FireWire, USB 2.0, a 19" monitor, and lots of other goodies. I built it last summer, and I've upgraded the RAM and video since building it. It's a real nice system and I play games on it.
But I'm actually posting this from my clunky old PowerBook G4/667. Because it's a far nicer computer to use day-to-day for my liking.
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
No wonder Apple have wisely opted to keep their platform different from the low cost, hardware incompatibility swamp that is the world of stock x86.
Bah. As Yoda would say, "Too much Apple Reality Distortion Field, you have absorbed."
There is nothing wrong with using x86 hardware. As it is, Apple already uses the same manufacturers that produce hard drives, RAM and video chipsets in Macs. The reason Apple avoids x86 processors is not about a "premium product", it is way to keep Apple's SOFTWARE division viable. If Apple produced PC compatible machines, let's face it - the unwashed masses would demand Windows. If they went a route like the Xbox and produced something that can't run Windows directly, it's wasted potential. Using a different architecture also allows Apple to play the "We're elite" card which causes some people to believe Apple produces a superior product.
Maybe you buy into the fact that cell phone companies put a master subsidy lock on their phones so as to provide you with a premium product by making sure you only use the phone on their network... Lock the hardware to the software and the software to the hardware - that's the same thing Apple does. If you really think otherwise, try installing Windows XP on your Mac (no, emulators do not count) or OS X on a Pentium 4.
I'm one of the few people that considers Apple's continued existance to be an anomaly - by any logical reasoning, a proprietary platform with a proprietary OS wouldn't be profitable in today's market.
---
DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
It's a troll... Nothing but bullshit slams against x86 that have no real basis in reality.
Yes, this is a crude and ungenerous way of looking at the situation, but I've finally come to the opinion that it's the only rational way for a PC user to approach Apple. I was an ardent Apple customer once, a long time ago, but they worked so hard at marginalizing themselves and alienating many of their customers that I jumped ship, and have never regretted it.
I would love to see Apple become vastly more successful--nothing would keep MS in check better than a serious alternative for mainstream desktop customers. But neither Apple nor Linux is likely to become that alternative in the foreseeable future.
Says he with the user ID that shows no contact information. Spare me the self-righteousness.
CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
What I want is a natural/split bluetooth keyboard. I've been using a PS2 one on my PC for years now and it's pretty grubby and the enter key often sticks. If somebody came out with a bluetooth one, I'd buy it.
www.clarke.ca
Yes. Yes. Yes. Of course you can, you dolt.
Someone, please shake me from this wide-awake nightmare.
This is news for nerds. I've been waiting for these new laptops to be announced for weeks now... I came in to work, popped up Slashdot (my first work activity) and saw the announcement. It put me in a good mood which work can now beat the hell out of me. You insensitive clod.
>Another stunning lack of innovation ... Why not put two
>contacts on the bottom and create a USB powered
>charging base, like the Logitech etc cordless mice.
Let me get this straight: "Innovation" now means doing what your competitor has done for a long time? Am I missing something?
As to why they did it this way: My best guess is that they didn't want them to slowly die. Rechargeable batteries need to be plugged in more and more frequently when you keep them plugged in when not in use and their charge lasts for less and less time.
So rather than have an ignorant customer say "I've had this mouse for three years and its completely unusable now!" they make it clear from the get-go that you need to swap the batteries every so often.
The real factor here is how often they need to be replaced.
>I suppose because most people still wouldn't get this for
>an aftermarket mouse as it has no scroll wheel. Come on
>Apple! Put your flat-scroll wheel patent to work! Let's at
>least see something!
If you want those features, buy your hardware from Logitech. Stop asking Apple to make everything from Desktops to Hummers.
Incidentally, they do put their "flat scroll-wheel patent to work": in the iPod.
Integrate Keynote and LaTeX
... because I couldn't find a simple straight usb keyboard that didnt double as an aircraft carrier. One thing you need to be aware of before buying though is that the Scroll Lock, Print Screen and the Pause/Break key arent there and are replaced with F13 , F14 and F15 which are not equivalent
has a bluetooth keyboard and mouse combo, here.
1) As other posters have mentioned, their systems are already beginning to support it natively. This means *no* extra wires, plug-ins, or anything else fancy. Just what already comes with your computer.
2) Encryption. Bluetooth supports it.
Integrate Keynote and LaTeX
I know that Apple states at their website http://www.apple.com/bluetooth/ that the D-Link Bluetooth adaptor works - but are there any other USB solutions beside D-Link's?
I love that original Natural keyboard. All of mine have died (due to accidents, not failure) except one that I cherish.
Damn shame you can't get that model anymore!
Clear, Dark Skies
Um, or not. My machine, with an: Iwill motherboard with a Phoenix bios, Promise IDE controller, controlling an Athlon with DDR memory, with a Kyro II (Guillemot Prophet 4500) and Aureal II (Monster MX300), and a Netgear NIC, would probably blow your little mind.
There's more out there, as the other poster showed. At least 4 different manufacturers of everything, from chipsets to video cards. My machine would have 4^7 possibilities... or 16384 combinations. Conservatively. (assume not all chipsets support all processors, but also that there are many more than 4 sound cards...)
Hell, there are several dozen different variants of Soundblaster. Good luck putting a SB16 in your machine and having it work exactly the same as your Live. Or was it Live32. Or was it....
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
I had bought a PC laptop (HP ze5375us) because it was cheaper than the powerbook I really wanted. As long as I can have a development environment I don't really care much about the OS. But the laptop broke after 2 months. HP are being turds about fixing it. So I'm writing that off as a total waste of money and buying a new powerbook. My main gripe with PC hardware is that it doesn't seem to be of the same quality as Apple hardware.
Ok, did they give their design department the day off with these? The keyboard is butt ugly. There is no border an no base for proper ergonomics. At least include a small removable base that attaches to the bottom. The almost zero boarder around the keyboard is very wierd looking. At least the mouse should have included a rechargable battery pack. I have the logitech cordless elite duo that has the MX 700 mouse and their cordless keyboard. They are absolutely wonderful. I never thought I would like a wireless optical mouse and keyboard but they work great and are very comfortable.
The best keyboard apple ever made was the really large one from a decade or so ago that went for $100 (can't remember the name but I own it). Ever since then they have missed the boat.
What's stopping Apple from getting OS X to run on Pentium? FreeBSD already has good support for PC hardware... MS would be irrelevant... I wouldn't have to wait for my Dual 2GHz G5... I could choose a P4 or a G5...bring 'em on! The world would be a much better place.
I can't believe that Apple stiill won't acknowledge that they need multi-button mice (esthetics or not).
Apple loves to tout how games like Quake 3 look great on a Mac. Have you ever tried playing Quake 3 with a one button mouse? Did you survive longer than 10 secs after you re-spawned?
Political correctness is the newest form of slavery.
Nice. great GPU. Frankly I couldn't care less about 100Mhz more or less CPU-clock wise.
:-(
One question, however: does anyone know if the drivers for the R300 series are (or will be) available for PowerPC?
iirc, the R300 has a binary-only DRI/xfree86 module for x86. Fine, but do they have it for PPC?
I know nVidia couldn't care less about linux/ppc - I wonder if ATI does (doubt it, for fear of pissing off Apple maybe?)
I'm also assuming the Airport Extreme card is still unsupported in Linux? That's not a big deal if you have a cardbus slot like on the 15" and 17", but it is a big deal on the 12" - having no wireless support whatsoever in Linux would be a bummer. (And I doubt you can put an old Airport card in them - if I remember correctly they didn't have the same interface)
Oh, and don't give me "MacOSX is at least as good as Linux" - It may be true, but I'd like to have a choice, if at all possible. There's a lot of Linux programs I've grown used to, and Fink, while good, doesn't cut it compared to Debian for instance.
It's hard to find a decent laptop. I wish the 12" came out with the ATI Radeon 9200.
Right now I'm hesitating between the Apple AlBook 15" and the Sony TR1 series. They both have issues with Linux though.
Am I the only person who would rather deal with a couple of cables than have to feed batteries to my keyboard and mouse every couple of months?
I was thinking about that. I think that's what pisses the PC bigots off the most; back in the day every new computer model generated this kind of excitement. These days, people are so ground down by the PC treadmill that they barely notice when a new generation of CPU comes out. Dell can change models and their own customer service department won't know.
Meanwhile, Apple still has to post guards around their booth to keep people from peeking at unannounced stuff....
Clear, Dark Skies
Generating power from keyboard keystrokes is patented. No reason that shouldn't work except for dollars.
You can send energy over a radio protocol, its just really inefficient.
But number one... These devices should be solar powered. Sort of like cheap desktop calculators. The keyboard is a no brainer. It sends so few packets per day. The mouse is a bit rougher. Less surface area for light collection and orders of magnitude more data transmitted. But here is the rub: To collect light energy an object can not be white. If Apple's color scheme was bluish-near-black I have no doubt that both of these devices would be powered from ambient light.
Did anyone else notice that the stock 80 GB HD is 4200 RPM - almost 30% slower than the 80 GB 5400 RPM HD Option(+$125)?
Is this lame? How much does it matter performance-wise?
Two things:
First of all, there IS something wrong with x86 hardware... Intel engineers have bent over backwards to maintain legacy compatibility. The results are impressive. Clearly superior to Motorola's PPC chips, but at what cost? Intel was making a profit by pouring R&D dollars into Pentium engineering, Motorola was all but neglecting its PPC line. I don't doubt that Motorola chips could catch up given the investment considering how much less bloat they are starting with.
Secondly, it never ceases to amaze me how many people think Apple is just built on clever marketing and that Macs are at best more expensive PCs. At times in Apple's past I would have agreed (particularly in the OS 8 & 9 days). I'm not some kind of zealot, I own and use both a Mac and a Windows machine daily. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, but since I don't care about games or being able to download a lot of random software I don't really find any negatives working on the Mac. To the contrary, I am consistently amazed with OS X and Apple's bundled software. Aside from the fact that I am a web developer, and thus having Apache and MySQL on a BSD platform is a no-brainer decision, the OS X apps such as Safari, Mail, Address Book, iSync, as well as the Omni suite keep impressing me with the possibilities. Apple is constantly making refinements that make a difference in my life. On the other hand, when I boot up WinXP I have yet to find one genuinely useful improvement over Windows 2000. Sure it's more stable and it looks purty or whatever, but it has done nothing for my productivity.
Dunno what your problem is, then. My T68i synched up properly out of the box, and iSync works great between that and two iPods with my FP iMac. There was no work involved.
Sounds like user error to me.
... should be feasible, at least for Linux. The Microsoft Optical Desktop for Bluetooth runs just great with Linux, using the BlueZ stack and a HID daemon that I wrote (see my website), and this new Apple kit should work with that software with little or no modification to it. I may pick up the Apple keyboard and try it out, but probably not the one-button mouse.
Foo on Apple for not providing a Dvorak option.
If you want to use this keyboard on a Windows PC, you'll probably have to get the Microsoft kit (for the software), keep the software and Bluetooth transceiver, throw away the Microsoft keyboard, power up the Apple one, and pray that Microsoft used standard HID encoding in their driver instead of hard-coding the input notifications that their keyboard generates.
"Skill shows through where genius wears thin." -Wittgenstein || Religion: uniting aviation and architecture.
they do the printer but not the keyboard...
(how are you surposed to write long msgs ? in apple address sms tasb;-)
MS pair via hadware so that you can not use your MS mouse with any other standard Bluetooth Dongle !
"Which I'm sure is due to heat and such when I think about it"
No, its about maximizing profit. I like Apple too, but I don't try to rationalize their maximization of profits as technical issues or "good for customers".
"My wife and in-laws are experienced consumers, and they never touch the second button, even after I tell them what they can do with it."
What does "experienced consumer" mean? That they have a lot of experience consuming things? A 4 month old baby has a lot of experience doing things, but they're not a benchmark.
No matter how you spin it, a one button mouse on most Macs is an annoyance; you can always buy a new mouse. But on a laptop, the button can't be added, it just isn't there. The only reason Apple doesn't add a 2nd button is because they never admit they're wrong. Apple is wrong on this one.
Getting to the wheel button on a mouse. Its an absolutely brilliant device, and everyone who uses it is hooked. People who don't like the wheel usually have the IQ of warm spit.
No offense to warm spit, of course.
The mouse requires lithium AAs, which are insanely expensive ($2.50 each, compared to maybe $0.30 for Alkalines), and not widely available (very few manufacturers are making these). Lithium AAs have a higher voltage than alkalines (1.8v vs. 1.5v), and NiMH rechargables are even lower (1.2-1.3v) so the chances of rechargables working well is VERY slim.
"you constantly see children and inexperienced adults unable to separate the act of clicking from the act of dragging"
I think that proves some people are evolutionary dead ends. If you could photograph these people, we could have them sterilized so they cannot breed.
It seems cruel now, but people who still have troubles with a mouse 40 years after they were invented probably should not be allowed to breed.
"one of our staff members has severe RSI"
Fire the person with RSI. Do this for a few reasons:
1) RSI is essentially a mental disease; that is, desipte what its adherents tell you, its all about thinking it hurts. That's not to say it doesn't hurt, but the hurt comes from thinking you're hurt rather than anything physically wrong.
2) People who have such weak mentalities don't belong in an office with normal people. Their attitue is infectious. Get rid of them.
3) In general, these kinds of people usually whine about every damned thing. They say stupid stuff like "I can't eat (put common food here) because I'm alergic". They also tend to be involved in causes.
4) They're just a big PITA.
Trust me, get rid of this person by hook or crook. Problem solved.
I think the problem is the store you're going to, not the selection of games out there. Most popular games come to the Mac now, they just take about a year because they're ports. This hopefully probably change with the new hardware- Developers will gradually go back to simultaneous releases as more people buy games for the Mac. http://www.aspyr.com/games.php/mac/ http://www.macsoftgames.com/ Personally I could care less. As soon as somebody makes a console with a mouse I can get all these damn games off my Mac and get back to work.
All good points. As long as IBM can keep at least reasonable parity against AMD/Intel performance, it would be insane of Apple to switch architechtures, but I'm sure your right about Apple having a plan B if IBM pulls out or there is some other unforeseeable future problem with PowerPC.
First -- where's the bloody VGA port? You can't just grab your TiPB and use it as a portable office. The one time you forget to put the DVI-2-VGA adapter in your pocket is the day you'll want to project the current project in the conference room. I wouldn't replace the DVI with VGA but add it to the base system.
Also, what's with moving all the ports to the sides? Have you spent any time typing on a laptop with cables sticking out the side? I know -- Apple's pushing wireless connectivity but most offices still don't (and won't) have 802.11x connectivity due to security concerns. And there's still no wireless Firewire. As a bonus the older TiPBs looked tidier with the cables flowing out the back, hidden by the screen. Now they look like Pippi Longstocking when cabled up.
Lastly, an old rant, two buttons on all mice -- especially the built-in track pad. I understand the argument that one mouse button is less confusing for some users, but for whom? All the Macworld video clips tout high-end use by graphic designers, photographers and music producers. I can hear them in the focus group "Come on, Wayne...it's for the noobs." How about putting a big red icon in the middle of the desktop that reads "Don't Panic". Clicking it (with either button) would display a help entry accompanied by soothing music: "Right-button - Mostly harmless. Used by the smart set to get more work done. Safely ignored by you."
I think yellow dog supports it out of the box. Not sure but u had a story somewhere of a site that was offering yellow dog preinstalled along with/without OS X . I forget the link but i think it was on slashdot. There was a also some review where theguy was actaully surprised that his airport card worked just fine. I think as yellow dog optimizes their config for apple's machines, everything should work out tof the a box. And they have yum as well. It hink it should be the ultimate combination especially if u are looking for a linux laptop.
You won't see the G5 in a laptop for quite a while, maybe never. IBM is working on building a G3 with parts of the G5 SIMD logic (or compatible logic). What you'll see is that the G4 as we know it, the 7XXX series, will die. The 750+SIMD and the 970 will be Apple's chips.
Remember that the G5 comes from the Power4, which was NEVER designed to be a low-power/low-heat CPU, it will NEVER be as suitable for laptop use as the 750-series will. Even with a major die-shrink and voltage drop, the G5 will STILL put out much more heat than the G4 did, and even that was too much.
Don't worry though, I'm sure IBM will be using a lot of what they developed for the G5 in the 'mojave' G3s. They might even be marketed as G4s or G5-mobiles because they will have roughly the same features.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
My favorite keyboard has always been Keytronic's PS/2 white keyboard. The keys feel like leather, very tactile and easy to type on.
-Pat
My problem is simply that HFS is not as proven a solution as UFS. Filesystems are things you don't every want to have to worry about.
Apple has been using HFS Plus on their systems since Mac OS 8.1 (since 1997). It uses B-trees like ReiserFS. How many people are using ReiserFS on linux?
Why didn't linux use UFS? What's this ext2 thing? Didn't linux "rip out one of [unix's] pillars" for something not part of the original unix? Heck, UFS is a newcomer to the original unix file system with 14-character file names. How long does a filesystem have to be in use to be a "proven solution"? 20 years? 30 years?
There may be technical reasons not to use it (case-sensitivity, for example), but rejecting HFS Plus because it's something different is silly.
Yup, it's here.
I'm in the same boat except I haven't tried it yet. Would a PS/2 to USB adapter work for a PS/2 Trackpoint keyboard?
What is the third party utility and how does it work?
I don't mind using a mouse so much as I miss the wonderful clicky feel of the IBM keyboard. The Apple keyboard has awful feel (at least to me) and occasionally misses keystrokes. For example, I have to take special care to make sure I hit the shift key just right or my capital letters come out lowercase.
Thanks for the information!
D
I also have a T68i + DLink adapter and it works perfectly. I can even use my T68i as a mouse. iSync syncs perfectly with my phone, iPod and backs up everything to my .Mac account for convenient web access of my contacts, calendars, and Safari bookmarks.
Good Luck trying to find integration like that on Wintel.
While I applaud the steps in the right direction regarding Bluetooth support, I'm a little disappointed over the lack of G5's in the new Powerbooks. Yes, I know, cooling issues. But after reading all the reports from *The Register* about them being in production, this is a let down. I guess this is a way for Apple to squeeze a little more life out of the G4 before introducing G5 PowerBooks. The Apple G4's for the PowerBook and iMac (1.25 Ghz) are now at the baseline clock frequency of the PPC970, although Apple started out at the higher 1.6 frequency for the PowerMac. It would be nice to begin seeing the G3 phased out of the iBooks, and fast.
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
Just placed my order for the mid level PB *Can't wait much longer, get here soon!!!* :D :D :D :D :D :D ((((:-O))))
I hate the Apple keyboards. They are all fruity and flemsy. I prefer the IBM Model M series of keyboards, which almost last forever, have perfect tactile feedback, and the Model M has no weird windows or internet keys. Funny that keyboards peeked in the mid 1980s.
Down in the lower left corner of the Apple Store is a big red sign labeled "Special Deals", wherein you will find refurbished machines for lower than just about any commercial dealer (Smalldog, for instance...) of refurbed Macs. On the other hand, you'll pay sales tax. If sales tax = $100, go to Smalldog, or similar dealers.
Refurbs are covered by Apple's standard 1-year warranty, with the option of purchasing AppleCare, so hardware issues, well, aren't an issue. Also, a standard set of software, cables, manuals, etc. are included in the box.
...get a 2-button mouse.
This isn't hard. If you use a two-button mouse, you use small muscles and 1 tendon to press each button.
If you use a 1-button mouse you use big muscles and tendons back in your arm.
The mantra of RSI reduction is 'move the action to the big muscles' or something like that.
By providing a 1-button mouse they ensure developers will code for it, enabling accessibility for disabled users. If a 2-button mouse was standard there would be programs the next day that required it.
Show me a GUI problem that's can't be successfully refactored to not require a right button. That's not to say it shouldn't be an option, but not required.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
If Apple ever moves to x86 technology, or something else in the future more standard than PowerPC, it will not be stock hardware. You will still have to buy the system from Apple and you won't be able to buy generic Dell and throw OS X on it.
My point, they could go to x86 and still be a closed platform. But why when you've got the G5 with an almost seamless upgrade path. Even if there is Darwin running on x86, and OS X with a recompile, think of all the Altivec enabled code in the OS and in various apps that is now useless. Can you see Steve up there saying "we went to this super fast x86, but final cut takes longer to render now without the vector engine."
Apple only went to the PPC 7 years ago (ok, maybe that _is_ long in computer years), but with the G5 there's life so why jump ship?
The only thing I really miss on the one-button mouse is the scroll wheel. I wouldn't mind a scroll wheel (or maybe a scroll pad, or just a scroll domain of the main pad) on a Powerbook, either
I guess being positive about Apple (or speculating about why they did something the way they did) can never be seen as insightful amongst the freaky brainwashed anti-Apple crowd.
Also check Amazon. They've got 17 pages of Mac games.
But does the G5 insanely kick-ass or kick insane ass?
-- thinkyhead software and media
Keep waiting. You'll never see it. Go ahead and a Dell or IBM. They come with even more than just two. They even have little red buttons on top of the main buttons. You can have that kind of superior functionality too! Dells even have a trackpad and the little eraser-head-in-the-keyboard.
The rest of us "pro" Mac users will drive with two hands, one on the keyboard ready to hit control for a contextual menu or any of the other modifier keys that most "pro" apps require for efficient operation.
You'd think that the accurate and accelerated mouse operation would be far more important than the number of buttons. But if Mac OS' superior mouse support isn't as important as two buttons built in, then yes, a Windows machine is right for you.
> freaky brainwashed anti-Apple crowd
Brainwashed by whom? The Apple lemmings are just another incarnation of the old "The King Is Dead. Long Live The King!" phenomenon. Blasting Microsoft over control issues, and then eagerly laying down their brains at the altar of Steve Jobs. Yeah, really insightful.
Silly. Replace the mice in your kiosks with cheap conventional mice and stop whining.
-- thinkyhead software and media
Usually, when I search with my goggles and only get vapor, all I have to do is spit on the lenses, mix it with some sea water, and then I'm fog-free for the rest of my dive. :)
--Sig? Uh, it's in my other pants.
I had a black Natural, which I think was hard to find. It was kind of the surfboard variety but it was nice.
The problem is that people with smaller fingers couldn't use them well. It works great for long fingered folk though.
I also like the Natural Elite, and Logitech had some similar designs but the home/end/pg up/pg dn/del/ins keypad was different so it takes getting used to when switching between them.
...money can buy.
;o)
For those of you who still BUY STUFF.
Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" is truly remarkable, and most (if not all) of the the performance bottlenecks present in 10.2 "Jaguar" (even on a G5) are GONE.
Truly remarkable software engineering. Bout time, Apple.
Anonymous Coward
Please visit the Apple support forums and note the beautifully artisitic commentary on Firmware, patches and security fixes... Oh, and don't forget about the broken hardware that no one can get fixed...
Apple = IBM = DELL = Uses Chinese Outsourcing to make really bad products. So Sorry!
What great timing. I was just telling a few people how iTMS already had 10 million paid downloads and how significant that was considering it's only for the Mac, which commands a whopping 5% of the market. I said "just wait 'til it comes out for Windows". I guess we'll find out. This is gonna be big...way big. Time to buy more Apple stock.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
"'Cause I hate that damn wheel, and my IQ is 149."
Maybe in Bizaro world. In normal world, its the inverse.
Tell Superman I said hello.
While I know Macs are not exactly known for gaming, I was wondering about the GPUs. Is there that much of a difference between the GeForce FX go5200 and Radeon 9600 mobility?
I want the 12" because you can take it anywhere and I'm a student, so price is a big factor, but I think mobile Macintosh Halo would be the best thing since sliced bread.
Some of my friends have been benchmarking their PC laptops for FFXI and I know that my friends ATI 340 w/ 64 megs did much worse than my other friends go5200 w/ 32 megs.
Anyone know of a good benchmark comparing or something?
The good lord say he can get me outta this mess, but he is pretty sure you're f00ked. - Stephen (Braveheart)
From the IBM Site:
42W @ 1.8 GHz, 1.3V
19W @ 1.2 GHz, 1.1V
From the Motorola site:
MPC7455: 35.5W (typ) - 50W (max) @ 1GHz
It will take time to get the new chip controller, motherboard, dual channel RAM, etc (and the die size shrink w/ a smaller nm process), but it will come along...
[Disclaimer: I work for IBM]
Forget the batteries, I just don't want to find out where my 18-month old hid the mouse!
I just wish I still had some non-wireless phones!
My video compression blog
a) user error
b) no one cares what you're buying
The truly unique thing about the original Microsoft "natural" keyboard was the tilt bar. Unlike most keyboards, the tilt-bar is in front, not in the back. Basically, this straigtens out your wrists and keeps you from smashing shem into the wrist wrest.
Subsequent versions have moved the tilt "pegs" to the rear. This tilts the keyboard in the WRONG direction in order to make it ergonomic.
I still have my Black natural keyboard (along with one white) that I don't use. I kinda like the volume buttons on the newer models. I especially like the built in USB hub so I can plug the mouse into the keyboard (mac style). A manual modification makes the keyboard tilt forward like it SHOULD!!!!
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
How does having a lighted keyboard some tip the scales in favour of a 12" PB? That's like all the "I can't justify it unless it has a two button trackpad" comments. Sheesh.
Heute die Welt, morgen das Sonnensystem!
Anyone notice that Apple is no longer including a Mini-DVI to Video adapter with their 12" PB?
They just released a new Mini-DVI to Video adapter that they're selling for 19 bucks.
Quake 3 I'll give you easily... but UT2003? Come on. I have a 1 Ghz TiBook with a better video card than you and I wouldn't say UT2003 runs happily. I think anything short of a G5 won't run that game happily.
-Alex
Hmmm... I was rather happy to hear that, so I checked it out. However, if you look here: http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/support/hardware/bre akdown/index.php?hw_cat_id=4
It basically says, that with the 17" there's no video, and due to lack of thermal management, you may damage your laptop. As for the 12", they say:
Maximum number of colors: thousands
2D acceleration: No
3D acceleration: No
Dual head: No
AirPort Extreme: No
Bluetooth: No
I expect the situation to not be very different with the new 15", sadly enough. This is one reason why I hate binary-only driver support: other archs are usually unsupported because they're a smaller market share.
Is there no quicktime feed for the Keynote broadcast this time?
Solar is fine for super cheap calculators. They use miniscule amounts of power and aren't useful in low to no light conditions. Even making the unlikely assumption that you could generate enough power for both a bluetooth transmitter and the optical mouse tracking with tiny solar cells, why shouldn't my keyboard or mouse work in the dark? You'd be adding a limitation that wasn't present in the original. A tremendously bad design practice, and not something you're likely to see from a company with such a talented design team.
The Dreamcast had a mouse and keyboard attachment. As they're kind of hard to find these days, you can buy an adapter from Skillz ( hee hee ) that will let you use PS/2 equipment with them. It was also two button if I recall correctly.
I believe the SNES/Super Famicon also had a short lived mouse attachment by way of Mario Paint.
YLFI
One god, one market, one truth, one consumer.
This is a little off topic as far as bitching about how many buttons on the new mouse. However, I called Apple to ask if I was going to be getting a wireless mouse and keyboard with my 2.0DP (that hasn't shipped yet) and was politely but firmly told that I would not. I then asked to upgrade and offered to pay the difference. That was declined as impossible due to the fact that mouse and keyboard comes packed with the computer. I asked to speak to a manager and was put on hold for five minutes. When the lady came back she told me that they NEVER do this, HOWEVER they would add a wireless keyboard and mouse to my order for no charge, THIS ONE TIME ONLY. I was very surprised. I thanked them and immediately typed this message up. My advice... if you have a G5 on the way, and you want a set of the new KB/Mouse, go complain and see what happens. BTW, I never raised my voice, but I did point out that I had ordered the top of the line machine and didn't understand why I wasn't able to upgrade to the top of the line accessories? Hard to believe. I think they may be taking some heat over there...
I was just wondering is there an L3 cache. I didn't see any. And I know from experiece (i'm typing this on a 17in powerbook) that they help a lot.
It's hardly helpful saying that. The point he was making is that:
a) Apple say their designs are so that the most computer iliterate can use their machines
b) He has one that's used by the iliterate and they find it really hard to use.
Hence his point is very valid and points out a serious design flaw in the Mac's 'buttonless' design.
Although a port would be improbable, based on a post by Andrew Meggs (originally hired by Valve to do the Mac port of the first Half-Life; currently working as the lead programmer for the upcoming PC version of Vampire, which he notes is based on the Source Engine):
Now, while there's been some talk about the possibility of porting, it probably doesn't really make strong financial sense (although who knows, maybe the good will / low effort of porting works out). I'm not holding my breath and will be picking up a copy of HL2 for my PC when it hits shelves. (In any case, I've found even ports of several year old games to run quite sluggishly on my 12" Powerbook so there really wouldn't be much hope of it running on my current Apple hardware).
We have a dual 450 G4 and it's running Final Cut Pro in a production envirnoment. It has no special hardware additions (bar extra firewire drives) and it's producing videos all day every day.
It doesn't feel at all outdated - we've just put FCP4 on there, and given it a new lease of life.
We are replacing it with a Dual G5, but until they ship, the dual 450 is wonderful.
The old 12" didn't have Mini-DVI at all.
My only question I have for you is how can you be tethered by a one button mouse if all the programs are desinged for a one button mouse? Professional-level or not, Apple feels the one button standard is the way to go, and they have since the early days, and won't go back no matter what, so don't keep waiting, go get another laptop with a 2nd button you will never use.
Sig: I stole this sig.
My choice to protect my privacy does not contradict with my requirement that others with whom I have discussions be somewhat accountable to myself and the other users who are reading. If we're not able to tell what a person has previously said, and what they have advocated or spoken against, no opponent against which to argue. Identifying myself makes my comments and my user history available - you can see what I've written and choose to believe that either I'm not worth the time to respond or I have some idea worth speaking up for.
As an AC a person can switch sides, advocating one view or another just as easily as I can respond with a rebuttal to my own argument. It's not that I want to know who you are or anything about you, beyond what you've said already. Self righteousness? I just don't have the time to waste on AC's.
Fair enough--but how do you know that even those who have registered and post with an ID are even a little accountable? Many people have more than one ID. (I started when the first one hit the karma cap :).)
CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
Do you have OS X on that beast? How much RAM? what size/speed are your OS hard disks? Have you updated your video card? When was the last time you did a full, clean sweep? What do you have running on it besides FCP4 - Mail, web, fileserver, AFX, Photoshop, Illustrator?
My machine seems OK if I want to do one thing at a time, with minimal background applications running, and then I might be lucky for it to be fast enough that I can do some Illustrator work with a little lag. After Effects? It's slow as a sloth, especially if I want to do any 3D setups. I don't even work in Photoshop anymore unless I have to; the files take up too much space, and filters take forever to run.
I don't know what your setup is, but I do know FCP4 video editing isn't nearly as processor intensive as AFX. I do both, and working with 2, 4, 6 or even 8 layers of video just doesn't take the same (processing, not bandwidth) horsepower that most of my work in AFX does.
For the record:
Power Mac G4 450 DP
768 MB RAM
80 GB, 7200 RPM Boot volume with 8 MB cache
NVidia GeForce2MX Dual-Head w/64 MB VRAM
2 Displays @ 1280x1024 resolution
I don't. That's a futile goal. But I can see that you have over 500 posts, so you didn't just make this up to bother me. That's all I'm worried about.
Come on, everybody say it with me now: Huh?
The USB Happy Hacking Keyboard Lite 2 totally kicks ass. Once you "Hack" you never go back.
I realize there are more physical options, but when it comes down to it, you're limited by what you want out of your machine. Just look at your machine:
Intel processor
I'll bet your video card is either NVIDA or ATI
I'll bet the sound card is an SB
RAM is RAM for the most part, there are higher qualities depending on the company but the quality of the type of RAM has nothing to do with the system itself (i.e. given the same type of RAM, the same ram that works in a PC works in a mac works in a SUN)
Firewire and USB cards are again really platform independent (and more depending on whether the vendor wants to write drivers or whether your OS has good generic drivers)
A 19" monitor, barring the ADC or some other odd type connections will work on either a mac or a PC.
So in summery, the minor components (monitor, periphrial cards, RAM etc) are cross platform (meaning the choices are the same for either side, and most of the other components (CPU, Sound Card, graphics card) are limited to one or two choices by the nature of the system. I will grant the you have multiple options for motherboards, but that seems to be the only area with a major lead in choices.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
Support for GDDR2-M memory, offering highest mobile memory speeds with lowest power consumption
There would be a huge advantage to having this memory built directly onto the same chipset as the GPU.
Does anybody know if the new apple keyboard (M9034LL/A - not the bluetooth one) can be used with a pc running windows(or linux)? it seems that it is possible with the old (black keys) one
We use it with DVD Studio Pro 1.5, Final Cut Pro (3, now 4), Photoshop and Cleaner 5, all on top of OS X 10.2.6
We don't use After Effects, and I could see why you'd be hurting for horsepower in Photoshop and After Effects.
The only reason we're updating to dual G5 is to speed up encoding to mpeg2 in Cleaner.
System:
Dual 450 G4 'Mystic'
896Mb RAM (3x 128, 1x 512)
2x internal HD - 30Gb, 60Gb
3x firewire HD - 2x 120Gb, 160Gb
Original graphics card (I forget what it is - rage 128 or something with an ADC)
Graphics card scavenged from a 9600/300, now running headless (the other rage 128 died on us and we just forked out for the G5)
2x 17" CRT @ 1024x768
The only weak links in the chain are the graphics cards really, although we haven't really had a problem. The IXMicro card taken from the 9600 can't display FCP's monitor window, but it is just fine with the timeline, media bins, tool palletes etc.
But that's where multiple choices are key, along with the BIOS. The RAM is insignificant, the sound card is pretty well insignificant (providing basic sound functionality isn't too hard), and if you don't worry about supporting all the advanced goodies (like which set of multimedia instructions to support or advanced power management options), then the processor isn't a huge deal. The monitor isn't even a factor - only the video card (which is significant).
But the reality is that Apple would have to support virtually all the processors out there at least as well as Microsoft does if they wanted any possibility of selling in volume. And the differences in motherboard chipsets are huge. So not only will Apple never switch to commodity PC hardware, there's virtually no chance they'll even support it. Bottom line: All the discussion we have here won't make any difference to us here. If you want Apple's OS, you buy a Mac. Period and evermore. If you want another Unix, then stick with x86. There's plenty to pick from.
Heck, there was once a time when the NT codebase ran on four completely different architectures - x86, PPC, MIPS, and Alpha. It wasn't worth Microsoft's time, money, or effort to keep that going, even though at the time they dropped all the others x86 was still the worst-performing of the four. And right now they have all they can do just keeping up with x86! Why should Apple dump a platform that they control completely for that?
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
Oh I wasn't arguing that apple should put OS X on x86, infact I think it's a horrible idea. I was just making a point to the person that was sarcasticaly commenting how burdened he is with his cornocopia of choices.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
"As soon as somebody makes a console with a mouse I can get all these damn games off my Mac and get back to work."
The ultra-rare Sony Playstation 2 had a couple of USB ports on the front (so any old USB mouse fitted, keyboards too) and even a Sony mouse accessory. Sad to say, these machines are now quite difficult to get hold of (and expensive!), so you may not have much luck tracking one down. Shame, it was a really nice machine with some fabulous games...
That was classic intercourse!
So now you've heard it. There are a few reasons why, one is that is support Airport the other is that it supports bluetooth.
We have an emergency can't you see?
Do you know why we stopped the car?
Guess
what?
I forgot to close the door.
http://www.wacom.com/
I'll even make it a hyperlink-
As my title says, I am going to both make a retraction and (good-naturedly) smack you at the same time. First, my apologies, I did indeed mean Mojave and wrote Gobi. Second, please PLEASE PLEASE go read the references I posted. What you've written regarding the PPC970 is just flat-out misinformed, or more accurately, under-informed. As you'll notice if you read the references, yes, the current PPC970 does indeed dissipate around 42 watts -- at 1.8GHz and 1.3V!! At 1.2GHZ and 1.1V, it only dissipates 19W!!! Which is less heat than the 7455 G4 used in the laptops prior to the current revision.
As a result, power dissipation of the CPU is not the issue that has prevented the release of a G5 laptop, or at least not entirely. What the real issues are, we can only guess. My personal guess is it's the controller chip that dissipates too much heat, and also that Steve et al. would rather create a very noticeable jump in performance by introducing laptops at substantially higher clockspeeds, rather than suffer unflattering performance comparisons with the G4 models. "Substantially higher clockspeeds", though, (say, in the same 1.6-2.0GHz range as the desktops) will indeed necessitate a die-shrink of the CPU manufacturing process. However, IBM has consistently made better progress in ramping production up than they publically estimate. In order for Steve's "3GHz within a year" prediction to come true, IBM will either have to jump 2 process cycles, from the current 0.13 micron process to 0.09 microns, and then go to 0.065 microns, or will have to pull some other nifty trick out of their sleeve to reduce the power consumption even further. N.B., IBM announced the processors at 1.4GHz-1.8GHz, and Apple is using 1.6-2.0GHz. Either Apple is overclocking beyond spec already, like they've done in the past with Moronorola CPUs, or IBM's chip has more headroom in its initial revision than IBM publically thought it would. So, a nifty trick is not at all beyond the realm of possibility.
Point being, though, that a 0.09micron CPU that runs at 2.2-2.6GHz in desktops, and dissipates a normal amount of power at those speeds, will work very nicely as a laptop processor at slower speeds, while maintaining the heat profile necessary for a laptop enclosure. And, in this case, slower speeds could very well mean 1.4GHz on up to 2.0GHz.
I'm not sure who is smoking what here.
This guy has a 1 gHz TiBook, and he's sad that he's no longer got the latest and greatest Mac laptop. But he's at least happy he can boot into MacOS 9, whereas the new 15" AlBook can't.
Now, that might be offtopic, but I can't imagine in what way anyone could call it a troll.
-fred
Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
Apple laptops are effectively unusable for unix users.
I am a long-time Unix user. That means I need to have the Ctrl key to the left of the A key. This is a genuine need, not merely a want; it is based upon ergonomics. The Ctrl key is heavily used in unix, and it must be easily accessable. It cannot be off in the lower left corner of the keyboard where it is difficult to get at, and where it distorts the position of your left hand such that you can't easily type other keys while holding the Ctrl key down.
Apple desktop keyboards are now all USB. They are all OK. The CapsLock key can be re-mapped into a Ctrl key.
Unfortunately, even in this modern age, all Apple laptops have built-in ADB keyboards. The ADB keyboard is broken-by-design. It is, in general, not possible to remap the CapsLock key into a Ctrl key.
There are some exceptions, but they are horrible kludges. They are horrible kludges because the original design of the ADB keyboard was a horrible kludge. The correct solution would be for Apple to re-design their laptop motherboards to use built-in USB keyboards. This hasn't happened yet. If you run Linux, use Debian's solution. For Mac OS X users, uControl works. There are no solutions (that I know of) for either NetBSD or OpenBSD. Please note once again that the "solutions" above are in fact kludges, because of the original bad design of the ADB keyboard.
Apple provides a technical note on how to remap the keyboard, but provides no solution to the hardware problems caused by the design of the ADB keyboard. This tech note helps foreign language users, but does nothing for the CapsLock/Ctrl problem.
Apple is (currently) ignoring Unix users! This is not merely speculation on my part. In an on-going email exchange I am having with an Apple employee (whom I won't name) in their marketing department, the Apple marketing person directly stated to me that Apple was catering to their historic Mac customers, and is purposely ignoring the Unix market. He also claimed that Apple would soon start paying more attention to the Unix market. I won't hold my breath. Apple has been ignoring Unix users for more than 13 years. I expect that trend to continue. (Also note that my Apple contact indicated that Macs would never ship with a 3-button mouse, even though Apple intended to port almost all X-window software and deliver it either on a CD/DVD or installed directly on each Mac's hard drive. How Unix friendly is a 1-button mouse with X programs that often require 3 buttons?)
Apple has now lost two opportunities to sell me hardware. I really wanted an Apple laptop for their superior battery life, and for the PowerPC with Altivec CPU. (The Altivec is vastly superior to the x86 line for DSP.) Because I can't live with the broken-by-design built-in ADB keyboard in all Apple laptops, Sony and IBM sold me laptops instead. If Apple fixes this problem, they will sell me a PowerBook next year; if they don't, I'll still be running OpenBSD on x86 hardware, and wishing I could use a Mac.
I ordered mine for $2399 on Tuesday, it's a 1.25 GHz 15" PB with 512 MB DDR without Superdrive. It should arrive by the end of next week, I can't wait.
This baby has everything I dream for: beautiful design, fast G4, 512 MB 333 MHz DDR, 80 GB HD, DVD / CD-RW, 64 MB ATI 9600, 802.11g, Bluetooth, Gigabit Ethernet, Firewire 800, USB2, illuminated keyboard, S-video / DVI / VGA output, and so on.
I have looked the P4 and Centrino laptops from IBM, Sony, Toshiba, HP / Compaq, Acer, and nothing comes close in terms of prices / features.
...ctrl + click, which is extremly easy with a laptop as ctrl is close to the mouse button. Another thing you might not have noticed is that you can click and hold down the mouse button for the content menu to appear. So there is really no need for a second button, everything has been designed to be used with just one button. (I have not tried if this also works with Virtual PC and windows or with X11 applications - somebody?) The only thing I would miss with an Apple mouse is the scroll wheel.
I've put wheels under my keyboard and now I've got a 101-key mouse!
Seriously, I've been using Dvorak for several years, and except for about a month while I was learning, I've been doing it all on unmodified QWERTY keyboards.
The only time it's an annoyance is when playing a mostly mouse-controlled game, with a few keys you need to hit from time to time (DII for example). The rest of the time, it just prevents me from using vision as a crutch, so I'm not at any disadvantage when I switch to Dvorak on a public computer where I don't have the option of moving the keys around.
Besides lasting longer, lithium batteries (like those used in apple's mouse) are lighter. They are more expensive, but not so much so when you consider the longer life.
These really help in the nikon F5, an SLR camera that takes EIGHT AA batteries - try picking that up a hundered times!
Just a question... how often do you lift your keyboard?
YHBT YHL HAND
http://www.petitiononline.com/macmice/petition.htm l