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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...
My school recently ordered 50(!) of these beauties, wireless network and all. Brilliant.
I have over 70 freaks, do you?
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.
His name is Clarus The Dogcow. All Clarus says is 'Moof' which would make him a fairly sucky keynote presenter.
"If you wait too long they'll cater to your ego."
No the mouse does NOT have rechargable batteries according to the sight the mouse "Uses 2 AA Lithium Non-Rechargeable Batteries" You could put in rechargable NMi batteries (and you would probably want to) but it doesn't come with them, thus it doesn't come with a dock. Which pretty much stinks if you ask me.
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
from http://www.msnbc.com/news/966392.asp
That seems like more of an announcement suiting the frontpages of this hallowed bytespace.
But it does seem to more closely resemble "Cassie".
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.
With YellowDog, wifi worked 'right out of the box'. The only issue I had with it was that it got confused as to which adapter it was. That was simply fixed by telling the wi-fi specifically to bind the proper mac address.
YDL & Panther peacefully co-exist with no problem. I love my Tibook. I will probably never buy another kind of laptop. Well worth the money.
Oh, and another thing, the screen is excellent. Probably the best laptop screen I've seen. Apple's parts are all pretty much top notch.
He's not the interim CEO any more, he's the CEO.
It also looks just like their current keyboards, without a wire.
I've got a D-link bluetooth adapter for my iBook and a mate bought one for his IBM laptop at the same time, seems to work fine for both systems. He can link up to his mobile phone fine, and we set up networking between the two computers using them to see how easy it was - no problem.
Was about the cheapest from a known brand I'd seen as well.
NB: I'm nothing to do with the company, etc. etc.
"What if they're using IE?" "I've dumbed Mozilla down to cope with it." - BOFH
Oh, for the umpteenth time: Apple mice use one button because their research indicates that non-professional computer users never know what to do with a second mouse button anyway. 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.
It's a good idea, and Apple's stuck with it. If you really need those extra buttons, you may as well buy a new mouse. You're paying a premium for Apple hardware anyway, so I'm sure you can afford it.
I don't know what the compatability of the bluetooth devices will be like, but I can pretty much guarantee that their USB keyboards will work fine with a PC. I actually do the opposite, being a fan of IBM's trackpoints, I have an IBM USB Trackpoint keyboard plugged into mine. No problems, works right off the bat, the only problem being that the latest model has no "Windows" key, which translates to the Mac's "Apple" key, which means I need a third party utility to get the keyboard shortcuts.
I seriously doubt there'll be a problem plugging an Apple USB keyboard into a PC. At worst, the power and Apple keys will be non-functional. How often do you use the "Windows" key anyway? ;-)
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
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.
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.
Erm...their keyboards have had separate islands for quite some time now...this is BY FAR nothing new.
.OGG, natively in iTunes as a matter of fact, and you can use OggDrop to encode.
To answer a few questions above:
Yes, they run Linux...Yellow Dog, Mandrake PPC just to name a couple.
Yep, they play
Any other questions?
Don't park drunk, accidents cause people.
Microsoft has been shipping a bluetooth mouse/keyboard for months. Belkin started offering a bluetooth mouse a week or 2 ago. Apple were not the first, or even the second!
Take a closer look at the 15" model.
- PC133 RAM becomes DDR333.
- 1GHz CPU becomes 1.25GHz.
- Bluetooth is integrated.
- 802.11b becomes 802.11g.
- 60GB disk becomes 80GB.
- Radeon 9000 becomes 9600 (think vastly imporved pixel / vertex shaders).
- FireWire 800 included.
- Oh, and the new magic glowing keyboard.
Nothing entirely earth-shaking, but together they make it a lot more appealing. And before you ask, mine's on order...I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Just be careful which D-link adapter you have. The product page for the keyboard doesn't spell it out, but when you go to buy it in the online store it says:
"Important: Requires a Bluetooth enabled Macintosh (either built-in or using the qualified D-Link DBT-120 USB Bluetooth Adapter (older D-Link DWB-120M adapters are not supported). Mac OS X, v10.2.6 or higher required. "
So if you've got the DBT-120 and not the DWB-120M you're set.
Rich
There are really two questions here: a right mouse button and the whole Apple mouse-as-a-button concept. The former may or may not (I'd still argue that it does) have merit, but the latter issue is a really significant ding on Mac usability.
:-/
We've been using iMacs as museum kiosk workstations and you constantly see children and inexperienced adults unable to separate the act of clicking from the act of dragging, meaning that every link they try to click, they end up dragging the image across the screen because they don't realize that by resting their hand on the mouse and adding a slight amount of downward pressure, they're still "clicked."
Or, worse yet, if they are trying to drag something and reach the end of the table, it's not at all clear to them to grip the sides of the mouse to "hold" the click. It ends up causing us no end of headaches.
"But the clear plastic is so pretty! They coordinate so well with the computers!"
For those not following, a complete description is available.
All of the PowerBooks now use the same motherboard chipset and the same new PowerPC 7457. This processor has 512 KB of on-chip full-speed L2 cache.
Previous PowerBooks used older 74xx processors with 256 KB of on-chip full-speed L2 cache and varying amounts of off-chip quarter-speed L3 cache.
The L3 isn't really needed anymore due to the doubling of the faster on-chip cache. Sure, 8 MB of L3 cache would be neat, but it would also up the price. Be glad the new books have the nifty Mobility Radeon 9600!
I just ordered a 15" 867 over the weekend, Apple emailed me saying that they updgraded it to the new model. Check your email, they should be doing this as long as yours hasn't shipped yet.
Yeah, the Apple USB keyboards all work on Intel machines. The only catch is the key mappings of some of the bottom row keys: on an Intel keyboard, the [alt] key is typically to the immediate left & right of the [spacebar], but Apple puts the [cmd] keys in that position instead, and puts [option/alt] one key farther away. The Apple [alt] key works normally, it's just in the "wrong" place.
The catch is that [cmd] key -- Windows interprets it as the [win] key as found on modern keyboards, and brings up the system menu whenever it gets pressed. Some people really like that key, and find it useful: it's a big time saver for me to be able to use shortcuts like [win]+[E] (bring up Explorer), [win]+[R] (bring up a Run dialog), and [win]+[F] (bring up a Find dialog). However, more people seem to dislike it than like it, and in any case, the problem here is the position: with the system key placed where [alt] typically goes, it's almost inevitable that it'll accidentally get hit all the time -- and this will get annoying.
Another problem is if you go back & forth between Macs & Intel (Windows/Linux/whatever) using the same keyboard, the situation will get confusing. For example, cut/copy/paste are done on both the Mac & Windows by hitting, respectively, [X]/[C]/[V] and a modifier key. On the Mac, that modifier is next to the [spacebar]; on Windows, it's at the edges of the bottom keyboard row (typically). If you're using Apple keyboard on just Apples, and whatever keyboards on Wintel, then it doesn't seem to be as confusing (just as I don't get confused with the [caps lock] / [ctrl] swap on Sun keyboard), but if you're using the same keyboard on both systems, then it can start to get blurry -- you learn to avoid [cmd] because you don't want the system menu, but then you can't get cut/copy/paste to work because you're hitting [option] or [ctrl], etc.
This wouldn't be so bad if you could re-map the keys, but (parroting what I've been told by others here), Wintel keyboards just transmit codes for the key bring pressed, but Apple keyboards transmit the actual logical meaning for each key -- meaning that it's apparently not possible to re- map (say) the [option/alt] and [cmd] keys to be in the standard Wintel arrangement. So you're stuck, and all you can do is train yourself to get used to little quirks like the ones noted above.
But that said, yes, it works, and it can work nicely. I've got a couple of spare Apple keyboards, and even with the funny keymappings they're still nicer to use than most laptop keyboards, so I tend to plug in an old iMac keyboard to use on my fiancee's Toshiba laptop, and for the most part there aren't any problems in doing this -- except for the bottom row of keys, everything works identically.
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
has a bluetooth keyboard and mouse combo, here.
are there any other USB solutions beside D-Link's?
There sure are. I have a pair of Mitsumi WIF-0402C adapters that do not claim any Mac support whatsoever from the manufacturer but work perfectly with Apple's Bluetooth software.
I got mine on eBay for about $20 each back in January from a guy in NYC who had a ton of them, but apparently the only Mitsumi Bluetooth adapters up for auction right now are being sold by people based in the UK.
I also know Belkin makes a USB Bluetooth adapter. I don't know the price, but considering how Belkin charges out the ass for everything else they make, it's probably not cheap.
Five minutes of googling will probably turn up reports of a few other brand names that people have tried with Macs.
~Philly
I'd rather Apple do it right, than be first. Microsoft's BT keyboard is reputed to suck.
Hint: If you have to use MS's BT adaptor, you might as well not make it BT. What were they thinking? "Oooh! My foot! What a great target! Allow me to shoot it, a lot of times."
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
" 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?"
No, it's not pointless; because it *is* a keynote. You seem largely ignorant of the definition of the word keynote. Because keynotes are what set the tone (music reference) for the rest of the expo (expos are where all of his keynotes are given at; if he gives a speech that isn't a keynote at an expo, it's called a "special event"). His keynotes are the principal speech and gives the first tone to the expo. Hence what he gives are keynotes and they perfectly fit the definition of the word for all occurrences.
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.
Here's why 1 button is just as good or better on a laptop even when you need to use 2 buttons:
- Left hand: The button is close enough to the ctrl key that you can easily hit both with the same hand. Ring/pinky on ctrl, thumb on the button, index on the trackpad. You may have to hop around a bit, but after you get the hang of it, it's second nature.
- Right hand: Middle finger on the arrow keys to scroll text/webpages/whatever, thumb on the button, index on the trackpad. Same deal as above. If this were a 2-button setup, with button 1 on the left and 2 on the right, you wouldn't be able to easily hit button 1 with your right thumb and your fingers on the arrow keys, unless you put your left hand down on ctrl to reverse the buttons (and that would suck), or unless you had really big hands.
I think you overestimate the pain-in-the-ass factor of the one button. Yes it's a pain for the first week or so, but then you get used to it and it's fine.
and more to the point the very real possibility of Half Life 2 on a Powerbook
The very real impossibility... HL2 is a totally new engine and is pure DirectX 9. Porting it to OpenGL and the Mac environment would be a total nightmare, take years, and would probably end up running slow.
Doom3, on the other hand, is a totally different story. Hopefully there'll be plenty of games using that engine in the future. (Granted there are lots of games on the Q3 engine, but that sure hasn't helped the mac game world much).
In a related note, anyone notice how slow Tony Hawk 4 is on Mac? Ugh, what an awful port.
Also check Amazon. They've got 17 pages of Mac games.
Get off it with your elitism.
Okay. Let's go with realism. I've used both Apple and PC-based (mostly IBM and Dell) laptops and desktops for the past few years. Let's see how they stack up.
LAPTOPS:
On Apple's portables, control-clicking is EASIER than having a two-buttoned trackpad. When I want to reach down to click, I do so with my right thumb, as the heel of my hand pivots to the left slightly, and my thumb extends in that direction. If I want to pop up a contextual menu, my left pinky hits Control as I click with my right thumb. This is very easy and intuitive. Having a two-buttoned trackpad would force me to move my thumb into an awkward position in order to do this.
DESKTOPS:
Apple's current mouse design does not permit two buttons without introducing severe usability issues, and, really, as you can get a multiple-buttoned mouse (with a scrollwheel if that gets you horny) easily enough, this isn't nearly as much of an issue.
...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
Apple provides a Dvorak layout with (at least) 10.2, it's in SystemPrefs. You still have to move the keys around yourself, or buy a USB Dvorak keyboard - if such a beast exists commercially.
Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1992-1951
I wanted to replace the mice, but they were worried that conventional nice would look tacky with the kiosks. I tried to get them to buy the hard-to-find MS "Special Edition" IntelliMouse that coordinates with the iMac, but they were worried that something third-party wouldn't look as good.
Not whining; it's just reality, yo.