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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...
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.
Is it just me, or does the new wireless keyboard looks a lot like the old "Cassie" keyboard prototype? (white, almost frameless)
--
-Sid
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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
see people care about what apple does. No one gives a shit about dell
Here is the thing.... Apple product announcements are the only hardware upgrade announcements that have any relivance to the Apple community. The PC community has mulitple companies releasing new products just about daily. We get something new only every few months - so it is a bigger deal.
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.
>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
Actually the Pro Keyboard I got with my Powermac G4 THREE years ago has a seperate island for those keys. Apple's keyboards have had a standard layout for a while now.
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.
I saw this posted by an AC somewhere around /. and I think it sums it up fairly well..
Yes, Apple does get a better response these days... and why shouldn't it? They've clearly got a clue since OS9, and while not everything is open source, much of it is. They also seem committed to standards and interoperability. While Microsoft is busy mangling standards so that customers are compelled to buy other Microsoft products to assure everything works, Apple has become a vendor that actually cares about playing well with others.
If you think Slashdot is an Apple love-in without merit, go back and find praise predating recent versions of OS X. Slim pickings, I'd say.
I like big butts and I cannot lie.
As el reg stated, the once unique powerbook titanium is now copied widely. Fortunately Apple did not sit still. We now have a new design that will be copied.
Bluetooth keyboard and mouse? None else widely available. I know MS is supposed to have one, but a goggle search only points to vapor.
Apple has been and is the future of personal computing. They set the tone of coolness. Much like Versace or Prada, not everyone wants it or can afford it, but that does not mean that Gap, Target, and to a lesser extent wal-mart, won't copy it.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
"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
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
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?
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
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.
>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
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?
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?
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.
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."
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
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.