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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."
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
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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?
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.
Actually I think they should've had an inflatable kitchen sink pop up when I press ctrl-option-delete on the keyboard, but sure, throw in that USB thing too.
Steve Jobs - kitchen sink and USB. Are you listening?
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.