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Apple Updates PowerBooks
Tablespork writes "Apple this morning has updated the PowerBook G4. The new models feature 1.5 or 1.67 ghz processors, 8x superdrives, 512MB memory standard, Bluetooth 2.0, updated graphics cards, a sudden motion sensor, as well as a scrolling trackpad. Looks like we'll have to wait a little longer for the PowerBook G5."
the 15" and 17" can now drive 30" cinema displays!
And optical audio out on the 17"
Plus, brighter backlight, better prices and 5400rpm drives across the board.
Now where is my powerbook G5 damnit!
You can scroll with the trackpad now in an ipod esque manner. Of course many PC laptops have had scrolling built into the trackpad, this new feature on the powerbooks might prove to be interesting.
Ohh and it is different from other features by the fact that first of all, it requires both fingers on the track pad, secondly you can either scroll up or down, left or right, or you can scroll in a circle.
I dunno, but on the portables I dont find ctrl+clicking to be that bad mainly because one of my hands is already in that general area ontop of the ctrl key, and the other hand on the trackpad.
12" used to be $1599, now it's $1499.
Bluetooth 2.0+EDR 1 Gbit Ethernet on top models Firewire 800 Airport extreme (802.11g) is built in (no additional cost) My (2) employees have iBooks. Next time I buy them PowerBooks. Bert
The powerbook is neither small nor cramped. I prefer the keyboard on my powerbook to any desktop keyboard I've used.
The PowerBook has the best keyboard on any laptop.
SideTrack rocks. I'd recommend it as well. You can do more than just set the side to a scroll area. you can also set the corners to act as buttons when you tap them. I have one corner set up as a right mouse button so now I don't care so much that I only have a one button mouse on my powerbook. ;)
I have a 12" PowerBook, I love it. I was just on Groklaw and PJ admited she uses a PowerBook.
I would love a G5 laptop except for 2 things.
1: Battery life. All that heat has to come from an energy source, so unless you have jumper cables hooked to a huge Cat Battery, the G5 oven will not last long.
2: Heat. I have a Dual G5 PowerMac, and when CPU usage starts to go up, I hear all 6? 7? fans spooling up like some scene for the old movie "Strategic Air Command" getting a 50's SAC bomber ready for take off. This is not what I want in a lappy.
Besides, how fast does a lappy need to be. I love my PowerBook, and I'll bet everyone that has a PowerBook will say the same thing. It is a product that is just right, it really is.
Cheers
* Carthago Delenda Est *
Probably the same thing they have had in the IBM thinkpads for a while, where if it senses sudden motion (dropping, throwing, etc) it goes into a safer mode (park hard disk mainly). Won't do much to protect the screen unless there is an airbag involved somehow...
Apple's online store has a "Special Deals" section where they sell refurbs. You can also try Smalldog - they're a pretty reputable reseller of older / refurb gear.
Come to the University of Mars! Classes starting soon!
IBM Active Protection System
IBM Active Protection System is available on many ThinkPad X, T and R Series models and features an integrated motion sensor that continuously monitors movement of the ThinkPad notebook. Like an airbag's sensor, it can detect sudden changes in motion and temporarily stop the hard drive to protect your valuable data from some crashes due to everyday notebook accidents. This ThinkVantage Technology provides up to four times greater impact protection than systems without this feature, thereby helping to decrease employee down-time and reduce support cost.
It is a sad day when the 'innovators' at Apple have to resort to imitation of the PC world.
Um... the keyboard is NOT tiny. Hold a standard keyboard up against an AlBook, you'll see that the main keys are exactly the same width.
Yes, I suppose on the 17" they could have gone wild and put in full-height arrow keys, maybe even a number pad. But the keyboard is already normal size.
I'm more glad they finally installed the right amount of RAM: 512MB on a single stick. First off, no Mac should ship with 256MB, especially not a "pro" machine. Second, last year's high-end models came with 2x256MB sticks, which means you lose half of it when you upgrade. Adding a 512MB stick (for 768 total) was severely value-deficient, and unfortunately 1GB SO-DIMMs are still at a nasty price premium.
I think this is a deliberate choice. Apple seems to have the idea of an ideal DPI - see this page, which says "After years of experience, Apple engineers have discovered the ideal resolution to display both sharp text and graphics -- a pixel density of about 100 pixels per inch (ppi)." If my trig is correct, a 1680x1050 screen with a diagonal width of 17" has a horizontal width of arccos(tan(900/1440)) * 17" ~= 13", and a DPI of 1440/13" ~= 110, so this PowerBook is already over their ideal.
In the long run, Apple is clearly wrong - if you have high-resolution images and can scale them any way you like, there's no reason not to display that detail. But for now, scaling probably isn't a good idea. In addition to having to change all the software for it, you'd probably be upscaling slightly, at odd ratios. It would make the images look worse. And having more resolution but not rescaling just means that the icons are smaller and harder to see. I think Apple made the right choice for the short term.
I'm using a 17" PowerBook right now, and for what it's worth, I'm fairly happy with the resolution.
I had put in an order for a 15" powerbook, on friday, (I didn't believe in a G5book) and checking my order status today, apple upgraded everything in the order, and dropped the price. they even dropped about a week off the ship date. Pretty happy with them right now.
Looking at the specs for current Dell UltraSharp LCDs (link may expire), viewing angle is the *only* thing Apple's LCDs have over the UltraSharps. I know earlier UltraSharp models were not as good as the current ones but were still better than Apple's. The brightness and contrast ratio of the UltraSharps are superior to Apple's LCDs and I think for most people those are more important values than viewing angle.
I'm comparing them to Apple Cinema Displays because I haven't found good information about the 'Book LCDs but I believe they're comparable. I think folks would have a cow if the screen on a new PowerBook was noticably superior to a new Cinema Display.
Apple still is crippling the 12 " PB by not including
- Gigabit Ethernet
- FireWire 800
- backlit keyboard
OK the backlit keyboard just looks cool but why can't they at least make these optional?
I have a 15" but would have liked to have gotten the 12" if it had better specs. The only real advantage the 12" PowerBook has over an iBook is the dual screen capabilities. Even that can be hacked into the iBook.
I was in the same position as you when I threw caution to the wind and bought a 500mhz TiBook a few years ago..
:) and honestly I could use either on it now. One, two, scrolly.
I too thought that as a longtime user of OS's other than MacOS I wanted two mouse buttons...
and after six months with the powerbook I realised I wasn't using those OS's with the powerbook, I was using OS X, and the one button thing just clicked (pun slightly intended
I'd never have accepted that as possible before I got one though.
Don't count on that happening any time soon.
Apple still tries to appeal to the publishing and photo industries. They make a big deal about keeping their screens at 100 dpi no matter what the size or model.
apple care doesn't cover accidental insurance
...and that's all there is to it.
Two fingers is used specifically for scrolling quickly (e.g. tap the upper right corner of the pad, then the bottom right to get to the bottom of a page)
This is slightly different
Dragging one finger across the pad acts as a normal movement moition of the pointer
Dragging two fingers up/down or left/right will drag the scroll bar
...and that's all there is to it.
An earlier post proved the following link:
Best Resolution for Images and Words
The quality of the pixels you see impacts how you use your computer. After years of experience, Apple engineers have discovered the ideal resolution to display both sharp text and graphics -- a pixel density of about 100 pixels per inch (ppi). Other vendors may offer a larger monitor, but with less resolution, so you end up with fewer pixels, or a smaller monitor with a high resolution that causes eyestrain and headaches. Apple's balanced 100 pixels per inch format is optimized for images, yet allows you to easily work with text in email, Safari and sophisticated type treatments in layouts.
So that would be the reason why they don't make higher resolution displays.
--
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Free Flat Screens | Free Mini Mac
infested with jello like fishes no melotron wishes
I saw some full size keyboards on 17" laptops and I don't like it. Instead of having your hands front and center of the monitor you are slightly off to the left because of the numeric keypad on the right. This might not botter you or others but it bothers me and others enough.
Since the dual core freescale supposedly outperforms a G5 at same clock speed, I really would have liked to see the freescale in the new specs.
Not to flame, but I'm interested in where you're getting your information from (benchmarks, reviews, etc). I wouldn't be surprised at all to see a Dual Core G4 outperform a single core/CPU G5 when it comes to apps that are fully MP-aware (threaded properly). But I would be surprised to see a Dual Core G4 outperform a single core G5 on apps that are not threaded. I'd love to see some real world comparisons.
Remember just because it has 2 cores doesn't mean that it's twice as fast. It only means that there's the potential to do more at once if the software can take advantage of it through threading. Here's a great article that explains the problems/challenges software developers are going to face with multi-core CPUs.
Now I'd love to have a dual core CPU in my laptop and I'd love to program for it, but I image Apple would face some of the same challenges trying to get the dual core Freescale CPU into a laptop as they would in getting a G5 into a laptop, namely heat. A dual core G4 is going to be hotter and more power hungry than what they've got now. I'd love to see either the dual core G4 or a G5 in a laptop.
It works.
Free Flat Screens | Free Mini Mac
infested with jello like fishes no melotron wishes
Should Apple reduce its price on any shipped product within 10 calendar days of shipment, you may contact Apple Sales Support at 1-800-676-2775 to request a refund or credit of the difference between the price you were charged and the current selling price. To receive the refund or credit you must contact Apple within 14 business days of shipment.
To clarify, that is NOT a trade-in policy, it is a price-matching policy. You can't return something unless it is defective without paying a restocking fee.
I tried to do this with my 15gb iPod, which I purchased right before the current model came out. I tried to exchange it for a 20GB model that was selling at the same price as my 15gb was the week before. They wouldn't let me return it without paying a restocking fee, but they did give me about $50 back to match the markdown they gave to the remaining stock of 15GB ipods.
sudo eat my shorts
So I wonder if they actually have a new trackpad, or if they have simply updated their software?
BTW, you can get third party drivers to enable the features that Apple isn't using, and more. For example, SideTrack gives you vertical and horizontal scrolling, corner taps for more buttons, and more.
I've had the case on my TiBook replaced three times under AppleCare because of the cracking issue - each time they explained that "normal wear and tear or abuse is not covered" to which I responded "you mean I can't open to cover?" They would take it back with the catch that if they determined it was abused, they'd charge me. However, every time they replaced the entire case (body, bottom case, screen) for free. This also fixed the paint chipping issue.
The case design on the TiBook is not very robust. Otherwise, it's been a good machine. And every year, it looks like it's brand new.
this is my sig
The G4 is fine, but that's not the problem, it's the anemic 167Mhz bus which is the bottleneck with the G4s.
This sig has been deprecated.
The patent:
Filed: June 16, 2003Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck