New PowerBook G3 & the iBook

Krakus Irus wrote in with the alert that Apple has released the specs on the new Powerbook G3. Up to 400 mhz, USB, firewire, 20% thinner then the previous machines and two pounds lighter. 14.1 display-it looks nice. What we're waiting on is the news about the new consumer portable-that will be coming out today. Check the rumours about the new consumer book. Update: 07/21 03:19 by H : It's been announced. The new iBook-and it looks /really/ nice. Comes out in Sept. at 1599$US.

Comments

You're a geek

[binarybits]

Don't get me wrong, most Slashdotters are, including me. Being a geek isn't a bad thing. But most people are not geeks. And most non-geeks are happy to have a "toy" OS that gets the job done. They can do word processing, graphics, web browsing, email, and games, and that's about it. But that's all they are interested in doing. The computer is a tool. It's a very useful tool, but it's still just a tool.

Even those of us who do like to tinker with out systems from time to time still want to be able to hide that complexity when they need to get other work done. When I am writing a paper, checking my email, or playing Starcraft, my "toy" Mac OS works just fine. The interface is much nicer, it's much simpler to set up and use, and it's generally more productive. When I want to tinker, I have an old Mac on which I install LinuxPPC, and then I can tinker to my heart's content.

There's no reason non-geeks should learn to use vi, know a programming language, reformat a hard drive, or edit text-based configuration files. These tasks are not the least bit relevant to their lives, and are simply extra work. An oversimplified interface and glazing over of problems is a good thing for 90% of what people do with computers. If their computer crashes, it doesn't matter to them why it crashed. There's no point in giving them the gruesome details of what failed where and how. They'll just reboot and try again. If it continues failing, they switch apps and/or upgrade. They might run disk doctor occasionally, or ask a more knowledgable friend for help. But for the most part they just want the OS to do as it's told, even if they aren't using it as intended.

A good analogy is a car. For most of us, it's much nicer to have a simple dashboard that gives us a sumarry of what our car is doing than a window that let's us look and the engine and take measurements manually. The mechanically inclined might like rebuilding their engines, but for the rest of us, we are happy to think of our cars as a black box that needs oil changes, fillups, and the rest gets taken care of by the mechanic. Most peoples' lives do not revolve around their computers, any more than around their cars.

*sigh*

[EXpunk]

I used to be a die hard Mac person. I mean, right down to knowing every little detail about every machine Apple had sold since 1980. Someone need to know what kind of PRAM battery a IIFX used? I'd be yer guy. (2x 3.6v lith). So I really do like seeing these articles on /. and in the news.


But prices and the OS just really caused me to drift away. 7.5x was an absolute nightmare and 7.6 no real help. Bash 98 to your hearts content, I'll join you, but if I saw "An error of type 11 has just occurred" or "The application "unknown" has unexpectedly quit" one more time I'd have eaten my own spleen. From what I have seen this was around the time Apple really began to lose many of it's more loyal user base.


These new powerbooks look spiffy, certainly, and I really do hope that Apple gains a bit more of a foothold over M$. But with this snooty attitude that no matter what, people will continue to buy their product (not that M$ doesn't take the same 'tude) IMO they will never regain more than cult status. If the new consumer model has even a small amount of upgrade-ability (meaning more than just RAM) and if users will have more than just one OS as an option for them I would consider buying one for my niece.

I'm sorry though, but I just want to kick Mr. Black-turtle-neck-tofu-munchin'-sandle-wearing Steve Jobs right in the kiwis. I saw an interview with him and his wife and they talked about their being healthy vegetable-aryans, and his kid had done something really really good so as a treat Steve gave him a cup of fruit flavored tea. Tea? You're a billionaire, you cheap git, buy the kid a fucking bike ferchrissakes :-?.