A lot of people flip out over tech when they bring it home, only to watch it collect dust or lost the sheen and hypro glow over time. I figure for most geeks, this time period is about 5 days.
For example, I bought my powerbook about a week ago. And this is the first day, I left it at home when I went to work. I was actually nervous my cat might somehow knock it off the desk onto the tile, or some other silly scenario.
But here is my impression of it, given some serious time to play around.
The heat: She gets really warm during a session of ripping cds to itunes, about half a dozen disks in - I feel like giving it a minute to cool off. Note to self, invest in a desk/lap riser to help dissipate heat. She gets warm but not to injury causing levels. Lets call this two to three cats worth of lap warming.
The screen: Everybody is going nuts now, over how when you stare at the screen you can sometimes see 5% brighter horizontal lines. First off, I cant see all that well. Second, it seems to only be bad in lighter blues. I dont do pastels... so my designs for richer colors seem to work just fine. In fact, I think the whole idea is what made me see the lines, so far no one I have shown it to can see them, and I cant see them anymore either. But its a great screen, I didnt but it for the screen, I bought it for the solid architecture.
The speed: a 1.67 g4 seems to be apt to do most any task, though its not as fast in photoshop as my g5, its no slouch. 1 gig of ram is probably the minimum for avid users, (not the software btw, you geeks), and the 2 gig limit is only held back by a rumor about higher memory configs clashing with the very needful Airport Express.
Design: I can only drool while thinking about this. So far, only Samsung and Panasonic have laptops close to this. Sony is shabby in comparison. Good thing for me and Apple, Samsung doesnt ship to the US and Panasonic is overpriced (well, they charge for the extra ruggedness I'd rather not need).
Price: I paid $100 bucks more for my PB to be configured the way I want out of the box at an Apple Store. The BTO version wouldve been less, because I wouldve killed the modem. But I got it immediately, and didnt have power at home, so I feel it was worth it.
Software: Being a switcher from I think 2002/03, whenver the G5 came out... I knew what I wanted on it and have found that the last few years have been good for mac users as far as the software library is concerned. I dont really dig on the differences between Panther and Tiger all that much, but all the girls seem to go AH when I used Dashboard. But, its just for them, I have a watch and living in florida, its either hot and sticky or hot and wet.
Portability: A lot of people have been on the fence about a 12 inch, trust me, its not that much bigger as far as the tote is concerned. The weight is the big difference, and one person said that their old iBook was heavier than my 15.2 pb. I am sure a scale might say otherwise, but its still very light and solid all things considered.
Comparison: I am a comparison shopper by nature. I was thinking about a Toshiba Tablet PC for about 800 less. But that screen was ghosting left and right and much darker, at 1024 x786 too. I know I got my moneys worth in that comparison. Also on the radar, the new JS series from Sony, right up until I remember about their new DRM, so **** that. And of course, those are PCs... IBM's (Lenovo) offerings are getting better with each release, and their fall 2006 dual cores (hopefully) will retire my Desktop Vaio.
Extras: Autodimming, scrolling trackpad, usb2 on both sides (reduces clutter), firewire 400 and 800 (hard to find on laptops), different performance profile for plugged and unplugged use. And I probably forgot something (preinstalled iLife 05!).
Conclusion: Powerbook is a classic laptop iteration, maybe not statistically the most powerful, but for a seasoned mac user, the most useful.
$
For example, I bought my powerbook about a week ago. And this is the first day, I left it at home when I went to work. I was actually nervous my cat might somehow knock it off the desk onto the tile, or some other silly scenario.
But here is my impression of it, given some serious time to play around.
The heat: She gets really warm during a session of ripping cds to itunes, about half a dozen disks in - I feel like giving it a minute to cool off. Note to self, invest in a desk/lap riser to help dissipate heat. She gets warm but not to injury causing levels. Lets call this two to three cats worth of lap warming.
The screen: Everybody is going nuts now, over how when you stare at the screen you can sometimes see 5% brighter horizontal lines. First off, I cant see all that well. Second, it seems to only be bad in lighter blues. I dont do pastels... so my designs for richer colors seem to work just fine. In fact, I think the whole idea is what made me see the lines, so far no one I have shown it to can see them, and I cant see them anymore either. But its a great screen, I didnt but it for the screen, I bought it for the solid architecture.
The speed: a 1.67 g4 seems to be apt to do most any task, though its not as fast in photoshop as my g5, its no slouch. 1 gig of ram is probably the minimum for avid users, (not the software btw, you geeks), and the 2 gig limit is only held back by a rumor about higher memory configs clashing with the very needful Airport Express.
Design: I can only drool while thinking about this. So far, only Samsung and Panasonic have laptops close to this. Sony is shabby in comparison. Good thing for me and Apple, Samsung doesnt ship to the US and Panasonic is overpriced (well, they charge for the extra ruggedness I'd rather not need).
Price: I paid $100 bucks more for my PB to be configured the way I want out of the box at an Apple Store. The BTO version wouldve been less, because I wouldve killed the modem. But I got it immediately, and didnt have power at home, so I feel it was worth it.
Software: Being a switcher from I think 2002/03, whenver the G5 came out... I knew what I wanted on it and have found that the last few years have been good for mac users as far as the software library is concerned. I dont really dig on the differences between Panther and Tiger all that much, but all the girls seem to go AH when I used Dashboard. But, its just for them, I have a watch and living in florida, its either hot and sticky or hot and wet.
Portability: A lot of people have been on the fence about a 12 inch, trust me, its not that much bigger as far as the tote is concerned. The weight is the big difference, and one person said that their old iBook was heavier than my 15.2 pb. I am sure a scale might say otherwise, but its still very light and solid all things considered.
Comparison: I am a comparison shopper by nature. I was thinking about a Toshiba Tablet PC for about 800 less. But that screen was ghosting left and right and much darker, at 1024 x786 too. I know I got my moneys worth in that comparison. Also on the radar, the new JS series from Sony, right up until I remember about their new DRM, so **** that. And of course, those are PCs... IBM's (Lenovo) offerings are getting better with each release, and their fall 2006 dual cores (hopefully) will retire my Desktop Vaio.
Extras: Autodimming, scrolling trackpad, usb2 on both sides (reduces clutter), firewire 400 and 800 (hard to find on laptops), different performance profile for plugged and unplugged use. And I probably forgot something (preinstalled iLife 05!).
Conclusion: Powerbook is a classic laptop iteration, maybe not statistically the most powerful, but for a seasoned mac user, the most useful.
$
