Apple Releases New PowerBooks

[MacTruck]

all im hearing is that the Al PB is a battery killer, but the apple site says it lasts a good 5 hours, obviously that depends on conditions but is the PB really that bad?

battery is important to me, a good few hours is all i need. but im slightly regretting pressing the "process my order" button

Put it this way, on a full charge a little over an hour into a dvd with screen on medium will totally drain your batter on a 1.5ghz. You might get an hour with 1.67 if that. SUre you can turn everything off and the screen on super low but whats the point. Using it sucks that way. You might get 1:30 with all settings set to off and low.

Maybe 2 hrs of regular word processing. Processing iMovie... 40 minutes.

 

[mcgarry]

...

Basically, are all the new features worth $450? On the one hand, 400 cash is nice and I STILL have a nice PB (albeit without the new trackpad, backlit keyboard, BT2, etc), but having the latest model is also good. What should I do? Looking for advice from people who know more about computers and good bargains than I do. Thanks.

- Jarrett

Just restating the obvious, but only you can answer this: are those particular new features/upgrades worth $ to you? Or would you rather have the same computer you were fine with 2 weeks ago for less $? Latest and greatest, or some extra cash in your pocket? Only your personal needs and budget can answer this.

 

[aswitcher]

Put it this way, on a full charge a little over an hour into a dvd with screen on medium will totally drain your batter on a 1.5ghz. You might get an hour with 1.67 if that. SUre you can turn everything off and the screen on super low but whats the point. Using it sucks that way. You might get 1:30 with all settings set to off and low.

Maybe 2 hrs of regular word processing. Processing iMovie... 40 minutes.

You eiher have a faulty powerbook battery or your making this up or you dont have the energy saver settings on - at least from my experience of the last 7 odd months.

I can easily get ~3.5 hours word procssing on battery power on my 17".

I have sat over 3 hours browsing the net at cafes with wifi, downloading and chatting away before I needed to get power again.

My wife has watched 90-120 minute DVDs in bed with no problems...with the wifi still on.

 

[MacTruck]

Hi, all. Looking for some advise. Here are the details.

Purchased 15 PB SD on 1/14 after no updates at the expo. Then they release the new PB... which is JUST past the 2 week return period. Sneaky. I called my dealer and I have the followign options.

1) They will re-emburse me $400 for the price-difference of my PB and what it si now as they try and clear stock.

2) Return it with a $250 re-stock fee, then, with that money and an additional $50, buy the new version of the PB.

Basically, are all the new features worth $450? On the one hand, 400 cash is nice and I STILL have a nice PB (albeit without the new trackpad, backlit keyboard, BT2, etc), but having the latest model is also good. What should I do? Looking for advice from people who know more about computers and good bargains than I do. Thanks.

- Jarrett

DUDE! Get your $400 back and get a mac mini. Dont waste it non features that don't mean anything. Trackpad is software you can download. Hard drive protection, don't drop your laptop. faster speed, means less battery life. Bluetooth 2.0.. Who cares. Get a mini.

 

[MacTruck]

You eiher have a faulty powerbook battery or your making this up or you dont have the energy saver settings on - at least from my experience of the last 7 odd months.

I can easily get ~3.5 hours word procssing on battery power on my 17".

I have sat over 3 hours browsing the net at cafes with wifi, downloading and chatting away before I needed to get power again.

My wife has watched 90-120 minute DVDs in bed with no problems...with the wifi still on.

Doubt it.

 

[Kenrik]

I can see 3 hours - 3:30 on a 15' my 12' Could get 5:30 with all the power savers on and the screen dim That guy with the (under an hour) is full of $%^& has never actually owned a PB or has a used one where the battery is worn down (batterys are only good for like 500 recharge cycles people it's a consumeable part)

 

[Lacero]

I'll need to get a new battery soon. The rubber feet on the battery fell off and it has been very distressing.

 

[bbyrdhouse]

6 years of waiting about to be over!!!

Well it has taken 6 years from when I was first wooed by the original imac until now, but I have finally managed to convince my wife that we NEEEED a PowerBook.

I will be buying the 17" with extra ram, 80 gig h/d, and wirless mouse.

I have read, re-read and read again all of the pro's and con's as to wether or not to buy a PoweBook now or later and I am not convinced that G5's will be out anytime soon and if I wait too long I wont have the money to spend.

Now how about Virtual PC 7, Is it worth it??? The one program that I can not live without that is PC only is Microsoft Publisher 2003. And the only thing that I find comparable on the Mac is Adobe Pagemaker, but it only runs under 9.1 or "classic". Maybe iworks will do the trick.

Can hardly wait to see the FedEx guy pull up into my driveway!!!

 

[evilernie]

The one program that I can not live without that is PC only is Microsoft Publisher 2003. And the only thing that I find comparable on the Mac is Adobe Pagemaker, but it only runs under 9.1 or "classic". Maybe iworks will do the trick.

I have never used Publisher, but I can tell you Pagemaker is virtually a dead program. I would get Quark xPress or Adobe InDesign, those are really the industry standard for desktop publishing (but they may be overkill for your needs).

 

[bbyrdhouse]

I have never used Publisher, but I can tell you Pagemaker is virtually a dead program. I would get Quark xPress or Adobe InDesign, those are really the industry standard for desktop publishing (but they may be overkill for your needs).

Well, Quark and Indesign would be a bit of overkill for my needs. I have InDesign now for the PC, but I have not used it more than about 2 times in the last 2 years.

Besides, it took 6 years to convince my wife of a PowerBook I don't think I will have much luck at saying "Oh by the way I'm gonna have to spend another $500.00 on a new program (Quarks pricetag is huge)"

I was hoping that Virtual PC 7 would be a viable solution, but it seems to be hard to find unbiased opinions on that subject.

 

[MacTruck]

I can see 3 hours - 3:30 on a 15' my 12' Could get 5:30 with all the power savers on and the screen dim That guy with the (under an hour) is full of $%^& has never actually owned a PB or has a used one where the battery is worn down (batterys are only good for like 500 recharge cycles people it's a consumeable part)

All the power savers turn on, screen dimmed to lowest no apps running, took out the extra ram, turned off blue tooth and wifi, no **** you will get 3hrs. Now turn all stuff back to normal and run it with a dvd. How much time you get? Thats what I thought, but then again you already know this. All you who say you are getting over 3-4 hrs on your 17in powebooks are soooo full of ****. You know who you are. Damn if I turn all that stuff off on my thinkpad I get 12 hrs of battery life.

 

[0098386]

...thinkpad...

nuff said.

anyways ive had a play around on my mates rev C PB and the battery was really good to me, full brightness, Macromedia Flash, iTunes... lasted a good 3 hours here too.
and cheers for the replies guys, put my mind to rest

 

[MacTruck]

nuff said.

anyways ive had a play around on my mates rev C PB and the battery was really good to me, full brightness, Macromedia Flash, iTunes... lasted a good 3 hours here too.
and cheers for the replies guys, put my mind to rest

Cool. When you get the 1.67 let us know the battery life. Anybody know when they are shipping or if anybody has one yet?

 

[FosterKanig]

I ordered mine first thing Monday AM, and it's still "open". I'll see it sometime next week.

You and me both. I ordered within the first 10 minutes and I'm still "open."

I should have picked an easier configuration.

 

[Dave Marsh]

Adobe PageMaker only runs in MacOS 9 and earlier. InDesign is the new replacement product, and offers an upgrade package for current PageMaker users at a "discount." Since you mentioned Publisher, it sounds as if the new Pages app in iWork would be adequate, just based on the demo that Jobs gave. But for $79, it's certainly worth checking out before suffering through VPC + PageMaker for Windows.

 

[reorx]

All the power savers turn on, screen dimmed to lowest no apps running, took out the extra ram, turned off blue tooth and wifi, no **** you will get 3hrs. Now turn all stuff back to normal and run it with a dvd. How much time you get? Thats what I thought, but then again you already know this. All you who say you are getting over 3-4 hrs on your 17in powebooks are soooo full of ****. You know who you are. Damn if I turn all that stuff off on my thinkpad I get 12 hrs of battery life.

With 2 batteries, and no 17" screen.

I get over 3 hrs on battery with bluetooth and wireless every day when I get home from work with it just on "automatic".

I suspect we have another troll on our hands... You're officially on the "ignore" list.

 

[astrochess]

Don't you mean "pickle = healthy" ? I mean, who would argue that cucumbers are healthy?

Thnx. Got it fixed.

 

[digitalbiker]

MacTruck is no troll

MacTruck is no troll. His battery useage doesn't sound that much different than mine.

I have a 1Ghz, Ti DVI. I have two different batteries that I use. If I do not turn my display down below 1/2 level, leave wifi on, and use the DVD drive for a movie, I get about 1.5 hours life.

If I try to conserve power and do not use the DVD, I get about 3 hours of life. If I run office, specifically Entourage or if I use Photoshop heavy, I only get about 1 hour +.

We use Sony Vaio laptops in the office, due to software requirements unfortunately, and they have brighter displays, run wifi, and those dang Pentium-M chips get 5 hours easy.

 

[jtimm]

I thought I read on this thread or another that when buying a mac from the apple store it was possible to negotiate for them to throw in something extra like some ram or another accessory. Has anybody had experience with this, and if so what is the best way to approach this when making a purchase?

 

[plinden]

All the power savers turn on, screen dimmed to lowest no apps running, took out the extra ram, turned off blue tooth and wifi, no **** you will get 3hrs. Now turn all stuff back to normal and run it with a dvd. How much time you get? Thats what I thought, but then again you already know this. All you who say you are getting over 3-4 hrs on your 17in powebooks are soooo full of ****. You know who you are. Damn if I turn all that stuff off on my thinkpad I get 12 hrs of battery life.

If you're not getting a lot of battery time on /your/ PowerBook, perhaps you should look into getting a new one. How long did you say you've had your PowerBook? How old is the battery? Have you been leaving your PowerBook plugged in?

I'm not sure how you would get 12 hours with your ThinkPad. I get <6 hours at the max power saving setting on my T40p.

By the way, could you explain how you got your hands on your 2GHz T42p, considering that I don't seem to be able to configure the T42p with a 2GHz processor on the IBM website ... not that I'm saying you're talking bull or anything, but was this a special-just-for-you-one-off?

 

[furio]

By the way, could you explain how you got your hands on your 2GHz T42p, considering that I don't seem to be able to configure the T42p with a 2GHz processor on the IBM website ... not that I'm saying you're talking bull or anything, but was this a special-just-for-you-one-off?

http://www.thinkpads.com/start.htm#New_T42_series_ThinkPad_models:
Ugly site, but there are a lot of different configurations for sale and the part #s if you wanted to check on the IBM site too.

I've also seen 2ghz+ ones many times on ebay.

Oh yeah, this is my first post. I'm a future switcher...just waiting for a good time to jump into an Apple.

 

[rgomer]

Although slightly minor...

I can see how some people are a bit upset with the new upates, however for those of us who intended on buying the previous revision but waited for the next update are for the most part satisfied, not only did we get faster PBs with a few new features, we got it for cheaper than we were originally going to pay. I for one am satisfied.

 

[DakotaGuy]

Oh but there is the problem, you have the 1ghz g4 with the 512 cache. The Tibooks have 1mb cache. Its faster man.

Not exactly right. Your TiBook has 256K L2 cache, mine has 512K L2 cache. True the TiBook had 1MB L3 Cache and the newer G4 processors do not have L3 anymore. Also, mine has a 167Mhz FSB, compared to a 133Mhz FSB on the TiBook and last the AL Powerbooks have DDR ram, even though it does not make a huge difference on the G4, faster memory is still, faster memory. I also know that the 7447 and 7447a series processors are built on a .13 process compared to .18 on the 7455 series which results in less heat and power draw and also allows higher clocking of the processor. I am not sure where to find the information, but I would assume that your 1Ghz TiBook with the old 7455 with the L3 cache is drawing more power then what you think. I am not an expert, but I don't see how the new Powerbooks are going backwards in technology compared to your TiBook.

Is it faster? Both of our Powerbook are clocked at 1Ghz, but mine uses the newer design. Take a look and you tell me if yours is faster?
http://www.barefeats.com/ibG4.html

 

[MacTruck]

By the way, could you explain how you got your hands on your 2GHz T42p, considering that I don't seem to be able to configure the T42p with a 2GHz processor on the IBM website ... not that I'm saying you're talking bull or anything, but was this a special-just-for-you-one-off?

I originally had 2 THinkpad T23 models that were identical. THey had screen problems after 2.5 years so I sent them in for repair. IBM support screwed the repairs up twice. I was plenty upset. IBM offered me 2 new computers for the problems. I asked for 2 Thinkpad T42p units model 2373-KTU. IBM sent them to me. Got 2ghz dothan on .90 nm with 2mg cache, 60gb 7200rpm HD, 1ghb ram on 1 chip, 128mg fire GL graphics, bluetooth, wifi abg. IBM support is the best in the business period.

 

[MacTruck]

Look all. The centrino laptops kick but all over the powerbook, BUT its not running osx and apple hardware is more fun. I was just stating that the new powerbooks suck alot of battery juice. Ofcourse there are some who deny this and thats fine maybe you got lucky. Turning everything off though to achieve the advertised battery life is bull though and thats all I am saying. You should be able to get roughly 4.5 hrs from you powerbook when doing non processor intensive tasks with screen at decent brightness. If any are in denial go to apple support and read up on it. The average aluminum powerbook gets like 2.5 hrs and thats it with normal use.