MacTruck said:
I don't think it's unreasonable at this point to assume that you've made your point several times over.
This horse is dead. Stop beating it.
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Apple Releases New PowerBooks
- Thread starter sbb155
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I don't think it's unreasonable at this point to assume that you've made your point several times over.
This horse is dead. Stop beating it.
MacTruck said:
Hardly the truth. Its just your experience. I get over 4 hours plus a day on my 12" at medium brightness and bluetooth on, doing the typical office stuff: email, spreadsheets, word processings with a little (honest 😀 ) surfing thrown in for good measure. I can watch well over 2 dvds at 3/4 brightness before having to think about recharging.
The battery life is easily enough to keep me happy and my collegues with nasty Dell laptops envious. It fulfils my needs and the vast majority of peoples needs out there... and to me it does sound like the battery on the PB you've used sounds duff....
All IMO of course, which will differ from person to person. Just don't be casting your experience as "the truth"...
Don't feel bad I exchanged...
Don't feel bad. I called the day they released the new powerbooks to ask for an exchange (I ordered mine the Monday before, so 7 days on the nose) and the lady (in india I assume by the accent) had no issue with doing an exchange. She gave me an RMA and all and they received it back at their warehouse yesterday. *But*, I have two issues now.... I requested an upgrade to a superdrive on my otherwise base model 15". And, I now have no idea when I'll get my new laptop. I haven't received an e-mail pertaining the new laptop or money in my account indicating there was a confusion in the request. So, I guess I'll have to wait and see. If I don't hear anything by Monday I guess I'll call and see what the situation is.
Oh yeah... and I am leaving for a vacation (hopefully not a working one but with my luck it will be) on the 17th so I really do need it to come in by then. I guess it's time to pray to Jobs. 🙂
Don't feel bad. I called the day they released the new powerbooks to ask for an exchange (I ordered mine the Monday before, so 7 days on the nose) and the lady (in india I assume by the accent) had no issue with doing an exchange. She gave me an RMA and all and they received it back at their warehouse yesterday. *But*, I have two issues now.... I requested an upgrade to a superdrive on my otherwise base model 15". And, I now have no idea when I'll get my new laptop. I haven't received an e-mail pertaining the new laptop or money in my account indicating there was a confusion in the request. So, I guess I'll have to wait and see. If I don't hear anything by Monday I guess I'll call and see what the situation is.
Oh yeah... and I am leaving for a vacation (hopefully not a working one but with my luck it will be) on the 17th so I really do need it to come in by then. I guess it's time to pray to Jobs. 🙂
MacTruck said:
My reply did not suggest you weren't telling the truth. I simply think that your drum-beat like argument that "the centrino laptops kick butt all over the powerbook" has run its course.
Thanks for playing. Let's retire the subject. Please.
Dave Marsh said:
vpc is painful at best. its bloated (a microsoft product), badly written, and expensive ($400 for the standard edition with an XP licence i believe). consider that in comparison with the adobe or quark software (both reputable companies with good programmers). no contest.
BATTERY LIFE
My Panasonic W2 (12" XGA) originally ranged from 5-6 hours for light use to 2.5 hours for watching DVDs at max brightness (more recently it's been getting half that as the battery nears the end of its usable cycles).
However, that is an exceptional battery life for such a lightweight model (2.8 pounds with the optical drive) and Mac laptops seem to be generally on par with PC laptops as far as power consumption and battery watt-hour ratings go. The G4 is not as efficient as the Centrino, but that difference is minor compared to the power requirements for the rest of the laptop's components (LCD size, brightness, hard drive and DVD use, etc).
POWERBOOK DISADVANTAGES
My biggest disappointments with the powerbooks are:
1) Their resolution is too low for the screen size. I can get 12" and 13" 1280x800 Windows laptops (Dell Inspiron 700m and Sony Vaio S-series, for example) and 14" 1400x1050 (Panasonic Y2).
2) The 12" powerbook is heavy. I like small, lightweight laptops and the powerbook weighs 65% more than my W2 while having similar hardware. Even the Y2 with its 14" screen weighs only 3.3 pounds (including optical drive!). While the W2 and Y2 are exceptionally lightweight, both the700m and S-series mentioned above weigh also only 4.2 pounds. On the plus side, the 15" Powerbook is significantly lighter and thinner than most 15" Windows laptops.
SONY S-SERIES, WINDOWS VS OSX
I seriously considered getting the S-series (its XBrite screen is truly stunning), but two things stopped me.
1) Once you add DVDR, a faster CPU, memory, XBrite, etc it's more expensive than the powerbooks (w/ educational pricing).
2) Windows vs OSX. Windows is temperamental in a lot of ways, and wifi and power management are two of them. I've run XPPro on several laptops and I sometimes get disconnected from WAPs for no apparent reason (often requiring me to disable and re-enable wireless to fix... this is with newest wifi drivers and SP2). Then there's hybernate and standby... sometimes they work properly and sometimes they don't. When I open the lid, the Windows laptops I've used will resume from standby in 2-4 seconds 4-out-of-5 times, but that other time it can take 10-20 seconds... and hybernate outright failed to resume so often that I stopped using it. I've never seen an iBook/Powerbook not resume in less than a couple seconds.
ORDERED A POWERBOOK
I decided a couple weeks ago to get a Powerbook for work and held off until the rumored updates were announced. I ordered a 15" 1.5GHz, superdrive, 1GB earlier this week (woulda gone with the 12" if it had backlit keys and was lighter).
6 months ago I had no Macs (even though I'd been itching to play with OSX for years). Since then I've bought an iBook for my wifi an, a G5 iMac for my son (well for me too), two Mac Minis and a Powerbook for work.
My Panasonic W2 (12" XGA) originally ranged from 5-6 hours for light use to 2.5 hours for watching DVDs at max brightness (more recently it's been getting half that as the battery nears the end of its usable cycles).
However, that is an exceptional battery life for such a lightweight model (2.8 pounds with the optical drive) and Mac laptops seem to be generally on par with PC laptops as far as power consumption and battery watt-hour ratings go. The G4 is not as efficient as the Centrino, but that difference is minor compared to the power requirements for the rest of the laptop's components (LCD size, brightness, hard drive and DVD use, etc).
POWERBOOK DISADVANTAGES
My biggest disappointments with the powerbooks are:
1) Their resolution is too low for the screen size. I can get 12" and 13" 1280x800 Windows laptops (Dell Inspiron 700m and Sony Vaio S-series, for example) and 14" 1400x1050 (Panasonic Y2).
2) The 12" powerbook is heavy. I like small, lightweight laptops and the powerbook weighs 65% more than my W2 while having similar hardware. Even the Y2 with its 14" screen weighs only 3.3 pounds (including optical drive!). While the W2 and Y2 are exceptionally lightweight, both the700m and S-series mentioned above weigh also only 4.2 pounds. On the plus side, the 15" Powerbook is significantly lighter and thinner than most 15" Windows laptops.
SONY S-SERIES, WINDOWS VS OSX
I seriously considered getting the S-series (its XBrite screen is truly stunning), but two things stopped me.
1) Once you add DVDR, a faster CPU, memory, XBrite, etc it's more expensive than the powerbooks (w/ educational pricing).
2) Windows vs OSX. Windows is temperamental in a lot of ways, and wifi and power management are two of them. I've run XPPro on several laptops and I sometimes get disconnected from WAPs for no apparent reason (often requiring me to disable and re-enable wireless to fix... this is with newest wifi drivers and SP2). Then there's hybernate and standby... sometimes they work properly and sometimes they don't. When I open the lid, the Windows laptops I've used will resume from standby in 2-4 seconds 4-out-of-5 times, but that other time it can take 10-20 seconds... and hybernate outright failed to resume so often that I stopped using it. I've never seen an iBook/Powerbook not resume in less than a couple seconds.
ORDERED A POWERBOOK
I decided a couple weeks ago to get a Powerbook for work and held off until the rumored updates were announced. I ordered a 15" 1.5GHz, superdrive, 1GB earlier this week (woulda gone with the 12" if it had backlit keys and was lighter).
6 months ago I had no Macs (even though I'd been itching to play with OSX for years). Since then I've bought an iBook for my wifi an, a G5 iMac for my son (well for me too), two Mac Minis and a Powerbook for work.
chaos86 said:
HUH WHAT?! VPC was originally written by connectix. I do believe it is still mostly connectix code. So if it were bloated & badly written it has been for quite a while. And the "Standard Edition" with XP is only $280 USD I do believe.
I do agree it is one slow SOB though.
Yes. Open means they are working on it.joe90 said:
I did have one buddy order his about 30 min before mine, on Monday AM, same configuration (he's the one that called me to tell me they are up), and his is shipping (he got a note on thursday via email).
This patience thing sucks, but I have waiting for this revision since October, so a couple more days won't kill me.
(Still says open) 🙁
Got it yesterday (Thursday)!!!!!
This thing is so cool! Everything works great and fast. I put an 1 Gig of memory bringing it to 1.5! It's extremely snappy and responsive. Love the new track pad, works great in PhotoShop too! The laptop works perfect on my wireless network at home.
Where I ordered:
Laptop from CDW, the ram from Newegg for $200, and the bag and screen cloth from Radtech. They all pretty much showed up the same time!
The cool thing is that I won't have to check the forums every 15min... I can normalize my life again... until the next... 😀
This thing is so cool! Everything works great and fast. I put an 1 Gig of memory bringing it to 1.5! It's extremely snappy and responsive. Love the new track pad, works great in PhotoShop too! The laptop works perfect on my wireless network at home.
Where I ordered:
Laptop from CDW, the ram from Newegg for $200, and the bag and screen cloth from Radtech. They all pretty much showed up the same time!
The cool thing is that I won't have to check the forums every 15min... I can normalize my life again... until the next... 😀
What about local availability?
First off- long, long time reader- first time poster! I'm planning on making the switch to the world of apple within the next couple of weeks. I'm at a point in my life where I want to simplify things (I just turned 23 🙄 ), and I know that the best place to start is with my home computer.
Question for all you verterans: With the new powerbooks being announced this past monday, about how long until they arrive in the apple stores???? I know I can order online, but I'd LOVE to have and to hold this weekend whilst I sit on my rear and do nothing this sunday!
Everytime I try to call the apple store at lenox here in atlanta, I listen to a ring chorus for about 5 minutes and then hang up...and the 15 minute drive to the mall is just out of the question ! 😉
Any help/info would be appreciated! Thanks again!
First off- long, long time reader- first time poster! I'm planning on making the switch to the world of apple within the next couple of weeks. I'm at a point in my life where I want to simplify things (I just turned 23 🙄 ), and I know that the best place to start is with my home computer.
Question for all you verterans: With the new powerbooks being announced this past monday, about how long until they arrive in the apple stores???? I know I can order online, but I'd LOVE to have and to hold this weekend whilst I sit on my rear and do nothing this sunday!
Everytime I try to call the apple store at lenox here in atlanta, I listen to a ring chorus for about 5 minutes and then hang up...and the 15 minute drive to the mall is just out of the question ! 😉
Any help/info would be appreciated! Thanks again!
iDeclare said:
Well, the store has delayed the 12- and 15-inch SD models to 5-7 and 7-10 days, so they aren't even meeting demand for online orders. It will probably be some time before the Apple retail stores have them, and even longer for other resellers. Some may have received early shipments, but when they sell out, they're out, and it'll be a waiting list, just like the Mac mini and iPod shuffle.
My guess is at least 2 more weeks, but that's not qualified by anything, really.
MacTruck said:
Hate to add fuel to the fire, but i agree with you. I have a 12" Powerbook and I've never heard of anyone being able to play 2 dvd's and getting the battery life Piarco75 is reporting.
I think the point is that everyone knows that the powerbook line up is not industry leading anymore, that isnt to say the hardware is bad. Its just not industry leading in teh same way the old tibooks used to be.
I think when the line up goes dual core G4 or G5 then things will change for the better again, till then I think apple is having to do the best they can to keep an ageing processor marketable. I'm sure apple could have upgraded the line up a long time ago to reflect whats currently on offer, apple are just trying to stagger the upgrades to keep sales from drying up.
One thing that does confuse me though, is why tablet PC's seem to get better battery life than both mac and pc laptops. Anyone know the answear? and dont flame me, I'm just talking about what I've expereinced and not making a sweeping statement for all tablets and laptops
jay
shipping
Actually, FedEx Ground was my only option. They didn't let me upgrade or anything. Of course, since I just ordered it three day ago and it shipped today and is scheduled for Monday delivery, I can't complain too much. 🙂
Ysean said:
Actually, FedEx Ground was my only option. They didn't let me upgrade or anything. Of course, since I just ordered it three day ago and it shipped today and is scheduled for Monday delivery, I can't complain too much. 🙂
Shipping
Yeah I ordered mine on Tuesday afternoon and got a notice saying it would be here on or before the 7th. But I just got emailed a notice that gave the tracking number from FedEx. It's still in Shanghai at the moment and isnt scheduled to get here till the 11th. Boo. 🙁
Yeah I ordered mine on Tuesday afternoon and got a notice saying it would be here on or before the 7th. But I just got emailed a notice that gave the tracking number from FedEx. It's still in Shanghai at the moment and isnt scheduled to get here till the 11th. Boo. 🙁
Build/version number question
So, to any of you luck folks who have already received one of these machines: What build/version number is it running? I'm assuming that it a custom build to support the scrolling touchpad and updated (however minimally) hardware.
So, to any of you luck folks who have already received one of these machines: What build/version number is it running? I'm assuming that it a custom build to support the scrolling touchpad and updated (however minimally) hardware.
Spuds6s said:
joe90 said:
You are basically right. It's 'open' until the computer has been manufactured and left the factory destined to your address, at which point the order is 'closed' and it has entered the shipping process.
I ordered a couple of hours after the announcement too (and I'm from the UK). My order is now closed and I've got a despatch notification, but like Spuds6s I am watching the tracking and my PowerBook is still sitting on the ground in Shanghai.
Knowing the way these things work, I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't move from there until next week at the earliest.
regards
Floop
j_maddison said:
I think it relates directly to the fact that tablet PCs almost universally have no optical drive (which draws considerable power--so in other words, there's no DVD test for tablets), and that hard drive access probably tends to be more infrequent. Without a keyboard or an optical drive, it's hard to imagine most people using them for extensive programming, 3D, or other taxing tasks that aren't primarily loaded into RAM or a disk cache. Part of that expectation is the use of lower-clocked processors and slower overall system components in tablets than in full-fledge notebooks, which again saves power. This isn't to say that there were/are no Tablet PCs with leading edge hardware in them, just that generally, you were looking at midrange specs. Couple that with the general lack of a keyboard (hampering gaming, 3D work, programming, and tons of other intensive tasks) and almost always non-existent optical drive, and you've got a low-power system that can run for quite a while. Some people might do Photoshop on them, though, and so PS-stress tests might be useful in comparing battery life.