MacWorld Expo!

[QuiteSure]

Re: I am a potential switcher

Originally posted by Bali Cockfight
What is meant by "tabbed browsing"?

Tabbed browsing occurs when 2 windows are open and a "tab" at the top tells you what is going on in each of them. There is usually a keystroke you can type to jump from one tabbed window to another. It's better than having 2 windows open at the same time because the tabs of all open tabbed windows are always visible.

Safari does not have tabbed browsing, but it does have a nifty "snapback" feature that allows you to enter a URL, click on links to browse and then click on the snapback icon to go to your first window. You can also easily set a window to become your snapback window. According to some reports that I've read since the Keynote yesterday, Apple decided to use snap back and fast page rendering instead of focusing on features such as tabbed browsing. After spending a few hours with Safari I feel that the choice was a legitimate one.

Make the switch. OS X is amazing. I have 16 apps open right now (768 mb ram) without any performance impact. I need absolutely no additional software to find Windows machines on my network: they appear magically through the power of Rendezvous. My only regret is that I bought a refurbished 12" iBook in November for what I thought then was a very good deal: $999, 700 mhz, combo drive. I would gladly have spent another $800 to get the G4 12" powerbook. Oh well, the iBook is still awfully sweet!

 

[jettredmont]

Re: Re: More great Safari fun!

Originally posted by justdavid


I'd really like to see that sort of hotkey setup for switching between tabs. Unless Mozilla has one, and I've just managed to miss it...


D.

Mozilla might. Phoenix (Win/Linux only) does. Chimera apparently doesn't.

 

[Doctor Q]

Re: Re: I am a potential switcher

Originally posted by QuiteSure
Safari does not have tabbed browsing, but it does have a nifty "snapback" feature that allows you to enter a URL, click on links to browse and then click on the snapback icon to go to your first window. You can also easily set a window to become your snapback window. According to some reports that I've read since the Keynote yesterday, Apple decided to use snap back and fast page rendering instead of focusing on features such as tabbed browsing. After spending a few hours with Safari I feel that the choice was a legitimate one.

I disagree. Snapback handles the push-down-stack model of web surfing, where you follow links (e.g., from a Google search results page) and want to get back to that point. Just as often, I want to open multiple sites and switch back and forth among them. For example, if I want to comparison shop at MacMall and MacZone, I want two windows or tabs so I can go back and forth. In either of them, I might use Snapback to get back to a starting page, but I still need either separate windows (harder to manage) or tabs (easier to manage).

I consider Snapback to be a convenience for one set of situations and tabs to be a convenience for another set of situations. It shouldn't be either/or. They gave us one of the features; we want both.

 

[BWhaler]

Re: 12" powerbook blues

Originally posted by blueBomber
alright, heres the deal... I'm a new switcher, and I ordered a 12" powerbook as my first ever os X machine (my previous mac was an old 604 that was a hand-me down). Seriously, is the specs and performance of the 12" PB supposed to be that bad? .... C'mon, I'm a nervous wreak over here! Ugh, nobody said switching would be easy, but my stomachs in knots because of comments like this.

BlueBomber,

Don't worry, you have made an outstanding purchase.

I was the one who previously posted that I used the 12 inch PowerBook at the Expo, and thought the negative posts were not something to be worried about.

I was at the Expo again this morning and played with the machine again. It is a beautiful piece of hardware, and I had a ton of applications open doing all sorts of things with them, and I think the speed is more than acceptable. I haven't made a final decision, but after using it, I am 90% sure this will be my next purchase.

Finally, welcome to the Macintosh family. As you said, Switching isn't easy, but as issues come up, keep coming back to these boards with questions and issues. You'll find people are more than enthusiastic to help in any way they can. You won't look back to the PC World.

--BWhaler

 

[justdavid]

Originally posted by mangoman
I'm getting away from gadgets, lately, but, as a thirty something dude who doesn't use a cell phone (yet), your menu of goodies is right up my alley. An 'all-in-one' device' with a good battery-- and able to be dropped.

Yeah.

That oughta do it.

(hmmm. deez nuts are soundin' tasty!)

Droppable? How about run-over-with-a-car-able? Or so the guy at Radio Shack claimed, about one model that's about as thick as a half-dozen credit cards. It wasn't much more than a phone, though, so I didn't buy it.

I'm not into gadgets at all, but I've been think that it's about time to research a PDA.

I don't use my cellphone much, but I'm really glad to have it, when I do.

The MP3 player and FM radio for entertainment aren't quite as important to me as the AM radio (because the state DoT broadcasts highway alerts on AM stations), and the weather stations (for obvious reasons).

The digital camera's just about the only fluff on the list, but I have run into a couple of situations in the last few weeks where I really wanted a camera.

So.

I either look for an all-in-one device, or I talk to the nearest police officer about where I can buy a belt that'll hold all of that crap.

Hadn't heard about the Sony Ericsson P800. Looks like a contender as well, though I didn't look at it long enough to see if it has the radio-reception circuitry.

Even with a good battery, I don't know how shock-resistant anything would be if it meets all the other items. The more things on the list, the fewer options from which to choose...


D.

 

[QuiteSure]

Re: Re: Re: I am a potential switcher

Originally posted by Doctor Q
I consider Snapback to be a convenience for one set of situations and tabs to be a convenience for another set of situations. It shouldn't be either/or. They gave us one of the features; we want both.

Yes, I agree; I want both too. Thank you for your comment.

The next question will be: is there any performance hit to be taken by including tabbed browsing?

 

[banjoboy1979]

did anyone notice...

the silent drop in price of the high end ibook? went from $1,599 where it was two months ago when i bought it, to $1,499. this computer couldn't really be a better deal now...

and again, i'm waiting for the benchmarks to see if the now $300 difference in price is worth it...

 

[justdavid]

Originally posted by artistry


I remember feeling the same way after leaving college (Mac Plusses with OS6) and being given a PC with Win 3.x on it. No true fonts, and a bizarre colour scheme, files listed (no folders etc).

Parallel not obvious though...

Safari making IE look like a bad beta, parallels (at least in my mind) MacOS making Windows look like a bad beta.


D.

 

[QuiteSure]

Problems Working

I know this is somewhat off topic, but does anyone else out there have trouble getting work done the day after a keynote?

 

[justdavid]

Re: Problems Working

Originally posted by QuiteSure
I know this is somewhat off topic, but does anyone else out there have trouble getting work done the day after a keynote?

What, isn't it obvious?


D.

 

[blueBomber]

Re: Re: 12" powerbook blues

Originally posted by BWhaler


BlueBomber,

Don't worry, you have made an outstanding purchase.

I was the one who previously posted that I used the 12 inch PowerBook at the Expo, and thought the negative posts were not something to be worried about.

I was at the Expo again this morning and played with the machine again. It is a beautiful piece of hardware, and I had a ton of applications open doing all sorts of things with them, and I think the speed is more than acceptable. I haven't made a final decision, but after using it, I am 90% sure this will be my next purchase.

Finally, welcome to the Macintosh family. As you said, Switching isn't easy, but as issues come up, keep coming back to these boards with questions and issues. You'll find people are more than enthusiastic to help in any way they can. You won't look back to the PC World.

--BWhaler

I'm hoping so, since I'm going to be doing some serious graphic design work for school on it.

Thanks for the welcome, I'm hoping I'll be here for a while

 

[ryan]

Re: Re: Re: 802.11g

Originally posted by chetwilliams


You are right and yet so wrong. Yes technology does march on and some things will be outdated. However, this is not one of them. The Airport card for iBooks/PowerMacs/15" TiBooks is just an Orinoco PCMCIA card with the antenna pulled off and replaced with a connector for the integrated antenna's included by Apple. There is no reason for Apple to not provide a new PCMCIA card that supports Airport Extreme. There are plenty of vendors out there that would sell it to Apple with a nice Airport Extreme logo on it (and would probably right some drivers for Apple too).

In fact, there is every reason for Apple to allow older users to buy a new Airport Extreme capable card:
- There would be a lot of people who would buy a new card and Apple could pocket the ~$30 profit margin for these. No card, no purchase.
- There would be a lot of people who would go out and buy a new Airport Extreme Base Station. The majority of these purchases would be replacing existing Airport Base Stations. Apple pockets some money on these too. Now, the kicker is that there is absolutely ZERO reason for most people to replace there existing Airport Base Station with the Extreme version. Why, you ask. Because if there is just one non-Extreme Airport laptop around the base station throttles down to the old 11Mbps speed to remain compatible. You lose the entire reason for upgrading (discounting the wireless bridging and USB printer sharing which I don't think are big enough reasons for most people to shell out $200). This means that even if an organization bought a bunch of new 17" PBs, it still would not be worth it to get AP Extreme if they have any legacy laptops since you can't pop in a new AP Extreme card in those laptops.

Everybody is right to be upset about this. It is just a bad move because it gives a huge reason for not going AP Extreme. The only reason that Apple could be using to justify it is that people will go out and by these new laptops because of AP Extreme. That is ludicrous. These new laptops have a lot of cool features but I am not going to go shell out $3300 just so I can have a 55Mbps wireless connection.

So following your logic when Apple first released Airport 3 1/2 years ago for the original iBook they also should have released PC Cards that worked with the then current generation of PowerBooks (Lombards?) or some sort of USB/serial/SCSI to Airport adapters to sell Airport Base Stations?

From a sales/marketing/support point of view:
Don't you think Apple would rather have people buy new Macs (hardware) which have the new technology as opposed to spending resources developing, and more importantly supporting, new technology on old hardware?

From a technical point of view:
The new Airport Extreme i.e. 802.11g, at least Apple's implementation uses a mini-PCI connection architecture, not the slightly modified PC Card architecture that the previous Airport employed. Granted, the reason for this change might have been to force people to upgrade their Macs but that again goes back a sales/marketing/support point of view.

As for spending $3300 to take advantage of AE you could only spend $1800 on the new 12" PowerBook.

As an aside I do find it odd that the 15" TiPB was not updated to include AE, DDR RAM, Bluetooth, etc, that the new 12" and 17" PowerBooks have. Hopefully we'll see those features added to the TiPB in the near future.

 

[mangoman]

Originally posted by justdavid

I either look for an all-in-one device, or I talk to the nearest police officer about where I can buy a belt that'll hold all of that crap.

LOL

Hadn't heard about the Sony Ericsson P800. Looks like a contender as well, though I didn't look at it long enough to see if it has the radio-reception circuitry.

Thanks for the reference. I'll take a look...

Even with a good battery, I don't know how shock-resistant anything would be if it meets all the other items. The more things on the list, the fewer options from which to choose...
D. [/B]

I'm gonna get blasted for mentioning this, but I fondly remember my faithful G-Shock watch: surfed with it in salt water, etc. almost every day. Why can't somebody develop that same kind of protection for an ultraportable? (OK. blast away)

 

[BOOMBA]

iDVD3

Originally posted by paulwhannel


iLife... wow. I'm going to get a DVD burner ASAP, i never saw the point but i'll find a reason to use it, those menus were phoenominal. Never seen anything like it.




pnw

Did Steve (or the website) say anything about iDVD3 supporting any burner other than a built-in superdrive?

 

[Abstract]

In case any of you were going to buy a 12" ibook, a "Helper" at the Apple.com Discussion Board has already had a 12" iBook in his hands, and says that its hot. Not hot as in, "Wow, that's a hot lookin' laptop!!!" I'm talking about temperature and heat. If you're going to buy a portable laptop, I'd go with the 12" iBook for now. You only need a 12" Powerbook if you're desperate to use a Superdrive while on the run, or use your Sony-Ericcson mobile phone and bluetooth. Of course, you also probably would not need a superdrive because you probably have a desktop Powermac at home if you own a 12" laptop of any kind, since a 12" laptop could not serve as a desktop replacement. Well, it wouldn't be adequate, would it? If you were replacing your desktop completely, you definitely would not get the 12", but the 15" or 17" instead. I don't see a need for a 12" powerbook when they have a perfectly good laptop, the 12" iBook and entire iBook line, that could use some of these innovations like Airport Extreme. It can serve those who want an ultraportable laptop. This type of laptop is strictly for portability while you're not beside your desktop. If you really wanted to do graphics work, then you would probably opt for the larger 15" or 17" screen, right?

 

[mangoman]

Anyone wanna make an offer on my ol' azz PBG4/400mhz? It's got 768 of RAM, and a 20 gig drive. Excellent condition.

 

[sedarby]

970? Who says?

When did Apple officially announce that the next processor will be the IBM 970? I see a lot of assumptions but no hard evidence that this is the path Apple will take.

Anyone care to post a link where Apple or any of its representatives stated their next processor would definitely be the IBM 970?

 

[dorleac]

questions about new PB17/12 design

Okay, I knew this was coming. Everyone told me in November that there wouldn't be another upgrade for a long time, but I held out.

Now I am wondering...

I remember reading speculation in the past about two issues/features that might be resolved/introduced in a Powerbook redesign. Since we have the new AlumiBook, perhaps this stuff is here or coming soon...

(Please forgive me if I either misinterpreted or misunderstood the rumors or if these issues were already resolved. I don't currently own a Powerbook, but have been waiting patiently for the right moment to buy.)

1) Employment of a Mac patent on a new heat-dispersement design for laptops with different placement of heat sinks, different metals used internally, etc. to aid in better cooling of the machine.

2) Variable bus timing where the machine would use power according to how many apps, what screen brightness settings were being used, etc. thereby saving battery life.

Anyone know if these things were included in the design of the new PB(s) or if they're still coming?

Please keep me posted if you hear anything.
Thanks.

 

[artistry]

I *like* the Safari interface!

I seem to be in a minority here - I think the UI of Safari is simplicity itself. Very neat, no space wasted, probably the first app to make the metallic interface look nice, looks like a grown up browser - IE's icons look like buttons on a toy in comparison.

For a beta, this is great. My online banking doesn't want to play, but I've sent a screenshot to Apple and I expect it will be sorted soon.

 

[artistry]

Re: 970? Who says?

Originally posted by sedarby
When did Apple officially announce that the next processor will be the IBM 970? I see a lot of assumptions but no hard evidence that this is the path Apple will take.

Anyone care to post a link where Apple or any of its representatives stated their next processor would definitely be the IBM 970?

Macrumors.com - the clue is in the title

 

[wdodd]

Re: iLife Problem IMO

Originally posted by TRAUT
Also, please tell me the cool music composing site Steve used to demo Safari.

Loop Labs Very fun to play with for short intervals, and a very cool and innovative use of Flash (IMHO).

 

[artistry]

Jobs on desktops

Just caught this quote at Thinksecret.com of Steve Jobs being interviewd on TV today:

Jobs acknowledged that portables will be an "area of growth" for Apple in 2003, but said, "We've got some good things up our sleeve in the desktop area too."

 

[pyrotoaster]

Originally posted by artistry

I seem to be in a minority here - I think the UI of Safari is simplicity itself. Very neat, no space wasted, probably the first app to make the metallic interface look nice, looks like a grown up browser - IE's icons look like buttons on a toy in comparison.

For a beta, this is great. My online banking doesn't want to play, but I've sent a screenshot to Apple and I expect it will be sorted soon.

You're not alone, I like Safari's UI, too.

The way it manages window space is great. I like being able to add and remove the status bar at will, and the bookmarking system is very well thought out.
I like the brushed metal look, because it really defines where the page is versus where the browser is.
I can see why some people might want to stick with Chimera for now (it won't be leaving my dock for quite a while), but Safari is really much much better than Explorer, and pretty darn good for a beta.

 

[sedarby]

Re: Re: 970? Who says?

Originally posted by artistry


Macrumors.com - the clue is in the title

\

Everyone, and I mean everyone refers to the 970 as if it is a done deal. The only thing that is known is what IBM has released which seems to reference their Linux machines and some other company but who knows it may be for embedded controllers for all I know. Although Apple has supposedly taken delivery of some samples of the 970 what is to say they haven't prototyped with other manufacturers processors.

I'm just saying that assuming Apple will use this particular processor may be very disappointing if they stay with Motorola or go with another manufacturer that isn't so obvious. I mean surely there are more manufacturers than IBM, Motorola, AMD and Intel?

 

[pyrotoaster]

Originally posted by artistry

Just caught this quote at Thinksecret.com of Steve Jobs being interviewd on TV today:

Jobs acknowledged that portables will be an "area of growth" for Apple in 2003, but said, "We've got some good things up our sleeve in the desktop area too."

I just read the article at Think Secret, and it looks like this is going to be a big year at Apple.