More Magnets in the Intel iBook?

[gnasher729]

Yeah, generally there are not any magnets you can find that will take ou the shields provided by the hardrive however if they were in direct contact (no shield which I cant ever see happening) it would take nothing. You have to remeber that the ironic thing is that things are stored in your hardrive by magnets.😱

You can place any ordinary magnet you can find directly on a platter, it won't make any difference. They cannot produce a magnetic field that is concentrated enough. To produce any effect, you actually have to switch a magnet on the harddisk surface; they are extremely small, and you need an extremely strong magnetic field concentrated on a tiny space to switch them. Anything you have at home would be able to produce a small percentage of the required force over a relatively large area, and it would have no effect on the data whatsoever.

 

[Moses:SonOfGod]

I can't seem to find it now, but someone in the forums a couple days ago linked to a review of the MacBook Pro that was by someone who apparently had no idea what he was doing. He dropped the MacBook to test if the power connector would really disconnect itself.

i.e. he did it backwards. Instead of yanking the MacBook, and made sure the MacBook didn't fall to the ground; he dropped the MacBook, and made sure that the power cord didn't yank out of the wall socket.... Ooooo-kay. I think I'd rather have the power adapter get destroyed than the notebook, but maybe that's just me...

ouch😱 .... did the laptop survive?

 

[Spies]

ouch😱 .... did the laptop survive?

It was stood on its end with the power connector pointing up, he tried to hold it there with the power cable, but as designed it released and it just flopped on the carpet.

 

[thebrain74]

wow

Um, I was thinking, the guy that tested the magsafe power cord, ya, I don't think he gets a Macbook Pro. I don't think he has the cranial capacity to be worthy of that powerbook. I humbly suggest that he should give it a better home, like with me.
(Please, please let it be me🙂

 

[Detektiv-Pinky]

Yeah, generally there are not any magnets you can find that will take ou the shields provided by the hardrive however if they were in direct contact (no shield which I cant ever see happening) it would take nothing. You have to remeber that the ironic thing is that things are stored in your hardrive by magnets.😱

There have been several documented cases in Germany where harddisks in notebooks got erased by magnets build in foldable tables in trains.
The German train company had build nice new railway cars that had foldable tables in the back of the chairs, so that people could use them to put their notebooks on. However, these tables were fastened by magnets which they had put in the table (not in the back of the seat). So when people put their laptop on these tables the strong magnet caused data loss on the spinning harddisk. They had to change all the seats of the cars.

http://www.heise.de/ct/98/08/016/
(The link is in German only)
They had measured a magnetic field intensity of 58 Milli-Tesla for the surface of the magnets and 17 Milli-Tesla in 10mm distance. When they asked harddisk producers these claimed that their products can stand between 0.5 and 1 mT (Milli-Tesla) under operation.


As long as the magnet are not so close to the harddisk this should not be a problem. I hope Apple puts the magnets for the power connector in the MacBook and not in the cord, this would prevent it to accidentially come to close to the harddisk.
However, from the supplied warning I guess they did it the other way arround.

😱

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[Spies]

Hard drives contain the strongest magnets known to man, I fail to see how a tiny magnet can cause dataloss. The cable will need magnets as well as the socket, so they can attract eachother.

 

[ScottB]

Getting rid off the latches would be nice. As long as it dosn't abruptly slam shut when it's closed slowly, and they don't loose their charge after being near other magnetic equipment or after time. Obviously it would be safe for the laptop to have these magnets, but it does seem kinda strange having them near a computer.

 

[beachboy89]

I hate the latch on my powerbook, it never closes on the first try, and some times it takes me 4 or 5 times just to get it to stay shut, so I think that the magnent idea is awesome and I cant wait to see what apple does with it😀

 

[legacyb4]

Just wondering how much even a single-core iBook would wipe the floor with my 12"/1Ghz Powerbook...? This is assuming looking forward to getting universal binaried within the next year or so for most daily use apps; if the numbers on a single-core are significantly better than the G4, I'd definitely consider it.

 

[milo]

Just wondering how much even a single-core iBook would wipe the floor with my 12"/1Ghz Powerbook...? This is assuming looking forward to getting universal binaried within the next year or so for most daily use apps; if the numbers on a single-core are significantly better than the G4, I'd definitely consider it.

Don't get your hopes up. There have been a few single core benchmarks, and they're nothing impressive. The big speed boost in the intel macs comes from having two cores.

 

[kntgsp]

Is it CRT or LCD screens that magnets mess with so much? And isn't having magnets so near electronics a bad idea? I'm just wondering, because I have no idea which components magnets affect.

 

[Spies]

Is it CRT or LCD screens that magnets mess with so much? And isn't having magnets so near electronics a bad idea? I'm just wondering, because I have no idea which components magnets affect.

LCD is unaffected by magnetic forces, it's CRT that uses magnets to aim onto the phospher.

 

[wannabeconvert]

I'd like to get a powerbook etc. BUT

I always had PCs and would like to consider an iBook/powerbook etc as an alternative for the new laptop that I'll need in the fall. I am not sure if it will do the things I need it to do, but I am sure it could be done and after a transition period probably better than a PC. So far so good.

What really turns me off though, is this whole magnet insanity. Magnets destroy things. I've seen it. I had my expensive mechanical watch in repair once because it came to close to a strong magnet in a document holder. Another magnet in a phone holder destroyed my keyless entry to my building not once but twice. So why would I want to have (probably strong) magnets in a laptop latch and powerchord that I will carry around in a backpack etc together with credit cards, keyless entry cards, storage devices - and my watch again right there where I want to rest my palm while working?

Weren't Macs originally machines for productive people and not fashion statements? Does anyone here know where to find data on how strong the magnets are and where they are located (not that it would make much of a difference probably)? I am disappointed. I think this is goign to turn out like the iPod that I really really wanted and didn't buy because it sounded so bad (like any MP3 device...)....

 

[gopher]

I always had PCs and would like to consider an iBook/powerbook etc as an alternative for the new laptop that I'll need in the fall. I am not sure if it will do the things I need it to do, but I am sure it could be done and after a transition period probably better than a PC. So far so good.

What really turns me off though, is this whole magnet insanity. Magnets destroy things. I've seen it. I had my expensive mechanical watch in repair once because it came to close to a strong magnet in a document holder. Another magnet in a phone holder destroyed my keyless entry to my building not once but twice. So why would I want to have (probably strong) magnets in a laptop latch and powerchord that I will carry around in a backpack etc together with credit cards, keyless entry cards, storage devices - and my watch again right there where I want to rest my palm while working?

Weren't Macs originally machines for productive people and not fashion statements? Does anyone here know where to find data on how strong the magnets are and where they are located (not that it would make much of a difference probably)? I am disappointed. I think this is goign to turn out like the iPod that I really really wanted and didn't buy because it sounded so bad (like any MP3 device...)....

Powerbooks and iBooks don't have the Magsafe connector. If you buy an older Powerbook or iBook, you'll be fine. Just the Macbook Pro uses the Magsafe.

And mind you, I haven't heard of anyone zapping their Macbook Pro's with the Magsafe connector.

 

[cherfizzle]

i was looking forward to seeing a brushed metal enclosure like the powerbooks and macbookpros its so much better i think, but yay to the 13 inch screen, cant wait to see the prices for this baby

 

[wannabeconvert]

Powerbooks and iBooks don't have the Magsafe connector. If you buy an older Powerbook or iBook, you'll be fine. Just the Macbook Pro uses the Magsafe.

And mind you, I haven't heard of anyone zapping their Macbook Pro's with the Magsafe connector.

Hello gopher,

thanks for the input. The thing is that I would wait a few months. I don't want buy a "straight" mac, only one of the newer ones that can also run XP. And I would prefer a small one with a regular non-wide screen. So basically, from what I understand so far, I am waiting for a new iBook with an intel chip. You are allowed to call me crazy or ignorant - remember, I currently live on planet Windows, so what do you expect ;-)
And from what I read here and actually heard in an Apple store yesterday, the new ones will have all this magnet mania.
I am sure it would not do anything to the iBook itself, but I would certainly be concerned about my watches. The powercord would probably be out of the way for the most part or it may be relatively easy to get rid of the thing and build in a real plug. But the closing mechanism? That does not sound good to me.