Proud owner of new 12" PB!

[jackc]

Sorry to take up a thread here. My first Mac was an eMac that I bought last year, now I've decided to make a new PB my primary computer (which is also my first ever laptop). She's even more beautiful than I imagined!

I had some concerns about the screen size, but after using it for a while, I'm pretty sure I made the right choice. The screen does not seem too small. Now I'm wondering whether I want to go with an external monitor, or if that will just seem like an unnecessary hassle.

Now I've got to get myself a router and do some wireless action. This Netgear deal on Amazon looks too good to pass up. Every router seems to have its detractors, so I figure I'll give it a shot.

Two annoyances I've noticed with using a PB keyboard (or any laptop keyboard I suppose) compared to a regular Apple keyboard -- there's no real delete key like the one under "help", and there's no page up/down keys, only the arrow keys. I don't suppose there are keyboard shortcuts for these?

Thanks for listening!

 

[baby duck monge]

enjoy your new toy!

an external monitor is always a fun addition.

as for the page up/down... function (fn) up and down will have you covered. fn L and R are also home and end.

 

[CanuckGold_2002]

Congrats! Another user, (Neeja?) also purchased 12" PB and gets about 5 hours of battery life with airport on. Do you get the same kind of performance?

 

[Koodauw]

Awesome. Welcome to the 12'' PB club!

Setup an hot horner for expose (or use F9) and that screen will seem even bigger.

Congrats!

 

[Soc7777777]

Very happy with PC

right now im on a dell 300m the lightest and smallest computer i could find for a decent price (1200). But being a mac fan, i made my pc look almost exactly like a mac. As you can tell by the screen shot i am typing this message as i took the screenshot... i love macs, but am very very happy with this pc.. Good luck with your powerbook. Nevermind with the screenshot, my picture file is too large.

 

[AppleMatt]

Pressing "fn" and then "delete" will make it work as a forward delete key. As far as I'm aware there's no way to change the default action, like there is for the "F" keys in the Keyboard pref pane (I assume you've got the Rev C PowerBook so 10.3.3 is already installed)

AppleMatt

 

[jackc]

Aha, thanks for the heads-up on the fn key. I'll have to get used to that.

Congrats! Another user, (Neeja?) also purchased 12" PB and gets about 5 hours of battery life with airport on. Do you get the same kind of performance?

I let the battery run down to calibrate it, with Bluetooth and Airport on (but otherwise not doing much for most of the time), and got about 4:30 or so.

 

[QCassidy352]

I let the battery run down to calibrate it, with Bluetooth and Airport on (but otherwise not doing much for most of the time), and got about 4:30 or so.

I can only get 4:30 on my rev. B 12" if AE and BT are off and I'm not doing much... it's really more like 3:30 doing stuff. Sounds like the new G4s with their processor regulation are really working. (do the new ibooks use the new G4s? If so, their already-great battery life should be unreal!)

btw, I have that router you're looking at (but mine only does 102.11b... but really, why would I need g?) and it works great. I made the transition from wired to wireless seamlessly and have never had a problem. I highly recommend it.

 

[fredwick]

Two annoyances I've noticed with using a PB keyboard (or any laptop keyboard I suppose) compared to a regular Apple keyboard -- there's no real delete key like the one under "help", and there's no page up/down keys, only the arrow keys. I don't suppose there are keyboard shortcuts for these?

Thanks for listening!

page up=fn+up arrow
page down=fn=down arrow

 

[7on]

I say go with the dual monitor. Any ole' VGA CRT will suffice. Just put the display menu extra in your menu bar and you can "Detect Displays" and it should be cake. You can also just close the lid on the PB then unplug the monitor and walk away. When you reopen it, the pb will discover the 2nd monitor is not there and readjust itself (unlike PCs as I've seen). Also, if you plug in the monitor while the PB is asleep, the 2nd monitor should be available when it is waken up. You can also set your main monitor to be the external monitor when ever the pb is attached (Display preference and under Arrangement drag the menubar icon to the external display).

 

[Zaty]

I can only get 4:30 on my rev. B 12" if AE and BT are off and I'm not doing much... it's really more like 3:30 doing stuff. Sounds like the new G4s with their processor regulation are really working. (do the new ibooks use the new G4s? If so, their already-great battery life should be unreal!)

btw, I have that router you're looking at (but mine only does 102.11b... but really, why would I need g?) and it works great. I made the transition from wired to wireless seamlessly and have never had a problem. I highly
recommend it.

Same here, I get about 3:30 with AirPort on and about 3:45 with AirPort off when doing normal work. If I use my PB in a meeting and don't type constantly, I sometimes get close to 4 hours. It's really great that you get even more battery life out of Rev. Cs. BTW, the new batteries are interchangeable with the old ones. That's good news for us Rev. As and Bs onwners. When our batteries die we can get new ones and get longer batterie life as well. Although we probably won't get 5 hours because of different CPUs which can't reduce power drain as much as the current 7447A.