My CTX AMD K6-300/128 MB RAM/3 GB drive laptop is obviously at the end of its life. I was in the "shopping" process for a laptop for 2 months now, and I considered a number of PC laptops, including the Compaq Presario 1525US. At the end, I decided to get the new 12" Powerbook, came in last week, and I am since then using it as my primary machine. Here is what I think about it.
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now why you ask apple has such high prices for such a bad system? A thinkpad with Win2k beats this thing with a cool cpu and a beautiful LCD, and no stupid scratchpad either
I was seriously thinking about one of these . . . but not anymore. Thanks for a fair and thorough review! As much as I want OS X, I think Windows XP Pro will have to do.
The FTP was still going on, and after a few minutes, suddenly the machine gone to sleep (I use the default time settings for power energy). When we tried to bring the machine up, it wouldn't come up. Black screen, and nothing else. The caps lock was still working, so the machine was not completely crashed, but it wouldn't awake no matter what. So, we had to hard reset it again and then we got over the painful fsck time to clean up the filesystem (no, don't ask me to put the journaling on, it is still experiemental).
I experienced problems like this, on repeated occasions. Most of them can be traced to the fix_prebinding bug which has been been plaguing my OS X experience ever since I installed Jaguar.
I have a habit of manually turning off my iBook's LCD backlight when I'm not using it (by holding down F1 until the backlight turns off) Sometimes I'll do this, leave for several hours, and come back and try to bring the backlight back up, only to find the system completely unresponsive. One night I came back, attempted to turn it back on, found it unresponsive, and so I went to sleep.
The next morning, I hit a random key on the iBook, and found the iBook's backlight had come back on. However, the system was completely frozen. The spinning beach ball was no longer spinning, but locked in the middle of the screen. Up in the corner the clock had locked at the exact time I had tried to bring the backlight up the night before.
I looked in /Libary/Logs/CrashReporter, and sure enough there was a new crash listed in fix_prebinding.crash.log, at the exact time I had tried to bring the backlight up, and one which had occured earlier that night.
The worst I've seen from a fix_prebinding crash cascade was being completely unable to even power up my iBook again. I was forced to unplug my iBook, remove the battery, plug it in without a battery, power it back up, power it off, then replace the battery.
Apple still contends that fix_prebinding related bugs aren't a bug in their software, but bugs in the software of 3rd party vendors whose software fix_prebinding is being ran on. This attitude is what frustrates me more than anything else, and I have been asking on the forums for a way to disable fix_prebinding if nothing else, and haven't received a response.
Eugenia, I suggest you look in /Library/Logs/CrashReporter and see if you can find a fix_prebinding crash which occured when you were transferring that file. At least then you can verify if that was the cause of the problem.
on the Washington Post review.
I do have airport extreme in it, and I cover that in my review.
Eugenia,
You seem pretty let down with the tiBook. When is it going on eBay? I know there are few frequenters of OSNews that would happily take it off your disappointed hands (including me) :p
I do not believe in auctions.
I need a laptop, I got this one (and that was my decision in the first place), so I will go all the way with it, until a hardware failure do us apart. 
Bashing my widdle iBook? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess, or something like that...
Anyway, I really must give a good lcd screen a try, my ibooks screen completely turned me off of CRTs, and I cannot imagine what a tibooks screen would be like. 14" ibook screen here, and I love it.
I want them to update the 15" tibook product line to have bluetooth, airport extreme, ddr, etc. But since Im not upgrading for at least a year I can wait. I just cannot come to drool over the 17" or 12" powerbooks, too small or too big for me =/
couple things about the article:
aren't the 12" and 17" powerbooks made out of aluminum?
and costed isn't a word, you meant just cost at the end there.
I have Red Hat running on two machines at home, and the fonts look a million times better on my 12" powerbook than they ever have on any version of Linux I've tried.
I've also crashed my 12" a couple of times when I was playing with beta IP over Firewire drivers. After I removed them....I haven't rebooted in days.
If anyone was discouraged by this article, I'd strongly reccomend reading a few more reviews before giving up. This is my first mac and I can't stand using my XP or Linux machines at all anymore.
p.s. Isn't the 12" powerbook made from aluminum, and not titanium?
Completely subjective review. Sounds like a big fat case of buyers remorse. Don't buy something if you can quantify so many things you think are bad about it. Don't buy and then bitch when it doesn't work out. It's like retail trolling.
Holly crap Bascule, you are (almost) right. That was the problem:
Date/Time: 2003-02-08 23:30:01 -0800
OS Version: 10.2.3 (Build 6H28)
Host: Eugenia-Loli-Querus-Computer.local.
Command: update_prebinding
PID: 499
Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE (0x0002) at 0x00000e84
You misunderstood. YES, OSX's font rendering is better, BUT with this LCD screen that the Powerbook includes, makes everything ugly and blurry. Plus the fact that OSX does not have something like Clear Type, degrades it even more.
>Completely subjective review.
I wrote my experiences with it as fairly and as sincere as I could. I wanted to have this machine, I have NOT felt remorse about it. But the screen could and SHOULD have been better. And the heat issue is something you can't really know before you actually use it.
I have heard alot of bad things about the 12 inch from buyers, Apple should pay attention to such reviews and try to fix it.
There is a fan in the 12" PB. It came on when it got really hot (and I mean really hot). It cooled it off pretty effectively.
I think you need to keep the price in mind. Before Macworld, I was on the verge of buying the tibook with the slot loading DVD burner (well, I was resisting and waiting). That was I think 2999 (maybe 2799). OK, so along comes this nice 12 incher for 1999 with the slot loading DVD burner. And I always wanted a G4 ibook anyways because of the smaller size. Also, Airport reception fixed. And bluetooth. SOLD
Like Eugenia said, it's just a hopped up iBook with a G4 for just a little more dough -- except she left out the DVD burner availability. That was key for me, because even though it's not a super fast burner, I can now use iDVD and I couldn't before.
Does anyone know if 17" has the better LCD screen than 12"? I wouldn't mind to buy 17" sometime, when I have the enough money. But, since it doesn't has the quaility enough to lay your eyes on the 12" LCD longer enough.
Anyway, great review, Eugenia!
I'm looking at this page on my XP machine and my Powerbook right now, and I honestly can't see anything ugly about the fonts on my tiny little 12" screen.
I have noticed a few pages where the fonts were less than perfect, but I would never call these "ugly." With your background in GUI design, Eugenia, maybe these imperfections were more significant to you than to most people?
Ryan, please _read_ the prevous comment of mine where I explain where the problem is coming from. It is mostly because of the LCD and the lack of Clear Type. My Cube and its CRT monitor show the OSX fonts *fine*.
BSDRocks, no idea about the 17" LCD, because I have not seen it. _However_ Steve Jobs said in the keynote that the 17" Powerbook is using the same LCD as the one used in the 17" iMac, so if this the case, I would advocate to get the 15" Powerbook instead...
im glad u love your new laptop
cause love is all u need.
Mandrake Linux, Linux for the people.
In the review, Eugenia stated that the 12" had a poor quality LCD screen. Does anyone know if this affects the 17" model as well? I really do have my heart set on getting the 17" model sometime next year, but if it has a poor LCD quality then there is no way i am going to pay $3,299 (USD) for it... I guess if it does, I'll go buy a Toshiba and put a *nix on it.. 
The fonts on my Redhat 8 Dell Inspiron look wonderful at 1600x1200. Maybe I'm missing out on the Powerbooks but it seems like I got a good deal at $1524 w/ the ATI Mobility 7500 64MB DDR video card, P-IIIM 1 ghz, 512mb memory, and a 40 gig hard drive. I wish my Dell was thinner and better constructed but the features and price won me over. I wonder if OSX will continue to be such a selling point as Linux gets better?
I didn't catch your latest post, Eugenia. Sorry about that.
Made new agreement with LG-Philips. This may lead to same 20" Widescreens for PC's now.
http://www.envestco2.com/macwhispers/0000022.html
Yes, OS X will continue to be such a selling point, even as Linux gets better.
Linux is a geek OS. When they are preparing it for the desktop, it is for the ENTERPRISE DESKTOP, not the HOME DESKTOP.
People complain about the application support on the Mac, on Linux it is even worse. No, we are not talking about the thousands of unix applications (mostly open source), which the average user has *ZERO* need or use for. Not to mention that so many of these applications are 'written for the authors' as has been explained oh so clearly during the usability arguments on this board amoung others.
The primary relevence that Linux has is for replacing low end servers currently running on big iron or MSFT. The Linux Zealots keep trying to insist that it's a much bigger deal than it really is. The trade mags do the same, just cause they are out of crap to write about.
Cheers!
- Kelson
I dunno, I bought an iBook a few months ago (700MHz, 12" screen, CD-RW/DVD, 128MB built-in) and I've found the LCD to be great. Maybe I'm just not as picky as eugenia, but I definitely find this LCD to be on par with, if not better than, the LCD in my previous Dell D266XT (also a 1998 machine). I slapped in an extra 256MB in my iBook and I'm not pretty satisfied with the performance. Chimera is sometimes sluggish scrolling really complicated pages, but usually it's fine. Loading apps is quick enough, and even Quake3 performance is satisfactory. Not blazing fast, but > 40fps at 800x600, which is good enough for me. It's an ATi 16MB something-or-other. Since I have a Dual Athlon Linux desktop to crunch to big stuff, this iBook has complemented it nicely. It's nice and small and was light on the pocketbook too.
Correct me if I am wrong, but arent faster hard drives going to take more power to operate? If true then it seems like a wise choice to go for power conservation over speed when using a portable computer with a limited amount of battery. Otherwise it seemed like a fairly honest review.
Don't know if you've changed this option Eugenia, but under System Preferences, there is the General prefpane. In it there is a option for Font smoothing style that has four options (Standard, Light, Medium, and Strong). By default, OS X has it set to Standard - Best for CRT. Try changing it to Medium - Best for LCD and see if that helps any.
I think it's a good idea, personally, that you have to remove the battery to insert the AirPort Extreme card. Prevents any power from running while you're inserting a Mini-PCI device in the system (I think the form factor is Mini-PCI). And having installed one in my work Al PowerBook 12", I think it's easier than installing a regular AirPort card in an iBook unit.
I just changed it to Medium, but I didn't see anything different. Do I have to reboot for the changes to take effect?
Eugenia:
Did you try altering the font smoothing preferences of OS X in the General preferences panel? That may (and I emphasize may) improve the font appearance for you.
Heat does really become an issue if you are doing processor intensive stuff with the processor set to full. Just doing simple browsing, word processing the system is nice and cool. Compiling a bunch of code for a while and the thing is a furnace.
I had the same "crash" Eugenia referred to... the disconnecting crash. This was after I wiped the machine to begin to make it mine. I'm a bit apprehensive to call it a crash since the mouse still worked and the stupid water drop kept going back and forth....
As for the screen, I find it better then the ibook's. For some reason, the font smooting comes preset for "best for crt"... duh. I changed it to best for flat-panel and also changed the font smoothing size to 10 (from 8). This leaves the print very nice. The viewing angle issue does kinda stink though.
The performance is very nice. Much, much faster then the 800 ibook. I don't have xbench scores for it since most of the time with it has been spent building my tool sets and personal niceties. However, the interface is nice and snappy (I too would like to see the mouse move a bit quicker though), code compiles nice and fast, music encodes really quick.
The build quality is just amazing... really unmatched by anything I have seen in the market place. The system is more "machined" then assembled.
The keyboard is also simply amazing.
I have the airport extreme installed, although it is only running at b speeds. The range does appear to be a bit less then the ibook, although I have not done side by side stumblers, there are area's in the house where the ibook showed full lines while the pb would drop a line.
I think the ibook does have better battery life then the pb.... I really haven't seen the indicator tell me that I have more then 3.8 hours. It's probably a bit early to tell as it really hasn't been pushed with the exception of the recommended drain.
It would be nice to have the 1mb L3 and it would also be nice not risk sterilizing myself if I'm compiling a large app with the thing on my lap. On the other hand, I'd buy it all over again, in a heart-beat.
an I book is still cheaper, my screen is great (ibook 600Mhz), and you save a cool grand! Get a desktop for the heavy lifting (an eMac, used dual 867) and plug all your scanners and junk into the stationary unit. All this for the same price of the powerbook..
I liked the review, maybe a little buyers remorse but for two g's you're gonna want to be wowed.
I just rebooted, same problem, in fact, I could say that fonts look even worse. I am telling you, it is not the font rendering that is in fault, it is the LCD screen quality. 
Now, I can see a bit red colors around the fonts, and this is *normal* for the sub-pixel rendering, however, for some reason, this just doesn't play well with this LCD screen. The red color should not have been visible.
I just ordered a 12" PowerBook yesterday, to replace my iBook (500 MHz). I like the iBook's LCD display and I also liked the 12" display when I tried one in a store last week. I always found it bright & easy to read with good color balance. I also didn't find the heat any worse than my iBook.
What is Clear Type? Is it more then just Subpixel rendering? Because OSX has subpixel rendering. If you have the developer tools installed you can use the Pixie program to zoom in on the text and have a look.
cks, don't buy an ibook. They are fine machines, but they are slow as I showed on the article. And G3s will soon enough be history for Apple, so you really want to have a CPU that the OS is optimized for. Better get this 12" Powerbook rather than an iBook.
Thank for the review Eugenia, I really the way you tackle some issues other users don't even notice until you mention it. I also have to tell people who are discouraged by this review to look at it this way. Eugenia has very particular taste. Give her new IBM notebook and she would kill it in her review, she is just like that and that's what the people like who visit the site all the time. Reviews are always subjective and even though they try to be as objective as possible some preconceived knowledge would always stay in the way of it. She like some things that others don't care, she doesn't care for other things that we care etc.
I know one thing about Apple notebooks, usually first impressions are not that positive at all, but the machine grows on you. I could discover some very cool things even after one year of continuous usage.
About the fonts:
I use strong for my LCD. Sometime changes doesn't not appear visible when you change that, but mostly after you restart app or even changing resolutions back and forth.
I've never seen any red around any fonts on my 12" powerbook. I changed the font smoothing to medium and limited it to size 8 the day I got it and I'm telling you that in comparison to every other machine in my house, these fonts look just as good, if not better in some cases.
I know that you are blaming the problem on the hardware but I just don't see it. Everything looks a-okay to me.
To see the red color, put font prefernces on MEDIUM and leave the rest on defaults (8 size for AA) and install and run the Fire application (fire.sf.net), which utilizes font size 9. Now check out the non-bold fonts on Fire (like the buddy names for example after you load an IM service for you), and you will see the fed color around the black-colored fonts of your buddies. You might to lightly turn a bit your LCD screen, but they are easily visible.
No, there is nothing wrong with my LCD btw. 
I can't speak about the 12" display myself too much as I have just seen it in the Apple store here in NY. However my friend (who is a partner in a PC store in Staten Island, went with me to the store because he is planning to buy the 12" Powerbook. He thought that the display was fine. He also thought that the cursor movement was too FAST at the preset speed (all the way up), and when I reset it to midway, he was satisfied.
As far as the 20" is concerned, I don't know what you are talking about, as it has been very well received in the professional photo. and graphics arts community, in which I work. The display seems to be felt as being better than the 22", which is very popular.
People seem to "hear" things which aren't always true. That's why the rumors sites are popular.
There is a good reason why different resolutions are used on different sized screens. I've seen the 1600x1200 16" screens, and except for a few purposes, the screens are too small for the resolutions used. Good for bragging, but too hard on the eyes for most uses, especially since changing the resolution is not really a good option. It used to be that 1024x768 was used for 17" screens.
I thought all new machines manufactured since the last couple of years were on USB 2.0. It is a long time since I remember seeing kit spec'd with USB 1.1.
I guess it isn't as important in the Apple world where everything is Firewire (presumably), but this would be unacceptable on any new Intel PC.
One note that may help your screen woes:
Open up System Preferences->General and at the bottom open the Font Smoothing Style pulldown and make sure it's set to Medium.
Hope that helps!
Eugenia, what colour profile are you using. If you are using default ColorLCD I see what your problem could be, I've found sRGB to have more natural colours and it's not as bright as some other profiles (System Prefs -> Displays ->Color tab)
I played with the color management too, to no avail. I tried all of them, and even the PC standard (which I found to be the best). I am still not happy with the performance of the LCD, it has different brightness and clearness on different places, and its response is slow. It is just a cheap a$$ LCD like the ones you buy at Frys for $250.
USB 2.0 has been proven to not even meet the speeds it is claimed to have. I have a 4 port USB 2.0 card in my G4 and its not any better than 1.1 for speed (USB 2.0 CanoScan LiDE 30).
My girlfriend just got one of the 800MHz 12" iBooks about 3 weeks ago and the screen is ok... it's not the greatest, but I'm used to the Powerbook screen, which is much higher quality.
However, it doesn't seem anywhere near as bad as what Eugenia is describing. As others have said, perhaps she has much more picky eyes than I do. I also use a Dell 1800FP 18.1" LCD screen at work that I hook up to my Powerbook and it's almost as high quality as the Powerbook screen, so in comparison the 12" screen is nowhere near as good, but for basic usage, it's just fine. My girlfriend is very happy with it.
As for the speed of the 800MHz G3, it's just fine. For mosthing things, it's more than quick enough (such as web surfing, word processing, DVDs, etc.). The only things I could see as being a problem would be 3D games (though Warcraft III is basically playable on it and that's a very CPU intensive game when you play with a lot of computer units), video editing, advanced photo editing, etc... which most people wouldn't be doing on a portable machine anyway. Of course the iBook isn't what I would call a desktop replacement, my 1GHz TiBook is only barely a desktop replacement.
>>USB 2.0 has been proven to not even meet the speeds it is claimed to have. I have a 4 port USB 2.0 card in my G4 and its not any better than 1.1 for speed (USB 2.0 CanoScan LiDE 30).<<
USB2 not reaching full speed isn't the point. Any new computer should have all usb2 ports. They are full backwards compatable. To make them usb2 takes basicly zero effort on the maker. Just because USB may not be fast as it claims (if you statement is true) it's still faster and USB 2 devises are out there in masses. People should be able to use them to their potential. It doesn't matter if Apple wants to get people to use Firewire there is way more USB product out there and that isn't going to change. They need to support whats out there not what they may want to. Not having USB2 on a newly designed laptop is just a flat out defect in the machine and apple.
The stuff I hook up to usb now - keyboard, gamepad, midi - it all works fine and there is no overloading. Hopefully more stuff will go bluetooth and less usb connection will even be required for things like PDAs, GPS, phones, even keyboards and mice.
So usb 2 is better for drives than usb 1. But if I am going to buy an external hard drive or optical drive, I sure as hell am going to buy a firewire one. There's plenty available, especially in hard drives. If I wanted something new here, I would go firewire 800, not usb. It's not as good according to numerous tests and it lacks sufficient power so you end up needed more power cords and transformers
I was looking into buying one of these and also noticed the heat problem and the fact that the LCD isn't as good as the 15 or 17 inch powerbooks.
One quick question, you did try turning up the trackpad speed all the way right? I find the 'default' tracking speed of the mice in mac's to be entirely too slow and end up usually turning it up all the way.
>One quick question, you did try turning up the trackpad speed all the way right?
Yes, I did. It is still as slow as I described. It is a driver problem, and it seems that the Apple guys leave it as is, because Mac always had slow mice, so they don't want to alienate their users. However, what they CAN do, is allow for more speed in that preference panel, so the rest of us can have faster movement.
Eugenia try this for your mouse, I used it before Microsoft released a prefs app for my IntelliMouse. Hopefully it will work with the trackpad.
http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=12205&db=mac
nice review btw
Sean
Well, I'm all set up here on my 12" PB for the rest of the evening.
Eugenia's review is great - she always calls them as she sees them, despite whatever anyone else thinks.
I agree with her on the Good. And, I can confirm the AirPort Extreme is fabulous. We have an AirPort Extreme Base Station too and it is tremendous. It has a USB port for printers, so I can print wirelessly now. Everything Aple is trying to do with Rendezdous is beginning to really come to fruition.
I have the full 640 MB RAM and Eugenia, it will be interesting to learn if any of your findings that could be affected by RAM will be altered when you put your 512 module in. I certainly agree that Apple should have had the base module at 256 MB, so you could pump it up to 768 MB. Shame on Apple for that :-)
I, fortunately, did not have the crash when sending the info to Apple, but it sounds like it is more than an isolated incident. I haven't had any crashes at all so far.
That left palm rest and bottom do get hot if you're doing certain types of things, there's no doubt about that. If you're just surfing, it takes a long time for it to really heat up, but then it stays hot.
I do not have the trackpad problem - at least not to the extent Eugenia does.. I do have it set at the fast setting. But, I guess it depends on how one uses it. To me, it seems like it's the rate of acceleration that is the key. And people do that in different ways. However, I would prefer not having to have it at the fastest setting to get it going as it is now.
Now comes the matter of the LCD. I always check that Displays preference for the right setting and have had it set for LCD's since I got it. I don't know what to say exactly. I don't have very good eyesight. I wear bifocals and have a pair of special "computer glasses" so I don't have to tilt my head up to read text. So, I may not be the best judge of this. I do know that Eugenia's right about this being the cheaper LCD. To me though, it looks great. The colors are vibrant, text is smoothed but sharp. I don't see any red. But, my eyes are not very sharp though. I'm very pleased with the display. I'm mad at Apple too for discontinuing the 15" Studio Display - what a beautiful screen it has. Well, I have two of them, so I shouldn't complain :-)
A very fair and thorough review by Eugenia. I'm glad I have this PowerBook - I think what Eugenia said is very true - better to get this than G3 iBook, with the G3 being pretty much a goner.
Brad, I agree with you about USB 2. Well, Firewire 800 blows it away, but that isn't the point. Apple has been deliberately dragging its feet on that. You'd think that having made the original iMac, which popularized USB, Apple would keep up to standards with it.
Well, Thanks for the review Eugenia. I was looking at the ibook the other day, as it really is a nice inexpensive way to get a newer laptop and OSX to boot. However, most of my in-store fooling around was getting the display to look OK. I was wondering if I was missing some settings (like contrast for example), but maybe not. Slow performance I can live with on a laptop (heck if my 486 had USB I could still use it), but a bad screen I cannot. Too bad, guess I'll see what the next ibook revision brings.
Sean, MouseZoom is fantatic!! Thanks for posting that!
Sean, thank you for the tip. Indeed, this utility made it more like it, but it ain't perfect. So, the poblem is that the OSX mouse driver starts to accelerate in the speed that you set on MouseZoom and on the mouse preference panel, *only* after you have reached a certain speed with your finger in the trackpad/mouse. Only after you reach that threshhold on how fast you move your finger in the trackpad, the acceleration you set up will take effect. So, for normal operations and precision and slow movement, the driver itself will have to change, because it moves at the same speed all the time no matter what you change... An additional slider should be added to the pref panel. Speed and acceleration are different things for mice. The BeOS mouse pref panel can control both speed and acceleration, entirely independantly.
I agree with everything you say except for the screen quality. Am I the only one who likes the new LCD screens? I bought an iBook three months ago because I hated the 15" PowerBook screen. To me, it looked darker and not as sharp. I also have a 15" iMac, and I see nothing wring with the screen quality. I believe Apple uses Samsung screens.
It must just be me.
Thanks for your review Eugenia. It hit on many of the points that were making me think twice about the 12" PowerBook. The major setbacks for me:
* No L3 cache
* VGA, not DVI
* No PC Card/CardBus
* No backlit keyboard (hey, it's a valid point)
* 1024x768
* No Firewire 800
* No gigabit ethernet
These are the points that make me think twice about this machine. I know that if it's properly fitted, it won't need all the future expansion capabilities. However, if I'm going to keep it around for a while, I want it to last. Also, my friend's been using one to prepare a presentation in Keynote (wonderful piece of software), and the screen just doesn't have the space. He was constantly showing/hiding the inspector, and moving palettes around (in Photoshop). I guess I'll wait until they update the 15" model (the 17" is just too big and expensive for me right now), or buy a PC desktop, and milk my Lombard for a bit more ...
Thanks again for your fair review. You always seem to hit on some points that I'm most interested to hear about.
-- Rob
I played again with the settings and the slowness of the LCD, the fact that it is terrible on quality, clarity, its very limited angle of view, all these facts remain.
I was able to make the LCD a bit acceptable by choosing again the colorLCD colorspace and by adjusting its brightness to a higher level. Still, that doesn't fix any of the above points though. ALL the other LCD monitors and laptops we have here at home, are all much better than Powerbooks'. If you have an iMac or an iBook you won't realize much of a difference as they all use the same quality LCD. Get a SONY notebook though, or a Sharp one, and you will see the difference when you scroll and update the screen, the clarity, the fonts, the angle of view...
Eugenia, you might want to consider this:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/27/0042256&mode=thread&tid...
Donate your old laptop to the KDE developers
Naah, I will keep it, as I don't have another usable PC laptop here (our SONY vaio only has 64 MB ram and it is not upgradable), and I might give it to my brother in Greece if I find no other use for it. That CTX laptop runs perfectly OS/2 and BeOS btw, all hardware fully supported.
Try getting a calibration program called 'SuperCal' (you can probably find it on VersionTracker). It's considerably better than what comes with OS X, and improved the screen display on my older 15" PowerBook. Obviously that isn't going to make the LCD on yours better, but it may make it as good as it can get.
I suppose I'll have to go and try the 12" PowerBook's trackpad now. I was just testing mine and I can move from the upper left to lower right in one swoop, at least most of the time--and that's 1152x768 resolution.
How long does it take to startup OSX and have it usable on the 12" with 256M?
BTW, I got a free epson printer and a Targus carry case with the purchase of the Powerbook. Too bad that the carry case is way too big for the Powerbook. Even the 17" Powerbook would have lots of free space in the carry case and move around a bit too much.
Takes about a minute here. Maybe a bit less, but around 50 to 55 seconds. I will need to time it to say for sure though. The fact is that my Cube boots faster while its 20 GB Maxtor hard drive is pretty even with this laptop's drive in performance (Cube's Maxtor drive is one of the slowest PC drives in its range).
Your eyes start hurting after 1-2 hours (!!), yet you use it all the time while you could be off so much better screen-wise...
Hi there,
this is a bit OT, but I would like to know if anyone has the same problem with his IBook than me. When my IBook (14''MacOSX 10.2.3) goes into sleep mode, after waking up it is not possible to do any network-stuff any more. ifconfig showes me that there is no IP which is related to my en0. And ping tells me there is no route to host. ping 127.0.0.1 works. Is there a possibility to restart networking without restarting the IBook?
Thanks
Anton
Yes, my eyes hurt on this LCD monitor. But this is a new toy I got here, you don't easily leave aside such a toy, do you?
I just read ALL comments on this topic and it seems that there are two groups:
- group 1 is happy with the lcd quality
- group 2 isn't
Eugenia, any chance you can try another NEW 12" Powerbook??? Maybe the screen problem is related to your machine...
Just a thought...
Take care,
Tek_No
Nope, my screen is just fine, there is no hardware fault. It is just a quality and performance and feature problem, there is nothing wrong with my LCD in particular. That's what this LCD can do, and it ain't good enough for me.
The ibook is a nice machine, per itself. I have been using one for a little more than one year, a combo (dvd + cd-writer) drive ibook 12" at 600 mhz. Its small size and good battery capacity made it interesting. As a BSD user, I tried OpenBSD and NetBSD and finally used OpenBSD on the little ibook. Everything worked almost fine except sound and apm support. The display, being able to use frame buffer, was very nice when using console with a small kernel custom font and screen but I finally choosed to go back to Intel based hardware, and I'm now using netbsd 1.6 over an X30 ibm laptop. The apm support is a must and apple has never, ever made the slightest move to tell developers about apm, sound (the sound being full digital on the ibook series) and various stuff. An interesting experience though. Several people saw my ibook machine (some Red Hat developers and other people at various companies) and they liked the set-up I used under console (you can have a look there: http://open.bsdcow.net/gallery.html - first picture on the page) but apple definitely keeps it closed and unless you're using (dead ?) macos or macos x they don't give a fuck.
Well, using BSD is also something else and restricting the whole value of this post. The ibook is nice if you grab the small ones. display is quite bright, and the machine is very friendly under BSD or Linux (better hardware support there, like apm).
Have you tried "USB Overdrive" Eugenia? It's a general purpose mouse tool, which can handle accelleration and speed separately I think...
i've got the 12" powerbook as well, and man you leave the computer sitting there doing nothing for a while and it's gets too cold. my palms feel like they're resting on a couple cans of soda. you gotta go rip some cds to get this thing warmed up.
other stuff:
LCD quality: better than the 800x600 ibook i replaced, so i'm happy.
crashes when transfering files: happened here too, but my old 10.2.3 ibook never crashed. hmmm.
The spec haven't been finalized, so if I'm all ready for wireless ethernet, I would probably get a a/b solution right now.. Besides, yeah, I have to agree with Eugenia on the screen. It sucks in comparison with other PBs, but compared with my HP laptop (which BTW is more than a year old), it is okay.
Personally, I find the screen okay. But my main problems with Apple laptops are
a) single mouse buttons. For desktops (something I would never buy from Apple), you can switch the bundled mouse for a Microsoft or Logitech (or some China brand) mouse. But on laptops, unless you are willing to use a external mouse (which is a no for travelling, at least for me), I would find it hard to use a single button mouse.
I don't care about the ease of use involved because frankly i want productivity. I want to press *one* mouse button to get to the context menus. Why can't Apple have custom built models having this? If they don't want it by default, they should at least have an option.
2) My secon gripe about Mac laptops is that I don't like any of the keyboard layouts. I like the 15" best, but there are laptops, especially from IBM and Sony, which has better keyboard layout. Eugenia may like her keyboard layout, but I don't really.
3) One of the biggest gripes against Mac laptops is the trackpad itself. On my HP and Compaq laptops, I'm rather use with tapping the trackpad to emulate a click. There is no such thing on the Mac. I find it rather inconvient to have one thumb on the button and another finger on the trackpad. But hey, I have Asian hands :-)
3) One of the biggest gripes against Mac laptops is the trackpad itself. On my HP and Compaq laptops, I'm rather use with tapping the trackpad to emulate a click. There is no such thing on the Mac. I find it rather inconvient to have one thumb on the button and another finger on the trackpad. But hey, I have Asian hands :-)
You might want to take another look at the preferences. Under MOUSE, you can set the trackpad to click, drag, and drag lock. Have been since System 7.
my 2 cents about the display:
The quality of the iBook screen was the MAJOR reason for me to by an iBook, about one year ago. It's better than any PC laptop I've seen...Also, I think the iMac has the best TFT screen I've ever seen on a computer in that pricerange. And since I am a network administrator, I have seen my fair share of TFT screens. So, I have to say, I completely and utterly disagree. The screens used in iBook and iMac are of very high quality. So say many other reviewers, so I am really amazed by this review...
Why not return the laptop and get something else?
Does anyone know where to get real info on these notebooks, like what LCDs are used? There are so many rumor sites, that there has to be one with facts.
You can set up OS X to accept tapping on the track pad as a mouse click.
As for the review, I think that this powerbook is great but not for that money. I am going to wait until it is Ģ800 on e-bay I think before i get one.
A truly outstanding review.
An object lesson to others.
Eugenia -
SuperCal is a must-have for you. With it you can adjust Gamma, Contrast etc properly which will make a huge improvement in font rendering on Apple notebooks. I used to hate font rendering on the iBook just as much as you until I used SuperCal. Also, like others noted - Subpixel rendering is an option in 10.2.x, the only thing I miss in Quartz' font rendering is hinting.
Then, the iBook and the G3: Being available for less than $1000, the iBook is a good option for people that are on a strict budget. Also, the speed difference isn't as big as you make it, it depends a lot on what applications you use. Many applications don't use Altivec and run just as fast on a G3 as on a G4. If you google for some benchmarks (yes, we all hate benchmarks, I know), depending on the application a 800MHz iBook can be even faster than the 12" Titanium.
In a test at <insert-a-mac-site-here>, the concluded that the iBook was actually faster than the 12" powerbook. (because of the extra cache I believe). So heck, what's going on here? :-)
Eugenia, I was wondering when you get your airport card, would you mind writing a review on it? I know this is much to ask, but I do value your clear unbias view on hardware :-) And I have been wondering how well does Apple's wireless card work with other wireless base stations...
-Masao
the AppleCare extended warranty is ridiculously expensive (especially considering how little the base warranty covers), it's over $350 for an $1800 laptop, thats just bullshit; applecare is priced according to the series your new computer is part of, so ibook/imac/emac applecare is much cheaper than g4Tower/powerbook, but the 12" powerbook is not -really- a powerbook (considering just the quality of the screen, it's an ibook with a G4 processor and some other faster components)
If the PB 12" is too hot for you, use this http://www.koolsink.com/product-tech.htm
Hopefully I've hesitated between the 12" and the 17" and decided to order the 17"
6 weeks to go before I receive my order ! (placed the order two weeks ago).
I think i've made the correct choice . Nice upgrade from my ooold Apple iMac Revision A ! (a 233 mhz), my latest laptop was a 386 SX 20 from 1991 ..
Where is JBQ working now? He must be doing good in his post-Be days, considering last I heard, you can't work in the US. It seems as if you've been turned into a Mac person over the past year or so, and so have I - I'm going to be buying a 17" iMac by the end of March.
A lot of the things you already knew in advance, so why did you buy the 12" aluBook anyway? (I'd go for the 15" at least, or else an iBook).
>3) One of the biggest gripes against Mac laptops is the >trackpad itself. On my HP and Compaq laptops, I'm rather use >with tapping the trackpad to emulate a click. There is no >such thing on the Mac. I find it rather inconvient to have >one thumb on the button and another finger on the trackpad. >But hey, I have Asian hands :-)
rajan: thats not true. There is a possibility in Preferences of MacX there you can define tapping on the trackpad as a mouseclick. I don't use the mouse button any more
I don't agree with Eugene's comment about the "cheap" lcds used in iMac and also in the new 20"cinema display. The quality of the 20" cinema display - despite of its low price - is considererd to be superior to the quality of the 23" cinema display!
How is it possible for Apple to offer such a great display for such a low price? Because of a deal they signed with LG Philips - Apple participates in R&D-expenses and gets the lcd's for about 500$ whereas other oem-customers have to pay around 1000$ to philips for exactly the same panel!
The 17" lcd display in the 17" AlBook is great. Have a look at the 17" iMac.
Daniel
Wow, what LCDs have you used in the past? I've got one of the 12" 700 MHz white iBooks and the screen is absolutely one of the best I've worked with. Now I haven't used any high-end Apple products, but I've used a large number of PC laptops from HP and Compaq and Dell.
Eugenia, you claim that the 12" powerbook uses a "cheap LCD" like the iBook and iMac, but then mention that the other powerbooks use "superior screens."
But the 17" powerbook uses the same screen as the 17" iMac. I've heard nothing but wonderful things about this screen from people who've seen it. Why would Apple cripple their absolute top-of-the-line machine with a "cheap LCD?"
Also, I've played with the 20" screen and it is wonderful. Much MUCH MUCH better than the 22", and arguably better than the 23". The color reproduction and color saturation are heads and shoulders above other LCDs Apple produces.
So I really do think it's possibile that you have a faulty powerbook, or at least one with a burned in screen. Maybe returning it, or going to an apple store and playing with other powerbooks will shed some light on the situation?
You repeatedly spelled it "Powerbook." It is "PowerBook." It makes the whole article read amateurishly.
don't forget that usb is not a point to point connection as firewire - it is a bus. consider having usb 2.0 with all devices connected to it being usb 2.0 except for one device (as for instance a keyboard or mouse). the resulting bandwith will be that of usb 1.1. not one single usb 2.0 device could benefit of it's broader bandwith!
if Apple offer usb 2.0 they should have at least two different usb busses (and you as the user have to be aware to which bus you hook up your usb 2.0 device, as the plugs are the same)
Daniel
I had many friends complaining that Apple is not using 5400 rpm drives. More rpm's directly results in more power consumption - the battery would last shorter
The factors to consider are the data throughput and the access times. The 4200 rpm drives Apple is using are very similar in these respects to the 5400 rpm drives
I have to agree. The LCDs used by Apple are in the upper quality range even in the consumer line like with the iBook.
So these problems regarding the reddish (!) LCD and the slow trackpad definitely sounds like either:
a)some hardware failure, minimal or major, you might not be able to recognize it on the spot
b) fatty fingertips and uncleaned glasses.
Right now I am running Windows XP Proffessional in VirtualPC with ClearType FontSmoothing enabled on an almost 2 year old iBook 500 and surfing OSNews with IE 6. The only red surroundings I can spot are with Windowsī ClearType technology. You clearly (!) can see the false colored pixel shading in Wondows, not in OSX. It just canīt be with Appleīs technology, as it is using greyshading only.
So, Eugenia, maybe youīre turned color blinded or twisted by watching too much ClearType, I guess.
What tha hack,
George
You say you were dropping frames... were you running off of battery power, or did you have the power cord plugged in? I have a G3/Pismo PowerBook that drops a lot of frames running a QuickTime movie if it is running off of the battery (low-power mode).
I know Apple changed suppliers for at least some of the LCD's they use not long before the new Studio Display and PowerBooks came out.. I don't know which though :-( What an interesting controversy though. I wish my eyes were better.
I am the proud new owner of a 12" PowerBook, and for the first week I was thrilled -- it's a fantastic machine with all the nice little touches that make one happy to own a Mac. BUT, this last weekend I went on a trip. I packed my laptop in my backpack, between two books, as I often do on trips. Sadly, when I took it out, it appeared that the power supply worked its way against the laptop and one of the books, and dented the top cover. The result -- the display's illumination is now oddly cracked, and the colors a bit screwed up. I have used Apple (and other) laptops for many years, and I've never had this sort of thing happen. Are the new generation of ultralight laptops simply less durable?
Eugenia,
I LOVE your reviews. You're the only reviewer I know of who tells the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I just read the Washington Post article mentioned on Slashdot which was a typical worshipfest of Apple with no integrity or objectivity. Your reviews are honest and helpful. Thanks. If I buy a 12" PowerBook, I'll know what to expect. If I had only read the other article, I'd expect perfection, and been very disappointed as a result.
You RULE!!
Thanks for a timely review. I'm still debating about which notebook to go with when the time comes, and have had trouble finding really useful reviews of the newer PowerBooks. This gives me a lot better feel for what to expect.
I have one of the original dual usb icebooks(500 Mhz G3) and my one comment about the screen was WOW. It was the best screen I had had on a laptop and I have had several laptops. I still use it the ibook and I am still impressed with the clarity. I have been wanting the 12" powerbook but was worried it wouldn't have the great screen the ibook does. After hearing it does I am set to order mine.
It seems to me that the pluses outweigh the flaws for this machine. I'd get the 17 inch, but I need something compact because I do a LOT of traveling all over (though I'm still considering the 17 inch because it's just a beauty!). If I get the 12 inch, I'd want the new 20 inch monitor for my desktop, to hook up to the 12 inch PB. The 12 inch say it supports 1200x1600, and I think the 20 inch is 1200x1680. Does this mean the 12 inch won't show up or show up fully on an external 20 inch monitor? Also, will it show up on this monitor with the PB closed?
Thanks for an objective review!
It's a decent review, but as a number of others have stated in previous comments, you may have problems with your LCD. I got a 400 MHz Pismo with a decent LCD screen, but I've always found the iMacs/iBooks much better.
I don't understand the people complaining about the lack of Gigabit enet on this model. How many users actually USE it? Besides most PCs including notebooks don't even ship Gigabit enet. But the real bonus is the $1999 AlBook with SuperDrive. I doubt there's any PC notebook that sells for $1999 with SuperDrive and the iApps software to do it the easy way.
I just finished reading this article and I cannot believe what I am hearing. For the same price you could get a hella PC laptop. Even if you are one of the Anit-Microsoft people out there, use Linux. I have a very hard time with many MAC enthusiasts because they do these kinds of things. They "put up" with things that a normal user shouldn't. For the same price you could have gotten a beautiful 15" screen, faster cpu, more memory, you name it.
"For those who didn't know, Apple is using two different models on their LCD products, one great quality (older powerbooks, Cinema Displays) and one crappy/cheap one (imac, ibooks, 12" powerbook and the new 20" Cinema Display (that's why it is so cheap and it even competes price-wise with the PC LCD monitors in the range))"
This is complete presumption and contradicts almost everyone's experiences on the Apple Cinema Display reader feedback forum on Macintouch.com: the 20" Cinema Display is the best display that Apple has ever released. Its specs even point to a better pixel pitch & brightness.
After using a Powerbook 15" and iBook alternately, along with seeing the 15" and 17" iMac, I really have to disagree with Eugenia's assessment. I've found these LCD's to be generally superior to most PC laptops, with some exceptions.
I got one to replace a blueberry iBook...
heat issue... can't argue about that, but it doesn't bother me that much.
screen? Screen is gorgeous, don't know what you're talking about.
Never crashes
Airport Extreme is awesome
No remorse here!
This review is a bit weird... Let's see:
LCD - I have never seen anyone complaining about the screen quality of Apple's computers. I can't speak of the 12" PowerBook but the iBook and the iMac seem very decent screens, but that's my view.
If you look at the Apple forums for the new PowerBooks there isn't one single complain about the quality of the screen and there are lots of people that come from the 15".
Only thing I've seen being pointed out in Apple's screens reviews was slow response time.
Speakers - "The sound coming out of the speakers is pretty good quality. Not as good as in the 17" model, ..." and then
on one comment you say "BSDRocks, no idea about the 17" LCD, because I have not seen it." (referring to the 17" PowerBook). What's up with that? You assume the sound is inferior or someone told you? Big no-no reviewing something based on expectations or something other people said.
G4 iBook - "The new 12" Powerbook is nothing more but an iBook on steroids with a G4 in it."
And then "But it would be glamorous, and fast, and wonderful and full-featured compared to the iBooks.".
Make up your mind, or maybe steroids means "glamorous, fast and wonderful and full-featured"?!
Hard Drive - "The hard drive the 12" laptop uses is not among the ones someone would consider fast hard disk for laptops.". I certainly haven't seen many laptops with 5400RPM drives. If you're talking about access time or transfer speed at least give us some data and make a fair comparision with some PC laptop in it's price range.
Video card - "Last point is the graphics performance. The machine includes a 32 MB GeForce4 MX 420. The 420 is the slow GeForce 4 model. And you can read here and here about what Carmack suggests about the GeForce 4 MX. Yes, for a laptop, this card is a _great_ solution, but this is a Powerbook we are talking about.".
Let me point out that there's no such thing as a GeForce4 MX
420. The card in the laptop is a GeForce4 420 Go, the GeForce4 MX is not a mobile card.
Look up the specs and products before writing or you're misinforming people. I wouldn't be surprised if happened at cnet, but would expect people here to get their facts straight.
And no, this is not the laptop to buy to play Doom 3 if that's what you mean. And that's what Carmack was talking about.
And yes it's a PowerBook, but it's a 1800$ one, go see what other laptops in the same price range have for a video card and you'll be very surprised.
If you really think it hasn't got what's fair for 1800$ why keep it? Is this some sort of buyer's remorse?
It seems like you're reviewing the machine in a void and point out flaws in an absolute manner without taking into account the price and it's competitors.
Your 450 cube is *NOT* faster then a 800MHz iBook. The 800MHz iBook is actually almost faster then the 12" Aluminum Power Book. (they are not titanium for all those calling them a TiBook, read the specs)
The G3 in the iBook is a far more advanced chip then the G4 used in the 12" power book. Not only does it have twice the cache, but it also uses a .13m process instead of a .18m.
As for the screen, the iBook and 12" power book dont use the same screen. My iBooks screen is plenty good quality, I have no quarrels with it at all. (its now 2 weeks old).
I, like many other posters, do not understand your issue with the LCD screen. If it has the problems you describe I would take it to an Apple tech. My 12" 600Mhz iBook LCD looks beautiful, bright and crisp. SuperCal is a great app to tweak the display.
Someone mentioned a problem of gaining network access once resuming from sleep. This was a common issue for many people using OS 10.2, I had the problem on all three of my Macs but the issue resolved itself when I updated to 10.2.3. If you haven't already, update to 10.2.3 and see if that solves your problem.
um, my new 14" iBook that I purchased 2 days has Clear-Type.
in fact my LCD is as sharp if not more so than my friends 15" Powerbook, and like another poster commented, I now hate having to look at CRTs after such a nice LCD.
when i went to purchase mine I couldnt choose between the 12" Powerbook or the 14" iBook. the 12" screen is what convinced me to go with the 14" iBook...12" is just WAY TOO SMALL.
why no love for the iBook? because its a G3 w/ 100MHz bus?
pfffft....
I keep hearing people say that Apples' oferings are slow compared to theeir PC counter parts. Would someone please help me put that in perspective? In other words, the new iBook is about as fast as a <insert pc specs here>. I dont have any stores near me to play with one, so I can't relate the two machines to each other.
Thanks!
I have recently bought (about two weeks ago) my first apple. It is a 15" Powerbook G4. I absolutely love it! The only thing I can say I was disappointed about was that the 15" comes with SDRAM, not DDR like the 17" and 12" models. To me it really doesn't matter. I have been running with the standard 256mb and I haven't had an issues with the speed.
I am suprised to hear that the LCD on the 12" model is not up to par with the larger 15". I almost pooed in my pants when I was checking out the 15" at the local Apple store. A 170 degree viewing angle is simply amazing.
Anyway, I was kind of disapointed to hear that the 12" had so many "issues", but you must consider your alternative: A 12" sony vaio. Those things are pretty, but they are certainly not as powerful as your tiBook, regardless how bad you may feel about it now.
"don't forget that usb is not a point to point connection as firewire - it is a bus."
Despite its name, USB is NOT a bus.
Just forgot to point out that complaining about ClearType is also not a valid point.
ClearType is a Microsoft trademark for their subpixel rendering technology so of course OS X doesn't have ClearType!
OS X has support for sub pixel rendering since Jaguar.
Apparently people aren't only brainwashed by Apple marketing, seems like MS is doing a pretty good job too.
Another thing is where this information about having crappy displays and good ones comes from? I follow Apple pretty closely and have never seen that referred anywhere...
My Powerbook also has problems coming back from power saving, crashing all the time. The bottom is so hot I almost want to cut a hole in the case to let the heat out. I thought the G4 was a cool running processor.
...'cause it must have been the smoke making you think it wasn't one of the sharpest laptop screens around, and the THT making your neurons think *everything* is slow. The 12" iBook screen (which is presumably the same LCD as on the 12" PB) is gorgeous. Bright, crisp, and as easy on the eyes as a beautiful woman. It's one of the iBook's greatest strengths, IMO. I can stare at it for hours and hours on end, and eye strain is never an issue. My eyes actually get hooked on it, and go through bit of withdrawal when I shut the lid. It's that good. Maybe you just need a new pair of contacts?
I am actually saving up for a powerbook G4 right now.. I'm actually going between an older 15in. Tibook for a good deal or a 12in. Albook.
I've used both screens and they seem quite alright to me. But I've seen problems like yours on one of my friends ibook. I simply cannot use her ibook for some reason, the screen just seems so subpar, as to the previous ibook models. BTW, she just got it 2 days before MacWorldSF. So, maybe they did change the LCD in the ibook and the 12in. AlBook recently.
there is a setting for changing the anti-aliasing under the "general" preference pane.
there you can chang the setting for a best read using LCD's.
Sarc
I have 4 LCDs here at home (IBM thinkpad, SONY VAio, CTX eZBook 800). I used 3 more in the past (toshiba laptop, Viewsonic lcd screen, sharp screen). And the LCD that comes with the 12" Powerbook is the worst of all these.
Read my comments earlier: view of angle is extremely limited, it makes the fonts look fuzzy and not well rendered, the "refresh" is slow (when scrolling a page it becomes like motion blurred) etc.
No, there is nothing wrong with _my_ LCD in particular, it is just the LCD used.
You just saved me the trouble of configuring an Ibook. I think I'll go for the Powerbook instead. Thanks!
Although I agree with most of the authors assertions in the article, he should really consider taking some remedial classes in sentence structure and basic grammar.
The author doesn't need any of that. All she needs, is to pass the message throguh.
She currently learns French, because it is more important for her at this time.
Capito?
Eugenia,
Good article. I'm a mac fan but when it comes to buying a new mac, I want to hear ALL the good and bad points before spending any money.
(Think I'll stick to buying a 15inch TiBook)
- Mark
I understand. One of the most important things a person can learn how to do is to represent themselves intelligently and succinctly. It seem appropriate that you learn French..they don't seem to place value in either.
Eugenia, don't mind the personal attacks. Remember, Apple isn't just a cool computer, it's a religion. By giving an opinion that isn't 100% positive, they think you're attacking their god. Really, that's how I see it. There's no other excuse except brainwashing. You don't see people attacking you personally like this when you give a review on WindowsXP or something. Even the Linux guys aren't this bad, and they've got a point. What anger these Mac guys have bottled up inside.
English is not Eugenia's native language (it's Greek). I think she's doing pretty damn well. Warren, perhaps you could enlighten us on Greek sentence structure??? :-)
It's tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), not THT. So before you go off trying to be witty, makes sure you don't come off as a dumb a$$.
what's to be angry about. Eugenia is helping people out by providing information. But some people disagree on her point that the screen is "terrible." It may be terrible for her needs, but for others no. they have no problem with the ibook screen and eugenia says it's the same one in the 12 PB.
when you say youll passup the 12" powerbook, that Eugenia is seeing things on her lcd very few others have. My ibook lcd is fine to me, I cant even stand looking at crts anymore thanks to it.
I am near sighted and got the 14" ibook instead of a refurbed tibook, or 12" ibook because I wanted larger pixels to reduce strain. I looked at all three availible laptops at the apple store and got the best one for ME. So dont go saying you wont give it a chance based on one review, you still have to find out for yourself.
Also, Eugenia, you pay for what you get, and that powerbook came with alot for a very good price. I think you should emphasize that a bit more. I spent about as much as you will have on your powerbook on my iBook, and am very satisfied.
And I throw about as much as anyone not running stuff like final cut pro, or whatnot as possible at it. So its not like I do nothing on it all day. BTW, just took a trip and watched 7 or 8 monty python episodes off DVD on my ibook in the car ride and it's battery lasted for the whole 4~ trip playinf off the dvd drive, so until g4s dont suck battery so much I would reccomend ibooks instead, if portability is your main concern.
I'm setting up a new 12" PowerBook now and haven't noticed anything like the slow refresh or low quality you mentioned. You might want to get the thing checked out - it really sounds like a bad display.
My gripes about the display involve the red tinge (which goes away once you calibrate it) and the fact that they could be using a higher resolution. Church-of-Apple types aside, Apple's displays with the exception of the Cinema HD compare well on quality but never resolution with the equivalent PC displays.
No, it is NOT a bad unit.
I have 3 more LCD screens over here to compare. The Powerbook's LCD is the worst of the 4, and not because I have a "bad unit". It is what that LCD Apple used, can do. End of story.
I have occassionally had the same issue losing network connections as Anton has on both my old iBook SE and my new 17" iMac, both running 10.2.3.
Killing configd in the Terminal and restarting the process by using sudo configd has fixed the issue every time for me. I restart both Macs every month or so, and I may have to use this trick on one of them during that time.
Mac OS X (like NeXTSTEP before it) uses a speed sensitive (accelerated) mouse/trackpad driver. If you move your finger across the trackpad quickly, you can move corner to corner in one stroke. This alows you to move the pointer vast distances without dragging your arm across the whole desk. If you move your finger slowly, you get slow but precise pointer movements. I hear the "Slow mouse" complaint frequently from PC users that don't understand the "accelerated mouse" feature.
Thanks for the great review and congratulations on being multilingual. There is a subtlety of thought that comes from exercising the old grey cells in that particular manner that most Americans will never understand. "Insular" is usually mentioned in reference to England and Japan, but it's very applicable to the US where it manifests as the "ugly American," as you can see in a few posts even in this thread. Meantime, just savor the old saying, "when Americans die, they go to Paris." Plus, Thomas Jefferson once said, "Everyone has two countries, his own and France." Or maybe an Athens with gender-equality?
When the Mini-Book (much better than AL-Book, no? And, should it be Maxi-Book or Yao-book?) gets hot, would you mind putting a thermometer on it and reporting the results here? One person came up with 102.8 and actual numbers do bring clarity to a discussion. There's also a recent suggestion that this is a software problem.
Next, you might try Tinkertool, which seemingly handles font smoothing better than the general prefs. You can't change the screen quality, but it does help with type-rendering. IE benefits from Tinkertool, but not Safari. If the screen is fuzzy, then how fuzzy is Safari? When I open the same page simultaneously in IE and Safari (with Tinkertool installed) the anti-aliasing problem is very visible. I can't use Safari because of eye-fatigue setting in very quickly.
Meantime, thanks for being a pioneer on the new Mini-Book. I've got the Ti-400 and I suffered thru the terrible, no-good, very bad airport range and the battery problem, which no one really wanted to report on for fear of being anti-Mac. An Apple genius replaced the battery, and the Cisco Aeronet 350 took care of the dismal airport range. There's always that fine line of deciding whether you should wait for the second revision.
have you compared yours to others at a store? I think it's at least worth checking out. you're probably right, but I would check
> No, it is NOT a bad unit.
Eugenia... you almost sound like you don't want
to have it checked... warranty = free repair
> I have 3 more LCD screens over here to compare.
I have 4 identical LCD screens over here.
3 of them look terrific. The other one is
(guess it) going for repair.
Sorry, but the fact that 3 screens look good
doesn't imply a fourth is working perfectly.
Greeks should know, logic does not work that way
I came across what looks like a great solution to the heat issue with the 12-inch PowerBooks: the Dimple Gel Notebook Wrist Pads.
http://shinza.com/product_info.php?products_id=41
These pads are placed on the PowerBook's palm rest during use to insulate your hands from the heat below. It doesn't look like there is any adhesive involved, so the pads can be easily removed and tossed in a notebook bag when packing up the PowerBook for travel (or when just putting it to sleep).
YA mac-bahing review on OSnews.com (and it's not the first time you do that).
1. Screen quality: Me (and others) find this screen great. I know, because I have an iBook with the same screen. Once you use SuperCal to calibrate it and set anti-aliasing to LCD, it looks great. Remember, it has a pixel density of 106 dpi!
2. Crashing of FTP. How is this a hardware or OS X problem? Use a better FTP client.
3. All your other BADs are minor quibbles. Keep the price point in mind. Would you pay $500 more for a machine with DVI connector, more RAM, more processor cache, faster(?) hard drive, better graphics card? I wouldn't. It is doubtful these improvements will make it that much faster (except for the graphics card). Maybe that could be an option.
4. Heat issue. There are many contradictoty reports. I will have to wait for mine to tell. Yesterday I was at the apple store, and the display model (which has been on for many hours) was very cool.
Look at your review and see how much more space the BAD takes over the GOOD.
>YA mac-bahing review on OSnews.com (and it's not the first time you do that).
Why would I want to bash for something *I BOUGHT* and PAID $2000? If I "hated" Apple, I wouldn't buy it. Get out of your zealotry and ->Think<-
>Remember, it has a pixel density of 106 dpi!
And a zillion other faults and low specs as I explained earlier in this forum.
>Use a better FTP client.
We used the best there is: command line FTP, as comes with OSX. It wasn't FTP's fault, it was Powerbook's not awaking.
>3. All your other BADs are minor quibbles.
Not when compared to PC laptops.
>4. Heat issue. There are many contradictoty reports
No, 90% of the repots in this forum and elsewhere they agree on the heat issue.
>Look at your review and see how much more space the BAD takes over the GOOD.
Yes, because there were a lot of bad things to report. That's why.
Look at your review and see how much more space the BAD takes over the GOOD.
If you want the good points, read apple.com. I read Eugenia's reviews because I want to know what's not in Apple's ads.
In regard to screen quality - screen quality is good compared to what? When compared to any CRT, even the shittiest LCD will appear super-crisp and sharp.
It's almost like you're being dragged reluctantly into owning a mac. Don't get me wrong, your review provides useful information. And you have a right to your opinion. But the real reason to buy the 12 inch PB is the software. Sure, airport is great, superdrive is great, bluetooth, etc. The hardware is fine even nice in many respects - But take away the OS, apple apps and .mac (and the integration with the hardware) and you may as well buy that PC laptop you compare to the PB. well, I won't be too hard on you, after all you did write apple the check!
... to go with the 12" PB. Thats right, I will buy one of those small thingies because of this review. All the other reviews I've read is made by Mac-zealots that would never ever complain about a Apple-product. When Eugenia writes a review, you can be certain she will find all there is to complain about. This is what potential switchers want to read! (I'm one of them) But at the same time I'm almost certian that I'll wont find anything wrong with the screen on my PB12. =)
Is it just me, or has this article magically floated up?
I put it back up, because it is the main article of the day and should stay on top more, as Monday is the highest traffic day.
The reviewer obviously never used a new 800 mhz ibook. He tells everyone NOT to buy one haha. The ibook has a better video card, and the g3 is just as fast on applications that are not altivec enhanced (almost all). You could pick up a 12" ibook for 1150$ refurbished and have almost the same experience as the 12" powerbook.
<quote>
You misunderstood. YES, OSX's font rendering is better, BUT with this LCD screen that the Powerbook includes, makes everything ugly and blurry. Plus the fact that OSX does not have something like Clear Type, degrades it even more.
</quote>
FWIW, I'm sitting in front of FreeBSD/XFree86 with an ft-slight patched, no-bytecode-interpreter FreeType on a Dell M780 CRT monitor. Sitting next to it is a G4, latest Jaguar, with the same model monitor.
I can't see any difference in type rendering quality between them - they're both stellar. XFree, however, has the ability to do subpixel antialiasing aka. ClearType.
I have ordered one of these machines as well, and am currently awaiting for it to be delivered. (Looks like tomorrow *yay*.)
There is a thread over on apple at the discussion forums that talk about the jerkiness of the DVD playback in full screen mode, http://discussions.info.apple.com/WebX?128@154.xcPLaXy1h63.157303@.... from what i read over there it seems to be an issue with 10.2.3, so complain to apple i will be and they better bloody fix it up
I don't think you've done your research when it comes to the LCD. The LCD in the iBook is actually of higher quality than what's in the high end powerbooks. It's viewable from about 20-160 degrees, something you just can't say about other LCDs. You talk about the iBook as if it were a piece of crap, when in actuality, it's a great deal. The G3 is an older processor, and I wouldn't want to use an iBook as a heavy duty workhorse, but for daily computing, for your average user, it's a great machine at a great price.
Here is something I noticed a while back that may be related to this. Open the Apple X11 application, and in an xterm window type "glxgears". A separate window will open with the animated display. You will probably be seeing something like 60 or 70 fps reported in the xterm window. Now, arrange the windows on your display so that the xterm window is active and is close to (or even overlapping slightly) the edge of the animated display window. What you should see is that the animation speeds up tremendously and the reported frame rate increases by a factor of 10 or more. On a 1GHz PowerBook, for example, you can get about 800 fps. It is possible that whatever speeds up the X11 glxgears display is also speeding up the DVD playback when the DVD display window is partly obscured. I don't know what causes this, but I'm guessing it is handshaking between the graphics hardware and the window server; there is probably a different mode for partly obscured windows that bypasses the handshaking.
To the people saying the iBook is almost as good except for the G3, don't forget that:
- It is AGP 2x instead of the 4x of the PB
- It has an ATA/66 drive instead of ATA/100
- It has a 100MHZ FSB instead of the 133 of the PB
- It doesn't have DDR RAM
- It can't (officially) do monitor spanning
1. Now that you have found some things you don't like,
do you regret that you have bought a PowerBook?
Do you think about giving it back?
2. Regarding the quality of the display - do you had a chance to thest the PowerBook in a store? If yes, did you notice the display-quality issue?
Thx, Ralf.
btw - nice review.
>1. Now that you have found some things you don't like,
do you regret that you have bought a PowerBook?
No. It does its job and except the heat and LCD quality, I knew all the rest, so it was my decision to get it.
>2. Regarding the quality of the display - do you had a chance to thest the PowerBook in a store? If yes, did you notice the display-quality issue?
I saw it in the Apple store a few weeks back, but only for a few minutes. The store was very bright with sunshine so I couldn't see well in the LCD anyway, and there were other people waiting in line to see this laptop, so I did not give much thought about its LCD quality.
I think I have an idea of why your LCD is behaving as it is. Sub-pixel antialiasing is heavily dependant on the order of the subpixels. In almost all LCD displays, the arrangement is (from left to right) Red, Green, Blue (RGB order). Now in some previous iBooks, the pixel order was reversed (BGR). I know that Microsoft's ClearType doesn't support this pixel ordering, and I wouldn't be surprised if OS X didn't either. If anybody really cares all that much about it, you could load Linux on one of these TiBooks, and in XftConfig, change "rgba = rgb" to "rgba = bgr" This will change the pixel order that Xft optimizes for, and if the TiBook does indeed have a reversed pixel order, should get rid of the color fringes.
I wouldn't worry about not having DDR. DDR on the Mac platform at this point is just a scam. According to the benchmarks, DDR makes little difference, and PC133 SDRAM, at 1.0GB/sec, is almost enough to saturate the G4's 1.3GB/sec bus.
Linux does not load on the new 12" Powerbook. Apple has changed the BIOS in order OS9 to not boot, and that seem to affect Linux as well. I am sure someone will hack-in to it soon though and fix the problem in the kernel.
BTW Rayiner, the biggest problem with the LCD is its _extreme_ slowness. Its refresh is just terrible. You move a window and it leaves a zillion artifacts, it is like bein in a shower of motion blur... The rest of the LCD screens I have here don't do that, it is just this 12" LCD that's is "slow" (and cheap).
Eugenia did not say the iBook was a piece of crap. In fact, in one of her posts, she called it a "fine machine".
Eugenia, get that 512 MB module in there!!!
The 512 module came in today with the post!!!
I am waiting to just go and buy a Philips 00 screwdriver though, so I can open the memory door. :o
It is amazing how defensive people get about their own choices. I never said that iBook is useless. In fact, it was one of my considerations before I buy this laptop, but both my husband and David (owner of osnews) talked me out of it, mostly because it is a G3 with all the limitations this fact brings.
Today, I would recommend people to wait a few months and buy the new 15.4" Powerbook, but if they don't have as much money or they want something really portable, to get this 12" Powerbook. And if they really don't have as much money again, to buy the 12" iBook, the one that sells for $1300+memory.
I love the size, screen, and all the ports that are standard on the PB. What do you expect in an all in one. Unlike many other light laptops, there are no external drives to plug in, etc. It should have L3 cache, lighted keyboard, but that's why it is realitively cheap. Do other comparable laptops have these features? No! This thing is the bomb. The feel and quality is unmatched and I dare anyone to disagree although they surely will.
appleforever: But take away the OS, apple apps and .mac (and the integration with the hardware) and you may as well buy that PC laptop you compare to the PB.
Actually no. Maybe for consumer laptops, but for a lot of laptop users, a PowerBook may be better than the equilevent PC. Reason? PC laptops haven't been fully commodotized so it is only a handful of makers making expensive quality laptops.
Funny isn't it? Laptops is the only area where Apple is truly competitive.
>Why would I want to bash for something *I BOUGHT* and PAID >$2000? If I "hated" Apple, I wouldn't buy it. Get out of >your zealotry and ->Think<-
I did not claim that you "hate" Apple. I think your review is just "a bit unfair", and a little bit misinformed as well, I now add. I said so and I posted the reasons why I believe so. There is no zealotry here.
You reacted badly, as I sort of expected. That happens when you are a bit short of arguments.
>>Remember, it has a pixel density of 106 dpi!
>And a zillion other faults and low specs as I explained >earlier in this forum.
I went back and re-read the section of your review about the screen. There are absolutely no objective "specs" in there relating to the quality of the LCD (such as brightness, contrast ratio, angle of visibility, pixel speed, etc.). If fact, you are incorrect when you say that it's the same screen used in the 15" iMac (certainly NOT!). Again, you are making a subjective judgement, IMHO prematurely. Try what I suggested in my post and see if the screen looks better (it should). I would like to hear from you if it does...
Other reviewers also found the screen very good. As for squeezing even more pixels into a 12" monitor, yes it's doable, but the characters at the present resolution look quite small already. Also, keep in mind the price.
>>Use a better FTP client.
>We used the best there is: command line FTP, as comes with >OSX.
Just because it "comes with OS X" does not mean it's the best there is, but yes, that shouldn't have happended. Nothing is perfect....the integration between GUI and UNIX layer still isn't. Would probably not have happend had you used Fetch or similar.
>>3. All your other BADs are minor quibbles.
>Not when compared to PC laptops.
I contend they are. Keep price in mind again and show me a comparable PC notebook.
>>4. Heat issue. There are many contradictoty reports
>No, 90% of the repots in this forum and elsewhere they >agree on the heat
Not the reports I read. I have been following the 12" PB reviews VERY CAREFULLY, since I intend to buy one, and they ARE contradictory. Again, heat perception is subjective. I have personally come in contact with this machine twice, at Macworld and at the Apple store. Both times, it was not substantially warmer than my iBook. That doesn't mean that certain machines aren't hotter, and I'm sorry to hear yours is.
>>Look at your review and see how much more space the BAD takes over the GOOD.
>Yes, because there were a lot of bad things to report. That's why.
Looking back again, I don't think so.
Excuse me sir, but you have no clue what you are talking about. The LCD used in the 12" PowerBook, is the same as the one used in the iBooks, and it *IS* lower quality. It is a SLOW LCD, no matter what you say. And its contrast ratio/viewing angle sucks goats. I have 3 more LCDs here today to test against.
I explained on the FTP problem that it was not FTP's bug, it was Powerbook's inability to wake up from sleep.
>That happens when you are a bit short of arguments.
No, that happens when you are dealing with trolls and people who don't get it everyday of your life.
I think everyone thinks this is why your bashing the ibook. "And no matter what, don't buy an iBook" taken from the end of your review.
Just to clarify some things for others an ibook uses the IBM 750FX G3 which is fabricated on a 0.13 micron process so it will run cooler than the G4's in powerbooks which use 0.18.
AGP 2x vs. 4x vs. 8x. I haven't seen any benchmarks that really show a fast performance gain using a 4x to a 2x agp slot.
Everyone knows the G4 doesn't really utilize DDR yet.
The powerbooks cost $500 more than the ibook. Whether or not that 500 dollars is worth the 10% performance gain is up to the buyer.
Personally Im gonna sell my ibook this summer and buy whatever revision of that new 12" powerbook comes out because I think they will probably give it an L3 cache and maybe boost it up to 1 ghz. If I didnt buy my ibook a couple months ago I would get the 12" powerbook.
>"And no matter what, don't buy an iBook"
Yes, I am against the purchase of a G3 machine. The rest parts of the iBook that sells for $1300 are great, but the G3 is a problem. MacOSX is optimized for G4 mainly today, so I find the purchase of a G3 machine a bad choice. Purchasing a G4 today, will allow you to keep and utilize MacOSX for the years to come, while G3s won't be supported from a point on, neither optimized for.
My G4 Cube 450 Mhz with 1 MB L3 cache can compete head to head with the iBook 800 Mhz on OSX. My honest suggestion is to purchase a G4 machine. If the $1300 iBook machine had a G4 in it, I would have bought that instead of the 12" powerbook. My only problem in that machine was that it is a G3.
> My only problem in that machine was that it is a G3.
I donīt think itīs a problem, because G3 still has the power to run all the i-apps, even iMovie, and others like AppleWorks, Mail et al , and the main market for those is K-12 where Quake fps' arenīt important (thatīs why ATI Rage 128 is plenty enough).
Well, iBook is able to run apps, but it is not exactly a modern CPU, neither it runs them as well as a G4 which is even 200 or 300 less Mhz than the said G3.
Point is, OSNews readers are mostly developers, so I would never suggest to them buying an underpowered machine. It might be a good and cheap solution for your little sister, but it is not exactly a good deal overall if you are a power user.
The Japanese own the cutting edge of cool tech in notebooks -- small, fast, light, tough, good screens. It would be cool if Apple had the Japanese build a new alBook. Seems like they could shave a pound or two off the weight, put in a better screen, and a much improved keyboard.
[i]Panasonic always keeps us in suspense by releasing fewer notebook platforms than any other major maker. But usually, when they do it's a great one; the new Panasonic T1 is a typical example. The achievements of the T1 leave little doubt that a lot the engineering talent was concentrated on one "small" project.[i]
http://www.dynamism.com/t1/main.shtml
--ms
"now why you ask apple has such high prices for such a bad system? A thinkpad with Win2k beats this thing with a cool cpu and a beautiful LCD, and no stupid scratchpad either"
Right. However bad the powerbook 12" is, a thinkpad still has the win2k. And no matter if it had three x:s in it's name, it still remains to be Windows.
I'm planning on saving in the money I spend for my mental health and get me a powerbook, hot or not. Because it's OsX. (Sorry for the commercial nature of this text. I'm a wreck with my hp...)
btw, what is scratchpad?
"Right. However bad the powerbook 12" is, a thinkpad still has the win2k. And no matter if it had three x:s in it's name, it still remains to be Windows. "
Sorry for the incomprehensible whining here. My situation is worse than I thought...
I used the 12" PowerBook a couple of days, and it didnīt heat up nearly as much as a 867 MHz Titanium, only about the same as an 500 & 600 MHz iBook - not hot like TiBook, only warm. And the 12" is still quieter.
The TiBook LCD has a better viewing angle, but I still think the 12" TFT is good enough (I used iceBooks for a year before the Titanium).
As for the G3, my point is that even 999$ iBook can run even Final Cut decently, so it's a very capable machine for most uses, not only for word processing. Naturally a gigahertz G4 is way faster, but it depends the user if the speed is needed. But gamers should definetly buy a PowerBook.
Why do you use ftp for file transfers? I prefer using the Public Folder (File Sharing).
Have you tried iChat (with the help of Rendezvous) for extremely easy file transfers?
And FireWire target mode is handy if one of the computers can be turned off.
Point is, OSNews readers are mostly developers, so I would never suggest to them buying an underpowered machine. It might be a good and cheap solution for your little sister, but it is not exactly a good deal overall if you are a power user.
Exactly developers. Meaning mostly I/O, not CPU needs. It would be stupid to recommend a system with less cache or memory. CPU is barely important anymore, busspeeds, memory and hd-speed is way more important for speed.
As I own a 12pb and a 12/800ibook (well my wife now owns the ibook) plus several x86 laptops over the years, here's what I observed.
Heat, the pb definately runs much hotter then the ibook. When doing really procesor intensive stuff (like large compiles) the thing gets down right hot. The ibook never approaches this level of heat, but at the same time takes almost twice as long to compile. Now, compiling the same code on my 1gig athlon hp (running linux), I actually worry about a fire occuring. For the heat issue, the pb is much hotter then the ibook but not as bad as an athlon based laptop.
Screen, not perfect, better then the ibook, not as good as my sm 760vtft. The key to is getting the angle/tilt right. If you don't align yourself well, it don't look so good. If you do align yourself well, its quite enjoyable.
I highly recommend it....
I agree that the 15" LCD is nicer, than that of the 12, but only cause i have one. wow, all i can say is i would never trust another review from this site. good work bringing out the smallest of flaws (although the dvd thing would piss me off, but it's not like there's no such thing as patches... i'm SURE you've heard of them in the windows world)
your eyes hurt? after using the laptop for an hour? are you for real? were you jabbing yourself in the eye at the time? that might explain it.
what about mac os x? that is the MAIN reason to buy a mac. rendevouz could change networking and it departments, but it's not even worth going into. according to os news.
About the new 12" PB screen quality: What I noticed was that it wasn't quite as bright/contrasty/sharp as the original PB's. I told an Apple rep and he said it was the lighting in the store. Well, why did the PB in the same store look better then?
HOWEVER, the new 12" is a great compromise. Yes, you CAN get small or smaller PCs BUT they don't offer nearly the plethora of features the PB does. Yes, notebooks from dynamism.com are smaller, nicer made and more expensive but they don't offer the 3D capabilities or DVD burning and other things the PB does.
For the money, it is NOT a bad machine. Look at ANY name brand PC vendor and check what kind of 12" machine you get with that kind of money and you will reevaluate your opinions.
The little Vaios are nice but not as full featured.
The little Toshibas are VERY nice but not nearly as full featured.
IBM has the great X series but that is an even bigger compromise.
The list goes on.
I'd personally get the new PB if I had the money and then I'd put an IBM 40GNX drive inside (40GB, 5400 RPM, 8MB buffer, fastest notebook drive in the world at the moment) and a 512MB RAM stick and voila, you have a truly decent machine (the main problem with laptops is their hard drives IMO).
For the record, I don't even own a PB but I like to state the facts.
Got meetings to go to...
D
We've had two iBooks, a Graphite 366 mHz clamshell and dual USB white. They were both great consumer laptops (although the 366 and OS X were mighty slow). I think what Eugenia is suggesting here is that the G3 may be at the end of its life. I have no idea, but I would wager the new iBooks will have G4's. I say that especially because I don't know of any G3 that runs higher than 800MHz. And I've heard nothing...no rumors or anything... about G3's with faster processors. I think one thing Eugenia is trying to tell people is to not to get caught with an end-of-life machine.
I don't think the G3 and G4 are going anywhere yet. Apple need to migrate everyone to OSX before they even think of migrating to a new chip...
Dave, I don't think the G4 is going away either...but the G3...I don't know... nobody seems to have heard anything about, for example, a 1 GHz G3. I think you're right though - Apple will not be making any huge chip transitions until OS X is the main OS.
This is OT, but Stephen Smith had posted wondering about who actually uses Macs, i.e. "normal" users. I think when people like us are very close to something, as we are regarding computing, we often don't have a perspective on what society at large thinks or at least certain dempgraphics. Despite Apple's lowly market shere, this story today shows how widespread the Apple brand is in many people's minds"
http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=31467002
I don't think there are any new g3's because apple is the only one that uses them. If they wanted I think they could pump the mhz of a g3 passed a g4 easily. IBM has better facilities than MOTO.
Eugenia, I read the whole post and every powerbook/ibook owner agrees that the LCD on their machines are good. Mine (PB TI) is excellent and a little less bright than my daughter's exact same model. You keep referring about the other LCD you have but I suggest you bring your PB to an Apple Store and compare it with all the LCD's they have there and maybe their "genious" guy can fix it or simply get another replacement. If you have factual information about Apple using cheap display, as a reviewer you have to release the facts, if it is an opinion, say so. I am sure that your display is bad so, please go to the Apple store, have it check it out and then write something to confirm the all the PB 12' screen are crap and cheap or only yours, I think that's fair.
>Excuse me sir, but you have no clue what you are talking about. >The LCD used in the 12" PowerBook, is the same as the one used >in the iBooks, and it *IS* lower quality. It is a SLOW LCD, no >matter what you say. And its contrast ratio/viewing angle sucks >goats. I have 3 more LCDs here today to test against.
Sorry to disappoint you, but it seems that YOU are the one who doesn't have much of a clue here. You state in the your initial review that the LCD is the same as used in the 15" iMac and iBook. Well, that's just wrong. The iMac's one is different, and I agree that I don't like that one, either. But the PB and iBook screen IS GOOD, according to the feedback of MANY people.
Can you substantiate your claims regarding pixel speed, contrast ratio, viewing angle, etc.?
HOW could I "substantiate" it when Apple doesn't release technical specs?
All I can do is open the door of my house and let you see it with your own eyes.
I DON'T like that screen. You can say whatever you want, I don't freaking like it. It is a SLOW LCD with TERRIBLE viewing angle. END OF STORY.
I am going to have to go ahead and...disagree...with the writer of this article's comments. I have a 15 inch LCD iMac G4 and it has an awesome screen. Its very clear and bright with none of the problems he mentioned having on the Powerbook. I am not sure where he got that information. I have seen many iMac and iBook screens and they all look very nice. I can't comment on the 12 inch Powerbook G4, since I have not seen one. I think the author might have gotten a dud screen. He certainly shouldn't be making comments like that without making sure his information is correct.
That being said, I though the article was very informative. The heat issue is something people need to know when buying this laptop. One comment about Apple laptops: I have an iBook 466 Mhz with OS X 10.2.3 and it runs it just fine. Its a tad sluggish when resizing windows but other than that, its golden. A Geforce 4 MX 420 won't place Quake 3 with high frame rates, but it will do fine in almost all games for the Mac.
One of the posts earlier asked who is buying tbis new entry into the PowerBook line.
For me it was the form factor, the iApps, DVD burner, and convenience. Admittedly, it is on the sexier side of computing. I am a pharmacist who has tinkered with gnu/linux for three years and who doesn't have the time to tweak systems continually to do photo editing, home video editing. Additionally, I like the speed of the G4. It also got some keen looks in MBA class last night.
So, people who will need to look the lcd for hours -- this probably isn't the machine for you. But if you're looking for a "G4ish iBook", the 12in is for you!
But it isn't any more.
There is no longer substance to the sleak designed machines. The prices are getting higher, but the actual product is getting cheaper.
The new OS is just overpriced Linux.
I think Steve Jobs really needs to re-evaluate what he is doing (as does Bill Gates, but that goes without saying).
I never thought I would say this, but the "free" open-source market is really beginning to make inroads in what was just fictious speculation a few years ago. Microsoft has an advantage based on their sales, but Apple I think is in trouble (and has been since the iMac came out).
Style over substance in the long run will not save a company. Do you remember the "DeLorian."
I have GOT to react on the last post:
There is no longer substance to the sleak designed machines. >The prices are getting higher, but the actual product is getting cheaper.
How can you say that? The prices are getting HIGHER? Hello? What was the price of the previous PowerBook????
Product getting cheaper? Take a close look at the beautiful fit and finish of these machines.
>The new OS is just overpriced Linux.
Haha.
>[...] Microsoft has an advantage based on their sales, but Apple I think is in trouble (and has been since the iMac came out).
Apple is NOT in trouble, especially since the iMac came out.
>Style over substance in the long run will not save a company. Do you remember the "DeLorian."
You are totally clueless. But why am I spending time on this forum anyway?
What is the big discovery here? Apple, since the days of the Apple ][, has always sold crappy hardware at top dollar. On the Apple ][+, Apple could have included a 2Mhz 6502C instead of a 1Mhz 6502C for next to nothing in cost. Did they do it? Nope. How about lower case text? Or 80 column text? The list goes on.
Apple's margins have been sky high for a long long time. There is a reason they have no market share vs. Dell or any of the other PC companies. Apple is about a cult, a niche, and really good software. Apple's hardware is the classic case of taking crap, polishing it, and then relying on the fact that birds, being dumb, are attracted to bright shiny objects.
Even today, every single Apple computer ships with a bottom of barrel complete crap sound chip (if you can even call it a sound chip). They could spend next to nothing and get full digital killer sound, but do they? Nope. If one goes down and looks at the parts on every Apple computer sold today, it is easy to see that Apple is a cheap company that cuts corners everywhere when it comes to hardware. Their brand new "supercomputer" still ships with an ATA/66 controller, for instance. So you won't be getting the full performance that your 180GB drive can deliver. As for those drives, does Apple offer any of them with 8MB cache? Nope.
One has to be very careful with Apple's LCD monitors. The 15" was okay at first and then Apple replaced it with some cheapo screen. The 17" remains pretty good. The new 20" is low quality. The price drop 23" is medium quality, not bad but certainly not crisp like the Sony 23" 1920x1200 monitor.
The most glaring problem with Apple LCD is of course the lack of ClearType. Apple has nothing that compares with Microsoft's far superior system. I'm surprised Apple has not licensed this technology as Apple's fonts look like crap on their LCD monitors.
I also wonder if the brain dead decision to go with ADC is at fault. There is bound to be additional electrical interference running power along with the DVI. Perhaps the signal will never be very good. Apple has to put a signal booster on their DVI to ADC connector, probably because the ADC cable has a lot of noise compared to a pure video signal. Only Apple would be so retarded as to wreck a perfectly good industry standard connection (DVI) in order to save one cable. ADC takes the cake as one of Apple's most stupid hardware decisions they have made in a while.
Overall, it makes no sense to gripe about Apple's low quality hardware. Apple is really a software company that sells their software pre-installed on hardware. A strange model, but it's kept them alive for a long time.
--ms
I am a web programmer and a gamer. While I can say no, I haven't installed any games on it yet (why take up harddrive space when I have the same games installed on my tower - must use my older mac for something!) I have installed the airport extreme and find it, the size of the machine, and the DVD burner well worth the money I paid for it. I set my fonts on my desktop the smallest possible (10pt) and the show up just fine for me. I am used to a 1600 x 1200 resolution on my 17" monitor so the perspective between the two seems about equal now with everything set to tiny .
I do agree that the machine gets hot. But, so did my G3 333 laptop. I would never buy an iBook because it was only a G3 (and plastic!). I already had a G3 laptop no need to replace it with one that was only marginally better. Looking at the 15" powerbook before MacWorld I just didn't want to spend that much money. The 12" was the answer I was looking for. I haven't crashed or been dissapointed yet. I'd say if your looking for more than an iBook, want airport extreme, a DVD burner and don't want to pay more than $2000 for an APPLE then this is the machine for you.
Eugenia repeatedly says nobody should buy a machine with a G3 in it. After reading the review and all the comments, I'm wondering why. It would be really interesting to see a comparsion between the 800Mhz ibook and 12' powerbook on real applications.
All I've seen so far are some vague comments about the OS being optimized for a G4 which is a rather useless statement as since nobody outside Apple knows what percentage of OS 10.2 is AliVec enabled. Eugenia also says that the G3 is not a modern processor yet it has a larger L2 cache and is fabbed .13 micron process.
G3 are not so close to EOL. read the G3 new iterations at the ibm site. I think they can go above 1 gigahertz
The ibook 800Mhz is scoring 53 on XBench, even less than my 450 M hz G4 Cube. This Powerbook, scores 75.
In other words, even with the help of the 512 KB L3 cache on the ibooks, they don't perform as well on OSX as the G4 machines do.
Yesterday, I was in the apple store and played a bit with the ibook 800 Mhz. It is indeed much slower than this Powerbook 867 Mhz.
And if you don't believe the XBench benchmarks, check the benchmarks showing here too:
http://www.macworld.com/2003/04/reviews/12inchpowerbook/
iBooks are a NO GO purchase today. They are slow, and they don't worth the price. Better get the 12" Powerbook if you must purchase a Mac laptop and you want to be on the cheap.