[muglo] Re: powerbook
- From: Eric Dunbar <eric.dunbar@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: muglo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2005 00:22:06 -0400
On 9/21/05, Tim Kearn <timmer21@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Eric,
> Where in the suburbs?
> Only have been to the store on Dupont.
It's actually <http://www.redtagcomputer.com/> and they're found in
Mississauga (never been out into the hinterlands... I prefer to skip
the misery called Toronto sub-urbia and get out completely).
> BTW - may also be purchasing a laptop in the near future.
> In yours and others expert opinions:
> iBook or Powerbook? New or used? Worth the time to look in the US?
How much are you willing to spend? The US isn't a bad choice for used
equipment given that the CAD is relatively high right now. Just make
sure you ship with a reliable shipper that won't screw you over with
customs handling fees.
> Really want a machine that will 'last' me the next few years (other
> than OS/app upgrades) and will have the $'s to purchase it.
You've got to figure that Apple's working towards dumping the PPC line
and fast. They'll have eliminated most, if not all of the PPC lines by
early to mid 2007! Even though there have been some pundits predicting
that the PowerBooks will be the first to go I think Apple will try to
have the whole family switched over in a single quarter (people will
stop buying the non-Intel lines as soon as an Intel ("the future")
line is out). This means that OS X for PPC will probably be
discontinued by 2008 or 2009.
> login and pick from any show on the tour. But, it would not show full
> screen on my iBook - needed a larger screen to see the buttons on the
> bottom of the app! I happened to be 'borrowing' a grape iMac from a
> friend which had the larger resolution needed and then no problem.
> So, you can see my problem. Also, with the new iPod only USB, don't
> want to use (or wait) with 1.1.
Well, it sounds like you're limiting yourself to USB 2.0 machines.
It all depends on what you want and what you're willing to spend. The
PowerBooks are much nicer machines than the iBooks, but $ for MHz
you're getting a better deal with the iBooks. Chances are the
PowerBooks will be more resilient in the long run (they're more
expandable) but you're also going to be paying a significant premium.
There is, however, one arena in which the PowerBook wins HAND DOWN,
winner-take-all:
SCREEN SIZE and RESOLUTION.
As I have opined before, the modern iBooks have tiny screens (12" or
14") and all are limited to 1024*768, and can only mirror the
internal's resolution on external displays. It'll be a breath of fresh
air compared to 800*600 but...
The PowerBook 12" does have 1024*768 but it can drive external
monitors at much higher resolutions and with monitor spanning.
The PB 15" has an inbuilt screen that's physically larger (15" ;-)
than anything you can get in the iBooks and it also has more pixels
(1100*800?), and it too can drive external monitors to much higher
resolutions and do monitor spanning.
Anyway, I'd say, go out to the Apple stores and try out the machines.
The latest iBook 12" is pretty much the same as all iBook 12"s that
preceeded it. The same applies to iBook 14" and to PowerBook 12", 15",
17"
Eric.
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