Re: Well, ok...
and of course, a scented apple logo hanging from the rearvie..... what?
god. ive lost it today
and of course, a scented apple logo hanging from the rearvie..... what?
god. ive lost it today
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Improving the Powerbook
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Re: Re: Well, ok...
YES! it must be hippy painted! score! that is so awesome. they do an ad campaign, and it's like, "the lurking side of every true mac user--let your excessive closet-liberalism out of the bag! if your computer isn't psychedelic, what does that say about you?"
the only problem is, my Ti IS pretty darn psychedelic, and that just isn't right. i've lost it too.
YES! it must be hippy painted! score! that is so awesome. they do an ad campaign, and it's like, "the lurking side of every true mac user--let your excessive closet-liberalism out of the bag! if your computer isn't psychedelic, what does that say about you?"
the only problem is, my Ti IS pretty darn psychedelic, and that just isn't right. i've lost it too.
If you're paying top-of-the-line prices, you need the higest quality components.
128MB graphics
high-speed hard drive
faster optical drives
higher resolution screen
built-in bluetooth (not many peripherals use it now, so Apple might be able to do to it what it did to USB)
802.11g airport built-in on all models
two-button trackpad
USB 2 ports
higher-quality paint
128MB graphics
high-speed hard drive
faster optical drives
higher resolution screen
built-in bluetooth (not many peripherals use it now, so Apple might be able to do to it what it did to USB)
802.11g airport built-in on all models
two-button trackpad
USB 2 ports
higher-quality paint
Re: Improving the Powerbook
Ur joking right? I use an IBM Thinkpad A31p with a 64MB ATI Mobility FireGL 7800 And trust me thats what the powerbook needs!!
And about those complaining about the case interfering with the wireless range why is it that i use a NOKIA 8910 which is made outta titanium too and it includes Bluetooth And GPRS and HCSCD And all work well.... So it's High time Apple gets it into the powerbook so I could network both my lappies one IBM Thinkpad and a Powerbook next to it (Drooooooooooll...)
Ur joking right? I use an IBM Thinkpad A31p with a 64MB ATI Mobility FireGL 7800 And trust me thats what the powerbook needs!!
And about those complaining about the case interfering with the wireless range why is it that i use a NOKIA 8910 which is made outta titanium too and it includes Bluetooth
And GPRS and HCSCD And all work well.... So it's High time Apple gets it into the powerbook so I could network both my lappies one IBM Thinkpad and a Powerbook next to it (Drooooooooooll...)There are much better video cards out there for laptops. There's a GeForce 4 'Go' 64MB. Beat the crap out of an old 9000.
I wonder if the iBooks will finally get a G4 like the iMac did. It's high time.
I wonder if the iBooks will finally get a G4 like the iMac did. It's high time.
Re: Re: Improving the Powerbook
I think that the 64Mb ATI Mobility Radon 9000 is alittle better than 64MB ATI Mobility FireGL 7800... There is allways the ATI Mobility Radon FireGL 9000.......... but i highly dought apple will use it.
I think that the 64Mb ATI Mobility Radon 9000 is alittle better than 64MB ATI Mobility FireGL 7800... There is allways the ATI Mobility Radon FireGL 9000.......... but i highly dought apple will use it.
Re: Re: Re: Improving the Powerbook
We're paying an outrageous price for the TiBooks so they should include the best possible components to justify the price...
We're paying an outrageous price for the TiBooks so they should include the best possible components to justify the price...
airport?
I might be getting a powerbook for school... they have wireless internet, but people keep saying that they airport antennas in the powerbooks arent very strong... how not strong are we talking about? not strong enough to get reception in a large building?
anyone who can give me reception ranges on newer powerbooks would be greatly appreciated
thanks
p.s. please dont encourage me to get an ibook. ibook = G3 and G3 = tommy no likey.
I might be getting a powerbook for school... they have wireless internet, but people keep saying that they airport antennas in the powerbooks arent very strong... how not strong are we talking about? not strong enough to get reception in a large building?
anyone who can give me reception ranges on newer powerbooks would be greatly appreciated
thanks
p.s. please dont encourage me to get an ibook. ibook = G3 and G3 = tommy no likey.
There was another post like this about a month ago, coming from a musicians prospective:
First for convenience a 2-4 button trackpad with scroll strip. slightly better speakers, more screen resolution, 2 firewire and 2 usb2 both dual channels,wider keyboard, a bluetooth remote to allow control when close of itunes, dvd, quicktime etc. with leds to show status.
The powerbook has the space for seperate roll of mediakeys built in concealed camera and mic, make mine smooth laquer black with a blue lit logo on back.
Tougher multi coated painted surfaces ditch titanium for the lighter stronger berilyum, dont know if i got that right, better antennae and bluetooth.
All ports 24k gold plated and 24k gold trim around the frame. "Detachable and or swivel LCD". Slide in battery, dual or 2GHZ min.
And now my biggest pet peeve, its 2003 and all of Apple cpu sill only have 16 bit stereo sound.
First off the powerbook is the musicians top laptop and should be equipped as such. built in midi ports1 in 2 out trust me theres room (could be covered on side)2- 24/96 in/out jacks analougue and 2 24/96 in/out digital all with dolby digital and a seperate high quality headphone jack oh and 1999-2499-2999 1-2and 4GB memory possible goes up as you spend moresame vid card and processor and 1GB memory in all hard drive space, optical drive and memory exspansion seperate models.
is that a little greedy. if this was out today even at a $1000 more apple could not make enough but they wouldnt sell anything else either
What do you think?
First for convenience a 2-4 button trackpad with scroll strip. slightly better speakers, more screen resolution, 2 firewire and 2 usb2 both dual channels,wider keyboard, a bluetooth remote to allow control when close of itunes, dvd, quicktime etc. with leds to show status.
The powerbook has the space for seperate roll of mediakeys built in concealed camera and mic, make mine smooth laquer black with a blue lit logo on back.
Tougher multi coated painted surfaces ditch titanium for the lighter stronger berilyum, dont know if i got that right, better antennae and bluetooth.
All ports 24k gold plated and 24k gold trim around the frame. "Detachable and or swivel LCD". Slide in battery, dual or 2GHZ min.
And now my biggest pet peeve, its 2003 and all of Apple cpu sill only have 16 bit stereo sound.
First off the powerbook is the musicians top laptop and should be equipped as such. built in midi ports1 in 2 out trust me theres room (could be covered on side)2- 24/96 in/out jacks analougue and 2 24/96 in/out digital all with dolby digital and a seperate high quality headphone jack oh and 1999-2499-2999 1-2and 4GB memory possible goes up as you spend moresame vid card and processor and 1GB memory in all hard drive space, optical drive and memory exspansion seperate models.
is that a little greedy. if this was out today even at a $1000 more apple could not make enough but they wouldnt sell anything else either
What do you think?
one more thing
i forgot to mentionupgradeable ziff and upgradeable graphics
now i am greedy seems like the pism and lombard will be the only prior powerbooks to be able to outrun the newer ones when sonnet and powerlogic figure out how to use the sahara g3 and newer g4 chips in them
i forgot to mentionupgradeable ziff and upgradeable graphics
now i am greedy seems like the pism and lombard will be the only prior powerbooks to be able to outrun the newer ones when sonnet and powerlogic figure out how to use the sahara g3 and newer g4 chips in them
thats a hefty amount of stuff you want there. sure tthat would all be good but that sounds a little advance for the time being. 4 buttons on a laptop? for what. just get a mouse or something, if all that stuff you just mentioned was on a laptop that would be one ugly apple laptop. by the way apple does have a built in mic on the tibooks. it in the right speaker. just thought i would let you know that.
iJon
Re: i more thing
did i miss something, or didn't i boot into OS 9 just the other day to clean up with disk warrior?
did i miss something, or didn't i boot into OS 9 just the other day to clean up with disk warrior?
actually it would not be ugly all the 4 mini jacks and 3 midi ports would be om the right side covered you wouldnt enen see them the camera/mic would be at the top of the lcd barely noticable.
The only thing you would see diff from current powerbooks is the one extra firewire port black paint job gold trim around the keyboard and gold plated ports, it would look exactly the same.a 4 botton or button pad would be grat for a lot of reasons especially if programable and would not necessrilly take away any space as seen on sony's laptops. the small red green yellow LEDvisible on the front of the lap top when closed would actually look quite nice and match OSX interface scheme. this will look exactly like the current powerbooks except color goldplated ports (usally covered) midi and mini audio ports covered on the right side. thats it.
When open you would get a wider keyboard with a very thin gold trim around it a lets say two bottn pad exactly the same size as the current one and a scroll strip(a must). you wont even notice the weel integrated small camera lense near the top of the Lcd.
From a distance or even close the only thing different you would notice would be the scroll strip, right side door outline 1 extra firewire port and 3 tiny LEDs up front and of course Black with a blue lit apple logo in back. it would look no worse then the current Powerbook which I think is sexy, but this would be a tad sexier well implemented right audio door and ports extra firewire ports all ports gold plated tiny leds and a small barely visible camera lens neart the top of the LCD. how does that make it ugly especially if done with apple's understed style.
Multiple mouse buttons? Camera?! MEDIAKEYS?!
Ewwwwww!!!!
I want Clean.Simple.Stylish.Power.
If i wanted crappy ugly bells and whistles i'd buy a bloody dell.
Although an extra firewire port and better Audio wouldn't go astray. Fix up the bloody paint and i'll be happy.
I'll sacrifice 5400RPM etc for longer batt life, it's a laptop, i should be able to work for a day without a power jack, thats the point. if i wanted a decked out laptop that weighed half a ton and required a 3phase power hookup and a 30sec batt life i'd buy a dell.
I'm a coder/project architect, don't talk to me about environment efficiency, you should not need things like mediakeys to be efficient, if you do, you've set up your environment incorrectly. If i wanted a crappy environment, i'd use emacs *ducks*.
Ewwwwww!!!!
I want Clean.Simple.Stylish.Power.
If i wanted crappy ugly bells and whistles i'd buy a bloody dell.
Although an extra firewire port and better Audio wouldn't go astray. Fix up the bloody paint and i'll be happy.
I'll sacrifice 5400RPM etc for longer batt life, it's a laptop, i should be able to work for a day without a power jack, thats the point. if i wanted a decked out laptop that weighed half a ton and required a 3phase power hookup and a 30sec batt life i'd buy a dell.
I'm a coder/project architect, don't talk to me about environment efficiency, you should not need things like mediakeys to be efficient, if you do, you've set up your environment incorrectly. If i wanted a crappy environment, i'd use emacs *ducks*.
seriously. i couldn't agree more. excessive buttons and lights are horrendous-looking.
lights on my laptop:
power cord light: green for AC, orange for charging + AC power.
sleep indicator light
battery level indicator
the apple logo on the back lit by the LCD backlight
lights a laptop should have:
power cord light: you can't just look at the battery monitor when you have the lid closed, and let me tell you, a lot of people recharge their batteries with the lid closed.
battery level indicator: you can't just have a slab of li-ion. is it out of juice? full? why would you want to try to power up just to check?
sleep light: is it asleep or just off?
uber cool logo lighting that everyone i've ever met thinks is the coolest thing ever.
lights laptops don't need:
CPU usage light: try aquamon, top, or process viewer, genius, it's not like you use the processor when the thing is off or unhooked to a monitor, unless you're using it as a server, in which case, let me tell you about this 1U apple product that will get you a lot more bang for your $.
sound level light: oh, yeah, this is a pro audio system, you definitely need that. not to mention some 100 lb sonus faber "grand piano" speakers custom fit for your dolly, er, i mean ultralight laptop bag.
a secret compartment for airplane guiding lights: you never know, there's a chance one of those guys might get a tibook, and we just HAVE to accomodate, am i right?
cigarette lighter/ashtray: don't listen to those liberal big government freaks, support the tobacco companies!
hard drive usage light: yes, i just love how those things flash away on dells. how could anyone live without such an annoying, redundant flasher? i can't possibly just listen for my hard drive, because it's absolutely silent. and of course i have to know whether my hard drive is going at it for no reason, and whether it is going when i want it to.
CDROM spinup light: oh yeah, that's great. you can't hear those at all.
DVD/CD burn indicator: nice try.
internal temp LED, green for cool, yellow for fans, red for "turn your freaking machine off now stupid!": right.
MS apps running indicator: you can't trust them, so you may as well know if they are running, right? the light should turn red when they crash, too.
Classic indicator light: oh, jeez, i can't imagine how troublesome it is for me to open the system prefs to see if it's on. i bet i need a classic on/off button too, huh?
about those media keys: seriously, jaguarx had the nail on the head. those are for people who are too freaking lazy to organize their start menus. this is what the dock is for, where you can easily fit as many icons as you could on a media key array. honestly, 99% of the PC users i know have start menus that have utterly NO organization whatsoever, just all their 73 applications all listed out in default start menu folders that the installers put them in. when i was a windows user, i had all my MANY applications arranged into MS Apps, internet apps, music apps, graphics apps, games, etc. on top of that, i made macros for the most used apps, like ctrl alt s for photoshop, ctrl alt w for winamp, and so on. i find that much more space efficient, plus it makes my computer that much less accessible to stupid people who don't like organization.
if you still want media keys on your powerbook, go have a look at youpi key. i actually use it. it's 1.6342e500 times better than media keys, which still makes me think in horror of my MS internet keyboard i got rid of with the alacrity and gusto of boiled apricots.
clean simple stylish is what i said
I wish i was good at photshop but i am not to all those with power books try this. I am not proposing tons of leds gobs of gold and a billion ports and superheavy machine as these two think.
Take your current powerbook and dont change the form factor.
Look at it closed from the front view. i would change nothing but ad the miniscule ryg leds onfront left corner red charging, yellow sleep, green on. thats it barely noticeable. left side closed, nothing, rear closed 1 added fireport and all the ports are gold plated(not noticable whentray is closed,
right side closed 4 mini 1/8" 24bit/96khz jacks and mini midi ports all tastefully down and covered nicely when not need. )for video you have digital, svideo, dual display- its time to get the audio quality up) if done right would only take up maybe 2". and from the bottom nothing just make a better slide in mechanism. top nothing. i just wanted my logo to have a blue tint to go with OSX( not needed but cool.
now lets open it up
2button pad in exactly the same place as the one button one (why is this bad) a simple scroll strip tastefully down(i think these two are musts)
a wider keyboard with a extremely thin accent trim in gold glow in dark whatever. not needed but cool or whatever.
Media keys i agree not needed.
extremely not really noticable small lense near the top of LCD. i saw this on a sony 505 i believe it was incredibly small and work good this is not a big giant ugly hole.
and I for one think Apple could do it better then sony and it would be great for ichat etc.
Basically the same weight or less if they use berilyum, same exact look from all angles with a few added and hard to see features.
It cant be ugly cause it looks exactly the same as the current TIbook unless you consider that ugly.
Oh and 1 more think give us more then 1 color, i want black if possible.
I know someone is going to misrepresent what I have just offered up as gross, heavy, unattractive, too many lights and buttons(I only widened the keyboard, added 2 pad buttons in the place of 1 and a small scroll wheel nicely done apple style. it should look better then the small keyboard we now have.
Anyway those who have powerbooks and actually read will know differently
i was going to quote the guy under you but his reply was too long.
I wish i was good at photshop but i am not to all those with power books try this. I am not proposing tons of leds gobs of gold and a billion ports and superheavy machine as these two think.
Take your current powerbook and dont change the form factor.
Look at it closed from the front view. i would change nothing but ad the miniscule ryg leds onfront left corner red charging, yellow sleep, green on. thats it barely noticeable. left side closed, nothing, rear closed 1 added fireport and all the ports are gold plated(not noticable whentray is closed,
right side closed 4 mini 1/8" 24bit/96khz jacks and mini midi ports all tastefully down and covered nicely when not need. )for video you have digital, svideo, dual display- its time to get the audio quality up) if done right would only take up maybe 2". and from the bottom nothing just make a better slide in mechanism. top nothing. i just wanted my logo to have a blue tint to go with OSX( not needed but cool.
now lets open it up
2button pad in exactly the same place as the one button one (why is this bad) a simple scroll strip tastefully down(i think these two are musts)
a wider keyboard with a extremely thin accent trim in gold glow in dark whatever. not needed but cool or whatever.
Media keys i agree not needed.
extremely not really noticable small lense near the top of LCD. i saw this on a sony 505 i believe it was incredibly small and work good this is not a big giant ugly hole.
and I for one think Apple could do it better then sony and it would be great for ichat etc.
Basically the same weight or less if they use berilyum, same exact look from all angles with a few added and hard to see features.
It cant be ugly cause it looks exactly the same as the current TIbook unless you consider that ugly.
Oh and 1 more think give us more then 1 color, i want black if possible.
I know someone is going to misrepresent what I have just offered up as gross, heavy, unattractive, too many lights and buttons(I only widened the keyboard, added 2 pad buttons in the place of 1 and a small scroll wheel nicely done apple style. it should look better then the small keyboard we now have.
Anyway those who have powerbooks and actually read will know differently
Re: clean simple stylish is what i said
ok, i don't know where to start. not to shoot all your ideas down, i definitely see room for improvement with this work of art.
i have a powerbook, you may have noticed, and i don't think the keyboard needs to be widened. it is standard size if not a little biggere than that, and the key sizes are all just right, except the arrow keys, but i think that apple did the best job fitting them in. i can't imagine a more elegant way to do so. the only reason to widen the keyboard would be to put a keypad on the right instead of via the num lock and over the "mjkluiop789" keys as you see. that to me seems rather pointless, because i think it'd look kinda messed up and unnaturally squeezed then. as it is, the layout looks roomy, in spite of the fact that this thing is so small, which gives it that elegant look.
the 2 buttons i would be fine with, except that's pointless IMO too. i use a right click all the time, my self. it's called holding down ctrl and pressing that one button, and i've actually grown to like it even more than two buttons, and there's a good reason, or set thereof, for this. first, ctrl clicking is really easy and not worth complaining about FOR A LAPTOP because your hands are always there on the keyboard anyway, so it's not an inconvenience like i think it is on a desktop. second, and much more convicingly, i have this strange problem where when i use a 2 button trackpad i sometimes hit the right button thinking i'm hitting the left one, because i use my thumb for both of them, the way i hold my hand over the trackpad. i find this second button annoying, and think that ctrl clicking is much less error-prone.
as to your scrollbar, please no. no no no. i have seen those done many times, and never well. for god's sake, the up and down arrows are right there, and if you're sneaky like me, you can go download uControl at http://osx.freshmeat.net/releases/107461/ . this can make it so that holding down the fn key and moving the mouse will do your scrolling. i used it for awhile, and realized i never really used it. but that's just me. do i think apple should incorporate that feature? heck yeah. scroller separate from the mouse? only if they use the one from the studio mouse, and even then, i wouldn't really like the look, i don't think.
as for adding dual heading, and more audio stuff, i do guarantee that that will make the thing bigger. the extra firewire port is a must though, as you astutely observed, andd USB 2 would be cool, except it's never going to happen for the same reason that intell will never put firewire on their own motherboards. it's competition. this peeves me, because my scanner would be a lot faster if i had USB 2, but alas, i suck it up OK.
i just examined my back ports again and noticed that right by the firewire port there, there is ample space for yet another, so that would really fit in there great.
as for the gold trim around the keyboard, i'm unsure of just what you meant, but as i understand it, that'd be a great idea, if i were a pimp, or i drove a gold-rimmed lowrider. but alas, i am no such pimp, nor do i drive a car with any visible gold plating. i wouldn't mind gold plating for the audio jack, and all the other jacks for that matter, but that would be completely out of place.
as for the light on the front, why? there's a cool oscillating light on the lid that tells you if it's asleep, and theres a green/orange light on the power supply cord that tells you unmistakably that it's charging/on AC. so why put another light on the front?
as for a webcam, sure, why not? it could fit, as you say, totally inconspicuously on the thing. they could even hide it in the hole for the latch, because those guys at cupertino are geniuses, but i don't see the need. of course, i concede you that one though.
if you didn't notice, i was being sarcastic about the lighting. i don't really think you want to put airplane guide lights on the laptop. i am just saying that the LEDs you suggest are redundant, that's all. i made it outrageous so we could all have a chuckle, but that obviously didn't work. i had a chuckle, though.
ok, i don't know where to start. not to shoot all your ideas down, i definitely see room for improvement with this work of art.
i have a powerbook, you may have noticed, and i don't think the keyboard needs to be widened. it is standard size if not a little biggere than that, and the key sizes are all just right, except the arrow keys, but i think that apple did the best job fitting them in. i can't imagine a more elegant way to do so. the only reason to widen the keyboard would be to put a keypad on the right instead of via the num lock and over the "mjkluiop789" keys as you see. that to me seems rather pointless, because i think it'd look kinda messed up and unnaturally squeezed then. as it is, the layout looks roomy, in spite of the fact that this thing is so small, which gives it that elegant look.
the 2 buttons i would be fine with, except that's pointless IMO too. i use a right click all the time, my self. it's called holding down ctrl and pressing that one button, and i've actually grown to like it even more than two buttons, and there's a good reason, or set thereof, for this. first, ctrl clicking is really easy and not worth complaining about FOR A LAPTOP because your hands are always there on the keyboard anyway, so it's not an inconvenience like i think it is on a desktop. second, and much more convicingly, i have this strange problem where when i use a 2 button trackpad i sometimes hit the right button thinking i'm hitting the left one, because i use my thumb for both of them, the way i hold my hand over the trackpad. i find this second button annoying, and think that ctrl clicking is much less error-prone.
as to your scrollbar, please no. no no no. i have seen those done many times, and never well. for god's sake, the up and down arrows are right there, and if you're sneaky like me, you can go download uControl at http://osx.freshmeat.net/releases/107461/ . this can make it so that holding down the fn key and moving the mouse will do your scrolling. i used it for awhile, and realized i never really used it. but that's just me. do i think apple should incorporate that feature? heck yeah. scroller separate from the mouse? only if they use the one from the studio mouse, and even then, i wouldn't really like the look, i don't think.
as for adding dual heading, and more audio stuff, i do guarantee that that will make the thing bigger. the extra firewire port is a must though, as you astutely observed, andd USB 2 would be cool, except it's never going to happen for the same reason that intell will never put firewire on their own motherboards. it's competition. this peeves me, because my scanner would be a lot faster if i had USB 2, but alas, i suck it up OK.
i just examined my back ports again and noticed that right by the firewire port there, there is ample space for yet another, so that would really fit in there great.
as for the gold trim around the keyboard, i'm unsure of just what you meant, but as i understand it, that'd be a great idea, if i were a pimp, or i drove a gold-rimmed lowrider. but alas, i am no such pimp, nor do i drive a car with any visible gold plating. i wouldn't mind gold plating for the audio jack, and all the other jacks for that matter, but that would be completely out of place.
as for the light on the front, why? there's a cool oscillating light on the lid that tells you if it's asleep, and theres a green/orange light on the power supply cord that tells you unmistakably that it's charging/on AC. so why put another light on the front?
as for a webcam, sure, why not? it could fit, as you say, totally inconspicuously on the thing. they could even hide it in the hole for the latch, because those guys at cupertino are geniuses, but i don't see the need. of course, i concede you that one though.
if you didn't notice, i was being sarcastic about the lighting. i don't really think you want to put airplane guide lights on the laptop. i am just saying that the LEDs you suggest are redundant, that's all. i made it outrageous so we could all have a chuckle, but that obviously didn't work. i had a chuckle, though.
What I would change from my TiBook:
-A higher resolution screen would be nice, maybe around 1600x1060.
-A two/three button trackpad.
-Better speakers.
-Tougher paint or no paint at all.
-Two firewire ports like in older Powerbooks.
What I would't change:
-No scroll wheel for me, I'm fine using the up/down keys to scroll.
-No bigger keyboard.
-I see no use for a camera on my laptop.
-No media keys, being able to program the F8-F11 keys like in OS9 should be enough.
-No more LEDs, maybe using the sleep one to give some feedback about a programmed app.
Tommy> Airport reception is not that bad, better than in some Wintel laptops that I've seen. Usually it works within 30-40 meters from the base station.
-A higher resolution screen would be nice, maybe around 1600x1060.
-A two/three button trackpad.
-Better speakers.
-Tougher paint or no paint at all.
-Two firewire ports like in older Powerbooks.
What I would't change:
-No scroll wheel for me, I'm fine using the up/down keys to scroll.
-No bigger keyboard.
-I see no use for a camera on my laptop.
-No media keys, being able to program the F8-F11 keys like in OS9 should be enough.
-No more LEDs, maybe using the sleep one to give some feedback about a programmed app.
Tommy> Airport reception is not that bad, better than in some Wintel laptops that I've seen. Usually it works within 30-40 meters from the base station.