Reader Ty J Silzer says he’s finally found the PowerBook of his dreams, but something’s holding him back. Because we at the PowerPage want to help lighten our readers pockets (why? why not!) and alleviate any moral burdens slowing purchase, it seems only right to respond. It seems Ty is finding just four things holding him back:
”1) According to the rumor sites the latest SuperDrive Books will be eclipsed by a new one in January. Well, that doesn’t add up logically for lots of reasons, plus this will be the last model that boots into 9 (good for me as I’m a technician part of the time, but I mostly use X). So I can live with this (haunting feeling)… As they say, only, what, 90% of what we worry about never takes place.” [PK: I have a feeling this is holding many people back. I did a tarot reading on the street and confirm this. I think there won’t be a MWSF PowerBook intro. So, Macworld attendees, no complaining when the TiBook front is quiet. Steve seems to be playing down Macworlds these days.
”2) It doesn’t have a Cinema Display (or something equally riduculously huge) for a screen. But, outside of a rare model by Sony, it beats everything else on the market. So I can live with this.” PK: Hmmm, clearly you need to also buy a Cinema Display for your home. You don’t really need money for anything other than Apple hardware, do you?
”3) No built-in bluetooth. Oh, how I lust for thee. But I shall never know thee. At least not until July 2003 (by all sane ball-parking). And I shall not let thee stand in the way of my in-flight DVD burning. Yes, an adapter that I have to keep track of and annoyingly, painfully and laborously, manually install and uninstall is doable. So I can live with this.” PK: It would be nice to see built-in Bluetooth, but plugging in a USB adapter is ‘manual installing’?
”4) The HDD (Hard Disk Drive for new readers). My jaw sunk when I saw the rpm’s on the new ‘Book: 4200. IBM’s had 5400 rpm models for a while now . . . I give one of my fellow cohorts in repair a ring (he’s also Authorized Apple Sales) about the drive. He writes me back with this:”
”You asked me ‘why the hard disk drives in the new PowerBook G4 (1GHz/867MHz) revolve at a slower rate than the hard disk drives available in the previous generation PowerBook G4?’ ((note: well, I didn’t exactly, but yeah, hey, what gives?)) Well, the ‘hard disk drive’s spindle speed, as measured in revolutions per minute (rpm), is not the only factor in a hard disk drive’s ability to transfer data. The hard disk drives in the new PowerBook G4 (1GHz/867MHz) are based on a technology that packs data more densely on the drive’s platters, enabling data to be written and read more quickly and offering a higher maximum raw data transfer rate.”
Now this is a good question, Ty. I’m confused here because I thought my original-model TiBook was 4200 rpm. In any case, I say don’t sweat the hard drive unless you’re doing pro video or audio. Even then, many pro users are fine with internal drives at this speed for the road, and keep big, clunky (but fast) 7200 rpm AV drives to plug in via FireWire at home. So on all these points, let’s fire up some discussion. Ty asks for some speed: “And do hurry. In regards to waiting, like Popeye said, ‘I’ve had all I can stands, and I can’t stands no more…'” Okay, Ty, don’t worry, we can set that feedback link on fire.
