The True Believers at Mac World were gifted with a 17″ laptop, a 12″ laptop, a proprietary web browser, and a Power Point clone.
Yawn.
Putting a big screen on a laptop should enable you to solve the biggest problem faced by laptop users, the tiny keyboard. But instead of giving the 17″ Powerbook a full-sized keyboard with the ample real estate provided by the large display, Apple decided to backlight the tiny keys instead. Clue: you don’t have to look at the keys if the keyboard is large enough.
Insanely Great? More like Collossally dumb.
The funniest part of this year’s Apple hype is video promo featuring West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin (about 45% of the way in). They’re right about one thing: Apple is the machine for you if you think The West Wing is good TV.
UPDATE: It turns out the new Powerbooks also leave unaddressed the other two issues that limit the utility of laptops: battery life and CPU speed. The fastest CPU Apple sells is still 1 GHz, and the battery life of these babies is limited to something like 4.5 hrs. The machines have an ultra-thin, 1″ case, but who cares?
Mac acolyte David Plotnikoff more or less explains Apple’s appeal in his account of Mac World in the Mercury: when you buy an Apple, you aren’t getting a computer, you’re getting a membership card in the Creative Class. Now isn’t that special?
ANOTHER UPDATE: What application is ideal for a laptop with a big screen, a fast WiFi connection, and a paltry keyboard? The only one I can think of is downloading porn, but maybe there’s another. As it stands, the 17″ Powerbook is the leading contender for the Wanker’s Choice Award for 2003.
Oh, c’mon Richard – pull your head out of your assumptions, based on your own computer usage. Neither of these computers are designed for you; they are designed for, as you are so happy to scoff at, the “creative class.” (I’ll concede your gripe about the lack of full-sized computer – bone headed! probably cost driven).
These new Powerbooks come with both Firewire I & II, Bluetooth and 802.11G. How did you miss that last one? 😉 The 12″ is perfect for journalists & photojournalists. The 17″ is perfect for any “creative” who’s got to show work to clients on the go. The backlit keyboards, a major for anyone who’s controlling media events, which Macs do A LOT OF THESE DAYS!
So, its not built for you…. and the keyboards should be adult sized (ever see Jobs’ hands? They’re tiny… you complete the equation). They’re still well designed, noteworthy machines.
Tom, the creep who hosts this site hates Apple almost as much as he hates women. An across-the-board jerk, ya know?
Can you backup that allegation, Mac Diva? I didn’t think so.
You’ll enjoy my latest entry on the Mac keyboard.
802.11g is going to be an important networking standard when it’s actually approved. At this point, no one can realistically claim to support it, because it hasn’t been finalized.
In the old days, the committee would punish those who jump the gun with products alleged to conform to an unratified standard by changing it to make them non-conforming, like we did to Synoptics.
But they probably won’t do it this time around.
For the record, I’ve yet to see evidence that Richard Bennett is either a creep or a misogynist.
I wasn’t aware that 802.11g wasn’t ratified(“See, Virginia you can learn valuable things from dyed in the wool Republicans!”). You’re right, Apple won’t get punished…. in fact, they’ll probably get exactly what Jobs wanted: ratification.
This is my first time reading your weblog – interesting.
I’d like to quickly take issue with your dismissal of the 12″ powerbook. Basically, I am a software developer (unix-based), as well as a part-time student. I just purchased a 12″ 800mhz ibook to use because it provides me with the flexibility of natively running Microsoft Office & other nifty office-type applications right alongside my UNIX development environment. I didn’t want a 15″ powerbook because it’s just too big and delicate for me to throw in a backpack.
The ibook also provides me with a real-life 4 hours of battery life (with the display fairly low) while using 802.11 at a cafe, school, etc. Unfortunately, the 800mhz g3 can still be a little bit pokey, and I’m unhappy having to plug in a USB bluetooth dongle. So for me, the 12″ powerbook would be an excellent choice, providing the same excellent battery life, the form factor I want, the built-in bt, and the speed boost I’d prefer.
I think the 17″ powerbook is just ridiculous and that whoever came up with the idea should be taken out back and shot.