Mactel Powerbook Expectations

J

jer2eydevil88

Registered
I am sitting here thinking what exactly I want my powerbook to be able to do and what kind of hardware Apple should provide in its intel lineup. As you can tell by my signature I have a newer model Powerbook and while its certainly fast it is a FAR cry from my Athlon 3400+ desktop and it barely holds its own against the Pentium-M rivals it is priced against. Just watching a 720p HiDef trailer brings this machine to its knees.

I'm thinking that since the Yonah core chips are going to be available in January its time to start putting together a wish list for Apple buyers to suggest what they want to see.

I want to see something along these lines,

For the 15", 17" Powerbooks
2.0ghz Yonah Pentium-M
802.11a/b/g Intel 2915WIFI
Nvidia 6800GO 16X PCI-EX or ATI X800 16X PCI-EX w/256mb
100gb 7200rpm SATA 150 drive
1gb DDR 4200 Standard
Keep the new high resolution LCD's but junk the horizontal line problematic model in the current powerbooks.
TWO BUTTON MOUSE on the notebooks should be standard enough already with this one button nonsense.
I would love the use of my Function keys back so if Apple could throw the utility keys (Volume, Monitor, Brightness, etc...) into a seperate panel either on the side or in a new more aesthetically appealing position.

And do away with the pcmcia and give us a real set of USB ports at least 4 on these things.
 
I changed from PC recently to a 12 inch PB. I don't actually miss the right click. It's not essencial in macos. And also in all the apple apps: they are so stream lined I find my self mostly using keyboard shortcuts to get around. When I need other options (i.e. in windows you would right click) I call open an 'inspector' (think pages, keynote etc ...) and that has all the options I'd ever need. So in the odd time when I need to I and am quite happy to control click..... I'll probably get flammed BUT I like the one button mouse-pad!
 
jer2eydevil88 said:
I would love the use of my Function keys back so if Apple could throw the utility keys (Volume, Monitor, Brightness, etc...) into a seperate panel either on the side or in a new more aesthetically appealing position.
Click to expand...

Go to system preferences -> keyboard & mouse and check "Use the F1-F12 keys to control software features"
Now the F1-F12 keys will actualy be that.
 
And: no, PLEASE no separate utility keys. They're what make PC notebooks ugly! Apple has the perfect solution by using the function keys that way, and yes as aliensub has said, you can revert the function keys so you have to use the Fn-key to get to the utility-key function...
 
While I disagree it would be ugly to have a seperate utility bar thanks for the tip of regaining the use of my Fn keys. Also having a right click button in os x would be nice for every single application I use, from copying text in Adium into Camino. Heck even spell checking in the OS requires you to right click the underlined word for the options to replace it.

Its just annoying not having two buttons.
 
just keep your hand near the control button, and don't put it anywhere alse. it will resolve this insanity....
 
Personally I'll be happy if a fast and compatible version of either VMware or VPC is announced along with the machine. I'll pick it up in a heartbeat! Need a new laptop anyway, but have to be able to develop Windows stuff on it :(
 
Actually, I am hoping for just the processor to change. One thing I don't want is the ugly "intel inside" stickers for the computer placed in the worse spots, like the palm rest on a laptop.
 
powermac said:
Actually, I am hoping for just the processor to change. One thing I don't want is the ugly "intel inside" stickers for the computer placed in the worse spots, like the palm rest on a laptop.
Click to expand...


Ditto...i remove all signs of intel on my dell pc, heck i even covered up my dell logo with the apple stickers i got from my Powerbook and iPod

Joy of Tech made a good joke about it
 
I hope we find out soon about how much faster and capable the Intel iBooks and PBs are then the current offerings. I've done well over the years buying the end of a model. And I saved some money. The A.R. prices of the 12" iBooks and PowerBooks at Amazon are very tempting.
 
Well: I think we'll see a transition there. Initially, most applications people have will run in Rosetta emulation, which probably doesn't make them run faster than on older PowerBooks/iBooks. For native applications, however, I hope the 'old' PowerBooks won't fare well...
 
The ability to play HD movies would be niiiice. Even today's desktops can't handle it really well (except for the Power Mac line). The same is true on the PC side, though, so I don't know if this will change. (Actually, it's even worse on PCs in a way, since WMV3 has much steeper system requirements than H.264.) I doubt the single-core Yonahs will handle it very well, but the duals probably could. Time will tell.

But really, more power is always a given. I can't think of any major changes I'd like to see. A second button would be appropriate; they'll probably do something similar to the MightMouse so it will act like a one-button pad by default.

I'd actually like to see a whole extra row of function keys (OS X has built-in support for at least 32). But even desktop keyboards don't suit me, so I can't really expect laptops to.

Oh yes, I almost forget my biggest wish of all: the complete and utter LACK of this "Trusted Computing" nonsense. If Apple doesn't fight this thing, probably nobody will......and then I think I'll hang up my mouse and go back to typewriters, audio cassettes and lots and lots of dead trees. Or I suppose I could just keep using my PPC-based Mac until the end of time. But that doesn't provide the striking imagery I'm going for with this mini-rant. ;)
 
jer2eydevil88 said:
While I disagree it would be ugly to have a seperate utility bar thanks for the tip of regaining the use of my Fn keys. Also having a right click button in os x would be nice for every single application I use, from copying text in Adium into Camino. Heck even spell checking in the OS requires you to right click the underlined word for the options to replace it.

Its just annoying not having two buttons.
Click to expand...

i have a two button mouse, and i don't use it to copy test across apps. i drag and drop, or use apple+c/v
 
Still: Apple has acknowledged the two-or-more-button mouse to be a 'thing' that people want with the MightyMouse, so I expect Apple to actually drop the one button mouse in the future. But as a long time Mac user, it's certainly not the most important change in PowerBooks for me. (I've learned to use the keyboard instead of the mouse for most things and have no problem pushing down the ctrl-key in order to get the contextual menu item in combination with a mouse click. But it _would_ make it easier for switchers coming from whatever OS.)
 
If they managed a solution for the new ones similar to the mighty mouse (no visible button, but sensors) it would appease everyone. Those wanting a right-lick option could then enable it via system preferences, those not wanting it could ignore it. Everyone would be happy.

As far as speed wise, I haven't had an issue yet with 720p on my new PB (and it's a bone stock spec from the online store). 1080p is another story all together. That's on QT based files, but WMVs are pretty much the same for me...anything 720 or less plays fine. Laptops will lag back in this area for another year or so on both sides, as HD videos require enormous amount of processor over other system resources. The dual-core Yonah chips should be able to fix that...hopefully.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top