singularity's Journal: Intersession, and new Powerbooks

I just got done spending five wonderful days with 18 of the most entertaining, exciting, and energetic IMSA students. I hoped lead an Outdoor Education class in Michigan.

We sledded, snowshoed, and went cross-country skiing.
We identified plants, animal tracks, and facts about trash.
We wrote in journals, read books, and played cards.
We ran into poles with vans, hurt our ankles, and went flying off sleds.
We ate good food, ate bad Chinese buffet food, and made our own food.

I cannot put into words how wonderful this past week has been. I do not think that I could have imagined a better thing to do upon returning from Christmas break. Those of you who have read previous journals know that I was not doing well before Christmas break.

By Thursday night, all of us wanted it to snow the 6-8 inches the weathermen were calling for on the chance that we would get snowed in and have to stay. When it did not, the students were good enough that while we gave them an hour to pack the vans and clean the cabin, they were done in about twenty minutes and we left not at 9:30am as planned, but rather at 8:57am.

That is right, students who did not want to leave were good enough that they still were responsible and got what had to be done early. IMSA students left early!

It was a great week, and renewed my faith in what I do, at least for a little while.

In other news, I was out of contact with civilization when Apple released news of the new PowerBooks (among many other announcements they made).

My first reaction when hearing about the new 12 ince PowerBook is the effects that would have on high-end iBooks. Some Slashdot comments were dead on the money with their question.

Then I read the specs. I have been looking for a computer to replace my aging PowerBook Duo 2300c. I want something small and useful. I have a full desktop that I will be using 90% of the time, the laptop would be a stop-gap between times when the Clie 665C is too little and moving my desktop is way too much. The laptop would supplement the desktop, and not come close to replacing it.

I do quite a bit of flying, so a DVD player was a requirement. Size was also an issue. I would rather have a smaller laptop that I can bring more places.

I had beenseriously looking at the iBooks, mostly around the middle of the line. The size advantage they had on the full PowerBooks was nice, as was the price. In the end, with DVD player and an Airport card, I was looking at spending about $1500 on the iBook. I decided that when I got the money together, I would buy one.

I am glad I waited. The features that the new 12 inch PowerBook has over the iBook is enough that I want to get it instead. The size difference is also very nice.

What does this mean? This means that I am going to be buying on the the smaller PowerBooks (at a cost of about $2000) instead of the $1500 iBook. So Apple ends up with about $500 more of my money - money I am glad to give them because of the new product.

I know in Japan and in a lot of fields there is a large demand for smaller sub-notebooks. I think that the 12 inch PowerBook fills that nicely. I think that Apple will have a hit on their hand, even more so than the 17 inch model.

I do have to say that the price-drops on the 14 inch iBooks are nice, as well, and make them all the more tempting.

Ahh, the joys of having too many choices. Apple is doing well, I think.

12 inch powerbooks...

[$$$$$exyGal]

I'm excited about the 12 inch powerbooks as well! My concerns are, though, that you can't hook them up to flat panel displays (no DVI), and you can't use a standard airport card (only the extreme ones). I have a flat panel display for my desktop, and I won't be able to hook it up to the 12 inch (without a 300 dollar accessory) :(. And I just received a regular airport card for Christmas, because I was anticipating getting a powerbook soon, and I can't use that either :(. I won't be buying one of these until I figure all this out.

--gal

Re:12 inch powerbooks...

[singularity]

Agreed upon the lack of a DVI connection. Since DVI capable LCDs are so hard to find [slashdot.org], though, I think that the lack of DVI is not going to be a major problem. And, as I said, it makes for a nice "additional computer". Anytime I start hooking up nice monitors long enough to it long enough for the analog signal to bother me, I am using the laptop for more than what I want it for.

The lack of the ability to use the older AirPort cards sucks, but I suppose I can see why they went to that.

(I am impressed that you found a DVI LCD. I finally ended up going with a VGA LCD. [slashdot.org] to round out my desk [vampy-alumni.org]