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ordered powerbook!

post #1 of 16
11/17/05 at 7:04pm
Thread Starter 
Hello all,

I just ordered my first Apple computer, one of the new 15" powerbook g4's with 100gb 7200rpm hdd and 2gb ram (512mb included, 2gb kit from crucial). A Crumpler school hymm, kensington microsaver, griffin icurve stand, apple wireless keyboard, apple mighty mouse, and airport express base station completed my order I've never used an apple before, apart from an hour or so a week on a really old imac when I did a part time support job - I only viewed websites with it, and it was not running OS X. Hope I like it, but don't know what to expect. Allot of musicians and designers seem to have powerbooks, so I'm hoping to have a good headphone out quality - I've not heard a non hissy headphone out on a x86 notebook.

I was burgaled and my two month old dell latitude, and girlfriends ibm thinkpad, were stolen. So this is to replace one of those as my desktop machine. Hope I can afford to buy her something for christmas, a 12" windows machine or powerbook (if I can get one on the apple refurbished store). Luckily the burgalers dropped my ipod on the way out and I still have that, it was completely undamaged.
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post #2 of 16
11/17/05 at 7:27pm
Congrats for your new machine.
It surely will be fun to explore the other side.

I bought my iMac months ago and it has been a pleasant experience.
I almost dropped another bomb on my wallet with the last release of PBs
but I decided to wait for Jan/06. 90 days will not make difference
for me (since my boss antecipated Xmas and let me buy an Asus Z70Va-V).
Anyway, it is my belief that Centrinos + OSX will rule for years to come.

Congrats again !
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post #3 of 16
11/17/05 at 7:40pm
damn, u don't mess around w/ a purchase do u?

fwiw, look into renter's or home owner's insurance. there's no reason u should have to pay thu the nose for someone else's crime.
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post #4 of 16
11/17/05 at 10:10pm
Very nice Sporto. I think you will be plaesantly suprised with OSX. Its truely a VERY user oriented OS. The PB is a very good laptop for every spectrum of users, except maybe gamers. As far as audio is concerned, I have an iBook, and it has NO audio hiss thru the output. The only way I can is if I have a poorly recorded MP3 or crank the volume on the speakers to "Stupid level" Let us know what you think, and welcome to the club

James
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post #5 of 16
11/18/05 at 8:05am
Thread Starter 
thanks for the replies.

I just got the ram from crucial, I hope it fits in the powerbook on the underside as I don't fancy removing the keyboard of my new machine!

My order has now been confirmed and has a ship date of 22nd November

I will post some comments once I have it in my hands
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post #6 of 16
11/18/05 at 5:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sporto
thanks for the replies.

I just got the ram from crucial, I hope it fits in the powerbook on the underside as I don't fancy removing the keyboard of my new machine!
Both slots are accessible through the underside...no keyboard removal needed
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post #7 of 16
11/27/05 at 3:12pm
Thread Starter 
really worried about this order now as I've been reading about loads of quality issues mainly to do with the display..

http://www.macintouch.com/pbg4reader37.html#nov10
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post #8 of 16
11/27/05 at 7:49pm
If you have a problem just send it back and get a replacement.
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post #9 of 16
12/10/05 at 8:29am
Thread Starter 
Had it for 4 days and sent it back with the screen issue that everyone is having. Sent the whole order back for a refund as mouse etc is useless without a notebook. Maybe I'll wait until mid Jan and see if they announce new versions, or order a 12" without the issue, or just get a PC and save a wad of cash.

http://15inpbscreen.appleplace.com/
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showt...ht=white+spots
http://forums.applenova.com/showthre...916#post260916
http://forums.applenova.com/showthread.php?t=11218

the nail in the coffin was when I looked at images and half tone blocks, while editing, on my dad's 6 year old dell latitude.. and it had non of the problems and much more uniform colour accross the display.. then I felt I couldn't live with it, going backwards, especially as a PB is such a premium product.
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post #10 of 16
12/10/05 at 7:22pm
That sucks...I would've kept sending it back for replacement until I got a good one.
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post #11 of 16
12/12/05 at 5:49pm
Thread Starter 
decided that the 12" was too underpowered for my needs, and the 17" is too pricey and underpowered (same gpu and video ram driving a much bigger panel).

plus, it seems hardly anyone is getting a good powerbook. these problems seem to be a "feature" of the display! as well as the problems described, the bottom corners are darker, and there is a band of brighter illumination along the bottom of the display.

i've ordered a Lenovo Thinkpad to replace the powerbook,

http://www5.pc.ibm.com/uk/products.nsf/$wwwPartNumLookup/_UH3FKUK?OpenDocument

the display gets good comments in the reviews, and of course it has a nicer keyboard. doesn't have mac os x though


oh well...
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post #12 of 16
12/12/05 at 8:10pm
I know someone who just got a 15 today and she says the screen is perfect.
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post #13 of 16
12/13/05 at 1:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sporto

plus, it seems hardly anyone is getting a good powerbook. these problems seem to be a "feature" of the display! as well as the problems described, the bottom corners are darker, and there is a band of brighter illumination along the bottom of the display.

..
Im pretty sure my new 15" powerbook has the infamous line problems that everyone is talking about but to be honest the only way you will notice it is if you are staring at the screen from 2 inches away. At normal viewing distance, the screen is absolutely perfect. I also do not have the dark corners and brighter band of illumination along the bottom. I have had 10+ notebooks in the past 2 years and this is one of the nicest screens that I have ever used. I do not use the powerbook professionally so I have no need to look at the screen from 2 inches away.
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post #14 of 16
12/13/05 at 7:20am
Thread Starter 
I can see the lines on my powerbook from normal viewing distance, about 1.5' away on the icurve stand.

You're telling me that if you load this image:

http://crankycat.com/pb15_problems.png

you don't get really visible banding in the lower block of orange and shimmering in the top block of orange.. or for that matter any other block of colour in the top left region of the display? Nearly everyone who has tried notices problems. Load it on any other laptop and you won't find the issue. This is important when doing professional work, and you do not need to be anywhere near as close as 2 inches to see it.
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post #15 of 16
12/14/05 at 1:26am
I viewed the images on both my powerbook and a 20" ACD and the images looked pretty identical. The lines from the pictures are noticeable but they are the lines that are located in the pictures themselves. The lines do not extend to the background image. Maybe my sight is bad but my screen seems perfect to me at normal viewing distance (1 1/2 feet away).
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post #16 of 16
12/15/05 at 12:34pm
Thread Starter 
the lines through the orange blocks are part of the problems of the display, they display fine as solid blocks of orange on most other monitors, i've tests on 4 other tft displays and all were fine.
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