Apple Powerbook G4 - Review - Page 4

THeres more programs for Windows and more games for windows.

About the virus part, i wonder why hasn't any PC lovers/zealot make viruses for MAcs? It'd sound like a good challenge and a whole lotta fun. Then u have Mac zealots making more virus and adding to the Norton Antivirus Library. Awesome game. Plus if theres no Windows, some businesses can't run. U all just have to wait till the next installment of windows.

There used to be Mac clones made by other manufacturers, but I think you're asking why OS X isn't available for PC? The short answer is its not made to be compatable with the x86 platform. A lot of people would like it to be. Any direct competition for Windows would be a good thing for the customer. Some think that OS X could make major inroads into the PC market if it were made available. There are two major problems for Apple however. One, if a customer were able to purchase OS X on a cheaper PC box, there is less incentive for them to fork over the cash for a generally more expensive Mac. Hence, Apple's hardware business would stagnate as their software business flourished. (some have suggested that Apple become a software only company only) And two, consider the level of control that Apple enjoys due to the fact that they manufacture their hardware and software. They are able to optomize their OS for their computers to a greater degree than what PC manufacturers are able to. Now consider their market expands to include all the makers of PC products. They would most likely run into all the same problems that Microsoft has to contend with. And Apple being a much smaller company, has less resources to deal with them. It would really be a huge transition, and I don't foresee it happening anytime soon....though who knows.

I'd be happy to put my M60 up against your powerbook using Encore DVD or applying any Photoshop filters on any image files of, say, 1GB file size.

gosh... i don't know whats up with arguing about who has the fastest comps or the best... itz simply like some small kids arguing about who has the coolest toys.

so does it make actually make u feel better knowing that urz is the fastest? good 4 u then... if you havent realised that technology is developing rapidly that ur fastest comp will not stay for long...

regarding photoshop filters... having a 1gb file size... are u a graphic designer by any chance? any idea what is a 1gb image file? i have worked on photoshop since itz early releases and till now... my record for psd file has only hit 200mb... and that is about 500 layers in it... the truth is that 100 layers is already more than enough... and u probably know nothing about reducing size without sacrificing image quality...

bear in mind that having the coolest toys don't mean anything. It is about how much you know how to utilize what u have.... it isnt the tools that make the artist... even if you have a supercomputer at home and you barely utilize it... what's the point? these arguments on which comp or lappie is the fastest will never end... trust me on that...

Assumption is a dangerous thing. The above benchmarks & comparisions were merely made to debunk the "theory" that a powerbook is the be it & end all of mobile professional computing; try not to take it personally.
We frequently get drum scanned images of photographs, for example, 500MB for a 40x40 output, or as large as 1GB for billboard output. These images are then worked on by us using Photoshop, as per the clients' specifications.
Before DVD-Rs became common, we recieved the tiff files on SCSI hard drives from the company that scanned them in for us.
We work on the images using Precision Workstations, both mobile units as well as desktops. We used to use Macs for setting print color output, but are increasingly using SGI units for speed/stability.

Realistic Review

It's probably a waste of my time and effort, but I have a 1.33GHz 15" Powerbook and an Acer 1712SMi (3GHz), and I feel I can add some rational thought and comparisons here with regard to some of the points raised by David.

First, I really enjoy using both machines, and they can each do things that the other can't. Both are quality builds, and neither has given me any trouble. I use both for video production and other tasks down to surfing. I use the Acer on my desk at work each day.

Frankly, I don't understand the "It has to be one or the other" mentality that's so common, especially with Mac proponents.

The issues:

Noise - The Powerbook is definitely quiet. I'm not comparing it to a Centrino, but even considering it in a vacuum, it get points on that - it is quiet. We used to have a desktop PC in the bedroom (always on), and now we keep my Ti Powerbook there - virtually silent; Always on, hooked up to a big external monitor and full size keyboard, it makes a great desktop. My wife loves it.

Heat - The back left bottom of the case gets hot (not warm, hot). I use it on my lap in the living room every evening and it gets uncomfortably hot, even just web surfing. It's vented on the back. I do like that part of the design; the bottom is just a flat surface; no vents, no fans. I'm not a gamer, but it would clearly be silly to believe that an hour and a half of play would only make any Powerbook just "warm."

Display - It could be a bit higher res and the brightness and contrast is nothing to write home about, but is "good" - not great, not excellent, but good.

Speed - The Acer and Powerbook were almost the same price, so in that regard, I think it's "fair" to compare their performance. I use a few applications in common. After Effects is one that has always been Mac-centric. The comparison with After Effects 6.5: the Acer kicks the living crap out of the Powerbook. The difference is about what you'd expect if you were given no more information "We're going to compare a 1.33GHz machine to a 3GHz machine. It's more than twice as fast. The subjective feel of the difference in most apps (including AE) is not that great. That might be one of the reasons that Mac users so routinely inflate the relative performance.

Now, the Powerbook is pretty, sleek, and stylish. It has a certain fitness in usabilty to it. It's pretty okay in terms of its weight and certainly has a place in my life - I'm not giving it up. OSX is largely enjoyable - and I also find XP to be a joy on a stable machine like the Acer.

I think its clear that David is just a kid - doesn't mean he'll grow out of the attitude though.

So you are saying that Apple's site says that their own product is better than someone else's product? Amazing, I don't think anyone has ever said that about their own products before. Try finding a real comparison from a non-biased source.

And incase you didn't realize, Ofelas' laptop has the 2.1GHz Pentium M, which I'm pretty sure will toast a powerbook.



Edit: Nominated for NotW.

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Did you just say that you have an opinion on a factual matter? "I think that the sky tends towards crimson at noon, but that's just my opinion."

btw... i tink if u r really serious about doing graphic design/video editing n stuff... get a desktop... no laptop can ever beat a desktop... i have friends using laptops as their main computer but in truth... they barely bring it out for real use... i honestly dont see any need for laptops unless u r seriously a frequent traveller and u dun work by ur desk...

Glad you like the machine, Powerbooks are sleek, and I would have really looked at one if not for application compatibility that I needed.

But don't trust benchmarks from Apple, they will not hesitate to falsify results. The results they post will be repeatable, but they will use any trick they can think of to slow down the PC or force it to use inefficient code paths. It's a shame to, they've got enough to stand on and market their true strengths. Stability, usability, design, and even some performance areas.

It's a shame that Motorola dropped the ball and Apple let it go on for so long. If they hadn't, they wouldn't have to falsify benchmark results. Though, now that they've switched over to IBM they're catching up quickly.

Talz & Kakaze - well put!

Ok... now that all of those are gone...

Guys lets try to keep this clean yeah? I dont want to have to lock this thread.

Snip snip snip go Enderet's scissors.


At least he's around, not like that lazy Kat.

I think the one thing that people overlook is that here we should be more geared to the hardware, not having flame wars over the OS. The fact that I think people don't realize is that apple is 5th overall in notebook marketshare with around 7%. More people have an Apple laptop than what most of you have on this forum. The OS may be in the minority by a longshot, but the markshare of the hardware is creeping up. btw, i own and like both pcs and macs.

I can't believe those posts were cut out of here.

If a thread is going off topic you don't delete posts, you close it or you dump it into another forum. You most certainly don't censor it.

Ridiculous.

Wow, telling the mod what to do. That's gonna score you some points...