The Wall Street Journal has published a favorable review of Apple's PowerBook G4, comparing it to IBM's ThinkPad T. While impressed by the system as a whole, the PowerBook G4 was faulted for its lack of an expansion bay, mediocre keyboard, and AirPort support that WSJ found had less range than that of the iBook or the Thinkpad equipped with a PCMCIA card.
Comments
Nice review!
Nice to see a WSJ reporter give a nice unbaised review that is fair. Although it would have been a little smarter of him to mention that the previous powerbook offered expansion bays, but still a very good well-written review.
It's nice to see some reviewer getting his powerbook before I and every other consumer who ordered them that first week.
I'd like to see a VAIO with an expansion bay when the *entire* unit is 1" tick. This includes the screen thickness.
You would have to make the entire corner removable to pop on a new device its so thin now.
I guess while this "reviewer" was at it he thinks the trackpad should be removable, the screen should be able to pivot to a vertical position, the screen should also be touch sensitive, there should be fold out cup holders on either side and just for fun you should be able to drop it from 50 feet in the air and have it survive undamaged eh?
The reporter has to have his first, so that those that didn't order one yet... will... it's business.
Great article, but as he pointed out, looks are very important. And one look at another execs Titamium PB will send people running to the IT department to get one. Just look at the incredible impact on sales of the Palm going into anodised aluminium. Suddenly 'everyone had to have one'. Same software, same functions, slightly better screen - add a completly gorgeous design and the Palm went from useful to desireable.
A reasonable article; however, with it's default CD-ROM and missing firewire, the Thinkpad has to have an expansion bay. TiBook's fixed DVD + firewire = no dual battery. With sleep swapping, this will be a minor inconvenience for me. Honestly, I would much rather own firewire (or usb) devices over expansion bay modules, and be able to use them with my iBook and desktop. Cheers.
If the range of the AirPort is his biggest complain, which is still a MAJOR convenience at best, I guess we should really look on this as a great review. But a WSJ reporter would probably never go as far as saying, "this machine offers a unique combination of features not found in any other machine."
That would be too much.
I really don't need an expansion bay. PCMCIA is great for custom cards, and external devices would be better choices than internal ones. Two USB ports are however really needed.
Only one Firewire may be a problem in the future, when more FW devices are going to be available, but since most FW devices can be chained, it's a minor inconvenience. I actually think Apple did remove this extra port to save energy, since the FW is powered (remember that autonomy slightly increased on Pismos simply by updating the Firewire extension).
OR
Network Headlines
Most Popular
MacNN Sponsor
Recent Reviews
iHome iW2 AirPlay speaker
iHome generally isn't known as a luxury brand when it comes to audio, but it is prolific -- the company's docks and speakers are every ...
Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover
One of the iPad's main weaknesses has always been productivity. It's not a question of apps; while it has taken a little time for a na ...
Logitech UE Air Speaker
If maybe a little more slowly than Apple would like, AirPlay is becoming a staple of the wireless speaker market for iOS devices. The ...
Most Commented
Popular News
Joined:
AirPort can't fight Ti?
Looks like the gorgeous case is eating the AirPort signal. Bummer.