New PowerBook's out tomorrow !!!

[Ric]

Well thats what Murphy's law say's...Apple are bound to announce a new line now that I have...


...got myself a new PowerBook today !


Went in for a quick look just to see, if they are still that goooood !

Took the anklebiter in with me (part of the whole Florence thing !), asked him which one he liked and low and behold I have a new 17" 1.67Ghz G4, 100Gb HD, SuperDrive etc etc... (they had a 15" with the 128mb Graphics card 100mb HD etc but it was out of stock...so what choice did I have !) Only got 512mb RAM, but the order has already gone into Crucial, for a little bit more !!

...sat in the box on the kitchen table waiting for me to open it !!!!

My will power is astounding me, I'll open the box, hopefully 9pm GMT, when he goes to bed.

Will post some pics later, if anyone wants a look !!

This is going to cost me though...Wifey is already calculating how many Clothes, Shoes, Phones etc is the equivalent to a new PowerBook !

Only joking dear !!!! Honest !!!!

 

[Cory Cooper]

Go

Congrats Ric!

Sounds like the "anklebiter" has goood taste!

I could never have that much willpower...I'd of had it open in the truck on the way home! Just kdding...would have waited until I crossed the threshold of the front door at least.

Apple does have an upcoming announcement scheduled for July 7th...hmmm...new PowerBooks?



C

 

[Ric]

Well the box has now been opened...as ever, Apple never fails to impress !

Very nice so far, because I decided to not place an order online and pop into my local Selfridges (MicroAnvika store inside) and buy it today...it came with Panther and not Tiger.

Wasn't worried about that as I have Tiger (Family pack !) anyway.

I have photo documented the whole procedure and will post the pictures, once its up and running !

Not sure what you all do when you get a new Mac, but I am a creature of habit and always do the same thing. After booting it up and having a quick look around, making sure that I have the disks for all the preloaded Apps...I then wipe it and reload the OS myself, it's always worked well for me, and gives me a stable machine.

So here goes...

Tiger disk in...Install process cancelled and into Disk Utility, then erase hard drive, quit and back into the install.

For the time being I am just doing the standard install, and the developer install.

Tiger installed, rebooted, now allow software update to do it's thing (thank heaven for broadband !), another reboot back to software update again (always repeat this process untill there are no more updates), one last reboot.

Now back to the original disk that came with the Laptop, on here is a copy of iLife 05 and a few otther Apps mainly trialware which I won't install, so we now install that...

Now run software update again, all the iLife Apps need updating ! Time for another cup of tea !

All software updates done for now !

All my 'other' software will get loaded tomorrow, along with any data that I want to put on from other laptops.

Starting to 'populate' the dock this will however get changed a lot !

Now to give it a quick test drive...I'll report back in a bit.

 

[Ric]

Sounds like the "anklebiter" has goood taste!

He's not bad for a two year old, no one will probably believe me, but I honestly said to him which one do you like and he pointed to the "big one"

I could never have that much willpower...

Didn't know I did ! It really has been hard going keep walking past the box, but if I had opened it I wouldn't have been able to do anything with it whilst he was around, and anyway we had to get the wooden trains out !!!

Apple does have an upcoming announcement scheduled for July 7th...hmmm...new PowerBooks?

Well I new It was coming soon...new line to tempt the students whilst on summer break ! At the end of the day, as you know, this fits my needs/wants exactly so if/when a new Powerbook is a announced I will be okay, honest ! (I'll eat my hat if they've managed to fit in a G5, maybe a few new features, but no massive speed bump not till we're Intel Inside !)

 

[Ric]

iSight camera on and working, nice !

New Wireless mouse now being installed.

Wait till you see some of the pic's, the illuminated keyboard is amazing, little things...

 

[Ric]

Oh how the little things are nice, mouse nicely weighted, setup and working 1 minute...

 

[Ric]

Yes Wifey did laugh at me for taking all these pictures...the words Geek were definately going through her mind...I would add though that she was sat on the sofa copying cd's across to her iBook-iTunes at the time !!!

Heres the first pic's for those of you that have never owned a PowerBook and would like a little look !

Have to do five pics per post, maximum attachments !

Pics of outer box...new wireless mouse (box)...and "Second Skin" PowerBook case...good intentions !

 

[Ric]

Notice the seal had not been broken at this point !!!!

 

[Ric]

The suspense was now killing me...

...opening the outer case and having a quick glance inside, whoooaaaa.

 

[Ric]

No you're not seeing things it comes with OS 9 (classic !) as well.

The top case was then removed...

 

[Ric]

A quick look at all the ports...yes all seem to be there !

A few bit's of paper manuals, will read later, honest !

Ahhh a Tiger !!!

 

[Ric]

New mouse, a bit of a luxury, but sometimes, I needs a mouse !!!

Haven't had a look at the supplied software yet, Tiger just picked it up...paired with it (bluetooth) and off we went !

 

[Ric]

A few pics of the new beast, this was with the stock Panther install...

...now gone to make way for Tiger !

 

[Ric]

The keyboard is absolutely sublime...

It may sound daft but the backlit keys are a god send to me, most of the time I am ina dimly lit room late at night 'keying' away...

If you've not seen the backlit keys they are a bit like the ones that you would get on a mobile phone...

Can be dimmed, turned off or left to their own devices...when the ambient light drops the keyboard realises and brightens up...very nice !

The shots below are in a virtually pitch black room with the keyboard lights turned all the way up !!!

 

[Ric]

That's all for tonight...

I'll do a full review of it next week, just in case anyone else is tempted, so far the first 5 hours have been very impressive.

Ric

 

[Ric]

Don't forget you need to 'Calibrate your battery' and back up those original OS disks, do it now before you forget !!!! After all you've got a SuperDrive !

3.16 am...

just noticed on the original install disks is a licensed (full) version of Graphic Converter...hmm nice touch. Best have another route round the install disks !

 

[Ric]

Well it's certainly speeding up things, have updated four websites...backed up a load of files, replied to a few emails, and it still wants more.

3.50am

trying to drain the battery so that I can go to bed and leave it charging (freaky it went to sleep as I was typing this line...power adapter in and off to bed) !

 

[Ric]

Spec here !

 

[Cory Cooper]

Go

Nice shooting!

I know what you mean about being satisfied with your purchase...there's always something better right around the corner. I got my Xserve in Nov/Dec 2003...a month or so later they announced the G5 Xserve. I am still very much happy with the performance of mine. Mine is fully-loaded, and to do the same to the G5 Xserve would have been three times the $$$. Haven't had buyer's regret yet.

I do love the backlit keyboard...I really think Apple should make an aluminum version of their Pro Keyboard to match the G5s with the illuminaton like the PBs have. Would that be cool or what?

Keep us posted your enjoyment of your new addition...

C

 

[Ric]

I do love the backlit keyboard...I really think Apple should make an aluminum version of their Pro Keyboard to match the G5s with the illuminaton like the PBs have. Would that be cool or what?

Keep us posted your enjoyment of your new addition...

C

Yes I would of thought that they would bring out a 'better matched' keyboard for them.

Hopefully I will get more of a chance to play/explore later tonight, if I can keep eyes open!

I too don't really get buyers regret, as long as it does what you want it to then everything should be fine. It doesn't really matter what comes out next week/month...

Probably take me a week or so to get everything on it and organised to how I want it to be. Probably will get wiped a few times over, before I'm happy with the setup !

It's all good so far !

Regards

Ric