Preventing Powerbook Clutter/Frustration

appdezine

Does it make sense to buy a firewire and usb hub, plug all peripherals into them, and plug the hubs into the back of the Powerbook. This way when you want to take the PB somewhere, you just unplug the 2 hubs. Can the Apple keyboard go into the USB hub or does it have to go directly into the PB. I'm getting the new PB and I've never owned a laptop. I'm trying to make it as simple and clutter free as possible to take it on and off my desk, otherwise I know i'll be reluctant to take it around. Normally, it will be plugged into a CRT and on a stand.

roduk

I believe the keyboard can be plugged into a hub. I have mine plugged into the Apple display which acts just like a hub and it works fine. The only problem may be if you want to plug devices into the hub (or even the keyboard) that don't have their own power supply, like a Canon scanner. Just make sure the hub is a powered one if you intend to do this.



I'm not sure about the PowerBook, but for the iBook you can get something called a BookEndz(?) which just plugs into all the ports on the side of the iBook (in one go), replicating and possibly adding to the ports already available. To unplug everything, you simply unplug the BookEndz and off you go.



[ 11-23-2002: Message edited by: RodUK ]</p>

wolfeye155

BookEndz has it for the Power Book also.



<a href="http://www.bookendzdocks.com/bookendz/g4tspec.htm"; target="_blank">http://www.bookendzdocks.com/bookendz/g4tspec.htm</a>;

matsu

I've heard some people complain about frying their firewire ports (iDunno about USB), you should probably get a powered hub just to be safe.