Titillating

pookjp

I love the new 667/550 TiBooks, but for some insane reason I'm reluctant to take the jump. I think I'm still scared of "That Next Revision That Has That One Thing I Want" coming out. Thus, the question is begged: what could be added that would cause such a reaction?



The answer, I believe, is screen resolution. I love X, so much so I'd consider going desktop despite its impracticalities for a college student. That option aside, I'm not 100% sold on X on the current TiBook. Am I nuts? Maybe, but I do know it would look a helluvalot better with a higher res, and I'd kick a lamp if I got stuck* with the current screen.



Or maybe I'm just a lame ass technophyte who always wants the newest gadget.



I personally think the likelihood of a higher res screen coming out in the near future (t < 1 year) is very low.



- Pook



* If owning the current TiBook following introduction of a new one is really being "stuck," then I hope to be stranded on a desert island under equivalently harsh conditions.



<member since November 1999>

dillyo1001

i'd say buy it and enjoy it. if you're constantly wating for the next best thing you're never going to be happy. it's a great time to get a g4 powerbook. they were just revved, getting rid of the bugs of revolutionary new hardware, and they've been speed bumped. i wouldn't expect anything but evolutionary enhancements over the next year so now is a great time to buy. the product has a lot of life in it. and trust me, they are incredible machines. i'm STILL drooling over mine and bought the day the were announced.

sizzle chest

huh..... huhuh.... he said "tit"

pookjp

Dilly,



Do you use X all the time, or just dally in it on occasion (bwa ha ha ha!)? X is obviously an OS that wants space to live; does the Ti really afford it the room it needs to be comfortable?



- Pook



ps- my anthropamorphization of OSX is freaky.

dillyo1001

i've used it daily. since the beta actually. which was a little rough at times, but now everything is smooth enough to never even consider going back to pastes or powders (oops, watching too many commercials!)

dillyo1001

it is a bit cramped, but remember, the screen is wider than usual so that helps a lot. i also use it on my powermac g4 tower (obviously i wasn't using it on titanium since the beta...) and on that machine i only have an apple multiscan 15 AV. so we're talking 1024x768. a bit tight, but entirely usable. the priority to buy a bigger moniter was far outweighed by the need to get an iPod.



yes, things are a bit cramped on a laptop, but hey it's a laptop. there has to be some trade off to make it that portable. trust me, you don't want a g4 titanium with a 22 inch widescreen! I don't see apple switching to a new lcd with much higher pixel density within one year. and if they do, well yeah all the widgets will be smaller, but ultimately the text can't get much smaller without you being unable to read it at some point. so your windows are going to have to be virtually the same size... in other words, an os will always be a bit cramped on a laptop. yeah, osx more so than 9, but it is not by any means unusable or bothersome.



if it's really an issue, you should revelatuate your need for a laptop. if screenspace is one of your biggest requirements, then you should be buying a tower. anyway that's just my two cents.

ender

I have been using OS X on my Ti PB 500 since it came out (not PB, only 10.0.x and 10.1). I think that the resolution is perfect. The extra width is perfect for having the dock on the right (or left, I suppose) side of the screen with room enough to have a 4:3 digital image on-screen (working in Photoshop using Classic ). Games run well... the new ones have a better vid card too so that's even better. Oh, and Apple's free Dev Tools are AWESOME. The Java 2 compiler is great and a treat to use. Plenty of screen for that too, which is rare. Borland's JBuilder isn't nearly as space efficient.



Ah, but I'm rambling now. Bottom line: I had concerns about screen real estate before I got my Ti PB, but after I got it, there was no doubt. Everything about that PB is awesome. Screen size is IMHO perfect.



-Ender

digitalmonkeyboy

They're sexy, hot and fast and.....an Apple breakthrough, affordable!

amorph

If screen space is a real concern, remember that you can plug in an external monitor and span the desktop (or just use the external monitor). The graphics accelerators on the new Ti's are powerful enough to drive two monitors at impressively high resolutions.



I use OS X at 1024 x 768 on a 15" Apple LCD, and while it's not roomy it's not cramped either. I work in 3-6 apps at once regularly without a problem. And, thanks to OS X, I keep all my apps running at all times (except for the prerelease OW, because it's still flaky), so I don't have to wait for app launches, which is a bonus.



The dev tools rock, too.

max8319

well, if apple release's 1.6ghz g5 (i doubt it), then maybe they could slap in a ghz g4, but i don't know if that's possible (with the huge heat sink on the current g4's). the only other thing they need is a combo drive, but that's all.

val1s

Something that would really impress me about a new powerbook, is a new screen. Granted the screen in the machine is wonderful, but look further down the horizon. There are limitations to size of a portable display. IBM recently announced a limited production LCD monitor. It's 22.2" diagonol (I know the Cinema display was here, what over a year now) but where this display excels is resolution. It can display an increadible 9 million pixels.

The math: 3k by 3x pixels=9mill

4:3 Apect ratio roughly 3450 X 2530 pixels.



That is 200dpi, The current Ti display is about 92 dpi. The image on the display must be nothing short of jaw dropping.



More math: Scale it down and change the aspect ratio of the TI PB, the resolution would be something like 2650/1750.

This will look almost real



edit: sorry ment to include a link

<a href="http://www.ibm.com/news/2001/06/27.phtml"; target="_blank">http://www.ibm.com/news/2001/06/27.phtml</a>;



[ 11-13-2001: Message edited by: val1s ]</p>

transcendence79

[quote]Originally posted by PookJP:

<strong>I love the new 667/550 TiBooks, but for some insane reason I'm reluctant to take the jump. I think I'm still scared of "That Next Revision That Has That One Thing I Want" coming out. Thus, the question is begged: what could be added that would cause such a reaction?



The answer, I believe, is screen resolution. I love X, so much so I'd consider going desktop despite its impracticalities for a college student. That option aside, I'm not 100% sold on X on the current TiBook.</strong><hr></blockquote>



I just took delivery of a 550 TiBook Monday. Student discount and a small credit from my employer brought it to just over $2K. Though the "New Toy Syndrome" hasn't worn off yet, I can't see having any buyer's remore anytime soon.



X is, well, you know, Godlike, and aside from minor complaints with Darwin I really think the benefits of mobility and style outweigh any reason to hold off on a purchase.



Wouldn't have done anything differently, except maybe sprung for a larger HD than the 20GB. But it's still a fine machine that will probably suit me for a few years.