i'm guessing the burner is still stuck at 1x.. my post was to simply say.. whatever the rate it still takes a while to burn a dvd..
"the wait was worth it" though.. the 12" leaves too much to be desired (for me).. the size is sweet but falls short on the performance front (for me). the 17" is an awesome machine!!!
oh, for those who want to play with the 17", check your local CompUSA.
the minnesota store has a WORKING 17" laptop on display, unlike the one at the Apple store on a rotating podium.
You guys don't know how lucky you are. I ordered mine (ADC through the Apple Store) on February 6th. It was prepaid with a personal cheque - Apple has had my money for more than 6 weeks and I still don't have an OoB date! I called them last Friday and the closest they can say is "around May 15th". I work at the computer science dept. in the largest university in my country and have been an ADC member since 1987!
Apple has had my money for more than 6 weeks and I still don't have an OoB date! I called them last Friday and the closest they can say is "around May 15th".
Uflaks.
I thought they were supposed to arrive in Norway around the middle/end of april?
I called Apple this morning to check on my replacement PowerBook. After waiting on hold and speaking with two different people, I was told that there was nothing in the system about my return unit yet. They said everything that could be done to speed up the process had been done. They said Apple takes 3-5 business days to process returns. But since we had asked for priority status, maybe Apple would ship it today for overnight delivery. So, I resigned myself to wait longer.
Just now the FedEx man dropped off my new 17" Lapzilla! Time to open up the box.
Yes - Apple Norway has a demo unit, and a large shipment should arrive before easter.
AppleStore still says May 15th though
Let's hope Apple treats you like they treated me.
On March 14, it was 4 - 6 weeks, and at 8 AM on March 21 it was 3 - 5 weeks, but when I got home from work on March 21, I had received an e-mail with a FedEx tracking number. On March 24, it was delayed in Customs in Anchorage, Alaska, so I figured I'd get it in a few days, but I guess they must have had turbo-charged jets, because I had it in my hands by 9 AM on Tuesday. Cool.
I'm still waiting for the spare battery, though... (And that was initially supposed to be 2 - 3 weeks). I think I'll live.
Not a single complaint, either, on the PB 17. I love the feel--no getting used to it, either--which I did have to do when I moved up from a clamshell iBook to a G3 Pismo and then to the TiBook (hubby lost, daughter gets my old TiBook and he gets to keep the G3 Pismo he's been using since I last handed one down--she's doing a digital video class in HS this year and needs the FireWire and extra RAM, CD burner, etc., while he doesn't do much except surf from the laptop...). The iBook, which no longer functions unless plugged in (so no longer really a laptop) despite replacement battery and several trips to the shop will be given to a computer depraved kid at the local high school, or something--we haven't decided yet. Everytime someone needs an upgrade, I generously offer them mine, and then help myself to Apple's latest and greatest. Aren't I just the best Mom in the world???
Do all the stores have a demo unit that you can play with now? I was at the Woodfield store a month ago and they only had one in the window. Now that they are shipping, I would think they would be able to display one, but Apple is weird sometimes.
I will be travelling to the US the week after next. Fortunately, I will be close to an Apple Store (Philadelphia, King of Prussia) for a couple of days. My plan is to bring back to the Netherlands a 17" piece of art. Any of you have a clue when the Stores will be able to sell 'over the counter' out of stock.
I just found out that Creative computers in santa monica has 100 17s in stock and they have one there that you can mess with. I ordered mine on 2/27 and the website finally says that my order is in process so i am sure it will ship very soon. the track pad is farther away than it used to be i think. but the screen is HUGE!! I can not wait
Yesterday morning, my 17" PowerBook started exhibiting a strange and alarming behavior. While I was working, the screen turned blue for about a second, then black for about a second, then came back to the finder, but no applications were running. I lost all my work! It did this three times before lunch.
After my mid day meeting, I called AppleCare Support and we worked out the problem. It was something called a Window Manager Application (or something similar) that keeps up with what windows are open and what applications are using them. Seems it got corrupted. I did an Archive and Install from the DVD and I was back to running in about 30 minutes.
Later, I loaded Links LS to play a round of virtual golf. It crashed. I downloaded the 1.0.4 patch and tried again. I got further this time, but it crashed again. Gave up for the night.
Later my son (3 yrs old) and I watched Shrek while laying on the bed. We watched the first half, got him ready for bed and then finished it in his room. It was a really nice way to spend some quiet time with him at my side. For those of you with children, you will appreciate that!
So, I had a bit of a rocky start with Lapzilla, but we are getting along much better today.
Lapzilla, I like this expression! I love the Shrek story. I will do the same, probably Spirit or Monsters Inc.
I know about waiting....., I ordered my FP iMac the same day SJ announced this piece of art.
17" PB, on the other hand, it took some time to decide on replacing my iBook. Having done so, I merely tried to explore the quickest way to achieve my 'dream'.
I saw the Powerbook 17" in person today at Fry's Electronics in Sunnyvale that they have on display, it's a real one-fully functional.
I like how the screen tilts easier than the Tibook (doesn't tend to tip it over)
It looks so wide and short and the screen IS big, but what impressed me was its thinness and sound from the built-in speakers - much better than the Tibook that I use. It also felt sturdy.
The guy next to me groused that he is still waiting for delivery for his while this one sits in the store. (he just got his shipment notice)
It's Big, It's Groundbreaking -- but the Price Eclipses It All
By Rob Pegoraro
Sunday, April 6, 2003; Page H07
Three thousand, two hundred and ninety-nine dollars.
It's impossible to talk about Apple Computer's new 17-inch PowerBook without mentioning the cost. This laptop is a remarkable piece of work, with the biggest screen anybody has ever put into a portable computer, and it carries a price tag to match.
Most people will never spend this much on a computer -- the over-$3,000 price bracket tends to be limited to things like cars and houses. (If you must know, this PowerBook actually costs more than my car.) So I was a little nervous hauling this machine around town.
The 17-inch PowerBook features other unusually large dimensions. While it's only one inch thick and about 10 inches deep, it's 15.4 inches wide, too big for many computer bags. And at 6.8 pounds (the model I tested weighed 6.9 pounds, a difference Apple blamed on variations in components), it's almost a pound heftier than any other Apple portable.
It owes those dimensions to the enormous screen it's built around. At 17 inches from corner to corner, you (and whoever's sitting next to you) won't find a better way to watch DVDs on a plane.
The keyboard that faces this display looks comically undersized in comparison. Some of the leftover space is taken up by two speakers, which sound far better than the tinny hardware on most laptops. The rest is used as a palm-rest area that approaches the size of an airliner's table tray; you could rest a drink on one corner, but it would be grossly unwise to risk tipping a Coke into a $3,299 machine.
This PowerBook wants for little on the inside. With a "SuperDrive" that burns DVDs and CDs and loads through a slot instead of a pop-out tray, a roughly 60-gigabyte hard drive, 512 megabytes of memory, a 64MB Nvidia GeForce 4 graphics accelerator, and a 1GHz G4 processor, it's competitive with almost any desktop Apple sells. (The Matsushita-manufactured SuperDrive is theoretically capable of burning to DVD-RAM discs as well as DVD-R and -RW, but Apple's software only supports the last two formats, depriving users of a more convenient option for backing up data.)
Processor and screen combine to drain this PowerBook's lithium-ion battery; it ran for barely over four hours with every possible power-saving option enabled. DVD playback exhausted the machine in 2 hours and 20 minutes, and it was gone after 2 hours and 40 minutes of playing through an MP3 collection with the screen partially dimmed. Those figures are only average compared with many newer laptops.
On the other hand, the bulk of this computer means most people will want to keep it planted on a desk anyway.
A broad range of connectors awaits on the sides of the PowerBook: one FireWire 800 and one FireWire 400 port (more on these in a moment), one PC Card slot, two universal-serial-bus ports, an Ethernet port (rated for up to 1,000 megabits per second, instead of the usual 100 Mbps), and a v.92 modem. This laptop also includes Digital Visual Interface (DVI) and S-Video connectors for monitors and TVs; if yours features older VGA or composite-video connections, an adapter cable comes in the box.
The 17-inch PowerBook also includes two forms of wireless networking. Its internal Bluetooth receiver allows you to connect peripherals like handheld organizers and cell phones without cables; a nifty file-exchange program also lets you bounce data to and from another Bluetooth-equipped Mac.
More important, this laptop's innards hide an AirPort Extreme card, which uses the new, faster "802.11g" flavor of WiFi to offer wireless connections of up to 54 Mbps, almost five times as fast as standard WiFi. (Most tests suggest your real-world speed with 802.11g will be more like 22 Mbps -- still much better than what you'll get out of WiFi in practice.)
But if you should meet an owner of a 17-inch PowerBook, you're not likely to see those aspects of the computer. Instead, the proud owner will probably want to show off the keyboard. Yes, the keyboard: A light sensor hidden next to it senses when the room has gone dark, then automatically turns on embedded lighting in the keyboard while also dimming the screen.
Apple fans love finding these little grace notes in the company's products, and the 17-inch PowerBook has its share, from the compact AC adapter to the LED battery-life readout on its underside.
But in other respects, this model falls short of the standard set by the 12-inch model Apple began shipping two months ago. Its optical drive is positioned on the front, not the side, so a CD or DVD ejects into your lap instead of your hand. Placing the modem and Ethernet ports on opposite sides invites confusion. The screen can move on its own if you grab the laptop in a hurry (Apple says its hinge is designed to allow a certain amount of play, but it's still disconcerting). And the computer emitted a weird little whining noise at random times, which Apple couldn't begin to explain.
Like every other Mac, this PowerBook includes slow USB 1.1 ports instead of the faster 2.0 variety that are now standard on PCs. In comparison, the PowerBook's FireWire 800 port seems a questionable addition, given how few external devices support this 800 Mbps variation of FireWire -- which also requires a different plug from the FireWire (aka FireWire 400) that Apple has been shipping with its computers for years.
The weakest part of this machine is the paucity of third-party software. It ships with Mac OS X and Apple's excellent iLife bundle of multimedia applications, but if you'd like a word processor, a spreadsheet application or a personal-finance program, you'll have to buy them yourself.
So who actually needs this Lexus of a laptop? Apple says it was built for graphic designers who can use this to replace their desktops. In other words, it's not the computer for the rest of us.
It is, however, worth checking out in the store, if only to see the design refinements like the backlit keyboard that might make their way to more affordable hardware -- say, Apple's 15-inch PowerBook, which hasn't been updated in five months.
Living with technology, or trying to? E-mail Rob Pegoraro at [email protected]
Seemed like a fairly fair review to me. My only gripes would be he clearly isn't being very forward thinking when dissing the FW 800 port. Also, while I agree it's dumb for apple not to plunk appleworks on the machine, I think he should have mentioned the several other nice non iapp applications that come with the powerbook like OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner
The only reason that's stopping me from purchacing the 17" is the video card. Nividia IMO isn't very good, esspically the Geforce GO series. I'd rather see a ATI 9000 in there.
Three thousand, two hundred and ninety-nine dollars.
It's impossible to talk about Apple Computer's new 17-inch PowerBook without mentioning the cost. This laptop is a remarkable piece of work, with the biggest screen anybody has ever put into a portable computer, and it carries a price tag to match.
Most people will never spend this much on a computer -- the over-$3,000 price bracket tends to be limited to things like cars and houses. (If you must know, this PowerBook actually costs more than my car.) So I was a little nervous hauling this machine around town.
Either this person has had their head up certain body cavities for the past, say, 15 years, or else he's a bona-fide cheapskate. Of course this machine's not going to be cheap -- it has a friggin 17" flat panel screen, dvd burner, 1 GHz CPU, and tons of other equipment that validate the price. He needs to go read up on history and see just how much prices have fallen (not alone due to inflation) over the multiple generations of PowerBooks and Macs/PCs. In my view, $3299 for this machine's a steal -- heck, Apple kept the price of the unit pretty much level with previous flagship PowerBooks.
I'm just sick of tight-wad PC users bringing up price. Buy used or get a REAL job. Oh, and another thing I'm sick of (while I'm at it) -- people not being able to verbally construct large numbers. I'm sick of people saying "and" before the DECIMAL POINT. It is just three thousand two hundred ninety-nine. No "ands" about it.
Sorry, you can tell I didn't like the guy or his slanted review. Just makes me yearn for the 970 even more to show up people on that dark side (and hopefully win over some).
Comments
"the wait was worth it" though.. the 12" leaves too much to be desired (for me).. the size is sweet but falls short on the performance front (for me). the 17" is an awesome machine!!!
bm
Originally posted by alcimedes
oh, for those who want to play with the 17", check your local CompUSA.
the minnesota store has a WORKING 17" laptop on display, unlike the one at the Apple store on a rotating podium.
You guys don't know how lucky you are. I ordered mine (ADC through the Apple Store) on February 6th. It was prepaid with a personal cheque - Apple has had my money for more than 6 weeks and I still don't have an OoB date! I called them last Friday and the closest they can say is "around May 15th". I work at the computer science dept. in the largest university in my country and have been an ADC member since 1987!
Originally posted by tryd
Apple has had my money for more than 6 weeks and I still don't have an OoB date! I called them last Friday and the closest they can say is "around May 15th".
Uflaks.
I thought they were supposed to arrive in Norway around the middle/end of april?
Originally posted by kantarell
Uflaks.
I thought they were supposed to arrive in Norway around the middle/end of april?
We are getting local here, sorry about that
Yes - Apple Norway has a demo unit, and a large shipment should arrive before easter.
AppleStore still says May 15th though
Just now the FedEx man dropped off my new 17" Lapzilla! Time to open up the box.
Later,
TBoxman
Originally posted by tryd
We are getting local here, sorry about that
Yes - Apple Norway has a demo unit, and a large shipment should arrive before easter.
AppleStore still says May 15th though
Let's hope Apple treats you like they treated me.
On March 14, it was 4 - 6 weeks, and at 8 AM on March 21 it was 3 - 5 weeks, but when I got home from work on March 21, I had received an e-mail with a FedEx tracking number. On March 24, it was delayed in Customs in Anchorage, Alaska, so I figured I'd get it in a few days, but I guess they must have had turbo-charged jets, because I had it in my hands by 9 AM on Tuesday. Cool.
I'm still waiting for the spare battery, though... (And that was initially supposed to be 2 - 3 weeks). I think I'll live.
Not a single complaint, either, on the PB 17. I love the feel--no getting used to it, either--which I did have to do when I moved up from a clamshell iBook to a G3 Pismo and then to the TiBook (hubby lost, daughter gets my old TiBook and he gets to keep the G3 Pismo he's been using since I last handed one down--she's doing a digital video class in HS this year and needs the FireWire and extra RAM, CD burner, etc., while he doesn't do much except surf from the laptop...). The iBook, which no longer functions unless plugged in (so no longer really a laptop) despite replacement battery and several trips to the shop will be given to a computer depraved kid at the local high school, or something--we haven't decided yet. Everytime someone needs an upgrade, I generously offer them mine, and then help myself to Apple's latest and greatest. Aren't I just the best Mom in the world???
TBoxman
Philip
Thanks, Dirk.
Originally posted by DirkS
I ... Any of you have a clue when the Stores will be able to sell 'over the counter' out of stock.
Thanks, Dirk.
Right after apple ships me my powerbook they will sell them to walk in's like you.
I found one at a CompUSA and really wanted to buy... but my current PowerBook is fine so I must be patient and wait a while for the new 15.4 inchers.
After my mid day meeting, I called AppleCare Support and we worked out the problem. It was something called a Window Manager Application (or something similar) that keeps up with what windows are open and what applications are using them. Seems it got corrupted. I did an Archive and Install from the DVD and I was back to running in about 30 minutes.
Later, I loaded Links LS to play a round of virtual golf. It crashed. I downloaded the 1.0.4 patch and tried again. I got further this time, but it crashed again. Gave up for the night.
Later my son (3 yrs old) and I watched Shrek while laying on the bed. We watched the first half, got him ready for bed and then finished it in his room. It was a really nice way to spend some quiet time with him at my side. For those of you with children, you will appreciate that!
So, I had a bit of a rocky start with Lapzilla, but we are getting along much better today.
TBoxman
I know about waiting....., I ordered my FP iMac the same day SJ announced this piece of art.
17" PB, on the other hand, it took some time to decide on replacing my iBook. Having done so, I merely tried to explore the quickest way to achieve my 'dream'.
Dirk
I like how the screen tilts easier than the Tibook (doesn't tend to tip it over)
It looks so wide and short and the screen IS big, but what impressed me was its thinness and sound from the built-in speakers - much better than the Tibook that I use. It also felt sturdy.
The guy next to me groused that he is still waiting for delivery for his while this one sits in the store. (he just got his shipment notice)
It's Big, It's Groundbreaking -- but the Price Eclipses It All
By Rob Pegoraro
Sunday, April 6, 2003; Page H07
Three thousand, two hundred and ninety-nine dollars.
It's impossible to talk about Apple Computer's new 17-inch PowerBook without mentioning the cost. This laptop is a remarkable piece of work, with the biggest screen anybody has ever put into a portable computer, and it carries a price tag to match.
Most people will never spend this much on a computer -- the over-$3,000 price bracket tends to be limited to things like cars and houses. (If you must know, this PowerBook actually costs more than my car.) So I was a little nervous hauling this machine around town.
The 17-inch PowerBook features other unusually large dimensions. While it's only one inch thick and about 10 inches deep, it's 15.4 inches wide, too big for many computer bags. And at 6.8 pounds (the model I tested weighed 6.9 pounds, a difference Apple blamed on variations in components), it's almost a pound heftier than any other Apple portable.
It owes those dimensions to the enormous screen it's built around. At 17 inches from corner to corner, you (and whoever's sitting next to you) won't find a better way to watch DVDs on a plane.
The keyboard that faces this display looks comically undersized in comparison. Some of the leftover space is taken up by two speakers, which sound far better than the tinny hardware on most laptops. The rest is used as a palm-rest area that approaches the size of an airliner's table tray; you could rest a drink on one corner, but it would be grossly unwise to risk tipping a Coke into a $3,299 machine.
This PowerBook wants for little on the inside. With a "SuperDrive" that burns DVDs and CDs and loads through a slot instead of a pop-out tray, a roughly 60-gigabyte hard drive, 512 megabytes of memory, a 64MB Nvidia GeForce 4 graphics accelerator, and a 1GHz G4 processor, it's competitive with almost any desktop Apple sells. (The Matsushita-manufactured SuperDrive is theoretically capable of burning to DVD-RAM discs as well as DVD-R and -RW, but Apple's software only supports the last two formats, depriving users of a more convenient option for backing up data.)
Processor and screen combine to drain this PowerBook's lithium-ion battery; it ran for barely over four hours with every possible power-saving option enabled. DVD playback exhausted the machine in 2 hours and 20 minutes, and it was gone after 2 hours and 40 minutes of playing through an MP3 collection with the screen partially dimmed. Those figures are only average compared with many newer laptops.
On the other hand, the bulk of this computer means most people will want to keep it planted on a desk anyway.
A broad range of connectors awaits on the sides of the PowerBook: one FireWire 800 and one FireWire 400 port (more on these in a moment), one PC Card slot, two universal-serial-bus ports, an Ethernet port (rated for up to 1,000 megabits per second, instead of the usual 100 Mbps), and a v.92 modem. This laptop also includes Digital Visual Interface (DVI) and S-Video connectors for monitors and TVs; if yours features older VGA or composite-video connections, an adapter cable comes in the box.
The 17-inch PowerBook also includes two forms of wireless networking. Its internal Bluetooth receiver allows you to connect peripherals like handheld organizers and cell phones without cables; a nifty file-exchange program also lets you bounce data to and from another Bluetooth-equipped Mac.
More important, this laptop's innards hide an AirPort Extreme card, which uses the new, faster "802.11g" flavor of WiFi to offer wireless connections of up to 54 Mbps, almost five times as fast as standard WiFi. (Most tests suggest your real-world speed with 802.11g will be more like 22 Mbps -- still much better than what you'll get out of WiFi in practice.)
But if you should meet an owner of a 17-inch PowerBook, you're not likely to see those aspects of the computer. Instead, the proud owner will probably want to show off the keyboard. Yes, the keyboard: A light sensor hidden next to it senses when the room has gone dark, then automatically turns on embedded lighting in the keyboard while also dimming the screen.
Apple fans love finding these little grace notes in the company's products, and the 17-inch PowerBook has its share, from the compact AC adapter to the LED battery-life readout on its underside.
But in other respects, this model falls short of the standard set by the 12-inch model Apple began shipping two months ago. Its optical drive is positioned on the front, not the side, so a CD or DVD ejects into your lap instead of your hand. Placing the modem and Ethernet ports on opposite sides invites confusion. The screen can move on its own if you grab the laptop in a hurry (Apple says its hinge is designed to allow a certain amount of play, but it's still disconcerting). And the computer emitted a weird little whining noise at random times, which Apple couldn't begin to explain.
Like every other Mac, this PowerBook includes slow USB 1.1 ports instead of the faster 2.0 variety that are now standard on PCs. In comparison, the PowerBook's FireWire 800 port seems a questionable addition, given how few external devices support this 800 Mbps variation of FireWire -- which also requires a different plug from the FireWire (aka FireWire 400) that Apple has been shipping with its computers for years.
The weakest part of this machine is the paucity of third-party software. It ships with Mac OS X and Apple's excellent iLife bundle of multimedia applications, but if you'd like a word processor, a spreadsheet application or a personal-finance program, you'll have to buy them yourself.
So who actually needs this Lexus of a laptop? Apple says it was built for graphic designers who can use this to replace their desktops. In other words, it's not the computer for the rest of us.
It is, however, worth checking out in the store, if only to see the design refinements like the backlit keyboard that might make their way to more affordable hardware -- say, Apple's 15-inch PowerBook, which hasn't been updated in five months.
Living with technology, or trying to? E-mail Rob Pegoraro at [email protected]
Three thousand, two hundred and ninety-nine dollars.
It's impossible to talk about Apple Computer's new 17-inch PowerBook without mentioning the cost. This laptop is a remarkable piece of work, with the biggest screen anybody has ever put into a portable computer, and it carries a price tag to match.
Most people will never spend this much on a computer -- the over-$3,000 price bracket tends to be limited to things like cars and houses. (If you must know, this PowerBook actually costs more than my car.) So I was a little nervous hauling this machine around town.
Either this person has had their head up certain body cavities for the past, say, 15 years, or else he's a bona-fide cheapskate. Of course this machine's not going to be cheap -- it has a friggin 17" flat panel screen, dvd burner, 1 GHz CPU, and tons of other equipment that validate the price. He needs to go read up on history and see just how much prices have fallen (not alone due to inflation) over the multiple generations of PowerBooks and Macs/PCs. In my view, $3299 for this machine's a steal -- heck, Apple kept the price of the unit pretty much level with previous flagship PowerBooks.
I'm just sick of tight-wad PC users bringing up price. Buy used or get a REAL job. Oh, and another thing I'm sick of (while I'm at it) -- people not being able to verbally construct large numbers. I'm sick of people saying "and" before the DECIMAL POINT. It is just three thousand two hundred ninety-nine. No "ands" about it.
Sorry, you can tell I didn't like the guy or his slanted review. Just makes me yearn for the 970 even more to show up people on that dark side (and hopefully win over some).