Apple Officially Considers PowerBooks (and Other Macs) 'Dead'
| by Joe Leo, Columnist | January 17, 2007 |
continued... from: previous page
So, one day late in 2005 (or it could have been early in the year, my RAM precedes me), I got the itch to buy a 15" PowerBook G4. What I wanted to do was do some of the "low-end" things I did on my PowerMac and be able to do it on a portable machine. Things I could NOT do on the PowerBook I currently had. (Note here that the laptop I had was the year 2000 model, which dropped the label "G3" and was known as just "PowerBook.")
So, I walked into the Apple Store, and yes, walked out with a brand new 15" PowerBook G4. But...? I never opened it. (What?? Are you kidding me?).
I kept it on the floor near my desk in the classroom for a full 14 days! Receipt taped to it. Open, open, open! I brought it back to the Apple Store, with no regrets, but laughed when the guy who sold it to me was there to take it back. After all that discussion that night, the advice--12" or 15" ?, the help in buying it, applying for an Apple Credit Account, etc. (I even went back the week after the purchase to look at the 12" model in comparison before being satisfied I chose the 15" one).
I knew that I made a spur-of-the-moment purchase, and at the time of year I bought it, was destined to be a mistake. Something told me--well, it was the rumors at the time--that over the summer there would be a new G5 notebook from Apple. (With that said, it was early, not late, in 2005). Summer came, no G5 notebook appeared, and I started to wonder if I should have just kept it, opened it, and used the darn thing.
Then came January of last year when the MacBook Pro was released. Time to buy the notebook now, right? Yes and no. Being an experienced Mac user, I knew never to buy a fresh-off-the-line product since it would be buggy. But it was very tempting. Dual processors! I could do my Motion work on the laptop and let the G4 tower do the less daunting tasks. (Motion works fine on the dual, but it is processor intensive!). Now it could really replace the G4 tower in terms of power!
Plus, I heard all the stories of slower response time with non-Intel optimized software. Such as the Adobe Creative Suite which I use on a day-to-day basis. That was the big turnoff. And? No abilities for use of Classic mode. That got me leaning back to retro over the MacBook Pro. While yes very speedy, and the newest Mac notebook available, it just wasn't for me.
After weighing all the decisions, I made the choice to "Think Different" and instead of buying a new Intel-powered Mac notebook, I finally decided to go with the last ship in the line known to be a top player in the fleet. It was going to either be the 12" or 15" PowerBook G4. (Funny, huh? Wasn't this where we started in the first place?). At least this way, I knew I would get something still relatively new, and no problems associated with a fresh-off-the-line product.
The only hard thing was big or small? Lighted keyboard, or not? (After last week's live coverage of Keynote, I wished I had that lighted keyboard. I couldn't see what I was doing way in the back where it was as black as my old PowerBook's casing). Widescreen, or normal screen. Then there was the "i" factor, knowing that an iBook G4 was not that far off from a 12" PowerBook G4. Decisions, decisions, decisions. It was a hard decision to make!
Then someone threw in the MacBook Pro factor again. And then the newer MacBooks (non-pro edition) came out on the scene a few months later. Arrggghh! Help!
(Had I bought the new MacBook Pro in January, boy would I have been angry when after the summer, the "rev B" MacBook Pros came out. Or even the new choice of a plain old MacBook, non-pro. You just can't win! You buy something today, it's vintage and obsolete tomorrow. Isn't that always the case? Another reason I chose to go retro).
Think different, think different. I don't need a new Intel-powered Mac. Yeah, they're fast, but all these programs I have that run under Classic mode, I won't be able to use. But then again, I have my G4 tower and can run those there. Ah, thinking different the other way. So, a top of the line G4, and a new next generation Intel Mac. A done deal right? Nope. What was holding me back? The price factor.
By spring time, I ended up buying a new digital camera, a Canon EOS 30D to replace my Digital Rebel [300D], and that took away available funds. Then in the early summer, a younger sibling wanting to go back to the Mac, got just that as a graduation gift from me. A new MacBook.
How was I supposed to ever get my replacement PowerBook? Or MacBook. Or any type of 'book for that matter? (Wasn't the new Mac notebook supposed to be for me and not a sibling?) Sigh! I decided that my PowerBook--black, year 2000, code-named "Pismo"--was going to live a little longer than I thought. Or so I thought. So what was it that sealed the deal and was the factor for getting that PowerBook G4?
"I shall be telling this with a sigh..."