I'm boarding a plane on wednesday to go and visit family for Christmas, and its going to be my first flight with my Powerbook G3 500. I need some advice on how to handle the dreaded battery life issue, and I'm looking more for practical tips than the usual technical hints 'n tips speel. I want to watch a DVD in flight, for example; what power settings should I use to save the battery but still enjoy the DVD? Will the battery be able to handle all 2 hrs and 35 mins of "Gladiator", for example? Any tips on finding ways of recharging during layovers between flights? Assuming I run out the battery on the first leg of my trip, will a 2 hour layover be sufficient to recharge the battery for the second leg? Any other practical travel advice? I'm looking for the skinny from experienced powerbook road warriors . . .

try to get a seat beside another powerbook user and "borrow" his battery when he isn't looking. or, if there's an outlet in the bathroom, top up the battery there...

-r.


[This message has been edited by rjenkinson (edited 12-18-2000).]

In reality...

Depends on which class and which airline. For instance, while I know there's a power feed even in Coach on American Airlines, it'll require a special adapter, and you will probably have trouble opening the PB enough to watch it there. In first class... you'll probably have enough room.

If you tend to fly with an airline which has such power jacks, as American does, get yourself the appropriate adapter and fly with it. Then the battery life doesn't matter.

[tooki]

Well, you should be able to watch a 2.5 hour DVD on one charge. Here are my suggestions:

1. get a second battery

2. look for hidden power sockets at the airport (I'd avoid the bathroom). To paraphrase David Pogue, think like a janitor who needs to plug in a vacuum cleaner. After all, it is for them that the sockets were installed. So look in hallways, on columns, the floor (!) or even the side of an unused check-in desk. Keep in mind that the sockets may have covers on them, so look for little outlines in carpets, etc.

Also, if your main goal is to use the machine in-flight, don't use it while charging it at your layover. Let it pump all the power it can into the battery.

3. If possible, DON'T use a notebook bag, they invite theft. If you can, just keep the machine in a regular-looking backpack (you can even buy padded slip covers for the computer to give it extra protection in a regular bag). If you must use a notebook bag, take extra precautions. Bring an extension cord so you can keep the power supply and computer inside the bag when charging.

Originally posted by tooki:
Bring an extension cord so you can keep the power supply and computer inside the bag when charging.

Note that there may be heating issues with this arrangement.

I use a notebook bag. I'm extremely careful with it. For instance, when preparing to go through a security checkpoint, I don't place the bag on the conveyer until I'm about to go through the machine myself:

1) be next. Be ready to prevent anyone from getting in front of you, forcefully if necessary. In this situation, I'm perfectly ready to knock someone over to get them to stop. They will not cut in front of me. No warnings, no notice. I have no patience with possible thieves or line jumpers.
2) place bag on conveyer, watch it get sucked in.
3) give any metalic items to security person and go through person scanner
4) pick up bag.

If necessary, say something to the security people to make sure no one else grabs your bag before you do.

[tooki]

Originally posted by denim:
Note that there may be heating issues with this arrangement.

Neither my adapter nor PowerBook get hot enough to cause concern (when just charging, they get slightly warm at best). Unless you have defective equipment that gets abnormally hot, I would not worry about it, especially not for a mere two hours.

tooki

I recently went on a trip and found that one fully charged battery is NOT enough for one 2 hour DVD. Maybe a 90 minute movie. And this is with sound through the headphones!

Although, I probably could have turned down the brightness on the display to extend the life, but it still wasn't no 5 hours!

And the PB gets hot! Especially on the bottom right at the top of the Apple symbol!

------------------
Dan
Michigan Lincoln & Continental Owners Club

If you'll be doing any amount of traveling, it's definately worth buying one or two additional batteries. Otherwise, look to actually get some work done while flying instead.

Originally posted by tooki:
Neither my adapter nor PowerBook get hot enough to cause concern (when just charging, they get slightly warm at best).

Then you don't have a PB G3 series. These suckers get hot when in Real Use. If I plug in the DVD decoder card and use it, it gets hot too. Apple may not have a problem with this, and it may be in-spec, but it's still too warm for me! I can warm my hands and cook my legs with this beast. I keep it on a surface and make sure it can get air under it, and everything is fine. I don't think the adapter does more than get warm, but I've never checked it.

I can well understand why they're waiting for the G4e before using a G4 chip for a laptop.

[This message has been edited by denim (edited 12-22-2000).]

[tooki]

Uhhh, helloooo? Re-read my posts in this thread.

I wrote "...Bring an extension cord so you can keep the power supply and computer inside the bag when charging."

We're talking about charging when not in use here. I know the thing gets hot when being used, but that's not the issue. Nobody's gonna use their PowerBook when it's inside a bag, which is where I suggested it be kept when charging, to make theft less likely. No PowerBooks get hot when JUST CHARGING (that is, plugged in, but asleep or off). A tad warm, maybe (as I said before), but that's it, and not enough to worry about.

tooki

I watched a DVD on a flight (Pizmo 400) for the first time about two weeks ago and was pleased to find that I had plenty of battery life (25%?) after finishing "The Usual Suspects." Worth noting is the fact that I had the screen brightness turned down to the lowest setting, the movie is 106 minutes long, I paused it twice and put the computer in sleep mode right away, and I was using the Bose noise-cancelling headsets American Airlines blesses business class passengers with (which are powered, so I could keep the PBook volume low).

Watching the Matrix at home once took up an entire battery - 136 minutes. If the battery life is directly proportional to movie length, it would seem that 2.25 hours is the max for DVD movies, but it may also depend on how hard the computer has to work to decode the video.

A couple of other general tips: the second battery is a great idea, as is a non-conspicuous bag for your PBook. Also, when I'm going through the metal detectors I first put _everything_ from my pockets into my bag, so I don't have to stop and drop my keys into the bowl.


Has anyone used a wireless LAN at an airport? American's Admirals Club has an AirPort-compatible wireless LAN, but you have to pay to use it.

[MikeD]

In Dec, I'm going to going to hawaii from Chicago NONSTOP.. It's about a 9 hour flight. Going there, the people behind me will have a powerport (I'm going to try to trade seats if they don't use it) but just as a backup, I'm going to be getting a spare battery (maybe two... I dunno yet). And I know for sure, coming home, I'll have the powerport. So for sure, I need to get one of the power cables. Mayabe I'll wind up getting one power cable (which can work in a car etc..) and one battery. The rest of the time, maybe I'll use my palm pilot / read / ipod....

Mike