[LlamaBoy]

I have been mulling over the purchase of one of the new Powerbooks, and since I have a G4 1.25 Al 15", I don't really see much in the way of improvements. Two things that would really interest me, however, would be better battery life and increased wireless range.

My G4's battery is HORRIBLE- I get about 1.5 hours of usage if I am lucky (just running Safari, Mail, Entourage, and maybe iTunes). My wireless card is even worse- I don't get signal strength downstairs in my house about thirty feet from the AirPort Extreme base station.

So does anyone have a new 15" or 17" PowerBook that they could report on the battery life and the wireless range?

Thanks!

[markponcelet]

I've said it somewhere else around this board today, but still, for convenience:

A good third-party range-enhancement option for WiFi would be http://www.macwireless.com. Look for their 200 mw wireless card offer. Because it's 802.11b, it's only effective for internet stuff. Haven't found a good high-power 802.11g card yet.

Mark

[LlamaBoy]

Thank you for the reply, but I was hoping Apple had done something to increase the wireless range without relying on third-party manufactors.

Go Patriots!!

[amazing]

Originally posted by LlamaBoy:
Go Patriots!!

They went the distance!

And if you want the wireless distance, then you need a pmcia wireless card. You can start with a Buffalo Airstation card (11g), which you can set to 100 mW, and which is supported natively in Panther. If that isn't enough range, then you should get the Buffalo base station, which is top rated, and has much better range than the AEBS.

Simply put: you're not going to get Apple to change the design of the metal shell and the concealed antenna. So, you can either make do with so-so range, and you can do something about it.

Apple knew with the first generation of the Titanium that they had very poor wireless range. Some improvements resulted, but the basic Ti design didn't change-and the range didn't get to the "excellent" level. The AlPB has a slightly better antenna "window" but you're saying the range isn't to your satisfaction. What you do about it is your move. Apple's happy with the design.

[junebug630]

What about the battery life? Do the new powerbooks 17" ship with stronger batteries or the same one ?

[LlamaBoy]

Originally posted by amazing:
They went the distance!

And if you want the wireless distance, then you need a pmcia wireless card. You can start with a Buffalo Airstation card (11g), which you can set to 100 mW, and which is supported natively in Panther. If that isn't enough range, then you should get the Buffalo base station, which is top rated, and has much better range than the AEBS.

Thanks for the reply- I guess I will just pick up a wireless card. Anyone know about the battery? What is the typical battery life on the 17" Powerbook?

[markponcelet]

Originally posted by junebug630:
What about the battery life?

I haven't found a good solution for extending battery life at all. There are some slightly higher amp-hour batteries out there, but they only give improvements in the single-digit percents, if I remember correctly.

About the only thing you can do is buy a new battery. If you have one of those cool rebate extensions through your Visa or AMEX card, batteries are covered through it.

Mark

[amazing]

Originally posted by LlamaBoy:
Thanks for the reply- I guess I will just pick up a wireless card. Anyone know about the battery? What is the typical battery life on the 17" Powerbook?

You're welcome. I was very upset with the absolutely terrible wireless range in my Ti-400, and when I abandoned the futile effort to enlighten Apple about the poor design and simply bought a wireless pc-card (originally a Cisco Aironet, then the Buffalo) my blood pressure went back to normal.

Incidentally, macintouch.com just briefly reviewed their new PB and mentioned the poor wireless range. They achieved slightly better results by restricting the card to 11b.

Tip: you can leave the AE inside and switch between the PC-card and the internal AE by using locations, where the unused card is simply switched off and the card in use is dragged to the top of the stack. It simplifies ease of use in locations where you don't need to stick the pc-card in, like perhaps Starbucks or the library.

Personally, I took the airport out of my Ti and passed it on to a much more worthy iBook.