[kennedy]

I've been reading and searching on this board for the last week (ever since I realized I could dump my PC laptop for an Apple PB)... but I continue to be horribly confused on some things... please help...

BG: I am thinking my ideal setup will be a 12" laptop for portability hooked to a 17" LCD display at home, in dual-display mode. When in the office, I must be able to connect to projectors just as effortlessly as my PeeCee counterparts, or I'll look like an idiot. (But if I can connect just the same, and I can put up cool Keynote presentations, ... sweeet. )

Questions:

1) What is the best/cheapest 17" display for this? Does it hook to VGA, or do I need to buy a VGA->DVI adapter? And if so, how much does that cost?

2) Looking at the pics of the 12" PB, I don't see the normal video connector that I am used to. Is there some sort of adapter that you have to use? Or is it on an edge not shown in the pics?

3) If the new 12" comes out with DVI, what does that gain me? More display options? Crisper display on existing displays? Avoiding the external VGA->DVI adapter?

4) If the new 12" comes out with DVI, will that make hooking to VGA more difficult (extra adapter)? Or is it just a different adapter because you already have to have an adapter (see Q2)?

5) Which of the current PB's have the backlit keyboard? That would be real sweet in many situations (like meetings with lights out and projector on)... but the 17" is too big for my portability needs.

6) I am enrolled in Graduate School, so I think I can get the educational discounts. Are those better right now than typical? Or is $200 the norm? (I haven't looked at educational discounts since about 15 years ago when I was an undergrad, working in the Mac store.)

7) When the new PB's come out, will the educational discount likely change or stay the same?

8) What other things should I consider when comparing the likely new PB 12" to the current one? 867 vs 1G shouldn't matter much. That combined with L3 cache might be more noticable, but still the machine is faster than other Macs that I use. Anything else?

Thanks for helping to eliminate my confusion... I need to make some purchase decisions...

[gator]

Originally posted by kennedy:
1) What is the best/cheapest 17" display for this? Does it hook to VGA, or do I need to buy a VGA->DVI adapter? And if so, how much does that cost?

The 12" PB hooks to VGA, using an adapter that goes into a video port. See following link (the adapter is included with the PB):
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL...nMore=M8639G/A

As far as cheapest display, dunno anything offhand... I'd suggest a Samsung LCD as they're usually of pretty good quality, though I'm sure others have input on what would be a cheap/good LCD.

2) Looking at the pics of the 12" PB, I don't see the normal video connector that I am used to. Is there some sort of adapter that you have to use? Or is it on an edge not shown in the pics?

See response to #1... the VGA connection isn't on the PB itself, but you use the adapter in the pic above, it has a VGA connector on one end, an a connection to the 12" PB video port.

3) If the new 12" comes out with DVI, what does that gain me? More display options? Crisper display on existing displays? Avoiding the external VGA->DVI adapter?

You'll be able to connect to a DVI LCD, which in general have slightly higher quality than an LCD with a VGA connection.

4) If the new 12" comes out with DVI, will that make hooking to VGA more difficult (extra adapter)? Or is it just a different adapter because you already have to have an adapter (see Q2)?

If the 12" comes with DVI, then you can use a DVI-VGA adapter ($20 from apple) to connect to VGA displays, in addition to just using the DVI connection as-is for a LCD w/DVI.

5) Which of the current PB's have the backlit keyboard? That would be real sweet in many situations (like meetings with lights out and projector on)... but the 17" is too big for my portability needs.

Only the 17" PB currently has the backlit keyboard.

6) I am enrolled in Graduate School, so I think I can get the educational discounts. Are those better right now than typical? Or is $200 the norm? (I haven't looked at educational discounts since about 15 years ago when I was an undergrad, working in the Mac store.)

Edu discounts are currently $200 off the normal Apple prices for the 12" PB.

http://www.apple.com/educcation/store

7) When the new PB's come out, will the educational discount likely change or stay the same?

I'd like to think they'd stay the same, and they probably will... but it's possible that they could cut back the edu discounts.

8) What other things should I consider when comparing the likely new PB 12" to the current one? 867 vs 1G shouldn't matter much. That combined with L3 cache might be more noticable, but still the machine is faster than other Macs that I use. Anything else?

Graphics chip could be a point of difference.

[jsnyder]

I just picked up a 12" G4, and so far it is an excellent machine. In most ways it surpasses my expectations. I absolutely love the feel of the keyboard (especially after the crap iBook one). The fit and finish of the case is extraordinary. The CPU performance is perfect for me coming from an iBook. The areas where the iBook would bog down or slow up are gone, pretty much everything is silky smooth and I can't wait to try panther on it.

I wasn't overly impressed with the graphics performance in UT2003, but it is playable. I'm going to try a few other games to gauge performance when I get a chance (away from home atm). This may have more to do with UT itself as adjusting detail levels seems to only minimally effect performance.

The heat issue is a total misnomer, the only time this machine gets hot to the touch is when it sits for a length of time on an insulated surface (like a couch) without you making any contact with it. Sitting on my lap right now the powerbook is comfortably warm (especially on this cold Michigan morning), and I didn't find it uncomfortable back in DC where it is fairly warm outside. I'd even go so far as to say the left wrist rest is less annoying on this machine than it was on the iBook 800 I used formerly.

I have no idea whether the discounts will hold, it wouldn't terribly surprise me. In my case I just didn't want to wait any longer. I have the feeling I'd be waiting till late September or October to actually get a new rev machine shipped to me, which just wasn't acceptable since at that point I'd be back at college, and waiting on a machine sucks when you've got work to get done.

I can attest that the included VGA out works fine. A friend of mine with the same model has a 17" Dell branded display which looks exactly the same as a Samsung 170N, which in my impression was a rather nice display.

All in all I'd heartily recommend a 12" to someone in the market. If the next revision is going to be even better and you're willing to wait up to two to three months to get it shipped (who knows, it might be shipping way before), go for it.

[mkral]

Does the 12" use 2 different connectors for connecting to TVs (composite & S-Video) and Monitors (VGA) similar to the ibook?

[tisoncam]

yes. I have used all but the svideo, which I plan to try next week when visiting my parents.