[michelangelo33]

Nothing exciting here.

But, I'm sure there are plenty of people out there that create awesome websites, make beautiful music...

Reading www.apple.com/pro makes me wonder what everyone does.

[Saleo]

graphics work is what I mainly use it for. But my PC now collects dust since I got it so I use it for everythign actually

[Zaffir]

I do all of my schoolwork on it (coding, paper writing, etc.), my own personal DV editing, and i like to play with network security (although wireless security tinkering is gimped because of broadcom ). I also play a few games when i'm on the road without my PC

[anaphora68]

I use my Powerbook as a digital darkroom, process RAW files with it, edit images, make prints. I'm going to use it to design a website, and of course I travel with it.

I also use it for normal schoolwork, papers, web-browsing, etc.

[MOTHERWELL]

I HAVEN'T USED MY PB IN A WHILE BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN GETTING FIXED DUE TO WHITE SPOTS APPEARING OUT OF NO WHERE.

BUT IT HAS BEEN KNOWN TO EDIT AND COMPOSITE SHOTS FOR A FEATURE FILM TO BE PREEMED AT SUNDANCE THIS YEAR. AND IT LOOKS GREAT NEXT TO THE SOFA. SO-FA.

[danbrew]

Digital darkroom - photographer. Surfing the net & email. And, believe it or not, I spend a ton of time watching movies with it. More than the other stuff? Hmmm... I don't know. I'm a huge movie buff and haven't been able to watch movies since I had kids... (at least on a regular basis), so I take the 17" out to the local bar & grill and sit at the bar on the weekends and have a few beers, a burger, and watch a movie from netflix.com. Yeah, I know, I'm a geek. But I've got a freaken' awesome home theater at the bar...!

:->

[KP*]

I bought my Al15" as an all-purpose desktop replacement while I'm on tour for the next few months with a new play.

However, the AlBook has wound up working as hard on the show as I am, as it runs the video for our performances. We have a mix of looping video clips and still images, running on Keynote. I'd never used Keynote before, and I've been amazed at how intuitive it is. When changes are made to the show, I don't need the video designer to get involved unless it requires sophisticated editing of the actual .mov clips. It just takes anywhere from a couple seconds to a couple minutes to adapt to almost any change. The local crews are always impressed with how easy it is (and how cool the AlBook looks, too ).

Also, when changes are made to sound, I can edit the files and burn new CDs without needing to get anything from the sound designer. When there is brand new material to be added to the show, the sound and video designers upload the files to an iDisk, which is much faster (and cheaper) than FedEx-ing CDs overnight.

I really have no idea how I would survive without my trusty AlBook. When the tour is over, I don't think I'm going to go back to using my PowerMac as my primary computer, the AlBook is just so easy to use.

[hadocon]

Originally posted by MOTHERWELL:
I HAVEN'T USED MY PB IN A WHILE BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN GETTING FIXED DUE TO WHITE SPOTS APPEARING OUT OF NO WHERE.

BUT IT HAS BEEN KNOWN TO EDIT AND COMPOSITE SHOTS FOR A FEATURE FILM TO BE PREEMED AT SUNDANCE THIS YEAR. AND IT LOOKS GREAT NEXT TO THE SOFA. SO-FA.

What's with the SHOUTING?

I use mine for downloading porn, viewing porn, surfing, school, FCP etc. Just the basics.

[-Q-]

Quite a bit: web design, Flash work, graphic design, Filemaker work, surfing, e-mail, photo editing, minor video editing (I use the G5 for the heavy lifting) and some gaming. It's really been a versatile machine.

[nate_02]

Digital Video, Graphics, Sitting in my La-z-boy surfing the web while watching TV and drinking a coke.

[Daracle]

I would love to start making some electronic music with mine but I dont now what app to use or where to even start....

I have Live Demo and trying to learn it now...Any other suggestions?

[OMGWTFBBQ]

I currently admin a Windows network at a hedge fund administration firm, as well as write software for them. To be fair, hardly any of that involves my AlBook.

I also own a company that does technical analysis on stock market data, and I trade for several investors.
I meet with an insurance company in two weeks to talk about a position doing computer modeling for them, or at least restructuring their cluster that does the work.
I am in talks with several people that are interested in my offshore position and want to start up some things to take advantage of that status.

In order to do all of those, I have servers that are scattered about and I ssh into them via my laptop to edit code and to check up on what is working and not working on those.
I write code to do the analysis on distributed systems and test it on the laptop, and then once it is to the point where the laptop is too slow or not configured properly, then I will upload it to an apropos server.
I am also looking into porting several financial/investing platforms that are available on Windows, but not on Mac, simply because I am interested in having that option available to me if I decide to use all Macs from now on out.

I have a list of about 3 or 5 projects that aren't designed to make money, but are just fun to geeks like me - they too use distributed computing to move through large solution spaces.
I wish I had more free time and/or money to dedicate towards them.

And then of course the obvious web surfing, e-mail (keeping track of over 10 accounts and sorting out the junk mail that doesn't get stopped by SpamAssassin on the server), and instant messages.

I sometimes play music on this thing, but I like to sit on the couch with my feet up and the laptop on my lap - listening to music on here means that the processor heats up, which means the laptop as a whole entity heats up and it can be uncomfortable.

I will also use Photoshop and Illustrator for basic web and logo design for my companies once I get them for the Mac - I am still holding off on that because after shelling out over $3K (after duty here) on a laptop, I'm not really loving the additional costs of having to buy Photoshop and Illustrator all over again.
My other laptop (Windows) still sort of functions, so I will try to use that for a bit to limp by for my rare graphics needs.

[nate_02]

Originally posted by Daracle:
I would love to start making some electronic music with mine but I dont now what app to use or where to even start....

I have Live Demo and trying to learn it now...Any other suggestions?

SoundTrack is cool but i don't know if you can add your own electronic music.

I think it's meant mostly for background music on video, but its fun to play around with.

[PowerMatt]

Originally posted by Daracle:
I would love to start making some electronic music with mine but I dont now what app to use or where to even start....

I have Live Demo and trying to learn it now...Any other suggestions?

Pro Tools seems to be the standard fare as far as music authoring goes. There are tons of plugins available. For solo music authoring, all you would need is the USB powered M-Box which comes bundled with Pro Tools LE. That would keep you busy for some time. Get a good pair of studio headphones and you will be set. You can use all of your own musical equipment.

I bought mine so that my wife could use my desktop when she went back to school (at least that's what my excuse was!!). I use if for presentations, archive-research, writing, internet, email. I also use it for rehearsing my drums. I don't have my drums at home so I have all the tracks I need to rehearse in iTunes and I can take it with me. ProTools is definately in the future.

[kanker]

Originally posted by PowerMatt:
Pro Tools seems to be the standard fare as far as music authoring goes. There are tons of plugins available. For solo music authoring, all you would need is the USB powered M-Box which comes bundled with Pro Tools LE. That would keep you busy for some time. Get a good pair of studio headphones and you will be set. You can use all of your own musical equipment.

Unless you're doing almost exclusively audio stuff, I'd stay away from pro tools- Great program, but you seem to be a little more interested in the MIDI and audio side. Download the Reason 2.5 demo from http://www.propellerheads.se/. Reason is one KILLER app. Unfortunately, most audio/MIDI DAW (digital audio workstation) programs don't offer demos, but Live is a great app. Eventually, you might want to incorporate a program like Logic, which pretty much has the best support of all DAW's on the Mac side as Apple owns the creator of Logic, Emagic. I run Logic Gold and Reason 2.5, and just ordered a 12" PB today and will be using those apps in live situations (I'm a professional keyboardist). Live will be one of my next purchases though. It looks like one really cool app.

Kevin

[Lorinserbenz]

I make porn with mine... I own an "adult" establishment....
and I am not kidding!
I win

[Zaffir]

Originally posted by Lorinserbenz:
I make porn with mine... I own an "adult" establishment....
and I am not kidding!
I win

You do win

[madmacgames]

I use my as an all purpose machine as well. I got it to completely replace my PC desktop (was a good thing too as about 3 weeks after I bought my PB, my PC up and died on me after I had spent $$$ upgrading it to the latest and greatest AMD CPU/Mobo/RAM). I was pleasently surprised at how easy the transition or "switch" was.

I use the powerbook both personally to surf the net, email, write papers, occasionally play a game, watch movies, etc; and professionally to design and maintain our website and code PHP (man this BSD based OS makes a nice dev environment ).

[cobra27]

Originally posted by Lorinserbenz:
I make porn with mine... I own an "adult" establishment....
and I am not kidding!
I win

Wow, did you use the 12", 15" or the 17" for that? Which size is the best for making porn? Is it true that size doesn't matter??

[fisherKing]

i LIVE on my powerbook (so it's a good thing i just got it fixed by apple... ... 11 days, $430 for a new logic board... )

i do music production, remixing...some mastering on mine. (logic, reason, spark)
edited a music video. (fce)
screenwriting (final draft)
some web design (dreamweaver)
some graphics (indesign, photoshop)

lots of email & surfing, constant updating (it's a sickness, i think)

itunes! customizing my pb!

overall, don't get enough sleep...

but love the pb, and 10.3!

[sheer]

My PB12 1ghz is the centre of the studio (music) I'm building, tho it will probably get some limited use on the road with the digital camera (Fuji Finepix 6900 Zoom) since both the missus and I are graphic designers.

[Dougmc]

I'm an art director for a magazine (Quark, Illustrator, Photoshop). With a redesign underway, it's convenient to drag files to and from the office to work on the laptop at home. I also do a considerable amount of freelance photojournalism (Photomechanic, Photoshop). Filing my images to the paper remotely has been a charm. I haven't encountered any problems to date.

Additionally, my full-time job requires me to travel for photo assignments which I take my PB along for managing the images onsite. It's been a great tool.

[YoungTurk]

Originally posted by michelangelo33:
Nothing exciting here.

But, I'm sure there are plenty of people out there that create awesome websites, make beautiful music...

Reading www.apple.com/pro makes me wonder what everyone does.

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/article.../02/zavaletta/

Substitute the PB G4 12" 1 ghtz for the iBook though.

[PBG4 User]

I use my AlBook for coding my schoolwork (C/C++/Java). I also am learning FCE while editing a video I made of my brother's wedding. At some point I am picking up the Canon Digital Rebel / EOS300D / Kiss and will be editing pictures and ordering books through iPhoto (just in time for Giftmas!).

Al is also used to record MIDI and once I get a decent pre- my bass as well.

Of course there is the usual WWW / E-Mail / occasional gaming / iTunes stuff.

My PC is pretty much gathering dust at this point. Neither the missus or I really want to use it anymore.

[Lorinserbenz]

Originally posted by cobra27:
Wow, did you use the 12", 15" or the 17" for that? Which size is the best for making porn? Is it true that size doesn't matter??

Well I do have a 17" aka John Holmes Powerbook...

[BlueCat]

Recently replaced my Thinkpad R32 with my PB15. I don't work in funky industries like video editing, etc I'm an IT consultant and so things I do are the usual email/internet stuff. Lots of documentation using Word which in my opinion pretty much suck on OSX. I reckon it's a conspriacy that Microshaft didn't make Office Vx as clean as Office XP! Also, I use the PB to access and admin/work on other servers with both telnet/ssh and Windows remote desktop. finally, I'll like to get into some digital photography and editing soon. Just need to get a camera first!!!!

[Blackstealth]

Originally posted by BlueCat:
Lots of documentation using Word which in my opinion pretty much suck on OSX. I reckon it's a conspriacy that Microshaft didn't make Office Vx as clean as Office XP!

Whoa, I glady use Offce vX on my 1.25 15" as I can't stand Office XP on my work machine.

Anywho, I work as a multimedia designer and since getting it about a month ago I use my AlBook for working in Photoshop and Director and minor editing in Final Cut away from the office. Back at the office it gets used for Word, and authoring in DVDSP2 ('cause Encore is a bit crash prone on my windows box). On the odd occassions I find time to go into university it also gets serious use for Word and Keynote.

[bonk]

I make movies:

http://ibonk.com/cru/movies/gollum.mov

[Minty Fresh]

I bought my PB for graphic design and illustration purposes. I'm a freelance artist, and I used my PC for everything. I don't really know why, as an artist, I never got into Mac's before. But I decided I needed to learn the Mac OS, and take advantage of what Apple has to offer! Picked up Quark Express...and I picked up Adobe CS Premium..and WOW! Also going to get Painter 8.

Loving my PB so far!

[Naz]

I use it to do all my graphic work for my website I update and upload all of my Art to my website

I love fansub anime

right now I'm at a Cafe using Wi-Fi for the very first time!!!

for free

I'm SO HAPPY

[kentuckyfried]

please share

sharing is caring.


to the topic at hand:

I use my pb right now as a glorified web browser/mp3 stealing/mpeg viewer/chatting/video-gaming beast. Hopefully I will be moving on to actually using it to connect remotely to my company's vpn to get some work done in the next few weeks.

It would be really nice to use it for more graphics work but I simply don't have that luxury, besides just scanning in hand sketches to include with my engineering documents.

Originally posted by Lorinserbenz:
I make porn with mine... I own an "adult" establishment....
and I am not kidding!
I win

[danbrew]

Originally posted by cobra27:
Wow, did you use the 12", 15" or the 17" for that? Which size is the best for making porn? Is it true that size doesn't matter??

The only guys who say that size doesn't matter are guys with, ahem, ah, small, well, you know...

[Phat Bastard]

I am a grad student doing research in bioinformatics. You might have heard about OS X and bioinformatics and structural biology (check out http://www.apple.com/pro/science/gilbert/ and http://www.apple.com/pro/science/adelson/ and http://www.apple.com/pro/science/giddings/)

I use my Powerbook for running programs like BLAST and HMMER which are key programs in genomics, Perl scripts, x-ray crystallography data viewing, processing and analysis, and 3D macromolecular visualization programs, such as Pymol and iMol. I also use my PB for reading scientific journals online and writing papers, running Photoshop, Illustrator, Office.

Of course I use my PB for fun too, iTunes, iPhoto, surfing, email, games (iConquer is my obsession right now), burning custom CDs for my car rides, syncing my iPod...my PB is my life, I don't know where I would be without it!

[vancenase]

i'll speak up now that phat bastard has spoken ... i'm in grad student in structural biology. you can pretty much copy and paste his uses into mine except substitute his crystallography-related programs for (in my case) NMR-related programs. i'll have to check out iConquer!

[St.John]

Originally posted by Phat Bastard:
I am a grad student doing research in bioinformatics. You might have heard about OS X and bioinformatics and structural biology (check out http://www.apple.com/pro/science/gilbert/ and http://www.apple.com/pro/science/adelson/ and http://www.apple.com/pro/science/giddings/)

I use my Powerbook for running programs like BLAST and HMMER which are key programs in genomics, Perl scripts, x-ray crystallography data viewing, processing and analysis, and 3D macromolecular visualization programs, such as Pymol and iMol. I also use my PB for reading scientific journals online and writing papers, running Photoshop, Illustrator, Office.

Of course I use my PB for fun too, iTunes, iPhoto, surfing, email, games (iConquer is my obsession right now), burning custom CDs for my car rides, syncing my iPod...my PB is my life, I don't know where I would be without it!

Snap!

[vancenase]

hooray! all the science geeks are speaking up!

[Phat Bastard]

Geeks? Who said I'm a geek?

I'm a NERD, thank you very much.

Originally posted by vancenase:
hooray! all the science geeks are speaking up!

[vancenase]

Originally posted by Phat Bastard:
Geeks? Who said I'm a geek?

I'm a NERD, thank you very much.

i'm with you, it seems more accurate:
http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/nerd
http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/geek
of course, the rest of the board might tend to disagree ... or combine them ... the next question ... would you rather be a 'geeky nerd' or 'nerdy geek'

[variable06]

Aside from the basics (web, IM, etc.) I use mine for schoolwork with Maple and LabVIEW. I also do some light Photoshop work, and edit my band's music with Pro Tools.

[JHromadka]

Writing in my blog, general web browsing, email, chatting, etc.

[cSurfr]

in a word . . . Everything. My powerbook is every bit as good as any desktop G4 i've ever used.

[terrancew_hod]

I work on my webpage, email, games, iChat and surf the web. I also been playing with the exchange capabilities in Mail. I pulled all my work mail onto my powerbook and was able to get files from file shares in my work Windows network. I was pretty impressed. Once I figured how to work the network setting, I can set locations for home, work and my friends wireless network. Took about 2 minutes and I was connected. Everyone that's seen the powerbook has been impressed.

Now I have to use my spanish program and begin my video editing...

Terrance

[waffffffle]

My 15" Albook is new so I haven't done all that much with it yet. With my Pismo (and now my AlBook) I do Comp Sci work (Java, C) some web design/photoshop work (lastweekmusic.com), write papers in Word, presentations in PowerPoint, IM, web browsing, email, download and listen to music, organize digital pictures and made web galleries.


I still take my iBook (soon to become a 12" PowerBook) to all of my classes. I use it to take notes (and go online in classes with wireless). I also take it to record live bands, which is awesome.

[JeffHarris]

My 1ghz TiBook is a traveling design and everything workstation. I use it for the usual email, web surfing thing, too.

I do architectural design; residential and retail interiors, the occasional house.
VectorWorks is my weapon of choice (2D and 3D). I run my business, too.

I take photos for business, art and travel and track everything with iView Media Pro. I'll shoot site photos, do some 3D in VectorWorks and combine it all in Photoshop.

PowerBooks changed my life! I don't see how I could ever revert to a desktop machine, unless my girlfriend and I get a bigger apartment. ;^)
It's fantastic carrying my entire creative and work environment with me everywhere!

[everyplace]

I bought my pb 15" 867 in January right when people were dumping them on ebay to get the smaller 12", and I've used it for everything and everything since.

In terms of video:
I've used it to broadcast live video using Quicktime Streaming Server to a Redhat 8 / Darwin Streaming Server. I've used it to edit the recorded video in Final Cut Express. I've used it to create special-effects laden movies in After Effects 6.

In terms of photography:
I've used it to catalog the 6000+ photos I've taken in the last 18 months. Now, given, I haven't had this computer for 18 months, but the 2000 photos I had prior to this were being stored on my aging imac (bondi 233 / 384 megs / 40 gig / panther, and for those interested, it runs panther quite well).

In terms of design:
I've used Photoshop since version 2.5, and 7 is a great, invaluable tool that I use every day. That with Illustrator, I've used to make posters, ads, instructional manuals, signs. Whatever. Then with Dreamweaver, mysql, php and apache, I've been able to develop entire web applications locally and have them uploaded to production servers with no changes needed whatsoever to make it work in the final environment.

In terms of education:
I've taught classes on Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver using this machine, Keynote, and a projector (along with said apps, of course). I've also built online course material, but that should really be in the design section.

I think that's about it. What I'm trying to say is that this is a fantastic machine. It will do whatever you want it to. Now, if you really wanted to, yes, you could buy all of these (or download and install, for the opensource stuff), for a windows laptop. And let me tell you, some of those 17" sager laptops look like great deals.

But that's missing the point. Just because there are the same programs doesn't mean the machine itself will let you work in the same way. The Mac OS is the real selling point of this machine to me, because it doesn't get in the way, it does exactly what I want it to, all of the time.

[TheIceMan]

Hey this is cool reading how others use their PBs. Man, I'm not a techie like some of the wizards here or scientific like others.

I used my PB to write my Psychology Pro Paper. It took FOREVER and was 53 pages long. But I finally got it done. I count this more as a nightmare than fun.

For fun, I'm a professional web traveler. Man, I must have visited hundreds of international sites! I also love to tweak my user interface with OSX themes.

As for music, iTunes radio -> Digitally Imported (Trance, Hard Trance, DJ Mixes..YEAH).

I also love watching movies on my PowerBook. I use Forty-Two
to convert DVDs into divx format which allows me to watch movies while surfing the web.

But after selling my beloved PowerBook last month, I am now depressed. Man, I really miss my Titanium PB. Well, hopefully I'll find a job soon so I can get another one! Unemployment totally SUCKS.

[oeyvind]

Using my Ti 867 as my main machine... mostly digital darkroom from my photos, terminal for UNIX and server related works, among the daily email and web via Safari and Mail.

Still have 2 UNIX boxes at home, gathering dust... my NeXT Turbo Color Slab, and my R5K Indy... ^^

Love my PowerBook!

[ae86_16v]

Surf the web with Safari.

[aljawad]

I use my 12” AlBook for iLife applications (mostly iPhoto and iMovie, iDVD), some light FinalCut Express work, the usual work document using Word+Excel, Keynote presentations, wireless internet usage, and the rather frequent use of Mathematica ...
Oh, I forgot to mention that I also use it as a DVD playback platform – usually at nights when I can’t go to sleep; I recently viewed almost the entire season-2 collections of “24” and "CSI" on it.
Other than that, I hardly touch the machine!

[dannyn]

I use my Ti800 for a variety of graphics tasks. In no particular order:

- 3D character animation for games using Maya
- teaching an animation class using Toon Boom Studio, BTV Pro, FrameThief, and Ultimate Pen
- video editing with Final Cut Pro
- animation and video work with Flash MX
- basic web stuff with Dreamweaver
- editing photos from both my Canon S100 digital camera and my Sony Ericsson T610 camera phone using Photoshop
- occassionally watch DVDs on my 22" Cinema Display
- wireless access on campus and at Starbucks and Borders
- email, web, chat, etc.

This machine hasn't failed me yet, and it is still going strong.