i've had a couple of grand burnin a hole in my pocket [metaphorically] for a couple of months now while toying with what my new mac was going to be. after a lot of humming and harring and generally putting off the decision while awaiting the 'next big thing' i've finally decided that my battered oul 8500 deserves it's gold watch and a pat on the back.

with a burnt out internal SCSII chain so that it's 3 internal drives are wired through the external chain, an impressive 2 and three quarter gig of storage capacity [one internal 2gig, one internal 500MB and a gargantuan internal 250MB!] and unrivalled connectivity [ dead internal zip disc and even deader ethernet port that means i have to burn everything i want to transfer onto it onto CD first] the 8500 wasn't exactly at the height of its powers [then again who of us is, these days?] ...and i haven't even mentioned it's senile 56MB of RAM.

mind you, it could have been a lot worse. it might have been a bang up to date windoze box. aaaaarrrrrghhhh!!!!

so, it wasn't exactly a dream machine but that ol' 8500's given me sterling service and brought in a fair bit of cash in it's own way. as a reward for long service it'll be allowed to see out it's days as a dedicated MP3 server wired into my stereo sytem.

i'd probably still be dithering tho' if i hadn't handed my notice in at work this week . meaning i have to give them back my B/W G3 at the end of the month. the thought of having to leap several rungs back down the evolutionary ladder and start trying to be creative on that old 8500 again while seeking new work was too much to bear so i finally had to make a decision...


so, what to go for?... as a grafix dude my immediate instinct was to opt for a desktop machine for its obvious advantages in this area.... a bigger monitor with accurate colours, a mouse for moving all those bits'n'bobs about so much easier and bigger drive to hold all those huge files. should be the obvious choice

but i'm not overly impressed with the desktop range at the minute. i don't care about the propaganda one way or the other. i just instinctively know that dropping DP [dual processors] was a retrograde step.

OK not apple's fault. lack of chips from motorola and all that but it makes me wonder about the quality of the chips in the single processor machines being released at the minute. apple must be breathing down motorola's neck to produce more G4 chips faster. with the threat of losing apple's patronage hangin over them the temptation for motorola to let the odd chip out the door that's 99,99% OK rather than 100% must be almost irresistible. i'm not suggestin that's what's happening in any way. just expressing my 'gut instinct'.

i'd always feel i was getting something that was built 'in a panic' if i bought one of the current desktop machines.

but i can't mention the desktop machines without pointing out one MAJOR annoyance for me. that bloody horrible strip of tacky pinstripe plastic on the front. all the other plastic is really classy [isn't that a sign of the times 'classy' lookin plastic?] sort of 'smoked glass' . but that horrible thing on the front. yuk!!!

for feck sake apple. why don't you just make the front panel out of the same plastic as the rest? it would look miles better.... oh and by the way that CD door, where it's a normal white CDrom hidden behind a silly wee flap of tack-o-matic plastic, looks like a quick stop-gap design feature. so why's it been there since the original blue/white G3? make it slot loading or at least build a door that fits the drive.

the pro desktops are ruled out for now then [tho' i still plan to get one when i think they're 'right' - money permitting of course]. so how's about an imac?

i love imacs. my girlfriends got one and so has my mammy and i think they're great wee machines. i totally disagree with those who say an imac can't be a serious pro grafix machine. iv'e done some fairly heavy work in photoshop/illustrator/flash/poser etc on my girlfriend's imac DV and it's easily performed as well as my B/W G3 350mhz 'pro' machine. and it doesn't crash half as often. for a graphic artist on a limited budget you could easily produce some really professional grafix with an imac. at the end of the day tho' the imac's just a bit lacking in expandability for my liking.

[digression no. 34.... a few words about the new imac designs. nice try apple but too half hearted. those wishy washy pastelly not-quite-there grafix are like a mother's failed attempt to remove a child's grafitti from a playroom wall. if you wanna do patterns do them big bold and bright.... dalmation? great! big bold black spots... lovely! flower power? OK! ... big bold austin powers 60's style psychedelia. great! and why stop there? zebra patterns... tiger stripes.... lizard skin... leather look... brick wall... rivetted metal. the possibilities are enldess and the more options available the more everyone gets to feel that their imac is unique. look at the success nokia have had with the 3 series mobile phones with interchangeable fascia. that's the way to go apple if you're pitching the imac as an essential hi tech accessory [like mobile phones]. not a half hearted toe in the water

end digression]


next up. the ibook... i like them [i even think the key lime is a great colour - but then as an old punk i've had a few key lime mohicans in my time]. again they're quite nippy wee machines. the BIG downer with the ibook is the monitor. 800x600 just doesn't cut it any more. i was whole-hoping half-expecting the imac LCD to get an upgrade at the recent jobs jamboree [all those powerbook G3 LCDs which are now surplus to requirements] but the anouncement didn't come so i ruled out the ibook too.

which left it as a head to head; pismo v. ti book.

although i'd love to have the ti book's G4 processor and that widescreen LCD, i can't justify paying about an extra �1100 [for the 500mhz model] for the privilege. and those two aside, i pretty much prefer the pismo anyway....

1. shock horror!!! i actually think the pismo is a nicer design than the ti book. i've just seen a ti book in the flesh for the first time today and was majorly underwhelmed. in fact it took me a while to spot it nestling in amongst the other PC sony vaios and wannabes. i actually think it's boring looking. [wow ! this is nearly sacrelige]. a boring silver square box like all the other boring square boxes.

the pismo is cool. it's mean and black and it's curvy and it feels nice. apple decided curves where in [imacs G3s G4s pismo]. they were right. now they've decided curves are out [ti book]. they're wrong. if curves were good design last month then building something that deliberately avoids curves this month, can't be good design....can it?!

2. the pismo 500mhz is faster for many jobs than the 400mhz ti book. it has an extra firewire port, can hold a spare battery and has double the hard drive capacity. all for about �400 less.

3. too many reports of 'teething troubles' on the fora from people who've experienced a seemingly common range of problems with the new ti books [dodgy battery contact, dead pixels, overheating, poor airport connectivity and high maintenance finish] strengthen my view that it's better to take one step back from the cutting ege before buying technology. that way , as has been said elsewhere, most of the bugs and niggles have been ironed out thanx to the poor suckers who jumped straight in.

4. apart from G4's alti-vec and a couple of hundred pixels screen real estate, the ti book and pismo are virtually identical internally. the G4 is a new processor technology. a few months down the line when motorola sort theirselves out 500mhz is going to seem pretty lo-spec and everyone [ti book owners as well] will be wanting to upgrade anyway. someone will step in and start offering upgrade cards.

that's about it really.

i have slight reservations about buying a portable for grafix work but pretty much all the stuff i do is for the web or on-screen viewing so i'm not as 'precious' about colour accuracy as i would have to be if working for print. LCD monitors were awful a few years back but they've come on in leaps'n'bounds since then. i can buy an external monitor which will then be able to be used with my desktop machine when i buy that at a later date.

beside which 'all work and no play makes madra a dull boy' and all thon. i'll be doing other stuff on my comp apart from work... writing, web surfing, playing music, reading, watching films. i'm a bit of a renaissance man on the sly you see and the more i think of it in that way the more i really prefer the idea of a portable over i desktop. for an artist it's like some kind of uber-sketchbook that i can carry around with me like i used to carry a paper one about as a teenager. only, as well as my drawings and paintings and scribbled texts, this sketchbook can hold sounds and moving pictures as well. when you think about it in isolation from the times we live in, that's an awesome potential. i wonder what leonardo da vinci would do with a powerbook if it dropped out of a timewarp?

oops! better go now. i'm becoming esoteric. these hash cookies must be kickin in after all!

[edited for the usual reasons]

[This message has been edited by madra (edited 03-18-2001).]

[jack daddy]

i didn't read the whole thing but i just want to say OSX is Altivec.
If you dont care. good. If you do, the you need a g4. no ifs and or buts. might as well stick to 9x if you have a g3 then.

[mfox]

I saw it much the same as you did, Madra, and I ordered a G3/400 Pismo from the Apple Education store last week. Before I did it, I drove 80 miles to see the Ti, just to make sure it wasn't worth the $1,200 (Cdn) difference in price. I was very impressed by the thinness and lightness, but not much else in the design. And I'm moving up from a 1400, so I'd get a bigger screen with either. Previous writers on the iBook forum indicated that OS X beta worked just fine on their machines. And I was concerned with reported problems with heat, static electricity, poor AirPort reception and the ease with which the Ti gets scratched up that others on the PowerBook forum reported. The Pismo may be the last flexible, expandable PowerBook, so I think it is a good choice. Now if Apple will just send it to me soon!

if a 500mhz G3 processor and a couple o hundred MB of RAM won't be enough to run the the operating system then X is going to be the biggest turkey we see this side of christmas.

of course X won't need a G4 to be usable. alti vec may make a difference with high performance graphic apps but drawing the OS interface won't overload any recent-ish processor unless apple have seriously f*ck*d up.

[PowerBookDude]

WOW! What a long most madra.

------------------
Ti 500/384/20/Airport
------------------
Pismo 500/256/12/Airport
------------------
iMac DV SE 400/128/12/Airport
------------------
iBook Blueberry 300/96/3/Airport

[Kestral]

Great post Madra!! I too own a Pismo, in my case a 400mhz. I bought it about 5-6 months ago, tried to hold out as long as I can for the G4 to come up but it didn't and I needed a machine for work. As far as speed goes, this machine is more than fast enough for what I do, and I use some intensive apps like Virtual PC. Luckily I don't do graphics or video work (which I realize can benefit greatly from Altivec) and while I do use it for pro-level digital audio, this machine is more than adequate for the job.

Here's the thing about Apple right now and new machines as I see it. At this point I feel we are what we stock people called an "inflection point". What does that mean? It's probably a convoluted way of saying that things are changing fast and furious and there's no telling which way it's going to go.

There are so many new technologies and transitions just around the corner, from the migration of OS 7/8/9.x to OS X, the transition from ATI to nVidia graphics cards, the state of multi-processing (was it, as some people suggested, just a stop gap measure because of Motorola? Past history from when Apple had multi-processors would suggest so but OS X is written to address multi-processing so this time it could be different), the upcoming transition from UMA to UMA2, faster USB, faster Firewire, the situation with Motorola and the G4/Altivec (will Apple finally say screw it and change processors or find a way to dump Motorola and work with just IBM?), the true state and specifications of the proverbial "digital hub"... all of this in an economy that may or may not go to hell in a handbasket.

In short, there is a lot of uncertainty and to use another Wall Street term, there is a lack of visibility going forward.

Anyone who says they know how things will be a year from now (even if it was Steve Jobs himself) is fooling him(or her)self. So if there's that much uncertainty, why make a commitment on the bleeding edge and pay the fool's premium? No reason at all except for those who have the money to do so.

That being said, the Pismo is a great machine at a killer value right now. While I personally prefer the look fo the Titanium over the Pismo (black is soooo 80's), after suffering the high-maintainence finish that was easily scratched on my WallStreet, I do not want another fragile machine, which is what this TiBook has turned out to be. I use my computer for work and in the 5-6 months I've had, it's paid for itself many times over now. It remains a stalwart and I have little complaints with it. In short, it suits its purpose and performs its functions more than adequately.

Kestral

madra,


you're an asshole for several reasons.

1.) you wrote a very long post for what reason? to waste your time? to try and tell us something? who cares really.

2.) You rule out a PowerMac G4 simply because of stripes on the front and a CD door. Have any better ideas for the drive? You mention slot load. When you show me a slot loading DVD-R or DVD-RAM drive than you can talk. Oh yea, I think its quite funny how you think the new G4 is 99.99 percent done on your gut feeling. what's missing? if a chip has a problem it's not going to work and you'll know there is a problem. there is nothing wrong with the new 7450s other than they require more optimizations and they are hotter and have a longer pipeline.

3.) You bought a Pismo over a Powerbook G4. The Pismo is an ugly piece of crap and is huge. Have fun carrying that hunk of junk around. The screen also sucks on the thing compared to the new PBG4. It's also slower. And you must have been drunk when you saw the PBG4 in person. it doesn't look anything like the Sony's and I can't see how anyone could be underwhelmed by the design other than a complete moron.

valid points well argued eddie. i prostrate myself at your feet in gratification that an intellect so huge as your own would deign even to spare the time to try and insult me.

[waffffffle]

I bought my Pismo 400 in July. Apple was clearing out the old models because they upped the HD sizes later on. They were offering educational deals for $500 off retail. So I snatched mine up for $2000. It was worth every penny. I love my Pismo. Yes I have seen the TiBook in person but I am happy with the decision I've made. It would have been dumb to wait so long for a G4 book. The guestimates at the time were that the G4 book was coming in Jan, which turned out to be true, but I couldnt wait. I have done some cool things with my Pismo. I've made it silver, using that vinyl sheeting stuff from Japan. Airport is the coolest thing ever. I wonder about the reception on a TiBook.

While I don't agree with everything madra said I do believe the Pismo is a great value at this time. I also believe that eddie vedder has a pole up his ass. If you think the Pismo is big then take a look at the Wallstreet, or some of Dell's offerings-they call that garbage portable. My machine isn't perfect, but it looks damn good. I'm sure that this machine will last me all 4 years of college. I'm used to dragging out my Mac's lives for an extended period of time. I used an LCII as my only machine for 5 years. This machine will do a lot better in its old age, but right now it's still young. Getting ready for OS X, although I hope to see some 7410 upgrade chips available from the 3rd party suppliers this year (the few of them that are left.) A Pismo with a G4 would scream!

Oh yea, one more thing. The G4 has no analog audio in. This is the dumbest move Apple has ever made. I use that port all the time. While I do love my SoundSticks, USB audio is not the best solution. I think that if Apple put analog audio in AND out right onto the motherboard of the Cube, and killed those stupid speakers, plus used a G3, no DVD, and offered some lower-end monitors, they could have sold the thing for $999 and made a lot of money off them.

Just my opinion. Pearl Jam sucks.

[qnc]

Man you married the blaney stone!!

While I don't necessaryily agree with your motives you do have a point . If you can't afford the extra cash then the pismo is a cool buy:

1)Well proven track record. all the bugs were worked out Ti is not 100% there yet but it will be soon.

2)Expandability is a myth if its got a socket its expandanble. You still have to carry the stuff around. I haven't got any extra devices I only use the DVD drive it came with. I use a work CD burner but that goes in the USB. I wanta video camera that will go in the firewire socket etc...

3) With out altivect enhancement of course the clock speed counts but as someone mentioned OSX is altivect and of course it works on a G3 but it doesn't fly.

Personally I'd buya G4 if I had the cash, but I don't . So I'll buy a video camera instead and maybe get a Ti next year or so.

But I would buy the Ti just for the G4 even though I don't use photoshop that much. I guess its about what I'll be able to do with a fully op no bugs portable G4 running a fully opfully featured OsX and that is only a few months away at best.

P.S.
eddie vedder your a ****, and a dum one at that.


[This message has been edited by qnc (edited 03-19-2001).]

[ion]

yesterday i was trying to decide between the pismo 500 and the g4 400, and ended up choosing the G4. right now i have a lombard 333 and love it. the size of the computer doesnt bother me at all and i like having the option of running two batterys (back in the day i would have used the expansion bay for various drives but now i would choose the powered firewire bus in a heartbeat). my two main peves with lombard are 1) sh*tty screen 2) slow OSX performance.

1) The screen on this thing is just horrible, even after many hours of creating custom color sync profiles and application color settings the screen still sucks, the viewing angles suck, and the color reproduction sucks.

2) back when i used this machine with any varient of 9, and even the 8.5's i can say it was pretty speedy doing anything except for serious ps/c4dxl/ill/ae work. when ill9/golive5/fcpro came out i started to see the age of the processor. now under OS X PB nearly everything goes slow as nuts, even with the few x native apps.

because of these two reasons i decided to go with the ti400/512mb ram/10gb internal/external firewire raid array instead of a pismo500/1gb ram/20gb internal/external firewire raid array. i would love to get the ti500 but i dont know about $400 for an extra 100mhz.

hey if you dont NEED the portability of a PB you should seriously consider the DP 533, if i didnt need a PB i would snatch that thing up in a second. for around $3000 you could get a DP533/1GB ram/60GB HD setup, thats about the best bang-for-the-buck your gonna get. throw on a nice monitor and you are set. (on a side note remember when ram cost like $1000 for a 256mb stick and all the programs had to use the HD for swap space, slllloooowwww. thank goodness for the current prices of ram)

[Smircle]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by madra:
why I am of a different opinion than madra:

>but i'm not overly impressed with the desktop range at the
>minute. i don't care about the propaganda one way or the
>other. i just instinctively know that dropping DP [dual
>processors] was a retrograde step.

MP systems will come back in spring after MOS-X is released. Granted, this is no consolation if you want to buy now.


>OK not apple's fault. lack of chips from motorola and all
>that but it makes me wonder about the quality of the chips
>in the single processor machines being released at the minute.

I do not agree with you. There have not been any reports of faulty chips lately (and lemon G4s would not go unnoticed, neither by Apple nor by its customers).


>although i'd love to have the ti book's G4 processor and
>that widescreen LCD, i can't justify paying about an extra
>�1100 [for the 500mhz model] for the privilege.

Sure, if you want to save the money, get a cheaper machine. Nothing wrong here.


>and those two aside, i pretty much prefer the pismo anyway....

>the pismo is cool. it's mean and black and it's curvy
>[..]if curves were good design last month then building
>something that deliberately avoids curves this month,
>can't be good design....can it?!

There is more than one good design. Apple once decided grey plastic was right, later they used blueish-green translucent plastic, later clear... If there was only one good look, cars would look like they did back in the '20s.


>2. the pismo 500mhz is faster for many jobs than the
>400mhz ti book. it has an extra firewire port, can hold
>a spare battery and has double the hard drive capacity.
>all for about �400 less.

It will be hard to notice anything where the pismo is really faster. Besides, for any jobs where the vector engine is useful, the G4 will just blow the pismo to pieces. This may not seem so important if you are not a graphics artist, *but* if you care about MacOS-X, it is. The interface profits *a lot* from the G4 (I have seen it here). So the seemingly esoteric speed-gains are becoming everyday gains really fast.
So if you are planning to adopt X in the next years, the G4 will probably be a better buy since its usable life-span will be longer.


>4. apart from G4's alti-vec and a couple of hundred pixels
>screen real estate, the ti book and pismo are virtually
>identical internally.

As one of the unfortunates who had to carry around a wallstreet powerbook, I can tell you that you are not only lugging around the internals but also the weight and external size :-)
For me at least, the smaller form factor alone is worth the price - I use the thing daily.

[zensmile]

I just bought my Pismo last week for $1800. It is the G3/400/320 RAM/10 GB HD. Not too shabby. I looked at the G4 and the G3 Pismo...and thought that I could use the extra $700 on an internal zip drive and other odds and ends. The G4 is really nice...but the Pismo really appeals to my wallet and I like the curves alot! It looks like Batman's laptop. And not the "Batman" from the movies...but The Dark Knight...from the graphic novels! While reading through all of these posts...I notice that Eddie Vedder is an asshole. Dude, it's just a computer. Have a good day folks.

Zen

[gtabbott]

If you're serious about graphics, you will not be satisfied with a PowerBook as your main machine, at least not for long.

I finally made the call and bought a new Desktop PowerMac (Dual 533 -- the Duals aren't dead) after using a Lombard PowerBook for my main machine for two years.

Apart from AltiVec and Dual processors, which only count with some apps, the biggest factors are Hard Drive performance and Graphics acceleration.

I'm happy to admit that with most applications, my new machine is not a lot faster, processor wise, than the PowerBook (533 Mhz vs. 400), but the hard disk access is so much faster, the machine feels much crisper and tight.

Compromises must be made to get a computer into so small a package, and while it's true that both the Pismo and the TiBook have a faster IDE bus than my Lombard, it's also true that compact hard drives just don't go that fast. 5400 is about tops, most disks are 4600 (or something like that). Of course you could use an external FireWire drive -- only most of those (at least the really cool ones) are just cases holding the same slower-rotational-speed compact drives, and all of them are simple bridged IDE drives that just aren't that fast.

Drive performance comes into the picture in all sorts of ways, from Browser Cache to Photoshop Scratch. Add in the Dual Processor option (a Dual 533 is cheaper than a 667, and in some tasks, faster than a 733), and the performance compromise with the PowerBook is multiplied.

Your only complaints about the Desktops are aesthetic -- so put it under your desk. Problems solved.

Please be sure to consider the performance compromises that must be made to make a very portable computer. If you are not going to be using the machine on the road much (or, really need to), you'll be better off getting a desktop mac.

[Don Pickett]

i didn't read the whole thing but i just want to say OSX is Altivec.
If you dont care. good. If you do, the you need a g4. no ifs and or buts. might as well stick to 9x if you have a g3 then.

Ignorace is as ignorance does. OS X runs just fine on a 333 G3. Seen it with me own eyes.

I owed a Pismo 400 with 192mb RAM and a 10 GB HD for about a year. I decided to purchase TiBook and give my old pismo to my little brother as a graduation present. I am very pleased with my purchase.
For one, The TiBook 500 mhz 512 meg ram 20 gb HD runs tons faster to me. I am a heavy photoshop user and the altivec really makes a difference. But i am also using it for pro audio and school work. The widescreen was especially appealing to me cause i'm an avid final cut pro user as well (i like to dip my feet into as many possible fields as i can :-)). Anyway, comparing the two, i find TiBook much more attractive. The titanium looks cool. The screen is the best part. I cannot believe how large it seems to be! The computer feels a lot less boxy to me because it is so thin and rectangular, as opposed to pismo which was very square. True, i do miss expansion bays, but there is always a price to pay for sleekness. Ti is also much much much more durable feeling than pismo's plastic casing ever was. I am happy with my purchase. I do not think any one should critizize someone else because they don't think it's beautiful (i drool over mine... but i know not everyone feels the same - even i was a little taken aback when i unpacked it. However, i got very used to it and am never going back to pismo)

You have listened to the babble of the matt.

"evil will always triumph because good is dumb" - Spaceballs

peace
-matt

[Matsu]

One advantage I can think of for the pismo besides low price, is the G3 sits on a daughtercard. With the TiBook it is soldered on to the motherboard from what I understand. Someone who already owns a pismo might just want to wait and see if any G4 upgrades don't materialize over the next 12-18 months.

As for the screen, the pismo isn't so great. It lacks the contrast and brightness of the newer LCD designs.

I want the G4 in the TiBook but I want the daughter card of the Pismo. I love the TiBook concept but before I spend 3800-5000 Canadian on a Laptop I want to know I can upgrade it at least once before trading it in on a new model. Maybe UMA2 will remedy this. Does anyone know if the G4 in the TiBook is socketed? If so, then thats just as good as a daughtercard.

thanx for the comments.

plenty to think about here. since i last posted my pismo 500 that i thought i'd nabbed has turned out to be so much vapourware. [see my postings elsewhere if you want the rant against macline UK for taking orders on their website for products they no longer have.] so i'm back to being indecisive again.

gtabbot has mentioned the other machine that was right up there in my equation, the DP 533. i must say i'm really tempted by those boys. especially with them out-performing the 766 single processor on a lot of heavy grafix tasks. but then with dual 766s [and even quads?] not far around the corner i wouldn't want to blow all my savings on a dual 533 to see dual or quad 766s appear in a couple of months time.

i just can't decide. as i said at the beginnin of my waffle, logically [as a grafix dude] i should go for a desktop model but i really fancy the idea of having a mac i can work on curled up on the sofa, or in the park in the summer [in UK parlance that means the two days in august it doesn't rain] or even in the sack when midnight inspiration strikes. the stuff i do is mostly screen res web stuff so i'm not trying to scroll huge files and render 300DPI images, so i could get by with a portable for a good few months.

i'm now minded towards a pismo 400 and stick a load of extra RAM in with the �300 odd i saved when the 500 fell through. then hopefully get a new job quick and start savin up for that big ol' 1GHZ quad machine when it makes its appearance sometime towards the end of the year.

but then again five minutes from now i'll have changed my mind again. god! i hate being so indecisive... er... or do i?....

------------------

[chally]

I am SO happy with my Pismo/400/10/192! I'll add 256M or 512M (and subtract 64M) when I put OSX on it. Screen's plenty nice. Speed is good. I prefer the style over the TiBook. It's not too heavy. It outperforms my B&W.

The only thing that eats at me is how OSX will perform on a single 400MHz G3 (compared to a couple G4s). Then again...in 18 months, I can probably put a 1GHz G4 upgrade into it, and enjoy its stability and frugality in the meantime. Hell, if they offer dual G4s in a Powerbook by then, maybe it'll be worth buying.

My next machine will probably be a dual G4 tower anyway. (The B&W goes to my wife this summer, retiring the 4400, to run OSX and win me "PW" points, while I use the Powerbook instead of a desktop. She can think she's got the soupier machine, for six or eight months. When a good deal comes along, it's dual G4s at my desk.)

[theamazingrando]

If anyone else is sold on the Pismo 400, I have one that is three months old and is looking for a new home because a new Ti 400 is arriving on thusday to sit on the desk beside my 733 which arrived last week. Bring on OSX !! Anyone want a Pismo?

------------------
The Amazing Rando

[jmatero]

You know, the pismo has a BIG advantage over the Ti book not talked about very often. That is, you can insert a second battery. That gives you 7-10 hours of computing time that a Ti can't touch. Sure, you can buy a second battery for the ti, but you have to lug it with you, and you'll need to shut down, swap batteries, and reset the clock (it will reset to 1904 when you pull the battery. THAT is a pain in the neck. As for the screen in the Pismo, the latest models (rev-b) have a MUCH nicer screen than the original Pismos. I saw the Ti and Pismo in J&R in NYC next to eachother and the brightness/clarity was the same on both. You're just losing the .5 inches on either side.

You don't have to shut down the Ti to replace batteries you simply put it to sleep. Although I do agree that an expansion bay has its advantages, but so does a 1" thick workhorse.

[qnc]

great post I think it shows the diversity of Mac products I myself need a portable I just do I love the fact that the mac portables can be used as the only computer I also love power and that's why I want Ti

when I first bought my pismo a year ago there was loads i didn't know about computers and clearly there still is much to learn.

I guess if any of the range is cool so to make the call easier go for broke get the Ti

[jmatero]

Wait a minute... on the Ti 500 I had (for a day...) when you removed the battery, you lost the date/time (back to 1904). Was THAT defective too?

[cjno]

When you remove the battery you lose date and time, but not if you remove battery while in sleep mode ! In fact you have 60secondes to swap the batteries.

just to tie up the loose ends on my story....

i did eventually manage to get a pismo500 on tuesday [20th] after calling in to my local branch of PCworld in manchester...

[dunno wot your US equivalent is but think a couple of macs gathering dust in a corner and sales staff who know feck all about anything apart from windoze]

... i just wondered if they might have one lying about since they don't push macs at all and no sane mac-head would go there looking for one. they didn't have any but did a stock check round the region for me and found one left in warrington. i paid for it there and then and picked it up on the thursday. it was �1700 which is a rip-off by US price standards but �200 cheaper than it would have been before tiBook came on the scene. i'm well chuffed wi it.

i've got another 128MB RAM ordered from crucial [no bargain bucket ramjet over here ] which wasnae bad at �40 [tho 256MB was �160???] and have X on order at the education discount price [�59] so when all that arrives i'll be as happy as a pig in sh*t [or as happy as the pig was before the farmer blew his heid off and chucked him on the foot'n'mouth bonfire]

off to look at that 'being built' icon on the apple site for another wee while now...

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[This message has been edited by madra (edited 03-23-2001).]

Noyce one, a Mhadra!

Woof woof!

[dviant]

I think you made a good choice. I recently sold my G4/400 to get a 400mhz Pismo and am very pleased. I ended up getting good deal a floor model from my local Microcenter about a week before the Ti came out. There really is something to be said for not being tethered to a desk. I've pretty much decided I will only buy Apple portables from now on. I may change my mind if I ever get rid of the PC I use for gaming, but even then it would be a tough call for me. 802.11b is great.

The trackpad gets a little tedious for design so you'll end up hooking up a mouse and sitting at the kitchen table or something. I have found that my MS optical mouse works pretty good on my velvet couch though (ha ha). Even played UT a few times that way and still do reasonably well.

Although I would like to have a Ti (well maybe a rev2) I just couldn't justify spending $700 to have Altivec an extra 128 horzontal pixels. Perhaps if the Ti had a better video chip (at least 16mb, c'mon apple) it may have justified it's price over the Pismo for me. Maybe if it was my full-time graphics station I would have thought differently, but for moderate freelance work and everyday computing the G3 is just fine. We'll see what I think after I get OS X. At least with the Pismo I can look forward to possible processor upgrades since it uses a daughtercard. Ahhh Apple's so tricky with their little non-upgrade path in the Ti aren't they?

If I need screen real estate for design apps, I like to take it upstairs and hook it up to my trusty old Sony 200PS in extended mode. The great thing about that monitor is that it's got both HD-15 and 5BNC connectors and a toggle to switch between inputs. Works great for testing web pages because I can leave the PC plugged into it at the same time and just toggle back and forth. If you do end up buying an external monitor for it, I'd highly recommend one with dual video inputs... handy not to have to unplug your desktop... I like the efficiency.

Anyway congratulations on getting your hands on a Pismo after your first deal fell through. You're going to love it. Ti is nice if you have the cash and don't mind rev1 issues, but price/portable/performance for the Pismo can't be beat at this time imo...



[This message has been edited by dviant (edited 03-25-2001).]