The Laptop Thread (ThinkPads with Accelerometers, G4 PowerBook)

Asher · October 8, 2003, 01:38

IBM is showing off a new feature in the ThinkPad T41 and R50s: http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.html?i=1893

They come with an accelerometer chip which determines both the orientation of the laptop and how fast it is accelerating. This is used to protect data integrity: when the laptop detects it is falling, it will park the hard drive heads to prevent data loss. Coupled with the integrated hard drive shock absorbers introduced in the T40, that looks to be one mean durable laptop.

And Apple's new 15" PowerBook looks decidedly bad, judging by the reviews I've been reading. It's available now.

This review is very good: http://arstechnica.com/archive/news/1065585440.html

Here's a rundown:

He ran into problems the second he took it out of the box. The latch to close the lid would not work, it would simply pop back open. Apparently this is a common problem with the laptop. Apple refuses to fix this for free, and charges either a $300 US restocking fee to get a new one, or another fee to repair it.

When the lid is closed and latched, there's a gap between the lid and the base. The PowerBook "rattles" when carried, and it feels like it "squishes" when you pick it up. The lids also seem to be cupped upwards.

Came with a nasty red pixel that was dead, easily noticable in movie playback.

The Hard Drive is a slow 4,200rpm drive.

Apple claims 4.5 hours of battery life, real world is more like 2 to 2.5 (compare to 7 hours on the T40...)

The keyboard is not removable (replacable, upgradable)

The keyboard is small and cramped (the exact same keyboard used in the 12" model)

AirPort reception isn't as good as the iBooks

Now granted he thinks it's decent and usable and capable, but he also says it's his first laptop.

Who would buy a laptop that's slow, badly built, and overpriced?

Drake Tungsten · October 8, 2003, 01:58

People who don't believe anything you say?

Asher · October 8, 2003, 01:59

/me checks to see if he wrote that review.

Drake Tungsten · October 8, 2003, 02:00

Knowing you, I'm pretty sure you picked the worst review you could find and then tried to pass it off as reasonable. Some of us are on to the fact that you are full of ****.

Asher · October 8, 2003, 02:02

It's hard to find Apple reviews not written by some zealot.

ArsTechnica is a highly respected technology site, non-partisan (they do Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD, etc) and even wrote authoritative articles on things like the PowerPC 970/G5.

And the author himself is the Mac editor of the site.

Anyway:
Stage 1: Denial

Asher · October 8, 2003, 02:06

Besides, there are other sources to back up those points:
http://discussions.info.apple.com/We...Q8.4@.5999d589
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showt...threadid=31187
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showt...threadid=30942
http://www.macintouch.com/pbg4reader24.html
http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...hreadid=179206
http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...hreadid=179990

Quote:

After having my powerbook for 5 days I would post my thoughts about it.
Let me start off by saying this is my first mac, and I have been waiting to get this thing since Jan 03. Well it arrived last Friday and I must say I skipped class all day to play with my new too. I ran the dead pixel program to check if anything was dead, and there was nothing. Well when Monday rolled around I was in the library typing in office and I noticed 3 large white spots around the center of the monitor. THEY ARE CLEARLY SEEN at all times when the laptop is on.
Flaw #2 Another flaw started happening also, I would get these quite ticking sounds coming from the hard drive when I am not doing anything that would require me to write to the hd. It would click for 5 seconds, stop, and repeat for a while. Now this happens every once in awhile.
Flaw #3 The battery life is horrible! I have probably collaborated my battery like 8 times since I have had it, and the life will not get past 1 hour and 45 minutes running 10.2.7 with max battery life. I think this is ridiculous knowing the fact that others have reported almost double that with their powerbooks. My basic usage was airport, aim, and word; when I was getting under 2 hours of battery life. I had the brightness set to 1/3 with battery life set at max battery life.
As of yesterday my roommate installed the latest version of 10.3 on this 15” ti 1gig hz and he was averaging 4.5 hours with heavy usage, this is no joke there is a thread somewhere on this forum about this. (Heavy usage as in airport, msn, movies, and safari)
Well I figured today I would give it a try, since he seen an increase of well over 50-80% in battery life on his ti pb.
After installing it this morning and running it most of the day it ran quite smooth. I decided to see how the battery life would add up when I go to the library.
Here is a little over view of what I was doing and exactly what the read outs where.
This was with the battery life set at automatic.
6:00 pm(100%. 2:20): Brightness: 1/3, Airport: ON, Programs used: Mail, Aol IM, and Safari.
7:00 pm(50%. 1:19): Brightness: 1/3, Airport: ON, Programs used: Aol IM, I-tunes and Safari(for like 10 minutes.
7:30 pm(31%. 0:43): Brightness: 1/3, Airport: ON, Programs used: Aol IM, I-tunes and word.
7:50 pm(19%): Sleep Mode
8:10 pm(15%): Out of Sleep Mode
823 pm(3%): Brightness: 1/3, Airport: ON, Programs used: Word

That was about 2 hours of usage with Panther installed, which is a little more then what I got out of 10.2.7.
I have seen a number of read outs from the latest 17 inch and 12 inch powerbooks, they seem to get a lot more battery life then the 15s.

Tomorrow I plan on calling apple and demanding that I receive a new powerbook instead of having this one repaired taking the fact that there are 3 major problems with my powerbook. I’m a college student and the last thing I need to be worrying about is some piece of **** product shipped out by apple. I personally felt they could have done 100x better then this. Don’t even get me started on the battery life of my Bluetooth mouse, which is well under a week. I will fight it tomorrow, and I mean fight it. I will sit on the phone calling all day until they replace this powerbook.

There is my little spiel about what I thought was going to be a solid product from apple.

laurentius · October 8, 2003, 04:26

Whats the point of these Apple-smacking threads anyway? Do you have any, or are you just ego tripping?

Harovan · October 8, 2003, 04:32

Sheesh, is there still anyone out there who takes Ashers trolls serious?

laurentius · October 8, 2003, 04:38

I tend to think most people are to be taken seriously

Drake Tungsten · October 8, 2003, 04:41

Quote:

I tend to think most people are to be taken seriously

That's a big mistake.

laurentius · October 8, 2003, 05:17

If you say so

FrustratedPoet · October 8, 2003, 05:50

Quote:

Originally posted by laurentius
Whats the point of these Apple-smacking threads anyway? Do you have any, or are you just ego tripping?

I wonder about that too. I like Asher, but these threads really don't seem to have any point. The mac zealots here all hate him and don't believe a word he says. Everyone else here really couldn't give a flying f**k about Macs or anything to do with them.

laurentius · October 8, 2003, 07:20

Yeah, I mean I like him too, but these threads start to annoy me a little...

Ah god, I got to take my pain killers...NOW! Got 2!! Wisdom teeth pulled, actually one was surgically removed today. Hurts alot...

Q Classic · October 8, 2003, 07:50

yeah, well, us fence-sitters, those of us who don't care too much?

we're like the moderates stuck in between the ann coulter of machood, or the michael moore of windowsmania.

i have a dream that one day, we can all use our respective OSes, and not gripe about how one is better than the other.

then again, someone was shot for merely suggesting something similar about skin color.

Whaleboy · October 8, 2003, 08:48

The powerbook does actually suck in all fairness to Asher, though you might want to appear a little more balanced for the sake of your own credibility.

Asher · October 8, 2003, 13:33

Quote:

Originally posted by laurentius
Whats the point of these Apple-smacking threads anyway? Do you have any, or are you just ego tripping?

The point is, Apple's quality control has gone downhill pretty fast.

And the point of that is because I secretly love it when the Mac people find weird dismissals/excuses for it, like Drake's. It's very amusing to me.

Brundlefly · October 8, 2003, 13:41

Quote:

Originally posted by Asher

And the point of that is because I secretly love it when the Mac people find weird dismissals/excuses for it, like Drake's. It's very amusing to me.

Then again, a d*** in your mouth is amusing to you....

Asher · October 8, 2003, 13:42

Quote:

Originally posted by Q Cubed
yeah, well, us fence-sitters, those of us who don't care too much?

we're like the moderates stuck in between the ann coulter of machood, or the michael moore of windowsmania.

i have a dream that one day, we can all use our respective OSes, and not gripe about how one is better than the other.

then again, someone was shot for merely suggesting something similar about skin color.

How dare you compare me to Michael Moore!

The problem isn't with the OS, the problem is the build quality of the new PowerBooks is on par with a $50 kids' makebelieve laptop.

Asher · October 8, 2003, 13:43

Quote:

Originally posted by Feephi
Then again, a d*** in your mouth is amusing to you....

No, that's erotic.

My **** up your ass, now that's amusing.

Agathon · October 8, 2003, 14:54

More pointless rubbish from Asher - a confirmed liar.

There are always going to be a few people with problems (which is all this establishes). In one case cited by Asher it is particularly hilarious since the person was running a developer preview of Panther, which is BETA software so of course there will be problems - it's a BETA for chrissake.

Asher · October 8, 2003, 19:17

Quote:

Originally posted by Agathon
More pointless rubbish from Asher - a confirmed liar.

Yes yes, I am lying! These people do not exist, they do not have problems, and the PowerBook really does last 4.5 hours like Apple claims! It is me who is lying, not Apple and all of the people who've tested it!

I

mac users.

Quote:

There are always going to be a few people with problems (which is all this establishes).

The thing has only been out a few days and there's tons of complaints about it online, particularly its keyboard and its lackluster production quality.

Do you have any rational reason why Apple used such a pathetically small keyboard on the 15" model?

I mean look at this. How can you not say it's ridiculous?

Quote:

In one case cited by Asher it is particularly hilarious since the person was running a developer preview of Panther, which is BETA software so of course there will be problems - it's a BETA for chrissake.

I fail to see how this is at all relevant because the problems are with the hardware in PowerBooks, not the OS.

Because Panther is beta doesn't cause the construction quality of the hardware to be piss-poor.

mrmitchell · October 8, 2003, 19:26

I've said it before.

Geeks that get hardons thinking about their new EXTREME processor.

However, usually Asher does beat the Apple side of the argument. If he didn't lump in bad sarcasm, cheap insults, and etc. failures, he'd probably be a lot more convincing.

Drake Tungsten · October 8, 2003, 23:59

Quote:

However, usually Asher does beat the Apple side of the argument.

What argument? Asher making up **** and us calling him a tool does not equal an "argument"...

Asher · October 9, 2003, 00:00

See what I mean?

This is all made up! None of it is real...

It's a worldwide conspiracy against Apple!

Nubclear · October 9, 2003, 03:07

Quote:

Originally posted by Asher

FrustratedPoet · October 9, 2003, 04:39

That miniature keyboard on the big laptop is stupid and anyone who tries to say it isn't is even more stupid.

Drake Tungsten · October 9, 2003, 04:48

Actually, the keyboard looks to be the same size as the one on my 14" iBook. If it is, then it is hardly "miniature", as my iBook has an amply sized keyboard.