[the_mactivist]

"Yeah, and you like a parallel port, ADB, and RS-232 on that too? How about the g'd ol floppy, or hey I was so used to those 8" floppies back in 1979"
LOL. Um.... no.
Ok, I get the humour and I'm old enough to appreciate it. Joking aside, I use s-video all the time. My two-year old TV has it and it's the easiest way for me to hook up my powerbook.
Otherwise, I'd say that a modem, as old fashioned as it is, is still pretty damn useful in a laptop. I'm not against Apple taking out obsolete ports - ADB was replaced by USB - that was a good thing. But the modem didn't get replaced, nor the fw800, nor the s-video - in the end, if you use those technologies - and i do, and they are far from obsolete, then i am forced to pay extra and to carry a bunch of adaptors. And that, frankly, sucks, because the price did not come down accordingly.
You mention in your other post some of the improvements that I should be happy about, like 2 times the power and dual link DVI. 1) 2X is a marketing term and is based on spec benchmarks and not day-to-day use. It is certainly not going to send my email 2x faster or print my photo 2x faster. 2) Speed increase, graphic card upgrades etc.. are expected with laptop revisions, and the powerbooks were very underpowered to begin with 3) the new much touted processors are not unique to Apple, are being mass-produced and are therefore presumably cheaper than the old powerbook G4 processors. All of this is to say, it means nothing to me that Apple is offering a faster notebook - I expected that. It does not justify the same price tag when they use a cheaper processor and then take away a bunch of features i do actually use and do still actually need. Apple is asking us to pay more money for less computer. Faster or not. And like i said before. I am going to wait.

[the_mactivist]

In reply to:

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I am sure there will be several months between the introduction of those that will fit older powerbooks (1.1 inch) and the new ones.

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I kinda think apple should have waited for that. Or made the 15" notebook 1.1 inch. the specs on the Macbook Pro are just really odd. It's so awesome and cutting edge in certain regards, and then so backwards and lacking in others. Maybe they shoulda waited a couple of months and put a laptop everybody could love.

[Civet]

For all those people saying "why whine when thousands do not have to pay for a modem/FW800 they don't need": I'm sorry, but does removing those two items from the MacBook (yuck) Pro reduce its price, when compared to the previous 15" Powerbook?
No, didn't think so.

[Civet]

You "No Modem No Biggie" guys must all be from cosy First World countries. Where I'm at, try and see if you can run around without a modem. Or are you folks also tired of subsidising for us poor countries as well? ("Vast minority" indeed...)
I agree with whoever it was who said that the new Powerbook Duo (there, much better) is not deserving of the Pro name. Carry a modem with me? When I don't have to with my current machine? And that's not a downgrade? 3.5-hour battery life if we're lucky? Heck, I didn't have to pray like that with my old Wallstreet! Are we back in the early 90's or what.
Looks like I'll be hanging on to my Proper Powerbook for a lot longer than I thought. Bad decision to go with a Pro machine for the first release, IMO... they should have gone with the iBooks first. Maybe then they wouldn't gotten so much egg on their faces.

[redheadtempe]

Thank you. Almost 40% of internet users in the US are dial up users and for those who haven't used a modem in ten years ... I wish I had your expense account. Many hotels and hot spots charge for broadband access and many more don't have it at all. (Yes if you go back from San Fran to New York no problem. Try finding wireless access in smaller towns or in the country.) And for Apple to charge $49 for what can't possibly be more than a $10 part is just wrong.
Also faxing is still used a lot. You cannot e-mail medical records, contracts, etc. I work in a hospital and we would grind to a halt without a fax machine.

[D_Dog]

If Apple would have dropped Firewire 400 there would have been nothing but non stop criticism about not supporting your Firewire 400 equipment.

[blecch]

The TravelMate 8204 offers comparable features to the MacBook. At 2.0 GHz, it's a bit
faster. It's about the same price as the MacBook, ($2500), though at 6.7 pounds it's quite a bit heavier.
The 3:47 battery life isn't great; at 1.83 GHz or less, the MacBook may do slightly better.
PC Magazine (1/5/06) wrote:
"With the advent of dual-core processing, this is the best-looking and best-performing laptop to date."
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1907007,00.asp
/forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[Civet]

Right. They could have at least included the USB modem in the package for free. But that still wouldn't be an ideal solution for me... I have too many bits and pieces to pack and carry around as it is - power adapter, power cable extender, DVI to VGA adapter cable, extra battery, Firewire hard drive, Firewire hard drive cable, digicam, mini USB cable for digicam, modem cable... the list goes on. And I move daily from home to graphics studio to client offices.
I've been trying to reduce the number of items (swapping the FW drive for a USB2 one that shares the same mini-USB cable as the camera, for instance). Thanks for giving me another obstacle to surmount, Apple. If it doesn't kill you etc etc... Yeah?
The floppy-less iMac decision seems similar to what we're facing now. But the difference is that, with the removal of the floppy drive, you didn't need a whole infrastructural change in order to circumvent the loss of a device. So unless the telcos here start offering what Apple wants, looks like I'd be stuck with an extra bit that I have to pay for when it should have been included for free.
Oh well. Maybe there will be a modem in their upcoming consumer laptop. I was itching to buy this new thingy with the horrible name, but this is one sale Apple's missed this round. Not that they want it so much, I suppose... with the marketshare going up and all that. And to think, I'd been buying Powerbooks every year since the Wallstreet.

[bigpics]

In reply to:

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And I email a pdf - who requires fax machines anymore?

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Well....
For reasons unknown and insensate (i.e., brain dead) to me, almost any agency you have to send a legal document to -- especially gov't and medical ones.
I ask them why I can't just email them a nice full color, high-res scan (PDF, jpg, whatever) (or a created Word or Excel document), and haven't heard a sensible answer yet.
And the situation doesn't seem to be any better than it was years ago.
Anybody know why?? Inertia?? Technophobia?? Or...???
And it it's not it's something it'd be easy to start a social movement around. Who would you lobby? How can you reach all these luddite pockets scattered in offices throughout the country??
But if anyone want to Join NMSF-EMSI (No More Stupid Faxes - EMail Scans Instead!) I'm accepting dues money.....

[biblejam]

Damn... no SCSI port. Stupid Apple.
Geez people... lighten up! It's a brand-new computer. Undoubtedly future revisions will be faster and have cooler features. Quit whining. Apple only updated ONE of it's laptops. You can still buy a G4 PowerBook with FW800, S-Video port and a modem.
FW800 is like ADC... a short-lived idea that was cool. These kinds of drop-offs are inevitable in the evolution of computers and technology. Sure, I'll miss some of the features I've grown accustomed to using on the current PB G4's. I missed SCSI on my B&W too. But now that times, technology and my peripherals have changed, I don't miss it a bit.
It's the fastest Apple Laptop ever made and it runs OS X. Nice work, Apple!
-----

[bastion]

Poor phrasing on my part. Target disk mode works, but if the host machine is a PowerPC it has tp be running 10.4 because there's a new partition map in use.

[bastion]

You're right. Mostly. My phrasing was poor and the statement I made was generalized to the point of being incorrect. Target disk mode does exist, but imposes a fairly harsh limit on the host machine in that configuration.

[lrivers]

So I performed one test that pretty much told me everything I needed to know:
On a new iMac iNtel I opened a web page in Safari, copied all and pasted into a new Word document.
It

was

too

slow

to

use


as


much


as



I

use


Word.

So, I'm really glad I'm not desperate for a new 'Book.
Worst name since ASS (AppleScript Studio).

[pdrayton]

LOL!
I think your humorous report of your first-hand experience will be more helpful than you realize!