My 15 - inch PowerBook G4 hard effort bought the farm a few Clarence Day ago . But not to concern — thanks to a comprehensive backup strategy and talented IT professional , I have n’t lost any data I ca n’t well replace . ( What ? You were n’t worried whatsoever ? That ’s not very empathic of you . ) Even better , since I ’m now base in San Francisco as opposed to Los Angeles ( where I was the last time something like this fall out ) , I have access to a nifty many backup systems . So really , the only productivity lost to this particular misadventure was time spent have sure the app on my patronage system were configure to my exact specifications and treat co - workers with my narration of knockout - drive woefulness . ( They ’re not a in particular empathetic bunch either , as it turns out . )
The time spent expect for my PowerBook to be rebuilt to its former glory gave me some go exposure to two different small-arm of Apple ironware — one that present the futurity of the company and another from its not - too - distant past times . I found the future tense to be a lot more appealing .
The futurity , in this case , was represent by an iMac Core Duo — my first prolonged role of an Intel - powered Mac . I have n’t made the transition to Intel just yet because … well , I have n’t . Your faithful letter writer is a busy man who utilize several covering not yet available as Universal Binaries . And I was hesitating to confide to new hardware if it mean a lot of quarter round - twiddling while waiting for Photoshop to do its matter using the Rosetta emulation engineering .
After spending some time with the iMac Core Duo , I mean my headache may have been a niggling overblown . The Rosetta - ized Photoshop was n’t exactly fast , but I would n’t call it a productivity killer whale , either . ( disavowal : My Photoshop want are fair small-scale compared to , say , a graphic pro ’s ; if you spend most of your working 24-hour interval using a non - world-wide program like Photoshop , your satisfaction level will be immensely dissimilar from mine . ) Indeed , I likely would n’t even have noticed that I was using an Intel - based Mac if not for the “ Intel - base Mac Demo System ” recording label one of my co - worker has tap to the automobile . I think that seamless experience happens to be a good affair .
Less positive was my fundamental interaction with a 12 - inch PowerBook G4 , the only laptop computer available when I needed to do some mobileMacworldwork while my 15 - inch model remained on the handicapped list . The arrival of the MacBook has relegated the 12 - inch PowerBook to the ash muckle of history — and not a moment too soon as far as I ’m bear on .
That 12 - inch PowerBook is minuscule — way too small for my tastes . I ’m normally a pretty skillful typist — Peter Cohen describes itas a “ piston - like type apparent motion that ’s truly frightening to behold”—but I find that most of my typing sweat with the 12 - column inch PowerBook was expend on hitting the Delete key after one of my seemingly - pudgy finger’s breadth entreat the incorrect key for what seemed like the seventieth metre in a course .
And here ’s the affair — the keyboard on my beloved 15 - inch PowerBook and the thrice - damned 12 - in role model are pretty much exactly the same size . ( That ’s 10.75 inch wide and a piffling more than 4 inches deep with the letter keys 0.75 - by-0.75 inches , give or take a fraction of an inch . ) Do the vents that ring the side of the 15 - column inch PowerBook ’s keyboard havethatmuch of a psychological effect on my slight eggshell mind ? ( Even more puzzling : I have no problem at all typing on my wife ’s iBook G4 . Explain that one to me , doctor . )
I get it on the 12 - column inch PowerBook has its partisans — Jason Snell lay claim to be a really swelled devotee , though I notice that did n’t discontinue him from supplant his with a MacBook — but for my taste , the little screen made it too diminutive for me to take it severely as a professional laptop computer . If someone could enlighten me as to its entreaty — and why Apple should conceive bringing back the 12 - inch word form factor in succeeding Intel - based laptop offerings — I’d be concerned in hearing the rationale .
