In the name of getting this new era started off right, I figured it was only fitting that my first column written on my new PowerBook should be about my new PowerBook, so here are twelve things I love about it so far. Some of these are specific to my situation, while others are more broad, but hopefully all of these observations are palatable food for thought. I love my PowerBook because...
1. Even though it's smaller, thinner, and lighter than ye olde original blueberry iBook, the PowerBook's screen is literally twice as large. Somehow, the laws of physics have left the building.
2. Best built-in laptop speakers, ever. In fact, I think I'll wait a week before hooking up my SoundSticks to it. Nothing like the art of delayed intentional gratification.
3. Because even though its clock speed (in terms of Megahertz) is a mere 33 percent greater than that of the G3 iMac, the speed difference between the two is clearly somewhere in the range of whole-number multiples. Large whole-number multiples. For those who still haven't figured it out, when comparing different processor families, Megahertz means nothing. It's just a number to distract you.
4. Because this is the first new Mac that's begun its time with me that not only doesn't have the Classic environment running, it doesn't even have a Classic environment installed on it.
5. When I mounted my iMac's hard drive onto my PowerBook in order to transfer my files, the iMac's custom hard drive icon showed up on the PowerBook's screen. How trippy is that?
6. The 1280x854 screen resolution allows me to open a web page to its full 1024x768 size in Dreamweaver, and yet still have enough room on-screen to fit my floating windows and palettes without needing to place them over top of the page I'm working on.
7. On that note, the fears expressed by some readers that the 1280x854 resolution on a fifteen inch screen would make things to small for me to see them, turned out to be completely unfounded. It's perfect. I know that everyone's eyes are different, and this might not work for some people, but I know what my eyes are good for.
8. Actually, my eyes aren't good for all that much, as my severe nearsightedness has me wearing glasses pretty much anytime I'm not sleeping, showering, or swimming. But the beauty of being a myopic laptop user is that it's one of the few times that I can actually do something without wearing glasses.-- perfect for when I roll out of bed in the morning and feel compelled to check my email before I'm awake enough to actually remember where my glasses are.
9. Because repopulating my iCalendars on the PowerBook was way too easy. I just went into Home -> Library -> Calendars on the iMac, copied all of the calendars to the same location on the PowerBook, relaunched iCal, and saw my calendars from the iMac staring at me.
10. Because when setting up my wireless router so that my iMac could use it over ethernet and my PowerBook could use it wirelessly, the hardest part (by far) was finding an extra electrical outlet for the router to plug into. Everything else was disturbingly automatic, as expected.
11. Because wireless reception on a Titanium PowerBook doesn't seem nearly as bad as some hand-wringers around the web have made it out to be. True, I haven't tested it out at the full 150 foot range, but that would require standing in my neighbor's living room.
12. Actually, I know that my PowerBook can pick up signals at longer ranges, because I can currently see two wireless networks on my AirPort menu, in addition to my own. I'll let you ponder how many of those two are actually password- protected (that was a thinly-veiled suggestion that all of you go and password your own wireless network, in case you missed it).
Don't worry folks; I'm sure I'll have a dozen more reasons for you by tomorrow...
