Portable News
 PB Zone

 iMac News
 Daily iMac

 Forum
 MacDebate.com

 Gaming News
 Mac 3D Dot Com

 Mac OS X
 X Appeal

 
 Quotes

 
 

Does it have a fan?

Well, it's a G4. It's thinner. And it's made of metal instead of plastic. Given these factors, a fan is absolutely necessary for proper cooling in some situations. Thus, as with Lombard/101 and Pismo, the fan only turns on when necessary. While metal conducts heat better than plastic, the G4 is a huge power user and the confines of the case are smaller. It's probably a direct trade-off between the better heat properties of Ti and the increased heat strain of the case size and G4 processor.

Well, does it get hot?

Apple's display tables on the show floor are lighted and get pretty warm by themselves. Thus, it isn't the most accurate measure, but the Titanium PowerBooks did get pretty warm.

Does it use the same RAM?

Yes, it has a 100 MHz bus and uses the same PC100 SDRAM SO-DIMMs. They're at an all-time low price, so stock up now if you're planning on a Mercury purchase.

Does it have a microphone?

Yes, it has a microphone built in.

If it only has one battery, how do I use it for long periods of time?

Well, you can sleep the machine, swap the batteries, and continue working, a feat that wasn't possible with some older PowerBooks. The battery is in the bottom of the unit in one corner and features the "battery gauge" on it as well.

What about repairs? It looks complex!

All repairs (both large and small) will be conducted via a mail-in to Apple's tech support facility in Texas.

What OS does it run?

It runs the final version of Mac OS 9.1.

PC Card slots?

As with Lombard/101 and Pismo, there is only one PC Card slot, CardBus enabled.

Any keyboard improvements?

Besides being a decent color (graphite grey), the keyboard uses magnets underneath to improve the firmness of the unit. Like its three previous generations, the keyboard flips up for internal access. There's an eject button like the new pro keyboards on the F12 key.

Screen Resolution?

The screen is 1152x768. If you'd like to run a 1024x768 resolution, like the old 14.1" PowerBooks, it just chops off the extra horizontal pixels. Of course, other resolutions, down to 640x480, are available.

What's with the single FireWire port?

Apple deemed only one port necessary since you can use a FireWire hub in the same manner as USB hubs work. A lot of FireWire accessories have two FireWire ports anyway, allowing you to daisy-chain other periphs.

Is the sound improved at all? It was rumored to be improved...

No, the sound system is of the same quality as previous machines. The speakers are to the immediate left and right of the keyboard.

Graphics?

No surprise here at all. The machine uses the same Rage 128-based graphics with 8 MB of VRAM.

What about the titanium?

It's 99.5 percent pure, according to Apple. This page has tons of other Titanium information. We're going to have a large article about Ti later in the day or tomorrow.

What if I have other questions?

Send them in to us at info@pbzone.com and we'll attempt to get answers for them on the show floor. We plan a 2nd edition of this Q and A tomorrow.

Back to the main page for more PowerBook info.