Monday, January 23, 2006
Please Mr. Jobs
by Tom Bozzo
But Sir Ed's search for a replacement for a Sony Vaio ultraportabe that's 653 in PC years — boiling down to a choice between a Pentium M ultraportable, and a still very portable Core Duo model not yet available for order — highlights a longstanding shorcoming in the Apple notebook lineup. Make no mistake: You get an awful lot in six pounds' worth of lugged MacBook Pro. But a careful glance at the specs suggests shows that the MacBook has expanded in the X and Y dimensions even as it's contracted in the Z. Plus, not cursing one's laptop's weight is not the same as enjoying a true featherweight.
So here's the deal. Other divisions of Sony may be techno-screwups of the first order. Nevertheless, it would not be a bad idea to occupy their subnotebook dimension points with future MacBooks. The somewhat portly 12" PowerBook's design can be put out to pasture. Call the four-pound widescreen replacement the MacBook mini or something like that, and add a diminutive MacBook nano with the Core Solo chip for geeks who can remember the old PowerBook Duo. My own balance of portability versus function would have me all over the 'mini.'
Signed, a once and possibly future road warrior.
I still love my old 400MHz PowerBook G4 (one of the original titanium models), even though it's now 368 in Mac years. Zipped into its neoprene carrying sleve, it just makes it into my briefcase, and is just light enough that I don't curse it if faced with a maximal change-of-planes hike at Northwest's Detroit terminal.
But Sir Ed's search for a replacement for a Sony Vaio ultraportabe that's 653 in PC years — boiling down to a choice between a Pentium M ultraportable, and a still very portable Core Duo model not yet available for order — highlights a longstanding shorcoming in the Apple notebook lineup. Make no mistake: You get an awful lot in six pounds' worth of lugged MacBook Pro. But a careful glance at the specs suggests shows that the MacBook has expanded in the X and Y dimensions even as it's contracted in the Z. Plus, not cursing one's laptop's weight is not the same as enjoying a true featherweight.
So here's the deal. Other divisions of Sony may be techno-screwups of the first order. Nevertheless, it would not be a bad idea to occupy their subnotebook dimension points with future MacBooks. The somewhat portly 12" PowerBook's design can be put out to pasture. Call the four-pound widescreen replacement the MacBook mini or something like that, and add a diminutive MacBook nano with the Core Solo chip for geeks who can remember the old PowerBook Duo. My own balance of portability versus function would have me all over the 'mini.'
Signed, a once and possibly future road warrior.
