!stop press! - bloodline buys a Powerbook G4

bloodline wrote:
It seems that Apple are going to move to x86 afterall... for laptops next year, at least. So where does this leave me? :-(

In the dark until Herr Jobs gives his rally later today! :-)

[bloodline]

mdma wrote:

bloodline wrote:
It seems that Apple are going to move to x86 afterall... for laptops next year, at least. So where does this leave me? :-(

In the dark until Herr Jobs gives his rally later today! :-)

Yeah, it's a good job (excuse the pun) I didn't buy one on saturday :-)

Where can I find out details of his speech?

bloodline wrote:

mdma wrote:

bloodline wrote:
It seems that Apple are going to move to x86 afterall... for laptops next year, at least. So where does this leave me? :-(

In the dark until Herr Jobs gives his rally later today! :-)

Yeah, it's a good job (excuse the pun) I didn't buy one on saturday :-)

Where can I find out details of his speech?

apple.com in about 6 hours time i guess.  Although I'm sure /. will have breaking news, maybe osnews.com too.

I say just buy one Matt.  So what if they do go x86?  It won't suddenly stop your new G4 from working.

[bloodline]

mdma wrote:

I say just buy one Matt.  So what if they do go x86?  It won't suddenly stop your new G4 from working.

Yeah, but I'm already skeptical about the machines performance...

Ok, I've had Logic audio running 8 tracks (with plenty of effects) + Reason on a 1Ghz AthlonXP before... and that was pretty much maxed... When I tried to run the same on a Mac Laptop 2 years ago (I forget what the processor was, but the thing cost £1800... probably ~800Mhz...). It simply couldn't do it.

Now the Powerbook is running at 1.5Ghz and has 512Meg of RAM... I'm hoping that it will be able to cope and run for at least 2 hours on it's batteries while doing it.

Maybe I would be better off looking for a Pentium-M laptop with a 6wire Firewire port... But I can't find 6wire laptops anywhere.

bloodline wrote:

mdma wrote:

I say just buy one Matt.  So what if they do go x86?  It won't suddenly stop your new G4 from working.

Yeah, but I'm already skeptical about the machines performance...

Ok, I've had Logic audio running 8 tracks (with plenty of effects) + Reason on a 1Ghz AthlonXP before... and that was pretty much maxed... When I tried to run the same on a Mac Laptop 2 years ago (I forget what the processor was, but the thing cost £1800... probably ~800Mhz...). It simply couldn't do it.

Now the Powerbook is running at 1.5Ghz and has 512Meg of RAM... I'm hoping that it will be able to cope and run for at least 2 hours on it's batteries while doing it.

Maybe I would be better off looking for a Pentium-M laptop with a 6wire Firewire port... But I can't find 6wire laptops anywhere.

Can you not get some kind of adapter cable?

[bloodline]

mdma wrote:

Maybe I would be better off looking for a Pentium-M laptop with a 6wire Firewire port... But I can't find 6wire laptops anywhere.

Can you not get some kind of adapter cable?

No, the 6Wire Firewire provides power, the 4 Wire one doesn't so if you use a 6->4 cable you then have to power the device externally... which makes the whole mobile thing pointless... as I've discovered with my exisiting "normal" laptop which has a 4wire Firewire :-(

I really need to talk to others who have Powerbooks and can provide me with real world figures for perfomance... the spods at the apple store (the one on Regents Street) just hype the hardware so much, I left the shop thinking that the 1.5Ghz PowerBook G4 would make an 8 way opteron server look underpowered.. :-(

[bloodline]

mdma wrote:

I say just buy one Matt.  So what if they do go x86?  It won't suddenly stop your new G4 from working.

Another issue is that, to use the machine, I'll have to make a massive investment in software (about £600)... that's not something I'm prepared to just throw away, because Jobsie decides to change tack...


-Edit- Slightly off topic, but very cool link: http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Hardware/Developer_Notes/Macintosh_CPUs-G4/12inchPowerBookG4/0_Preface/chapter_1_section_1.html

[itix]

Do you know of anything that will allow me to change the highlight colour for seleceted text? That is still a major problem for me, changing just the background colour isn't enough

Nah, no idea, since I dont have any kind of Mac :-)

[Doobrey]

bloodline wrote:
It seems that Apple are going to move to x86 afterall... for laptops next year, at least.

I doubt it, can you imagine all the hassle involved with software that'll be written for x86 or PPC only? (kinda stuff done by bedroom coders or small companies for whom the extra expense of buying extra machines isn't worth it)
 This Apple/Intel thing is like a networked game of Chinese Whispers, every couple of days it pops up again with something else added/distorted.
 It started off as "Apple using Intel chips", that went on to "Apple using Intel CPUs", to "Apple dumping PPC for Intel CPUs in macs" then "Apple to use Intel x86-64 in macs"
 If Apple are p****d off at IBMs lack of speed, why choose the looser in the 64bit x86 race?

Anyway, onto your 4/6pin Firewire thingy...
Is there any way to make an adapter to take power from the USB ports, or does the Firewire spec demand a greater minimum current?

[bloodline]

Doobrey wrote:
Anyway, onto your 4/6pin Firewire thingy...
Is there any way to make an adapter to take power from the USB ports, or does the Firewire spec demand a greater minimum current?

I already considered that :-)
But the USB provides 5v 550mW, the Firewire provides 9V 7W... so that's a no go...

I'm pretty much resigned to getting a powerbook G4... they do look nice if nothing else :-)

[Wilse]

2 large obstacles are present. Firstly, no Mac version of Adobe Audition... But at a push I could cope with Logic Audio 7 (despite it costing 3 times as much...).

Why not get Logic Express (£199)?
Do you really need the additional features of Pro?

I'm planning on getting it for the iBook.

[bloodline]

Wilse wrote:

2 large obstacles are present. Firstly, no Mac version of Adobe Audition... But at a push I could cope with Logic Audio 7 (despite it costing 3 times as much...).

Why not get Logic Express (£199)?
Do you really need the additional features of Pro?

I'm planning on getting it for the iBook.

I would look into both.

[Wilse]

@Bloodline:

I would look into both.

You may know this stuff already but one of my mates, who is a sound engineer, emailed me earlier today about the difference between Pro and Express.
Here's what he said:

Alright Robert

Express has 5 intruments (ES1,ESE,ESP,EFM1,EXS24P).  I don't have EFM1, so I
assume it is one of the ones added to Logic 7 and is also given away with
the new express.  The biggest problem is that the sampler is only for
playback i.e. you can't fil it with your own samlples.  Peter[anothe sound engineer mate] and I were
always wondering whether, if i created the samples he would be able to play
them back, never found out.  It also comes with all the garage band
instruments which you will know more about than me.  The other synths are
fairly basic but still very useful especially when used with the automation.

The plug ins are 40 on express and 53 on Pro, so I assume it will be Space
Desinger, Multi-band compressor and the like that will be left out.

Still plenty to be getting stuck into and I am sure that you would have nae
complaints.

It's just finding the time.

Lack of a sampler is a bit of a pain but not 400 quids worth of pain. :-D

[bloodline]

@Wilse

If you have an iBook there... have you run any version of logic on it? What spec is the laptop and what performance did you get?

[bloodline]

Not a bad little machine...

It's not as powerful as my Winblows laptop, I'm actually a little disappointed, but it is just about able to keep up with my demands :-) I've ordered a 1Gig memory upgrade (which will take me from 512Meg to 1.26gig) so I push the machine a little harder.

But I have to say I like it... it runs much cooler, it's great on the batteries, it is more stable and consistent than Windows... Once you get past the lack of basic control the OS is really good, the audio drivers as second to none... and since Logic 7 only runs on MacOS X, I've got no choice but to keep it :-)

All in all... it's a bit expensive for what it is, but it does do its job, and does it well... Looks like I'll be first in line for one of the new Pentium Powerbooks :-D

The onboard Audio is surprisingly good too! There may be times when I don't need to use my FA-101 :-o

[ACEFNQ]

Just picked up an iMac G3 to play around with.  ONE MOUSE BUTTON really stinks but I believe there are options I can explore.  I used to use Macs years ago in our office, I have fond memories and Mac OS 9 and X still feel very comfortable to me.

I suppose we are still cousins, wonder in AOS will ever go 86 (notwithstanding Aros).



Cheers
ace