It\'s Smashing, Baby! / New PowerBook G3 can\'t play \'Austin Powers\' twice on one charge, but there\'s a lot to like

Apple says the battery life of its new Macintosh Powerbook G3 allows you to watch two Austin Power movies in a row with one battery.RUSSELL/chalonic Apple Computers says its new Macintosh Powerbook G3 has battery life that allows you to watch two Austin power movies back to back with one battery.Written by russell yip/ronicelet\'s get one thing right away: you can\'t watch Austin Power twice at a time with Apple\'s latest PowerBook G3 Macintosh laptop.I know --I tried.I saw the full last week-Apple\'s ad claimed that you could enjoy a double dose of mystery international man with a single charge, and I rushed to my local video store and rented Michael Myers\'s movie on DVD, and load it onto a new PowerBook that runs on a newly charged lithium ion battery pack.The first show went well: This photo ran beautifully on the gorgeous 14 th of the machine.1-inch active-Matrix screen and built-inStereo speakers are doing surprisingly well in conversation.But when I tried to sift it for the second time, after a short break, I only went through a little more than half ---Just as Austin and Alotta Fagina jumped into the hot tub together, the battery lost its magic.In fact, I can\'t get close to the battery life Apple claims ---\"Up to five hours\" per charge\"-Even if I\'m not playing the dvd.I finally found a description of the test procedure that produced an appendix to the \"reviewer\'s guide\" prepared by the company for journalists: you have to start the computer and start the application while running on the AC power supply, set the screen brightness to low, unplug the AC power supply, and then do nothing but wait.According to Apple, the battery should last five hours in this case.Of course, it makes no sense because most people who spend $3,499 on a laptop want to do something with it, not just watch the battery run out.But again, the standard operating procedure in the laptop industry is a distortion of battery life.The truth is that Apple\'s new model takes longer to charge than most Windows competitors.When I\'m not distracted by the movie, I can do nearly four hours of real work with a battery;When mixed with power supplyHungry, DVD entertainment. I\'m almost three hours away.This is not all about the new PowerBook.Thanks to the speed of 400, it\'s also very fast.Mhz\'s PowerPC G3 chip and full MB of \"back cache\" is a special memory that helps G3 to work at maximum speed.Apple also launched a $2,499 laptop for $333.MHz G3, half-megabyte cache and traditional CD-ROM drive instead of DVDROM.Both versions come with 64 megabytes of RAM and 8 megabytes of video memory as well as a graphics chip for ATI Rage LT Pro.(The unit that Apple sent me to test actually has 128 MB of RAM, which will add about $200 to the price tag.) There are 6 more expensive models-Gigabit hard disk;There\'s only one other-gigabyte drive.For this review, I am not involved in the tricky business of cross-tradesPlatform performance testing, but on the basis of past testing, I have no reason to doubt Apple\'s claim that the new PowerBook is significantly better than any PC laptop, except for the fastest desktop model, there are all other models.Of course, Apple has tested with Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Director, requiring graphic professionals to use only these applications in general.For the more-Ordinary tasks most notebook users do on the road-Web browsing, electronicMail, word processing and other standard office applications--G3 is fast, but so is most PC laptops.In contrast to the previous PowerBook G3s (the names of all Apple\'s notebook models since the temporary CEO Steve Jobs took over two years ago), the new hardware can run all of these hot hardware, instead of making the case very hot.My only complaint about speed: it takes more than 20 seconds for PowerBook to wake up from the power supplySave sleep mode.Unfortunately, the same is true for most PC laptops.First of all, I would be happy to ease this annoying delay with the overall CPU speed of dozens of MHz.Apple also provides a very useful set of ports for peripherals.Except for a 56-kilobit-per-The second modem, high.When you are in the office, the Fast Ethernet connector can plug the machine into the company network.Two more videos.Output port: S-Video connectors, so you can display presentations or watch DVD movies on your TV, VCR, and PCWhen you are at your desk, use to connect to the VGA port of the external monitor.You can even use the built-inBoth display and external display.This means that you can keep your calendar or emailWhen running the main app on a larger external display, the Mail program opens on the laptop screen.Apple\'s traditional keyboard/mouse connectors and serial ports have disappeared, but they won\'t be missed because of the two new ports that are more modern and industrial --Instead, the standard Universal Serial Bus.Happily, the company is not as high as in the latest-Mac for high-end desktop computers.SCSI is still the only way to connect most MacsCompatible external drives and scanners.On the other side of the ledger, the new notebook does not have a fast \"FireWire\" port for the latest desktop Power Macs.FireWire is a great technology, but its main purpose at the moment is to connect digital cameras, which are still priced at more than $900.If you really want a laptop, you can buy a PC Card for $249Known as FireWire 2 Go, designed for this PowerBook by new technology from Wichita, Kansas.You have to turn to the third one.Party vendors if you want a floppy drive.Unlike other laptop manufacturers, Apple does not offer laptops, even as an optional additional product.And while high-Terminal laptops usually have two PC card slots to addThere is only one model.But with so many ports and features built in, it is unlikely that you will need more than one slot.The most striking feature of the new PowerBook is its elegant design, featuring subtle curves, featuring twoThe shades of black exterior and such Jobsian touch a translucent bronze keyboard and a white Apple logo that lights up when the machine is turned on.The machine is also 20% thinner and 2 pounds lighter than Apple\'s previous laptop.The unit I tested with a DVD drive weighs 6 lbs.3 pounds, AC adapter and power cord are not included.Model with CD-ROM weighs 5.9 pounds.And highTerminal PC laptops with the same large screen, these weights are actually very low.On the other hand, 6-Plus the pound has a fair amount of time to get around at any time.And at 10.4 inch wide, 12.7 inch deep 1.7 inch high (off), this is not a small machine.Ironically, Apple has 4-More than a kilo series on 1993.But the company has long been out of the lightweight race and there is nothing to do with the increasingly popular 3-and 4-Windows models such as IBM\'s ThinkPad 570 and Sony\'s VAIO 505 series.However, it never makes sense to choose a Mac laptop just for Apple\'s hardware.The first question is whether you prefer Windows or Mac OS.If you like the latter, the new PowerBook G3 is the one you won\'t regret ---As long as you can afford it and don\'t mind the size of it.For those of you who want to move a Mac but are big and expensive, keep an eye on--Apple\'s new \"consumer laptop\" is expected to debut at the Macworld trade show in New York next week and will be available later this summer.It\'s more compact than the PowerBook G3 and remains to be seen, but it will definitely be a lot cheaper.