Forums | MacLife

I, too, have a 17" PowerBook G4 (1.33 GHz, 1440x900 model).  I recently bought a new battery and a 2GB RAM upgrade for it from OWC.  For a total of $220USD, it was much cheaper than buying a new machine, and I think there's some life in this yet.

robco wrote:

Honestly, I would avoid buying the Air unless you're on the go with your laptop a lot. It just isn't worth the compromises otherwise.

True, that.

It makes a good mobile companion to a full featured workstation. On it's own, it's just a low powered piece of pretty aluminum.

Thanks for the replies guys.  I'm willing to take the performance hit with the Air in lieu of any other notebook (except maayybee the HP mininote 2133) but the only other Mac I would consider would be the 24" iMac.  I also should have added I won't be missing hte optical drive since the superdrive in my PB crapped out a few months after I bought it off ebay (I was using an iBook G4 I picked up dirt cheap but it recently got a neat green paint job and was given to my girlfriend).  Has anyone heard about the screens in the 24" iMacs blacking out for no reason?  I think I read an article about that a little while ago, also considering a macbook Air would be running a more sophisticated (bloated) OS (leopard vs. tiger on my PB) will the performance boost from higher specs be negligible or noticeable?

thanks again

b190again wrote:

Thanks for the replies guys.  I'm willing to take the performance hit with the Air in lieu of any other notebook (except maayybee the HP mininote 2133) but the only other Mac I would consider would be the 24" iMac.  I also should have added I won't be missing hte optical drive since the superdrive in my PB crapped out a few months after I bought it off ebay (I was using an iBook G4 I picked up dirt cheap but it recently got a neat green paint job and was given to my girlfriend).  Has anyone heard about the screens in the 24" iMacs blacking out for no reason?  I think I read an article about that a little while ago, also considering a macbook Air would be running a more sophisticated (bloated) OS (leopard vs. tiger on my PB) will the performance boost from higher specs be negligible or noticeable?

thanks again

The non air macbooks actually have a smaller foot print.  So all you are gaining is thinness and at 0.32 inches difference compared to the last gen or 0.19 inches differntce compared to the new gen. So all your getting is a status symbol. Is 0.19 inches that important to you?

zeitgeist wrote:

Ah, but it'll get you stopped at Airport Security across the country when the Transit Stopping Authority official doesn't believe it's a real computer.  "There's no CD drive and there's something in it that looks weird on X ray.  Where's the Hard Drive?"

Whatever else you do, do NOT open up your Development Tools folder and demonstrate Bomb.app ...

Thanks for all the input (and possible prank turned imprisonment idea), I think I will go with a Macbook Air once January rolls around and I get the other half of my student loans.  My logic being that I want a computer that will make me more productive and the Air will do just that by limiting me.  With the iMac I would be tooling around trying to squeeze every drop of performance from it to justify the purchase, with the Air its just for the looks so sitting on my desk it will be justifying its price tag.  Thanks again.