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Survey Says....Tablet! (and Other Mac Products)

J Keirn-Swanson — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:42:15 -0500

According to a recent RBC IQ/ChangeWave survey, a cool quarter of those who bought a computer in the last 90 days bought a Mac laptop. The back-to-school push, along with some Mac price cuts, and a new operating system, as well as the iPhone 3G S, are expected to be behind Mac's best showing since last year.

Source: RBC Capital Markets/ChangeWave

Of the 3,100 respondents, almost as many, 21%, expressed an interest in a Mac tablet in the roughly $700-900 range despite only having a hypothetical machine to base their interest on. That's over double to the 9% who expressed interest in the iPhone a few years back. Now the stores struggle to keep the 3G S in stock, as demand outstrips supply by a good clip.

In a companion survey of smartphone customers, RBC is reporting a five percent growth in users from last quarter's 25% and research analyst for the firm, Mike Abramsky, is predicting higher fourth quarter sales. His prediction puts Apple on track for a 4% share of the global smartphone market by 2011.

As Apple has proved themselves adept at timing and positioning, an early next year release of a tablet, with all the hype and all the interest, could prove another shot in the arm as electronics sales begin inching their way higher. As the iPod buoyed the company on a wave of success, followed by the iPhone, the tablet could be the next very big thing.

The 5 Best -- and 5 Worst -- Apple Laptops of All Time, Ever!

Michael Simon — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 06:03:00 -0600

For all the criticism over FireWire, 3G, matte screens and Blu-ray, the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros represent the culmination of two decades of hits and misses, starts and stops, leaps and stumbles for Apple notebooks, all wrapped in packages that never fail to turn heads. From multi-colored handles to upside-down logos, slide-in docks and illuminated keyboards, Apple’s portables have been nothing less than an evolution of blood, sweat, tears (and a few blueberries).

And we’ve sifted through them all to bring you the best and worst of the lot:

Titanium PowerBook
Though Apple had already used its “Pro. Go. Woah.” teaser to ramp interest in the 1998 event to unveil the iMac, it easily could have recycled the slogan three years later when it took the wraps off the Titanium PowerBook G4. A release that’s just as stunning today as it was in 2001, the Titanium PowerBook G4 was unlike any portable the industry had ever seen -- all wrapped around a 15.2-inch mega-wide display, speedy chip and an inch-think body that weighed just five pounds. The cherry on top? Steve finally got the logo right.

IceBook
If it looked juvenile before, the super-sleek Titanium PowerBook G4 made the Blueberry iBook look downright foolish. So when, on May 1, 2001, Steve invited the media masses to a special event, an iBook redressing was widely anticipated -- but few were prepared for what Steve pulled out of his hat. As radical a departure from the fruit-flavored offerings as OS X or the sunflower iMac, the IceBook, as it quickly came to be known, marked a serious shift in Apple’s consumer strategy and ushered in the clean, crisp, white lines that would soon be synonymous with the In Crowd.

Pismo
A fitting sendoff to the PowerBook G3, the Pismo looked a lot like the Lombard it replaced, but closer inspection revealed a host of improvements that left the former model in its dust. With cues from the iBook, Pismo implemented the cost-saving, streamlined unified motherboard architecture, with a 400 or 500MHz processor and 100MHz front-side bus. FireWire? Check. AGP graphics? Check. Airport? Check. Expansion bay? Check. Still cool 10 years later? Check.

eMate 300
Better known as the PDA That Never Stood a Chance, the eMate was a stripped-down, retooled Newton built exclusively for students and teachers. With a near-30-hour battery; 480x320 resolution, backlit, touch-screen display; serial and IrDA ports; full-sized keyboard; and Newton OS 2.1, all housed in a tough, translucent-blue clamshell case with an $800 price tag, the eMate was a revelation that came at precisely the wrong time -- about four months before Steve Jobs regained his position as Supreme Ruler.

PowerBook Duo
Did somebody say subnotebook? Smaller than a sheet of looseleaf paper, and lighter than any MacBook, iBook, PowerBook or MacBook Pro (save the Air, which bests it by about a pound), the PowerBook Duo lasted for seven revisions (210, 230, 250, 270c, 280, 280c, and 2300c) and was just slightly ahead of its time. It wasn’t easy to to create a laptop in 1992 that can barely be replicated in 2008, so Apple was forced to sacrifice some in the Duo: the trackball’s diameter was reduced, the keyboard was trimmed by about 10 percent, and expansion (much like the Air) was dwindled down to a sole serial port and an optional 14.4k Express Modem. Unfortunately, the bezel around the screen was a bit too 1985, but the real charm of the Duo was its docking station, a full-sized sleeve with its own floppy drive, hard drive, expansion bays and L2 cache, and a body sturdy enough to support a full-sized CRT display. Now imagine if you could slide your MacBook into the side of your Cinema Display...

Next, the five worst Laptops to emerge from Cupertino.

Macintosh Portable
More Trapper Keeper than notebook, the Macintosh Portable was perhaps the least lap-friendly laptop ever made. Released in late 1989 with enough firepower to take on the industry’s heaviest hitters, Apple’s first mobile Mac put the "desktop" in “desktop replacement.” For one, it weighed 16 pounds. For another, its active-matrix screen was nearly impossible to use in low light, but the real trouble was its lead-acid battery (not unlike the one under the hood of your Honda). Packing a whopping 10-12 hours of juice, the Macintosh Portable’s battery was the computer’s sole source of power, so once it drained it needed to be properly recharged before it would even consider booting. Did we mention it cost $6,500? (It does look pretty cool ejecting floppy discs in space, though.)

15-inch Aluminum PowerBook
When Steve Jobs took the wraps off its largest and smallest PowerBooks at the San Francisco Mac Expo in 2003, there was one question on everyone’s lips: What about the middle? With illuminated keys, a slick, aluminum body, FireWire 800, built-in Bluetooth and Airport Extreme, the “world’s first 17-inch notebook” had everything a power user could want — but all that screen real estate (not to mention the $3,300 price tag) was just a bit too Papa Bear for most users. Unfortunately the once-proud 15-inch Titanium PowerBook languished on shelves until September awaiting its inevitable aluminum redressing, which was nothing more than the model that should have been released nine months earlier (with a spotty display).

PowerBook 5300
The first of the new-generation PowerPC notebooks that would eventually yield some timeless creations, the PowerBook 5300 was little more than a growing pain. A major step forward from its predecessor, the 5300 featured a sleep-swappable bay for floppy or Zip drives, but not the more-popular CD-ROM. The super-fast PowerPC 603e was crippled by the lack of a Level 2 cache, cases were prone to cracking, and the battery, while fairly robust at around 4 hours, had a nasty habit of bursting into flames. Even a guest spot in “Independence Day” couldn’t save this one.

PowerBook 150
The last Apple notebook to include a trackball, the PowerBook 150 seemed like a natural progression over the 145B (seriously, who named these things?). With an extra 8 MHz of processing power, 36MB of RAM and a lower price point (thanks to a passive matrix display), the 150 came out of the gate looking exactly like its predecessor -- but with one slight difference: ADB. In fact, the PowerBook 150 had so few ports, it didn’t even need a rear door, which were all the rage in 1994. The 150 shipped with just a single serial printer port, making it real hard to connect any peripheral devices that weren’t designed to print. Critics of today’s FireWire-less MacBook’s might relate -- but imagine if Apple left off the USB ports, too.

iBook
While the iBook, released in 1999 as a portable version of the wildly popular iMac, served Apple well, the fruit-flavored notebook may possibly be Jonathan Ive’s worst conceptual design ever. With equal parts toilet seat, suitcase and clam, the iBook had a funny sort of charm that did little to reflect the personality of the user (unless, of course, they happened to be running away with the circus). The iBook looked more like a Playskool product than a Cupertino one, especially when appearing on a shelf next to a Wall Street or Lombard PowerBook. Somehow, Steve convinced enough people that they needed a Tangerine or Key Lime laptop, which may go down as his greatest achievement.

MacBook Event Rumor Roundup

Florence Ion — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:55:05 -0500

It’s that time again—rumor time! The excitement for tomorrow’s media event has Apple Anticipators in a frenzy, especially with the internet initiating all sorts of crazy rumors like $800 MacBooks, Blu-Ray support, and even leaked pictures of the MacBook itself.

Kevin Rose proves he’s still got some influence in the industry by providing insider information on the new MacBooks and their capability for Blu-Ray. Rose claims his source isn’t as reliable as the last iPod/iTunes rumor rendezvous, but if he’s right he’ll be 2-for-2.

CNet UK asked Jason Calacanis to dish out a few rumors of his own. Calacanis hinted that Apple will release networked HDTVs that will allow you to stream directly from your computer and use your iPod Touch or iPhone as a remote, without an Apple TV box to mediate between devices.

Gizmodo posted Best Buy’s current inventory list for MacBooks. The print-out shows that prices on the new models remain the same as their predecessors, indicating that the chances of an $800 MacBook are slim. This conflicts with tales of the “Apple Brick”. There will be four additional price points; whether or not a sub-$1000 model is exists is still vague.

We do know that Apple will announce their new NVIDIA chipsets, which will replace Intel’s integrated graphics chip and make the new generation of MacBooks much more powerful, not to mention address previous concerns of sluggish performance on older models.

Check back tomorrow for MacLife.com's live blog of the event. In the meantime, drop your own rumormongering in the comments below and vote in our poll.

New MacBooks Could Solve Brick Riddle

David W. Martin — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:40:46 -0500

We've been covering the "Brick" rumors for several weeks now. An October 14 event has been a persistent part of those rumors. Now that Apple has confirmed the notebook event on, you guessed it, October 14, should we be holding our breath for a "Brick?"

Now that we know the event is real you can imagine that the rumors will probably kick into over drive. Boy did they!

MacRumors published spy shots of alleged MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks. The shots originated from Chinese language site, elesson and Taiwanese site, Apple.pro.

To confuse us even more, Apple.pro has posted the following out-of-focus video.

The new notebooks appear to adopt the same keyboard used in the MacBook Air and they all appear to be made from aluminum. There is a rumor that the 13" MacBook may arrive clad in all aluminum with a starting price point around $800.00 making it about $300 less than the current low end model that starts at $1,099. This might be the cost savings we anticipated would smash Windows' hold on the market. Other rumors speculate that the new MacBooks would arrive with beefier video cards to facilitate better gaming.

No one will know for sure if any of these rumors are true until October 14th. So, if you are like us, there are a few sleepless nights ahead while we wait to find out. Watch for Mac|Life's live coverage of the event next Tuesday starting at 10 am.

Axiotron Modbook

Zack Stern — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:50:35 -0500

The Modbook can do a lot of things a regular MacBook can’t. We still don’t recommend that you take it for a float in the pool!

Take away a MacBook’s keyboard, and add a touchscreen display, and behold the Modbook. Literally a retrofitted MacBook, this Apple-sanctioned tablet Mac shares the same features and performance. But the Modbook does more—and less—than Apple’s portable. The Modbook’s touch-sensitive screen responds well to the included stylus, making it a great digital sketch pad for artists. With the right software, the Modbook makes a useful in-the-field device for doctors, insurance representatives, and other specialized mobile users. A built-in GPS module even tracks the Modbook’s location. But efficient work, even in graphic and other media applications, often requires buttons—or the keyboard that this tablet lacks. A narrow segment of users will find the Modbook ideal; it’s the only tablet computer that runs OS X, after all. But we wish it had just a few more features.

The Modbook offers a spec sheet identical to that of the current Apple MacBooks. At press time, the Modbook ships with either 2.1 or 2.4GHz Intel Core Duo processors. It has the same camera, the same ports, the same amount of RAM, and the same performance. In a mad-scientist move—and aren’t they the best kind?—Axiotron removes Apple’s LCD and grafts its own onto the touch-sensitive display that sits where the MacBook’s keyboard would ordinarily be. The resulting form factor is slightly thicker than the MacBook that donated its guts, but the Modbook essentially looks like a MacBook with an inside-out display. The screen is sharp and clear, sharing the same size and resolution as Apple’s LCD. Unlike the MacBook screens, however, the Modbook sports a matte display. The screen is noticeably dimmer than Apple’s stock display, but, hey, it’s a touchscreen. Thankfully, the viewing angles on the Modbook screen are better than those on Apple’s MacBook
display, making it possible to use the tablet while it’s flat on a table.

Powered by the same technology that’s built into all of Wacom’s pen tablets, the Modbook’s touch-sensitive surface responds accurately to its stylus, fluidly moving the pointer around the screen. In Photoshop and Painter, we scribbled and brushed creations with greater ease than is possible with a mouse—or even a drawing tablet. Because the ModBook’s touchscreen and stylus can respond to 512 levels of pressure, you have almost unlimited flexibility working on it in graphics apps, and you can easily change the size and shade of strokes. A light touch creates thin, wispy lines, while a more forceful hand results in dark, thick lines. And, as with Wacom’s other tablets, the battery-less stylus flips over to turn into an eraser—just like a traditional pencil.

Other creative programs (audio editors, for example) feel snappy and new with the stylus input. We had fun tuning GarageBand songs and tapping the onscreen piano.

Still, despite the fact that the tablet is designed to leapfrog a QWERTY keyboard, we missed having even a few buttons. You can forget hitting the spacebar to start playback in most audio and video editors, for example. Command-Z, Command-A, and other essential key commands don’t exist. Even with painting and photo retouching, we constantly had to reach for palettes and menus, when we’d normally rely on muscle-memory, tapping out keyboard shortcuts to zoom, change tools, and otherwise adjust settings. A few user-programmable buttons would have vastly improved our experience and productivity.

One workaround for the somewhat limiting interface is Apple’s Ink handwriting recognition. The software digitizes clean handwriting and uses gesture motions to activate often-used commands. The Modbook also includes a floating onscreen keyboard, which we often pecked at to enter URLs, passwords, and other critical text. One of the two stylus side-buttons comes preset to toggle this window.

Although the stylus interface gives new control options a mouse can’t replicate, it also has shortcomings. Accuracy is impressive over the vast majority of the Modbook’s surface, but the mouse pointer can drift away from the stylus tip near the screen’s edges. There were also plenty of occasions where we just wanted to tap the screen directly with a finger, but the Modbook’s screen only responds to the stylus. For tasks like launching videos, scrolling through webpages, or entering details in a custom database, fingertips would be a more convenient option.

Mac users might be glad to have a tablet laptop at all, but some Windows-based tablet PCs include all of the Modbook’s missing features at a similar price: hard buttons, a keyboard that lives behind the screen and is accessible by pressing a button and swiveling the screen around, and fingertip recognition. And the 5.5-pound Modbook feels heavy and a bit clumsy, especially compared to keyboardless Windows-based tablets.

The bottom line. The Modbook is a competent drawing tablet and Mac laptop mashed together. But the lack of any physical buttons, a keyboard, or a finger-readable touchscreen limits its audience.

COMPANY: Axiotron

CONTACT: www.axiotron.com

PRICE: $2,279 or $2,479

REQUIREMENTS: 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB DDR2 SDRAM, 5,400-rpm 1202GB hard drive, Combo Drive, Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor with 144MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory, 13.3-inch TFT LCD display with Wacom touch-sensitive digitizer, two USB 2.0 ports, mini-DVI port, analog audio-in & out, iSight, 802.11n AirPort Extreme, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR.2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR2 SDRAM, 5,400-rpm 160GB hard drive, SuperDrive, Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor with 144MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory, 13.3-inch TFT LCD display with Wacom touch-sensitive digitizer, two USB 2.0 ports, mini-DVI port, analog audio-in & out, iSight, 802.11n AirPort Extreme, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR

Touch-sensitive screen effectively tracks stylus on majority of the surface. Built-in GPS module adds unique abilities. Only tablet Mac available.

Cursor drifts from stylus tip slightly at tablet edges. Doesn’t respond to fingertip touches. Lack of any hard buttons slows down all work.