[Ti] New PowerBook Decisions

[Kynan Shook]

Like Paul, I am also a developer (as well as an engineering student).  
Whenever I'm at home, I have a 17" CRT attached to my 17" PowerBook to 
get more screen space.  The CRT isn't good enough for me to do much 
work with text, but it's good for iChat and iTunes and getting other 
little things like that off of my main display so I can do work there.  
That said, my next computer will be a PowerMac, because I need more 
screen space than the built-in 17" display can give me.  I don't often 
need that much space when I'm on the road though (and I'd rather have 
lots of battery life), so I'll buy a cheap 12" iBook to cart around 
with me.

Anyway, lots of people comment on how "big" it is - I think it's the 
right size.  it fits perfectly on my lap, where smaller computers are 
slightly less comfortable there.  It can be a little tight on a flight, 
but my knees hit the seat in front of me anyway, so I'm used to dealing 
with that sort of thing.  And the 15" isn't much better, really (I used 
to have a TiBook).  And I definitely notice the extra pixels when I 
have to use somebody else's 15" PowerBook.

Anyway, it can be a tough decision.  Perhaps you should try going to 
your local Mac retailer, and try both out for a while, doing the sort 
of things you might normally be doing with it.  Fill the screen up with 
iPhoto and Photoshop and Safari and Mail and whatnot - see if the 17" 
makes a big enough difference for you.  It's enough for me that I 
hardly ever use Exposé (except to expose the desktop) - I generally 
arrange all my windows so there's at least a little bit showing of 
each.  ;-)

"Paul H. Yoshimune" <paul at yoshimune.com> writes:
>>>> But I'm having last minute second thoughts that
>>>> maybe I should consider the 17 inch PowerBook
>>>> instead. I'd really appreciate input from
>>>> anyone who made that same decision and how they
>>>> feel about it after the fact.
>
> Lots of good opinions running around, and I think in the end it will 
> depend on
> what you're using it for.  For me personally, as a developer, I value 
> screen
> real estate quite highly.  I have a Ti 667 GE, which only has an 
> 1152x768
> screen resolution - it's a killer.  I've *LOVE* to have a 1600x1200 
> screen in
> the 15" form factor.  For work I use an IBM T42 with 1400x1050 on a 
> 15" screen,
> and just a bit more would be perfect.  I'll be first in line when 
> Apple ups the
> display resolution to 1600+...