[Ti] Questions about the new 1.67GHz 15" Powerbook

[Kynan Shook]

Rod Duncan <roduncan at telus.net> writes:
> First question. Although the new AI uses a 65W AC charger/adapter,
> does it require it?

Any of the metal PowerBook or white iBook power adapters will work - 
IOW, the 45 and 65 W adapters.  The computers that came with a 45W 
adapter can use the 65W adapters with no difference in performance.  
The computers that shipped with a 65W adapter do suffer a few minor 
effects, such as:
- if the battery is totally discharged and the power cord is plugged 
in, you will have to wait about 5 minutes or so before plugging it in 
and turning it on so the computer has time to charge the battery a 
little bit.  This is because of effect number two:
- it is, in theory, possible to be plugged in with a 45W adapter, and 
at the same time draw power from the battery.  I've never done it 
myself, at least not in any noticeable amount, despite trying fairly 
hard.
- Your battery will take significantly longer to charge.

> Speaking of power, are there larger third-party batteries
> available/cheaper or are the Apple batteries the only game in town?

I don't think you'll find anything better at this point.  The third 
parties tend to come to the market much stronger after Apple stops 
selling their batteries.  If you need a new battery, wait until Apple 
comes out with a newer PowerBook than the one you own, since they often 
increase battery capacity with new models as battery technology 
improves.

> This model will have the 8X Superdrive. I understand it will now burn
> DVD-RW's. Will it also burn dual layer DVD's?

No.

> My Airport network is with the original Airport base station. I don't
> plan on upgrading it, yet. Will this newer Extreme card work without
> issue(s)?

It will work fine.  I have occasionally seen little oddities with some 
of the older base stations, probably bugs in the firmware and such that 
have been fixed in newer versions of the Airport.  However, I use an 
original graphite base station at my parents' house whenever I'm there 
with my 17" PowerBook, and it works fine.

> I'm thinking the 64MB 9700 video card will suffice as I won't be
> using the portable as a desktop replacement.

The extra video RAM won't make a large difference for most people.  If 
you have an extremely large external display, or play a lot of 3D 
games, it is probably worth it for the extra $100.  If not, you can 
save a few dollars that you can spend on quality RAM instead of the 
dirt-cheap generic stuff that will make your computer crash and corrupt 
your hard drive.  Buy from Crucial, they're usually pretty good.

> And finally, all my software and OS is current and upgraded. I plan
> to just Carbon Clone the Ti and load it on to the AI? Or does OSX
> install by picking and choosing what it requires a la carte re: CPU?
> And as a result, I won't have everything the newer machine requires
> in the installed OSX.3.8. True or false?


The version of the OS that the computer originally shipped with is 
generally CPU-specific, and is a different build number than the normal 
version of the OS with the same version number.  If what's on your 
PowerBook is later than what is on the new PowerBook, you should be 
fine.  To test it, hook them up over Firewire, put the old one in 
Target Disk Mode, then boot the new one off of your old computer's 
drive.  Alternatively, look at the build number in the About This Mac 
dialog (click once on the gray Version number text to show the build 
number).  You should use whichever OS has a later build number.

However, it should be noted that it can be beneficial to start with a 
nice, fresh install every once in a while, copying as little as 
possible, to help weed out files that may be corrupted - even if they 
still seem to be working fine at the moment.

One easy way to do this is to use the new Setup Assistant that runs 
when you first boot the computer.  It will instruct you to connect your 
old computer via Firewire, put it in Target Disk Mode, and will then 
automatically copy over your user folder and certain other settings, 
while leaving the OS itself in place.  Some things like kernel 
extensions will probably be left behind, but it's not a bad idea to 
reinstall those from scratch anyway.

HTH,