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I am typing this column on my sexy, curvaceous new Pismo PowerBook G3. That I happen to be
sitting at a picnic bench atop the Pismo Beach Pier is completely incidental to this
story, but I happen to like the coincidence nevertheless. This model PowerBook was
unveiled on Tokyo in February 2000; it was the most recent model before the new Titanium
G4s were released earlier this year. I have had it for over a month now, and I am in love,
both with this model and with laptop computing in general.
This PowerBook is the finest Mac I have ever owned and used on an everyday basis. A
significant achievement for Apple’s hardware engineering group, considering that Macintosh
computers have been part of my daily life for over thirteen years. I once carried one of
the original Mac Portables on a mad dash from one side of the Dallas Ft. Worth airport
terminal to the other. I cursed Apple the entire time and swore I would never again buy a
product from a company stupid enough to stick a handle on a boat anchor and call it
“portable.”
Lucky for me, eventually I got over my anger and realized it was my own damn fault.
Companies make stupid products every so often, so who is the bigger fool: the fool who
makes it, or the fool who buys it? Yet when it comes to this little Pismo, the only
foolishness on my part was not buying one sooner. Although Pismo PowerBooks are getting a
little hard to find, the new iBook has almost everything the Pismo offers, at far less
cost and weight. Today’s Apple PowerBooks are a far cry from the original. Both the
Titanium G4 and the new iBook (Dual USB) are wonderful machines, and well worth considering for everyday use.
Because I have used computers for such a long time, you might expect that I have an office
that looks like a prototype for the bridge set of the next Star Trek movie. Well, you
would be right, at least until recently. For as long as I care to remember, my desk top
computer was one of the biggest, fastest Macs available, with a huge screen or two, lots
of peripherals, and enough thick SCSI cable to wrap around the house several times. Not
any more.
I have gone on a hardware diet, and I can see my desk for the first time since college. No
longer do I heat my house from the exhaust of a dozen three-inch cooling fans. Not only
have I orphaned stacks of computer peripherals, my desk seems to get quite a bit less
action these days as well. Why sit in a stuffy office when I can prop the laptop on my
knees in the backyard, or on the beach? I can write in bed and not worry about getting ink
on the sheets, or take an overnight trip and not worry if I have this file or that file:
with thirty gigabytes of hard drive space, I can take all my files.
So why am I agog at this Pismo, considering that Apple has a long history of excellent
PowerBook hardware (interrupted by occasional lemons every few years)? The answer is
simple: this is the first PowerBook that is every bit as capable as most new desktop Macs,
at least when in range of an Airport base station.
Now if only I could keep from smearing sun block on the bronze keyboard.
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"Hello From Pismo"
