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| Apple PowerBook G3 Series with ix3D Road Rocket | Gadgets Graphics & Presentations Hardware Macintosh |
| Apple's
revamped PowerBook G3 series offers the mobile attorney unprecedented computing power,
gorgeous 14-inch color screens, extended battery life and some very attractive pricing.
They are the first Apple laptops to use universal motherboard design, which should hold
costs down and speed development of future models. The currently shipping models in the G3 Series come in 233, 266 and 300 MHz versions. All implement a 66 MHz system bus. The faster PowerBooks ship with 14-inch TFT color displays, a 1 MB in-line cache and 56 KB modems. A 12- or 13-inch TFT is available for the 233 MHz PowerBook. It employs a 512 KB secondary cache. I recently tested a first-generation 250 MHz, 13.3-inch TFT entry that is identical in all respects to the current 266 MHz model except for its faster 83 MHz system bus. It measures 2 by 12.7 by 10.4-inches, a rugged design and weighs approximately 7.6 pounds with battery and CD-ROM drive. My unit included a 4 GB IBM hard drive, 20x CD-ROM drive, 1.44 MB floppy drive and internal 56k modem. Prices start at $2,000 and top out at $4,999 for the 300 MHz, 14-inch TFT model. The 13.3-inch active-matrix display on the 250 MHz was absolutely gorgeous. It has a fixed resolution of 1,024 by 768 and displays millions of colors using 4 MB VRAM. It will power external monitors at 24-bit color with resolutions as high as 1,152 by 870. The new 266 and 300 MHz versions have additional dual-scan capabilities, displaying resolutions down to 640 by 480, although lower display sizes result in a slightly fuzzy appearance. The 105-key keyboard has a firm, responsive feel, inverted arrow and F-keys, and an additional function key that provides access to special capabilities on the keyboard. Although I didn't particularly like the touch pad at first, with some practice it presented no problems. Brightness, volume, power and sound mute buttons are accessed either on the deck of the keyboard or the lower part of the screen. A movable door on the laptop's rear provides access to sound in/out, 10-BaseT Ethernet, ADB, serial, high density SCSI, S-video-out, VGA video-out and 4 MBPS IrDA ports. Apple provides a standard PC-compatible VGA outlet from the PowerBook. A separate Mac video adapter is included. One Type III or two Type II Card-Bus-enabled PC Card slots are located on the left side, along with a RJ-411 jack for telephone line access. Battery life was impressive. I produced an interactive presentation on a flight to Chicago that required constant disk access for over two and a half hours and still had power to spare. The new models use an even stingier 1.9 volt PPC chip that will further prolong battery life. The two internal bays will support dual battery use. DVD-ROM, VST Zip, floppy and additional batteries are standard accessories. Removable DMA hard drives are also available. DMA (Direct Memory Access) drives can be popped into the removable bays on the side of the PowerBooks, and configured individually for different members of a law firm. One must-have accessory is the ix3D Road Rocket video card, which utilizes the G3 Series Cardbus slot to produce accelerated video and dual-screen support for G3 PowerBooks. It fits into the bottom portion of your PC card slot. Cables for Mac and PC monitors are included. Once installed, the G3 operates in a dual-screen mode, enabling an external monitor to act as an extension of the PowerBook screen. Rather than mirroring what's on the screen, the external monitor displays a separate signal, turning the G3 into a unique presentation device. The most obvious application for the Road Rocket is an interactive presentation for trial. I created an interactive display of 260 arson photographs where I controlled what the jury saw by pointing and clicking on thumbnails of specific photographs. The jury and judge only saw an enlarged 3 by 4 feet projected image. No other laptop, Mac or PC, has this capability. The ix3D Road Rocket ships with Kai's Power SHOW, a package that consists of a very simple interactive presentation creator from MetaCreations, a Web animation tool from Totally Hip Software and 4 MB video RAM. It was easy to install and use. At less than $300, the Road Rocket is an excellent, useful tool for any attorney who uses interactive presentations. The G3 series PowerBooks represent some of the best Apple has to offer. These laptops are exceedingly fast (only the 300 MHz desktop is faster), sport stunning color displays, are well-constructed and decently priced. My gripes are minimal. Apple should drop their overall weight, add extended desktop capability internally, and replace the flimsy release levels that are used to access the front bays of the G3. Add some bundled productivity software, and they would be great. On the whole, however, the PowerBook G3 Series offers premium performance at an excellent price point, which is an attractive option for any firm considering desktop replacements. |
Apple Computer (800) 795-1000 www.apple.com $2,300 to $4,999 ixMicro $349 Reviewed by David Saraceno, solo POWERBOOK CONS VERDICT 3D ROAD ROCKET CONS VERDICT |
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