The new beast

Damn that Gruber, he’s beaten me to the punch once more. Mind you, in typical Daring Fireball style, his piece is more detailed, researched and well written than anything I could’ve come up with (which is why I’m a member). So, I’m actually very pleased that he’s saved me time! Go and read that review if you want to really know about the new Powerbooks.

Like John, I opted for the upgraded 2gb RAM and 100gb (7200rpm) hard drive, which despite the longer delivery time for a customised model, its well worth it. Combining this with a 20" display provides me with my ideal setup. Unless you need to do video/3D work these machines provide enough oompf for web development and CPU hungry tasks like print design. I intend to use this setup now, rather than syncing with a desktop machine, and I’ll let you know how it goes.

This was the first time I’d used the migration facility in OS X. I’d always preferred to start with a clean install and then cherry pick what I wanted to go back in. This time, I felt a bit more nervous, there were too many files and settings that I didn’t want to risk losing. I’m glad I did - a firewire cable + 2 hours later and 62gb of files and settings had been installed. Everything ran as it had been, except I experienced the same problem John had with wireless, until running the airport update.

I’ve also found getting used to two-finger scrolling very easy and natural. This is a great feature, and find myself trying the double-fingered fondle on older machines too.

The other habit thats changed since getting the new powerbook, is that Omniweb has returned as my default browser. While Safari with plugins still feels slow and bogged down, Omniweb positively flies with this setup, and the larger resolution screen makes it ideal. Between Omniweb and Camino, Safari isn’t getting a look in at the moment. Can’t wait for their move to webkit (whenever that happens) which should finally solve issues with Flickr. I’d be interested to know if John’s habits have changed too, as earlier in the year he stated that he had left Omniweb, mainly for performance issues.

There are probably a lot of people waiting for the arrival of the Intel powerbooks (which could be as early as February according to the rumour sites), rather than going for these new models. While I’m usually Mr Early Adopter, in the case of Intel, I want to give it a couple of years and see what happens.