First day with a 12" PowerBook

Well our very first PowerBook 12" models arrived today. They come in an all-black box with the picture of the silver PBooks. It is a nice colour design, noticeably lighter than the 12" iBook.

Some interesting features:

  • the speakers do not project vertically, they point out away from the user, on the far back. So if the screen is at a wide open angle, the speaker sound bounces off it and the User can hear it. When at a shallow open angle the speakers project out, producing a much quieter experience for the user, and a noisier one for the person in the seat in front of you.

  • The keys are remarkably high up on the keyboard. It will be easy for all sorts of matter, from food to business cards and loose watch straps to get under them and possibly do some damage.

  • The keys are a nicer fit than on the 15" PowerBook

  • The screen is much brighter and has far more saturation than on the drained 12" PowerBook

  • Getting a Nokia T68i up and running via bluetooth, and surfing the net through the phone, was easy as pie.

  • I want one.

Overall, it is a nice machine. I have a customer who has a custom machine with the full 640 MB Ram and 60 GB Drive here and waiting to go. However, it is expensive, and it remains to be seen if there are any major design flaws or issues with them.

This is part of the long term Archive, originally published on

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