Macopinion

Have Penryn Chips Licked The MacBooks’ Heat Problem?

One of the major factors that's been holding me back from upgrading to a MacIntel 'Book has been the latter's heat-generating capacity, or more precisely, the level of fan activity associated. While the actual physical temperature of the computer's contact services would also be a significant issue for folks who use their 'Books a lot in literal laptop mode (no longer recommended by Apple for precisely this reason), it's not so much for me, since I mostly keep mine elevated on a laptop stand with an external keyboard, and when I do anticipate a laptop computing session, it's no hardship to grab my Lapworks Futura laptop desk and stuff it can the backpack with the computer.

However, I really, REALLY detest fan noise. I suppose it's partly what your baseline for "normal" is. Folks who came to Mac notebook computing in the 1 GHz plus G4 or MacIntel eras, may be wondering what I'm going on about. The machine heats up; the fan kicks in; right? Well, it wasn't always that way.

My first Mac laptop, a PowerBook 5300, didn't have a cooling fan at all and definitely didn't need one. It never got more than a moderately warm to touch. The first Apple 'Book that came with an internal fan was the Power Book 3400c in 1997, but it rarely ever came on. Ditto for the WallStreet PowerBook I bought in early 1909, whose fan only activated once during normal use in nearly nine years of service, just before the processor failed in a terminal meltdown at the 3.5 year mark (I replaced the processor card, never had any more trouble, and the fan never came on again). The fans in my two Pismo PowerBooks and my G3 iBook have been almost as non-imposing, cutting in only on the very hottest days during prolonged and intensive processor activity, even after I upgraded both Pismos to 550 MHz G4 processors. In fact, I don't recall the fan ever having spooled up in the most-recently purchased Pismo. So my experience with these blessedly quiet Macs imprinted a paradigm of what should be normal for me, and my 1.33 GHz G4 PowerBook was thus a rude awakening, with its fans running almost half the time unless I set the processor speed at "Reduced" in the Tiger or Leopard Energy Saver preferences panel.

it's not that I completely noise-phobic I do enjoy peace and quiet - it's one of all the reasons why I choose to live in an isolated rural community. However, I get pleasure from some sounds - music I like, obviously - or the burbling rumble of a V-8 engine. This isn't as eccentric as it might at first sound to people who don't share a passion for automobiles. For some of us, the sounds or "notes" of, say, a V-8 breathing through low-restriction dual exhausts are literally musical and appreciated as music. Certain types of tone sequences, especially harmonics, are pleasantly anticipated, notably rising and falling patterns like musical scales or an engine climbing through its rev range, falling with each gearshift and rising again. The musical quality of an exhaust note corresponds to cylinder firing order, frequency, and its multiples, or harmonics, which is why some engines, such as inline sixes, V8s and V12s, are more harmonious to the appreciative human ear than V6s or V10s. Of course, not everyone has the same taste in conventional music, either. I digress.

Anyway the high-pitched sounds made by high-RPM. electro mechanical devices like electric motors and cooling fans are unmusical to my ears.

I've been reading some road test reports recently about the new, all-electric Tesla sports car that's scheduled for commercial lunch sometime in the next few weeks. The Tesla, which incidentally is powered by a 1,000 pound bank of 6,831 lithium ion laptop computer batteries, is actually a more than decent performer, with a 0-60 mph acceleration time of 4.7 seconds, about the same has the BMW M-type roadster or and Ford's factory hot rod Mustang Shelby GT 500, and faster than a Porsche Cayman, while its 125 mile per hour top speed the respectable as well, but as Automobile Magazine's Preston Lerner reports, the whine from the electric motor "gets pretty annoying at elevated RPM." Do tell. Lerner notes that "a generation from now, the high-pitched drone of an electric motor at redline may be music to the ears of car enthusiasts. Not this one however..."

Not this one either, and I don't need to drive a Tesla to determine that the whining powerplant and lack of the good old internal combustion engine sounds that are part and parcel of the high performance automobile experience for me wouldn't irritate me greatly. Just like the howl of my PowerBook's cooling fans.

Consequently, it was a big disappointment back in 2006 when the first reports started rolling in about how blistering hot the new, Intel-powered MacBook Pro and MacBook ran. Naively perhaps, I had been hoping that the switch to Intel processors might actually improve matters compared with the sultry higher- clock cycle G4s, but those first Core Duo units were significantly worse than the outgoing Power PC models heat-wise.

With the subsequently-released Core 2 Duo units based on Intel's "Merom" chip family, the heat problem has been mitigated somewhat, and there was reasonable probable cause to hope that the new 45nm "Penryn" CPU, which is physically smaller and less power-hungry than the Merom, would run significantly cooler yet. Based on early reports on Penryn-based 'Books introduced last month there seems to have been an improvement, but perhaps not the revolutionary one I keep hoping for.

The Road Warrior reader and Mailbag correspondent Derek, who has just replaced a 1 GHz 17" PowerBook with a new 2.5 GHz Penryn MacBook Pro reports:

"This is one great machine. I immediately bought 4GB of RAM from OWC It runs very cool, and the fan has never come on to my knowledge. I've read that it may be running very slowly but to me it sounds just like a quiet hard drive. As one who dislikes noisy computers, this Mac is unbelievable. It's very fast, quiet and cool (right now the processors are at 105 and 102 degrees Fahrenheit after hours of use and multiple programs open, much cooler than my old PowerPC Powerbook."

That's pretty encouraging, and it would be reasonable to anticipate that the 2.1 GHz base Penryn MacBook I'm considering might run even cooler than that.

On the other hand another Penryn report on a MacRumors forum sounds a dissonant note:

"I have finally purchased a new Penryn Macbook 2.4. So far my only criticism about it is related to the heat and fan noise. When I use it for non-intensive applications it is usually fine, being the heat at the CPU around 50°C [122° F] and the fans noise barely noticeable (although if everything is in silence you can hear them in the background as a fluorescent light). The problem comes when I do more intensive applications like playing WoW. Here the CPU heat goes to 80C where the fans reach the maximum speed producing lot of noise and keeping the temperature between 73 and 80 C.....

Ouch! My current 1.33 GHz PowerBook runs at about 50° C (processor bottomside) under normal, general duty use, but easily spikes above that under heavier processor loads, toggling the fans at 58.5° [137° F]. I've never seen it climb above 60° C though, so the Penryn MacBook Pro is evidently capable of running much hotter than my PowerBook. Not so encouraging.

Another report, inauspiciously titled "Engadget tries to fry an egg on Penryn MacBook Pro," notes that "for those of us using those first searing-heat MBP’s, you’ll be happy to know the Penryn MacBook Pro’s are a little cooler (temperature-wise anyway). On average, about 10° F cooler, and the fans run slower and quieter."

Gizmodo's thorough analysis of the Penryn machines concludes that: "While idling, the Penryn MBP's CPU was running at 127° F [52° C] - slightly cooler than the Merom MBP which had 133° F [56° C]. But as for the actual experience, the new Penryn MBP felt much cooler on your lap than the older Merom.

On the other hand..... "While performing a video encode in iMovie with the new Penryn MBP CPU was operating at a temperature of 170° F [77° C]; actually warmer than the older Merom MBP at 165° F [74° c}. The increase in operating temperature during a video encode is likely because the more efficient machine is still doing more work every second at its higher clock rate."

On the brighter side, both are still better than the early MacBooks which would frequently get up to 80-85° C [175° - 185° F]

Anand Shimpi's Anandtech report on the Penryn units observes that "With Penryn, thermals have improved on both of Apple's notebooks which translates into a cooler lap experience. The plastic enclosure of the MacBook doesn’t conduct heat as well as the aluminum MacBook Pro, meaning that it also feels better on your lap. Penryn doesn't produce as much heat as Merom so while the MacBook got warm, it never got hot during extended usage on my lap," which is reassuring in a real-world empirical context.

The bottom line here seems to be that the Penryn update amounts to another incremental improvement in the MacIntel 'Books' heat (and concurrent fan noise) profile, but it's no panacea. That said, there is now no way I would consider buying anything older than the current Penryn machines with the possible exception of the 2.2 GHz Santa Rosa MacBook Pro which does have LED display backlighting.

However, Anand Shimpi reports that patience will be rewarded by even better thermal characteristics later this year, with an upgrade to Intel's next generation "Montevina" chipset anticipated sometime toward the end of this Anand says Montevina will have a lower operating voltage (1.5V vs. 1.8V) than Penryn as well as a faster integrated graphics core in the MacBook) and a lower power chipset and clock speeds ranging from 2.26 GHz to 3.06 GHz. Anand says that "Montevina will be yet another evolutionary step on the way to the Nehalem based notebooks sometime next year" bringing with then a "big performance upgrade."

For the full report visit here:
http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=3246&p=2

Arrgh! The never-ending dilemma of when to make a system upgrade decision. Patience is a cardinal virtue.


***



cmoore@macopinion.com


Provisionally, you can access The Road Warrior Archive to Jan. 16, 2006 by clicking here.

Note: Letters to The Road Warrior may or may not be published in The Road Warrior Mailbag at the editor's discretion. Correspondents' email addresses will NOT be published unless the correspondent specifically requests publication. Letters may be edited for length and/or context.

If you would prefer that your message not appear in The Road Warrior Mailbag, we would still like to hear from you. Just clearly mark your message "NOT FOR PUBLICATION," and it will not be published.

CM

The Road Warrior Mailbag - March 24, 2008

Pismo: G4/550 vs G3/900
Praise For Penryn MacBook Pro
Power Mac G5 vs. Intel Mac mini - my two cents

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Pismo: G4/550 vs G3/900

From Steve;

Hi Charles,

I'd be interested in your macopinion on this dilemma:

I just saw a PowerLogix G3/900 upgrade card for the Pismo for auction on eBay, the first time I've seen one for sale anywhere in years. It looks like it will sell for over $400 when all is said and done. I've been thinking about giving my old Pismo a power boost for a while, and I had been looking at the G4/550 that Wegener Media sells for about $200.

My gut feeling is that this is the better deal by far, but there's something alluring about an elusive find like the PowerLogix card. But, I seem to recall that there were overheating issues with it for the brief time it was available. Perhaps your memory is clearer on this. If you have a free moment, I'd enjoy reading your thoughts.

Thanks,
Steve

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Hi Steve;

With the caveat that I have no first-hand experience with the PowerLogix product, there is no way in God's green earth that I would pay 400 bucks for one when 550 MHz G4 solutions are available for as little as $200.

I have extensive experience with Daystar, FastMac, and Wegener Media Pismo 550 G4 upgrades and all For more information, visit: them work superbly, and run cooler (most of the time) than the original 500 MHz G3.

I too recall that there were complaints about heat generated by the PowerLogix card, and, at the end of the day, it's still a G3. I have a 700 MHz G3 iBook, and the 550 MHz G4 Pismo definitely outperforms it, especially of course running Altivec-optimized software.

My 2 cents.

Charles

***

Praise For Penryn MacBook Pro

From Derek

Hi Charles,

I recently upgraded my 5 year old 1GHz 17" Powerbook to Leopard and it was doing fine, but was slightly slower. When my daughter's friend asked if I could help her create a movie and burn a DVD movie for her to use to apply to grad school, my Powerbook just wasn't up to the task (it could do that when it had Tiger) and iDVD slowed to a crawl and then stopped. So I switched the project to my sons 2.2 Ghz MacBook and it chewed through the tasks like an angry dog.... Hmm, time to think about updating.

At the same time, my employer had a new mandate that we enter our hours in a Windows based time sheet program. Our IT guy could not get the program to work in Virtual PC on my old 17", so I resolved to get a Mac with a big enough hard drive so that I could have a Boot Camp partition big enough to run Microsoft Project and the time sheet program.

I thought a last generation refurbished 2.2 Ghz 15" MacBook Pro would be perfect except the refurbished models were only offered with 120 GB drives. So I decided to wait for the Penryn model in the hope that it would run cooler, have a longer lasting battery and have a bigger drive. When the 2.5 Ghz models were announced with 200 GB drives, I bought one.

This is one great machine. I immediately bought 4GB of RAM from OWC and according to Activity Monitor, I usually have about half of it free. It runs very cool, and the fan has never come on to my knowledge. I've read that it may be running very slowly but to me it sounds just like a quiet hard drive. As one who dislikes noisy computers, this Mac is unbelievable. Compared to my old 17", the matte screen is brilliant and visible even outside on a sunny day. The keyboard lighting is far, far brighter than the old 17". I think Apple has finally licked the heat problem with the new Penryn. processor.

After working with Virtual PC for seven years dating back to my Lombard, working with Windows XP in Boot Camp and with VMWare's Fusion is amazing. Though no fan of Windows, I really like Microsoft Project and it flies on this Mac.

My son is home on his college break and I did a Time Machine backup on his MacBook. It is a great computer, it's bright and quick, but it's no MacBook Pro. For a guy like me who goes into a purchase expecting to get five or more years out of a computer, the MacBook Pro is worth the additional dollars. I know you are in the market for a new 'book. I hope you get a chance to try out both models before making your decision.

By the way, last year, OWC got in a batch of 700 Mhz 12 G3 iBooks. Knowing how satisfied you were with yours, and knowing that the model did have issues with the motherboards, I took a chance and got one for my wife. What a great little computer for email, surfing, and the occasional letter. The screen is bright, the wifi range is great, the battery lasts forever. Running Panther with 384 MB, it really is a fast little machine and my wife adores it.

Derek

___

Hi Derek;

Thank you for the great and very encouraging report, confirming my fondest hope that the heat problem with the MacIntel notebooks would finally be licked. Sounds (of silence) that it has been.

In a way, you're preaching to the converted. After mulling it over (and over and over), I'm convinced that the MacBook Pro suits my taste better than the MacBook. Unfortunately not my wallet so much.

Here in Canada, the base MacBook sells for $CAN1.149, and the base MacBook Pro for CAN$2,099, or CAN$960 more - almost double. The conundrum for me is can I justify the substantial cost difference on a rational basis, especially in respect of a recent major setback in my earning status. THe answer, unfortunately, is probably not. I'll be stretching the budget even by buying the 2.1 GHz base MacBook plus a 4 GB RAM upgrade from OWC.

On the positive side, logic dictates that the Penyn-based MAcBooks will also run cooler than the previous models, and stil have more than enough speed to meet my needs. On the downside, no LED backlight and I'm definitely more partial to the conventional keyboard in the MacBook Pro than the embedded "chiclet" jobbie in the MacBook, not just for tactile/ergonomic reasons.

Check out this sad tale of woe.
http://www.powerpage.org/2008/03/the_dumbest_thing_ive_ever_done_corona_meets_macbook.html

Anyway, I'm delighted to hear that the MacBook Pro is so satisfactory.

As for the 700 MHz iBook, my wife has inherited mine, and is using it running OS 10.4.11 Tiger with the RAM maxed out at 640 MB. Well into its sixth year of service, still no problems. It's in daily use, and just had its first system reboot today since early January.

Charles

Re: Praise For Penryn MacBook Pro

From Derek

Hi Charles,

I also have managed to spill liquid into my computer equipment, but fortunately it was into the keyboard of my Quicksilver G4. Not once, but three times over the years. I can tell you from first-hand knowledge that there are a great many screws holding that keyboard together. But every time, it is as good as new after a thorough cleaning.

I think it is interesting that when I last went through these purchasing decision machinations back in 2003, computers were still at a point where if you didn't buy the high end, there was a definite penalty in performance and useful longevity. That was the deciding factor in my getting the high-end 1 Ghz 17" machine back then. But nowadays, we seem to have reached a point where a couple of 100 Mhz difference in processor speed (2.4 Ghz vs. 2.5 Ghz vs. 2.6 Ghz) really doesn't make a difference in productivity and user experience.

As I said, my last laptop was my 17" Powerbook which has been a stellar machine for me. My only complaints with it were its screen brightness which wasn't great when it was new and it grew dimmer with age, and an obnoxious fan that slowly revved up to speed with an oscillating pitch (I never did get used to that in five years).

I really wanted to replace my 17" with another 17", but I wanted LED backlighting, and you could only get that in the new 17" Penryn machines by upgrading the machine to the high resolution screen. As money is tight on this end too (two kids in college), I couldn't rationalize/justify getting the 17", and if I couldn't justify that, then I couldn't justify the high-end 15" either, as it wasn't that much less than the 17".

So then I thought I would maybe get a base refurbished machine, but as I wrote in my last email, I needed a bigger hard drive for a Boot Camp partition. So after more deliberation, I decided to wait to see what the new line of MacBook Pros would offer. When they were released, the base model had a 200 GB hard drive, so that's what I got.

I was able to rationalize the purchase by thinking I'd help offset the cost by selling the old 17". Sounds logical, right? Oddly enough, now that a couple of weeks have passed, I'm not sure I want to sell it! I like the larger type on the 17" with these aging eyes of mine, and it's nice having extra screen real estate when I have numerous documents open. And with everyone in my family owning a Mac, it might be good to have a reserve machine in case one of their hard drives goes kaput. Unfortunately, its that kind of logic that results in my having a Mac Plus, Mac IIVX, an 8500, a Quicksilver G4, a Powerbook 1400, a 1999 Lombard and now a 17" Powerbook all still in the house, only a few of which still doing active duty.

So, in the end, I think I'll sell my old 17. Maybe that logic works for you too?

Out with the old, in with the new.

For right now, I think I made a sound decision. I have a Mac whose screen won't progressively get dimmer over the years like my eyesight seems to be doing. It's very fast, quiet and cool (right now the processors are at 105 and 102 degrees Fahrenheit after hours of use and multiple programs open, much cooler than my old PowerPC Powerbook) and the keyboard lighting is incredibly bright. Assuming it has all good parts, I see no reason why I won't get five or six years out of this Mac, too.

So for now, good luck with whichever Mac you get, and thanks for all the great articles over the years!

Derek

P.S. One other observation will be of interest to you. Ever since I was a kid, I loved the smell of new electronics. I have to say that I really didn't notice that very strong smell after opening up the box for this new machine. I know that people with multiple chemical sensitivities can often detect and react to levels of VOCs much lower that I might react to, but if "smell" is any indication, the new 'books might be less troublesome.

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Hi Derek;

I've drowned a keyboard twice, happily (?!) the same 'board, incidents about a week or so apart, and both with dilute Grapefruit Seed Extract, which is extremely acidic. The first time I was able to dry the 'board (a MacAlly iceKey) out and get it working again. The second time it was a goner. We took it apart, and discovered that the acid GSE had attacked the printed circuits.

I've tended to buy either new low-end or used/refurbished high-end 'Books. The latter have definitely been the most pleasureable to own and use, but I've gotten excellent service from the base machines as well, and as you say, the performance gap is narrower than it's ever been in practical terms, at leasr unless on is a really demanding power-user.

I've been delighted with my 17" PowerBook, and I'll miss the big display screen if I go MacBook especially, but I still use my Pismos a lot and know I can get along happily with less screen real-estate.

I still have every Mac I've ever owned, all of them in working condition. I'll definitely be keeping my 17-incher when I go MacIntel. Either it or one of the Pismos will eventually get handed off to my wife, although she's very happy right now with the 700 MHz iBook, which is a very likeable little computer.

Lessee; 105° F converts to 40.555° C. My BigAl G4 has been ranging between 47.5° and 58.5° (fan-screaming territory) for the past hour or so, and that's with the processor at "Reduced" speed. Penryn sounds like the cure!

There is irony (perhaps not entirely coincidental) in that I used to like the smell of electronics too, as well as gasoline, even some paints (I was once a marine paint and chemical sales specialist), all verboten to me now. Your observation "I know that people with multiple chemical sensitivities can often detect and react to levels of VOCs much lower that I might react to" is probably the understatement of the century ( ). I can smell an orange being peeled at 50 feet in calm air. I'm not sure whether my sense of smell is more acute (my wife's is a lot more sensitive than mine), or just a consequence of being obliged to live in a scent free environment so one's olfactories don't get jaded. Anyway the relative unsmelliness you report is encouraging, although I'm resigned to having to run any new 'Book I get in an isolation case for several months at best before I can share air space with it.

Charles

***

Power Mac G5 vs. Intel Mac mini - my two cents

From James

Hi

I have a painting and modest recording studio 40 miles from Nashville based around a Mac Mini G4 with an external 7200 rpm drive. I love the small form factor, ultra-quiet operation and a la cart cost. Unfortunately, my Mini's lone firewire port was damaged in an electrical storm last year, compromising my external 24bit audio/midi interface. This, in combination with higher system demands for new sessions forced me to put together a budget shopping list.

I narrowed my search to the G5 iMac, Intel Imac and Mini. My total budget was 750.00 including shipping.

The G5's were very attractive and priced right but reliability reports scared me off. I saw limited opportunities to buy an Intel Core Duo within my budget - finding only one 1.83 iMac for 699.00 and waving it off after realizing it was one of the stripped down education models. Most of the Intel iMacs start in the 850.00 range for the combo drive model. The market for used and refurbished Mini's is limited but some excellent values can be found. I narrowly missed an Apple store special for a Core Duo 1.83 SD at 497.

Ultimately, I bought a Mini Core 2 Duo with Superdrive and a gig of ram from Macofalltrades for 595.00. I upgraded the ram to 2 gigs from OWC and purchased an additional 17" LCD from ebay coming in way under my budget. In the future, I can upgrade the monitor up to 1900 pixels wide. If I'm real ambitious, I can even upgrade the cpu.

It's hard to argue with the continued value of the Mini format. I was shocked to see the Primate Labs overall performance scores double from my G4 1.25 (727) to the Intel Core Solo (1459) and triple to the Core Duo 1.66 (2157)! By comparison, the same money would only buy a G5 iMac with a performance in the 1100 range. My new 1.83 Core 2 Mini has a score of 2473. For the money, I'm convinced the Mini is the smarter choice.

Take care,
James Pearson
http://www.pearsonart.com

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Hi James;

I agree; in that price range it's impossible to argue with the mini, at least if you alredy have a monitor and input devices.

Charles

*** cmoore@macopinion.com

Provisionally, you can access The Road Warrior Archive to Jan. 16, 2006 by clicking here.

Note: Letters to The Road Warrior may or may not be published in The Road Warrior Mailbag at the editor's discretion. Correspondents' email addresses will NOT be published unless the correspondent specifically requests publication. Letters may be edited for length and/or context.

If you would prefer that your message not appear in The Road Warrior Mailbag, we would still like to hear from you. Just clearly mark your message "NOT FOR PUBLICATION," and it will not be published.

CM

Tivo versus DirecTV HDDVR, Part 7

by Marc Zeedar macopinion@designwrite.com

Extra Features
This is a short category as the DTV HDDVR does not have any extra features (at least at this time, it doesn't). Tivo has free software you can install on your home computers (Mac or Windows) to allow your photos and music (MP3 only) to stream to your networked Tivo. It's pretty cool, especially since your TV is most likely connected to a sound system.

[Update: I later saw on DirecTV's website that they do support networked music and photos, but only on computers with Intel Vii technology. That means no Macs and not even all PCs. Useless.]

Tivo also has other networked features like moving shows between Tivos, support of free online photo websites (oddly, flickr is omitted), a few networked games, movie listings, weather info, a podcast listener, and more. Unfortunately, the quality of these is all over the place, and the features are often so limited as to be useless. For example, the podcast listener doesn't remember where you left off, so you can't listen to partial podcasts. The movie listing widget sounds great: but I'm in a rural with only one local theatre and the widget won't list any other theaters for my Zip code. If I want theaters closer to Portland (where I often go to see movies), I have to put in separate Zip codes for each city. At least with online movie listing sites I can specify the range of the theaters in miles or customize my listing with certain theaters I frequent.

Tivo's extras are like Dashboard widgets: small network applications like games and utilities.

Tivo also offers something called "Tivo2Go," which is supposed to be a way for you to pull shows off your Tivo and onto your computer. I have not had much experience with this, however, because for years it was Windows-only. Now there is a way to do it on the Mac, but it requires Roxio's DVD-burning Toast software, which costs $99. Even then I believe there are severe limitations as to what you can do with the shows (you cannot put them on iPods, for example). The process is also slow and buggy. There are some open source (i.e., hacks) solutions for doing this for free, but I've had much luck getting them to work. (It should be said I have not been particularly motivated -- if I want a show on my Mac or iPhone, I just burn it to DVD with my Tivo DVD burner and rip the DVD on my computer.)

Tivo recently added support for the Rhapsody music service: this is a subscription-based service so you don't actually own any of the music but can listen to as much as you'd like. People don't seem to like these services and want to own their music, so I doubt Rhapsody will survive, but we'll see.

Despite some problems with these extras, DirecTV cannot compete at all since it offers none of them.

Winner: Tivo

Digital Downloads
Both boxes offer some shows you can download off the Internet. Tivo has a selection of Internet TV shows like the daily Rocketboom vidcast you can subscribe to and which are automatically downloaded as published. That's very cool: I watch a lot more of that stuff because it's preferable to watch video on my TV instead of my computer.

Tivo calls their Internet videos "TivoCasts."

Tivo also offers paid video rentals and purchase via a partnership with Amazon Unbox. This is a pretty good deal for Mac users, since Unbox is not Mac compatible, but with Tivo you can browse titles and rent/purchase them with your Tivo's remote control with a simple secret PIN (the charges go to the credit card linked on your Amazon account). It's pretty cool and convenient, especially when Amazon has 99-cent movie rental specials.

Tivo works with Amazon's Unbox service to let you rent or purchase digital content. Unbox is not compatible with Macs, so this is a great way to get Unbox content (though without a PC, it's stuck on your Tivo).

Unfortunately the shows don't download immediately -- most take several hours -- and you can't start watching the show until it's fully downloaded. Worse, there's no indication on the Tivo that show's scheduled to be downloaded until the downloading process has started. Several times I've had to contact Amazon tech support with problems. Once some things I rented took days before I received them.

Rentals have similar terms as Apple TV -- you can keep them for 30 days but once you start watching, the movie will expire in 24 hours. The quality is decent and the process is convenient: you can even order movies via Amazon's website and have them sent to your Tivo (do it on your lunch hour and have fresh movies waiting for you when you get home).

Another problem is that you can't tell from the movie listing page if a movie is available for rent or purchase, nor can you see the price. You have to select the show to view its details, which really slows down browsing. (If you're only interested in renting, it's annoying to have $15.99 movie purchases show up next to $2.99 rentals.)

DirecTV takes a different approach (they call their offering Video On Demand). They have the Pay-per-View movies you'd expect, but they also have free digital downloads of movies and TV shows on their other channels, which is a neat way to catch an episode of a series you missed. The downloads start immediately and are quick (within a couple minutes a half-hour sitcom was 30% downloaded).

DirecTV's "On Demand" service offers selected shows as digital downloads. Unfortunately you are only allowed to download shows for the channels you subscribe to -- so why does it show me Showtime shows when I can't actually download them? Lame!

However -- and this is one big however -- this only works for channels you receive. If you try to download a show from Showtime, for instance, and you're not a subscriber, you'll get a message encouraging you to subscribe to the channel.

Stupidly DirecTV lists all these shows together, so you're offered hundreds of choices and if you don't pay for premiums (like me), 95% of those don't apply to you!

Now this feature is marked as being in Beta, so it may change. I'd like to see an option that would only list the channels I receive or channels on my current favorites list. Right now I can't imagine I would ever bother to use VOD. There's very little non-premium content and it's just not worth the hassle. Tivo wins this round on the ability to subscribe to Internet vidcasts.

Winner: Tivo

Next Time: Shortcuts and Advertising

macopinion@designwrite.com

Tivo versus DirecTV HDDVR, Part 6

by Marc Zeedar macopinion@designwrite.com

Playing Video
Years ago when I first tried a non-Tivo DVR I was horrified at the clunky interface. Not only were the menus awkward, confusing, and cluttered, but even the most basic functionality of the device -- playing video -- sucked. The engineers at Tivo really thought a lot about video playback and it's still the best, though the DirecTV DVR isn't bad.

Both systems feature play and pause, rewind and fast forward at multiple speeds, slow motion, and frame advance/reverse. But the implementation and how it feels is totally different.

Tivo's is smooth and natural. High-speed fast forward or reverse is not jerky, like a series of still images thrust at you. I actually watch shows on fast forward. For instance, there might be a soccer match I don't care about and don't want to devote two hours of time to, but I'm curious to see the results and don't mind watching it on high-speed for five minutes and seeing if anything exciting happened.

With DirecTV, the fast forward is so jerky and awkward it literally makes me queasy, even at the slowest setting. It's not unbearable, but borderline. It's possible I'll get used to it, but my initial reaction is it's not anything close to Tivo.

Another disadvantage is that closed captions don't appear on the DirecTV DVR during fast forward. With Tivo, these show when you're on the slowest speed, which can be nice if you're in a hurry and want to speed through a show but still keep up with the plot a bit and read the dialogue.

The DirecTV DVR's maximum forward and reverse speeds seem much slower than Tivo's. Tivo's max is 60x -- so an hour show takes just sixty seconds to scroll through. Another key advantage of Tivo is that it lets you instantly jump to mid-points in the show (in 15-minute increments for shows less than four hours, half-hour increments for longer shows). When I do my review of soccer matches for my podcast, on the DTV DVR it's infuriating to not be able to jump to near the 78th minute where the goal happened -- I have to painfully and slowly fast forward through most of the game to get there.

[Update: I did figure out later that DTV does have a way to jump to mid-point ticks during a show, but the implementation is weak. You must hold down the Fast Forward button for five seconds and it will jump to the next tick mark on the progress bar. However, it will only do this once. To go to the next tick mark, you must release the Fast Forward button and press and hold it again. This means you cannot jump two hours into a show with five or six key presses like on a Tivo. Because of the long delay before the jump forward, this jumping feels just as slow as the glacier fast forwarding.]

Speaking of fast forwarding, one of Tivo's most intelligent features is its "jumpback" implementation. Basically, if you are fast forwarding (or reversing), there's a delay from when you see a flash on the screen and realize that the commercials are over and the show is back and when your finger can press the Play button. But during that short delay -- only a half second or so -- the Tivo has fast forwarded well past where you wanted to be. So Tivo intelligently "jumps back," guessing you wanted playback to resume earlier than it did.

This isn't perfect, but it's pretty good. Most of the time I don't have to correct the positioning or I only have to watch a few seconds of a commercial or I miss a few seconds of the show (often just the "establishing shot" of a drama, like those cool Miami views on CSI: Miami that try to convince you the show's really filmed there.

Fortunately DirecTV does implement a jumpback feature, but as you might expect, it's not quite as good as Tivo's. I have yet to put my figure on it exactly where the flaw lies -- it could be I'm just so used to Tivo's timing that I'm expecting DTV to work the same way and it's slightly different. It is possible that first-time DVR users wouldn't notice a problem at all. But it's not that big of a deal in any case, since both DVRs have "instant replay."

Instant replay is a button on the remote that jumps you back a few seconds so you can re-watch something. It's obviously great for sports, but handy for other things, too: my mom's hard of hearing and uses hers all the time when she misses a line of dialogue. I've used it when sudden truck noise or the neighbor's lawn mower happens to drown out what I'm listening to. It's also good, when used with the 30-second skip, to adjusting your position in the video stream so you don't miss any part of a show.

I've never had a complaint with Tivo's instant replay: it jumps me back eight seconds which seems like a lot but turns out to be just about perfect 90% of the time. Four pushes is just over 30 seconds, which is handy if you pressed the 30-second skip once too many.

DirecTV, however, for reasons unknown, have made their instant replay jump back only six seconds. Perhaps I'm just too used to Tivo's, but I find it frustrating. Six just isn't enough. By the time you factor in my reaction time ("Oh, I missed that, better press instant replay.") six seconds really is only jumping back three or four, and with the DTV, I find about 80% of the time I have to press it twice to go back far enough. But then that's annoying because twelve seconds is too far back -- now I have to wait for the DVR to catch up to where I was.

The six seconds is also a problem for undoing that extra 30-second skip press: it requires six presses. Why not five since six times five is thirty? You're forgetting your reaction time: by the time realize you skipped 30 seconds too many, a few seconds have passed. Reversing exactly 30 seconds means you'll get a few seconds clipped. Not a huge deal, but can be annoying (in a sitcom, you'll hear laughter and have missed the earlier joke). I give Tivo the edge in instant replay.

In terms of frame-by-frame advance and reverse, both are nearly identical and even have the same bug. It's always annoyed me that Tivo's reverse frame jumps by multiple frames -- it doesn't go frame-by-frame the way advance does. That makes getting to a particular frame in the video more difficult than it should be. I hoped the DirecTV DVR would be better, but unfortunately they seem to have copied this feature exactly from the Tivo since it does the same thing. I suspect it might be something in the way MPEG video is encoded that it doesn't allow precise reverse stepping (though I can do this on my Mac in QuickTime Player, so it is possible to do it).

The DTV DVR can do slow motion like the Tivo, but instead of a dedicated button, you hold the Play button down until slow motion starts. This sounds like a fine interface on paper but is horrible in practice: the feature takes so long to operate that by the time slow motion kicks in, what you wanted to see in slow motion has already passed! This means you've got to rewind, then press and hold Play and hope that slow mo will kick in on time. If it kicks in too early, you've got to wait forever while those few extra seconds of video go glacially by, and if it kicks in too late, you've got to start the process over again. Getting the timing right is so difficult it's aggravating and basically I'd argue that this DVR doesn't even have slow motion: it's that useless.

Winner: Tivo

Next Time: Extras and Digital Downloads

macopinion@designwrite.com

Tivo versus DirecTV HDDVR, Part 5

by Marc Zeedar macopinion@designwrite.com

Managing Schedules
Again the two units are similar. Both offer a "To Do" list that shows what the DVR is planning to record, and a "History" list which tells you what happened to shows (they were recorded, the recording was cancelled, the show's been deleted, etc.). That is handy if you're wondering why a show didn't record (sometimes there's a late schedule change).

Unfortunately, both units have severe flaws in schedule management. Scheduling is not the easiest thing in the world to do and at times it can get incredibly complicated. With either device it's sometimes confusing and hard to tell why a show isn't scheduled to record.

For instance, Tivo's info is occasionally incomplete. This can happen when there is more than one reason to not record the show, such as a repeat episode (when you've told it not to record repeats) and a show conflict (another show at the same time). Tivo will report only one of the reasons and I've been fooled into canceling a conflicting recording only to still not see the favorite show scheduled. When I investigate further, I find out it's a repeat and I canceled the other show for nothing!

Other times the reverse happens: Tivo thinks a show's a rerun when it's not. That's worse.

But at least Tivo gives you more information than DTV, which just gives you one word explanations ("Canceled"). Tivo will say stuff like "This show won't record because a user canceled it on 2/28/08 at 4:22 p.m."

I also find DirecTV's episodic recording (what Tivo calls a "Season Pass") more confusing. It seems to work fine, but I have several shows scheduled to record and it shows that none are scheduled and I can't tell why. I think it's because the episodes are repeats, but since they don't show up in History or To Do, I can't tell. Tivo lists shows like that in History with the explanation that you've told it not to record all episodes.

The bottom line is that managing shows on any DVR is worlds better than a VCR, but it's not perfect and if you really want every show recorded you need to do a little babysitting just to make sure the device is obeying you (I always double-check my To Do list periodically). In my case the DTV unit has the advantage of being able to record two shows at once which eliminates a lot of conflicts and potential cancelations, but Tivo's interface is a little better. In the end, I'm voting this one a tie. Both work for 90% of the situations out there: it's only the truly obsessive (like me) that will find occasional frustrations.

Winner: Tie

Searching for Programs
Both devices offer powerful search features where you can find shows by title, actor, or keyword. DirecTV does not separate directors and actors but just calls them "names," which could be a disadvantage if you want to record just the movies of director Ron Howard, for instance, not things he acted in.

Another potential difference is that it seems to me -- and I haven't verified this so I could be wrong -- that DirecTV only lists names within current shows. So if you wanted to set up an auto-record for all Hitchcock films but none happen to be available in the current programming schedule, Hitch's name wouldn't even be listed. Tivo lists the name even if there are no current shows with that person.

But in general these both work fine. The difference is in the interface, and here Tivo shines. Both give you a grid of letters over which you move a cursor with your remote and press Select to "type" that letter. Yes, it is slow and painful, but it works. However, it is much easier to painfully type letters on Tivo, in part because it includes some handy shortcuts. Pressing the Fast-Forward button inserts a space and Rewind deletes the previous character. With DirecTV I couldn't find any such shortcut -- which meant a slow trip through the alphabet grid down to the "SPC" or "DEL" option each time I needed one of those. Tivo also seems faster and more responsive, with the DTV slightly sluggish at times, though both occasionally have irritating pauses while the unit "thinks."

(Oddly, DirecTV includes a completely different method of text entering for searching their digital download service: there you use the numeric keypad to type letters just like you do on an old-fashioned cell phone. I actually found that faster than scrolling through the alphabet grid, but it's bizarre there are two different text input methods. Surely that would be confusing to users!)

Another advantage for Tivo is that you can search by category, such as movies or sitcoms, instead of all shows which might have more matches than you'd like. Tivo's searches can even be combined with and/or/not logic (though I've had such inconsistent results with that feature I stopped using it).

DirecTV does have two outstanding features Tivo does not. First, like I mentioned earlier in terms of the device's interface, you can continue to watch the playing show (or live TV) in a small box in the corner while you search for shows. That is a lot more convenient (great when an ad on the current show reminds of a show you wanted to record) and takes some of the sting out of the weaker search interface (since you're pleasantly distracted by the show).

Another unique DTV feature is Channel Search. When you get hundreds of channels it can be a pain remember which number is the "Do It Yourself" channel. With DTV I type in "DIY" and it shows me it is channel 230. With Tivo, I'm forced to scroll through hundreds of channels looking for the one.

Unfortunately, one bit of lameness wipes out all goodness of the DTV device: its searches bring up shows on channels you don't receive!

Yes, it really is that unbelievably stupid. I suspect this is a marketing ploy: the company wants you to upgrade to more channels, especially premiums, so when you search by actor, for example, you'll get hits on HBO and other channels you may not pay for. (I don't think it would actually attempt to record, but I didn't test that.) The result of this is that the search can produce useless results. (Another flaw: in the list of matching shows, channels are listed by number, not name, so unless you know your channel numbers, it's hard to tell if it's a premium or not. You can press More Info to see the channel name, but that's an extra step on each show instead of being able to tell by glancing at the list.)

Even more disturbing, on the DTV unit searches automatically bring up the contents of premium sex channels (they are not treated any differently than any other channels you don't receive).

There are parental control features you can turn on to limit these titles, but I found the parental controls awkward. When I turned on parental controls set to hide adult channels but display all movies (including NC-17), it still blocked R-rated or unrated movies on IFC (Independent Film Channel) for some unknown reason. It didn't block the recording of these films, only the display of the title!

Apparently you can manually block channels, but that means literally checking/unchecking the 500+ channels in the DirecTV lineup (all are enabled by default). I suppose if I had kids and it was a real concern for me I might take the trouble, I've got better things to do other than play with a remote control for two hours.

Winner: Tivo

Next Time: Playing Video

macopinion@designwrite.com

The MacBook Air Is The Sports Car Of Notebooks, But Some Of US Need A SUV

There was an interesting batch of communiqués in Ye Olde Road Warrior Mailbag this week, and they got me to thinking that the "right" choice of computer has a great deal of subjective preference about it. Among Apple's three distinct Family categories of notebook computers, you simply can't go wrong; you just have to figure out which best suits your particular mosaic but needs and tastes.

Windows - users have a fairly broad spectrum of alternatives in laptop hardware to choose from. If a Dell Inspiron isn't quite what they're looking for, maybe a Sony VAIO or a Lenovo ThinkPad will better suit, or if one is more exotically inclined, perhaps an Acer Ferrari or an Asus Lamborghini laptop. However, for Mac-users, it's an all-Apple show, so it's important for Apple to offer a reasonably broad range of choice. They of course can't cover all the bases that horde of PC vendors do, especially niches like ruggedized computers, but with the introduction of the MacBook Air, Apple now has three distinct families of notebook computers spanning price points from $1,$2,695, and sizes from the paper-thin three-pound MacBook Air to the wide-widescreen high-resolution 17-inch Mac Pro model. Neither is the smallest or largest laptop on the market (although I think the Air may be the thinnest), but there is a decently expansive range of choices in the Apple 'Book stable, and none of them is a "bad" choice. They are all great machines in their respective contexts.

The last time Apple offered three diverse families of laptops was back in 1997 when the line included the PowerBook 1400, the PowerBook 2400c and the PowerBook 3400c. While there are not a larger number of individual models now than were available at the end of the Power PC era - a 17-inch PowerBook, two 15-inch PowerBooks, the 12-inch PowerBook, three iBooks books in two the screen sizes, the current fleet of MacBooks, MAcBook Pros and MacBook Air probably offer the broadest range of choice Apple has ever offered at one time in portable models, and even cooler is that every one of them provides a very decent level of performance, even the MacBook Air is much closer in power to be 2.6 GHz MacBook Pros than, say, the 117 MHz and 133 MHz bus speed challenged PowerBook 1400 was to the 240 MHz, PCI-based PowerBook 3400c.

Frequent mailbag correspondent and fellow Pismo user/enthusiast Jim wrote to say that to handle a MacBook Air is to want one, and he reasons that since he still getting along reasonably happily with his faithful Pismo, the Air, while significantly slower than the bigger Macbook models, would represent a major performance boost for him; which of course is indisputable

Now, I've been somewhat critical of the MacBook Air, but raw speed isn't a particular priority for me either. It's the limited feature set, limited range of connectivity, lack of provision for specification upgrading, and some concern as to whether a 1.8-inch hard drive (which is also too small in capacity at 80 gigabytes) will be rugged enough to withstand the long haul.

However, one of the best MacBook Air analogies I've run across compares the Air to a sports car, with the implied corollary being that the MacBooks and MacBook Pros are sedans, or SUVs or station wagons of the computer world.

Ergo, the MacBook Air would be the Mazda MX5 Miata or Pontiac Solstice of the computer world - not a powerhouse with a big V-8 or V-10 like the Corvette or Dodge Viper, but a light, well-balanced and nimble package with a high-revving little four-cylinder mill and limited luggage space, but great fun and a pleasure to use. Indeed, back in the day, I owned a 1957 MGA and later a 1967 MGB, both of which were tremendous fun to drive, albeit not be most practical transportation, although my wife and I did manage to make a couple of extended road trips in Canada and the U.S. in the 67 B, and managed quite well, but of course we were a lot younger then!

Anyway, the sports car analogy works for me with the MacBook Air. Nobody needs a sports car, but they can be tremendously rewarding to own and drive so long as one is prepared to live with and work around the logistical realities, or just don't need much carrying capacity.

Personally, these days on more of a four wheel drive pick-up truck kind of guy, and often find myself wishing for a bigger truck than my Mazda B-4000, although not at the gas pumps. I suppose, if one extends the automotive analogy, the 17-inch MacBook Pro would be the Cadillac Escalade or Toyota Land Cruiser of laptops, with my 17-inch PowerBook representing an older model.

Moving on, Mailbag correspondents Pete and Brett have both recently acquired MacBook's, and fascinatingly, offer diametrically opposite opinions about the MacBook's unorthodox and somewhat controversial "chiclet" keyboard. Pete describes the keyboard action as "unacceptably stiff," and noting that "you really have to push those keys hard to avoid dropped characters," and says it is the only thing he really dislikes about the machine.

Brett, also a former Pismo user, on the other hand, professes to "just love the new keyboard - by far the best I've ever used, including four PowerBooks and two iBooks.... I make far fewer typos with this MacBook keyboard, I love the firmness of it."

Seems almost bizarrely contradictory referencing the same keyboard design, but it's really that subjective preference thing I've been getting at. The "key" if you will to the dichotomy of impression is the respective "love the firmness/unacceptably stiff" characterizations. Some folks like stiff keyboard action; others detest it. I fall in the latter camp. I haven't had an opportunity to do any extended typing on a MacBook, so I have to reserve judgment a bit, but firm or stiff-action keyboards are a nemesis for me due to my ongoing struggles with fibromyalgia and peripheral neuritis, which my general rule my general rule being that the key action can't be too light to suit me, although other issues like smoothness, short travel, and a "soft landing" (the latter probably the most important of all) being factors as well.

For example, the Kensington Slimtype freestanding keyboard I'm using right now does not impress as having a particularly light-effort key action, but it does have a very positive one with an admirably short travel and a softish landing when the keys bottom, or perhaps more accurately, the keys are so responsive you don't have to make them bottom to register the stroke. Whatever, the Slimtype is one of the most comfortable keyboards I've ever used, and in the same ballpark, although perhaps back a row or two from the superb keyboards in the PowerBook WallStreet and Pismo. The operative question for me is whether the MacBook keyboard has that sort of firmness. Some friends of mine own MacBooks, so I've been able to try the keyboard out experimentally, but it would take a work session to determine whether it's a keyboard I could actually use for production. OTOH, I know I can live with the keyboard in the aluminum PowerBook, which is the same as the ones used in the MacBook Pro, so that might be compelling argument for the MacBook Pro for me in a purchase decision.

As for the MacBook Air, seductive as its form factor is, for me it presents to many performance, versatility, and connectivity shortcomings for a lot of us, but there's definitely a place for it in Apple's portable lineup. It's something distinctly different from anything else on the market, captures people's imagination, and makes them really want one at the visceral level, even though they know there will be a lot of practical compromises associated with using one, very much like the sort of compromises would-be sports car owners need to consider before taking the plunge.

However, if your rational side (or your budget) dictates that you need more of a sensible four-door sedan or SUV type of computer, a MAcBook or MacBook Pro will likely do what you need of it quite handily and enjoyably. No Apple 'Book is a hardship to live with, and that's a good thing.


***



cmoore@macopinion.com


Provisionally, you can access The Road Warrior Archive to Jan. 16, 2006 by clicking here.

Note: Letters to The Road Warrior may or may not be published in The Road Warrior Mailbag at the editor's discretion. Correspondents' email addresses will NOT be published unless the correspondent specifically requests publication. Letters may be edited for length and/or context.

If you would prefer that your message not appear in The Road Warrior Mailbag, we would still like to hear from you. Just clearly mark your message "NOT FOR PUBLICATION," and it will not be published.

CM

The Road Warrior Mailbag - March 17, 2008

Wallstreet Revisited
"Grandson of Pismo" is on target
MacBook keyboard
A Vote For The Black MacBook

___

Wallstreet Revisited

From Ryan

Hi Charles:

I have taken possession of two hardly used Wallstreets. They were purchased back in 98 and never really used at all. They even smell new. What an amazing find, at only $100 each with shipping. I did have two Sonnet G3 500 MHZ upgrade cards laying around, upon which one of them is in this Wallstreet that I am typing on now. They are both Rev. 2s, with the better graphics cards and slower bus speed (67 mhz).

Strangely, the other G3 500 upgrade card would not work in either of them. While the machines would boot, there was no video, totally black (not dissolved black, but no video period). I did try and install the card in each machine, where both are running 9.2.2, in terms of flashing them with the Crescendo/WS 1.2.2 Installer, but no go. It did not like these Wallstreets. Now, the two older machines these upgrade cards came from are Rev. 1s, so I think when the cards were flashed originally in those machines, they won't be able to be reflashed in these Rev. 2s. However, one of them is working, so I don't know...

As for the Wallstreet I am typing on, wow. I managed to get Tiger 10.4.11 on here. I installed 9.2.2 on the second partition, and Tiger on the first (7 GB), using the 100 GB HD that was placed in an external MacAlly HD enclosure, connected to an iBook G4 via Firewire. The installs went well, and I then transplanted the drive back into the Wallstreet, upon which in booted into 9.2.2. I then used XPostFacto from 9.2.2 to boot into Tiger, and it worked. I did have the purple screen problem (purpleish colors everywhere), but I managed to reboot back into 9.2.2, and deselected the "Use Old NRDVs" and "PatchedRageProLT". Once BOTH of those option were UNSELECTED, I booted back into Tiger with no screen issues, except the inability to change the brightness, which I do need a solution for.

Anyway, I am running a 500 G3 upgrade card in here with the L2 cache enabled via Sonnet's cache enabler. I have also the 100 GB 5400 RPM Seagate in here, with 512 MB RAM. I just surfed the iTunes music store, pretty cool.

Now, one more amazing thing... I know guys like us love these older machines, they look great and function even better. But the biggest problem for me is not lack of support (I am a nerd like you!), but the Wifi card that sticks out the side of the PC Card slot, like the Orinoco Wifi cards, for instance. Man, how horrible. Well, I managed to buy a 3com Wifi card that sits FLUSH with the case! The antenna is retractable. I used the Wifi driver for this atheros chipset from OrangeWare Corp and by god it works like a charm.

What can I say, a fully maxed out, brand new Wallstreet running the latest Tiger revision with a flush Wifi card. I just need to install iWork and I am off to the races.

Ryan

___

Hi Ryan;

What a great discovery - kind of like the proverbial "barn find" in an automotive context. Thanks for the interesting report.

The Ws was such a super machine. Had mine started up the other day to retrieve a file from its HD. The original battery has now completely died (nine years is quite acceptable battery life!), but ohterwise it's working fine - still 233 MHz.

I expect that the issue with the processor upgrade cards has to do with the different bus speed on the Rev. 2 units.

The 3Com wiF card sounds like an elegant solution. My Buffalo WiFi card works superbly with no additional driver needed, but it does stick out and I have to remove it to carry the Pismo in my wonderful old Willow Kerouac computer case/backpack.

Congratualtions on the successful hotrodding tweaks and the unsupported Tiger install. A lot of life in these old black PowerBooks yet.

Charles

***

"Grandson of Pismo" is on target

From Jim;

Charles,

"Grandson of Pismo" is on target, mostly. I also want something like the Pismo again, with Intel processor, etc. I would love the MacBook size or smaller, but have something very close to the two ejectable bays for two batteries, or maybe even an ejectable hard drive. And, of course, the Pismo keyboard - best ever I think.

Yesterday, I was in the Orlando Millenia Mall Apple store with me Pismo, and one of the sales people there asked to see it and handle it! He had only heard of the Pismo, never seen one, and was very excited that I had one, and he also loved the keyboard.

Apple will probably never make another Pismo-like Mac, so I'll probably have to settle for the MacBook or MacBook Air. MacBook is great with the easily replaceable hard drive, and when you actually handle the MBA - you WANT one!! It has that kind of appeal. The store was full of people as usual, and the MBA section was constantly crowded - people incredibly interested. It is very strong, plenty fast for me (I am, after all, using a Pismo!), and could be my only Mac, as the Pismo currently is my only Mac. MBA could replace Pismo for my use.

Keep writing...

___

Hi Jim;

I agree that the likelihood of Apple building a "Grandson of Pismo" is remote.

Great anecdote about the Apple Store person having never seen a Pismo!. It's easy to forget that the newest Pismo is now more than seven years old.

The MacBook Air's form factor is seductive. I like small computers, and as far as speed goes, you're right; the Air would be a lot speedier than the 1.33 GHz PowerBook and two hotrodded Pismos I'm using now. It's the lack of hard drive space and connectivity that would rule it out for me. I have trouble getting along with just two USB ports and a 4-Port USB hub, which are constantly fully utilized and I still have to do a lit of cable-switching, to say nothing of FireWire and Ethernet.

The only time I ever use wireless for anything is occasionally on the road when I'm in range of a WiFi hotspot, so that aspect of the Air isn't a big pull for me. My home LAN is still hard-wired Ethernet.

A MacBook makes a lot more sense for me, but if you could be happy living with the MacBook Air's limitations, it would be a fun computer to own.

Charles

***

MacBook keyboard

From Pete

Charles:

A brief comment on your 1/22/08 Macbook vs MB Pro ruminations: I went with a MacBook 2GHz/2GB unit (replacing an aging 12" Ibook with a failing HD). Six months on, I'm reasonably happy with the new machine, but the keyboard is almost unacceptably stiff -- I'm still not quite adjusted to it, and you really have to push those keys hard to avoid dropped characters. Definitely slows my none-too-fast typing.

Yes, it does run hot. I do like the fast wireless card -- we went broadband at the same time, and one less cord to trip over is nice. As is the magnetically-coupled charger cord, for when you stumble over that!

The keyboard is my only serious complaint - but it's a biggie.

Always enjoy your columns -

Cheers - Pete

___

Hi Pete;

Thanks!

The keyboard and heat are the two big MacBook caveats for me as well. I haven't had an opportunity to do any extended typing on a MacBook, but stiff-action KBs are a nemesis for me due to my ongoing struggles with fibromyalgia and neuritis. At least I know I can tolerate the keyboard in the MacBook Pro, since it's basically the same one as in my G4 PowerBook, although not nearly as good as the keyboards in my Pismos.

Hopefullly, the latest Penryn MacBooks will run a bit cooler, but a refurb. MacBook Pro may be the most sensible choice for me due to teh keyboard issue.

Charles

***

A Vote For The Black MacBook

From Brett

Enjoyed the write up as usual. Let me put in an unexpected vote for the black MacBook - based on texture more than color. I just picked up the previous model at a $600 discount (including bundled Applecare) thanks to a sale, but the catch was, the black one was a much better deal than either of the previous generation white ones, and I just couldn't bring myself to pay more money for less computer (smaller HD, slower chip) just to get white. (Nor would I do so to get black, for that matter.)

Like you, I prefer a white case ... or so I thought. I once sold my 2.5 year old black Pismo for a white iBook and liked the white better. (I'd have loved a keylime original iBook but at the time it was available way back when I was able to get the Pismo on sale for only about $100 more.) I'm not a business type, so I don't need black to conform to some image of responsibility or seriousness. In fact that's a big reason I preferred white, to stand out from the herd. But in this case, the black wins out. I think the white model's white keys against the greyish background looks a little cheesy compared to the black on black. I've not noticed smudges or greasy stains except on the trackpad, and they go away with a single swipe of the polishing cloth. (They're certainly less annoying than the scratches that plagued my white iBook, and which I assume would also mar the glossy white MacBook.)

The white apple looks better against black. (And unlike on my Pismo, it's right side up!) It and the unusual , handsome greyish matte finish visually distinguish the MacBook from every other black laptop I've seen, which is a relief for my nonconformist side. But the big difference is the tactile feel of the black case - it's kind of rubbery, so less apt to slip out of your hand. And it has a very soft, pleasant feel when typing or carrying it around, much better than my G4 PowerBook. The whole MacBook just feels solid, and I think the rubbery exterior has something to do with it. (I also just love the new keyboard - by far the best I've ever used, including four PowerBooks and two iBooks) All things being equal, I still might go for the white, or I might not, but they weren't even close to being equal thanks to the sale. And I now really think the elegant black model is just better looking (sleeker, more minimalist looking) than the white and it certainly FEELS better in and under my hands. So... black is beautiful, the sweetest computer I've ever had. If only it came in key lime....

Brett

___

Hi Brett;

Hey; for a $600 discount plus free AppleCare, I would have gone for the black unit too in a heartbeat. Sounds like you got a really sweet deal, and you make a vigorous case for the black.

However, I stand by my preference for the glossy white. While I appreciate that the matte finish of the black unit makes it easier to grip, it doesn't appeal to me aesthetically. Now if they made it glossy black..... And of course, Key Lime would be uber cool.

It's fascinating how subjective preferences for keyboard feel are. I now have letters in this week's mailbag expressing diametrically opposite views on the MacBook keyboard. I'm still agnostic. I have friends with MacBooks and I've tried out the MacBook keyboard briefly, but not for long enough to form a conclusive impression. For me. the WallStreet and Pismo are the high water benchmarks of computer keyboards, along with the Kensington Slimtype freestanding keyboard which has similar action.

It's good to hear that you like yours.

Charles

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Re: A Vote For The Black MacBook

From Brett

Whoops, sorry, meant to say the $600 discount included the bundled Applecare, not in addition to. Even with the $150 black tax, it's still quite a good deal, better than any other I could find. I've always gotten my Macs when Apple dumps previous models via university edu. bookstores and vendors, and that was the case here. Fortunately, I don't need to be on the bleeding edge and have never gotten a brand new model. (I got my Pismo at huge discount when the G4 Titaniums came out and was very happy with that decision, in part because of the problems the Titaniums had, in part because the Pismo was just a great computer.)

As for the keyboard - yes, keyboard preference always seems to be totally subjective, no doubt based on variables such as finger length. All I know is, I make far fewer typos with this MacBook keyboard, and I love the firmness of it. In fact, I like it so much that I'm going to sell my Matias external keyboard and buy one of the new Apple wireless keyboards, which I've read are quite similar to the MacBook keyboards. I've noticed that it takes me a long time to adjust to the different boards when switching back and forth. ( I use the external when typing at my desk, with the MacBook raised to eye level at the top of a 4-level stackable wire mesh in-basket that just happens to be the right size for the MacBook and also keeps it cool. I'm using the other levels to store other computer components, including cable modem, audio hookup and soon a Time Capsule. )

Anyway, after two weeks of use as my only computer, I now think the MacBook is just about the ideal computer for most users who don't need big screens or extreme power - just the ideal compromise among size, weight, cost, power, sturdiness et al. I've owned a half dozen PowerBooks (including favorites s uch as the Pismo and 12" PB) and an iBook, but this one already feels like my favorite. I prefer plastic to metal, and this particular plastic is so soft and grippable, yet solid and sturdy that it just begs to be picked up and used. I just wish it came in different colors!

Keep up the good work and good luck with your impending purchase.

Brett

___

Hi Brett;

Still a great deal on your MacBook. I've always gone for either low end systems or somewhat back of the bleeding edge higher-end stuff. I almost got a leftover Pismo back in 2001 myself, and therein is a story.

After the Macworld TiBook intro MacWarehouse Canada advertised some deep discounts on leftover Pismos, like Can$2,200 off the 500 MHz model. I calle them and the guy at the other end, said he thought all the 500 MHz machines offered at Can$2999 had been sold, but he checked, and came back on the line to say that there were still two left. He said he figured they would be gone by the end of the day. A 500 MHz Pismo including a 64 MB RAM upgrade for Can$2999 (about US$1,950 at the time) seemed like an exceptional deal. After all, a couple of months ago this same machine had been selling for Can$5,195 without the extra RAM. The 400 MHz TiBook was then priced at Can$3,895, which was out of my price range, but a 500 MHz Pismo at Can$2,995 seemed a much better value than the 400 MHz Pismo (also with 64 MB upgrade) that MacWarehouse was offering for Can$2,499 (roughly US$1,625. then).

I thought about it for twenty minutes, discussed it with my good wife, and phoned them back. I was told I should have the machine in about two days (Toronto is 1,200 miles from where I live).

I spent the next day mapping out the logistics of switching to the new computer. Two days later, the Priority Courier car arrived. "Parcel from MicroWarehouse," called my wife. Cool! I went to take a look. The box was about the size of my big Webster's dictionary. Uhh.... couldn't be a Pismo in there. Upon opening the box, we discovered that it was just the 64 MB RAM upgrade. Ah well. Probably the computer would arrive tomorrow.

The next morning. Priority came again=, still with no computer. I phoned MacWarehouse, an after talking with three different people and being dumped on hold about fifteen minutes, I was finally talking to an efficient fellow who I explained the situation to and gave him the order number, he asked me to relate my conversation on Monday with the sales guy - a seemingly odd request. I was put on hold again. A few minutes later he came back.

"Here's what happened," he said. "We had two of the 500 MHz machines on Monday, and 12 orders. The first two credit cards that cleared got the PowerBooks. And the RAM? Shipping department error. I had specified that the RAM not be installed, for which there was an extra 25 dollar charge, and shipping person sent it out without the computer. And yes, my credit card had been dinged 35 dollars for the shipment. Kevin gave me an RMA number and a courier account number to use to return the RAM. There were still about 25 of the 400 MHz machines left, I was. However, I was somewhat ticked and decided against reordering one of those, which in hindsight was a dumb decision

Instead I bought an open box G4 Cube, which I liked, but it was no laptop, and I'm a laptop junkie. I ended up trading the Cube even for a year-old 500 MHz Pismo in October, '01, and I'm still using that machine daily as my "utility" computer.

As for keyboards, my general rule is that the key action can't be too light to suit me, and "firmness" is not a quality that appeals. You have a Matias 'board, I'm guessing the one with the Alps mechanical keyswitches, which I find impressive, but which has my arms burning and in pain from fingertips to shoulder after about five minutes typing. While I agree that the MacBook hits the value and form factor sweet spot, the KB issue might be a compelling reason to go MacBook Pro. I know I can live with that keyboard.

That wire basket sounds like a really good laptop stand!

Charles

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Tivo versus DirecTV HDDVR, Part 4

by Marc Zeedar macopinion@designwrite.com

Commercial Skipping
Both devices let you fast-forward through commercials (or whatever), but DirecTV adds a 30-second skip button right on the remote control. Tivo also has this feature... sort of. On Tivo the feature is disabled by default and you must activate it by pressing a certain sequences of buttons while a show is playing (it's Select-Play-Select-3-0-Select, if you're curious; Tivo does not promote this feature). If you do it right, you'll hear three dings, which means it's active. After that, Tivo's "jump" button becomes a 30-second skip. If your Tivo reboots for any reason (software update, power outage, crash, etc.) you'll need to re-active this feature. I am so used to this being active it throws me if I'm using someone else's Tivo and they don't have this activated.

Once Tivo's 30-second skip is active, it works great. In fact, it's slightly better than DirecTV's. Well, I suppose it is a matter of preference. Here's the difference: Tivo's skip is instantaneous. You press it and suddenly it's 30 seconds later. Press it four times and it's two minutes later. This means you can skip through commercials really fast.

On the other hand, DirecTV's 30-second skip actually fast-forwards through the time. It does it pretty quickly -- perhaps two seconds -- but you get a series of frames from the commercials you're skipping. Sometimes that can be good. For instance, I love Apple's commercials and on Tivo I might never even see them, while on DirecTV I can see that I skipped one and rewind to watch it. This also works for other commercials that are either funny, cool, or unusual, so if you like commercials (I do), the DTV approach isn't bad. But it is slightly slower, especially if you're trying to advance by several minutes, but one nice touch is that it will resume playing the moment you press Play (it will stop fast-forwarding and immediately begin to play so if you pressed it too many times, you can effectively cancel out of the skipping).

In the end, I'm voting this one a tie. They both work, but Tivo's has to be activated and DirecTV's is not instantaneous, so it's a wash.

Winner: Tie

Managing Programs
Once you've got a bunch of shows recorded, you'll have to manage those shows. That means scrolling through the list to pick a show to watch, deleting shows you don't want any more, marking shows to not be automatically deleted, and so forth. Here we see some dramatic differences between the units.

Both display the shows in a list, but Tivo gives you several choices of how that list can be organized (by date, by name, with or without folders, etc.). DirecTV also has configuration options: the default is by date with shows in their own folders, but you can sort by category and reverse the order if you'd like.

But where Tivo shines is in the subtleties. A significant one is that Tivo remembers where you are in the list. For instance, if my list of shows is five screens tall and I scroll down four screens and pick a show and watch it, when I return to the list, I'm still four screens down right where I was before. This is tremendously helpful when watching several of the same show.

On DirecTV's DVR, it always jumps you to the top of the list. This is annoying if you were at the bottom and need to go back down there. DirecTV's list is also shorter than Tivo's (six shows versus eight) meaning that it takes extra button pushes to scroll to the bottom (only a problem if you have tons of recorded shows, like me).

Another annoyance is deleting shows. It's a common habit for me to wait to delete shows until I'm absolutely sure I'm done with them. Also, because I do a weekly soccer podcast, I'll save all the soccer games I watch until I'm finished recording the podcast (in case I need to review something in a match for the podcast). When I'm done with all the shows I delete them. That means I'm often deleting 10 or 12 shows at once. On Tivo, I can do that with 10 or 12 pushes of the "clear" button. Each show instantly vanishes from the list. On DirecTV, I have to answer a "Delete this show? Yes/No?" dialog -- and it's slow to show and even slower to go away (for some reason it takes several seconds to delete a show). This makes deleting shows, at least in my situation, much more of a hassle.

[Update: A few days after I wrote the above, I noticed that the DTV HDDVR has a multi-delete function. It's buried in the "Playlist Options" menu and is called "Mark programs to delete." Selecting that lets you place check-marks next to programs to mark them for deletion and then you can delete them all with one push of a button. Nice! There also is a shortcut: you can double-press the "dash" key to delete a show immediately without a warning.]

Tivo also has a handy "undelete" feature: deleted shows are placed in a "Deleted Shows" folder where they will get overwritten (oldest first) if the Tivo needs the room. Otherwise they are there for you to retrieve if you change your mind or deleted something by accident.

DirecTV's show management isn't unusable -- it's functional -- but just not as easy or convenient as Tivo's. It does have several nice touches, however. One is that the titles of shows you've already started watching are shown in gray. That can be helpful to remind you, "Oh, I was halfway through that cooking show. I'd better finish it so I can delete it."

Another nicety is that DirecTV will let you play all the items in a folder. That's great if you wanted to archive some shows to a VCR or DVD burner, or if you just wanted to watch several episodes of a show in succession.

Winner: Tivo

Next Time: Managing Schedules and Searching

macopinion@designwrite.com

Tivo versus DirecTV HDDVR, Part 3

by Marc Zeedar macopinion@designwrite.com

Guide
Tivo's Guide is brilliant: I've written about it before but it's a marvel of interface design. It uses a unique two-column approach that packs a lot of information on the screen at once.

Tivo's on-screen Guide makes it easy to see what shows are coming up on a particular channel. Notice how we can see all the shows on channel 12 (Fox) from 7 p.m. to midnight. We can also see the current show on eight different channels in the left column.