http://richardfreewill.blogspot.com/

However, nobody has mentioned anything about the keyboard. I think the old Powerbook keyboards are more solid and reflexive than the new klikity-klaks. Anybody agree?

The fact that we’re debating and not coming up with a good way to replace it shows, in a way, how perfect it was. There was a moment in time when it did everything it needed to in the environment that existed then. And for many of us (me included), it still comes pretty close.

The inherent frustration that’s evident in some of these comments (and others) over the lacks of a suitable replacement is, sadly, to me an indication that no suitable replacement is coming – and that one day, we’ll probably all have to bite the bullet and upgrade/retire. Snow Leopard is going to be a big hurdle if it is really good and Intel-only, as I’ve read.

Still: I sold my PB12 when I bought my first Macbook Pro – and totally regretted it. Man, did I regret it! Then my brother bought a Macbook. I offered him $500 and a bicycle that was in my garage for it. He’s riding the bike, and I’m using the machine. I hardly ever carry the Macbook Pro around…

I had and fell in love with the
12″ PBG4, the 1.5Ghz best of breed. I got it for free from my sister, much abused and dented and covered in stickers (the computer, not the sister!) $300 got me a new external housing, a bigger HD, and the maximum 1.25GB RAM. It came with Panther, went through Tiger, and even ran Leopard (albeit with a bit of beach balling).

The plastic MacBooks were never a worthy replacement for my beloved PBG4, but the aluminum ones? I bought the 2.4Ghz one the week it came out from the Apple Store Fifth Avenue. And I’ve loved it. It hasn’t yet developed a soul like my PB had, but after another year of journeys, stories, and dents, it will get there :) it is a worthy successor.

That being said, the only disappointing thing about the Unibody is the lack of Firewire. Being a long time Firewire user and seeing its clear edge against USB, I have invested a considerable amount of money on Firewire disks and cameras, and while most of them are also USB compatible, they’re much slower and I felt that Apple is backstabbing us who bought their words and went Firewire.

Despite all of those changes in primary hardware, my travel machine remains a 12″ PowerBook (my first 1 GHz model). Even at the ripe old age of six, the PowerBook does just fine on modern software, runs long enough on its battery, and delivers a terrific user experience in the smallest footprint possible for a full-featured computer.

It’s not that I disagree with your viewpoints, but I believe that by going to a 12″ screen everything else changes. The expense, the power available, the “thinness”, maybe even more. When every nook and cranny is precious, you can’t lop off an inch or two and expect it not to cost you somewhere else in the design.

I’d love to think of a 12″ MacBook or MacBook Air as exactly the same as the current model, only smaller. But what I’m trying to say is that that would NOT be the case. Something would have to be sacrificed in the move to a smaller screen. I’ll be the first to admit that, for many, the sacrifices would be worth it. But I have to wonder if that’s true for consumers as a whole. It would appear Apple didn’t think so.

I totally agree with you there Kendall! =)

The MacBook Air is NOT small. It is just thin and LIGHT. But in the strive to be thin, they became, well, “fat” in a sense and “bigger.” Now if they could trim that all down and become, oh I don’t know, a 12-inch screen??, then they’d have a winner on their hands.

The world’s thinnest, lightest, and now smallest Apple notebook ever made. (Yes, dreams do come true).

Now wouldn’t that be a great tagline. Hmm… I should be writing my own article to respond to all this.

(Long live the 12-inch PowerBook G4!!).

For that reason I think they really missed the point of a small notebook computer when they built the MacBook Air. That said I would still love an Air but I could not possibly justify the cost when what I want is just as possible to make.

Alas, I have given up on expecting a 4:3 ratio for notebooks. Make no mistake, I long for it, and bemoan the laptop world’s move to 16:10. It’s not just in laptops, but all-in-one computers as well. And even among external monitors a 4:3 is hard to find.

So you have my sympathies, but I just don’t see it happening. LCD makers cut widescreens for TVs, none of them want to shift over to 4:3 just for computers.

Heck, I’m just happy Apple hasn’t yet moved to the even-worse 16:9 ratio a lot of hardware makers are moving to. Believe me, that change is coming.

As it is, the best I felt I could reasonably expect was that the 12″ PB “replacement” have at least a resolution of 1280 x 800, which slightly betters the old PB’s vertical resolution.

The current MacBook is sexy, for sure… it’s just not the machine the 12″ Powerbook was.