posted by acaben
on Friday January 31, @11:55AM
from the guts-guts-guts dept.
brian writes "Have you been itching to disassemble that new PB G4 12"? Worried you won't get it all back together? You can save yourself the trouble, because someone has already done it for you, and taken some nice pictures to document the process. (Descriptions in japanese, but the pictures speak for themselves.)" If we're lucky, we'll have the English translations from one of our "clearly smarter than Ben" Japenese translators in the comments soon.
by
Anonymous Coward
on Friday January 31, @05:52PM (#7460)
I ordered a refurbished iBook around 1/28. The order page said 30 days. After the order was placed, the status page said 3/12/2003--over 45 days! Then, it showed as 'shipped' on the 30th--total elapsed time, two days. Unfortunately, I'm in FL, the book is in CA, and I cheaped out and chose ground. But, I've got other things to do this weekend that *definately* would not get done if I had a shiny new toy around, so it's for the best. Anyway, I think the rfb stuff is just laying around, so I don't know if it's comparable to the wait on new gear, especially a new model like the 12" or 14" PB. Good luck!
i cant help but think how cool it would be to take that tiny machine and make it a full on mini-pda/palmtop. i hate current pdas, they are just glorified addr. books, imagine taking away the dvd, HD and huge batt. space from the 12" aIbook, the actually brains of the machine are tiny. you coud come out with something the size of... 2 iPods, maybe a fold open wide olcd screen. no keyboard just streamlined trakpad(touch screen sucks) and some buttons. would have all the power of the g4 to do anything you wanted. plug it into an iserver and run a terminal on your screen to ssh to the iserve, plug in an externa firewire drive and you got the g4 proc to run any app you want. record tivo style and watch it later, or edit the movies(ok thats hard on the tiny screen but im sure you could). but ok just really the extra space of the other parts take up 3/4 the case, loose them and give me the media pod.
"The prejudice rose it does, party starting!" is my favorite translation since "sucked ass" became "donkey sunction" on a dual translation. I assume that "rose" is actually Apple?
Currently I have an iBook 600, my girlfriend has a CRT iMac 500; it was time for an upgrade, and Apple couldn't have timed it better for us.
I'm *really* looking forward to burning DVDs on these things ;)
Full spec: 640Mb, 60Gb, Superdrive, Airport Extreme (there seemed little point in buying the base model - I want these things to last a couple of years).
by
Anonymous Coward
on Friday January 31, @02:01PM (#7598)
I went to CrapUSA a few moments ago to check out the new 12" and I have to say that I was a bit unimpressed. There were tons of visible fingerprints all over that aluminum, and the OS felt sluggish. It feels and looks cutesy, like an iBook.
I really like how the PowerBook looks very elegant, even under the keyboard. It's almost like looking under the hood of any recently-built German luxury (or even a VW) car. Very very clean design.
Wow, that's amazing... I wonder if he got it back together again and if it worked... The tiny fan is very impressive...
But all of this is driving me nuts. My 12" G4 PB isn't supposed to ship until "on or before 02/18/2003" (or 18/02/2003 for our calendar-challenged over-the-pond folks).
I just found out I'm heading to Phoenix on 2/21 for a week and would love to take my new baby, so the waiting game has turned into a desperate wait game.
Are Apple's system ship dates usually conservative? Any chance it'll ship before that? (I'm also wondering if it's possible to call them and change my shipping method from regular to overnight....)
From the intro at the top of the Powerbook Page:
The rose to do 12 inch PowerBook G4, is technology and courage (laughing) is necessary.
Putting the one which is challenged on the basis of the information of this sight, to self responsibility please refer to. (You adhere and the rose do party)
Looks like I just found my new sig..."You adhere and the rose do partly." Genius.
There's a link on the right hand side of the page to pipe the site through babelfish. Of course, the translation isn't going to put any Japanese language scholars out of business, but you can get the gist of the descriptions...
And you perhaps expect to run it plugged into the wall all the time?
Sure, the "large" (in PDA/handheld dimensions) battery needs to power the hard drive, optical drive, and large ("huge" by PDA/handheld dimensions :) screen, but it also only lasts 5 hours. Pulling the drives and shrinking the screen to the size of a bitty handheld's would let you shrink the battery considerably, but then no one wants a handheld that runs only five hours, so it'd need to get bigger again to give it a proper handheld runtime.
It's the G4's fault. It's really not suited to handheld type devices. The G3 isn't much better. And before you bring up the varius embedded processor versions of the PowerPC, consider that Apple didn't even use one of those for the iPod.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love a handheld running full Mac OS X, regardless of what processor it had (as long as current software runs), and even in the bulky form factor of a Newton MP2x00. I just don't expect to see it any time soon, if ever.
Comparing the size of the motherboard in a notebook to the overall size of a handheld is very misleading. If you want to be even slightly realistic, you should compare it to the size of the motherboards INSIDE handheld devices, and even then you're ignoring the vast differences in design of the processors, OS, support chips (most handhelds use embedded or combo display/IO circuitry), storage (Flash RAM vs. disk based), etc.
Interesting that I read a thread on 12"PB's and the find a discussion on the proper syntax for dates/time... and then I stumble across a message with my Birthday...
Made me chuckle. So... remember me in 6 more months... and say happy bday!"Gravity... not just a good idea, it's the law!
I see two possible scenarios for this - one, CompUSA isn't doing enough to keep its Apple display tidy and neat (so what else is new); two, some idiot who'd just gotten done eating a Krispy Kreme thought it'd be cool to take the new PowerBook for a drive. Having no idea of common courtesy, they didn't bother to wash up beforehand. It's no wonder I rarely go into CompUSA.
I had to replace my iBook hdd about 2 months ago. This looks Much Easier. The only problem I had after reassembling the iBook was the speakers don't work anymore. So far I don't have the motivation to open her up again just for that.
Took the better part of 4 hours to do the whole thing. --
I want to buy some cheese.
Oh, I thought you were complaining about the bazouki player!
You can say the same back to me, since the sample date I picked is my birthday, as well. (:
(Why not? Any day of the month of 12 or less is appropriate to use for illustration of possible month/day order confusion. "Hmm, '12,' that sounds familiar... might as well use my birthday." :)
When giving someone the date, the most relevant part is the day ("it's the 15th"), then the month ("it's the 15th of January"), then the year (it's the 15th of January 2003"). This is because most people know what month it is, and pretty much everyone knows what year it is, but they forget what day it is all the time.
This logic also applies to time, where the most relevant item is the hour ("it's about 2pm"), the next most relevant item is the minutes ("it's about 2:17pm") and finally the least relevant is seconds ("it's 2:17pm and 43 ... 44 ... 45 ... 46 seconds").
This is becuase people need to know if it's close to lunch time, and then just how close to lunch time it really is. Of course, time is an illusion (and lunch time doubly so), but that's a whole 'nother thread.
:-p
(This post brought to you by the numbers 1, 45, and the letters p and m...).
by
Anonymous Coward
on Monday February 03, @11:22PM (#26578)
I just bought this thing and I am anxiously waiting for its arrival Wed... I got some time on hand, so what the heck...
Complete translation:
[...] contains implied information I've added on my own to make the sentence flow better in English.
First page:
To completely disassemble a 12" PowerBook G4, it takes a certain level of skill and courage (smile). If you will be challenging [the disassembly] based on the information on this site, please do so at your own risk. (The Fussiest Disassembly Team)
*The smallest and the most affordable PowerBook G4.
*Necessary Tools: #00 screwdriver, hex wrench (1/16" or 1.5 mm). Anti-static mat and Corona
Beam [a static removal device] would make the job even easier.
*First, take out the battery. This is the same as for iBook.
*Using the screwdriver, remove the cover for the memory slot.
*Remove the memory. Be aware of the static electricity...
*Using the screwdriver, remove 8 screws on the sides of the PowerBook.
*Remove F1, 2, 11 and 12 keys in order to remove screws under the keyboard. Pull while using a tweezer to lift.
*Remove stickers covering the screws.
*Using the screwdriver, remove two screws fixing the keyboard.
*Keyboard can now be removed, but be careful with the flat cable. These steps are the same as
iBook and PowerBook G4/15.
by
Anonymous Coward
on Sunday February 02, @06:21PM (#26651)
I've actually always found the American representation of dates counter intuitive. It makes more sense to me to order things in ascending or descending order of value or unit size. Time, for example is usually written in descending order of unit size - hours, minutes, seconds. The date is usually written in ascending order of unit size, starting with the day, not the month. I am unaware of any other country that chooses to represent the date in this peculiar fashion. Also, do you know that you mispell and mispronounce the word aluminium ? What a curious country America is. Though perhaps not so curious as Japan. 'Welcome to the chamber of fussiest people' ?
by
Anonymous Coward
on Tuesday February 04, @09:57PM (#26815)
Second page
*The top case under the keyboard. Nothing inside is visible. Interesting to note that the magnet is fixed in place with a piece of tape.
*Remove the aluminum tape and disconnect the keyboard connector. Unlike older models, it's not so easy for users to disconnect.
*Remove the keyboard connector along with the flat cable. Do *NOT* remove just the [flat] cable.
*Remove two pieces of aluminum tape and disconnect three connectors. If you don't do this, you may cut wires when the top case is removed.
*Remove screws in order. First the hex then 12 Phillips screws. Note that screws are different sizes.
*The top case and the bottom case are fixed at two notches in the front left and right; insert a [plastic] card in the gap and detach carefully.
*A view of the notch fixing the top and bottom cases. The picture is of two [notches] in the battery compartment. The aluminum piece has plastic notches attached which are easily broken.
*View after the top case is removed. The parts configuration is similar to that of iBook's DualUSB. Tapes used to fix the cables cheapen the appearance.
*Disassembly must be carried out to this point to exchange the hard disk. Could be a difficult and tedious work.
*The hard disk is fixed with two screws and is easy to change. Remove metal pieces holding the hard disk on the left and the right.
by
Anonymous Coward
on Saturday February 22, @12:06AM (#27801)
Actually, we're both right(no matter what color, er, um... colour our flag is)
from word-detective.com:
Dear Word Detective: I have a question about which is the original spelling of the word "aluminium" (or "aluminum" depending on where in the world you grew up). I have been told that the English spelling with the extra "i" is correct, yet a lot of Americans swear that it is spelled incorrectly outside of the U.S. -- G. Craven, Phoenix, AZ.
Golly, can't we all just get along? Then again, I must admit that the British pronunciation "al-yoo-min-ee-um" has been driving me mildly bats since I first heard it on TV when I was about ten years old. I remember staring at the American spelling "aluminum" in a magazine shortly thereafter and wondering where on earth the Brits had found that extra "i." (While we're at it, the other thing that has been bothering me for years is the British pronunciation of "Nicaragua," which is along the lines of "nick-uh-rahg-yoo-ah." Something about that gives me the fantods.)
In the case of "aluminum" (as I will spell it because this is, after all, my column), we can pin the whole mess on Sir Humphry Davy, the English chemist who discovered the stuff back in 1807. Indulging in the perversity of which historical figures seem fond, Davy named his discovery not "aluminum," nor even "aluminium," but "alumium," basing the term on the Latin "alumen," meaning "alum," a substance drawn from the same mineral that had been used since ancient times for dyeing hides and the like. This is all a bit confusing, but we can take comfort in the fact that Davy was apparently a bit befuddled too. Around 1812 he decided that the proper name of his discovery was not "alumium," but actually "aluminum." Almost immediately Davy was besieged by other scientists who pointed out that if Davy would just add an "i" to make the term "aluminium," it would fall into line with such other substance names as "sodium" and "calcium" and, in their words, "sound more classical." So Davy named it yet again, this time to "aluminium," and the "ium" form became standard in both the U.S. and Great Britain.
Unfortunately, many people in the U.S. had evidently stopped listening by that point and continued to call the stuff "aluminum," and this spelling became so widespread that it was eventually adopted as the standard in the U.S. "Aluminium," however, is the official spelling used by international chemical societies. One hopes that Sir Humphry Davy, wherever he may be, is at last happy.
