Many Titanium PowerBook ???, I'm PC based and making the big switcheroo.

Factual Questions
1

Where to begin? I am in the market for a Titanium PowerBook, so that I can begin a career as a video editor. I am told that just today, Apple came out with yet a newer and hotter TiBook. GOOD news for me, now the TiBook that is out is 2nd Generation. Yay !

However, I’m PC through and through. Can anyone point me in the direction of a good beginning book on how to use PowerBooks? I know that may sound silly since Apple’s big thing is being “user friendly”, but hey- I’m asking.

Additionally, where should I shop for used Titanium PowerBooks. Googling it didn’t help, the one site that seemed to be a great one kept crashing my computer when I entered it ( really very strange ).

Help??? Thanks in advance to MacHead Dopers everywhere, teach me…teach me.

Cartooniverse

2

Welcome to the bright side :wink:

New powerbook info here

Source for older Mac stuff

Great source for Mac pricing in general. (searchable forum at bottom of page)

3

Congratulations on your improved taste in computing! :smiley:

A good book? Well, there isn’t a book specifically for the TiBooks as I recall, but a good book for learning the operating system can’t hurt. I’d recommend David Pogue’s MacOS X: The Missing Manual, for his depth of coverage, ease of reading, and general all-around goodness.

For used computers, try Small Dog Electronics for a start (look under “refurbs”). Apple Computer also sells refurbished computers at their web store (look under “Hot Deals”), though it’s hit-and-miss if they’ll have a TiBook when you look, since their stock tends to vanish pretty quickly. You may also want to consider the earlier TiBook (the one before the new model announced today) – odds are good that most Mac retailers will cut the prices on those to make room for the new toys.

Hope this helps,

4

Forgot to answer the book question…In general, I would just get a “Mac OS for Dummies” kind of book…you’re more interested in learning the OS than specific questions about the hardware probably.

I like David Pogue as an author…he has books on both OSX and OS9 (not sure what OS you’re planning on running)…check Amazon.

5

rjung, I spoke in a somewhat clumsy manner. Yes, of course I’m delighted that the new TiBook debuted today, it’s a GOOD DAY to look for “older” TiBooks now. I suppose that in truth, the next few weeks are a good time to be looking…

Thank you both for the input. What if I MISS the Dark Side? :cool:

6

The TiBook you buy today may still be your primary (or only) computer in summer of 2006. (I’m typing this on my “WallStreet” PowerBook which I bought just as faster 'Books were coming out in 1999 and with aid of a few upgrades it continues to keep pace with newer hardware. And that is typical of Macs).

There are things that work the same way on PC and Mac: double-click things to open them or launch them. Click and drag to move things or resize them. Drag and drop to copy to another drive or open with the application onto which you dropped them. TCP is TCP pretty much wherever you go. Etc.

There are things where the underlying concept is identical but the means differs slightly: Instead of right-clicking and dragging and picking menu item to make a shortcut somewhere else, Command-Alt-Drag an item to make an alias somewhere else. To add items to an existing selection, hold down the shift key while drawing a marquee around them, or while clicking the additional items, instead of using the…what key is it under Windows anyway? Anyhow…to bring up a contextual menu, control-click it instead of right-clicking it (unless you’ve added a 3rd-party 2-button mouse). Instead of minimizing document windows, Windowshade them using the Windowshade widget. Instead of minimizing application windows, hide the application. For keystroke equivalents to menu commands, use the Command key instead of the Control key (Command-X to cut, Command-C to copy, Command-V to paste, etc). Trial and error will take you a long way with a lot of things – if your old PC way of doing things doesn’t work, try some close variations. (That’s how I learned the PC).

Then there are things that are just plain different and you’ll just have to learn to Think Different® sure enough. Instead of logging onto a workgroup or domain and establishing your rights to shares at startup time, you’ll mount individual volumes with username and password as you need them. Applications don’t have their own windows, so the various document windows of different applications are unenclosed by anything but the sides of your screen (you’ll like this the first time you want to view an open Excel sheet and an open web page while typing in your word procesor); and the menu at the top is modal, it belongs to the active application rather than having an application menu at the top of that application’s own window. Local volumes (hard drives and removables, including CDs) are identified by the volume itself rather than drive parameter or logical location (this tends to catch former Windows users off-guard. Instead of the A drive or the L drive being WHERE something is located as far as the OS is concerned, items are located on the specific medium that hold their actual bytes. Oh, and this is true for aliases, too. You can rename and move the original file and the alias still points to it. Understand this, O former Windows user, for it can bite you: if you rename your alias’s target file to Myfile (old) and place a newer version with the original file name in the same folder, guess which file the alias resolves to? Yep, the old one. Definitely not Windows behavior, right?)

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And before the PC’ers come in and start ripping the choice, I’d like to point out that it is the platform of choice for his chosen profession. I wouldn’t hire a carpenter if all he knew how to use was a wrench.

8

Ach du lieber. ALL of this help is much appreciated, but NurseCarmen?? I’m a PC’er. However, I’ve spent 15 years tied to a particular kind of camera technology and I understand all too well how life evolves in the software and hardware world. I’ve upgraded as I went, but the underlying idea remained the same.

To be honest, I’ve avoided Mac’s because for many years, it really WAS true that I could not find the same amount of software that I could find under the PC platform. That is simply no longer the case, and I understand that.

I’m kind of sorry I upgraded my PC a few months ago. Granted , the whole new machine only cost me about three hundred bucks ( home built ), but that could have been more RAM, or an external 60 Gig HD for the TiBook. ( Due to the kind of work I am going to go into, I will require not one, but a farm of external 40-80 Gig HD’s at all times ).

This is great, keep the ideas and comments going. Trust me, I’m sold. I will get a TiBook in the next month, and it will be a higher-end one at that. What I will NOT do is pop a grand or more for a separate Cinema LCD- the TiBook widescreen LCD is fine for me. I’ve already figured out how to vacuuform an ABS plastic moulded protective shield for a carrying bag…ahhh, the geeky heady thrill of jumping into a brand new technology. I LOVE IT !!

:stuck_out_tongue:

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CONGRATULATIONS!!!

I am also dying to upgrade from my original model tangerine ibook to a new and zippy tibook. The main fact that I haven’t yet is that:

(a) I’m supposed to be saving
(b) I don’t actually really need a new computer. This is because the ibook despite its age (3-4 yrs) is still a very good computer, which shows you how much mileage you can get out of a mac.

IMPORTANT DVD/CD ADVICE: you will notice that the top-end tibook on Apple’s site is custom built. By default, these computers come with a “Combo” drive (reads DVDs, writes and reads CDs). However you can order it specially-made with a “Superdrive” - this reads AND writes DVDs, AND reads and writes CDs. I would highly recommend this for you, as being a video editor you will then be able to burn your own DVD showreels and other productions.

And finally: for an Apple-related laugh, click here:
http://www.raytracer25.btinternet.co.uk/iToilet/itoilet.html

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The TiBook is very sweet,

www.macosrumors.com

… hinted that there’d be a third revision very soon. This is because my father bought one a few weeks ago (the top of the range mind) saying they’ll bring out a better one straight after he bites the bullet.

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Then we will bemoan your lack of good taste. :smiley:

Macintosh:Windows::Cecil Adams:Ann Landers :wink:

And flapcats, I wouldn’t trust the *MacOS Rumors * site any further than I can throw Bill Gates’ mansion. The webmaster just makes up his stuff 99% of the time anyway.

12

Just out of curiosity, why a Tibook? Aren’t you going to eventually need PCI slots for the good stuff, or can you just firewire and USB everything? Have fun!

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Are you sure this is an option with the TiBook? As far as I know, Apple does not offer a slot-loading “Superdrive” which the TiBook’s case would require. I’d be very happy to find out that I’m wrong.

14

istara, that is a very VERY great bit of advice. See, THAT is why I started this thread. The ability to burn DVD’s off of it is key, as mack is about to see.

Why a TiBook? Because, mack, I need the processing speed to edit video in realtime. Otherwise, I will forever be a slave to waiting for the edits to be crunched out, rendered so to speak. If I am to make a living with this machine, instead of just playing at making home music videos on it, then the ability to render and edit in realtime is essential.

I don’t even know enough about the hardware side to tell you if the External Drives I am going to buy attach by Firewire or USB…sad huh? Hey, live and learn.

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** S I G L I N E !!! ** :stuck_out_tongue:

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I’m about to go down to the Palisades Apple Store and get a brand new one. Apparently, they’ve got a deal that expires in 2 hours and 40 minutes. :smiley:

Titanium PowerBook, 512 Megs Ram, 30 Gig HD, 667 Mhz G4 chip, full accessories, $ 1,999.00. From what I am seeing, that is VERY hard to beat. It’s being done because of the new book that came out yesterday. I’m going for it.

Wish me luck. I’m gonna be all over this thread in the next few days, although I am indeed going to get Mac for Dopers…er…Dummies .

** I’M VERKLEMPT !!**. Oh, by the by, according to the Apple Lady, you can not yet buy a PowerBook anywhere on the planet that will let you burn a DVD- that capability is only in the desktop models.

More later !
:slight_smile:

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You can’t do that on a desktop G4?

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I can’t lug a Dual G4 on the bus into NYC every day. :smiley: If I am very, very lucky, I will wind up freelancing ( again…sigh…) and moving from client to client. The Titanium will allow me the power to render in realtime using Final Cut Pro, and be versatile enough to carry along into the city. I can fit that leviathan laptop, a spare 80 Gig Hard Drive, and toys, into a shoulder bag and not blow a cervical disk in my neck carrying it around.

I got it. I’m fairly overwhelmed, but I’ve got time to figure out what is what… I don’t even know where to begin, aside from getting out the fifty thousand page book I bought, and opening it up.

19

OK - that’s very disappointing if I’ve got it wrong - the boyfriend of a colleague bought a tibook, and I could have sworn she said it burn DVDs and CDs. I will check back with her.

If not, never mind. Perhaps Apple will bring out that option in the future.

Cartooniverse that deal sounds amazing! I am so jealous!! Please post back and tell us about using it and how wonderful it is.

20

>>Yawn<< Well, clearly this thing is going to require a paradigm shift. It IS frustrating to own a new toy and not be able to use it for much of a much. I resisted the urge to install AOL onto it. It does not come with any software that I can use without a digital camera for inputting imagery. I mean by that that it does of course have iMovie and iPhoto ( or whatever the photo manipulation software is called ), but I lack a DV cam. I do have some images stored on this P.C., and this afternoon will attempt to figure out how to import them into the TiBook.

It has no word processor…etc. These things will come to me of course, but for now it’s silly to try to go through a tutorial in the book I bought for it. On the vote of the employees at the Apple Store last night, I bought Click This, Muthah ! : The Inside Story of The Stolen Graphical Interface Scandal as a learning tool. :stuck_out_tongue:

Okay, sorry, I couldn’t resist. I got Mac OS X : The Missing Manual, by David Pogue who is apparently to Macintosh what Cecil Adams is to the factual realm we all yearn to exist in. Da Man. It seems pretty straightforward. The forward does make a few lifestyle suggestions but I’m trying not to bristle at them all.

What if I don’t want to wear Birkenstocks with black socks, keep a yoghurt maker in the fridge, buy granola at the food co-op weekly or grow my favorite “herbs” in a hydroponic system powered by the Solar Panels on the roof of my “A- Frame” ??? Some of this may be more of a struggle than others. :smiley:

istara, from what I was shown last night, it is an amazing deal. This machine lists at 2,899.00. Because it was a store demo sitting on the Genius Bar, it was marked down 1,100.00. I got it- LITERALLY- with 50 minutes left on the sale and upgrade package. I got lucky, and frankly after the 18 months I’ve had, I can use a run of really good luck, so please don’t hate me too much for scoring a nice deal on this. :slight_smile:

This machine will leave my hands in a few days, and will go to Texas to be converted into a DVD/CD-ROMW machine, ( That was the part of the deal that expired in 50 minutes, the upgrade was inexpensive and to my mind, essential. I OWN a DVD player, I need to be able to burn at least some QuickTime movies and normal files to a CD-ROM. I also must be able to protect the Edit List Files for jobs I am working on, and to do so means burning them to CD. It was a must. ) My queries will drop to nil at some point as a result of sending it off for upgrades. I know that there are Mac User BB’s galore, but if I come across some things early on that make no sense, I’d like to bring the queries to the people whose brains I trust the most- The Teeming Millions. So, I’m gonna keep feeding this thread with what may seem to be stupid questions for a while. Bear with me.

I’m psyched.