Tag Archives | Laptops

A Guide to Laptop Accessories, and the Avoidance Thereof

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 21, 2009 at 7:08 am

WePCI’ve guestblogged again over at WePC.com–my latest topic is notebook accessories and my preference for traveling light. I try not to carry many of ’em and have a preference for ones that are easy to tote. I also admire the thinking behind such innovations as Compaq’s built-in AC adapter, HP’s built-in mouse, and Canon’s built-in printer, even though the later two were a tad odd and none appeared to be successful.

Check out the post for more thoughts–while you’re there, leave a comment with your thoughts on notebook accessories, and check out the WePC contest. They’re giving away a bunch of gaming PCs, notebooks, and netbooks.

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A 20th Anniversary Tribute to a Misunderstood Machine

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 20, 2009 at 11:11 pm

Macintosh PortableOn September 20th 1989, Apple announced its first true portable computer, which it called–logically enough–the Macintosh Portable. And ever since, folks have been tearing it down: It was too big and heavy, the screen was hard to read, and it offered too little for too much money. Whenever anyone starts to list Apple’s worst flops, you can be pretty sure the Portable will come up.

Only one person I know, however, has literally torn down the Mac Portable. That would be computer historian extraordinaire Benj Edwards, who not only owns a vintage example but dissected it on his workbench. He documented the process with photographs, and I’m delighted to say that we’re celebrating the 20th anniversary of this unusual but important Apple computer with his report on what he found–from a huge honkin’ lead-acid battery to the signatures of the Mac engineering team.

View Inside the Macintosh Portable slideshow.

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Macintosh Portable (1989) vs. MacBook Air (2009)

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 20, 2009 at 10:42 pm

Today, September 20th, marks the twentieth anniversary of the first truly mobile Mac, the Macintosh Portable. (For 1980s computers, all the compact Macs were surprisingly portable–they even sported convenient handles–but they couldn’t run off batteries.) When you hear the Portable mentioned at all these days, it’s mostly to mock its size–rather hefty even by late 1980s standards and absurd today. But we’re celebrating its birthday with Benj Edwards’ revealing teardown.

Benj contrasts the Mac Portable to the iPhone and iPod Touch–which makes sense, since they’re both truly portable computers, ones that are vastly more powerful and less expensive than the Mac Portable. They aren’t, however, Macs. So here’s a quick comparison of the Portable with today’s most portable Mac, the MacBook Air. Like its 1989 ancestor,  it’s been criticized for being compromised and pricey–especially the original early 2008 version. But can you imagine the dropping of jaws you would have witnessed if Apple fans of 1989 had been able to peek into the future and see the Air?

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Inside the Macintosh Portable

Posted by Benj Edwards on September 20, 2009 at 10:06 pm

Inside the Mac Portable

A Misunderstood Machine

On September 20th, 1989, Apple released the Macintosh Portable, the first true mobile Mac and a much-maligned machine. It didn’t sell well and is very rare today–not due to any particular design failure, but because the original price was a whopping $6,500-$7,300 ($11,288 to $12,677 in 2009 dollars). It wasn’t the only Mac to cost that much, but others in that price range offered top-of-the-line performance. The Portable was both too expensive and too underpowered to catch on. Its large size didn’t help, either.

Apple vastly improved upon the design two years later with the PowerBook 100, the first true Mac notebook. For now, though, it’s time to honor the design achievements of Apple’s first battery-powered computer. I’ve found there’s no better way to do that than take it apart on my trusty workbench.

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HP’s Windows 7 PC Extravaganza

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 14, 2009 at 9:38 pm

HP LogoWe’re a little over a month away from the launch of Windows 7–which means that a lot of new PCs are also imminent. Tonight, HP is announcing a bunch of new laptops, along with one desktop. I had a chance to see them recently; herewith, some thoughts.

I was most taken with two new notebooks called the Envy13 and Envy15. These 13- and 15-inch models are the successors to the Envy 133, an extremely slick machine from HP subsidiary Voodoo PC, and their appearance presumably marks the end of Voodoo as a separate brand. The new Envys are unquestionably aimed at the sort of  well-heeled, style-conscious computer buyers who might otherwise buy MacBook Pros–they’ve got cases that combine aluminum and magnesium (which HP says provides a better balance of lightness and strength than Apple’s all-aluminum unibody design), touchpads with integrated buttons (yes, like Apple’s), bright screens, function keys that (unlike most on Windows PCs) don’t make you press the Fn key, and “slice” extended batteries that make them a bit thicker . (HP says that the Envy13’s extended battery will power it for 18 hours.)

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New Dell Adamo: How Thin Can You Go?

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 9, 2009 at 2:39 pm

Dell has a teaser site up for the Adamo XPS, a new laptop in its luxury Adamo line. It has nothing to say about the system except that it’s 9.99mm thick–presumably at its thinnest point. That’s compared to the original Adamo‘s thickness of 16.5mm, and the MacBook Air’s 4mm-19.4mm. (Unlike Apple, Dell quotes only one figure even though the case looks similarly tapered.)

Dell Adamo XPS

It makes no sense to have an opinion on the new Adamo until we know something about its specs and its price, but I’m glad to see Dell make some machines in which serious engineering, not specs-for-the-price-point, is the guiding principle. With Microsoft’s Windows ads entirely focused on promoting Windows econoboxes, it’s easy to forget that the slickest Windows laptops give Macs a run for their money (at–mysteriously enough–similar price points).

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Would You Buy a Touch PC?

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 9, 2009 at 7:36 am

Touch PCI’ve guestblogged again at WePC.com–this time about touchscreen PCs, which are apparently a trend that’s set to explode (or try to, anyhow) once Windows 7 ships. I think that Windows 7 will help–it’s the first version of Windows with built-in support for touch input–but that a lot more has to happen before touch computers have a shot at being a hit rather than a fad. Check out my thoughts and let the WePC.com community know what, if anything, would convince you to buy a touch-enabled PC.

While you’re there, you might want to investigate the WePC.com contest. The site’s giving away gaming PCs, laptops, and netbooks to folks who provide the most insightful answers to questions  (or who are just lucky enough to win in regular drawings).

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Twenty-One Peculiar Portables

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 7, 2009 at 11:44 pm

LaptopiaWith laptops outselling desktops, the majority of today’s computers share the same design: They’ve got an LCD display and a keyboard, and a hinge in the middle, and they’re small enough to take just about anywhere. It just works. But that hasn’t stopped a lot of inventors from trying to top it. I’ve collected some notable examples from the treasure trove that is Google Patents. Would you have bought any of ’em?

View Laptopia slide show.

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Laptopia! The World’s Weirdest Portable Computers

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 7, 2009 at 10:29 pm

LaptopiaThere aren’t many pieces of technological design that simply can’t be improved upon, but the clamshell-style laptop computer case–introduced by Grid Systems in 1982–may be one of them. That’s why the vast majority of the portable computers built ever since have used it. But for more than a quarter-century now, inventors have been trying to top it, with folding screens, screens on stalks, folding keyboards, two-screen clamshells, tri-fold clamshells, and more. Most never even get off the drawing board. Herewith, a gallery of designs from Google Patents (click the filing dates to see the patents). There’s only one in here I might have considered buying, but on some perverse level I admire them all.

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