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"On second thought . . .
. . . make mine a PowerBook!"
In a previous rant on the subject of Apple’s new product announcements at Tokyo, I may have been hasty in my first impression of the new offerings. The best thing about the newest iBook is the new color choice and the extra ram. The best thing about the new G4 systems is they're finally running at 500 Mhz.
The best thing about the PowerBook? It’s still a PowerBook!
If you need the power and flexibility of a desktop Mac combined with mobility, don’t look to the iBook; get a PowerBook. Sure they cost nearly as much or more than a desktop , but you’re getting the best portable computer in the world. PowerBooks have always had a color and case design that allows them to fit into the business world but now they have features that make them ideal for the Audio world as well.
What can you do now to turn your G3 PowerBook into a killer Mobile Studio? How about PCI expansion via PC card. Almost any G3 PowerBook can be hooked up to Magma’s PCI expansion chassis; adding 4, 7 or 13 fully functional PCI slots. Some of Magma’s chassis are Digidesign approved for ProTools hardware systems and Creamw@re (Who has just released their Pulsar system for the Mac) has told MacRocks that all of their high end audio card solutions are compatible with Magma expansion devices.
So what does that mean? For a price, you can rack mount plenty of A/V card solutions as well as monitor cards, SCSI RAID cards, or what have you. A PowerBook, although having the external connection and extended desktop ability, will not drive the Apple 15” Studio Display. With PCI expansion in place, simply plug in a video card capable of driving the external LCD, such as one similar to that in the G3 and G4 minitowers and you're ready to go.
For recording, a small rack with any combination of digital audio cards and good SCSI card, etc., makes for not only pro quality digital recording, but also allows one to detach the CPU (PowerBook) from the recording and production gear. Something not always practical or convenient with a minitower.
Oh yeah, with all the possibilities of PCI expansion, I’ve overlooked some important features of the new PowerBook.
For your premium dollar, you get Two 400-Mbps FireWire (IEEE 1394) ports (Real FireWire Audio - We can't wait!), two 12-Mbps USB ports, one PC Card and CardBus slot, support for one Type I or Type II PC Card or CardBus card, built-in 10/100BASE-T Ethernet, support for dual-display mode and video mirroring on an external monitor (video projector, or TV through VGA and S-video output ports and hot-swappable expansion bay (accepts DVD-ROM drive and third-party peripherals such as Zip, SuperDisk, and hard disk).
The Magma PCI expansion chassis for PowerBook uses the expansion bay as means to connect the two. With the exception of that everything else listed above would, in theory, be available and fully functioning while using whatever in the PCI expansion. (FireWire and PCI!)
Since we’re throwing monopoly money around, why not go to the expense of custom rack mounting a NewerTechnoloy BookEndz docking device to make a quick transition from computing nomad to recording engineer?
So when considering the advantages and pitfalls of Apple's current offerings and how they apply to your needs, do not automatically rule out the PowerBook for it’s higher average cost per unit as well as peripherally. If you can swing the payments, it might be the perfect stage and studio solution.
- Cris
Cris@macrocks.com
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