PowerBook Price Cuts, Identifying TiBooks, 80 GB and 7200 RPM Laptop Hard Drives, and More

Charles Moore - 2003.06.06

Except as noted, prices are in US dollars.

• Apple Chops PowerBook Prices
• Apple Ninth in Laptop Sales Globally
• How to Identify Different PowerBook G4 Models
• DiskGO! USB Watch Flash Drive
• IBM-Hitachi 2.5" 'Book Drives up to 80 GB
• Hitachi Develops 7200 rpm Notebook Hard Drive
• Pixel Tester 2.4 Detects Dead Pixels On LCD Displays
• New Willow Mission Light 17" PowerBook Carry Case
• RacerX PowerBook Sleeve Cases
• Bargain 'Books

Apple Chops PowerBook Prices

The big news this week in the Apple portable orbit was some significant price cuts on new machines, which will of course filter down in the form of corresponding price drops on used units.

In the US, only the 12" LittleAl 'Book and 15" TiBook prices were reduced, but Canadians, who have complained that Apple's computer pricing has been slow to adjust to the roughly 12 percent rise in the value of the Loonie versus the US dollar since the first of the year, got a more comprehensive round of price cuts, including the 17" PowerBook and the iBook line as well as the 12" and 15" PowerBooks.

Prices of its 12" and 15" PowerBook G4 models dropped by up to US$300. The 12" PowerBook G4 is now available at $1,599, a reduction of $200, and the base 15" Titanium PowerBook is now available at $1,999 - a drop of $300. iBook prices have not been changed, but PowerBook prices and configurations are now as follows:

• PowerBook 12" Combo: $1,599
• PowerBook 12" SuperDrive: $1,799
• PowerBook G4 Titanium 867 MHz: $1,999
• PowerBook G4 Titanium 1 GHz: $2,599
• PowerBook G4 1 GHz 17": $3,299

In the Great White North, the Apple Canada Store now offers the BigAl PowerBook 17" for $4,699, down from $5,299, but still higher than in the US at the current exchange of $1.00 US = $1.37 Canadian (1 CAD = 0.73 USD), even though the U.S. price on this model (US$3,299) has not been cut.

Other Canadian Apple portable prices (in Canadian dollars):

• iBook 12" CD-ROM: $1,429
• iBook 12" Combo: $1,849
• iBook 14" Combo: $2,149
• PowerBook 12" Combo: $2,249
• PowerBook 12" SuperDrive: $2,549
• PowerBook 15 Combo: $2,849
• PowerBook 15 SuperDrive: $3,699

Apple Ninth in Laptop Sales Globally

c|net's John G. Spooner reported this week that:

"Hewlett-Packard was king of the hill in notebook PC shipments during the first quarter...

"Meanwhile, Apple Computer ranked ninth, with 298,000 units shipped. Apple was behind eighth-ranked Acer's 428,000 units, but Apple shipped more than twice as many units as tenth-placed Gateway, which mustered only 111,000 units during the quarter."

How to Identify Different PowerBook G4 Models

Apple has posted a new Knowledge Base article explaining how to distinguish the various PowerBook G4 computers from one another.

DiskGO! USB Watch Flash Drive

Peripheral Enhancements Corporation has announced that it has partnered with PC Connection, Inc. to launch the new EDGE DiskGO! USB Watch Flash Drive. This latest offering from Peripheral's DiskGO! line of USB products will be sold exclusively through PC Connection over the next thirty days.

The DiskGO! Watch is available in 128 MB and 256 MB capacities and serves as a fully functional watch with an integrated USB 1.1 Flash Drive. The DiskGO! Watch plugs directly into virtually any computer's USB port and is plug-and-play compatible with all popular operating systems. The DiskGO! Watch immediately appears as a hard drive on the user's desktop, allowing easy transfer and storage of pictures, MP3s, slide presentations, spreadsheets and other data. The Watch's USB 1.1 drive writes at 1 MB per second and reads at 4.2 MB per second. Secure Password Protection software is built-in for added security.

"Gone are the days of users carrying a heavy laptop, low-capacity floppy disks, or other cumbersome media from the office to home, or from the office across the country simply to transport important files. The DiskGO! Watch provides the ability to take a PowerPoint file, for instance, to a meeting across the country, while serving as an attractive wristwatch," said Brian Sartorius, Vice President of Operations for Peripheral Enhancements.

Kandi Stinson, VP Sales for the company, commented "We're excited to be the first in the U.S. to offer this unique product to the market and are pleased that PC Connection has partnered with us for the launch. Our success with our existing DiskGO! USB Flash drives prompted us to explore other form factor options and a wristwatch was a unique and natural choice."

EDGE Memory DiskGO! USB Watch Flash Drives are exclusively available for purchase at pcconnection.com and will be broadly released to other Peripheral partners in early July.

IBM-Hitachi 2.5" 'Book Drives up to 80 GB

The Hitachi Travelstar 80GN is a 9.5 mm high, 4200 rpm, 2.5" mobile hard disk drive. The Travelstar 80GN brings a 26th generation addition to the long line of Travelstar family drives.

The innovative hard drive design combines AFC Media, Fluid Dynamic Bearing (FDB) motor technology, Giant Magnetoresistive (GMR) heads, Partial Response Maximum Likelihood (PRML) digital channel, head load/unload technology, Enhanced Adaptive Batter Life Extender™ (ABLE) 3.0, and an ATA/100 interface. With this design, the Travelstar 80GN provides exceptional quietness, storage capacity, performance, power management and quality required by today's demanding notebook systems.

The new Travelstar 80GN breaks current areal density records by allowing up to 70 Gb per square inch to be written on each disk. This was achieved by adding another coating of "Pixie Dust" - or an additional ruthenium/magnetic layer to create a five-layer sandwich called laminated - "Pixie Dust". These additional layers bring even higher thermal stability to the media, allowing data recording at ultrahigh densities while maintaining data-integrity.

As a result, the Hitachi Travelstar drives are suitable for demanding, high capacity Internet, digital audio, video streaming, and real-time multimedia applications - whether users are in the office or on the road.

The Hitachi Travelstar 80GN hard drive uses proven storage technologies such as TrueTrack Servo, Drive Fitness Test™ (DFT), Self-Monitoring Analysis, and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.), as well as an adaptive control device that helps maintain high performance and fast seek times at high environmental temperatures.

The Travelstar 40GNX redefined state-of-the-art storage for mobile computing. The reduced acoustics, high speeds, and capacities of Hitachi Travelstar drives support superior digital content creation capabilities, higher quality digital audio and video, and significantly faster processing for data-intensive multimedia and Internet applications.

IBM-Hitachi 2.5" PowerBook drive features:

• Capacities from 20 to 80 GB, 4200 rpm, ATA-6 hard disk drive 80GN offers high capacity and high performance in the industry with an 80 GB, 9.5 mm hard drive.
• 80GN provides areal densities of up to 70 Gb/sq.inch, yielding up to 40 GB of capacity per disk
• All models contain Fluid Dynamic Bearing (FDB) motor technology for industry-leading idle and operating acoustic performance
• Travelstar leverages latest laminated Antiferromagnetically-coupled (AFC) media, also known as "pixie dust"
• Travelstar provides operational shock rating of up to 200 Gs (2 ms)

IBM-Hitachi 2.5" 30 GB Drive 40GN 4200 RPM

30 GB IBM Travelstar 4200 rpm 9.5 mm UltraSlim. 1 yr IBM Warranty. Fits in all G3 (Wallstreet, Lombard, and Pismo) and G4 PowerBooks, will also fit in all iBooks (white 2001 iBook2 and colored iBooks).

IBM-Hitachi 2.5" 40 GB Drive 40GN 4200 RPM

40 GB IBM Travelstar 40GN 4200 rpm 2048K Buffer 9.5 mm UltraSlim. 1 yr IBM Warranty. Fits in all G3 (Wallstreet, Lombard, and Pismo) and G4 PowerBooks, will also fit in all iBooks (white 2001 iBook2 and colored iBooks).

IBM-Hitachi 2.5" 40 GB Drive 40GNX 5400 RPM

40 GB IBM Travelstar 40GNX 5400 rpm 8192 KB Buffer 9.5 mm Slim. Model IC25N040-AT-CS-05-0, IBM part number 07N9482. Fits in all iBooks, G3 (Wallstreet, Lombard, and Pismo) and G4 PowerBooks.

IBM-Hitachi 2.5" 60 GB Drive 80GN 4200 RPM

60 GB IBM Travelstar 80GN "Moraga" Series Drive, 2.5" platter, 4200 RPM, 9.5 mm high, 12 ms avg. seek time, ATA-6 drive. Model Number: IC25N060ATMR04. Fits in all iBooks, G3 (Wallstreet, Lombard, and Pismo) and G4 PowerBooks.

IBM-Hitachi 2.5" 80 GB Drive 80GN 4200 RPM

80 GB IBM Travelstar 80GN "Moraga" Series Drive, 2.5" platter, 4200 RPM, 9.5 mm high, 12 ms avg. seek time, ATA-6 drive. Model Number: IC25N080ATMR04. Fits in all iBooks, G3 (Wallstreet, Lombard, and Pismo) and G4 PowerBooks.

Hitachi Develops 7200 rpm Notebook Hard Drive

The Register's Tony Smith reports:

"Hitachi has unveiled what it claims is the first 7200 rpm hard drive designed for mobile systems, the Travelstar 7K60.

"To date, mobile-oriented drives have had to run at 5400 rpm, says Hitachi, in order to maintain acceptable noise levels and power consumption....

"The 7K60 spins 33 per cent faster than a 5400 rpm drive, which contributes to a 15 per cent improvement in data transfer rates and a 20 per cent lower rotational latency, i.e. the time it takes to get the data required in position under the read-write head."

Pixel Tester 2.4 Detects Dead Pixels On LCD Displays

Pixel Tester helps you to detect any dead pixel on your screens or LCD displays.

You want to check if your laptop Mac or your screens or LCD displays have any dead pixels? You want to buy a secondhand laptop Mac or LCD display but you want to check it first? You have multiple screens connected on the same Mac and want to check all of them without changing the connections? Then Pixel Tester is what you need.

Features:

• You can test all possible and existing colors on your screen simply by moving the mouse, which is funny, simple and fast.
• You can in particular test pure red, pure green and pure blue by moving the mouse at the bottom of the screen, and pure white by moving it at the top of the screen.
• You can test pure black at the end of the test.
• It uses several patterns to help you to detect dead pixels more easily.
• It supports multiple monitors and asks you at launch which one you want to test.
• It takes very little memory, CPU and disk space.
• It doesn't need any installation which makes it very easy to use.
• It is available in English and in French.
• It is compatible with Extended Software Updater.

Read the whole documentation for more details...

New in this version:

• Minor bugs have been corrected.
• French localization has been released.

System requirements: Mac OS X 10.0 or higher

New Willow Mission Light 17" PowerBook Carry Case

The Mission Light 17" PowerBook case is a lightweight, economical solution for safely transporting your PowerBook. The simple effective design offers excellent protection for you PowerBook in a clean, lightweight case.

Mission Light 17" PowerBook case features:

• Excellent protection for your 17" PowerBook afforded by 1.2 cm (0.5") foam reinforced by corrugated plastic on the back, high density polyethylene reinforcement on the handle side and 4 mm (1/8") hardboard on the bottom.
• Clean, lightweight and flexible design.
• Great comfort insured by a heavy duty mountain bike grip and a wide, contoured, thickly padded shoulder strap.
• Briefcase handle double rivet reinforced through the wrap handle to insure the safety of your laptop.
• Convenient DVD, CD-ROM & cable pockets located in the laptop section for easy access plus extra room for manuals or other letter sized paperwork on lower accessory level.
• Outer front organizer panel with pockets business cards, pens, elasticized pocket for the Apple power supply plus room for the power cord and an ethernet cable.
• Outside flat, outer pocket for airline tickets, thin paperwork, etc.
• Flat external rear pocket especially handy for maps, magazines or newspapers.
• A velcroed elastic strap to lock down 17" PowerBook and 1.2 cm ( 0.5") of paperwork for further protection.
• Handy mesh pocket in the lid for safe and convenient storage of cables or other thin items.
• Luggage feet riveted through the hardboard bottom of the case which actually keep it up and off the ground when you want to set the case down whilst entering and leaving your vehicle.
• Lifetime guarantee against defects in materials or craftsmanship.

Available Colors: black, charcoal, navy, taupe, burgundy

Pricing: $125 Cdn./$85 U.S.

RacerX PowerBook Sleeve Cases

When you just need your PowerBook and a few accessories, throw the Racer-X on your shoulder and head out. This tough compact case with a plush interior and a mountain bike grip protects your laptop from life's hard knocks.

Available in three sizes to custom fit your Apple PowerBook:

• 12" RacerX dimensions: 12" x 10" x 4.5"
• 15" RacerX dimensions: 14.5" x 11" x 4"
• 17" RacerX dimensions: 16.5" x 11.6" x 4.5"

Features:

• Two zippered, interior compartments
• Protects the laptop with layers of neoprene, foam, and corrugated plastic
• Pockets for storing accessories
• Exterior pocket for magazines and papers.
• Military grade, ballistic nylon and trimmed with Indium fabric
• mountain bike grip
• Suspension Shoulder Strap  

Prices start at $129 from SFBags.com..    

Bargain 'Books

There are two different versions of WallStreet running at 233 MHz, the cacheless MainStreet version and the later Series II with a level 2 cache. It's not always possible to determine from the vendor's listing which is being offered, so we've included links within this paragraph to the two models. The same goes for the PowerBook G4/667 (Gigabit Ethernet/2001) and G4/667 (DVI).

ExperCom/FlyMilesMicro

• 12" iBook 800, 128/30/Combo, $1,125
• 14" iBook 800, 256/30/Combo, $1,325

Amazon.com

• 12" PowerBook 867, 256/40/Combo, $1,549

MacResQ

• PowerBook Lombard G3/333, 64/4/CD-ROM, $699.99
• 12" iBook 500, 128/10/DVD, $699.99

Small Dog Electronics

• new 14" iBook 900, 256/40/Combo, Kensington Astro Pack Gray. $1,524
• refurb PowerBook G4/800, 512/40/Combo, InCase Large Laptop Sleeve, Nylon and Leather Screen Protector with Small Dog logo, $2,009

For more deals on current or recently discontinued models, see our Week's Best PowerBook G4 Deals and Week's Best iBook Deals.