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The 17" PowerBook That Got Away

Dirk Pilat - 2003.09.29

Woahey!

After last week's successful "talk like a pirate" beginning, I thought today we'd celebrate "talk like a neurosurgeon" day.

Notice any difference?

Exactly.

But on to more challenging things. Over here in a country that no proper American neo-conservative would ever mention without the addition of the lovely term "cheese eating surrender monkeys," an Apple Expo was held (An American company seeking a European audience in that country? Bloody traitors!) and new PowerBooks were given a first airing. Even smarter, more powerful, and more desirable, these babies are already infiltrating the few Apple retailers the UK has left, so the opportunity was opportune (ha!) to go out shopping to hunt down last week's model of the nice and shiny PBs at a significant lower price than only a couple of weeks ago.

Due to a new financial restraint found in myself I actually wanted to get the 12" Combo drive, but today, strolling through Dixons (a large electronics chain in the UK) in Terminal 1 of London Heathrow, gazing at the tax free gadgets, I saw an offer for the 17" with Combo drive: 1,870 pounds bloody sterling!!!

I gasped, as that was exactly 700 pounds less than last week on the highstreets of London (currently under siege by some weird so called magician who put himself in a glass box strapped in the air next to the Tower Bridge, apparently enjoying being pelted with eggs, hamburgers, paintballs, and insults by your average Londoner). That's it, I thought: I went to the terminal restaurant, drank a glass of Pinot Gris to encourage myself, and went, credit card wielding, to the next helpful looking sales assistant and offered to leave 1,870 pounds in the store, in exchange for a shiny new 17" PB.

The gentleman went behind his computerised till (running something that looked like MS-DOS), checked his stock, and declared that they were out of G4s - but that he would be able to give me a good price on the machine currently on their shelves. Now this poor thing must have been standing there for a couple of weeks, as it was rather dirty, the screen had a couple of rather ugly fingerprints on it, and it looked just a bit battered.

Well, I thought, even better. Haggle a bit and get the machine even cheaper. Eventually the manager was called to give me an offer, and looking at me he gracefully gave me a rebate of 50 pounds on that secondhand thingie. That's 2.673797 percent. I told them in no uncertain terms that for a crap looking thing like that 10% would be the bare minimum, but there was no budging on either side, so I leave tonight to Germany again without a new PB - and the shop without my money thanks to the manager of Dixons of Terminal 1 at Heathrow.

If you read this, please feel foolish.

I needed that.

Aaaaaanyway, there is more. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Germany's biggest and bestest Sunday broadsheet, had an interview with our top guru, the ever so cool Steve Jobs. Most of the questions and answers were pretty standard, but two things stood out: Jobs predicted the immediate demise of Gateway and the slow demise off all other big American PC-makers and - even better - answering the question whether he would be satisfied with 5% of market share, said that 5% would be better than BMW's share of car sales.

I feel much better now.

Recent Down But Not Out Columns

Thoughts and advice on replacing a two-year-old iBook G4, 02.01. This iBook G4 has taken a beating. Does it make more sense to buy a new iBook G4, wait for the Intel models, or look at the used market?
iBook on last legs, Mac mini saves marriage, and Macintel meanderings, 01.23. With the iBook G4 "falling apart at the seams", does it make more sense to buy a new G4 iBook or wait for the Intellified next gen iBook?
First impressions of the 14" iBook G4, 11.13. "Apple has managed to produce a machine that combines everything I want from a portable computer with appropriate processor performance for a competitive price."
Apple shines after a poorly timed iBook order, 11.06. The frustration of ordering a G3 iBook just two days before it was replaced by a G4 model.
More in the Down But Not Out index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: Mac mini Core Solo, Feb. 2006 - The only Mac to use a Core Solo CPU, this model ran at 1.5 GHz, has integrated graphics, and includes a Combo drive
Group of the Day: SuperMacs is for those using Umax SuperMac clones.
November 24 in LEM history: 98: Microsoft's heavy hand - 00: Looking at the iMac - 04: The best Mac for the holidays - Picking the right replacement for a dead mouse - Better battery for 15" AlBook

Recent Deals

Best G4 iMac Deals, 11.24. Used 15" 700 MHz CD-RW, $150; 800 MHz Combo, $229; 1 GHz, $289; 17" 1.25 GHz, $200; 20" 1.25 GHz, $509.
Best MacBook Air Deals, 11.24. Used from $899; refurb from $1,099; new 1.6 GHz/120 HD, $1,150 after rebate; 1.8/64 SSD, $1,150 a/r; 1.86/128 SSD, $1,350 a/r; 2.13/128 SSD, $1,694 a/r.
Best PowerBook G3 Deals, 11.24. Used 233 MHz WallStreet, $75; 266 MHz, $160; 400 MHz Lombard, $199; 400 MHz Pismo, $289; 500 MHz, $350.
Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, 11.23. Used 867 MHz SuperDrive, $348; 1 GHz Combo, $379; SD, $519; 1.33 GHz, $529; 1.5 GHz Combo, $549; SuperDrive, $609.
Best Mac Pro Deals, 11.23. Used 2.66 GHz 4-core, $1,300; 3.0 4-core. $1,919; refurb 2.66 4-core Nehalem, $2,149; 2.93, $2,549; 2.93 8-core, $4,999; new 2.26 8-core, $2,290.
Best Time Capsule and AirPort Deals, 11.23. Used 802.11g AirPort Extreme, $49; 500 GB Time Capsule, $150; new, $190; 1 TB dual-band, $280; 2 TB, $469; 802.11n AirPort Extreme, $170.
Best eMac Deals, 11.18. Used 1 GHz Combo, $100; SuperDrive, $269; 1.25 GHz Combo, $119; SD, $319; 1.42 GHz Combo, $289; SD, $498.
Best Mac OS X 10.6 and Mac Box Set Deals, 11.18. "Snow Leopard", single user, $25; 5 users, $45; Mac Box Set, single user, $139; 5 users, $180; Server, $414. Shipping included.
Best Xserve Deals, 11.18. Used 1 GHz dual G4, $649; 2.3 dual G5, $795; 3.0 4-core Xeon, $1,899; refurb 2.26 4-core, $2,499; new, $2,888; refurb 8-core, $2,999; new, $3,449; more.
More deals in our archive.

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