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Apple PowerBook G4 Laptop Computer Page 3

Small Packages There's not enough room here to go into all of the PowerBook G4's features. For instance, iPhoto was as easy to use as the other "i" software, letting me import and edit photos, create slide shows and albums, and more. And the AirPort Extreme wireless base station was a real boon when checking out the Music Store. Hook it up to a high-speed Internet connection, and you can cruise the Web and download tunes, text, images, and video while sitting anywhere within about 50 feet of the station.

The PowerBook isn't perfect, but my complaints are minor and few: Apple claims more than 4 hours of battery life, but I was lucky to get 2 hours; the bottom of the chassis can get uncomfortably warm; the button for the PC Card pops out at inappropriate times, snagging everything in sight; and I couldn't always get the screen to stay at an optimal viewing angle. I was worried that the 17-inch screen might make the PowerBook ungainly, especially when traveling, but that fear proved groundless. I quickly adjusted to the laptop's size and found it easy to use in any environment.

The PowerBook G4's greatest strength is ease of use. Apple has taken programs for video, photo, and music editing, and DVD creation - the kind of software that's always been difficult to use individually, let alone as an integrated package - and made them intuitive and effortless. More important, it's made their integration almost seamless. With the PowerBook G4, the hardware and software all but disappears so you can just enjoy what you're doing. And that's what technology's for, right?

Tech Notes

Test patterns played over the widescreen LCD proved the PowerBook to be a generally fine portable DVD player. Picture geometry was perfect for both 4:3 and 16:9 images, onscreen horizontal resolution met the DVD maximum of 540 lines, and there were no progressive-scan conversion problems when reproducing DVD movies. But it produced visible scan-line effects when playing interlaced-video material, including "jaggies" and "combing" on sharp diagonal edges. This persisted with DVDs made by the computer from DV camcorder footage with the iMovie and iDVD software, probably because DV signals are interlaced video. But when I played the same Mac-burned DVDs on external players, they looked marvelous, with full 540-line resolution even at the iDVD miminum bit rate of 6.5 megabits/ second. The iDVD MPEG encoding was very good on our acid-test fountain footage when using Apple's recommended 60-minute recording mode, which employs the maximum bit rate.

Reproduction near the black end of the video dynamic range was compressed, with sometimes annoying results. In outer-space shots from the Star Wars DVDs, for instance, video noise and MPEG-encoding artifacts that would normally be shoved into the black showed up "between" the stars. If you use iMovie to make picture adjustments and judge them on the LCD without adjusting the screen gamma to 2.2, the DVDs you burn might not look like you intend when you play them either in the computer or externally. - David Ranada
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