Mac Fallout Shelter

Replacing Lombard with a TiBook: Which One Is Enough?

- 2006.04.19 - Tip Jar

I remember the first time I saw a PowerBook G3. It was being used in a presentation at a university where I was doing a summer program during high school. It was used by a physics professor, and I fell in love with it . It was one of those things you must own one day.

My list of Macs that I want to own currently includes a Cube, a Power Mac G5 Dual, and a Power Mac 9600. After owning my Lombard for quite some time and going off to war and all, it was time to let it go and get the next dream machine that I always wanted, a titanium PowerBook G4.

The first time I saw a TiBook was at the same university, but this time it was used by an English teacher, and I was a student. She had me clean it up a bit and run a few updates. Back then, it simply blew me away with its slick thinness, and it was the first time I saw any type of real world widescreen. It simply was pure perfection - and still is.

Reading recent articles here on Low End Mac, I came upon a few about the good old Lombard. I loved my Lombard very much, but I had to let it go for something better, my titanium G4/667. I wrote an article on how I picked my Lombard, and now I'm going to write about how I picked my PowerBook G4/667.

As I had mentioned in the Lombard article, I did think about getting an original titanium instead of the Lombard, but it was too expensive at the time. This time I needed a faster laptop that would run Tiger (OS X 10.4.x) more efficiently and have FireWire for editing videos from my Sony camcorder.

I also always dreamed about having a widescreen for my home, whether a TV (which is way out of my budget) or a monitor. After owning a 15" LCD Apple Studio display and getting stuck with its weird and outdated ADC connector, I wanted a laptop with the next-gen display connector (DVI) but still low budget.

Pros:

Widescreen 1280 x 854 LCD
FireWire port
PCMCIA slot
Gigabit ethernet
Ultra cool titanium body
Apple logo is correctly displayed when laptop is open
56k modem
DVI connector for up to date TV/monitors even HDTVs
Supports AirPort/WiFi
S-video out
Can run dual extended desktops

Cons:

Price
Fragile
Heat spreads and heats up whole laptop
No SCSI
Only one PC Card slot

Now don't get me wrong, there was nothing wrong with the Lombard. Mine went into the hands of a new computer user who absolutely loves it running Panther (OS X 10.3.x). I just needed a newer portable machine to replace my Power Mac G4/450 dual desktop and my Lombard.

The titanium G4/667 has met all the expectations I had for it and runs absolutely great. It's my main machine for everything, from gaming to emails to going into the field with me.

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