Apple's introduction of its new, 17 in. LCD Studio Display and concurrent $200 price reduction on the 15 in. LCD unit came at an opportune time for me. For pretty much all of 2001, I have been ruminating on what sort of Mac to replace my faithful WallStreet 233 MHz PowerBook with.

I almost made the leap back in February, when I placed an order for a leftover Pismo 500 MHz PowerBook shortly after the titanium G4 ' Books were introduced. However, MacWarehouse Canada had "overbooked" orders on the number of these machines they were actually able to get, and I came up with a short straw.

While the Pismo is a very nice machine, and no doubt would have served me well, I'm not really sorry I missed out on that deal, with benefit of hindsight. Subsequently, Apple has dropped prices on the Cube, and now on the 15 in. Studio Display as well, and also introduced the spectacular new iBook, both machines that I find more alluring than the Pismo.

I'm not in a big rush, and in fact I'm still well ahead of my provisional three your target interval for system upgrades -- an objective I have never actually achieved in nine years of Mac ownership. Sometimes I feel like I start shopping for a new system almost as soon as I get a new Mac out of the box, which is, I guess, part of the fun.

Not to imply disparagement or disrespect for the good old (? ) WallStreet, a computer senior citizen at 28 months of age. It's been the best Mac I've ever owned, flawlessly dependable and a decent performer. Nevertheless, 233 MHz, respectable in January, 1999, is now bog-slow; I need something faster, particularly for running dictation software, and I have for some reason been unable to get OS X to install on the WallStreet, although it is officially supported (you can read that tale of woe here).

I have set a minimum speed threshold for my next system at 400 MHz G4/500 MHz G3. Candidates at this point have been narrowed down to the 400 MHz TiBook, the 450 MHz Cube/15 in. Studio Display, combo, and since its introduction May 1st, the new iBook

I would also like to keep the purchase price below U.S.$2,000 (at today's exchange rates, approximately $3,100 Canadian) before taxes, which is about what I paid for the WallStreet at a discount from the Mac dealer I was doing free-lance sales for at the time. Neither the TiBook, nor the Cube with Studio Display met this criterion until this week. The iBook of course does, and with the price drop on the 15 in. Studio Display to U.S.$599, so does the Cube combo now.

For my wallet and needs, U.S.$2,000 is a rational and rational and sensible limit to shoot for. I am a serious computer user -- it is the main tool of my work, but it's not terribly high paid work, and I really can't categorize myself as a power user in the sense that, say, graphics professionals are. The most demanding software I use is dictation applications.

As noted, the iBook fits comfortably within my price limit envelope, including a nice fat RAM upgrade.

The TiBook is problematical within this construct, since the lower-end 400 MHz unit lists in Canada at $3,895, nearly 30% above my cutoff. That means that if I want a TiBook, I will have to wait until there's a new model introduced, possibly with a speed bump and better video support. However, the earliest we would see that would be September, or probably later, before any "old model" TiBook clearouts become available. That would still fit within my loose three year system upgrade cycle, and would give Apple ample time to swat the early production bugs, and there's that screen! Not withstanding the engineering trade-offs and compromises that PowerBooks necessitate, I still think that notebook computers look great, make a logical package, and that the TiBook is very cool aesthetically.

The price cuts certainly tilt the value balance strongly in the Cube's direction compared with the TiBook , however. The 450 MHz Cube/15 in. Studio Display, was already cheaper than the entry-level iBook; now it's a lot cheaper, while offering greater performance. Dan Knight of Low End Mac, who has been using a Cube while his TiBook is in for warranty repairs, says the difference in performance between the 400 MHz TiBook and the 450 MHz Cube is similar to the difference he experienced switching from a UMAX S-900 with a 333 MHz G3 upgrade card to the G4 PowerBook.

Of course, the Cube isn't a PowerBook, so it's not an "apples vs apples" comparison, but the Cube is still small and portable enough that it's not really apples and oranges either. Perhaps oranges and tangerines, or maybe peaches and nectarines. OK; enough with the fruit analogies, but you get the idea.

For my particular purposes, do I really need the unique (and expensive) qualities provided by a laptop computer? Because of my problems with multiple chemical sensitivities, I haven't been able to use my WallStreet as a laptop anyway for the past 2 1/2 years, at least not without wearing a gas mask, and that gets old pretty quick, I assure you. Having all those G3 or G4 heated phenolic circuit boards venting fumes through the keyboard literally right under your nose is bad news for MCS people like me.

On the other hand, the PowerBook's compact and self-contained form factor makes it relatively easy to isolate inside and enclosure like the externally vented glass case that my WallStreet lives in most of the time. That puts the built-in keyboard and trackpad out of reach, but is no doubt ergonomically superior to normal laptop use, especially for the long hours I spend at a computer. I normally keep my Wall Street in its isolation case elevated about 6 in. higher than keyboard level and about two feet further away from me than it would be if I was using the built in keyboard.

Since Cube musings have been added to my upgrade ruminations, I've been brainstorming as to the logistics of engineering a practical isolation chamber for it in the context of my workstation, while the Cube itself is admirably small, its power supply isn't, and I'm guessing that the latter will probably be hot and smelly enough, at least when new, that it will also require that isolation as well. Given the respective dimensions, that will not leave room on top of my current computer desk for the 15 in. LCD monitor.

However, these issues could be worked around I'm sure, and I would get some mileage out of the keyboard and mouse the ship with the Cube, at least after (and if) they gas off. In the meantime, my current stable of fume-free keyboards will have to do. These are esoteric concerns anyway, and irrelevant to most people reading this column (although I keep getting more and more mail from folks for whom chemical emissions from computers is a serious issue).

While it doesn't have the 3:2 aspect ratio of the TiBook screen, the 15 in. Studio Display would still offer a great viewing experience, and could also be carried over to support my next CPU upgrade, which would minimize the depreciation bite over the long term. Other Cube advantages include three RAM slots, the 20 GB hard drive versus the laptop's 10 GB drive, 16 MB of VRAM vs 8 MB in the TiBook, and three RAM slots instead of two, which makes a second RAM upgrade possible without having to remove a module. There are also those cool Harman Kardon satellite speakers, which sound a lot better than the internal speakers in the TiBook

Then there's the little iBook, which is so incredibly cool, and also offers extremely credible performance for a price far less than either of the other two candidates. My biggest concern with the iBook is that while every report I've read says that the 12.1 in. 1024 X 768 display is excellent, it is also very small for someone with half century old eyes. That would be an issue that one could only resolve conclusively by using it for a while, but I doubt if Apple would be inclined to lend me one to trial test for a month or so. On the other hand, this story this story yesterday on Bloomberg news predicts that Apple will be introducing a larger screen version of the iBook at MacWorld Expo New York, which might make it prudent to wait till then.

However, I keep coming back to the Cube as the most sensible choice given its price/performance/value matrix. The TiBook, barring any surprise price reductions, is now probably pretty much ruled out in my thinking. It's well above my price target, and offers substantially less performance and capacity than the Cube, while costing U.S.$700 more than the Cube/Studio Display outfit.

I honestly don't know at this writing which way I'm going to jump, but as I said at the beginning of this article, the Studio Display price reduction has helped focus my thinking. The emotional choice for me would be the iBook, which really pushes my PowerBook-loving buttons. It will be a Cube or an iBook almost certainly, and perhaps it will boil down to which of these can be had for the most attractive deal.

Charles W. Moore

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