17" and 12" PowerBook G4s.

Proclaiming 2003 to be the "year of the notebooks," Steve Jobs introduced two additions to the PowerBook G4 line, i.e. they do not replace the awesome 15" PowerBook G4 Titanium. He mentioned that they are made from even stronger material than titanium, aircraft grade aluminum, and emphasized that they are anodized and not painted to a cheer from the crowd. Getting rid of the paint is something that we have asked for frequently. Both new PowerBooks also have a new hinge system that looks like the iBook's hinge, again something that we have asked for from the beginning for strength and to reduce the PowerBooks' height when the screen is open. Finally, to another huge cheer, Jobs mentioned that the AirPort antenna's were moved to the sides of the screen, increasing reception to equal or better that of the iBook

The 17" PowerBook G4 at $3,299 and shipping in February is about a pound and a half heavier than the Titanium, weighing in at 6.8 pounds. Steve Jobs mentioned that it is even a bit thinner than the Titanium. One really cool thing is that Apple has finally implemented a lighted keyboard with fiber optics. Even cooler is the ambient light sensor that automatically dims or brightens the keyboard and screen. Finally, it gets the first implenentation of the faster FireWire 800. Here are the main specs:

• 1440x900 native 17" screen
• 1 GHz G4 CPU with 256 MB L2 and 1 MB L3 Cache
• 512 KB PC2700 DDR SDRAM
• NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go graphics with 64 MB DDR SRAM
• 60 GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive
• Slot-loading SuperDrive
• 2 USB, 1 FireWire 400, 1 FireWire 800, 10/100/1000 Ethernet
• One Type II PCMCIA slot
• DVI, S-video and composite video out
• Audio line in and headphone out
• Built-in Bluetooth and built-in AirPort Extreme
• 55 watt-hr lithium prismatic battery
• Full-size lighted keyboard with ambient light controller.

The 12" PowerBook G4 at $1,799 and shipping in two weeks weighs in at only 4.6 pounds. That's only 0.2 pounds heavier than the marvelous tiny Powerbook 2400c which did not include an optical drive. It is 1.18" thick. Here are the main specs:

• 1024x768 native 12.1" screen
• 867 MHz G4 CPU with 256 KB DDR SRAM L2 Cache
• 256 KB PC2100 DDR SDRAM
• NVIDIA GeForce4 420 Go graphics with 32 MB DDR SDRAM
• 40 GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive
• Slot-loading Combo Drive with $200 SuperDrive option
• 2 USB, 1 FireWire 400, 10/100 Ethernet
• VGA, S-video and composite video out
• Audio line in and headphone out
• Built-in Bluetooth and AirPort Extreme ready
• 47 watt-hour lithium-ion battery
• Full-size keyboard.

In summary, this was a very exciting keynote despite what the rumor web sites predicted. One rumor, based on an advertising slip, was right in that fast FireWire 800 was introduced. Another was only partially right in that the boxed copy of iDVD 3.0, iTunes 3, iPhoto 2 and iMovie 3 integrated as iLife will cost money, a mere $49. But iDVD was never sold outside of a new Mac before and Steve Jobs stated that all of the other iApps will still be a free download.

The new applications Final Cut Express, iLife, Safari and Keynote are great additions to the Mac platform. While Apple is still a computer hardware company, it's compelling applications are making that less clear these days.

There is nothing more to say about the new PowerBook G4s except that we''ll take one of each...er make that two!

[Update 10:15a ET] Metrowerks Offers $99 CodeWarrior Tools for OS X: From Metrowerks, "Metrowerks is introducing CodeWarrior Development Studio, Mac OS X Edition at an introductory price of US$99 until February 28, 2003. Programmers writing applications for Mac(r) OS X now have a low cost choice when it comes to development tools."

[Update 9:45a ET] New .Mac Address Book is now described on Apple's .Mac web site.

[Update 9a ET] PowerLogix Announced New CPU Upgrades today in this press release.

- Dual 1.2 GHz G4 for AGP Power Mac G4s

- Single 800 MHz G3 ZIF and PCI CPUs for Power Macs

- Single 800 MHz G3 for the PowerBook 2000 (Pismo)