AdTech OnLine - The electronic age of advertising and publishing.
Greetings and welcome to AdTech OnLine - an informal monthly newsletter written by the regular columnists and reviewers of the other AdTech publications. For those of you unfamiliar with AdTech, AdTech Journal and AdTech FaxFlash, we produce periodicals based on the very broad vertical market of advertising studios, graphic houses and publishing companies. All of our reviews are written with a view towards a products use within a production environment.
Because of the obvious use of the Macintosh within the industry, we dedicate much of our time to the Mac. But, on occasion, you will find helpful and relevant discussions on products based on other platforms including; PC (Dos, Windows 3.x & NT, O/S 2), Amiga/Toaster and Unix systems.
As a step to broadening our readership and reducing the costly overhead of printing or faxing, we are offering this simple electronic newsletter at no cost other than the time it will cost you to download this article from your favorite national BBS.
But, if you require more timely information, more in-depth discussions or more step-by-step advice, please consider one of our other publications, from our weekly fax to our monthly newsletter. If you have any questions, please contact Larry Pacey at 305-358-0108 or at the e-mail addresses mentioned at the end of this file.
Well, on with the first AdTech OnLine, in which Larry makes us all envious of his new Duo acquisition.
Later,
Michael Donnelly.
With the arrival of my long awaited PowerBook Duo 230, I couldn’t think of anything more appropriate to write about than this wonderful example of portability and functionality. Well, that’s enough unadulterated adoration for a computer...I guess. But the simple fact is, it’s the Mac I’ve been waiting for.
Long before the Duo team was assembled at Apple. Before the original PowerBook was released. Pretty much since the day I bought my first Mac 128k. I’ve been waiting for such a Macintosh as the Duo.
Last year I had almost talked myself into selling my Mac IIci, for a PowerBook 170. But, I simply could not live without a color monitor for my image editing projects and 3D renderings. Not to mention the lack of expansion capability provided by most Macs via a Nubus or PDS slot.
Now thanks to the new line of PowerBooks, especially the new Duo line, you can have the best of both worlds, with no visible drawback I can think of worth mentioning.
This write up is about my experiences with the PowerBook Duo 230, but I’d like to mention the new PowerBook 160/180, which both come with a new 8-bit video out port. This new port will allow the direct connection of an Apple 13” color and some VGA monitors, without the need to fill you RAM slot with a 3rd party internal video card or external contraption. For many people these two total self-contained portables are the solution for both their home and office needs.
But for me, I wanted the lightest possible portable system (4.5 pounds but there’s no floppy-drive, only one serial port and a hole for an internal modem) and the ability to expand my portable for home use, to include a 24-bit, 16” color monitor; accelerator; my beloved extended keyboard, with its wonderful numeric keypad and mouse. I also required an easy way to hook up my large assortment of peripherals, ie.: Wacom pressure sensitive tablet, PinnacleMicro OHD-650 optical drive, Newer Technologies SCSI Dart II, Microtek 600-ZS color scanner, Microtech 44mb Syquest, external floppy drive and Supra v.32bis modem.
Now with the Duo and DuoDock, I can leave the empty shell of the DuoDock at home, with all its peripheral cables still in place, NuBus cards installed and SCSI devices plugged in. Upon returning home, I simply close-up my PowerBook and insert it into the slot in front of the Dock and watch as Apple’s new PowerLatch technology feeds my portable computer inside and reboots the Desktop system. With all my peripherals active, SCSI devices will not be available if the Duo was not shut down prior to inserting it into the dock. Those devices will be available after the computer is restarted.
The DuoDock resembles a two-tone Mac IIsi (the bottom half of the Dock is the PowerBook grey and the top half is Macintosh platinum), with what appears to be a huge floppy slot in front. The DuoDock also comes with a n Apple floppy drive, math coprocessor slot, 2 NuBus slots, room for an internal hard disk, and the standard assortment of Desktop Mac ports along the back.
Also, available from Apple is a MiniDock, which slides onto the back of your Duo and gives you all the external ports commonly found of the back of the Desktop systems. Plus, a 8-bit video out port, which will allow you access of the Duo’s monitor and an Apple 13” color and some VGA monitors.
Apple will also offer a small dock which will provide an external floppy drive connector and an ADB port. You’ll still need to go out and purchase a floppy drive to install software, except for the drag-and-drop variety that can be installed over an AppleTalk network. This means if you somehow corrupt your System file, your system is lifeless, unless you purchased some form of dock with a floppy drive.
Third-party video developers are also getting into the act, with mini-docks of there own. Look for products from E-Machines, Radius, RasterOps, etc...; which will offer everything from built-in EtherNet, 16-bit accelerated video output, nearly anything a presenter might need will probably make its way out as some form of mini-dock. Watch and see!
One misconception is the belief that the Duo and DuoDock are two separate computers. This is wrong! The DuoDock is a lifeless husk without a CPU from the Duo.
Q: Where do I place the PowerBook Duo’s in the scheme of things?
A: I love the Duo as a home/work system, for those work-aholics (we have no shortage of those in our industry, do we?) You can have a Dock at work for installing software, printing and the such. And, if you have a printer or scanner at home, then another DuoDock or perhaps a mini-dock would be wise.
I also see creative departments purchasing several Duo’s for the staff and setting up a few all-purpose docks for printing files or to work on a larger monitor, or perhaps to scan in an image for a comp or mechanical.
I can’t imagine a better system for writers whom don’t need much more than a keyboard, monitor and mouse (or trackball in the Duo’s case).
Q: Who shouldn’t get the Duo in place of a Desktop system or PowerBook 160/180?
A: Obviously, those power-users that require all the speed benefits of a Quadra. But, remember that the DuoDock has two NuBus slots which could conveniently house an 040 accelerator and SCSI-2 card or 24-bit accelerated video graphics board. But, that’s the crunch, some people including me, have 3 or more boards installed. For those people the Duo and DuoDock will be inadequate unless you can reasonably live without all except two of your NuBus boards.
As for the PowerBook 160/180, they offer comparable performance to the peers in the Duo realm except for the fact that the 180 comes with a math coprocessor to help in those math intensive situations which the Duo 230 lacks. The 160/180 do come with an internal floppy drive and a full complement of ports including the 8-bit video out.
But, when it comes to future expansion of the 160/180, one only has to look at last years PowerBook 170, to realize there isn’t any. Whereas, the Duo with its DuoDock, I expect shall have a longer usefulness with the capability of adding accelerators, EtherNet, etc... As well as, adding different mini-docks, which will offer more colors on screen than the 160/180’s 8-bit, acceleration options, and EtherNet ports.
As for price, you can purchase a Duo 230, DuoDock, Apple 14” and extended keyboard for not much more than a PowerBook 180 or a comparably equipped mid-range Apple desktop computer, such as the New Mac IIvx. And have the power of a desktop with the portability of a PowerBook.
Who could ask for more...ME! But, as of this writing, I have not experienced anything which shows more of what the future in computing will be like, than the PowerBook Duo’s.
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