A Month with a Mac - Part II: The Mobile Experience
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 24, 2005 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Mac
The Keyboard and Mouse
Although I'm looking at the 15" PowerBook G4, one thing that Apple ensured was that the keyboard layout and size is identical across all of their PowerBook G4s. So the size, spacing between keys and layout of the 12" PowerBook G4's keyboard are the same as in the the 17" PowerBook G4. So, the comments that I make here are applicable to the entire line of PowerBooks.The keyboard layout on the PowerBook is particularly good, thanks to a couple of decisions by Apple. The biggest change is that the function keys are restricted to an incredibly thin row of keys at the very top of the keyboard. Since the function keys are often rarely used, this decision makes sense, except for one drawback - those who use Exposé's default keys (F9 - F11) will find the tiny keys a little cumbersome. I will get to what I had to do to get comfortable with Exposé again shortly.
There were more changes that were made - there are no separate delete/backspace keys, only a delete key that serves as both. The key naturally functions as a backspace key, but if you hold down the function key, it works as a delete key. You may wonder why the difference is a big deal, but for someone who uses Excel a lot, being able to highlight a group of cells and hitting delete to clear them is much quicker than having to do it through the Edit menu.
As usual, the function key is placed in the far lower left corner of the keyboard, right next to the control key, which can cause you to hit function whenever you want to hit the control key. The beauty of this design choice on an Apple keyboard, however, is that you rarely use the control key (the command/apple key is used more frequently, much like the control key on a Windows machine). So, although I hate the placement of the key in general, it irks me much less on the Powerbook.
I didn't give the one-button mouse a chance on the desktop, mainly because I'd used it before and couldn't stand it. Also, being used to a non-Mac computer, I was quite happy with my second mouse button and not having a wheel was just not happening.
With the Powerbook, I had no option - the trackpad that comes on all Apple notebooks features only a single mouse button.
To "right click" with a single-button mouse, you have to hold down control while clicking. You would think that for a keyboard junkie, holding a key down while using the mouse isn't a big deal, but for whatever reason - it is. For someone who has always had a right mouse button, now being forced to ctrl-click whenever I needed a right mouse button was beyond frustrating.
For example, thanks to the input of the many gracious AnandTech readers with Mac experience, I've grown accustomed to putting my Applications folder in the Dock, to give me Start Menu-like access to all of my programs. The problem with doing that is I need to right click on the Applications folder to gain access to my applications in the level below it, which is a pain for me on the single-button PowerBook. Update: Thanks to several readers for pointing out that for folders in the dock, you can simply click and hold to get the same functionality as right clicking.
Switching between the G5 desktop and the PowerBook ends up frustrating me more about the single button issue and, in turn, impedes productivity. At least on the desktop, I have the option of plugging in another mouse; on the PowerBook, I can't swap out the single mouse button for two. I could always bring along an external mouse with me, but that really eats into the portability aspect of the unit.
Remember my issue with the placement of the ctrl key on keyboards? Since you're forced to use the key to bring up secondary menus, it may or may not be a distraction for you depending on familiar you are with the regular mac keyboards.
From a PC user's perspective, the single-button mouse is the biggest issue with the notebook - but it's one that can thankfully be ignored most of the time.
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garote - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
A note about Exposé usage on a powerbook:I know it's unorthodox, but consider using the 'Fn' key, on the lower left, for activating Exposé. It's easier to reach in general, but especially easy to use when you want to drag an icon/file _through_ an Exposé operation (via hold-release), from one window to another. Especially if you're right-handed.
You can still use Command-up/down for home/end, Command-left/right for begin/end of line, and Option-left/right for next/prev word. You'll have to invoke F6 to use the keypad, however, and you'll lose quick access to page-up/page-down.
The big difference, of course, is that you'll lose access to the regular invocation of the FN keys - however, I find that I never want to use the FN keys anyway, unless I want to embed a bunch of Photoshop macros in them.
Try it for a while. If you're a heavy Exposé user, you may find the change quite pleasing.
adespoton - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
Hi Anand; just thought I'd clarify a statement you made in your conclusion:"Unless you do a lot of .NET development on the road, just about anything you use your laptop for is available under OS X...."
For anyone in this situation, Project Mono is available for OS X at http://www.go-mono.com/archive/1.0.5/macos/MonoFra...
Of course, this doesn't give you *all* the .NET bindings etc., but for basic .NET development it works quite well -- and has the added benefit that you can test the programs out under OS X as well, without resorting to emulation.
jayemcee - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
Thanks for a nicely balanced article. The speed issues tend to fade a bit (especially pure cpu speed) when looking at the way the system operatesand how it helps productivity. Less downtime for the system (my uptime has been continuous except for reboots at software updates times). Drag and drop into and between applications make the system appear very elegant to me and a bonus is when I want it... there is BSD *nix underneath OS X.The hardware is as good as it gets for the price and I do not feel cheated by Apple. Of course, there is also that indefinable Apple experience that you get when opening the boxes of a new piece of apple hardware. I guess that I am addicted to that as well. :)
You write well and many PC magazines would do well to emulate your methods of testing the unquantifiable variables of all machines that they test and then write about... for public consumption.
mattfaulds - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
Great article. Good to see someone weighing things from a bablanced point of view.Would like to reiterate the greatness of Sidetrack (www.ragingmenace.com)
I have an iBook G4 and have changed the button to a right click button, the corners of the tap pad to exposé functions (and a right click corner) and a scroll on the right side. It's very customisable and very stable.
Apple really really should pay him lots of money and incoporate the optional function as standard. You need it with the limited space on a laptop.
Cheerio
waterbug - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
Anand,Another thing to compare between OS X and Windows is sleep/wake behavior. Try this at home:
Connect both your Wintel laptop and your PowerBook to a WiFi network with DHCP and verify connection by opening a browser. Close both lids for 5-10 seconds, until you're sure they're both asleep. Open the lids.
You should be able to click a link on the PowerBook within 5 seconds of seeing the LCD come on. If you have a static IP, it'll be even faster.
On my XP laptop, it takes anywhere from 10-45 seconds to reacquire the wireless signal, figure out the encryption, reacquire a DHCP address, and then finally be able to do anything.
It sounds trivial, but imagine this scenario: imagine you're working with your laptop in the kitchen, and you decide to move to the dining room. Do you close your laptop, or walk over to the dining room with it open? With my Dell, I walk around the house with it open. With our iBook, I close it even to rearrange things on the bed. It's not a huge issue, but it's one of those "little touches" that makes for a more satisfying ownership experience.
lookmark - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
Nice article, as always. I too am slightly disappointed by my 15" PB's wireless range, and hope Apple is able to improve it in fure models.Just want to chime on the fabulousness of Quicksilver, which is like just a little taste of Tiger's Spotlight, focused on launching (or more, if you want). Well, well worth checking out.
I too started with the Applications folder in the Dock -- didn't we all? -- but Quicksilver is so much better it's quite astonishing, and considering it's completely free and open-sourced all the more so. Apple is clearly taking notice as well.... it's been reported from the latest Tiger builds that the (customizable, of course) shortcut for hitting Spotlight quickly is now command-space, a la QS.
jim v - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
Actually, the ethernet port on the PowerBook is 10/100/1000bcstanding - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
I am one of those guys that switched from PC to Mac (3 years ago). This article (with Part I) is one of the most insightful and unbiased articles I've ever read on the subject of the Mac User Experience. Very well done!I also thought I'd chip in an idea - if you don't have quite enough RAM, you may want to leave apps open (just hide them) instead of quitting them. OS X seems to be faster when swapping a program back into memory than starting it outright. I'm on a 3 year old PowerBook, though, so this may not be applicable for faster Macs...
davechen - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
As an old school Unix programmer, I've always hated keyboards that have a large caps lock and a small control key (as most do these days). I use control a lot more than caps lock. Hell who ever really uses caps lock.So on OS X, I'd be lost without uControl. It's a little control panel that allows you to remap modifier keys (along with a lot of other things). Here' the link:
http://gnufoo.org/ucontrol/ucontrol.html
jsares - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
I second and third the suggestions for SideTrack. Great shareware from a great guy.