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Raising The Bar For The TiBook [Updated]

CNet has posted a new article on the Toshiba Portégé 2000, currently as to this date the thinnest notebook on the planet. At 2.6 pounds and .73 inches it truly is a formidable opponent to the new iBook and the pro users TiBook. And the estimated price of US$2199, makes it a decent bargain.


CNet has posted a new article on the Toshiba Portégé 2000, currently as to this date the thinnest notebook on the planet. At 2.6 pounds and .73 inches it truly is a formidable opponent to the new iBook and the pro users TiBook. And the estimated price of US$2199, makes it a decent bargain.

Makes one think what the next big laptop tech or engineering gimmick Apple needs to do to market their laptop far and beyond the crowd in a world dominated by the other OS.

As the tech mobile hardware market gets more competitive for dominance or just merely survive by selling their product to make profit, everybody will be doing the same thing or striving to reach the “bar” the last manufacture raised.

After all this Toshiba has: dual USB, dual battery technology, latest winbox mobile CPU, latest OS, video out, audio jack, microphone jack, 10/100 ethernet, fast IR, Wi-Fi wireless (802.11b), 256 MB RAM (512 MB max), Type II PC card slot, 12.1 LCD (1024×768), 20 GB HDD and a secure digital media slot. What the Portégé does not have is: FireWire, s-Video out, the 1 GB RAM option nor a larger screen and for that matter no higher resolution.

Sure the TiBook has many of these and more but I’m sure at the price quoted above, the Toshiba with a few external devices could do the same job as a TiBook just as well or at a reasonable measure.

Don’t get me wrong I love my TiBook! Photoshop, Flash, GoLive, InDesign, and Electric Image all run superbly on this machine. All I’m saying is, I think Apple may have a tougher time setting their laptops apart from the crowd as an additional marketing advantage. Lets admit it everyone is doing the silver-smoke grey thing with accents of black on their designs, some even before the TiBook.

So lets hope on the next TiBook rev they address the screen resolution, audio in, and maybe a digital media slot or at least a Type II PC card slot adapter that allows connectivity to DataPlay discs, Memory Stick, Compact Flash (CF), Smart Media (SM), etc. Because we all know how annoying it is to lug around Zip drives, MO Drives and Jaz drives. By giving us something to exchange media without the bulk would greatly make being mobile just more fun to be mobile! Hey maybe a separate volume control for the audio jack, right near the jack.

Apple should also make available a mobile package of: optical mouse, earphones, and a choice of keyboard or a 128 MB piece of media.

Updated:

Toshiba may "look" like a smaller sibling to the TiBook, but they didn’t put a wide format 15 inch screen, 1GB RAM, !Gbit ethernet, DVD-CD-RW drive, 48GB HD, FireWire, S-Video , 5 hour battery life with ONE battery, so for the money, one is paying for smaller size with less features. I guess that is one way to look at a $2K+ computer. [reader 1]

The biggest missing item would have to be no built in CD-ROM/RW/DVD. If Apple didn’t have a drive built in, they would easily be even thinner than the Toshiba. I am sure Toshiba has a large and thick CD-ROM add-on thing, making it far thicker than the TiBook. Either that or sluggish USB. I wouldn’t want to forget to mention that is has sub par speakers (just one mounted on the bottom) and screen (12.1" puts it closer to the iBook but at a higher cost). [reader 2]

By Jason O'Grady

Founded the PowerPage in 1995.