Is the MacBook The Real "Son of Pismo"
by Charles W. Moore
Many PowerBook fans lamented and mourned the discontinuation of the PowerBook G3 2000 FireWire, aka "Pismo" after an all-too-short 10-month production run in that eponymous year. Some still do, and considering its brief tenure on the market, there are an astonishing number of Pismos still in active duty, including one that belongs to me.
The Pismo's facility for upgrading and expansion has helped, of course. My own machine, purchased used in pristine condition in October, 2001, has been hotrodded with a 550 MHz G4 processor upgrade, 640 megabytes of RAM, a 40 gigabyte, 5400 r.p.m. hard drive, a FastMac 8x SuperDrive expansion bay module (it also came with the Zip and SuperDisk modules in addition to the original DVD-ROM drive), and a Miglia FireWire 800 PC Card adapter.
The old Pismo remains a surprisingly capable machine, still officially supported by OS X 10.4 Tiger (although I strongly recommended a G4 processor upgrade and maxing out RAM if you want to run Tiger), although it's Achilles' Heel is the non-upgradable (at least so far) RAGE Mobility 128 graphics processing unit with its puny by today's standards 8 megabytes of video RAM. Lack of support for USB 2 and Bluetooth wireless are also becoming significant shortcomings.
For the most part though, the Pismo well-deserves the accolades that have been heaped on it. No Apple laptop has ever been perfect, even in the context of its time, but few, if any, I have proved as long-term durable and useful as the Pismo. It was relatively free of hardware weak spots, the only notable ones being the dreaded "pink screen" issue that afflicted some OEM display units, and premature failure of DVD-ROM drives made by one of the two OEM suppliers. Aside from those issues, the Pismo tends to be have the staying-power of the Energizer bunny.
Almost from the time the Titanium PowerBooks superseded the Pismo in January, 2001, rumors started swirling that Apple was working on an updated PowerBook G3, a vaporous machine that was quickly dubbed "Son of Pismo." What actually emerged four months later was the dual-USB iBook G3, originally available only with a 500 MHz processor and a 12.1-inch, 1024 x 768 display (same resolution as the Pismo's 14.1-inch screen), but augmented in January, 2002, with a 600 MHz 14.1-inch "stretch" version of the white iBook.
There was indeed a case to be made for the 14-inch iBook being the "Son of Pismo." It was roughly similar in dimensions and weight, with the same 14.1-inch 1024 x 768 display as the Pismo had. the iBook had a 20 percent faster clock speed, but smaller processor cache compared with the 500 MHz Pismo, so relative performance was pretty much a wash as well. Where the iBook came up short of being the real deal was in its lack of expandability and upgradeability — no PC Card slot, no expansion bay, only one RAM expansion slot, processor soldered to the motherboard, only one FireWire port, no infrared port, and so forth. Others thought that being white, it didn't quite have the aesthetic gravitas necessary to qualify as the truth "Son of Pismo."
The latter didn't faze me, and in fact I prefer the glossy-white livery of the iBook to the charcoal-black Pismo. I love my Pismo dearly, but it's looks have never struck me as more than agreeable, while I love the look of my (12 inch) iBook G3. I just like white stuff. However, the other objections have some merit, and I could never really perceive the iBook as a true Pismo successor, although it's one of my favorite Mac portables, especially in the late-revision G4 iterations. As we used to say, "nothing else is a PowerBook."
Except for a MacBook Pro or arguably a MacBook.
With the advent of the new Intel Core Duo powered Power MacBook, it's been suggested that we now have a real successor to the beloved Pismo, especially in the top of the line 2.0 GHz black version -- the first black Apple laptop since the Pismo. Again, the color issue isn't it for me. I would by preference go with the White MacBook instead of the black one even if the prices were the same. I like glossy white computers, and and am not terribly smitten with matte black ones (glossy black might be another matter).
But color preference aside, the MacBook does seem to have the chops to wear the mantle of Pismo-esque goodness in an updated context. True, some of the objections to the iBook in this role of Pismo pretender still apply: no PC Card slot, no expansion bay, only one FireWire port, but in my reckoning these are now pretty much compensated for by the MacBooks built-in USB 2, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR , Gigabit Ethernet, and Airport Extreme support, as well as a 4x SuperDrive on the two 2.0 GHz models.
The MacBook also restores easy access to swapping hard drives in and out, and has two RAM expansion slots supporting up to two gigabytes of RAM. Its 13.3 inch 1280 x 800 widescreen display is clearly superior, and with 30 percent more pixels than the Pismo's 14.1-inch unit, and the somewhat controversial new keyboard is probably at least as good as the Pismo's, plus the MacBook has a scrolling trackpad with one-hand contextual menu summoning.
In terms of cost/value ratio, the MacBook wins hands-down, with even the top of the line black models selling for less than half what my 500 MHz Pismo did six years ago, and the base, $1,099,1.83 GHz version less than one-third as much. Considering the power and features you get at the price, the MacBook represents an almost unbelievable bargain.
The more I consider the MacBook, the more enthusiastic I get. Initial concerns over the glossy display and the new keyboard appear to have been much overblown, and early reports of severe overheating may be attributable to non-removal of a plastic seal covering the machine's cooling vent in some early production examples.
It's still early days yet of course, and I'm comfortable with my decision to buy a refurbished 17-inch PowerBook as an interim machine while the MacIntel transition settles on a bit, but I'm not likely to wait another three years for my next system upgrade.
A revision the MacBook might be just the ticket, and in the meantime, I'm guessing that those who take the MacBook plunge now will not be disappointed.
After all, there was only one revision of the Pismo.
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