Notebook Mac Will Be One Of The Smallest And Lightest

Sydney Morning Herald

Sunday August 4, 1991

By DAVID FRITH

APPLE Computer will fill the most glaring gap in its Macintosh line-up in October when it launches a notebook-sized Mac, along with two larger laptop models.

The notebook Mac, made for Apple by Sony, will be - at 2.4kg - one of the smallest and lightest PCs on the market. It is expected to sell in Australia for $3,000-$4,000.

The new products will almost certainly see the phasing out of the current Mac Portable, a good performer but grossly overweight at almost 8kg.

Mobile Mac types who can't wait until October should take a look at an alternative Mac-compatible notebook PC due to reach Australia next week: the Outbound Notebook System.

This natty little device, now being hailed by the US press, is made by Outbound Systems of Boulder, Colorado. This company has had a Mac-compatible laptop on the market for more than a year.

It is the only company so far officially sanctioned by Apple to use its read-only-memory (Rom) chips. Without the Roms, which contain much of the distinctive Macintosh interface, no Maccompatible is possible.

The new notebook models to reach Australia next week are at once smaller and more powerful than the current Outbound. They may well be cheaper, too.

The Outbound Notebook System is the same size as a sheet of A4 paper, but about 6cm thick. In standard trim it weighs 2.7kg.

Unlike Apple's low-end notebook, it will be able to accommodate both a 1.44-megabyte floppy disk drive and a hard disk drive. The official Mac notebook will have a hard disk but no inbuilt floppy.

And where the official model - possibly to be called the Classic Notebook according to US reports - is limited to a Motorola 68000 chip, Outbound buyers can pick anything from a 68000 to a 68030.

They can also pick their hard drive size - anything up to 60 megabytes, or choose to have no hard disk at all.

Another option will be a "Ram" disk claimed to accommodate up to 60 megabytes of non-volatile random access memory. Ram disks are memory on a chip: because there are no moving parts, and hence very little battery drain, they are popular with portable users.

Non-volatile means the memory isn't lost when you turn the computer off.

The Outbound Notebook uses a standard camcorder battery, claimed to be good for three hours' use. Like the current Apple Portable, the system automatically goes into a battery-saving "sleep" mode when it hasn't been used for a while.

The screen is a 25cm (10in) sidelit liquid crystal display, which should be clear in most lighting conditions. It is said to be more responsive than the current Outbound Portable display, which suffers from "submarining": if you move the cursor too fast, it disappears briefly from sight before resurfacing

The Outbound keyboard is built in to the unit, unlike the current model's which was detachable and cordless. Also built in is an improved version of the Isobar pointing device which takes the place of a mouse in situations where there's no mouse-room - for example on an aircraft pulldown table.

So far, Australian prices have not been set.

But US prices range from $2,900-$4,300. Trying to calculate the effect of currency conversions, freight, distribution, support and Australian sales tax leads to an estimated price range of $5,500-$8,000 in this country.

October looks like being a busy month for Apple marketing and promotion teams. Apart from the new portable range, there will be two new high-end Macintoshes, a new scanner and two new laser printers.

The high-end Macs, featuring Motorola's powerful 68040 chip, are rivals to Intel's 486.

The more powerful machine - to be called the Macintosh IIex, according to some reports - is said to be a "tower" model that stands on the floor by a desk.

The other machine also stands vertically but is small enough - about the size of a Mac IIcx box - to sit on a desktop.

Both machines are said to run 25-100 per cent faster than the current Mac champion, the IIfx, but should not have the compatibility problems that have bedevilled the latter.

Apple's new LaserWriters incorporate new technology that looks most interesting for desktop publishers.

While officially 300 dots-per-inch models, like most laser printers, they will be capable of printing half-tone photographs at much better resolution.

With Apple's new technology, each of the dots used to print half-tones will contain eight bits of grey-scale information.

The printers will use this information to modulate the size of each dot and achieve half-tone output which will be equivalent to 600dpi or higher.

This should be quite good enough for reproduction of photographs in low-cost laser-printed in-house newsletters or reports, or for proofing pages for eventual use in higher-resolution printing.