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Wireless hotspots are fast taking over our world, allowing anyone with a WiFi compatible 'device' connect to the internet. In the USA, every Starbucks branch provides free wireless net access, but WiFi can even be used to access other computers connected to the same 'base station'. The powerbook in question supports the WiFi standard 802.11b, which is a universally used standard that operates at 11Mbps and supports encryption that is easily cracked by programs such as Netstumbler (www.netstumbler.com) and is on overall considered 'insecure'.
Apple has their own Wireless base station and this is known as the Airport Extreme which also includes a hardware DHCP server and NAT, which applies to all connected wireless and wired devices that connected to the LAN port via a switch. The advantage of using this instead of cheaper alternatives is that OS X directly supports it via the Airport Admin Utility, which allows easy configuration and maintenance of the network.
Airport Extreme wireless base station
The Limitation of any Laptop
Not in this case. The 61Wh Li-Ion battery can power the laptop for 5hrs, but more realistically 4hrs with the screen brightness at a decent level and airport
enabled. The battery has a built in '4-led indicator' which displays the charge when a button is pressed, which is located on the battery, and allows easy management of multiple batteries, which is a must for any 'serious' road warrior. The strength of Apple PowerBooks lie in the sleep function. Close the lid, and the laptop will totally power down and the one and only visible led will start to throb slowly, indicating active sleeping. Lift the lid open, and within 0.5s the laptop is fully alive ready to work, and not one laptop from any other manufacturer has this capability.
After the battery recharges to 100%, it will stay green, but the machine allows it to 'drop' until it hits 95%, where it re-starts the recharging. The time for it to drop down to 95% is about 28hours, and every time it sleeps, it is interrupted. The images below show the charger 'tip' that glows orange when charging and green when charged. The transformer block included by Apple has a single defect. It is very sensitive to fluctuations of the power line, which I found out when I had my room fridge on the same line, which caused the charger to stop charging. I have heard that some table lamps cause this as well.
Charging the Powerbook
Not quite enough juice!
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