Owning a PowerBook is great. Owning a PowerBook and having this book is even better.
This review is biased. The author, Rich Wolfson, is a friend of mine, and I even did some of the illustrations for this book. Despite that, I hope after reading this that you’ll agree with me that The PowerBook Companion is a must for any PowerBook owner. (And no, I don’t get any money if you buy the book!)
So what’s to know about a PowerBook, anyway? I mean, it’s a Mac, right? And we all know how to use those. So who needs a book?
Well, actually, there’s quite a lot to know. For one thing, a PowerBook is likely to be used in ways that a desktop Mac wouldn’t be: in a hotel room, connected to a cellular mobile phone, even acting as a SCSI disk drive for a desktop Mac. There are PowerBook features to help in these situations, and there are many things you can do to make the most of your PowerBook—if you know what to do.
For another thing, the PowerBooks have some quirks you should know about. When was the last time you worried about running out of power before you could finish typing a document on your desktop Mac? Well, you’ll worry about it plenty with a PowerBook…the average battery life is only two or three hours. But there are plenty of ways to extend your usable time beyond that. And that’s where this book comes in. Wolfson has filled it with practical, down-to-earth advice on how to really get the most out of any PowerBook.
Disk space—for free
Let’s get specific. Take chapter 4, System Installation. You say your PowerBook’s hard disk is bursting at the seams and you can’t afford an upgrade? Reading this one chapter will get you over 3 MB of additional disk space! First Wolfson shows you how to gain 1.6 MB of space that Apple’s factory workers left unusable. No cost, no tradeoffs—just a meg and a half of extra disk space that suddenly appears after you reformat, following the book’s step-by-step illustrated directions.
Stripping down the System
After that, it’s on to reinstall your system software—only this time instead of using the Installer’s “Easy Install” option that throws in everything but the kitchen sink, Wolfson shows you how to be selective. For example, the Installer gives you printer drivers for every different Apple printer on the face of the earth. By throwing away all except the one you actually need, you can save at least 473K. By only installing what you really need, you can save another two megabytes of disk space—without giving up any important functionality! This single chapter is worth the price of the book.
Cheap tricks galore
But there’s more. Chapters on power management and battery handling give detailed advice on how to stretch your computing time to the maximum while maximizing your batteries’ lifespan. In the Telecommunications chapter you’ll learn how to build a simple adapter with three bucks’ worth of parts that will let you patch into any phone system with your modem—whether or not your hotel room has standard phone jacks! Chapters on options and upgrading show you how to buy and add memory, an internal modem and other goodies without incurring dealer labor charges.
But will I understand it?
In case you’re wondering about your ability to absorb a mass of technical stuff, let me say here what I should have pointed out in the beginning—this book is superbly written. That’s no surprise, because it was actually a team effort: Rich Wolfson provided the information and the technical know-how, and Sharon Zardetto Aker, author of the nest-selling Macintosh Bible, polished the prose into a friendly, readable form. Aker specializes in writing for everyday users, not techno-nerds (see her recent book The Macintosh Companion), and her clear, comfortable style makes every page of this book a pleasure to read.
Even when the subject matter is deep—as with the notoriously confusing issue of SCSI chains—the writing leads you by the hand and makes the most esoteric questions seem simple. And clear illustrations by several artists, as well as plenty of screen dumps, grace nearly every page, making the key points visually as well as verbally. The balance between solid, accurate technical information, down-to-earth practical advice and (perhaps most important of all) clear, understandable writing make this an exceptional book.
What don’t it got?
I suppose I’d sound less biased if I could find something to criticise in The PowerBook Companion.Truth is, there really isn’t much. The worst I can say is that it only specifically covers the PowerBook 100, 140 and 170 models. As with any book about computers, the rapid march of progress changed things even as the book was in press. The PowerBook 100 is no longer on Apple’s price list (though you can still find them in stores), while the newly introduced PowerBook 145 is not covered. (Neither are the announced-but-not-yet-shipping Duos.) That’s not as bad as it may sound, though, because a good 80–90% of the advice in this book will apply to any of the newer models. (The 145, for example, is basically just a fast 140.)
It’s hard to izmagine any PowerBook owner, from the novice to the expert, who would not get more than his or her money’s worth out of this book. I’ll sum it up in six words: Got a PowerBook? Get this book. It’s that simple.
The PowerBook Companion,Richard Wolfson. Addison-Wesley, $24.95
Note: Right now not too many bookstores seem to have this in stock, but they can order it for you. Ask for ISBN #0-201-60884-7.
