ric@netcom.UUCP (Richard Bretscheider) (01/10/90)
Anyone out there got any experience with the Wallaby Macintosh Laptop? Yes, this is a _laptop_ not a "portable" weighing in at under 10 pounds WITH the 20 meg hard disk! I got a flyer in yesterday's mail from Wallaby. Opened my eyes on several issues. I had thought that their "this device is a peripheral to the Macintosh you already own" line was a dodge to get around the problems that Magic Sac and it's ilk have incurred. Not so! Not so! If what they say is true, this is a viable enhancement to any Plus or SE. In short, if you haven't already heard, the ROMs in your Macintosh Plus or SE are removed and replaced with a cable. The ROMS are then placed in the Wallaby. If you want to use your Macintosh, you plug it into the Wallaby with the new cable and it uses the ROMs installed in the Wallaby. When you want to go mobile, you simply detach the cable and carry your ROM bearing Wallaby off with you. That doesn't really sound like a peripheral on it's own, but here's what the flyer adds to that. While the Wallaby is attached to your Mac: - The 1 to 4 meg RAM in your Wallaby is added to the RAM in your Mac. - The Wallaby runs at 15 mhz (?) and so does your Mac. - The Wallaby's screen (Sized larger horiz. like the Mac Portable) can be used as a second screen, adding desktop area, allowing access to both screens at once. - The floppy, hard, or "silicon" drive in your Wallaby is accessible in your Mac. The silicon drive is essentially a battery backed up RAM disk of 1 - 16 meg size. This thing looks real good. Under 10 pounds, battery lasts for 3 hours, 5 hours charging time, but additional batteries are only $100. The monitor and keyboard detach, and communicate via infrared. An Isopoint pointer built into the keyboard, but you can attach a mouse. The cost? $3000 for the base unit. My questions? Does anyone have any noteworthy hours of use on this thing? Does it have a "sleep mode" (and does its sleep mode work any better than the Mac Portable's?) How rugged is it? It comes with a 1 year P&L warranty, but where do you get it serviced? And what about that Isopoint, looks pretty goofy? What's it like when the batteries run down? Other issues? Anyone got one yet? -- Richard A. Bretschneider These are my words. My employer's Ric Bret words are often spoken in haste, and RAB rarely resemble my compassionate prose.
ric@netcom.UUCP (Richard Bretscheider) (01/10/90)
(continued from prev. message) Of course I forgot to add, how's the keyboard? Possibly the most important question of all! -- Richard A. Bretschneider These are my words. My employer's Ric Bret words are often spoken in haste, and RAB rarely resemble my compassionate prose.