My Dell Latitude is ready to be "office spaced", and I am considering making the switch to an Apple Powerbook.

One question I had was whether any of the cellular providers' wireless plans work on Mac platforms? Ie: the Verizon 80/month package that QuietLion just signed up for. I think they all say that it doesn't run on Mac, but has anyone tried it sucessfully with Virtual PC?

I called the AppleCare line, and the tech answering my call didn't know!

Also, my boyfriend has a G4 Dual 1.25, and I wasn't able to post a new thread on Flyertalk. Does Safari not work with flyertalk?

Thanks, your responses will influence whether I purchase a powerbook or a thinkpad!

I roadwarrior with a 12" Powerbook (the perfect size road laptop) and I haven't had any problem using my T-Mobile SE T610 as a wireless modem over Bluetooth and certainly haven't had any issues with the T-Mobile Hotspots, which work flawlessly.

The 12" PB doesn't have a PCMCIA slot, so if the adapter you're looking to use goes into a slot, you'll have to look to the 15" ones. Then again, I haven't been paying much attention to the Verizon offering. You'd probably need to call Verizon Wireless and get the deal on compatibility from them.

As for Safari, I rarely use it, as I'm more of a FireFox user (www.mozilla.org), which is on the same general code base, just better maintained and extended. I don't remember there being an issue with Safari and FT.

For all the frustrations you may feel at the beginning of the switch, trust me... you'll thank yourself later. I made the switch two and a half years ago after the third reload of 2000/XP on my laptop. I'm not looking back.

Timothy

I haven't tried the Verizon service, but my 1.5GHz 17" PB has never had the slightest problem connecting to any wireless network anywhere - including some that nominally do not support Macs, apparently because their support staff wouldn't know what to suggest if someone had a problem. Does Verizon use some odd software?

As for Safari, I normally don't use it, but I'm posting this reply with version 1.2.3 to test it. Works exactly as it does with Netscape and IE.

Bottom line: I'm a happy camper. I have some Windows experience and have Virtual PC on my Mac because I sometimes have to run Access, but overall I'll stay with Apple. The fact that Consumer Reports surveys give them the highest ratings for reliability and support doesn't hurt, either.

I use Safari in all my Macs (Powerbook 15", 12", iBook 14) and I have never experienced any problems with FT.

I use Virtual PC to use some PC specific applications on a "need' basis. Remember that Virtual PC is "virtual" and therefore isn't really suppose to substitute a real PC. It does its job but I wouldn't count on it if I had to use it everyday.

I went over to the Verizon store, and the salesman there said that "we don't support Mac, but I know that it can be done."

I asked him how he knew it could be done and he said: "I have an Apple."

So I purchased one of the cords that connects your phone to the USB.

My question is still, do you have to use Virtual PC to get on the internet (with the Verizon software).

Has anyone used this before??

I doubt very much you would use Virtual PC for that. I use my 12 inch powerbook with TMobile and a Bluetooth connection and it works fine. For information on this if no one can chime in here with specific Verizon experience I suggest you go to www.howardforums.com or the mac cell phone yahoo club. Sorry, dont have the link handy for that one but it shouldnt he hard to find. Im sure somone at the howardforums site can provide it. At howardforums try a search on the Verizon forum for something like "powerbook modem" and Im guessing you will be awash in threads.

Safari is fine.

I haven't used a Verizon card but I have used Orange/Vodafone ones in the UK and they weren't sure whether they'd work with Apple. Guess what... they just worked!

Enjoy your Powerbook!

I have a 900mhz iBook and while I'd like to upgrade to the 12" PB, the iBook is fine for now. I don't have any experience using it with cell phones to connect, but I run Safari and find that it works fine with FT (and with just about everything else, too.)

Good Luck and welcome to the world where computers are "cool" again.

This is a driver for the Verizon Express Network PC card.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macos...andaccess.html

You might also want to check out this thread too:

http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...hreadid=190752

Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox for Macintosh all work just fine on flyertalk. You should be able to connect through your cell phone to the internet without having to use Virtual PC. If you need Virtual PC for running any other windows programs, I strongly suggest you get at least 1/2 a gig of ram in your PowerBook, and use Windows 2000 for optimal speed and efficiency. The upcoming version of Virtual PC hopefully will increase the efficiency of XP running on OS X. Enjoy the new PowerBook, I have a 12 inch PowerBook that I use as my primary computer and it works wonderfully.

We use TMobile to connect via our bluetooth enabled cell phones. Works fine.

Safari works great also.

There are some books on switching to the Mac that you might want to look at.

Also, for transferring your files from the Windows computer to the Mac, consider getting a product called Move2Mac. It has gotten good reviews.

I think you'll find that your need for virtual PC should be minimal. A lot of folks switching think that they'll rely on it a lot, but really, either the same application or a better equivalent can be found that runs natively the Mac 90% of the time.

Another thing that you've already experienced is that support people will often immediately jump to the conclusion that their products don't work on a Mac, just because there aren't many Mac users out there using them and fewer of them need to phone up support for assistance with them. The truth is that you will rarely encounter an incompatibility issue with a Mac these days. Anything a Windows or Linux machine does a Mac does in pretty much the same way (or easier).

I ran into this when trying to access broadband Internet at Jurys Inn in Newcastle, England. The support folks were incredibly snotty when it didn't work. Finally, at checkout, I found out that the hotel was in the process of rearranging the ports in the rooms. Moving the ports (done centrally) was not synchronized with changing the labels (done in each room). In some rooms, mine included, the ports were mislabeled.

While I can't prove that my PowerBook would have been able to access the 'net had it been plugged into the correct port, its history of flawless access everywhere else suggests that it would have. The support people's attitude, that if it's a Mac any problem is probably a Mac weirdness, was uncalled for and annoying.

(In all fairness to Jurys Inn, they don't do their own Web support. Every one of their own employees whom we encountered during our stay was wonderful.)