Apple laptop computer

When it comes to product, Apple does very little wrong. Okay, there's a wee bug here and a manufacturing glitch there; but, by and large, the dang things do what you want them to.

And in contrast to most other personal computers, not to mention Apple's own marketing style and financial savvy, the computers themselves are flawless.

Well, most of the computers. It's no secret that Apple has been losing the laptop race in a big, big way. And it's really no wonder.

The boys and girls in Cupertino have promised us the stars in a handy dandy carry-anywhere size and have delivered crap. The hard-to-use trackball represented pre-Pong technology at its most hideous and some recent models have been prone to deciding on a career as expensive flaming pieces of plastic rather than as portable workstations.

Granted, there are difficulties and limitations in translating an existing technology into a much smaller space, but is it too much to ask that it doesn't explode?

As the less-than-proud owner of a 5300CS (at least I didn't pay for the wee beastie), I have experienced so much frustration and heartbreak that I have given the thing up to other, more tolerant members of the household.

But if Apple's latest claims are true (and since Gil Amelio has taken over, it's been happening more often than not), it finally has something to lure buyers away from their folding Wintels.

The PowerBook 1400 (if I were them, I would have retired the name "PowerBook" to the dungheap of despicable product names, right next to "Pinto") promises to right the wrongs of its predecessors.

The thing is solidly built and said to be much more reliable than previous models. Okay, that should be a given, but now that we're at relative zero, what will make Joe and Jane Businesstraveller buy it?

To start, it has a high-quality 11.3-inch SVGA 16-bit color screen. Yep, the shifting currents of blue plasma have been FedExed to the glue factory. It can also be had with a full-sized CD-ROM, can be upgraded and can support all manner of peripherals. What's best about it, though, is that in the new Apple tradition, it's the best computer of its kind for Internet access.

Now Apple's back in the race it helped create.

And not a moment too soon. The Mac OS is a great fit to the laptop format and if Apple doesn't have the determination to tie that particular knot, one of its licensees will.

Jerry Langton is an expatriate Canadian, and veteran Mac user, living in New York City. His e-mail address is: jlangton@jobson.com.