Leopard to PowerBook 12-inch: Burn!

Yes, that’s right, 12-inch PowerBook owners have been dissed by Leopard. Later-generation 12-inch PowerBook G4s came with GeForce FX 5200 Go graphics. Now, that meets the Core Image requirements… which is important in Leopard, as the translucent menu bar is driven by Core Image.

But, for some reason, 12-inch PowerBook owners were shocked to find that their menu bars were very un-translucent.  Well, Apple has finally chimed in and answered why. See, Apple cheated with the 12-inch PowerBook, the FX 5200 Go supports almost all, but not all, Core Image calls. But, because the 12-inch PowerBook was needed to leverage Final Cut Studio sales, they went ahead and declared it Core Image-compliant. And, in Tiger, this was fine, because all the Dashboard effects and other cool features could then be enabled problem-free.

Apple today posted a support article confirming that the translucent menu bar uses one of those OpenGL Core Image calls that the FX 5200 Go  doesn’t support. And, thus, Apple has said officially “no translucent menu bar for you!”

Speaking of which, Apple, a moment please. Where, oh where is my Pro ultraportable? Where is my powerful graphics in a 12-inch casing? I don’t want an ultraportable that is ultra-skinny on the specifications. I want a 12-inch MacBook Pro, complete with GeForce 8600 Go graphics. My bank account is still waiting to wire the premium price tag over to Cupertino.