Using an external display with a 12" Powerbook G4
One of the highlights of our last trip to Disney World was stopping by the Apple store in Orlando, FL. It was great to be able to play with all the new toys. The best thing was visiting the 'genius bar.' At the genius bar, you get to ask a real, live mac genius anything you want.
I've been wanting to know how to use a external display with my 12" powerbook for quite some time. The genius showed me how to do this, and sold me an apple bluetooth keyboard. Here's how you do it:
The new PowerBook can work with the lid closed attached to an external display. First you have to attach an external apple keyboard (note: you must use an mac keyboard.) and mouse to the USB ports. Then you close the lid to make the system go to sleep. After this, you attach the external monitor to the PowerBook. (The system has to be connected to the power adapter.) Then just press a key on the external keyboard, and the system wakes up. The LCD screen of the portable will be switched off, so you can keep the lid closed.
This is nice. All the video memory is available for running the external display, up to 2048x1536 resolution with millions of colors.