powerbooks... ough.

[lorenzo]

so, ive been patient. for months upon months upon months. waiting for updates, hearing speculations or rumors all april... nothing at all in may, here we are in june and nothing after the wwdc thing or whatever. i am a pc user and despertly want to switch to mac... to a powerbook, but god i sure as hell dont want to buy a product to see it updated a month or two later. i just got back from world travels for a month.... thus back to the mac and pc world... thus back to the headache and waiting game! i havnt read much, but now all this intel talk.....

seriously. does anyone have any good insight as to when the powerbooks will be upgraded? i know i should probably just buy now, but i would much rather wait if its not going to be too long.

thanks guys

[hammackj]

rambling on
I am in the same boat as you. But now that i know there will not be a G5 powerbook I think i am going to order today and just get it over with. If they upgrade them oh well. My girlfriends iBook is 2 years old and still does everything i want a powerbook for(even playing World of Warcraft). I am just so sick of windows xp and having to use a desktop. :mad:

rambling off

[Gordy]

If you wait for the next "thing" you'll never buy one, just buy one now and get on with it :)

[hhlee]

now is the best time to buy a powerbook. there will be no more major updates so the current versions of powerbooks are already considered to be the most elegant. i just recently (2 weeks ago) purchased a rev a 15 inch powerbook and it is great.

if you're worried about becoming outdated just next year (mac->intel), buy an older rev to last you ~2 years. although i'm excited about the transition, i'll wait until rev b before i switch, which should occur in ~2 years.

[Koodauw]

to a powerbook, but god i sure as hell dont want to buy a product to see it updated a month or two later.

This is your error in thinking. Really, who cares if they get updated? It doesnt make your computer anyless powerful. And I doubt there will be any PB updates anytime soon. The current ones are only 4 (or so) months old! Just go get one. I did.

[tsk]

seriously. does anyone have any good insight as to when the powerbooks will be upgraded? i know i should probably just buy now, but i would much rather wait if its not going to be too long.


Apple currently has a rebate going until the end of this month (for educational customers). I'm pretty certain they'll wait till thats done to offer any updates (to me it seems like an offer to clean inventory). The latest I'd expect an upgrade is September, and honestly, I expect a relatively minor update.

[apple_g5]

I don't want to wait anymore... I've completely lost my faith in apple... I've looked away, when I saw the prices of 3x faster windows portables, when I saw the horrible Apple pricing, I said to myself -> it's an APPLE

Now, with their INTEL Deal they have destroyed my faith in Apple... Forget the PB, forget the iB - I'll get myself a VAIO as portable.

[A former happy apple user]

[wtmcgee]

Apple currently has a rebate going until the end of this month (for educational customers). I'm pretty certain they'll wait till thats done to offer any updates (to me it seems like an offer to clean inventory). The latest I'd expect an upgrade is September, and honestly, I expect a relatively minor update.

Where are the details on this edu rebate? Does it go along with the standard $100 off?

[Manzana]

My girlfriends iBook is 2 years old and still does everything i want a powerbook for(even playing World of Warcraft).

you just answered your own question :D

i have a g3 ibook 600 that pretty much does everything i need (mom uses it). when i use my pb 1.33 it's such a difference! Don't wait any longer.

[James Philp]

I don't want to wait anymore... I've completely lost my faith in apple... I've looked away, when I saw the prices of 3x faster windows portables, when I saw the horrible Apple pricing, I said to myself -> it's an APPLE

Now, with their INTEL Deal they have destroyed my faith in Apple... Forget the PB, forget the iB - I'll get myself a VAIO as portable.

[A former happy apple user]
You may actually wanna try speccing out a Dell to a similar spec to the apple portable (though not CPU of course) and they will come out more similar than you may think.

To the OP - this is why it is best not to wait - you already regret waiting 2 months- how do you feel about another 6-12? The moral is that if you really want/need on, buy one, and don't worry that 2 months later a better one comes out - how can you put a value on 2 months using a machine that is great?

[weg]

when I saw the horrible Apple pricing, ...

forget the iB - I'll get myself a VAIO as portable.


Huh? How can you complain about horrible pricing and consider to buy a Vaio in the same breath?

But you're right about the pricing. And I fear that won't change even if Apple now switches to Intel... as long as they charge 200 bucks extra for a DVD writer and 160 bucks for 256megs of additional RAM it doesn't matter if the processor is cheap or not ;-)

[Ashapalan]

Once you get into the waiting game you become in danger of never getting a computer, you ain't going to live forever. Think about all the time you could have had it for and yet it still hasn't been updated...

You just have to jump on. The powerbooks were updated in january, they cant really do much more to them now, seeing as there won't be a G5 (as we know it). Jump on board, once your on, you are on for good.

[apple_g5]

For 1700 € I'll get the top of the line VAIO 15.4 widescreen + 128 mb graphic + 60 gig hd + 512 ram + superdrive

What does Apple have in this priceclass?


I'm just really tired of those "updates" that apple has been bringing out... a speedbump of max. 400 hz, slow graphics

My deadline is until september - then I'll buy a laptop (uni + graphics)




Huh? How can you complain about horrible pricing and consider to buy a Vaio in the same breath?

But you're right about the pricing. And I fear that won't change even if Apple now switches to Intel... as long as they charge 200 bucks extra for a DVD writer and 160 bucks for 256megs of additional RAM it doesn't matter if the processor is cheap or not ;-)

[wtmcgee]

For 1700 € I'll get the top of the line VAIO 15.4 widescreen + 128 mb graphic + 60 gig hd + 512 ram + superdrive

What does Apple have in this priceclass?

An ugly VAIO with windows on it. :)

[apple_g5]

An ugly VAIO with windows on it. :)

I'm using Apple since I use computers... I'm really one of those die-hard apple fans... I'm willing to pay more for the Apple... don't get me wrong. But I'm running out of arguments for still sticking with a mac when buying a portable. the desktop line is really good- no doubt - but the g4 line S***s.

[jiv3turkey748]

I don't want to wait anymore... I've completely lost my faith in apple... I've looked away, when I saw the prices of 3x faster windows portables, when I saw the horrible Apple pricing, I said to myself -> it's an APPLE

Now, with their INTEL Deal they have destroyed my faith in Apple... Forget the PB, forget the iB - I'll get myself a VAIO as portable.

[A former happy apple user]

wow thats pretty dumb whats so bad about intel i mean come on if the only reason you switched to apple is because theyre "diffrent" and not because you like their products than thats pretty lame

[jiv3turkey748]

For 1700 € I'll get the top of the line VAIO 15.4 widescreen + 128 mb graphic + 60 gig hd + 512 ram + superdrive

What does Apple have in this priceclass?


I'm just really tired of those "updates" that apple has been bringing out... a speedbump of max. 400 hz, slow graphics


you realize the whole point of the intel thing is so they canuse faster processors so their updates wont be so lame

[MacHarne]

Where are the details on this edu rebate? Does it go along with the standard $100 off?

This is the rebate being spoken of: Apple Education Rebate (http://education.apple.com/students/go/save/)

It must be "taken possession of" for their qualifying products by June 25th, 2005. So if you wanted to do an online order I would recommend taking care of it very soon if possible.

I ordered a 12" PB on Monday following the Keynote and that leaves me plenty of time to take care of the details.

[Astral Cars]

For 1700 € I'll get the top of the line VAIO 15.4 widescreen + 128 mb graphic + 60 gig hd + 512 ram + superdrive

What does Apple have in this priceclass?



Wait, isn't a similar powerbook cheaper than that?

[apple_g5]

You're all so right... my heart is bleeding as I'm these posts... but I'm just pretty confused. I need a fast machine until autumn. If Apple builds anything valuable... I'll be the first one to place an order. It's just this painful look at the benchmarks... well, time will show.

Facit: I'll stay with apple.

Thanks for your posts and for keeping the hope up in me

[apple_g5]

Wait, isn't a similar powerbook cheaper than that?

Starting at 1499... at what power?

[chibianh]

You're all so right... my heart is bleeding as I'm these posts... but I'm just pretty confused. I need a fast machine until autumn. If Apple builds anything valuable... I'll be the first one to place an order. It's just this painful look at the benchmarks... well, time will show.

Facit: I'll stay with apple.

Thanks for your posts and for keeping the hope up in me

If you need a laptop now, just buy one. If Apple doesn't seem like the best deal and you can live with Windows, get the VAIO, simple as that. BTW, what will u be doing that you need the biggest, fastest, and baddest? And why has the Intel deal destroyed your faith in Apple?

[apple_g5]

If you need a laptop now, just buy one. If Apple doesn't seem like the best deal and you can live with Windows, get the VAIO, simple as that. BTW, what will u be doing that you need the biggest, fastest, and baddest? And why has the Intel deal destroyed your faith in Apple?

That's because I'm gonna study stuff related to graphics design + publishing

[drison]

You're all so right... my heart is bleeding as I'm these posts... but I'm just pretty confused. I need a fast machine until autumn. If Apple builds anything valuable... I'll be the first one to place an order. It's just this painful look at the benchmarks... well, time will show.

Facit: I'll stay with apple.

Thanks for your posts and for keeping the hope up in me

Just to hopefully boost your confidence that sticking with Apple is the right thing to do, I'll tell you that I thought the same thing several months ago.

I was tired of the fact that my pb 1ghz cost so much and seemed so slow compared to similarly priced pc laptops, so I sold it at a loss and bought a decked out dell inspiron(in my sig). It's fast, it plays games really well but it is missing one thing, MacOSX.

For that reason, I recently bought a cheap used ibook which I am using far more than the dell and intend to sell the dell, probably at a loss as well. :rolleyes:

You can play the game I did and learn the hard way, or learn from my mistake and stay with Apple. :)

-Dave

[apple_g5]

Just to hopefully boost your confidence that sticking with Apple is the right thing to do, I'll tell you that I thought the same thing several months ago.

I was tired of the fact that my pb 1ghz cost so much and seemed so slow compared to similarly priced pc laptops, so I sold it at a loss and bought a decked out dell inspiron(in my sig). It's fast, it plays games really well but it is missing one thing, MacOSX.

For that reason, I recently bought a cheap used ibook which I am using far more than the dell and intend to sell the dell, probably at a loss as well. :rolleyes:

You can play the game I did and learn the hard way, or learn from my mistake and stay with Apple. :)

-Dave



The OS is the only reason why I'm still preferring apple... as I said before: I'm running out of arguments for Apple. Another thing that bothers me, is the fact that they are going to kill "our" OSX in about 2-3 years like they did with OS 9. I don't know whether I'm going to play the same game again (switch to ppc, switch os9 to osX)


Another thing: How will OSX be in a year? Will it run mediocre on the new INTEL machines? Or will Apple force the people to switch to 10.5 because 10.4 runs choppy?

[chibianh]

the fact that they are going to kill "our" OSX in about 2-3 years like they did with OS 9.

Another thing: How will OSX be in a year? Will it run mediocre on the new INTEL machines? Or will Apple force the people to switch to 10.5 because 10.4 runs choppy?

What do you mean by this? In 2-3 years, we'll be with OS X 10.5 and maybe even 10.6.

If you saw the keynote, Tiger seemed to run fantastic on Steve's Intel machine.

[pulsewidth947]

in the hope of getting the thread back on topic - just buy your laptop now!

at the start of the year i decided to get an iBook. I wanted to wait till they were updated. Then I decided to wait till Tiger.. Then it was mid cycle so I wanted to wait till hw upgrades....

All this waiting means I got the money to buy a 15" PowerBook! So on the 30th of May I took the plunge and bought it.

At the end of the day your new computer will not be the latest after a few months. But the current powerbooks really are wonderful machines. I can easily see myself still using it in 4 years.

Get the best you can afford right now and never have regrets.

[aricher]

Another thing: How will OSX be in a year? Will it run mediocre on the new INTEL machines? Or will Apple force the people to switch to 10.5 because 10.4 runs choppy?

I agree with this - my guess is that 10.4 will run choppy or Kernal Panic more frequently than the average user would like - sort of like using the original OS X on an old G3. It's planned obsolescence just like what Microsoft is doing with Longhorn - sure you'll be able to run it on old systems but the experience won't be very good.

As far as the VAIO thing goes - go ahead and get one if you can deal with XP. All I know is that 3 people I know with VAIOs have had many more quality control issues than I ever have had with my 17" 1.33 PB. Life's rough when your VAIO's DVD drive blows out 3 times in a month only to be followed by 2 MOBO replacements. Lucky for my friend it was all under warranty at the time.

I can honestly say that my PB 17" 1.33 was the best purchase I made and I still love it and use it every day. The machine has paid for itself several times over in the jobs I have done with it in the time I otherwise would have been waiting for the next big thing I maxed out the RAM and do some pretty serious Photoshop and video editing with it. Sure the PBs are a bit stale in comparison to the PC world but their good enough to work on almost any file.

OS X vs. XP - your call.

[apple_g5]

What do you mean by this? In 2-3 years, we'll be with OS X 10.5 and maybe even 10.6.

If you saw the keynote, Tiger seemed to run fantastic on Steve's Intel machine.

The OS might have been OK on the INTEL CPU - but what about all the apps? if you ask me, there'll be the same problem as with classic: 50% of the apps running choppy, 30% need a mass of plugins and the rest does not work at all due to some hardware related stuff... If you ask me it's complete nonsense to code a new OS for a new Chip that has good downwards compatibilities - this requires the developers to code everything twice... who wants to do this work? This'll end up in most of the Apps not compatible to the G4 in 2-3 years, the g5 will take longer, due to the fact that apple needs to satisfy its PRO users.

[yoda13]

buy the PB...with apple it is all about the OS. But I too figure we'll have to upgrade the OS allong with the switch to intel, so that everything is smooth

[madmaxmedia]

Why the concern about choppy OS or apps? Don't you remember the details?

1. They have been compiling OSX and the iApps for both PPC and x86 for awhile now. OS 10.4, 10.5, and beyond will run fine on PPC and x86 machines. Let me repeat that- OSX and the iApps already run natively on both PPC and x86 Macs (which won't come out for almost a year.)

If anything, the future OS's will run smoother due to better optimization.

2. Most major apps will be compiled for both PPC and x86 well in advance of actual x86 Mac hardware. And the types of apps that you will need Rosetta for, will probably be little shareware-type programs (for most people) that will run just fine with Rosetta. If you're a Mathematica user, I don't think you have any worries... ;)

Take a deep breath...

[MacHarne]

50% of the apps running choppy

requires the developers to code everything twice

You should really watch the WWDC 2005 Keynote Quicktime stream before making comments like that. Jobs' Intel PowerMac was running just as beautifully as previous models he has used at Keynote addresses.

Steve showed off XCode 2.1 which allows programmers to write one program but lets XCode compile it (or whatever, I'm really not sure on this coding stuff) for both processors. Take for instance the Mathematica example they previewed; Mathematica was ready for Intel machines in just a couple of hours.

Please watch the Quicktime stream; lots of helpful information.

Steve Jobs' WWDC 2005 Keynote address (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/wwdc05/)

[HasanDaddy]

most signs point to a Sept update on PB's

and usually, Apple let's the stock get cleaned out in summertime

just reading the rumor sites, it doesn't seem that we'll see a G5 or a Dual Core PB

I'm thinking that the next major update might involve an HD screen, but that would be it

[jr0977]

The OS is the only reason why I'm still preferring apple... as I said before: I'm running out of arguments for Apple. Another thing that bothers me, is the fact that they are going to kill "our" OSX in about 2-3 years like they did with OS 9. I don't know whether I'm going to play the same game again (switch to ppc, switch os9 to osX)


Another thing: How will OSX be in a year? Will it run mediocre on the new INTEL machines? Or will Apple force the people to switch to 10.5 because 10.4 runs choppy?

Its just a d*mn processor people, Apple is all about the operating system. If you think that OSX wasn't meant for Intel, it was built for Intel, they knew PPC techology was too expensive, and behind the times. G5 was big and slow compared to Intel processors, and not to mention twice as much. We are going to have the same freakin apples, faster and less expensive. Stop B*tching already.

[Capt Underpants]

If I was in the market for a powerbook, I would just wait it out. There are going to be some awesome things coming in the next Powerbook revision. Think centrino-like processors that will blow today's PBs out of the water. If you can deal with Windows (not that its so bad... but some people here seem to have major problems with it), then I'd just wait it out...

[vawolf]

Anyone know when Apple is gonna start shipping the 12" Pb/SuperDrive with Tiger? Wherever I look it's still shipping with Panther.

As for the switch, I think I'll buy this PPC PBook now and wait for some revisions of the Intel Mac before getting that (like in 2 yrs).

[intrepkid21]

The OS is the only reason why I'm still preferring apple... as I said before: I'm running out of arguments for Apple. Another thing that bothers me, is the fact that they are going to kill "our" OSX in about 2-3 years like they did with OS 9. I don't know whether I'm going to play the same game again (switch to ppc, switch os9 to osX)


Another thing: How will OSX be in a year? Will it run mediocre on the new INTEL machines? Or will Apple force the people to switch to 10.5 because 10.4 runs choppy?

Since every version of OSX has been developed for x86 already im sure 10.4 runs great on it haha. Would you rather be a pc user and be stuck with Windows XP for a LONG time and having Microsofts best attempt to improve instability and insecurity service pack 2!? My eMac has Jaguar on it still and its fine..no one forces me to upgrade.

[Mr Maui]

seriously. does anyone have any good insight as to when the powerbooks will be upgraded? i know i should probably just buy now, but i would much rather wait if its not going to be too long.
Steve Jobs probably does, but he's not talking ... at least not about that. :D

[sbb155]

i would wait
sounds like mactel PBs in a year
I would wait it out since resale will be horrendous on the current machines
I have a new 15 PB, like it, but WWDC changed everything

[hammackj]

I just bought a g4 powerbook, I figured, in 2006 when the new intel ones come out i will buy a new one. A 4 ghz dual core intel will be nice =)


One question though, do the new sells include tiger? the order doesn't say anything about what os version it has.

[mad jew]

I just bought a g4 powerbook, I figured, in 2006 when the new intel ones come out i will buy a new one. A 4 ghz dual core intel will be nice =)


One question though, do the new sells include tiger? the order doesn't say anything about what os version it has.


Congrats! You'll love it. Yeah, you'll get Tiger too. :)

[hammackj]

great!

I didn't want to have to buy it seperate =P

[amholl]

i dont know why u guys are bitching 'bout the PBs, why do u need such a powerful mobile machine? Stick 1-2 gigs o ram in there and they will run like any PM in most tasks. If u wanna play games, get a PS2 Xbox, etc... They handle Photoshop fine, FCP fine, hell i can do that stuff, albeit slow, on my iMac (see sig)

[Bern]

That's because I'm gonna study stuff related to graphics design + publishing

Well I recently bought my PowerBook and Adobe CS2. It runs very, very well. In fact it's a whole lot better then CS was.

Am I worried about the Intel machines coming out next year? No, because I hadn't planned on updating my current machine for a couple of years anyway. Besides I'm not going to be one of the suckers who buys the first revision of a MacTel. I'll wait for the bugs to be ironed out and get the Rev B or C even. That worked for me when I upgraded from an iBook to a PowerBook.

I say buy the PowerBook now and enjoy it. It's going to last for quite a few years. You'll probably laugh when your working on it and the MacTels are having issues.

[Agathon]

The OS might have been OK on the INTEL CPU - but what about all the apps? if you ask me, there'll be the same problem as with classic: 50% of the apps running choppy, 30% need a mass of plugins and the rest does not work at all due to some hardware related stuff... If you ask me it's complete nonsense to code a new OS for a new Chip that has good downwards compatibilities - this requires the developers to code everything twice... who wants to do this work? This'll end up in most of the Apps not compatible to the G4 in 2-3 years, the g5 will take longer, due to the fact that apple needs to satisfy its PRO users.

I think you've misunderstood what's going to happen. The next version of OS X will run on both Intel and PowerPC. Mac software for the foreseeable future (4 years or so in this business) will run on both PowerPC and Intel using fat binaries. Mac Developers will have to do this since they simply cannot lock out the vast number of people who have invested in PowerPC hardware in the last couple of years for fear of losing sales.

If you are worried about performance of PowerPC apps, then buy before the Intel switch. That way you will get the best of both worlds: native PowerPC apps will not run in emulation and the fat binaries will run natively as well.

Even if you bought a Wintel laptop now, it would probably not be capable of running the really processor intensive apps of four or five years hence in an acceptable fashion anyway. On the other hand, if you buy a mac now and invest in PowerPC native software, the Intel machine you will buy four years from now will be so powerful compared to todays machines that you will be able to run your old PowerPC apps natively without noticing any performance hit.

The Pentium that is currently available to developers is nothing like the machine that will actually ship next year, so don't take the benchmarks too seriously.

[SRSound]

In response to those wondering about whether or not PB's ship with Tiger:

from http://www.apple.com/powerbook/software.html -
"Every PowerBook G4 comes standard with Mac OS X Tiger, the world’s most advanced operating system."

So I hope that means if you buy it online, you're safe...

Additionally, I have been struggling with the same problem for months too (to buy or not to buy) and have finally decided that computers progress and change so fast that I will buy a powerbook now, and love not having to deal with the joys of windows. Once I've made excellent use of it, Mactels will be well developed and reliable (rev b / c) at which point i would normally update anyway. There will ALWAYS be a new update, but the best advice I've heard yet is that if it works well for your applications now, it will work just as well for them a few years down the line.

As for what updates are to come, I also believe the final update to the PB line before the switch (if there even is one) will be a minor speed update (1.8GHz) and MAYBE a standard 128 video card.

Just so you know, I'm not qualified to make such predictions what so ever.

[aznsal612]

That's because I'm gonna study stuff related to graphics design + publishing

That's what a desktop line is for. Really, if you were serious about graphic design and publishing--understand the nature of a portable computer, it will never achieve the same power with the constraints of size it must abide by as an entire desktop system.

The powerbooks are fine for the "studying" of "stuff" related to graphic design and publishing. Hell, most professional publishing places uses somewhat dated PCs.

I'm in photography, and want the latest and greatest too, but that's only because I want to live on the bleeding edge. For actually work's sake, I think the current portable line up will suffice.

[weg]

Take for instance the Mathematica example they previewed; Mathematica was ready for Intel machines in just a couple of hours.


Mathematica is running on Intel machines (Windows & Linux) since a decade. They could have chosen a Java program to show how easy it is to port from Mac PPC to MacIntel as well....

[weg]

For 1700 € I'll get the top of the line VAIO 15.4 widescreen + 128 mb graphic + 60 gig hd + 512 ram + superdrive

What does Apple have in this priceclass?


You're right, a comparable Apple Notebook (the 15" PB with Superdrive) costs 2400 Euro. You could almost buy the Sony AND an iBook for that money ;-)

[apple_g5]

You're right, a comparable Apple Notebook (the 15" PB with Superdrive) costs 2400 Euro. You could almost buy the Sony AND an iBook for that money ;-)

You name it!

[PS: Greetings from the Tyrol ;D]

[tuartboy]

That's because I'm gonna study stuff related to graphics design + publishing
hold up! You are doing graphics and publishing and you are even considering non-mac? I don't want to seem like I'm beating a dead horse here, but all graphics and publishing in both college and work is done on macs (typed on a G5 while at my graphic design job...)

stick with it. If you really are going into that field you will regret having a peecee portable. trust me on this one.

[Hoffi]

so, ive been patient. for months upon months upon months. waiting for updates, hearing speculations or rumors all april... nothing at all in may, here we are in june and nothing after the wwdc thing or whatever...

I'm in the same boat as you. I'm a graphics major who is doing a year abroad in Japan. As much as I would love a G5 Powermac, I can't lug that thing back to the states with me (too expensive in shipping) I've been waiting for updates but I'm at the point where I'm just going to bite the bullet. I really can't wait till 2006, and it's pretty much now or never.

[apple_g5]

I'm in the same boat as you. I'm a graphics major who is doing a year abroad in Japan. As much as I would love a G5 Powermac, I can't lug that thing back to the states with me (too expensive in shipping) I've been waiting for updates but I'm at the point where I'm just going to bite the bullet. I really can't wait till 2006, and it's pretty much now or never.


It's a really stupid situation at the moment... I sure do hope Apple is going to do SOMETHING before they switch to INTEL - 1 year without any really significant update... dry time

[Plastic Avatar]

hold up! You are doing graphics and publishing and you are even considering non-mac? I don't want to seem like I'm beating a dead horse here, but all graphics and publishing in both college and work is done on macs (typed on a G5 while at my graphic design job...)

stick with it. If you really are going into that field you will regret having a peecee portable. trust me on this one.

Agreed.

As for how well programs work on the new Powerbooks, well, they work great =)

My wife has a 12 incher (1.5Ghz), and it runs InDesign, GoLive, and the rest of the Adobe family quite well (plus all kinds of other programs).

As a matter of fact, Final Cut Pro 4 (to me) was more responsive on her machine than the 1.25Ghz MDD or dual 800Mhz Quicksilver G4s I use at school.

I know this isn't comparing the performance to a G5 desktop, but, in my book, the current PBs are more than fast enough for graphic design, prosumer video work (pro in a pinch), web/flash design, and gaming (within reasonable expectations).

I'm going to buy a new machine in the next couple of weeks. Though I'll be pissed if they bring out a dual-core G4 PB in a month or 2, I wouldn't want a Rev. A machine anyway (I learned my lesson when I got a Cube).

The biggest question for me is, how much better is a 15 inch PB with the 128MB video upgrade than the 64MB base?

Educational pricing puts the 15 inch Superdrive 1.67Ghz 128MB video at $2189. The 15 inch Superdrive 1.5Ghz 64MB video at $1934. With the little 12 inch Superdrive coming in at the bargain-basement price of $1499.

My biggest problem is deciding which machine is worth the money. The 12 is an awesome deal, but I want a card slot and the 128MB video- but is it worth an additional $688 for that and a 15 inch screen? I could buy an external LCD and an external dual-layer DVD burner for that kind of cash.

-S(n)

[The_Man]

Regarding the original question...

Get the powerbook now (and just to reinforce) you cant (or shouldnt) wait forever for a minor update.

[ssh]

The OS is the only reason why I'm still preferring apple... as I said before: I'm running out of arguments for Apple. Another thing that bothers me, is the fact that they are going to kill "our" OSX in about 2-3 years like they did with OS 9. I don't know whether I'm going to play the same game again (switch to ppc, switch os9 to osX)Have you ever had to live with Windows as your primary OS? Are you sure you want to do that? Or live with the incompatibilities between Linux desktop apps and the rest of the world?

As someone who has used virtually ever OS available since 1980, I know the desktop one that I really want to use. I'm waiting on income to be able to pick up a new PB and throw away my Windows systems forever.

[ssh]

Its just a d*mn processor people, Apple is all about the operating system. If you think that OSX wasn't meant for Intel, it was built for Intel, they knew PPC techology was too expensive, and behind the times. G5 was big and slow compared to Intel processors, and not to mention twice as much. We are going to have the same freakin apples, faster and less expensive. Stop B*tching already.Agreed. Any computer is all about the OS first, the apps second, and who cares what the processor is?

Frankly, I think it's all about the scheduler.

[weg]

Anyone know when Apple is gonna start shipping the 12" Pb/SuperDrive with Tiger? Wherever I look it's still shipping with Panther.

As for the switch, I think I'll buy this PPC PBook now and wait for some revisions of the Intel Mac before getting that (like in 2 yrs).

I'm posting this from my 12" Superdrive Powerbook that I bought 2 weeks ago in Vienna, Austria, and it came with Tiger preinstalled.

[weg]

Agreed.


My wife has a 12 incher (1.5Ghz), and it runs InDesign, GoLive, and the rest of the Adobe family quite well (plus all kinds of other programs).


Is the fan constantly running on her PB, too? I had a PB 12" 1.33GHz before I bought my 12" 1.5GHz (the former was stolen), and I have the perception that the new PB is significantly louder than my old one... with the 1.33GHz, the fan was running almost never.

[weg]

Have you ever had to live with Windows as your primary OS? Are you sure you want to do that? Or live with the incompatibilities between Linux desktop apps and the rest of the world?

As someone who has used virtually ever OS available since 1980, I know the desktop one that I really want to use. I'm waiting on income to be able to pick up a new PB and throw away my Windows systems forever.

Come on, Windows isn't that bad.. I'm using Windows at work, and Mac OS X and Linux at home, and I think that it mainly depends on the applications you use how well you get along with your computer. If you have to use a crappy program, even Mac OS X can't make the situation better.. while Windows can be fine-tuned with many little programs. I don't enjoy working with Windows as I do with Mac OS X or Linux, but I can live with it...

[aznsal612]

Is the fan constantly running on her PB, too? I had a PB 12" 1.33GHz before I bought my 12" 1.5GHz (the former was stolen), and I have the perception that the new PB is significantly louder than my old one... with the 1.33GHz, the fan was running almost never.

Maybe 'cause they overclocked the G4 to 1.5GHz, so that's why it's extra noisy? I assume the extra strain of getting the processor speed bump would already make it run louder, so running on max would result in some loud whirrrring. Just my guess. :p