LCD iMac in Paris?

Very possible

Definetly a new TiBook. Will have a DVD/CDRW drive, and who knows about color options. (although if Apple is really serious about the professional image of the laptop, colors may not be available) Speed bumps are probable, but change in ram to PC-133 or DDR is doubtfull. I would say next revision would be the time for that.




About the iMacs...it's possible I guess. I am very hesitant to start up another frenzy of LCD rumors, but the LCD simply might not have been ready for MWNY, and that is why Steve was rumored to be so dissappointed. I would be more inclined to say that next San Fransico we will see new iMacs, not Paris.

-Who wants to give the French the benefit of the release anyhow?

-Pete

Anyone know when or if Netscape is planning to release a browser for OS X? I am sick of IE, and I don't want the Opera beta.

I've got no "inside sources" nor have I heard this from a "friend of a friend of a friend who's sisters cousin works for apple" so take this for what it's worth (pure speculation).

That being said... Could it be that the Hardware offerings at MWNY were.... shall we say 'less than expected' and/or 'out of character for Mr. Jobs' have something to do with the non-release of Mac OS X v10.1?

Think about it for a second...

Fact the iMac is the biggest selling computer Apple makes.
Fact the iMac is way over due for a face lift.
Fact doing such a face lift really shouldn't be THAT hard.

The cube proves they have the talent to shrink things down.
The iBook proves that they COULD build an LCD iMac NOW and still make a profit.

So lets assume Apple does have an LCD iMac...

Q: Why not show/sell it at MWNY?
A: No OS X, No LCD iMac!

While yes Mac OS 9.x must still be usable/bootable on any new Apple hardware it could very well be that Jobs wanted/wants to make a real push to get OS X out to the masses. What better way than to have each and every iMac-TNG (the NeXT gen) boot up with it! After all it (the iMac) is the best selling Mac and it's by far the best way to get OS X 'in use'.

Problem is 10.0.x just isn't ready for the iMac buyer (well many of them anyway) and while 10.1 would be (fingers crossed) it didn't make the cut for MWNY thus killing the 'major' hardware news for the keynote.

Some might say... So ship the machine with 9.2! But that goes against the 'best interest' of Mac OS X. The average iMac buyer might not be easy to 'covert' to Mac OS X once they get the machine home... After all how many of YOUR parents are still using Netscape 4.x or MSIE v3.x. Well unless YOU did the upgrade for them.

So long winded as my speculation is ... it does make some sence.

Dave

Any word regarding iBooks?

I no, I no. I shouln't wait to buy. But I waited for MWNY01 and September is right around the corner.

On the other hand, I wanted to purchse a laptop and be up and running by the time school starts in September.

AlexNJ

New Macs:

paris aple expo:
-mac os x 10.1/9.2 preinstalled on all computers
-os 9.2 is in complete background and steve want say nothing about it..
-PowerBook G4 500/600 Mhz/GeForce 2 Go 32 MB/20/30hdd/cd-rw/combo drive
-games,new software..

january 2001:
-new 15" LCD iMac g3 600/700/800 mhz/30/40/60 gb hdd/GeForce 2 MX 32 MB SDRAM/cd-rw/combo...
-rev.b iceBook G3 700 MHz/10/20gb/Ati Rage 128 or GeForce 2 GO 16 mb/cd-rw/combo
-new iPicture application,iTunes 2

iMacs at Paris

I agree that the only reason apple didn't release the new iMacs at NY is because 10.1 isn't ready. If that is indeed the case, then surely apple will want to release them as soon as they can- and the best date looks like Paris, which has had product announcements at before. And guess what- there's a 'mystery' key note speaker scheduled- Mr Jobs you'd think. Also, surely the new powerbooks are more likely to come at the business focussed Seybold conference a few days before?

DaveGee:

I'd say the hardware rumors at macworld NY were massive and impressive. The high-end pro machine bascially became the low end, at a $1,300 price cut. And a modified enclosure to boot. Yea...no new iMac enclosures, but that was on the wilder end of the rumor spectrum. And only a fool thought that new iBooks would come so close to the recent dual-USB iBook release.

What more do you want? I'm amazed at people's takes on this.


blakespot

2 realistic things.

From my humble point of view, I'll be the last person in buying/ getting OS X. Still very experimental, almost "none" aplications, takes more ram and I'll have to learn lots of other things too, that simple. OS 9.x can not be underated, OS X didn't have a reason to exist anyway, just because it was the version #10 of the system?

For the guy that is going to school (Powerbooks), the best deal actually is to buy a G3/500 Firewire, they are cheap, faster than the new iBook, lot of expansions, lots of ports, big LCD, 1MB back side cache, 2 bateries, burning CD/DVD optional, Airport, etc.

Apple have a real problem right now, to many things to resolve. In the last years they speed up the consumer with so many changes, now they are slowing down the production (OS X, iMac, G4...). They better pull up very hard this year because remind me some other story (Atari).

laptops

You've gotta count on a new TiBook -- just because the product will have been sitting the same for nine months and that's just too long for any computer to go without change, no matter how innovative it was when it was introduced. Personally, I was hoping for (but not expecting) a TiBook revision at MWNY, but it's almost a guarantee at Paris.

That said, I wouldn't expect any major changes to the iBook. Education sales will continue to drive demand for the iBook all the way up to mid-September, and you do get a lot of bang-for-your-buck with the new iBooks (anything with a 500 Mhz processor for 1199, which is the edu price, kicks butt). Expect Apple to adopt a strategy similar to the one it did when it made the rev B PowerBooks: very minor upgrades (hard drive capacity or baseline memory) and perhaps a change in price to keep pace with the industry.

Realize...

Of course, you realize that there's going to have to be some sort of update to the iMac in September. With the release of OS 10.1, there's DVD playback. Right now, there are no DVD-playing iMacs. And I'm sure there's a market in that. I know my girlfriend wanted to get an iMac, but won't now because the DVD playback is something she really wants.

What better way to push some of the new features of OS 10.1 than to include a DVD drive (or perhaps a combo drive) in iMacs, whether they're redesigned or not, in September? Though this all makes sense to me right now, the problem is that I can't recall a keynote where Steve introduced the same machines that were being sold online with only a new optical drive. But, who knows? Maybe there wasn't such a big market for the DVD iMacs....

DaveGee is RIGHT!

DaveGee made a great point!

Why not introduce OS 10.1 standard in a new version of Apple's best selling computer? Do you all realize how quickly the use of OS X would spread?!?!

It all makes PERFECT sense!

I would not hold my breath for a brand new Ti Book. First, the 7410 processor is getting older. Motorola has a 600/700 Mhz laptop processor, but it requires a 133 board. Additionally, it generates more heat which needs to be disapated. I was disapointed that they did not include a combo drive, but at the same time, I don't believe a combo drive has been made which uses slot loading capabilities. Could someone check their iBook to see if Matshita made it? I am hard time deciding between a Ti or QS for school becuase the laptops have been stuck at 400/500 so long. Last time they stalled at about 100/117 Mhz. Then, they jumped to 240 Mhz. I would not be entierly suprised if the same thing happens to the Ti.

As for OS X being the hold up, I don't thinks so. The iMac already ships with OS X, so the possibility of an update really does not make all that much sense.

PowerBook Crappy Resolutions

Hi Everybody..
Im currently a windows user with a IBM A22p Laptop and very interested in getting a powerbook. I was wondering if apple is trying to make there powerbook tailored to the professional market, do anyone think they are going to upgrade the resolution of the powerbook in the "onyx" version?... The Powerbook is running at a resolution of 1128x768 which is really really crappy for running any professional level software like dreamweaver and photoshop which I use everyday. That is why I chose the ThinkPad. I really want a powerbook but the resolution is horrible. Any Ideas?. Both laptops has a 15 inch LCD.

My ThinkPad - IBM A22p 15 inch LCD with native 1600x1200 resolution. (You should check it out it's super clear) Intel Mobile p3 1ghz, CDRW, 32 meg graphics, WINDOWS 2000, 32 gig HD. 256 RAM. All for 3100.00

Thanx,

A feature powerbook user (i hope)!

I have a Ti G4 and the resolution is really very nice. It is really an unbeatable screen. Apple chose the 15.2 widescreen display to have a max resolution of 1152x768 so that the text and icons on the screen were not miniscule. I mean, can you work well without squinting on 1600x1200? Really, the display is very sharp. If you think that the onboard display is not enough for you, then you may always use an external monitor (the G4 has a VGA port which supports up to 21").

Another new iMac in September after only two months seems too short, and the 700MHz model would only exist for a month! But Apple has done it once after the introduction of the original iMac. It is possible that the new iMacs at MWNY were just a 'holdover' solution: something didn't make the LCD iMacs ready, and Jobs had to have an interim update. The 10.1 idea seems to make sense, because there were no DVD iMacs at MWNY. If there were, I would seriously doubt that we would see any change to the iMacs in September.

As for the iBooks, I doubt that there will be major changes. A minor speed boost, HD size and/or RAM increase is possible, but these would be small, if any. An update at MWSF '02 is more likely, because it would continue sales after the Christmas shopping season.

graphic cards

also, there was no move to nvidia cards in the iMacs- at odds with Apple's general attitude, it seems. The nvidia card would require a new motherboard- the extra vram is to shore up sales for a little bit. The mods are nice for anyone buying one of these macs, but they're going to be culled soon enough.

actually, i've found 1024x768 a nice resolution. i've been using photoshop and illustrator and golive for a very long time, and i've used most resolutions at some time or another. 1024 is basicly what i keep comming back to, esp for GoLive. the majority of people have their monitors at 1024 as it. and i've seen the think pad, looks ok, but it's a little flimsy and doesn't always work for games...summoner looks very very bad on it...

Shortest lived iMacs ever...

I can't imagine Apple refreshing the iMac line after only two months, no matter how convincing the update. The only other times Apple does that are silent updates; for example, the iMac rev. B, released shortly after the first iMac, was very silent and secretive, and Apple deliberately tried to hide it. It was also really minor, just a change in the graphics card, not something major like a new monitor.

But still, rumors of an LCD iMac remain. This reminds me of the rumors of a 17" iMac shortly after the original iMac. A few months later, Apple announced a 17" monitor that had the iMac's bulbous design. My guess is that this "LCD iMac" isn't an iMac, but something totally different, possibly some kind of LCD all-in-one Mac, in the spirit of the late Cube. Or, it could be an iBook dock with an LCD monitor on the front. It could be a hydrogen fuel cell, to replace the TiBook battery. Maybe it's a mirror with voice recognition. Perhaps a portable Playstaion 2. With Airport. Whatever. It's not an iMac. But it probably does require Mac OS 10.1, which is why it wasn't announced at MWNY.

As for TiBooks: definately be updated in Sept, maybe even at Seybold, but definately by Paris. I was looking at getting a TiBook for school this year, but decided instead on a Quicksilver G4, becuase it was so much more convincing than the TiBook. I'm guessing the major changes will be a combo drive, NVIDIA2GO, and a speedbump. I'd love to see a Superdrive, at least in the high end, multiprocessing, at least as an option, and colors, although I'd personally stick with titanium.

Owning a Ti Book, I can say that the speedbump, Combo drive, nVidea and colors are a possiblitiy (less likely for colors). However, there will not be a superdrive. This is based upon the A03 mechanism from Pioneer and requires a full height drive. As for multiprocessing, that certainly would be unprecedented in a laptop, but I think that the motherboard is alread saturated. They essentially squeezed as much as possible into that tiny case.
- Andrew

Many advantages of the new iMac.

After musing over the entire Apple product line for a very LONG time, I have gradually come to the conclusion that the best computer for me is the new LCD iMac (I know I know, it's not out yet and I hope it doesn't look ugly)

There are many reasons behind this conclusion. One of the key benefits of the iMac/iBook/PB that's often overlooked, is their silence. Granted, iBook and PB both have fans but they so rarely come on that you can practically claim they are not there. Another obvious advantage is that, well, LCD displays don't have electrons shooting at you head every second. When you use the computer 8 hours a day, noise stress and eye strain really add up.

Now, both high end desktop and laptop are out of my selection because of price, that leaves the iBook competing with the iMac. Given the fact that the current iBook has about the same speed as a 350 MHz iMac and a tiny 12.1 inch LCD display, it just cannot be my primary computer. Yes, it's extremely portable and I know how nice that can be, but right now that's simply a luxury I can't afford.

Now look at the new LCD iMac. It has no fan, 14/15 inch LCD display, full size keyboard/comfortable mouse, 700+ MHz CPU, 40+ GB harddrive, and an awesome price of around $1300. Plus, it has style. It simply can't be beaten.

I sure do hope Apple releases the new LCD iMac soon.

And my quad GHz G4 with DDR, Superdrive and G5 upgradeability is on the way too...

While Apple may decide in the future to release such a computer as an LCD consumer machine, the iMac's shape itself is a statement. If the iMac were simply flat, it would look like the IBM or Gateway all-in-one (which to my recollection is not a hot seller). It is not that the iMac's looks are its only selling feature, but the iMac really stands out. As for colors, I was never too crazy about them, but they seem to be cropping up everywhere from phones to a George Forman Grill – all in the same five Apple iMac colors. Call it coincidence if you like, but Apple is dependent upon comming up with a product people identify. People see it, they want it, they buy it. Then they look at the specifications. I have had Windows people want to buy a Ti Powerbook simply because of the design without knowing a thing about Apple or the performance.

One day you may see a consumer machine using an LCD screen, I grant you that it is comming, but I do not think that it is this soon. As for an LCD based iMac, I would file that under remote. If they release a new computer, it will be just that, a NEW computer, not a restyled iMac.

lcd imac

the current iMac is surely just a stopgap measure- they couldn't release the tessera iMac (whether it is LCD or not) for whatever reason, probably the lateness of 10.1, so they updated a flagging product line with a token gesture.

I don't think you are right.

Granted, the iMac is very much about style but it doesn't mean that if Apple uses LCD, it can't differenciate itself from the other players. If anything, LCD is easier to style with. The regular O' CRT is horror to most industrial designers, it's amazing that Apple made iMac look as sexy as it is. I believe they'll do an great job with the LCD as well (not as amazing as the original iMac but still pretty darn good).

Also, if you paid any attention to Steve Jobs recent interest in LCD displays you'll know that the man himself very much want an LCD display in the iMac. If HE wants to happen, there is no stopping it. In recent meetings with analysts he even went as far as "confirming" their existance and the eagerness to bring them to market. I think I'm not the one who's off about an LCD iMac in the near future, you are. Of course time will tell who's right.