Widescreen iBook?

[MacRumors]

China's Economic Daily News reports (The Register | Engadget) that Asustek has again secured the iBook manufacturing contract from Apple. Asustek currently manufactures Apple's 12.1 inch iBook and PowerBook models.

Mentioned in the report is upcoming 14 inch and 15.4 inch widescreen iBooks set to debut sometime in 2006. Currently only the Powerbook has a widescreen (16x10) model, leaving the standard 4x3 aspect ratio for the consumer-level portables.

[dizastor]

is this perhaps one of the first MacTel's to hit the market?

[ebunton]

Nice if it is true.
All laptops should be in widescreen format in my opinion.
Much more practical I think.

On another note: I want those mactels already!

[PPC970FX]

Originally Posted by greenmonsterman

is this perhaps one of the first MacTel's to hit the market?

First I would not be surprised if you are right. And then I think that the 15,4" ibook is realy needed. A cheap 15" laptop would make a lot of people happy. I wonder if the mactel will use the motherboarde from intel or apple. I hope that apple and intel together can make some stuff, that way new tech will come faster to mac owners, like s-ata hd in laptops ++++

About the tablets, that would be very sweet indeed IF they are pratical. They only need some smal good apps to make them a hit. They have to find the smal things, like Tigers widdegs.

[javiercr]

Originally Posted by ebunton

Nice if it is true.
All laptops should be in widescreen format in my opinion.
Much more practical I think.

On another note: I want those mactels already!

more practical for what? watching movies? for many people the most practical thing would be a vertical screen, since documents (paper) are in general longer than wider!

I actually think non wideangle screens have the best compromise and that wide screens are only nice when they are very big, so a vertical document still has a decent size.

[nagromme]

A sensible replacement for the 14" iBook.

I'd like to see the small PB and iBook go to a 12" or 13" widescreen: there'e extra "margin" on the sides to use anyway, and the screen height would be smaller (in inches) than now--which means a smaller case front-to-back would be possible. Smaller palm-rest area because the screen would be closer to the shape of the keyboard than it is now.

[wrldwzrd89]

Originally Posted by PPC970FX

First I would not be surprised if you are right. And then I think that the 15,4" ibook is realy needed. A cheap 15" laptop would make a lot of people happy. I wonder if the mactel will use the motherboarde from intel or apple. I hope that apple and intel together can make some stuff, that way new tech will come faster to mac owners, like s-ata hd in laptops ++++

About the tablets, that would be very sweet indeed IF they are pratical. They only need some smal good apps to make them a hit. They have to find the smal things, like Tigers widdegs.

I think that if the 15.4" iBook is one of the first MacTels, it will be much like the others - it won't use a motherboard straight from Intel or straight from Apple, but rather an Intel-based motherboard with Apple-specific customizations.

[nagromme]

Your points are true, but at the same time wide IS practical in many ways--for more than just movies:

* Room for a document window plus palettes to the side. (And, I recommend, your Dock on the left.)

* Room for a work area on the right and a source list on the left (like iTunes, iPhoto, Finder, Mail, bookmark managers, etc.)

* You can (and always will) scroll docs vertically anyway--so at least make the width as wide as possible so you can view your file nice and big and sharp without any horizontal scrolling.

* First-person games are great in widescreen.

* Column view in Finder is the most useful view, I find--and great with extra width.

* Your menu bar has room for more goodies on the right.

* Even my 15.2" PowerBook screen CAN fit 2 documents side-by-side, and I often do. Not as nicely as a 17" or 30"

* Timeline-style editing is now common for consumers: there's iMovie, GarageBand, Final Cut Express, Logic Express, and many 3rd-party apps. And of course many more for pros, including 3D animation programs. So horizontal document scrolling/editing is very important these days, not just vertical word processing and web browsing.

[Ti_Poussin]

hopefully the resolution on 14' iBook will finally crank up. OS X in 1024x768 is a pain IMO. I found it barely enough on my 15'PB with 1280x854. I miss my big screen of my desktop with 1600x1200. This with a resolution independant OS would be very attractive for this price point. OSX is pixelovore lol

[Toe]

Widescreen would shrink the difference between iBook and PowerBook even further. Apart from the better video card and nicer looking Aluminum, will there really be any difference?

Perhaps they'll wait for the Intel chips, and put out fast widescreen iBooks, and turbo-fast, dual-core PowerBooks?

[shamino]

Originally Posted by Toe

Widescreen would shrink the difference between iBook and PowerBook even further. Apart from the better video card and nicer looking Aluminum, will there really be any difference?

There really isn't that much difference between them right now. Aside from the display resolution and software-block against dual-head operation.

There was only a significant difference back when the iBook was G3-based.

When the Intel boxes eventually ship, I suspect we'll see a 32-bit chip in the iBook and a 64-bit chip in the PowerBook. But until then, I don't think there will be very much difference between them.

[shamino]

This rumor, if true, is very good new. According to this article (linked to from the Register article), we can expect two widescreen models. A 14" one this year and a 15.4" one next year.

This is probably the model I've been waiting for. Right now, the only complaint I have with the iBook series is the 1024x768 display. If they release a model (12" or 14") with a higher resolution (whether widescreen or not), it will interest me greatly. Ideally, I'd like to see the current 12" iBook updated with a 1280x1024 display (or some other similar resolution) and a CoreImage-compatible video chip, for approximately the same price. But similar features in a 14" model for the same price as today's 14" iBook will also be good.

[BenRoethig]

Originally Posted by Toe

Widescreen would shrink the difference between iBook and PowerBook even further. Apart from the better video card and nicer looking Aluminum, will there really be any difference?

Perhaps they'll wait for the Intel chips, and put out fast widescreen iBooks, and turbo-fast, dual-core PowerBooks?

The iBook is also thicker, heavier, and uses lower grade screens and hard drives.

[Tilmitt]

Originally Posted by Macrumors

[url=http://www.macrumors.com]Currently only the Powerbook has a widescreen (16x10) model, leaving the standard 4x3 aspect ratio for the consumer-level portables.

The 15" Powerbook is actually 3:2 and the 17" is 16:10.

[wide]

Originally Posted by javiercr

more practical for what? watching movies? for many people the most practical thing would be a vertical screen, since documents (paper) are in general longer than wider!

I actually think non wideangle screens have the best compromise and that wide screens are only nice when they are very big, so a vertical document still has a decent size.

True, but what if you want to view two pages in a document or two documents? Widescreen displays let you do that easily.

That said, I'm still a fan of high-res 14.1 inch 4:3 displays.

[weezer160]

The Greeks were always astounded at the beauty of certain ratios and realized that 1.6 (which is standard widescreen by the way) is a very pleasent ratio. It's also probably related to how peripherial vision works - our minds work in the panaramic sense, not vertical.

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

I see no mentioning of widescreen version of the 12" iBook, and although a 12" (or 13") widescreen 1280x768 iBook HD would be cool, I kind of like the 4:3 ratio in such a small screen as the 12". My iBook 12" really has a perfect ratio and resolution, 1024x768 (even if I personally maybe would prefer a bit better resolution). I think it would be too small and narrow with a 12" widescreen (although I want to se one before I really make up my mind... ).

If they keep the 14" in 4:3 it should have 1280x1024. But maybe the new 14" widescreen iBook will have HD resolution, thus making it a very handy machine for the average home user and OK resolution both for computing and media.

[acedickson]

A 15.4 inch iBook would definitely sway my decision to buy from the Powerbook to the iBook. The reason I can't broing myself to buy an iBook is the screen sizes right now.

Make this happen soon Apple!

[marmanold]

Gosh, I hope they introduce something new soon. I really need a new iBook but I can't bring myself to spend $1000+ on an iBook that practically looks the same as my current iBook.

Wish they'd go ahead and give us the iBook with Intel... I'm majoring in MIS and minoring in CS and it'd be nice to be able to run Visual Studios .Net at home instead of having to always program in the lab. (That is assuming Windows XP would run out of the box on my iBook... actually kind of a dirty throught, o well, it'd be useful none the less.)

[Spazmodius]

That's what I want to know. Widescreen or HD iBook rumors have been floating around forever, so it's hardly surprising to see yet more pseudocorroboration. I want ship dates. A year more (when the first Mactels are due to ship at the earliest) is waaay too long for the next iBook revision, as the current line is already quite overdue for a refresh.

When, dammit!

[dho]

If it is a mactel, I doubt it will be very fast. They will have to keep it under the powerbooks performance wise. Not a good first impression IMO. I am looking forward to see how they will do this.

[dongmin]

Originally Posted by Toe

Perhaps they'll wait for the Intel chips, and put out fast widescreen iBooks, and turbo-fast, dual-core PowerBooks?

You've hit the nail on the head. With Intel chips, the main distinction between consumer and pro will be single core vs. dual cores (along with a few other goodies like graphics, i/o).

[Toe]

Originally Posted by shamino

There really isn't that much difference between them right now. Aside from the display resolution and software-block against dual-head operation.

I am pretty sure it's not a software block but simply because they use different video cards. Most video cards do not support dual monitors, so the one in the PB is specifically designed to do so. It also takes more VRAM... for two identically-sized monitors, you need twice the VRAM as for one.

Originally Posted by BenRoethig

The iBook is also thicker, heavier, and uses lower grade screens and hard drives.

The difference in size and weight is very small. And most people don't notice the screen/drive difference. I would think they would lose a LOT of PB sales to the iBook... well, they probably already are.

[Porcelina]

Originally Posted by Toe

I am pretty sure it's not a software block but simply because they use different video cards. Most video cards do not support dual monitors, so the one in the PB is specifically designed to do so. It also takes more VRAM... for two identically-sized monitors, you need twice the VRAM as for one.

Never heard of Screen Spanning Doctor I presume? Works great, but it woids the warranty. But there should be absolutely no problem using it.

[wdlove]

An upgrade to the iBook is needed. Entry level buyers to a laptop should also be able to enjoy a wide screen.