PowerBook to gain iSight, iBook to go widescreen in 2006

[runninmac]

I hope no one has posted this yet but according to apple insider Powerbooks will most likely be making the tranistion first to intel. Also they posted some other vauge details... sounds cool Link

[Flying Llama]

Cool, can't wait to see the benchmarks!

llama

[balamw]

What! No 12" PB on the roadmap. I thought they were among the best selling boxes, no? Think I might like the rumored 13" widescreen iBook though if they equip it with an HD resolution screen ...

B

[hyperpasta]

Let the 2006 Rumor Season begin! I've been waiting for this for a while now. I think the iBooks will swithc before the Powerbooks, tohugh, waiting for more advanced Intel chips before jumping. Dual-Core sounds good, and so does iSight in the Powerbooks.

[runninmac]

Originally Posted by 922

Let the 2006 Rumor Season begin! I've been waiting for this for a while now. I think the iBooks will swithc before the Powerbooks, tohugh, waiting for more advanced Intel chips before jumping. Dual-Core sounds good, and so does iSight in the Powerbooks.

2006 seems like its gonna be a long rumor season!

With the Powerbooks going before iBooks I belive that becuase from many of the tests the Pentium M arictecture kills the G4s. (or at least I pretty sure correct me if im wrong)

[soosy]

I think it makes sense to get Intel Macs out there as soon as possible. No reason to wait now that it's been announced.

[Phatpat]

I am going to get myself one of these.

I was planning on a minor dilemma choosing between the 12" iBook and 12" Powerbook. A 13" iBook certainly sounds appealing, though a 15" Powerbook a little earlier with a built in isight might be nice, especially if they drop the price again.

I know a lot of people with Powerbooks, and of those who have gotten them recently, there are more 12" Powerbooks than others. Oh well, gotta wait and see.

[plastique45]

Originally Posted by runninmac

2006 seems like its gonna be a long rumor season!

With the Powerbooks going before iBooks I belive that becuase from many of the tests the Pentium M arictecture kills the G4s. (or at least I pretty sure correct me if im wrong)

You BELIEVE?! A 3 year old PC beats any G4. The G4 was in the race only against the Penthium 3.

[SiliconAddict]

Originally Posted by runninmac

2006 seems like its gonna be a long rumor season!

With the Powerbooks going before iBooks I belive that becuase from many of the tests the Pentium M arictecture kills the G4s. (or at least I pretty sure correct me if im wrong)

You're wrong.....It nukes the G4 from orbit, grounds up the ashes, mixes it into a fine red wine, and toasts to its decimation.


Sorry just got done with a round of Civ IV....kicked the crap out of the Germans..still kinda in a come get some mood.

Originally Posted by sethypoo

Cool!

Wow, I need to start saving.

Some of us have been for 3 years. Hell I'm going to be able to buy the top of the line PowerBook outright with 2GB of RAM...probably have enough left over for aperture.

[hvfsl]

Originally Posted by runninmac

2006 seems like its gonna be a long rumor season!

With the Powerbooks going before iBooks I belive that becuase from many of the tests the Pentium M arictecture kills the G4s. (or at least I pretty sure correct me if im wrong)

The Pentium is even faster than the AMD Opteron chips (clock for clock). That means that when we run PPC apps on one of the new Intel PowerBooks, they shouldn't run that much slower than on the current PPC Powerbooks.

[Lanbrown]

Originally Posted by 922

and so does iSight in the Powerbooks.

The displays are quite thin, the graphics quality of the iSight is going to suffer. Much like mobile phones, you can increase the MP of the camera, but the pictures are still inferior because of the cheap optics and the short optics length.

[nagromme]

Originally Posted by balamw

Think I might like the rumored 13" widescreen iBook though if they equip it with an HD resolution screen ...

I think very FEW people would like 1920x1080+ on a 13" screen, if they actually sat down and tried to use such a thing. Talk about fine print!

Originally Posted by 922

I think the iBooks will swithc before the Powerbooks, tohugh, waiting for more advanced Intel chips before jumping.

The PB needs a faster chip. Not that raw speed is everything (that's the OS!) but the G4 can't match the current Pentium M, much less the upcoming Yonah generation. So no need to wait for Merom/late-06. Apple will want Yonah in a PB ASAP. You might say Apple would want more than mere MHz separating the CPU of the iBook and PBook--but MHz is ALREADY all that separates the CPUs of the two lines.

Originally Posted by ppc_michael

That's cool, although it's sad that my PowerBook will soon be outdated.

But while I'm enjoying my new YonahBook, you'll be able to run ALL Mac software without a care in the world. I, on the other hand will (for a time) have to worry about what runs in Rosetta or doesn't, and how fast. So don't feel too bad about having a PPC. There are benefits on both sides.

Originally Posted by Whistleway

how would you get an isight into the powerbook display?

Well, what *I* would do is mount is sideways in the top frame, with a mirror to angle the sightline outwards.

But Apple has a patent showing a camera that sticks way out--but also works as a latch. Sounds awkward to me, but we have only seen a diagram, not a real design.

[wilburpan]

Originally Posted by nagromme

I think very FEW people would like 1920x1080+ on a 13" screen, if they actually sat down and tried to use such a thing. Talk about fine print!

Actually, all you need for HD resolution is a display that is capable of 720 lines of horizontal resolution. Most 42" plasma HDTVs have a resolution of 1024x720, for example.

The currently available Sony VAIO TX-series notebooks have an 11.1" screen with a resolution of 1366x768, which is the same as your average 50" plasma screen.

Still, a 16:9 screen would be very nice to have on a Powerbook that is less than 15".

[balamw]

Originally Posted by wilburpan

Actually, all you need for HD resolution is a display that is capable of 720 lines of horizontal resolution.

Exactly what I meant 720p not 1080i. 1280x720 minimum.

B

[dahacouk]

Originally Posted by nagromme

I think very FEW people would like 1920x1080+ on a 13" screen, if they actually sat down and tried to use such a thing. Talk about fine print!

If the OS you are running is resolution independent then it makes no odds what the DPI of the screen is. It's only because OS X has so far been resolution dependent that Apple have been unable to increase the DPI of their screens. Hopefully this issue will be addressed with 10.5 - if not sooner.

Cheers Daniel

[dahacouk]

I vote for a new widescreen PowerBook with the same full size keyboard as the current 12", 15" and 17" models BUT it has a 16:9 or 16:10 screen.

The current 12" display is 9.68" in width. Now at 16:9 the diagonal size of the display would be 11.11" and at 16:10 the diagonal would be 11.42".

Take a look at the specs of Sony VAIO TX1XP and you'll see what I mean:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/artic...6&page=4436

Just beautiful!

Just putting it out there...

Cheers Daniel

[aegisdesign]

Originally Posted by dahacouk

If the OS you are running is resolution independent then it makes no odds what the DPI of the screen is. It's only because OS X has so far been resolution dependent that Apple have been unable to increase the DPI of their screens. Hopefully this issue will be addressed with 10.5 - if not sooner.

Cheers Daniel

That's only a minor problem.

The web is the major problem. Images usually are specified in pixels as are movies so will be much smaller than the text. If a site designer has specified any table widths or fonts in pixels then those will be very small too.

Images from your camera are fixed resolution.

If you're working in photoshop, a 72dpi image at 100% will be very small on a 133dpi screen (the current Powerbook's dpi). You'll have to blow it up 200% to work on it.

There's lots of problems moving away from dpis that we've presumed for years.

[macrumors12345]

Originally Posted by nagromme

I think very FEW people would like 1920x1080+ on a 13" screen, if they actually sat down and tried to use such a thing. Talk about fine print!

Dude, 720p is considered HDTV, and that is a resolution of 1280x720, which would be perfectly acceptable on a 13" widescreen. Not all HD is 1080p (1920x1080). Again, I repeat, NOT ALL HD is 1080p. Unless the original poster said he wanted HD at 1080p resolutions (which he didn't), you shouldn't assume that he was asking for 1920x1080.

[Chupa Chupa]

Originally Posted by macrumors12345

Dude, 720p is considered HDTV, and that is a resolution of 1280x720, which would be perfectly acceptable on a 13" widescreen. Not all HD is 1080p (1920x1080). Again, I repeat, NOT ALL HD is 1080p. Unless the original poster said he wanted HD at 1080p resolutions (which he didn't), you shouldn't assume that he was asking for 1920x1080.

I think you are missing the poster's point. His point was such a resolution would be too small and uncomfortable (the better the rez, the smaller the text and graphics appear, even if they are sharper) to read on a 13". I have to agree. I find the native rez on the new PBs almost too much.

[macorama]

Originally Posted by nagromme

I think very FEW people would like 1920x1080+ on a 13" screen, if they actually sat down and tried to use such a thing. Talk about fine print!

Isn't this why OS X is going to support proper UI scaling? Higher res is the future - imagine how easy to read a 300dpi monitor will be. If the UI scales properly, then a super high res small screen should be super easy to read, since the fonts etc will still be the same size on the screen, but with many more pixels to make each character.

[ccrandall77]

Originally Posted by balamw

What! No 12" PB on the roadmap. I thought they were among the best selling boxes, no? Think I might like the rumored 13" widescreen iBook though if they equip it with an HD resolution screen ...

B

I think it would be absolutely stupid to discontinue the 12" Powerbook unless it's being replaced with a 13.3" widescreen Powerbook... not an iBook.

First of all, I've owned a couple of iBooks (still have a 12" iBook G4-800) and the quality isn't all that great. Most of Apple's i* computers leave a lot to be desired when it comes to quality (just had to return my iMac G5 for having a bad IR receiver and for the magnet coming off it's mounting). There's a reason the iMac now has 24/7 online chat support (of course the morons they have on the chat are completely useless).

Second, I also thought the 12" PB was one of their best sellers. I can understand why someone would want a 15" PB, but the 17" PB seems like the model that could be dropped. Laptops are supposed to be portable... 15" and 17" laptops are a lot less portable than 12" laptops. I know there's people out there that can really use the 17" PB, but in most cases I'd think you'd be better off just getting a desktop system.

It may not matter to me, though. A friend of mine just got OS X x86 running on a Sony Vaio S360. It's a faster machine than my Powerbook, slimmer, lighter, and the screen makes the Powerbook's screen look like crap. I'd hate to spend more money for a Sony and support an evil company, but right now a Vaio running OS X looks infinitely more attractive than a Powerbook.

[~Shard~]

Originally Posted by ccrandall77

It may not matter to me, though. A friend of mine just got OS X x86 running on a Sony Vaio S360. It's a faster machine than my Powerbook, slimmer, lighter, and the screen makes the Powerbook's screen look like crap. I'd hate to spend more money for a Sony and support an evil company, but right now a Vaio running OS X looks infinitely more attractive than a Powerbook.

I think this is an issue Apple is going to have to deal more and more with as time moves on. I hope things like this come into consideration for them when they plan their future strategies. Apple is used to being the only game in town in this respect, however now that OS X lovers technically have the choice, Apple needs to be conscious of this fact.

[eXan]

Well it seems that no-one delayed intel-switch yet

Hope they wont be so stupid to attach Intel Inside sticky on new PBs!

[pubwvj]

Originally Posted by eXan

Hope they wont be so stupid to attach Intel Inside sticky on new PBs!

Agreed. I really <i><b>DON'T</b></i> want to be seeing "Intel Inside" stickers, or any others, on my machine. But I highly doubt Jobs would ever allow that. You can apply all the stickers you want after you get it but I will bet good money that it will come clean.

[Photorun]

I can't believe this thread is this long and it's based on AppleInsider.com, a notoriously bad "rumor" site. If ThinkSecret ran a piece I could understand, but AppleInsider? C'mon people, move along, nothing to see here.