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13.3-inch iBook?

Chundles said:
wilburpan said:
Maybe not. One advantage of putting a 1280x720 screen in the 13.3" widescreen iBook is that you still have the option of putting a 13.3" display with a higher pixel density in a Powerbook and use that as a means of differentiating the 13.3" Powerbook from the 13.3" iBook.

Of course, this is an advantage for Apple, not us consumers. Oh, wait -- you thought everything Apple does is for our benefit?

Seriously, judging for my experience playing around with one of the Sony S-series laptops recently, this will be a great form factor.
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I would think the differentiating features would be that the new 13" Powerbook would boast a faster processor, PC Card slot, DVI out with screen spanning, better video card etc.

I don't see the point of making a 16:9 display when all the others are 16:10.
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15" Powerbook -- 1440 x 960 pixels = 15:10 ratio

I didn't say that this would be the only differentiating feature. I said this would be a differentiating feature.

However, the only 13.3" LCD screens that seem to be available now are either 1280x800 or 1366x768. I would find it very unlikely that Apple would have a custom made LCD screen (the aforementioned 1280x720) made for a laptop that is at the lower end of their product line.
 
January?

A January release date is not mentioned anywhere in the Think Secret article. You can't infer January from "early next year." Careful, Mudbug.
 
bentley said:
discontinuing the 12" PowerBook?! weak

unless it's replaced with a widescreen with the same amount of portability.
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I agree. I have to think the 12" PB is one of their best sellers. Both 12" laptops seem to be the hottest computer items at the local Apple store... and the 12" iBook is one of the hottest items at the Genius Bar (i.e. it's junk). My 12" iBook has several major problems (all listed in the Apple Discussion boards, but Apple won't fix it!).

Anyway, I will definitely be switching to a Vaio if Apple dumps the 12" PB and doesn't replace it with a 10.6" or 13.3" widescreen!
 
Chundles said:
I'd have to say it's a bit silly to be putting a screen with only 720 horizontal res. That's less then the current 12". It would be prefect at 1280x768 or even 1280x800. That way it can still show 720p video but for day to day use you get a lot more info on the screen and it fits nicely in with the new higher res PowerBooks - this would also become the new little PB would it not?
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Uhh 720 is the vertical resolution, i.e. 720 rows by 1280 columns. I dont think 48 pixels matters that much. Keep in mind OS X will be highly resolution independent in the next release.
 
13.3-inch iBook would be very nice, but discontinue the 12-inch model? :( I like having the 12-inch in the iBook lineup. Oh well, I guess we won't know until next month.
 
TS thought the 12" was going away before--they could be wrong again.

In any case, there's a big market for a small PowerBook, be it 12" or some other size. (13.3 with less margi around the screen and a thinner case could make up somewhath for the added width.)

There are two major groups of laptop users who are the most likely to use an external screen: pro users, and users of small-screen laptops. Many people fall into both groups, and an iBook can't use an external screen larger than 1024x768, which doesn't really help most people except for presentations. It adds no workspace (without hacks, which Apple doesn't count as product features).

So a small, pro-oriented, spanning-capable laptop is still needed, and I'm sure Apple knows that.

I'd like the smallest possible laptop (even smaller keys) but with the lighted keys and dual cores of the top PowerBook--and the highest GPU they can fit. Maximum power with a nice big external screen and keyboard--and maximum portability too.

But I'd consider an iBook if it was a lot smaller than the smallest PowerBook, AND supported spanning.
 
I hope TS is right!

If ThinkSecret is correct, this will definitely be my first business write off for 2006 :D It will seem almost nostalgic running OS X on Intel as I first fell in love with it in its previous life as NeXTSTEP on Intel back in the early 90's.

Can't wait!
 
abhi_beckert said:
I challenge you to name one program that requires more than a 600px high screen (let alone 720px), aperture and final cut pro don't count. Now name a program that would work better with more than 1024px wide. Didn't take you long did it? I have a 12" iBook and I assure you, the screen is taller than it needs to be and not wide enough.
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thats easy, photoshop. i need all the screen real estate i can get while working on retouching images. in order to see the progression of the image you need to view at 100% and if all i can see is someones eyeball at that magnification i cant see how a filter might be affecting the image as a whole.

i cant wait for the OS to be resolution independent. then i can have the menus at a decent size as well
 
Space for new form factor?

If the 12" PB is going to be dropped and there is going to be at least one 13" widescreen, I wonder if there is going to be an ultra-portable (say 10/11" screen, 1.x kilo / 2lb) coming soon. Compare with a Sony TX1 which still includes DVD-RW, Firewire, USB2, 60Gb HDD despite being roughly half the weight of a 12" PB. The resulting line up would be Intel PowerBooks in 11, 13, 15 and 17 inches.
 
Increasing 12"PB RAM

joecool85 said:
If they discontinue the 12" PB I'm going to be real tempted to pick up one of the current ones (get a refurb after they ACTUALLY discontinue it). The thing is, for right now, my 12" does fine. I just hope eventually they come out with another 12" PB or that they redesign the iBook...I dunno, I really like the PB look/feel over the iBook.
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joecool85:

I have the same 12"PB(version A), BUT several months ago I replaced the "so-called maximum" pre-installed 512 RAM with a 1 Gig Samsung (OEM) RAM from OWC. It works PERFECTLY, contrary to conventional "experts". You will then have 1.12 RAM memory. It will really make your 12" PB seem more up-to-date and much faster! :) :)
 
BillyShears said:
Out of curiosity (genuine curiosity, not that sarcasm the Internet is rife with these days), what do you need a PowerBook for as a writer? Word processors are not processor intensive, I don't think. I can see why musicians or graphics artists or programers need PowerBooks, but I don't get it for writers. I do not mean to appear critical, but what do you need the PowerBook for?

(Also, off topic: what kind of writing, if I may ask?)
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I generally write fiction (short stories and an unpublished novel), but I've also written poetry and literary criticism in the past.

Specifically for writing itself, I don't need a PowerBook, but for other related activities and for portability it helps.

First off, the size savings over an iBook is nice, especially while traveling and while taking my PB out to write at the coffee shop or park, etc.

I've also appreciated the extra hard drive space, faster bus speeds, and DVD-burner (which is still not available on the 12" iBook). Archiving my writings on one disc is ideal (I have well over a GB of writings).

I also do some web stuff related to my writing (my site is being revamped right now, so I won't put a link at this time). It does help to have a PowerBook to work with Adobe Creative Suite, both for web design and for photo editing and processing. Creative Suite 2 would not run on an iBook well (if at all--can't remember) when I purchased it.

Most of those things I could do with an iBook, but a PowerBook is just faster and sleeker.

The real kicker for me was the official support of the secondary external display. I've presented at conferences and, before this year, taught college courses. For each of these activities, being able to project something different than what is on my main display is very helpful. I know there are hacks to work around this limitation, but I'm not excited by the prospect of having to get a new fix every time there is a security or OS update. If I have to do a presentation, I need my computer to "just work."

I guess I could find ways to do my work with an iBook, but for me, the extra capabilities and features of the PowerBook were worth it.
 
DIXIE said:
joecool85:

I have the same 12"PB(version A), BUT several months ago I replaced the "so-called maximum" pre-installed 512 RAM with a 1 Gig Samsung (OEM) RAM from OWC. It works PERFECTLY, contrary to conventional "experts". You will then have 1.12 RAM memory. It will really make your 12" PB seem more up-to-date and much faster! :) :)
Click to expand...

Never seen such an off topic (and confusing) post before :p

p0intblank, they aren't killing off the 12-inch iBook. The 12-inch PB on the other hand? That's a different matter.
 
dernhelm said:
My prediction has been for quite a while that the lower-cost iBook will converge with the more upscale powerbook in form (widescreen, etc). You may see the iBooks go Aluminum while the PBs go with some other material, so there will be just enough of a cosmetic difference to make the PB purchasers feel like they got something "more".
Click to expand...

I agree with you that the iBooks will get a more 'refined' look in the next iteration, but remember that the iBooks are aimed at consumers and schools. For the sake of durability and cost, iBooks should remain all plastic. The very first iBooks actually had aluminum on the inside faces. But they got rid of it in favor of more durable, scratch resistant plastic.

Expect changes to the iBooks to be subtle: smaller bezel, thinner form factor, different hinge mechanism, etc.
 
otter-boy said:
I generally write fiction (short stories and an unpublished novel), but I've also written poetry and literary criticism in the past.

Specifically for writing itself, I don't need a PowerBook, but for other related activities and for portability it helps.

First off, the size savings over an iBook is nice, especially while traveling and while taking my PB out to write at the coffee shop or park, etc.

I've also appreciated the extra hard drive space, faster bus speeds, and DVD-burner (which is still not available on the 12" iBook). Archiving my writings on one disc is ideal (I have well over a GB of writings).

I also do some web stuff related to my writing (my site is being revamped right now, so I won't put a link at this time). It does help to have a PowerBook to work with Adobe Creative Suite, both for web design and for photo editing and processing. Creative Suite 2 would not run on an iBook well (if at all--can't remember) when I purchased it.

Most of those things I could do with an iBook, but a PowerBook is just faster and sleeker.

The real kicker for me was the official support of the secondary external display. I've presented at conferences and, before this year, taught college courses. For each of these activities, being able to project something different than what is on my main display is very helpful. I know there are hacks to work around this limitation, but I'm not excited by the prospect of having to get a new fix every time there is a security or OS update. If I have to do a presentation, I need my computer to "just work."

I guess I could find ways to do my work with an iBook, but for me, the extra capabilities and features of the PowerBook were worth it.
Click to expand...


Cool, thanks for the info. It does sound like if anyone wants to do presentations (e.g. a professional, I guess), they would need to use the PowerBook. (Assuming they don't want to use the screen spanning hack, which one probably wouldn't want to do given they are professionals, and need to rely on support, etc.) The other stuff you mentioned is useful, too, of course.

(I'm debating whether I should get an iBook or a PowerBook when the Intel models come out. I have a dead iBook 600MHz right now, wasn't happy about no screen-span for this model. So pardon the previous questioning.)
 
pixel size

Though I'm v. fond of my 12" iBook, the pixel size (dots per inch) is on the small size. I'd be alarmed if it got any smaller.

Although pixel size is rarely a problem when using a browser or indeed many modern apps, it is a big problem when using Word. Using Word at 100% yields text that I find uncomfortably small. And adjusting the zoom resolution generally produces horrible results because Word doesn't take advantage of all the neat stuff built into OS X for rendering beautiful text at any size. (I know I can up my font size and sometimes do, but that's not a very satisfactory solution.) If Appleworks or Pages were any good, I might avoid this problem. Pages scales text nicely, but is feature-lite and brings my machine to its knees even on very short documents.

Partly on pixel size I'd been thinking of going for a 14" if/when I replace my present machine. The bigger pixels would be good for me. If the 14" went and was replaced by a machine with smaller pixels... well, it would put me off.

I agree with other comments here about the value of extra vertical lines. Anyone who does a lot of writing would, I suspect, say the same.
 
dernhelm said:
"real professionals" and "pros". I certainly understand that there are a lot of people that like the 12" form factor and still require a lot of power in their laptops. My remarks were really aimed at determining how many of those users would be irked at a slightly larger 13.3" widescreen form factor. If the new PBs were to be offered at 13.3", 15", and 17" sizes, how much of their potential userbase would they alienate?

I was really just curious more than anything.
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Yeah, I get what you're saying. I guess I'm just peeved by all of those comments that say something to the effect of "Well, if you were really a professional, you'd get a 17" PowerBook . . ." or "What kind of professional uses a 12" PowerBook?" I think many people in these forums assume that the only professionals using Macs are either videographers, movie editors, or photographers that need all of that space for visuals, or scientists or computer programmers that need to have lots of windows open at one time. edit: See riversky's comments below.

My distinction between real professionals and "pros" was based on the way many people use quotation marks to mean that something is not really what it says, i.e. pseudo-pros or wanna-be-pros.

I would be all for a 13.3" PowerBook, but I still think a 13.3" iBook would be a serious step down for me. There are still enough differences between the 12" PowerBook and the iBooks that many people, both professionals and non-professionals (hobbyists, students, etc.), prefer the PowerBook.

If Apple discontinued the small PowerBook and only left the option of a small iBook (at least in its current form factor), I fear that some people would more seriously consider a Sony or Dell instead of an Apple computer.
 
Great sounding move

The 12inch PowerBook is basically a iBook in PowerBooks clothing....They don't need it if they have a light but powerful iBooks coming.

Yes it is nice to have a small PowerBook but come on it is NOT a "power" computer.

My thinking

iBooks---Light Portable Powerful...12inch perhpas this 13.3 wide screen. Enough for day to day work but NOT as main computer for power work.

PowerBooks--- 15 17 and a new 19inch model for POWER users. Video/Media etc. with the latest graphics and technology. True PowerBooks.

This would not include a weak wanna be 12 inch iBook that happened to put on PowerBook clothes by mistake....Good move if Apple does it.
 
ccrandall77 said:
I agree. I have to think the 12" PB is one of their best sellers. Both 12" laptops seem to be the hottest computer items at the local Apple store... and the 12" iBook is one of the hottest items at the Genius Bar (i.e. it's junk). My 12" iBook has several major problems (all listed in the Apple Discussion boards, but Apple won't fix it!).

Anyway, I will definitely be switching to a Vaio if Apple dumps the 12" PB and doesn't replace it with a 10.6" or 13.3" widescreen!
Click to expand...

My name is ccrandall77 and I prefer Windows over 2-inches of display real estate.

Laughable man.
 
riversky said:
PowerBooks--- 15 17 and a new 19inch model for POWER users. Video/Media etc. with the latest graphics and technology. True PowerBooks.
Click to expand...

A 19-inch PB would be a desktop replacement yes? Well as the iMac is light and has a minute footprint, there is no need for it.

Anyway, I was thinking about the graphics they'd put on it. How about:

12-inch w/ Mobility X300 (No on-board memory) - £649/$899
12-inch w/ Mobility X300 (32MB) - £699/$999
13.3-inch w/ Mobility X300 (64MB) - £899/$1299
 
I think the time is ripe for a widescreen ibook. No one knows for sure...not even ThinkSecret...but if apple still plans to keep the 12" ibook, its probably makes sense.

But to do away with the 12" powerbook completely? Hmmm...I find this hard to believe.

There are many professionals that like to travel with their laptop...and then come home and be able to hook it up to a cinema display. Why would apple get rid of their ultra portable powerbook?

Unless the 13" widescreen and remaining 12" ibook come with the ability to hook up to a cinema display and both have a superdrive, I don't think so.

Or at least it doesn't sound right to me.

Am I alone in thinking that? :)
 
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