5G iPods, PowerBook Updates?

[dongmin]

Yah, I've been around here long enough to know that nothing shuts up the G5 whiners. But what can you do? Many of them just simply do not understand the technical issues surrounding putting a G5 in a laptop, they do not even consider if they actually need the power of a G5 in their laptop (they want it "just cuz"), nor do they realize that a dual-core G4 laptop could outperform a G5 in many aspects anyway, which is a hard concept to grasp since many people assume "5" is better than "4" since it's a higher number...

Oh come on, the 'dual-core G4' is just as much of a pipe dream right now as the G5. I hate to tell you all this, but the only real way of increasing the performance of the PowerBooks right now is the mpc7448.

-The dual-core G4, the mpc8641D, will not go into any laptops. It has four ethernet controllers built-in. It's been designed specifically for networking equipement.

-The G5 implementation in the new iMacs kinda blows. Apple has had to make A LOT of compromises to fit it into that enclosure. I wouldn't expect anything better in a 1" enclosure. The fabled '970gx' may remedy some of those issues, but that's even more of a pipe dream.

 

[AppleFoussa]

A Fifth generation iPod is what I am waiting for. I sold my third Gen ipod even though I seriously thing them to be nicer looking then those fourth G's. I hope that by updating them they'll drop the price of the ipod photo and who knows maybe it's size as well.
Everyone who said that the first generation PB G5 might not be worh it; I agree. I guess they'll use the same processor as the high end mac mini.

 

[Lightivity]

A general question on processors: Why do they construct the FPB to be so small? Why not just go ahead and make it fit the processor speed?

 

[LaMerVipere]

The G5 implementation in the new iMacs kinda blows. Apple has had to make A LOT of compromises to fit it into that enclosure. I wouldn't expect anything better in a 1" enclosure. The fabled '970gx' may remedy some of those issues, but that's even more of a pipe dream.

Whoa. Didn't know the iMac G5 was so lacking in performance. Or should I say, that the Mac mini's performance is so good in comparison?

 

[AppleFoussa]

What it really needs is an airport(mini) card in it so that it can stream music to an AirPort Express.

Now that would be sweet, I was thinking the same. transfer music wirelessly.
The new age is HD and wireless (except for headphones)

 

[dongmin]

It doesn't have much to do with naming or anithing, but mostly with the amount of white vs metal... The professional products are almost entirely made of aluminium, the iPod mini being the biggest exception (even though we can consider that as a "pro" product, since it's higly miniaturized, thus having a bad relationship between price/features, yet being utterly cool)... But every Apple product (except the PowerBook and the PowerMac) has a hint of the opposite material. This is some sort of "industrial design yin-yang" thing

Huh??? You people are reading way too much into these things. The days of Apple maintaining some hard rule about metal vs. plastic (corresponding to pro vs. consumer) are loooong gone. It's all marketing driven. Whatever is fashionable, whatever sells, is what Apple seems to go with these days. Just look:

Power Mac - aluminum
iMac - white plastic
Mac Mini - aluminum
eMac - white plastic

iPod - white plsatic
iPod mini - aluminum (5 colors)
iPod shuffle - white plastic

There's really no logic here. The only consistent rule that I see Apple following is that they want to distinguish the lines visually as much as possible.

 

[GFLPraxis]

Huh??? You people are reading way too much into these things. The days of Apple maintaining some hard rule about metal vs. plastic (corresponding to pro vs. consumer) are loooong gone. It's all marketing driven. Whatever is fashionable, whatever sells, is what Apple seems to go with these days. Just look:

Power Mac - aluminum
iMac - white plastic
Mac Mini - aluminum
eMac - white plastic

iPod - white plsatic
iPod mini - aluminum (5 colors)
iPod shuffle - white plastic

There's really no logic here. The only consistent rule that I see Apple following is that they want to distinguish the lines visually as much as possible.

Yes, there is logic.

Everything that begins with an i or an e is white plastic. Everything that has the word "Power" or "Mini" in the name is aluminum.
The iBook and PowerMac fit in there too.

 

[RichP]

Based on the cinema display and mac mini white+aluminum design trends, I would imagine the 5th generation to look something like this (my pshop skills arent that great, lol):

I don't see them totally dropping the white trend, the general size of the unit, or anything too revolutionary, just evolution on the ipod design. I certainly hope a thinner, color, high capacity version presents itself; the only thing keeping me from a 40GB, especially the Photo, is the thickness of the unit.

 

[john123]

Yes, there is logic.

Everything that begins with an i or an e is white plastic. Everything that has the word "Power" or "Mini" in the name is aluminum.
The iBook and PowerMac fit in there too.

You forgot about the iPod Mini. It not only begins with an "i" but has "Mini" in the name.

 

[Bern]

The white iPod is just fine. A metal/aluminium one would look cheap and nasty IMO.

A speed bump, improved graphics card and some minor enhancements in the PowerBook would be far more likely than a G5 or Dual G4 line. I don't know what people are thinking. Perhaps Apple will introduce a better price range in the new line?

 

[petej]

iPodHD?

Now if only Sony and Apple were to launch an HD camcorder that you could bolt on to the iPod. Record HD H.264 MPEG4 straight to your iPod. Plug it in to your Mac and edit / burn DVD in place. The pieces are already in place, we just need the hardware.

 

[hartsft]

It'll probably look like the silver iPod mini, but only larger (of course)

i would definetly consider something that looks like that.. after playing with a mini for a few minutes, i was enthralled.. but i still like the smoothness of the big white'ns

 

[hartsft]

anyone else not interested in color screens? im just looking for an mp3 player i guess- it's not like it's really that important.. prolly a drain on the battery. i kind of like the monochrome simplicity

 

[GregA]

A while back, there were rumours about Apple letting third parties develop games for the iPod. This would be good.

Even better, if Apple released a SDK for developing Applications.

Hey, combine the SDK with Tiger's dashboard so any iPod games play on the Mac too.

 

[swissmann]

I don't think that 5 GB is enough unless a price drop comes with it. It of course will be better for those in the market for an iPod mini but I don't think it will entice that many more buyers. I too think the iPods get updated very quickly. I would like to see more battery life and better head phones. Other than that I don't see much room for improvement that would excite me without going all the way to something like a PDA/Phone etc. The Powerbooks need updating but no way I am buying until a major revision with a better screen resolution and a different chip in it.

 

[dotdotdot]

FIRST EVER POST!!

This is my first ever post on MacRumors!!!

I think if Apple were to make a not-white iPod, it would be the "brushed metal" iPod, the same color as the PowerMac G5 and the Mac mini sides (which I want to buy!)

But I think the click wheel will be the "off-white" color.

 

[MacsRgr8]

This is my first ever post on MacRumors!!!

Good for you.... and welcome!

I'm sure now you'll switch from the dark side.

 

[TheSith]

This 'quiet' update expected on Tuesday for Powerbooks - does that mean.. on TUESDAY, you can go in and buy one? I have been waiting for an update of ANY kind and want to get one immediately.

 

[Trowaman]

Based on the cinema display and mac mini white+aluminum design trends, I would imagine the 5th generation to look something like this (my pshop skills arent that great, lol):

I don't see them totally dropping the white trend, the general size of the unit, or anything too revolutionary, just evolution on the ipod design. I certainly hope a thinner, color, high capacity version presents itself; the only thing keeping me from a 40GB, especially the Photo, is the thickness of the unit.

I'd round off the front but that looks about right. The think secret article describes the new ipod as being like the mini. This means there will be white and aluminum. I'd jsut expect the back to not be so different from the front.

 

[doogle]

While that feature has a lot of potential, I'm not sure Apple will devote much resources to developing something that's only useful for Mac users. I'm guessing that there are a lot more PC-iPod users than Mac-iPod users now. Apple is only adding features (like the Photo features) that are PC compatible also.

The release of the Mac Mini is juts one step in the evolution of the iPod and mac into the same thing.


[You hook a load of Winedows users with iPod and then suddenly their little white (or alu) device runs OSX on any screen and keyboard as well!]

 

[MacG]

I agree, with as much trouble as they have been having with the PB G5, I would stay away from the first gen. No doubt it will be very sweet.

What trouble are they having with the PB G5???

 

[Electric Monk]

What trouble are they having with the PB G5???

Since the G5 is an modified POWER4 chip it retains a lot of the characteristics from the POWER4 design. Namely heat. It is very very hot (Hence liquid cooling on the Dual G5 2.5 GHz Power Macs) because it was originally a workstation/server chip.

Now the heat isn't more then a high clocked P4 but those 3 GHz Pentium 4s exist in enclosures much bigger then the current Powerbook 1" thin enclosure.

Therefore if Apple wants to keep the thin enclosure they must wait for more advanced versions of the G5 that emit less heat.

A G5 or e600 (advanced G4) will get in there eventually, it's just a matter of time.

 

[dstorey]

Based on the cinema display and mac mini white+aluminum design trends, I would imagine the 5th generation to look something like this (my pshop skills arent that great, lol):

I don't see them totally dropping the white trend, the general size of the unit, or anything too revolutionary, just evolution on the ipod design. I certainly hope a thinner, color, high capacity version presents itself; the only thing keeping me from a 40GB, especially the Photo, is the thickness of the unit.

Can you show that with the aluminium an disk in the iPod mini colours? Probably will look sucky, except maybe the blue, but it might be a way they will go. I'd like to see the Mac Mini in the iPod mini colours too. Wonder why it was never called the iMac mini, makes more sense to me. I'm not sure if they will do a regular iPod in multiple colours though, as the regular iMac suppose to mirror it, and that design has just recently come out.

 

[~Shard~]

Oh come on, the 'dual-core G4' is just as much of a pipe dream right now as the G5. I hate to tell you all this, but the only real way of increasing the performance of the PowerBooks right now is the mpc7448.

Did I ever say that it wasn't? Thanks for putting words in my mouth, I always appreciate it when people do that... The only reason I brought that up was that was to further emphasize the point that the G5 PowerBook whiners are ignorant as well, otherwise they would whine about no dual-core G4 PowerBooks instead of solely the lack of G5 PowerBooks.

We're actually in agreement, so no worries bud.

 

[~Shard~]

This is my first ever post on MacRumors!!!

I think if Apple were to make a not-white iPod, it would be the "brushed metal" iPod, the same color as the PowerMac G5 and the Mac mini sides (which I want to buy!)

But I think the click wheel will be the "off-white" color.

Welcome to MR, make yourself at home! And keep us posted when you ditch that Win box and get a nice new Mac Mini - it'll be great to hear some reviews on it, especially from a switcher.