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Apple Releases New PowerBooks

Not currently a laptop user, but...

It just seems silly that folks are fighting about a G5 PowerBook. I mean, the problems with putting the current generation G5 chips into a PB that wouldn't melt in your lap, drain the battery in an hour, or that might be currently available to Apple seem fairly well documented (or at least discussed). This leaves the outside observer to conclude that there will be no current-generation G5 chips in the PowerBook lineup.

What the alternative might be, who knows? But I can say that if I needed a PowerBook for my current work and lifestyle, I'd be much happier with a dual-core G4 than a single G5 model. Maybe Apple will skip a generation of chips in the PB, or release a "mobile" version of the G5 (like the Pentium 4 mobile), or do something entirely different. Personally, I think the latest revision to the PB lineup is pretty cool, and Apple has at least started to incorporate stuff about which folks were complaining 6-8 months ago (audio out and baseline memory).

I guess I'm just trying to say that I think folks are lashing out at each other here and forgetting the bigger picture: Apple is a corporation with a singular goal of making money for itself and its shareholders. Beating each other up about it won't do anything but hurt feelings and neglects the fact that if Apple believes it can make a little more $$$ with a speed and feature bump until the next major revision of the PB lineup, then it will.

Peace y'all. :cool:
 
Photorun said:
Does anyone here actually READ about new technologies or are is everyone here into NOT THINKING!!!

G5 Powerbooks... NOT HAPPENING!!!

G4 DUAL CORE 64 BIT PROBABLY NEXT!!!

I'm sick of you people, seriously, you don't get it, G5 isn't the be-all end-all, get a clue or stop posting!!! Read up or shut up! Good god!

UGH!!!
Click to expand...

Take your own advice, troll. As has been covered before, the dual-core G4s for non-embedded applications aren't even slated to exist in saleable form until late Summer at the absolute minimum. Dual-core G4=not happening. G5 is a lot more likely.

~J
 
BWhaler said:
Look at the side of the Powerbook display.

See those gray pieces of plastic?

Do you think the antenna is possible behind that?

Maybe Apple knows a thing or two about building computers. And don't forget that the iBook is the best in the industry, the benchmark. Of course it's going to be better than the Powerbook since it is better than everything else.
Click to expand...

I didn't know that the iBook was the best. Very interesting.

I get good signal reception with my 12" alum, should I expect at least the same with the 17"?
 
Anybody have a link to a benchmark comparing a G4 1.5 Powerbook to a G5 1.6 or 1.8 iMac?
 
Price to hold strong?

Does anyone believe that these prices will stay whenever a new revelution of PowerBooks pops up? Or do you think that the prices will end up jumping back up if we see a new line at WWDC?
 
Kagetenshi said:
Different form-factor? Sure. They're pin-compatible, though. They're as incompatible as normal USB is to that boxy USB they put on things for no apparent reason, which is to say not at all.

~J
Click to expand...

Well, it depends on how you view your cabling.

Thanks to USB and Parallel and Serial ports before that, which all could have different connectors on the "device" end but had a standard connector on the "computer" end, generally consumers think of the cable as a part of the device. Enough so that they complain when a printer doesn't come with the USB cable, or a camera lacks that cable.

So, again, when one USB device needs the "B" type connector, and another needs the "mini" type connector, and another needs what as far as I can tell is a completely proprietary connector just a little smaller than the "mini" connector (Kodak, I'm looking at you), that's silly and stupid but at least not out of the expected behavior, which is that the cable goes with the device.

One key feature of mapping the cable to the device is that the cable tends to get put in the bag with the device. So, no matter where I go, I can connect my camera to my laptop, or to my friend's desktop, etc, so long as they have a USB port of whatever flavor (1.1 or 2.0).

From the "this cable belongs to this device" standpoint, with a different computer connector you need to replace every cable of every device. And, the cable becomes non-portable, or you have to have two such cables, one for your friends with just FW400 and another for your "cool friends" with the latest/greatest FW800.

Of course, with FireWire, the computer is just another device, so maybe if you think of it that way ...

IMHO, I think it's silly to have a different physical connector between FW400 and FW800, especially as (I believe) FW800 devices should thunk-down to FW400 when connected to a FW400 device per the standard (so there's no reason to have a physical roadblock between connecting FW800 and FW400 devices). But, hey, they don't pay me to design connectors!

[Edit: Of course, the reason for the new connector if to fit three more pins in ... still, it would have been nice not to have to deal with it]
 
Damn, I've read this entire thread

Well, I can understand everybody's frustrations. Coming from my perspective though, I will buy this revision. Going from a 800 mhz ibook g4 to a powerbook would be a HUGE boost for me. :cool:
 
ext said:
Anybody have a link to a benchmark comparing a G4 1.5 Powerbook to a G5 1.6 or 1.8 iMac?
Click to expand...

Yeah...this info would be useful. I'm deciding between getting one of these newer Powerbooks or an iMac G5.
 
erroneousuk said:
Good thing they don't already include a mini-to standard DVI adaptor with the 12" PB, or a mini-DVI to VGA adaptor... that'd very unApple. :D
Click to expand...

But that's just a space thing and it was included from the beginning. Changing something like this now would leave everyone with older devices in the rain. That is if they don't ship it with a converter cable... this again would be Apple.
 
No difference observed?

darkwing said:
I sure love watching all this drooling over Apple's latest round of outdated technology. I'll be keeping my rev C powerbook and be waiting for the second generation of something better. I saw no difference at all going from a 1ghz to a 1.5 ghz, and I doubt I'll see anything else with 1.67. I was hoping maybe we'd see an FSB speed bump, and then I would go for it. Oh well.

Back to pretending my laptop's ass isn't being kicked by the Dothan.

Steven
Click to expand...
Guess you really didn't the power then....

And I am sick of the "I am keeping my Rev C" crowd. Perhpas, just maybe... Apple was looking to sell powerbooks to those that didn't have one, not the guy that bought one 6 months ago. Generally speaking people try to get at least 2 years out of a laptop. In the case of most businesses, try 3.
 
Trekkie said:
FYI the LaCie 400/800 drive I ordered came with both a 6/6 and then a 9/6 cable so that I could plug in my iMac's 400 to the 800 port.
Click to expand...

Yep, mine did too but that's not the point I was trying to make. It would require an adaptor cable for all the other things like iPods, iSights, etc.
 
I'm happy. I'm not getting a PowerBook now, I'm waiting until Macworld Paris at the latest, but if they are stuck in this configuration then (and while I am personally hopeful of a G5 PowerBook at WWDC) then I'll probablu still buy one for Uni. OK they may not be blazingly fast, but even when I compare to PCs the features, and design are just unmatched. Show me a x86 laptop with Gigabit Ethernet AND a Mobile 9700? It may not be important to you, but it is to me. Show me a x86 laptop with Firewire 800. And frankly Id sell my own sister into the white slave trade for the backlit keyboard alone. OK, maybe in terms of raw performance these things aren't the beast, but that's not my priority. So they are, for me. Going in the direction I would like- more affordable, more features.
 
JonHimself said:
Is this true? I've only had my iBook for like 3 months or so and was planning on hooking it up my LCD with a BT mouse and KB and keeping it closed... if it is true is there a way around? (Similar to the Screen hack)
Click to expand...

The hack supposedly provides an option for operating in clamshell mode, but the iBook G4 was not designed for this and needs to be open to give off heat properly. I use mine through my widescreen HDTV and wireless mouse KB. It sits upright, like an A, open about 1.5", with the screen dimmed all the way, at the back of the shelf below the TV.
 
No G5... so G4 or Pentium M?

Windows laptops tend to be big and thick and heavy, OR sacrifice features (things like an optical drive!) to be thin. The PowerBook line manages to be both ultra-portable AND full-featured. Apple also has THE best reliability record for laptops in the industry, consistently year after year (see large-scale surveys by Consumer Reports). And regardless, Windows laptops aren't remotely competitive unless you find Windows to be a suitable alternative to Mac OS X. Given those factors, today we have better laptops available than we did yesterday, for better prices. And even my "lowly" 1.25 GHz PowerBook is enough to run my whole business well, from 3D rendering to video editing... and is fun for UT2004 besides.

HOWEVER: A Pentium M laptop is definitely a smarter choice for render farms.

Choose the right tool for the job. Sometimes raw GHz matters more than connectivity, size, weight, ease-of-use, excellent bundled software, quality components, and freedom from viruses and spyware.
 
A 5% real world speed gain after 10 months and they still want $2700 for the 17" model with insufficient RAM and mid range HD? Maybe they should just cancel their portable lines until they can get them at decent speeds. Why is the 12" still at 1024x768? Who wants to use any PC with that limitation? They really need to massively cut the prices of the portable lineup.
 
rog said:
A 5% real world speed gain after 10 months and they still want $2700 for the 17" model with insufficient RAM and mid range HD? Maybe they should just cancel their portable lines until they can get them at decent speeds. Why is the 12" still at 1024x768? Who wants to use any PC with that limitation? They really need to massively cut the prices of the portable lineup.
Click to expand...

This is the most ignorant post I have ever seen.
So speed is measured in MHz? Nice. Mid range HD? A 100GB 5400rpm is mid range? I don't know of any other HDs out there that have a higher capacity at that speed. Why would you want a higher resolution on 12"!!! ?
Even a lot PC laptops still have that resolution and they are 14". Massively cut the prices? Show me a comparable PC laptop for much less...
What a post... :eek:
 
To all of you who thought you were getting a G5.

Nelson said:
Haw Haw.
Click to expand...

nelson.gif


Does mean we'll stop hearing "NU POWEBOK G5S ON TU3SDAY1!111 OMG LOL"?

...because that's getting really damn annoying.
 
Diatribe said:
No need to do research. My argument still stands and is valid. They use entirely different connectors. You'd need a different cable than the one your device most likely shipped with, which is something that is not Apple-like.
From an electrical POV it is totally backwards compatible but that's not always the only thing that counts...
Click to expand...

I needed a 400 to 800 cable for my La Cie drive, in order to keep my USB 2.0 port open for something and the Apple store sold me a beautiful white one. I am sorry that I cant remember who it was made by - but it was very "Apple-like" :)
 
Photorun said:
Does anyone here actually READ about new technologies or are is everyone here into NOT THINKING!!!

G5 Powerbooks... NOT HAPPENING!!!

G4 DUAL CORE 64 BIT PROBABLY NEXT!!!

I'm sick of you people, seriously, you don't get it, G5 isn't the be-all end-all, get a clue or stop posting!!! Read up or shut up! Good god!

UGH!!!
Click to expand...

That's a good idea. Why don't you go first, and do a little reading about the dual-core G4, which IS NOT 64-BIT.
 
This update makes me glad that I dont have to buy my Apple laptop until next year. I have the time to wait until i decide that the update is good enough.
 
Photorun said:
Still a little bit too pricey for their performance and features compared to some on the peecee side of things.
Click to expand...

Yadda-yadda. That's like saying a Mercedes is too pricey when compared with a Yugo. Right...

The fact is when you factor in all the little costs the Mac comes out cheaper. More over they last longer and are easier to use. They also aren't as prone to viruses, worms, etc. Better overall user experience.

On top of the above, there was a very interesting study done that showed that the lifetime cost of Windows machine was significantly higher than that of Macs.

So stop making dumb justifications and go buy a PC if that is what you really want.
 
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