Photorun said:
This is Apple we're talking about. What I read or not, I believe Apple will have a G5 out at a time that will surprise everyone. This is APPLE! They PUSH it!
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Releases New PowerBooks
- Thread starter sbb155
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
This is Apple we're talking about. What I read or not, I believe Apple will have a G5 out at a time that will surprise everyone. This is APPLE! They PUSH it!
ok, now i'm about to get myself an apple laptop. but i don't know if i should take the 14'' ibook superdrive or the 12'' powerbook superdrive.
ibook = 1449 , the powerbook = 1649
you know all the specs for the books, so what would you suggest?
thanks a lot
tymmz
oh, right now i would go with the 12'' pb.
ibook = 1449 , the powerbook = 1649
you know all the specs for the books, so what would you suggest?
thanks a lot
tymmz
oh, right now i would go with the 12'' pb.
Not tempted to give up my Ti book yet
The upgrades are cool, but still dont feel that its a big enough jump to part with my trusty Ti book 1GHz just yet. hoping to see G4 dual core or G5. Still waiting to see whats round the corner.
The upgrades are cool, but still dont feel that its a big enough jump to part with my trusty Ti book 1GHz just yet. hoping to see G4 dual core or G5. Still waiting to see whats round the corner.
Just a heads up...
okay i read through as much of this thread as i could before i got sick of people whining about g5's, dual-cores, and steve jobs' new hair-do, so i don't know if anyone mentioned that there are rev c's on the discount page, for anyone that wants them. there's a 12" with the superdrive for 1.499. that sounds kind of pricey next to the 14" iBook with the same, but anyone that knows a little something might think its a deal. i'm not getting one, but you might!
On a further note, is there a thread about the future of Apple's processors and the direction they are going... Cell maybe? Further IBM collaboration?
Current Song: Blow It Out::Features::iTunes New Music Sampler
okay i read through as much of this thread as i could before i got sick of people whining about g5's, dual-cores, and steve jobs' new hair-do, so i don't know if anyone mentioned that there are rev c's on the discount page, for anyone that wants them. there's a 12" with the superdrive for 1.499. that sounds kind of pricey next to the 14" iBook with the same, but anyone that knows a little something might think its a deal. i'm not getting one, but you might!
On a further note, is there a thread about the future of Apple's processors and the direction they are going... Cell maybe? Further IBM collaboration?
Current Song: Blow It Out::Features::iTunes New Music Sampler
I think the Powerbook is "cooler", but unless the Powerbook's extra features turn you on, the iBook will probably fulfill your needs.
Powerbook features that aren't in the iBook:
Standard Bluetooth
64MB VRAM
Faster bus and memory
Audio in
Video spanning
Chris
Powerbook features that aren't in the iBook:
Standard Bluetooth
64MB VRAM
Faster bus and memory
Audio in
Video spanning
Chris
Dont get the 14inch ibook. the screen sucks. Get the 12 inch ibook or pb. If video memory is all that important to you, go with the pb. If you dont do much graphic design (and i cant imagine why you would on a 12 inch screen) then go with the ibook.Tymmz said:
Whoa an update finally. 😉 🙂
Well it seems Apples Tuesdays are now Mondays. 😉
Any update is a good update I guess considering its been ~9 months, heck even if it was a 0.1GHz increase it would have welcomed. Its been way too long for an update and these system already feel updated. To make matters worse Apple is introducing and including some gimmicky features to compensate for the lack luster of the update, Typical Apple.
BlueTooth 2.0 = who cares as of yet. Let me know when something worthwhile is released. 😉
Scrolling Trackpad = Wow...RIGHT...this should have been on PowerBooks long before now, and you have to use 2 finger to scroll, kinda odd since I have been use to the one finger (NO Not that One 😉 ) way of doing things. 🙂
Audio I/O also seems like a last min thing to justify the cost.
Yeah sure you get more now for less, however it still looks dated when compared to x86 notebooks which have had some of these features long before Apple.
Did any of the engineers at Apple even realize that Al blocks out radio signals, yeah its a plus the Aliens will not be able to get any data from the PowerBook however you are loosing signal strength with it. I much rather have rugged and great wireless reception than a light, easy to dent/scratch/bend, rotten wireless signal notebook. 🙂
Sure the PowerBook updates look nice to anyone who has been waiting for ages.
The support for the 30" ACD is nice though how many people can afford that display. 🙄
This updates is definitely a miss by Apple. I am going to stick with my iBook 12" and also my PowerBook. WWDC is the time I will upgrade since it will be time, if not I can wait. Might as well buy something that is worth it than this.
By the way it doesn't matter who makes the chips Apple is a partner with both companies and to a point it is they fault as well for not placing pressure on the companies, however it just seemed to think heck IBM will have a G5 mobile chip by this time and now they are stuck with the slow G4 chips and they rotten bus speed. The G4 is just way to long in the tooth, someone needs to whatever G4 64 or dual core chip they have something like, G4 DC or G4 64DC.
This is just too painful to see on a Power line. :: nods head in shame ::
512 of ram about dam time, I guess the PMG5 will also see the same 512 as standard. Seems even Apple is shamed by this update no wonder a silent update. This update is good for one thing, SWITCHERS. 😉 🙂
Well it seems Apples Tuesdays are now Mondays. 😉
Any update is a good update I guess considering its been ~9 months, heck even if it was a 0.1GHz increase it would have welcomed. Its been way too long for an update and these system already feel updated. To make matters worse Apple is introducing and including some gimmicky features to compensate for the lack luster of the update, Typical Apple.
BlueTooth 2.0 = who cares as of yet. Let me know when something worthwhile is released. 😉
Scrolling Trackpad = Wow...RIGHT...this should have been on PowerBooks long before now, and you have to use 2 finger to scroll, kinda odd since I have been use to the one finger (NO Not that One 😉 ) way of doing things. 🙂
Audio I/O also seems like a last min thing to justify the cost.
Yeah sure you get more now for less, however it still looks dated when compared to x86 notebooks which have had some of these features long before Apple.
Did any of the engineers at Apple even realize that Al blocks out radio signals, yeah its a plus the Aliens will not be able to get any data from the PowerBook however you are loosing signal strength with it. I much rather have rugged and great wireless reception than a light, easy to dent/scratch/bend, rotten wireless signal notebook. 🙂
Sure the PowerBook updates look nice to anyone who has been waiting for ages.
The support for the 30" ACD is nice though how many people can afford that display. 🙄
This updates is definitely a miss by Apple. I am going to stick with my iBook 12" and also my PowerBook. WWDC is the time I will upgrade since it will be time, if not I can wait. Might as well buy something that is worth it than this.
By the way it doesn't matter who makes the chips Apple is a partner with both companies and to a point it is they fault as well for not placing pressure on the companies, however it just seemed to think heck IBM will have a G5 mobile chip by this time and now they are stuck with the slow G4 chips and they rotten bus speed. The G4 is just way to long in the tooth, someone needs to whatever G4 64 or dual core chip they have something like, G4 DC or G4 64DC.
This is just too painful to see on a Power line. :: nods head in shame ::
512 of ram about dam time, I guess the PMG5 will also see the same 512 as standard. Seems even Apple is shamed by this update no wonder a silent update. This update is good for one thing, SWITCHERS. 😉 🙂
chevyorange said:
I so want Apple to have a RAID solution for the 17" PB line that would be über neato, think of having 2 HD's spinning at 7200rpm with a RAID solution that would kick the PMG5 in data access to disk and we all know Mac OS X loves to access the disk. 😉 🙂
SuperDrive at 8x whoop tee doo daa, I can now burn a DVD in ~14 minutes greaaaat, this is good news for the iMac G5 though. 😉 🙂
but i played around a little with a 15'' and a 12'' pb and it felt much better than on an ibook. normally i would stick to a bigger screen (14'' is ok, 15'' is better but too expensive), but the pb felt so much better and i do get 256 more ram a bigger harddrive, a faster superrdrive and more vram, for 200 more.carpet said:
tymmz
SiliconAddict said:
Although I am a PC user, I disagree totally. My current laptop is an IBM Thinkpad 1.6 GHz, less than 6 months old. Let's compare to the G4 PowerBook available at the time it was bought.
It cost my employer about $3200 (including all the accessories - bag, docking station etc) - they also recently added a 1GByte RAM stick, that cost them $565 (!!! don't ask me how our IT dept managed to spend so much !!!), to a total of almost $3800. An individual could have saved a few hundred dollars, but it's still +1 toApple for cost.
It has 14" screen (+1 to Apple) but is lighter (+1 to IBM) and Bluetooth (evens), but only a wireless b card (+1 to Apple). It's screen resolution is 1400x1050, but if like me, your eyes are 39+ years old, your eyes would hurt when working on it for any longer than a couple of hours (hence they also bought me an LCD monitor at another $300) - so to me, higher resolution is reason /not/ to buy, but call that +1 to IBM.
It also runs XP, of course (+2 to Apple). Both the PPC and the Pentium-M outperform an equivalently clocked P4 (closer to AMD performance), but any benchmarks I've seen would put my 1.6GHz P-M at about the same performance as a PPC 1.4GHz, but let's call it even with the 1.5GHz Apple.
The ThinkPad doesn't have firewire (+1 to Apple), and only a combodrive (+1 to Apple)
Perhaps I'm missing something here, but the PB beats my Thinkpad at most rounds.
Of course, if you'd rather have a 9lb, power hungry brick, you can get better performing P4 "laptops"
Tymmz said:
It is obvious that the new PB updates are going to shine when compared to the iBooks, DUH!!!
The PB have they strengths as of the update when compared to the iBooks, it all depends on what you want and what you are going to be using it for. 😉 🙂 And of course your budget. 😉 🙂
You'll regret not getting apple care on a PB.
I think that you will regret not getting AppleCare on the PowerBook. I have owned 3 Powerbooks and 2 iBooks. I have used AppleCare on every machine and in most cases beyond the 1 year point.
In fact I have a 1 GHz Ti that right now developed a GPU problem at 2.5 years of age. Probably needs a whole new motherboard. I will be sending it it soon for a brand new board, thanks to AppleCare.
Get the AppleCare.
Caiwyn said:
I think that you will regret not getting AppleCare on the PowerBook. I have owned 3 Powerbooks and 2 iBooks. I have used AppleCare on every machine and in most cases beyond the 1 year point.
In fact I have a 1 GHz Ti that right now developed a GPU problem at 2.5 years of age. Probably needs a whole new motherboard. I will be sending it it soon for a brand new board, thanks to AppleCare.
Get the AppleCare.
joeconvert said:
Well, this is about the most specious reasoning I have heard today. Pointing out the obvious = hatred. Apple turned to RISC and motorola at the prior times, and now what are they going to do when their business decision was nolonger paying off ? Switch to X86 ? That would make them the lauging stock of the X86 community, which is just about 9 out of every 10 people who use computers. Not like that X86 and RISC are practically different these days, there was once, when the implementations in practice followed the theoretical papers, and that has long since passed. Apple wants its PR, and admitting that they have a hardware deficiency would be corporate suicide, then it is up to the end users like us to determine and razor through the marketing mumbo jumbo, and the emotional hoo-haa upon seeing cute animations and sleek exteriors and arrive at the unfortunate situation that the hardware under that aluminum is comparatively deficient. For starters, the FPU of the G4 suffers from pipeline stall after certain instructions to flush, any other latest cpu out there has Piplined FPU units, RISC or x86, even G3. Secondly the branch predictor of the G4 puts it squarely in the camp of the PIII, just slightly behind the PIII. Then, the 128bit VMX executor which gets starved by the 64bit FSB running at 167 Mhz. Sorry Apple, but using DDR333 doesn't hide the G4's 167 fsb shame. AGP 4x ? The garbage can is getting a little full here... How about a screen with a contrast of 200 : 1 , and a brightness of 150 nits, well, that's what you'll find in a powerbook these days, a 3000 dollar laptop...
If you love apple, or rather, the clever engineer teams covered by the corporate brand Apple who produced some elegant products, that's fine, other than the problem that you love abstract ideas, or inanimate objects. But if you really think that apple has kick@ss hardware when it comes to powerbooks, then you better stay just skin-deep with your powerbook, because thinking outside the box, is dangerous and can get you lots of flame these days.
seans9 said:
I never order online anymore. I always use the phone service person. Why? Because I have a conversation like this:
Salesperson>Would you like the AppleCare Warranty?
Me>I have a year to decide, right? Naw, Maybe not right now.
Salesperson>If you buy it right now, I can offer you a discount of <something substantial usually, like $100-$200 off - that's what happened last time>
Me>OK. Sign me up.
Note: If you let them offer you the discount, they may cut you a break. But if YOU ask for the warranty outright, you'll pay full price, unless the salesperson is being a total sweetheart 🙄 , in which case he/she may offer you the discount anyway. This happened twice last year - when I bought my own laptop, and when I bought one for my mother. (I fixed her Windoze problem for good - she uses AppleCare occasionally since I told her to call them first, not me, I never use it.) I got $100 off AppleCare the first time, and $200 off the second time.
You have no incentive to buy the warranty immediately so it's to their benefit to offer you a discount, as once you've received your purchase and are happy with it, you'll be less likely to buy the warranty unless you have a problem.
Anne Marie
Cless said:
You're telling me to "get over it" before you even know what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about the quality of the screen in terms of brightness, contrast, and color quality. I know a lot of people say that Apple's laptop screens are just as good as PC laptops, but I'm sorry, I don't see it. Especially when you compare what Apple has to the, what are they called, XBRITE screens that Sony has on their laptops - they make Apple's look like a joke. I'd love to see Apple get serious about the quality of the screens on their laptops. (Well, also the iMac as well... the 17" has a horrible viewing angle for starters.)
maya said:
you are absolutly right, but i already know that 256 ram and 60 gb are not enough, even 80 gb are not that much, but still 20gb more. so before i upgrade an ibook, i will stick to the new pb.
but is the wifi thing working that much better on an ibook? if yes, is it possible to get a better wifi in/output at the pb's??
thanks a lot
tymmz
digitalbiker said:
I bought my PB through ADC and they don't discount Apple Care so i am gonna order Apple Care in a few months when i get some rebates back (from other purchases). AppleCare is a necisity on on laptop.
PS
I can't wait till mine comes!!!!! 1 more week. Feels good to be a real mac user now and not just watching from the sidelines.
lawsonrb said:
Question: When you say it blows away your powerbook, what apps can you really tell the difference in? I'm particularly interested in using garageband on a PB and want to know if I'm asking for trouble...
Hey! A Mac that actually comes with enough ram! Nice touch! Of cource 1 gb is better but 256 is a joke, 512 should definalty been the min across the whole line. IMO
Backlit 12" Keyboard?
Strange...the order status page for the 12" Powerbook I ordered today says that my keyboard is backlit.
BkLit Keyboard/Mac OS 065-5393
My old Powerbook order (which I'm in the process of returning *grin*) says:
Keyboard/Mac OS 065-5059
Is this a feature that was glossed over?
Strange...the order status page for the 12" Powerbook I ordered today says that my keyboard is backlit.
BkLit Keyboard/Mac OS 065-5393
My old Powerbook order (which I'm in the process of returning *grin*) says:
Keyboard/Mac OS 065-5059
Is this a feature that was glossed over?
maya said:
Wicked thought. Might be enough for me to scrap the my PM Dual G5 - I'd keep the 23" Cinema though - best of many worlds.
Has anyone thought that perhaps the G5 PowerBook just might not run well with Panther? Maybe they know that it will only perform/benchmark higher with Tiger as OS?
Just wondering.
rosalindavenue said:
Granted i have not used Garage band yet. But i have used ProTools on a G4 tower running OS9. So i think you will be more that fine running GB on a new PB.
Flyinace2000 said:
A hearty welcome to you! You are about to learn what the "joy of computing" is! Hopefully you fall in love like most of us have, and spread the word to those you care about - Mac OS X rules!
Adam