Apple Releases PowerBooks and iBooks

[Macmaniac]

Horray an update! Its nice to see the graphics cards upgraded! Also they finally let the iBook past 640 RAM, you can now got to 1.25 GB!!
Luckily by the time I got to college they will be making G5 PBs Next year Apple, next Year!

 

[dcollierp]

screen resolution

These are great specs for new portables even though there was no bump in screen resolution. As long as you can have an external monitor/projector at a higher resolution, what does it matter?

 

[CmdrLaForge]

Good news for everyone waiting for the updates. Now I have a question for you all. I want to surprise my son with a new 17" tricked out PB. He needs it for school. How can I, as a parent, take advantage of the educational discount without a student ID card. And I don't want to spoil the surprise and I won't rifle through his wallet for his student ID.

thanks in advance...

---------------------------------
Dell 3.2 (Still waiting for Rev B PM)

Call Apple - they will help you !

 

[Mr Maui]

The way the updates are going i wouldn't mind seeing things done next week, although if they keep updating products they aren't going to have any big things to annoumce at WWDC.

Dual 3GHz G5s are being saved for WWDC. Steve to keep his word.

 

[srobert]

Ok. Now I'll race all of you to the "my-order-has-shipped-mail-finish-line". Last one there does the dishes for a whole month.

 

[SlowX]

and for the love of god, other than having them put the 512 in the one slot, order your RAM from crucial, or get it from a place like MicroCenter that always has sweet RAM deals and rebates, because Apple RAM is the most overpriced component that they consistently sucker people to pay for when it's just as easy, and a ton cheaper, to purchase and upgrade yourself. not saying that you didn't think of that already, just a rant in general

Actually, w/ the education discount the RAM prices are pretty close for a 1GB chip (w/in about $40, less if you include Crucial's shipping). Although I guess you'd get 1,256MB vs. 1GB...

 

[hellocody]

I don't know if this has been posted in this thread already...but the screens in the 12" PowerBook are now proper TFT instead of TFT XGA!!!


AppleMatt

I noticed that about the screens. Maybe they won't be as faded looking anymore.

 

[nesbitt_a]

I'll wait

The speed bumps, and graphics improvement are nice in the new powerbooks. I've loved my 15.2" powerbook since day 1, and would reccommend anyone who is considering one of these new powerbooks to go for it - they are great machines!

However, I think I'll ignore these updates, wait for the Powerbook G5, and look foward to another year or so with my G4.

Personally, I don't think the updates are incentive enough for existing powerbook users to upgrade.

 

[adamfilip]

im impressed with the price reductions

check this out (in canadian prices)

old 17" PB (1.33,80gb, dvdRw, 512) was $4279 CDN
new 17" PB (1.5) is 3699.00

thats a great price drop for a even better laptop!
even the 15" pb drops $300 and is now faster

good job apple

 

[Mr Maui]

The speed bumps, and graphics improvement are nice in the new powerbooks. I've loved my 15.2" powerbook since day 1, and would reccommend anyone who is considering one of these new powerbooks to go for it - they are great machines!

However, I think I'll ignore these updates, wait for the Powerbook G5, and look foward to another year or so with my G4.

Personally, I don't think the updates are incentive enough for existing powerbook users to upgrade.

Unless perhaps you're working on a 667MHz G4 or older, and there are plenty of us out there still. It's all dependent on perspective.

 

[Parikh1234]

Call Apple - they will help you !

You dont need a student ID. I have ordered a 12 and 15 inch before off the apple edu store and I havent had to send them a copy or anything. Before people start bitching, yes I am a student. Im not trying to looch off the edu discount, but you probably could if you wanted to.

 

[Palad1]

Ok. Now I'll race all of you to the "my-order-has-shipped-mail-finish-line". Last one there does the dishes for a whole month.

Let's see who's faster between Apple France & Apple us

BTO 15 powerbook SuperDrive + 128M VRam + 5400RPM HD

Gentlemen,
At your credit cards...

GO!

 

[proglife]

I can vote positive or negative, but where is my "meh" vote option?

 

[gekko513]

However, when I went to order, the Apple store reported 256 kB in the little string describing the iBook (iBook 12"/1GHz/256/30G/Combo) even though the store told me I was ordering one with 512 kB cache.

That's 256MB of RAM not 256KB cache.

 

[()verBored]

YEEEEEE HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just ordered a 12 inch iBook - maxed out (well, except for RAM):

12 iBook - 1 GHz (that's swingin!)
512 MB Ram
60 GB
BT
AXTREME


I had a hard time deciding between the iBook 12 inch and the PowerBook 12 inch, because the PB was only a few hundred more. But considering that the iBook was already pushing the limits of what I wanted to spend on a notebook, I stopped myself before I clicked to continue with the PB!!!

The iBook setup I purchased cost me about 50 bucks more than the same config I had 2 weeks ago with the 800 MHz iBook....BUT, I guess I am fine with that as the processor and mem are so much better!!!!!!

Things I noticed...

Cache has been bumped from 256 L2 to 512 L2! Not sure what this will mean for performance though.

Mem can be supported up to 1.25 GB!!!!

Of course, faster processors...the 1 GHz G4 is def faster than the 800 MHz (20-25%!) - this will be a slick machine, I am so pumped!

Hopefully I won't get stuck into some backorder, or supply shortage

 

[Azoblue]

I bet they'll be coming along in a week or two. Wow with other PC's its boring its like... ok Pentium is @ 4 GHz (not yet but an example)... hmm... pc is gonna cost alot.., but I feel with Apple its like - Wait are they going to upgrade, are they, yes they are yes I'm getting that ALRIGHT!!! because apple is the only seller of apple products mainly.

Decaf, my friend. Decaf. - And hooked on phonics.

Nice updates IMHO. I'm on the fence between being conservative with a 12" combo or a 15"" super. that 128MB Vram upgrade for 70$ is all too tempting.

 

[arimp]

UK prices much chaepar! iBook 12" now £799 instead of £850 and PowerBook 12"£150 cheaper. 17" PB now £2000 instead of £2500+!

And you can get a superdrive (DVD-R/CD-RW) for £40 on the 14" ibooks on the UK site compared $200 on the US site, must be a typo

Me thinks I'll get one before the price changes!

 

[remingtonhill]

Return it!

haven't you been reading any of the rumors, or were you thinking that this was gonna be like last week, and the week before that, and the week before that... where they would psyche us out?

Return it, it's you're last day?

 

[Diatribe]

It's funny but I think it is the 12" iBook that got the worst upgrade. Just a little faster and a better bus speed. That's it. I am just wondering about all those people saying that the 12" iBook is such a great buy now. It always was, I think it has gotten a little worse now that they upped the 12" pb. Or am I missing sth.?

 

[dongmin]

These are ed. prices...

Use mostly logic pro and adobe cs
12" Ibook
256MB DDR266 SDRAM built-in
• 60GB Ultra ATA drive
• Combo drive (DVD/CD-R)
• AirPort Extreme Card
• Bluetooth Module
• Keyboard/Mac OS X - U.S. English
• 12-inch TFT XGA display
• 1GHz PowerPC G4
• ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 w/ 32MB DDR video memory
Subtotal $1,200.00

12" Powerbook
• 256MB DDR333 (256MB built-in)
• 80GB Ultra ATA drive @ 5400rpm
• Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
• AirPort Extreme Card
• Keyboard/Mac OS - U.S. English
• 1.33GHz PowerPC G4
• NVIDIA GeForce FX GO 5200 with 64MB DDR Video Memory
• 12.1-inch TFT Display
Subtotal $1,512.0

Would the drive speed, ram speed, .33hz G4 difference and 64mb video card MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE?

thanx
-mike

the only significant difference is the CPU speed and bus speed. I'd say you get around 30-35% faster performance with the PowerBook which seems worth it to me. Also, the Powerbooks have WAY nicer finish. Go for the PB, if you can afford it.

 

[dbauer]

Just ordered 12" 1GHz iBook with airport and a 60 GB HD!! I've been wanting an iBook for over a year, the faster processor sealed the deal for me. About the new processors - I noticed they were advertised with 512 kB L2 cache, which should give quite a bit of performance over the old 256 kB version. However, when I went to order, the Apple store reported 256 kB in the little string describing the iBook (iBook 12"/1GHz/256/30G/Combo) even though the store told me I was ordering one with 512 kB cache. Hopefully this is a typo with the new iBook specs.
Also, I heard a rumor that the new G4 version supports better power conservation by dynamic frequency switching, hopefully improving battery life. Any confirmation?

The 256 you see in that line is the amount of memory. 256 mb of RAM.

and about the gaming performance from an earlier post, I wouldn't put too much stock in those DirectX 9 gaming benchmarks since DirectX is a Microsoft gaming API and the Mac uses OpenGL as far as I know. Sometimes the difference between the two API's can be very large in terms of FPS and one processor that is fast in DirectX may not be as fast in OpenGL and vice versa.

 

[atari1356]

512 RAM in 17" - 1 chip!

On the 17" PowerBook, the 512MB is in one chip (rather than both slots being filled with 256MB chips like it used to be).

That's starting to make me think this is a better update than I thought... (although the 15" still has both slots filled).

At the education price I can get the 17" configured like this:

• 1.5GHz PowerPC G4 with 128MB Graphics Memory
• 512MB DDR333 SDRAM - 1 SO-DIMM
• 80GB Ultra ATA drive @ 5400rpm
• SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
• AirPort Extreme Card
• Backlit Keyboard/Mac OS - U.S. English
• 17-inch TFT Display

Subtotal $2,589.00

That's a NICE savings over the older 17".

 

[nesbitt_a]

Unless perhaps you're working on a 667MHz G4 or older, and there are plenty of us out there still. It's all dependent on perspective.

Definetly.

BTW - does anyone know where I can get my hands on that San Francisco wallpaper used on the updated powerbook website? hehe

 

[gekko513]

It's funny but I think it is the 12" iBook that got the worst upgrade. Just a little faster and a better bus speed. That's it. I am just wondering about all those people saying that the 12" iBook is such a great buy now. It always was, I think it has gotten a little worse now that they upped the 12" pb. Or am I missing sth.?

You have a point, but the 12" PowerBook was probably the least great buy before this update. Now it's more even, methinks.

 

[eSnow]

I don't know if this has been posted in this thread already...but the screens in the 12" PowerBook are now proper TFT instead of TFT XGA!!!

Argh, stop confusing the less tech savvy or else we here will have to listen to a lot of nonsense being regurgitated in the next weeks