Apple Releases PowerBooks and iBooks

[devman]

monday quarterbacks

It's called knowing that a product will be updated simply based on the product's average refresh cycle. Anyone that ordered a PowerBook or iBook within the past month really have no excuse. People need to pay attention to MacRumors Buyer's Guide.

My point is the machine has not even been delivered yet. If I got it last week - yeah, that's different.

You after the fact experts are only fooling yourselves. Just one month back only for the buyers guide you say... so 5 weeks ago the buyers guide said it was ok did it... Applying your monday quarterback rules, noone should have ordered since about last Nov/Dev (when the macworld update rumors started).

Anyway, my point is the machine hasn't been delivered yet.

 

[Diatribe]

Does anyone know how much watts the old battery in the 12" and the 15" powerbooks had? The new one has 50 now so it'd be interesting to see since Apple claims the same amount of work hours as with the iBook.

 

[MacRAND]

15" PB - Excellent choice

Reasons to pay more for the 15" PowerBook G4:

• Durability- the aluminum is much, much more resistant to dings and hits than the plastic that the iBook's have.
• Portability- the PowerBook is thinner, and very, very sleek. The iBook is too, to a certain extent, but the PB will serve you better for a longer period of time.
• Cool factor - the PB just looks nicer. I have two friends that have G4 iBooks that hate the flimsy keyboard their iBooks have, but love my rock-solid PowerBook keyboard.
• Speed- the PB speaks for itself.
• Airport Extreme- standard on the PowerBook.

Consider getting a 12" PowerBook. As a student, you'll really appreciate the extra portability of the 12", and you won't notice the screen size.

NAH! get the 15" for the Back Lit keyboard if nothing else, and you will notice the smaller screen in the long run.
PCMCIA card interface in PowerBook - these 2 items added to those above are well worth the difference in price.

 

[Hattig]

Huh? Since when has there been a reliably accurate prediction almost a month in advance? We don't get details like that so far in advance. It's called knowing that a product will be updated simply based on the product's average refresh cycle. Anyone that ordered a PowerBook or iBook within the past month really have no excuse. People need to pay attention to MacRumors Buyer's Guide.

The best time to buy a system is when you need it.

So if you bought a 17" PB and got it 20 days ago, at least you needed it. And you might be able to talk Apple into sending you something to make up for the difference in pricing and/or specification (I would be pissed off if something I had bought suddenly dropped 20% in price whilst getting better a few weeks later - this is why more frequent upgrades are better, as the steps are smaller and hence not as harsh).

If you are only getting it for personal enjoyment though, then it is a good idea to keep your eye on the rumour pages, especially if it is 6 or more months since the last release.

 

[fistful]

how come when you upgrade the 15" 1.33mhz pb with a superdrive it comes to $3,399 when it should be $2,929? the base cost is $2,649+ $280 for the superdrive. btw it's the Canadian store.

 

[cgmpowers]

80 gig hd is too small these days...

i love my 17" powerbook but with apple wanting me to use this as my main machine (heh) with that wonderful 22" cinema display that I have... I had hoped my next powerbook would have an internal hard drive larger than 80 gigs..

Chris

the updates are ok, but i have to complain about the ram. as i said before, i was hoping them to put there 512mb. i can live with 256 though and upgrading is luckily possible - yet a bit expensive.

...i didn't pay attention to the fact that all pbs have now min 64mb display cards! that's cool because it was the other thing i was asking for ) jolly good.

 

[BornAgainMac]

Powerbook Rumors

Good, now we don't have to deal with Powerbook rumors for at least a few months. I bet in August the first real rumors will start to come out and that will last until Mac World 2005. I can see another price / tiny feature upgrade in Nov.

Today I was disappointed that both the iBook and Powerbook are the same design from the prior models. But it makes sense to wait until the G5 versions.

 

[steveh]

I had hoped my next powerbook would have an internal hard drive larger than 80 gigs..

You'll have to wait until someone makes a laptop drive bigger than 80GB. Maybe next week.

 

[k2k koos]

design?

Quote:
BornAgainMac
Good, now we don't have to deal with Powerbook rumors for at least a few months. I bet in August the first real rumors will start to come out and that will last until Mac World 2005. I can see another price / tiny feature upgrade in Nov.

Today I was disappointed that both the iBook and Powerbook are the same design from the prior models. But it makes sense to wait until the G5 versions.

So what exactly is wrong with the current design, aren't they beautiful enough?

 

[CrackedButter]

NAH! get the 15" for the Back Lit keyboard if nothing else, and you will notice the smaller screen in the long run.
PCMCIA card interface in PowerBook - these 2 items added to those above are well worth the difference in price.

The backlit keyboard is not *that* great, i had it and i hardly ever used it.

It might be good for sitting on the back of a car or a train journey at night but thats it, the screen itself will light the keyboard enough on its own.

 

[areyouwishing]

I have mixed emotions about the update, but all in all, a good and very necessary one.

Apple has milked their customers for a long time, this update proves that. People are saying 64mb/AE/1.3ghz all for the same price!!!! Well, you just have to look at the competitors and you can see that this is apple finally playing catch up, like they always do.

Apple still has people paying a premium for a super drive in their PowerMacs, an 8x super drive will run a consumer about $100 so why is Apple essentially charging customers $200 for an outdated 4x SuperDrive?

It's sad, makes you wonder if they even care about their customers.

Anyway, my point is that this shows a renewed focus on Portables, even on Apple's hardware page the portables are now listed FIRST. Everyone knows IBM is having problems, which means we WON'T be seeing updates to the G5s for a while. The next update will be the g5 iMac because they can cripple the g5 in it and market it as "consumer" because they don't have the ability to make faster PowerMacs.

 

[takao]

disappointing is an understatement! Atleast in the case of the iBook.

Whats worst they jacked up the price of the low eind iBook. Whats with that, where they selling to many of them? If they had kept the prices stable the update may not have looked that bad, but if all you where interested the low end upgrade sucks.

You end up paying more for very minor tweaks.

Thanks
Dave

perhaps that prices increasement was just a adjustment because here the prices for the 12" stayed the same , and the middle 14" got 50 euro cheaper (don't know about the 1,2ghz model...)

 

[El Duderino]

well this has pushed me over the edge, im satisfied enough with the 250mhz upgrade and the video card capabilities in the SD. i should be ordering one in the next couple of weeks...depending on how soon i can get my dad to fork over the graduation money/present

 

[eSnow]

I would KILL to see what kind of performance the G4 would get with a 300+Mhz system bus.

I am with you. At the same timem, I hope Moto is dragging their feet just a bit more because this will mean no improved G4 with a faster bus, but G5 in the Powerbook.
Whenever Apple adopts some new RAM hungry paradigms like pervasive database use in the OS, the 64 Bit are going to come really handy...

 

[Trimix]

buyers buyers buyers

doesn't it you all a warm and cuddly feeling to see all those people confirming having bought this pb or that i-book ? it is nice after the weeks of ranting in this forum that there seems to be an informed bunch of people who can and will vote with their cheque-books. i like that.

 

[Blackheart]

wow, 360+ posts before 12:00noon

 

[Photorun]

i love my 17" powerbook but with apple wanting me to use this as my main machine (heh) with that wonderful 22" cinema display that I have... I had hoped my next powerbook would have an internal hard drive larger than 80 gigs..

Chris

Ever hear of external Firewire HD? Have at them. 80 GB is okay for many if not most.

 

[MacRAND]

Get your PowerBook or iBook fresh and new while that are good and HOT!

My point is the machine has not even been delivered yet. If I got it last week - yeah, that's different.

You after the fact experts are only fooling yourselves. Just one month back only for the buyers guide you say... so 5 weeks ago the buyers guide said it was ok did it... Applying your monday quarterback rules, no one should have ordered since about last Nov/Dev (when the macworld update rumors started).

Anyway, my point is the machine hasn't been delivered yet.

Your approach is a bit overboard and over broad.
As of March 2004 PowerBooks & iBooks, as well as G5 PowerMacs have been "ripe" for upgraded releases. And, if you'll notice from the postings, "advice on when to buy" has been conditioned upon "if you can afford to wait" a little, do so. If not, JUMP. (Except for a few PC lovin' bitch & moaners who are never satisfied with anything complaining about over-priced 3-year old technology, and constantly in anguish about the Mac vs. PC Race...)
Those that could wait until say ...June or August 2004 need do so no longer...unless they are holding out for a G5 in their laptop... but that could be when Hell freezes over, or when it comes to a vulcanic eruption.
PowerBooks & iBooks are freshly updated and newly released today, if you're in the market, NOW is the time to buy and ENJOY a new Mac.

PowerMacs? The wait continues and should not be long... like a few weeks or even just days away > all duals, 2.0 plus, 8x SuperDrives, great price = good reasons to be patient. Maybe even a bump in Video card.

Apple is struggling over heat sensors and melting motherboards besides the speed increase, so when they are finally satisfied enough to produce a run of 10 or 20 thousand of each speed, that's when we'll see the new releases in the flesh. Lots to look forward to.

 

[wtmcgee]

i'd say it'll be a nice upgrade for such a small monitor. i have the rev B powerbook with a 32mb nVidia card and it runs fine for day to day stuff, and even light gaming (ive played c&c generals, simcity4, and a few other games, and it runs just fine on lower settings).

doubling the memory and a faster bus speed should only make things better.

I'd like to have your opinion on the 12 incher (Powerbook) graphic card.

Thanks

 

[eSnow]

Ever hear of external Firewire HD? Have at them. 80 GB is okay for many if not most.

What's even more important: there are currently no 2.5" HDs larger than 80GB.

 

[raiste]

... meanwhile, my current computer has been barely holding on to its life. Now I can finally rest! ...

I bought the same config you did! Though I have been keeping my old Wallstreet together with tape and paperclips waiting for this update...

 

[Trowaman]

in spite of the joy of all the new iBooks and powerbooks, I found the eMacs to be a more impressive upgrade and yesterday's Pro tools to be amazing (really, all I expected was Shake and a minor FCP update).

. . . Forget buying iLife someday, MOTION ALL THE WAY!!!!

 

[eSnow]

So, after all it seems worldwide Aluminium supplies did not just run out

 

[nacl99]

You'll have to wait until someone makes a laptop drive bigger than 80GB. Maybe next week.

Dell (HELL) offers a 100gb in their laptops.

 

[()verBored]

Oh yeah, just to say,

This is my first MAC as well. I am not really switching though, as the iBook I just ordered will complement my desktop PC (homemade). Hopefully, my beautiful desktop PC will not be jealous of it's new neighbor!!

But I am so excited about my iBook - I'm sitting on my hands until it gets here.

On The Way:

12 inch iBook
60 GB HD
512 MB RAM
AE
BT

Can't wait to play Warcraft 3 (a game I never really played much on my desktop! - glad it has mac and PC installers onboard the same disc!), and finally have something to continue writing on. I am sure I will use it for tons of other stuff - especially when I travel!