Apple Releases PowerBooks and iBooks

[taylor1725]

HOLA

just ordered my first mac ever...15" optical, 1 512 slot, 5400rpm hard-drive...2 weeks baby!!!!!! i'm rediculously stoked! hope to be getting some help from all you crazy mac people, and hope to become one myself 🙂

 

[kaylee]

i put a 12in ibook on order today 😀 - i might even have it by the end of week (depends on how much stock the store gets from apple).

 

[jay_app]

Welcome to Mac taylor1725. Good choose of laptop.

 

[f-matic]

got the new 12" pbook!

i've been waiting and waiting to upgrade my still-quite-useful-but-increasingly-unstable pismo, and i've had my eye on the 12" powerbook for a while.. so with these updates i finally decided to head down to the soho apple store and pick up the new 12". so far i have to say it's pretty incredible, though i'm sure part of that is in comparison to my old pismo! i got the stock model -- 256mb ram (now i have to save up money to increase that), 64mb video card, etc etc. Overall impressions so far are very positive -- I use it my laptop for live audio and the applications I've loaded so far are a ton more responsive and usable on this 'book.

Only caveats so far:

1) OS X can get pretty sluggish with 256mb ram, but i knew that already -- just need to get the cash together to afford a 512mb sodimm!

2) it gets really really hot really quickly on the left side of the powerbook, but again, nothing i didn't really expect from reading the forum.

3) it doesn't rest flat with the lid open -- there's a tiny tiny gap by the front left foot, so it rocks ever so slightly while typing. i don't really care about this, to be honest -- just put a tiny bit of duct tape on the foot and it works OK.. seems more acceptable to me than trudging back to the apple store and making a big deal out of it.

and for those benchmark-oriented, here's the xbench:

Results: 119.74

System Info
Xbench Version 1.1.3
System Version 10.3.3 (7G33)
Physical RAM 256 MB
Model PowerBook6,4
Processor PowerPC G4 @ 1.33 GHz
L1 Cache 32K (instruction), 32K (data)
L2 Cache 512K @ 1.33 GHz
Bus Frequency 167 MHz
Video Card GeForce FX Go5200
Drive Type TOSHIBA MK6025GAS
CPU Test 162.76
GCD Loop 156.53 6.11 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 164.45 594.70 Mflop/sec
AltiVec Basic 163.36 4.75 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 168.22 2.61 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 161.68 6.47 Mops/sec

Thread Test 117.72
Computation 83.15 1.12 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 201.46 2.53 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads

Memory Test 126.64
System 138.67
Allocate 865.23 564.39 Kalloc/sec
Fill 140.62 1119.37 MB/sec
Copy 74.81 374.06 MB/sec
Stream 116.52
Copy 115.99 847.86 MB/sec [altivec]
Scale 117.47 866.93 MB/sec [altivec]
Add 117.94 754.81 MB/sec [altivec]
Triad 114.75 701.13 MB/sec [altivec]

Quartz Graphics Test 156.46
Line 128.07 3.26 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 126.03 8.87 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 150.30 3.46 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 166.49 1.81 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 281.28 4.58 Kchars/sec

OpenGL Graphics Test 125.65
Spinning Squares 125.65 87.93 frames/sec

User Interface Test 210.41
Elements 210.41 67.68 refresh/sec

regards,
np

 

[rtjstevens]

12" PB a better buy than the iBook?

 

[rtjstevens]

12"Pb better than a12" iBook?

On the UK education web site a new 12" iBook is £755 (an excellent price). However, if I upgrade it to a 60mb HD and AE and Bluetooth (as the PB has), it's now £914. The 12" PB is 'only' £1057 -just a few pounds more and for that you get a DVI and faster processor and bus speeds and a better graphics card! I was going to buy the iBook but am now havinf second thoughts.

Richard

 

[Mokona]

and for those benchmark-oriented, here's the xbench:

Results: 119.74

And what does that mean for us that have no clue about Xbench?

Please let someone get their hands on a 15" and post an Xbench mark-up!!!

(Btw, a toshiba drive? I thought those were used in the iBooks?)

 

[Ozi]

pffft well then DOWNLOAD xbench and learn about it! Don't just whinge... it is the best benchtesting program out there.

My lombard (listed as "Mark Treloar's computer" in the Lombard XBench system) gets only a 26.7, so the new powerbook should be heaps better! 😀

 

[Mokona]

pffft well then DOWNLOAD xbench and learn about it! Don't just whinge... it is the best benchtesting program out there.

My lombard (listed as "Mark Treloar's computer" in the Lombard XBench system) gets only a 26.7, so the new powerbook should be heaps better! 😀

Sorry, didn't mean to whinge... Just don't have a mac...

 

[cb911]

boo...yah. new PowerBooks. oh, and iBooks. 😛

well one things for sure, if you were looking at getting a Apple 'Book, now is the time! 😀

well it's very nice to see 128MB 9700 in the high-end PBs... 😀 i can't wait to see all the threads popping up the the gaming forum.

but the thing that i paid most attention to this update was that they should be the last G4 models.... interesting. 😉 i'll definitely be following the PowerBook G5 rumors now. 😀

 

[Mokona]

boo...yah. new PowerBooks. oh, and iBooks. 😛

well one things for sure, if you were looking at getting a Apple 'Book, now is the time! 😀

well it's very nice to see 128MB 9700 in the high-end PBs... 😀 i can't wait to see all the threads popping up the the gaming forum.

but the thing that i paid most attention to this update was that they should be the last G4 models.... interesting. 😉 i'll definitely be following the PowerBook G5 rumors now. 😀

If I had the cash and wanted a powerbook (which I don't and do) I would get one now and get a 2nd gen G5. Timeline would be about right with lifetime expectancy of a laptop (three years, give or take a couple of months).

 

[freddiecable]

agree with you totally! the 12" pbook is certainly a better deal than before...

On the UK education web site a new 12" iBook is £755 (an excellent price). However, if I upgrade it to a 60mb HD and AE and Bluetooth (as the PB has), it's now £914. The 12" PB is 'only' £1057 -just a few pounds more and for that you get a DVI and faster processor and bus speeds and a better graphics card! I was going to buy the iBook but am now havinf second thoughts.

Richard

 

[freddiecable]

thx 🙂

i saw another guy picking one up from the soho-store...so I'll call them and "book" a pbook 😛

dunno, I live here in NYC and they didn't have any new PB yesterday.Call them on Fridayto see if manager will reserve one for you with a credit card. Weekend sure to be busy. BTW, your friend will need to show photo ID to purchase with a card.

 

[eSnow]

pffft well then DOWNLOAD xbench and learn about it! Don't just whinge... it is the best benchtesting program out there.

I seriously doubt that. xBench gives very strange scores on dual-processor Macs, eg. a Dual 1.25 tower scores 140 while a single 1.33 Powerbook scores 120 (a dual G5 scores around 190). So, it seems to neglect the second CPU a bit too much.

 

[NicoMan]

And what does that mean for us that have no clue about Xbench?

Please let someone get their hands on a 15" and post an Xbench mark-up!!!

(Btw, a toshiba drive? I thought those were used in the iBooks?)

I think my 1GHz 12" PB with 768MB and 80GB HD I think I was getting around 90. If so the improvement is not bad at all.

 

[Abstract]

it totally lacks any distinguishing features IMO. it should have gig enet, FW800 + 2GB RAM max... AND a BL Keyboard... those items don't seem too much to ask... what used to be a very attractive package for me seems positively lackluster in comparison to other PB's

Yeah, the 12" PB was and is still too close to the 12" iBook for the price difference. Well, that's the case in Canada, anyway.

The 12" iBook is very close, if not better, than the previous rev B, 1GHz 12" PowerBook that I own. Is the new 12" iBook going to be extremely similar to the old 12" PB from now on? Is the new 12" iBooks always going to get the previous 12" PB specs handed down, because that would mean that the only difference between the 12" iBook and PB is about 6 months, which doesn't make the 12" PB that much more of a "PRO" machine, if you ask me. The time required for the 14" iBook and 15" PB to become similar by one update will always be much longer. The least they should do with the PB is now solder the 256MB RAM down and allow ALL PB owners the freedom of upgrading both RAM slots. Let iBook owners deal with a single upgradable RAM slot.....it ain't "Pro". A pro user would probably need more than someone buying the consumer model, wouldn't they? At least give PB owners that difference.

 

[jackc]

2) it gets really really hot really quickly on the left side of the powerbook, but again, nothing i didn't really expect from reading the forum. np

Does the 12" run hotter than the 15"?

 

[Bendit]

Does the 12" run hotter than the 15"?

It's probably equally hot but it's not discomforting because the hard drive (which is what gets hot) isn't under the left palm rest on the 15", it's under the trackpad.

 

[Earendil]

Guess all we can do now is wait for the desktops to be upgrded and then we can start talking about the next revisions. 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.

And that is what makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. Everyone bitched at Steve for not rolling big things out at MW04 for the 20th anniversary. And a couple month into the year, people are bitching about product updates. I bother pointing it out everyone once in a while, but Steve said "Look for big things from Apple this year". In other words, I'm not judging this year, or Apple, until this year is out.

They have updated a huge part of the line, new G5 towers WILL be here before the end of summer. I wouldn't be surprised if they release a G5 PB before the end of the year (even if it's late dec, just so they can slip it into 2004), and we are BOUND to see a new machine of some sort, if not 2, from Apple. I can't wait to get to the end of this year, and see what kind of a year Apple makes it.

Now, there are no TV adds, so I would like every hour that you guys spend on these forums, to be equaled by hours spent street evangelizing for Apple 😀

Tyler
Earendil
-who would like to think he could sell his FW15PB in the future and buy a new laptop, but probably won't because it's his first computer.

 

[kbonnel]

Yeaaa, my power adapter and printer have shipped!!!! Still waiting for my PB15" Super Drive to ship 🙁 (but it has only been one day)

Samuel L Bronkowtiz

 

[cxny]

Soho has PBs?

thx 🙂

i saw another guy picking one up from the soho-store...so I'll call them and "book" a pbook 😛

I was in the Soho store yesterday and they didn't have new PBs yet
although someone earlier claims to have got one already. They had the iBooks.

 

[nichijin]

15 Inch PowerBook flaws

Hi.

Updates seem solid enough. Did not expect more at this stage.

Quick question:

The reason I avoided the initial run of 15" PBs was the numerous reports about defects (loose latch, white blotches, wide gap when PB is closed). Have these been fixed in this run?

I am especially concerned about the last one. Though this may not be a "flaw" per se, I hate the fact that there is a large gap between the two "leaves" of the PB when it is shut, the fact that the gap is eneven, and the fact that it rattles.

I tend to use a notebook, well, like a notebook -- an electronic notebook. I carry it around under my arm and keep it in sleep mode (rather than shut down) when not in use... OK I'm rambling, but would someone please answer my query?

Thanks.

 

[10 Goto 10]

Set up gal pals 1.2 Ghz ibook

Very nice. Quite responsive. Then again, I'm still using a first gen titanium book. Did get a bit toasty when I maxed it out, but nothing that would have burned my lap ala Dell. The OS was 10.3.3 G33 (sure about the G, less sure about the 33).

 

[le sacre]

12" RAM upgrade--what kind to buy?

very happy to be replacing my 500 MHz g3 ibook with a 12" 1.33 GHz g4 powerbook! it's been a good 3 years with my little ibook, but time to move on.

i ordered yesterday, and was keen on the idea of trying to get my RAM upgrade delivered at about the same time as the machine itself. but i'm confused about what to order. i want to get a 1 gig stick to bring it up to 1.25. going to owc, it looks like the only (?) 1 gig PC2700 they have available is this one, which is 1.25" high:

1GB Samsung Original PC2700 DDR-SO 333MHz Cas 2.5 200 Pin

the numbers look right to me, but just to be sure, will that fit in the 12" powerbook? it is listed as only compatible with the old 15" and 17", and i wasn't sure whether that was an issue of height or simply because the old 12" only used PC2100?

i've been trying to find documentation, but apple doesn't have new manuals available yet and i'm not quite savvy enough to be confident with my guess. probably by the end of today the memory vendors will have updated their buying guides and my question will be moot. but i want to order this morning 🙂 so i'd appreciate someone giving me a RAM lesson. should i order this? something else? a different brand?

thanks!

 

[cantwait]

Should I get a

1.2 GHZ IBOOK (60 GB, 256 RAM..WILL UPGRADE TO 768, SUPERDRIVE-4X) for $1762

or

REFURBISHED 1.25 GHZ Powerbook (80 GB, 512 MB RAM, SUPERDRIVE-2X)
for $1899