Apple Releases PowerBooks and iBooks

[cornboy]

Apple will happily replace the keyboard on it, just call them and they will mail it, is that really worth getting angry about, others have stuck pixels and wobbles, those are maybe worth it.

Just get a new keyboard

It would be great to hear from all these new buyers about heat and noise issues to see if there is a constant across the board.

I get soem guys that say it almost never gets very hot, that its cooler than a REv A and other say its just as hot!

SOme say that the fan barely ever comes on, and of course there is the Wobble.!

Is it possible to get all the new users to chime in on this.
We can graph it all and see what is happening. Percent wise.

Hot or not?
Quiet or not.
Wobble or not
Pixel dead or not?

Thanks GrokGod, I appreciate that they would do this an dwould expect them to but, you know, this is my 14th Mac of some sort since 1988 (SE30, 170, 1400C, 660AV, 9650 server, original ibook, white G3 ibook, Bondi iMac, Cobalt iMac, iMac AV, 2xG4 towers, 20" iMac) and the only one that I've been genuinely disappointed with. The whole customer service thing, whilst polite, is so begrudging. I even had to weedle out of them an admission that there had been a price drop on these refurbs so I would be due price protection.

I've cut my losses and am returning for a full refund. Going back to my G3 ibook and to think hard before I purchase again from Apple

 

[kbonnel]

I also use the pixel check utility above. It is great.

Kimo

Kimo and others, please tell me how one tests for dead pixels. Obviously big white lacunae will be easy to see, but dead pixels...please educate me.

 

[eazyc10]

I just tried out the pixel utility and it verfied what my eyes saw which is no dead pixels.

Cool utility.

 

[AppleLovingWorm]

1200!!

Crossing 1200 mark!! ...which other forum (or Apple product) has generated so much excitement & posts in such a short time?


Knowing the Mr Jobs is a perfectionist, this talk of one dead pixel does not live to that image. Maybe Apple should borrow something from Sony for 100% quality screens, if not superior screen tech!

Still ....Apple remains Apple. Gorgeous.

 

[Katydid]

Is it positively true...

Crossing 1200 mark!! ...which other forum (or Apple product) has generated so much excitement & posts in such a short time?


Knowing the Mr Jobs is a perfectionist, this talk of one dead pixel does not live to that image. Maybe Apple should borrow something from Sony for 100% quality screens, if not superior screen tech!

Still ....Apple remains Apple. Gorgeous.

.
.
. ..that Sony is 100% (i.e. *no* dead pixels) on their laptop screens? If this is verifiable then I want Apple to know about it!

Katydid

 

[tangenjm@mcmast]

got it

My maxed out 17" PB arrived this morning. I live in Canada and ordered it through the university bookstore. No problems to report! Beautiful machine!!!

 

[aswitcher]

My maxed out 17" PB arrived this morning. I live in Canada and ordered it through the university bookstore. No problems to report! Beautiful machine!!!

So you got your build to order in, what a week? Wow. Australia is obviously getting the short end of the stick, telling us 3 weeks for BTOs...

 

[parrothead]

So you got your build to order in, what a week? Wow. Australia is obviously getting the short end of the stick, telling us 3 weeks for BTOs...

When I was living in Australia I ordered a BTO Powerbook G4 500. I took about 3 weeks at that time as well. I did some checking and I finally found out that the computer was assembled in Taiwan, shipped to L.A. and then finally back to me in Oz. That was one very well traveled computer!

 

[aswitcher]

When I was living in Australia I ordered a BTO Powerbook G4 500. I took about 3 weeks at that time as well. I did some checking and I finally found out that the computer was assembled in Taiwan, shipped to L.A. and then finally back to me in Oz. That was one very well traveled computer!

These are coming dorect from Singapore. I wonder if Apple needs 2-3 weeks to egt enough orders to bulk airfreight them, and that is the delay, or whether the Australian market for BTO has a delay to allow US and other orders to be built and shipped first... or the Singapore operation is small...

 

[Mokona]

What's the model number for the new superdrive in the 15" pBook? Anyone know?

 

[harrijh]

Adding RAM

Can someone tell me how difficult it is to install additional RAM into the 17" PBs...Thanks

 

[Mokona]

Can someone tell me how difficult it is to install additional RAM into the 17" PBs...Thanks

this difficult

 

[cxny]

BTO from CDW - Timeframe?

Ordered a 1.5GHz 15" BTO (128VRAM / 5400 / 1 512 Chip) from CDW on Friday. They were going to install another 512 Viking (free install, if I had intended on installing it myself I would have brought it for less elsewhere), but lo and behold Airborne just showed up with one chip and no PB. Invoice just says "backordered". Anyone gotten/ordered a BTO thru CDW yet? Does Apple have enough PBs for their resellers?

Edit: I was originally quoted 3-6 days but they now are saying May 14th!!
- guess I shoulda ordered through Apple!

 

[tangenjm@mcmast]

So you got your build to order in, what a week? Wow. Australia is obviously getting the short end of the stick, telling us 3 weeks for BTOs...

Ya - that's exactly the ETA they reported to me! I was shocked when they called to tell me to pick it up!

 

[h_harker]

h_harker -- I DO know how you probably feel, 'cause the same thing happened w/my order too. (see my post above, on page 43..) I was pretty steamed until just this morning when an Apple order status phone rep updated me and said my order has just shipped (= only about 12 hours later than original estimated ship date). So there is hope that the channel is moving. How to *feel* about it is a separate thing, however -- so here's what I did:
1) Got steamed
2) Called Apple order status a couple times (w/varying results)
3) Reviewed shipping experiences of other customers on this thread
4) Posted my annoyance on this thread
5) Got acknowledgement on this thread (THANKS mattster 16! )
6) Realized I'd done everything I probably could do, which made it possible for me to suddenly remember all the *other* things I also need to attend to just as urgently as getting ahold of my new P'book...!

Good luck, & I hope this helps ...

Katydid

Thanks Katydid(?) done all of the above now as well. Still annoyed though, and whenever you ring them at apple support, THEY sound annoyed that you are pestering them about the whereabouts of your £2000 machine?! (i guess lots of people are pestering but dont we have a right?) If a £10 cd from cdwow is late, they keep you constantly updated and are always apologising.

The cheek!

I wouldnt mind but they promised shipping on Monday, its just about Wednesday now and its still f-in "OPEN" ...couldnt be a more useless word to describe the process- how about "inactive"? or "backlogged" or "behind schedule" or just plain "late".

An apology on the phone or even a simple email explaining why im waiting would go down well right now...

 

[jc7141]

15" PB bliss!

Received 15"/1.5/128MB vram/5400 rpm/1 gig ram. Screen is perfect, no wobble, quiet, and cool. Thank you Apple.

 

[mattster16]

Well, I just got my new 15" Superdrive PB, 128mb vram, 5400rpm. Typing on it right now. Damn am I impressed. This is my first Mac, and I am already understanding how to do just about anything on it. The hardware is just excellent. I have no flaws in mine that I know of other than one dead pixel. I tried "rubbing it out" as mentioned in previous posts with no success. It's hardly noticable though, I won't whine about it. I love macs now...not more windows unless absolutely necessary.

I wish I could give more technical descriptions for those of you that want them, unfortunately I'm not really that experienced with macs enough to judge them much.

I can't see having any problems with this thing in the future. I just wanted to let everyone know that I got it, and I am a very happy EX-PC User. I've converted!!

 

[kaylee]

Hey aswitcher,

I live in australia. I placed my order for 12in iBook on tuesday 20th (first opportunity, with the release time being really late on monday night here). I picked it up yesterday (tuesday 27th). Admittedly, I did not get anything BTO by Apple - the AE card and RAM were installed by the store i ordered from (nextbyte in brisbane). Nextbyte told me while they were hoping to get most of the units that Apple were sending Australia's way that would arrive Friday, i could wait up to 3 weeks for it to arrive. I only dropped into the store Tuesday (Monday was ANZAC day public holiday) to see if it had arrived, and was fully expecting it not to be there - at first they did tell me it wasn't there yet, but the girl in the store room mentioned some stock had arrived Friday and it might be in there (which, obviously, it was). Anyways, i know you have a PowerBook on order (not an iBook), and its BTO, but maybe you could see it sooner than they are predicting if i was even being told up to 3 week wait for non-BTO.

 

[Katydid]

Additional ideas for surviving a steam-bath

Thanks Katydid(?) done all of the above now as well. Still annoyed though, and whenever you ring them at apple support, THEY sound annoyed that you are pestering them about the whereabouts of your £2000 machine?! (i guess lots of people are pestering but dont we have a right?) If a £10 cd from cdwow is late, they keep you constantly updated and are always apologising.

The cheek!

I wouldnt mind but they promised shipping on Monday, its just about Wednesday now and its still f-in "OPEN" ...couldnt be a more useless word to describe the process- how about "inactive"? or "backlogged" or "behind schedule" or just plain "late".

An apology on the phone or even a simple email explaining why im waiting would go down well right now...

- I agree w/you, a realistic explanation always helps... I got *an* explanation (on the phone) and also an e-mail that simply stated there was an "unexpected supply delay" -- not that this made me feel any better AT ALL, but it gave me some ideas about what to say to the next phone rep I talked with. I was prepared with some actual info gleaned from this thread: namely, that I knew of people who had ordered the same BTO configuration that I had, AFTER I did, and yet had taken delivery before me. That gave the phone rep something to investigate -- and while doing so he discovered my order had shipped.

So -- I guess my suggestion boils down (oops!) to: get some ideas or information to convey to the phone reps -- it doesn't make the room less steamy but it can help get a useful conversation going...

Katydid

 

[jc7141]

15" PB bliss! addendum

The only problem I've had is that the wife can't keep her mitts off my beautiful new toy....had to order 14" ibook for her this am so I can have my baby to myself...will be well worth it though

 

[emilsjr]

My 17" arrives

Received my 17"/128MB vram/5400 rpm today. Screen has no bad pixels, very quiet and very impressed. This is my first powerbook since one of the Wallstreets. Only negative - I had ordered with a single 1 Gig Simm and it arrived with only 512 meg. Apple is shipping the new sim tomorrow. Otherwise, it puts my Dell 8500 to shame.

 

[dgoss]

PB 17"

Ouch. I'm starting to hate that $250 in tax I saved going through MacWarehouse for my 17" BTO PB. Seeing them arrive hurts - I just called them hoping that it would be a few days behind - I was hoping for the end of the week - and my order shows May 13 now! When I ordered it was May 2, I think.

I'm trying to get my rep on the phone to get the big picture, but I think it will stay murky until it gets here...

Ouch -

d.

 

[~Shard~]

Ouch. I'm starting to hate that $250 in tax I saved going through MacWarehouse for my 17" BTO PB. Seeing them arrive hurts - I just called them hoping that it would be a few days behind - I was hoping for the end of the week - and my order shows May 13 now! When I ordered it was May 2, I think.

I'm trying to get my rep on the phone to get the big picture, but I think it will stay murky until it gets here...

Ouch -

d.

Yikes, that's really unfortunate! You try and do the right thing and save yourself some money, and now you have to play the waiting game! Sorry to hear that man, hopefully the date doesn't move anymore on ya!

 

[ebunton]

hmmm exactly how likely is a new Powerbook going to be announced at the WWDC in June?
very likely?
so so?
nope too soon?
i mean, June is like around 2 months away, what is the point of updating a product line 3 months apart?

 

[barb1e]

My 17 PB had wrong ram too!

Got my 17 PB 128 vram on monday. I order 1 gig ram, and it too came with 512 mb ram. Looks like they shipped the 17s with standard ram no matter what you ordered. Otherwise, its a rocket ship!