Full iBook Specs

[Frobozz]

iBook is entry level

Some people may be dissapointed by the specs on the iBook, but the price is right and these ARE entry level machines. No, you can't get a faster PC laptop for that money. Additionally, the iBook won't be using the G4 for a long time. The iBook really doesn't need much more. You could put a 3 GHz G3 in it and it wouldn't be much faster with it's current bus speed, hard drive speed, and memory architecture. The reason being that entry level models usually give you last year's speed on the desktop in the laptop configuration.

I'm happy with these config's. I know a lot of people with iBooks and not a one of them complains about speed at that price. Now, If they had shelled out for a Titanium and felt slow, I could see their complaint-- because they would be paying over 2x as much.

I think people worry about the RAW CPU speed too much. Honestly, I have a 2 x 1 GHz Quicksilver and I spend much more time waiting for my Hard Drive than the CPU's.... rarely do I see them pegged. I think Apple is moving in the right direction, and the iBook speed bump is a step in the right direction for entry level people.

 

[avus]

Consider this spec for a Notebook that is on sale right now:

¥ 800 MHz processor
¥ 12.1 TFT display
¥ CD-ROM
¥ 30 GB Drive
¥ 128 MB memory

All for $1799

What a ripoff, you might say. Well, the laptop is Dell Latitude X200. Sure, the X200 is lighter and slimmer than the iBook and you can buy their other doorstop notebook for $899 (with a 1.5 GHz Celeron...). But is the X200 worth $800 more than the iBook? No.

I do agree that IBM's Sahara G3 is prefect for a consumer laptop such as the iBook. I am tempted to order a base iBook with a DVD-ROM drive ($50 more as custom build option at Apple Store) for $1049.

 

[Cappy]

Originally posted by avus
Consider this spec for a Notebook that is on sale right now:

¥ 800 MHz processor
¥ 12.1 TFT display
¥ CD-ROM
¥ 30 GB Drive
¥ 128 MB memory

All for $1799

What a ripoff, you might say. Well, the laptop is Dell Latitude X200. Sure, the X200 is lighter and slimmer than the iBook and you can buy their other doorstop notebook for $899 (with a 1.5 GHz Celeron...). But is the X200 worth $800 more than the iBook? No.

Whoah! That laptop is not even close to being intended for the market that the ibook covers. Look through the rest of the laptops that Dell sells and configure them, then look at the price and functionality. This $200 price drop helps but there needs to be some changes made to make it even more appealing. I don't need tons of cpu horsepower myself but a higher cap on ram would be nice to have. 640MB max is insane for a laptop being sold today. Having the option for an 802.11a card would be nice. Haven't seen any 3rd parties with this yet. One of the benefits of the PC market is having options. That's something Apple doesn't truly offer to specific markets very well.

Don't get me wrong. I like Macs alot but you have to keep things in perspective. They have their strengths but they also have a number of weaknesses that shouldn't be to remain competitive.

 

[yzedf]

new specs and such

WTF is Apple thinking? $999.00 is great, if it is a usable machine. CD-Rom only? That is lame.

As for everyone whining about the 13" screen size, I am sure that Apple realizes that there is no point to it, if it does not include an increase in screen resolution. The 12" is the best looking LCD I have ever seen. Why ruin it with a 13" that would still be at 1024 x 768? Why else do you think the 12" is more popular, not accounting for price? "The 12" just looks better" is what most people say.

As for the TiBook, god, please, make the damn keyboard bigger! Include a 'Page Up' and 'Page Down' button. That narrow keyboard on the wide-screen frame looks cheap. A $3000+ machine should be better. Get rid of the nast 2-tone paint job, it just makes the plastic bit look nasty, not to mention the flaking issues. And while they are at it, re-design the latch for the iBook. $600 to do a swap fix is insane (out of warranty cost).

People will pay the money if the product is exceptional. And I mean in every sense, not just visual.

 

[dabirdwell]

Strategy...

Just watching trends...

Do you think Apple may be putting forth this update to have something new on the shelves for Christmas and give OS9 people one last chance to buy a new machine? Could they be selling off all the 12 and 14 inch enclosures before January when they go to a 13 inch all OSX model. Maybe with consolidation of manufacturing they can keep the 13" at the same price points as the currently anticipated price changes.

Maybe some components are lagging and they need until Jan., maybe it's just smart marketing to get rid of the old school iBooks before they can't be sold because of the new model.

With Arn's news that Ti's may not be updated until January, is this possible?


Conjecture, conjecture....

 

[allpar]

G3

We have an original G3 - 333 and I must say it's certainly fast enough for Web surfing, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and the usual round of suspects. 'Course it's on 9.2 and not OS X. But it should NOT be on OS X ... not with a G3. That little G3 is a fine ol' chip and does what it's supposed to do quite nicely. I've had PC laptops running at three times the clock speed that didn't do nearly as well!

 

[Somebody]

Do you think Apple may be putting forth this update to have something new on the shelves for Christmas and give OS9 people one last chance to buy a new machine?

Yes on the 'something new for Christmas'. No on the 'give OS9 people one last chance'. Apple seems to want users to move to OS/X as quickly as possible. Otherwise they wouldn't be deliberately breaking OS9 compatability next year; They'd just call it 'unsupported' and no longer ship machines with it.

 

[isaacnewton]

expected release?

when can people expect to see these (ibook) releases? i just had mine stolen and am looking to buy a new one soon.

thank you,
isaac

 

[Pants]

Re: new specs and such

Originally posted by yzedf
WTF is Apple thinking? $999.00 is great, if it is a usable machine. CD-Rom only? That is lame.

As for everyone whining about the 13" screen size, I am sure that Apple realizes that there is no point to it, if it does not include an increase in screen resolution. The 12" is the best looking LCD I have ever seen. Why ruin it with a 13" that would still be at 1024 x 768? Why else do you think the 12" is more popular, not accounting for price? "The 12" just looks better" is what most people say.

As for the TiBook, god, please, make the damn keyboard bigger! Include a 'Page Up' and 'Page Down' button. That narrow keyboard on the wide-screen frame looks cheap. A $3000+ machine should be better. Get rid of the nast 2-tone paint job, it just makes the plastic bit look nasty, not to mention the flaking issues. And while they are at it, re-design the latch for the iBook. $600 to do a swap fix is insane (out of warranty cost).

People will pay the money if the product is exceptional. And I mean in every sense, not just visual.

yep - and while they are at it - PUT THE FRIGGIN' usb port on THE RIGHT of teh ibook so that an apple mouse is actually usuable by the majority of teh world! apples attention to ergonomics is usually excellent, but the usb port on the left means the cable has to go around the back, cross the power jack and make apple mouse (nicked off my imac) cable unusably short!



(p.s.- big up to the chap that pointed out that gcc now supports altivec a few weeks back cant seem to get it to improve things much , but it does do *something* ! I suspect its lack of perormance boost is a 'me' issue...)

 

[arn]

Re: expected release?

Originally posted by isaacnewton
when can people expect to see these (ibook) releases? i just had mine stolen and am looking to buy a new one soon.

thank you,
isaac

Tuesday/Wednesday... so soon.

arn

 

[reyesmac]

The $999 iBook just shows what a rip off the previous models were. The only thing that is different from the previous $1,499 model is that the $999 model only has a CD drive (pathetic in todays market) and not a combo drive. Other than that, the new $999 model is exactly the same as last weeks $1,499 model. And seeing as how you can overclock the CPU on those models, it looks to me that the insides of these things are the same on all models! The only thing that changes is the amount of ram (always not enough) and the CD drive.

Since the 14' model does not give you one more pixel than the 12' model gives you, the only thing that makes it different than the cheaper ones is that the memory is 128megs more and that it is less portable than the other ones. So now the high end iBook still looks overpriced. Maybe if it had a faster CPU it would be worth buying but it does not even have that.

Am I expecting too much out of Apple? Yes I am, because if they were competative on the iBooks and iMacs, they would end up being more feature rich and faster than the current Powerbooks and Powermacs due to all the stuff $1,000-$1,999 PC's have (PC laptops have faster buses and have most of the connections that Powerbooks have). And maybe thats the problem. Should I bother complaining or should I just be happy I can afford a Mac? Should I not worry that the Mhz speed does not go up more than 100Mhz a year? Apparently they are listening to complaints about price and are doing something about it, so I guess I will just write more letters to Apple.

 

[Mad Baggins]

Originally posted by avus
Well, the laptop is Dell Latitude X200. Sure, the X200 is lighter and slimmer than the iBook and you can buy their other doorstop notebook for $899 (with a 1.5 GHz Celeron...). But is the X200 worth $800 more than the iBook? No.

The nicest thing about the x86 world is having more choices. That X200 may not be worth it to you, but Dell sells zillions of other laptops. And if there's somebody out there who does need a 2.8 pound 0.8" thick laptop (probably with bad graphics and battery), now we all know it's at Dell.

The minor problem at Apple is that there aren't too many configs to choose from, and no "clone" makers. A lot of folks here want a 13.3" iBook for instance (or full-size arrow and PageUp/Down keys in my case), but we're pretty much at Apple's mercy here.

 

[Over Achiever]

Originally posted by Mad Baggins
The nicest thing about the x86 world is having more choices. That X200 may not be worth it to you, but Dell sells zillions of other laptops. And if there's somebody out there who does need a 2.8 pound 0.8" thick laptop (probably with bad graphics and battery), now we all know it's at Dell.

FYI, the same manufacture that makes the Dell x200 makes the similar Gateway 200. And the Sony Vaio and Sharp Mebius has similar 12.1", under 1", 3 lbs "design" too, but only the sharp mebius is two spindled, i.e. has a combo drive included

 

[iShater]

Originally posted by wenwess
Apple dropped the base ibook price for education to $899 last week.

Where do you see that? the online Edu store doesn't have it. Is it in your school's store?

 

[Tue12]

I'll reserve final judgment until the update is released, but...

... it will be disappointing if Apple sticks with a CD-ROM in the low end model. Would it kill them to offer a CD-RW as an upgrade option for $50 or something.

 

[pgwalsh]

I'm all good with the udates. I would like to see all apple models at 1Ghz, but that's within time. IBM has had a 1Ghz G3 for a while and that would be great to see now.

I will more than likely buy one of these, but I'm concerned with the functionality when using OSX, PhotoShop, Illustrator, and GoLIve. etc. Illustrator is a slug on 9.2.2. Don't know how much I'll use PS or AI on it because I prefer the desktop and high res monitor. For travelling I may need to so I'm a bit concerned.

I've heard it both ways for the G3 good performance/bad performance. How will OS X truely perform on these machines?

 

[joshbuddy]

just phoned apple store ...

i just phoned one of the apple stores in NY ... told the guy i was driving down from canada, had an ibook on order from apple but they kept delaying and delaying ... asked him if he had any ibooks in stock. he said yes .. i asked him.. is there a new release this week... obviously he couldn't tell me. but i asked.. well.. its a long drive, should i come now and get it? he told me to wait a couple of days.

hopefully this is a good thing...

 

[ryan]

Re: just phoned apple store ...

Originally posted by joshbuddy
i just phoned one of the apple stores in NY ... told the guy i was driving down from canada, had an ibook on order from apple but they kept delaying and delaying ... asked him if he had any ibooks in stock. he said yes .. i asked him.. is there a new release this week... obviously he couldn't tell me. but i asked.. well.. its a long drive, should i come now and get it? he told me to wait a couple of days.

hopefully this is a good thing...

People at the Apple stores do not have any advance knowledge of unreleased Apple products beyond what they read on websites like this one.

 

[ryan]

To all the whiners out there...

(and with apolgies to toupsie )
BMW. What's up with those snotty Germans? I really want one of their M-Series cars in the form factor of a VW Bug with a 1000 CD-Disc Changer & MP3 Player w/ OGG support (Fraunhofer can stick it! Snotty Germans!), corinthian leather and all the rest of that German goodness (Can you say that?). I've got my own tires from my old car but those arrogant sausage eaters won't sell me a Beemer without tires. Why can't I get one of those!? Why do I have to pay the tire tax?

BMW is never going to have a large market share if they don't let customers buy the cars the way they want. They will just be a niche car company selling expensive cars to really arrogant, snotty people that think they are superior to everyone else. Plus I hear their owner likes to wear black all the time.

 

[job]

I'm kinda miffed that they only included 128MB Ram in the mid-range model.

Other than that, the new revision is great.

 

[medea]

Is it just me or should Apple stop selling macs without at least a cdburner, with the death of the floppy how are people supposed to backup or save information? Buy an external drive is how, in which case that $999 price tag isnt so great anymore. If it had at least a DVD drive then I guess that would be fine, but it doesn't. Having a laptop for under a grand is a big move for Apple, but unlike the eMac I doubt that people are going to be prasing this as a great bargain......

 

[psymac]

Full Specs? How about video ram, still 16 or now 32mb? Also, max ram the same or increased? OS 9 boot still OK?

Some of us just can't wait until Wednesday.....

 

[3777]

No G4, no GHZ for iBook, nice to see my old iMac DV is still almost "State of the art" in Apple Hardware........ another reason I'm glad I "switched" back to PC for my primary systems...... maybe in 10 years Apple will have some hardware worth the investment over my iMac.....

 

[shadowfax]

good call

 

[TeraRWM]

No G4, no GHZ for iBook, nice to see my old iMac DV is still almost "State of the art" in Apple Hardware........ another reason I'm glad I "switched" back to PC for my primary systems...... maybe in 10 years Apple will have some hardware worth the investment over my iMac.....

Yeah, and MicroSoft writes a good, secure operating system to make justifing the "switch" worth it.

Face it, right now x86 has better hardware and Apple has better software. When it comes down to it what do you want? Speed or something years ahead of the other guys?

Remember we have "the power to crush the other kids" and I'm not talking speed, I'm talking about perfection. don't expect Microsoft to do that with Pallidum or whatever they're calling it.