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G4 PowerBooks Next

Give me a break

The folks who are saying the PowerBook line NEEDS to be upgraded to G5, or we're doooooomed...

GET A CLUE!

G4s are totally competitive portable chips, get with it. Apple is not pressed to haphazardly chuck G5s into laptops, they can afford to wait and do it right. G4s will keep improving, a little.

Some of the prices on PowerBooks are the best deals Apple has ever had. You need a G4 iBook? GET A 12" PB AND SHUT UP ALREADY -- THEY ARE A GOOD FREAKING DEAL. Especially since the BIG price break, sheesh!

Trolls, I banish thee to the innermost depths of the pits of heck! As they say in Russia, k-chyortu na sankach! BEGONE!
 
G4 iBook?

"G4s are in every other part of our product line."

Does this mean G4 iBooks soon? He knows about them and forgot that they hadn't been released, maybe? Just my random musings...
 
Originally posted by iGeek
"G4s are in every other part of our product line."

Does this mean G4 iBooks soon? He knows about them and forgot that they hadn't been released, maybe? Just my random musings...
Click to expand...
Probably not. The iBooks are generally rumored to go to a G3-derivative chip being produced by IBM. The "GOBI".

From there it gets even more complicated. There are other rumors of a GOBI Chip with an added AltiVec unit, "Mojave".

The bottom line is that the G4 isn't expected to head into the iBook.
 
Originally posted by HasanDaddy
What are the chances of a Dual 17" PowerBook (G4 or 970) ???
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None whatsoever.

Currently it just can't be done.
Dual processors take up too much room, produce too much heat, and require too much power (unless you're okay with a two and a half hour battery life) to even be considered for a Powerbook right now.
 
As a soon to be switcher, i'm disappointed with this news. I too have been waiting a few months, hoping for a G5 based 15in PB. If this ends up being a merely a speed bump, i'm just going to buy a TiBook and wait. However, if they are using the newer Motorola G4's, there might be a gain in battery life, which would be a good thing, keeping Apple close to the Intel Centrino's until they can unleash the G5. I for one, wouldn't mind extra battery life since 1GHz is fast enough for me. (writing this on a Dell Inspiron 700Mhz, fast enough for me)
 
aren't the nine fans

more do do things more effeciently and quietly and not because of the heat?? i thought the 970 ran cooler than the moto chip.

i have an imac and a g3 lapttop that i still can do everything i need. as much as i like the new tower my powerbook needs updated more. i'm holding out for a 17" G5 with a 2ghz chip.

i was actually more excited about aall the osx.3 upgrades than i was about the desktop. i bought a isight but can only use it on my imac.

i'm patient and can wait a year for a new PB but it won't be easy.
 
I think that by that entire "G4s are in every other part of our product line." thing may have meant that they had a laptop (powerbook), all-in-one computer (emac & imac), and a workstation/desktop/big computer (powermac g4) that all used g4s.

I was really hoping for a g5 notebook, but I also doubted it would happen. It doesn't really matter for me though, I wouldn't have been able to afford one, and would have probably spent a good deal of time wishing I had one. I guess my grand switch will just have to wait.

And as for people who argue that the g4 is good enough for a portable, it really isn't. I can get a laptop with a 3ghz intel processor (it would be about 9 lbs, 16" screen with about 2 hours of battery life ... not bad), and apple really doesn't have anything to compete with this. Anyways, I hate using my desktop because I'm confined to the desk form-factor, and I don't enjoy my laptop as much as I could because it isn't powerfull enough.

I think that "year of the laptop" thing may have been said without much basis, but they might take that idea up next year (based on the response it got), and make it the true year of the laptop by introducing g5 laptops in january/february.

I also read something about moto having 3ghz g4s, apple may start using those in laptops and beat intel at its own game, after all, a "3ghz g4" sounds _much_ better than "1.8ghz pentium-m"

And the dreamer inside of me thinks that dual processors is possible, especially with a 17" powerbook, and if they make it 1.2" thick like they did with the 12" powerbook.

mmm... my first post, had to make it extra long :)
 
Re: MacB was only half right...

Originally posted by ktlx
I went back and read what MacB predicted. Contrary to what some have said, MacB only got about half of what they predicted correct.
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Oh PLEEEEEEZE! That is absolutley 'infra dig mate.' Get a grip! neither you ( since I searched your postings for your predictions) nor anyone else came vaguely as close. And MacBidouille, if not totally correct came closer and more accurately than any one else to the final result. Save them, there were NO predictions of this accuracy. If you want 100% accuracy, you're not gonna get it! but for cryin' out loud give credit where it is due- and be magnanimous in your singularly non-contibutary state. After all, how were your predicitions?? and if there weren't any- and there weren't- this nitpicking is most unreasonable.
Congrats, MacBidouille and a rapid "up yours" to your detractors!!! And, let's hope they do this well next time... 'cause no one else came within a 'coo-ee' of their predicitions. For within reason, they nailed it!!!
 
G5 too hot for now?

Originally posted by greenstork
It seems like there is a great deal more engineering for a laptop simply due to space and heat considerations but I am still bummed.
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Judging from the pictures of the G5 PowerMacs insides it seems like Motorola is currently better than IBM at keeping mobile CPU temperatures to reasonable levels. It seems that for now, every G5 processor needs its own fan for cooling.

Having said that, dedicated fans may be exceptional system design on Apple's part. Perhaps in the future fans in the computer would be controlled & powered via USB or FireWire.

Anyway, G4 PowerBook upgrades to faster G4s would be welcomed by most people. More speed never hurts those sales.
 
I was in the camp of those hoping for a G5 PB but not thinking they would really come out at WWDC.

We don't have enough public, factual information to really judge if it is possible to put a G5 in a PB or not.

The little tidbits (20W @1.2GHz for example) are far too meager make a judgement on.

I think that much of the excitement about a possible G5 PB coming out yesterday was based on pent up need and pent up demand. It is part of the popular imagination that this would be the coolest thing on the planet. It would be soooo wonderful to have a 15 inch portable with all the ports and features of the Al PBs and with speed two times faster than my G4 tower.

Finally, there is the conundrum of the missing 15 inch PB update. The 15 inch Ti hasn't changed in nearly 8 months. We are coming up on one year without a change. That also feeds people's expectation that some kind of new PB will come soon.

Without considering the accuracy of any of the rumor sites, the only really hard information we have is the article in the Taiwanese trades newspaper stating that some company (Compal?) had the contract to manufacture a 15.4" PB for Apple and that they would ship in the second half of the year. Currently the screen size is 15.2" so this implies that some sort of new 15" PB will be available in the next six months and more likely in the next three months. No clue what the CPU will be.

I am with the others who were disappointed that no new PB was announced. I am funded and decided and just waiting for the product to ship.
 
Re: Re: G5 upgrade

Originally posted by Sun Baked
Think PRANK :D

Though I'd love to get a G5 upgrade for my SE/30 for cheap.
Click to expand...

I was able to get 128mb of ram to work in my SE-30, that was kind of cool...
but really i want a G5 for my WALLSTREET!
 
Just out of curiosity, what would be so bad about having a few more fans on a laptop? Is it space issues? If the G5 tower has less than half the noise of the G4 tower, then couldn't they just put appropriate fans in a laptop and have a slightly noisier laptop? I apologize if this is a ridiculous question, I'm not that familiar with hardware engineering.
 
It makes much more sense to decentralize fans and therefore optimize cooling issues beforehand than having one atomic powered uberfan to destroy your whole household either by wind speed, killing sounds or water floods (thinking of water cooling in that perspective).

The case design of the new G5 is meant to last some time, that´s one major reason for the very conservative approach in terms of heat managment. Actually the G5/IBM 970 consumes less energy then the latest (and overclocked to get there, remember) 1.42Ghz Motorola chips.

And remember: The 1.2Ghz G5/IBM 970 variant consumes 3Watt less than the Motoroloa G4 1Ghz found in the PB17. So where are the heat issues here?

All the price cuts on the mobile machines seriously indicate that there is something going on. Remember the talks about task sensitive energy managment mainboards with hypertransport?

We might see a revamp including all of them, and with no more Motorola. It just doesn´t make sense anymore to stick with them.
 
PPC970 DeskNote Alternative

Originally posted by gbojim
From what I've been told - the problem with using the 970 in a notebook is not heat. The issue is the 970 does not have the same low power modes as the Motorola G4 that allow the chip to run in various energy saving states.

As a result, battery life would be horrible with a 970 in a notebook.
Click to expand...

So why not "Think Different" and bring out a "DeskNote" 970 machine? When is the last time MOST people who own notebooks actually used them without being plugged in?

Frankly, I love portability but I rarely need to be that far away from an AC outlet. Without battery concerns, the weight would go down, heat would be lower, and power concerns could obviously be minimized.

For those times away from AC, you could even provide an optional powerful EXTERNAL cabled battery source. An external battery would not be restricted by the size/shape necessary for inclusion in the DeskNote chassis and could therefore be both more efficient and less costly. You might even make an external mouse, trackball, or keyboard unit do double duty as a temporary rechargeable battery source.
 
Re: Re: MacB was only half right...

Originally posted by rjwill246
Oh PLEEEEEEZE! That is absolutley 'infra dig mate.' Get a grip! neither you ( since I searched your postings for your predictions) nor anyone else came vaguely as close. And MacBidouille, if not totally correct came closer and more accurately than any one else to the final result.
Click to expand...

I never said I posted the prediction. I don't know how to start threads and once MacB posted them, there wasn't much point in making a "me too" post. That would have been pretty silly.

My point wasn't that MacB was all wrong, they were not. My point was that the original poster said that they were spot-on which is not correct. They got about half of what they predicted right.

If you don't believe me, look at the front page. Even Arn says that MacB was "consistently in-consistent".

MacB got the WWDC announcement and preview right but after that the only thing they got right was four motherboard features, three of which were pretty obvious (DDR 400, USB 2.0 and AGP 8x).
 
Originally posted by vancenase
i'm in the same boat as you Dharvabinky .. but i have to pay for mine! the advantage for me going with a PB vs. wintel is that X11 is 'directly' available for me (vs. restarting into a flavor of linux under wintel).
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Not wanting to discourage you, but I've always used Hummingbird's Exceed as an xserver under Windows (works the same way that the Mac OS X one does, runs as a process and can use the standard Windows windowmanager/desktop for display). It works really well, and is pretty darn responsive. So if that's the only advantage you need, well, its available on the other side of the fence too.

I am getting a little tired of people who haven't tried the new intels talking smack about them as well. The centrino lines are quite amazing -- fast, quiet, with ultra-low power draw. A little pricey, sure, but no more than a comparable Mac (and getting on for twice the speed (really)). I'd be content with a 1.3ghz G4 in the 12" PB (say the 7457), the 867mhz one is a little frustrating at times, but its beginning to look like our next laptop will be a Sony. Bleah.

-Richard
 
Re: Re: MacB was only half right...

Originally posted by rjwill246
After all, how were your predicitions?? and if there weren't any- and there weren't- this nitpicking is most unreasonable.
Congrats, MacBidouille and a rapid "up yours" to your detractors!!! And, let's hope they do this well next time... 'cause no one else came within a 'coo-ee' of their predicitions. For within reason, they nailed it!!!
Click to expand...

um, MacBidouille is a rumor site. they're supposed to crank out rumors. they're in the business of rumors. i'm not, and neither is most everyone else on this site--we merely read them.

going with your logic of "well you didn't do any better" suggests that when someone complains that g5's should ship next week instead of next month, we should collectively tell them "well why don't you build a g5 and ship it next week", and we can clearly see how far that will get us...if this were the case in everyday life, there would be far fewer film critics and restaurant reviews, and Consumer Reports probably would have gone bust by now trying to build refrigerators and flash lights.
 
i think we are looking at a future release of gobi ibooks, and a G5 laptop _after_ the chip gets all the kinks worked out. look for at least 6 months to blow by before that happens. likely 9-12. by then we have panther to load on them, and people used to IBM cranking out good quality chips for apple. in the mean time, apple sells a lot more 17" books than other wise, since there is no L3 in the 12 and no update in 15"

simple marketing if you can do the hardware.......
 
well

The way I see it at this point is that if Apples next upgrade on the 15"pb is not worthy i will buy it just to have a laptop, and then trade it in when they release the g5 pb, yah it'll cost a little more that way though.

I'm also holding out that Apple will surprise us releasing something tasty SOONER (3-6mo) or at least making a minor update to the 15" now (al, ae, bt, etc...) and release something tasty in 6-12mo. Though we'll see.
 
ThinkSecret's new article today says that "The G5 also does processor cycling, and can spin each processor down to 1300 MHz." Certainly this can make a PowerBook G5 possible right now - maybe a 1.4GHz G5 with processor cycling down to 1GHz?
 
Originally posted by giffut
And remember: The 1.2Ghz G5/IBM 970 variant consumes 3Watt less than the Motoroloa G4 1Ghz found in the PB17. So where are the heat issues here?
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People new to the forum, please do a search. This subject has been discussed to death. The G4 does not consume more power than the 970. Period. End of story.

The 970 will make its way into a PB as soon as IBM can get it to a .09 micron process and ship in volume. It's as simple as that. So re-read all those rumors about the next revision of the 970. I believe that MacBidouille correctly predicted that the 970 would not make it into the PB until it goes to .09, sometime in the first half of next year

Originally posted by pyrotoaster
Dual processors take up too much room, produce too much heat, and require too much power (unless you're okay with a two and a half hour battery life) to even be considered for a Powerbook right now.
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actually with the 7457 which consume 7.5W at 1 ghz, it might be possible to put in a dual 1 ghz 7457 into the 17". Then again, it would probably require a substantial redesign of the mobo, which is highly unlikely at this stage.
 
G4 Powerbooks Next

elo writes:
4. Apple would never make a move this major without a complete redesign of the external case. The G5 PowerBooks won't look like the G4 PowerBooks. (Expect grating!)
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I certainly hope a G5 Powerbook wouldn't have much grating! Can you imagine the amount of dust and dirt that would get in a laptop with grating that got toted around. It would be a nightmare for the internal parts.

Bad idea!
 
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