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iBook, Powerbook Specs?

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People are getting overly excited about the screen resolution. Higher resolution != higher quality. A 1024x768 from today is much better than a 1024x768 screen from 5 years ago.

An analogy would be in digital photography. Compare the quality of an image coming out of the Canon 1D (4 MP) to a Sony DSC-F828 (8 MP) and it's not even close - the Canon wins. Number of pixels doesn't equate to good-looking or easy viewing.

I run my 21" Viewsonic monitor at 1280x1024. It looks fine! It's not like my whole desktop is pixelated.
:rolleyes:
 
ITR 81 said:
We won't see a 64bit OS until we see G5's across the entire range of Macs.
Which mean it will be around 2006 before that happens.
Click to expand...

Or they could release two different versions of whatever OS they are on. No sense in "waiting for everyone else" if there are already 64-bit computers available.
 
ThinkSecret has updated. They match MacRumor's forecast and add the little detail that the 17" PB will be discounted $200 from its current price.

Also, I see no indication that the store site is down. FWIW.
 
Awimoway said:
ThinkSecret has updated. They match MacRumor's forecast and add the little detail that the 17" PB will be discounted $200 from its current price.

Also, I see no indication that the store site is down. FWIW.
Click to expand...

Good to see TS getting some more data. So slight price drop at the high end. None to suprising given they don't appear to be getting much of an update if AppleInsider's rumor is right...

Now if Apple Australia does a decent exchange rate etc I'll be happy.
 
A bad deal

2 simple reasons why this PB Upgrade is a bad deal:

Speed:
A G4 1.5 GHz is probably more than enough for most of us in 2004 - but the average lifespan of a laptop is 3 years, and therefor a now purchased laptop has to be able to run software that is released in 2005/2006. By then we're talking of OSX 10.5, fully 64bit, and probably lots of programs that need power.
E.g. the average Apple laptop in 2001 (3 years ago) had a G3/G4 of 500MHz. Have you ever tried running Keynote, iPhoto, iMovie or anything similar on such a laptop? Forget it. Even the Finder is slow as these old laptops don't even support Quartz Extreme.

Screen Resolution:
One may not compare the LCD resolution between standalone LCD-displays and laptops: the average distance from the eyes to a laptop-display is 35cm, while a display used with desktop has a distance of 50-60cm. The resolution on laptop-LCDs therefor has to be higher.
Additionally, a major part of Mac-users work in the creative industry (graphics, audio, video,...) and have higher needs than the average MS Office user. E.g. when designing the layout of a website, you need 1024x768 for its normal appearance plus space around it for all the Photoshop palettes. A width of 1280px is the absolute minimum, and everything else than convenient and satisfying.
As the rendering system of OSX (Quartz) is able to scale everything very well, OSX is better than XP for supporting higher screen resolutions. And as 1400x900 on a high quality 15" PC laptop is standard, why not on a Mac as well?

People, now please don't be so stupid and tell me to go out and buy a G5 PowerMac. I cannot hear arguments as "who needs speed on a laptop" anymore. For the following reason: laptops are not any longer a secondary computer for work on the way, but are more and more desktop replacements. Lets call the target customers of Apple PowerBooks creative urban professionals. These are people that work 60 hrs a week, and not only at one single place, but in the own office as well as some at customers place, at home and in hotels. The alternative is to purchase at least 2 PowerMacs (office&home) *plus* a PowerBook for the other work, and then be forced to synchronize all data between these computers (the rumored 'home on ipod' feature).

Apple is not stupid, and they know these facts as well. The G5 PB might not be ready before september, and therefor Apple had to make a modest speed bump for its notebooks. Enough for the people who urgenty need a new laptop and resist to buy one with the specs of september '03, but introduced rather silent, holding off with all the new features of the G5 PB for a major release later this year.
 
ITR 81 said:
We won't see a 64bit OS until we see G5's across the entire range of Macs.
Which mean it will be around 2006 before that happens.
Click to expand...

Even then, they may decide to go down the road of maintaining two installation binaries one 32-bit and one 64-bit. Makes sense right now,but who knows maybe by 2006 there will be some killer new desktop apps around that can benefit greatly from 64-bit OS. Personally,I have no benefit and cannot see one (for tasks i'm using my mac for) from 64-bit OS. 64-extensions for specific computations are nice,but 64-bit OS may be an overkill.
 
psylance said:
Spade was saying the highest res he has seen on a laptop is 1280x1024. That's ancient. For the last three years I've seen 17" and even 15" with 1600x1200. If you want to see some really sexy non-Mac laptops (gasp!-do such things exist?!) check out:

http://www.go-l.com/laptops/index.htm

The 15" New Yorker that model that is about to be released is going to have a maximum 1920x1200 resolution. Ouch.
Click to expand...

yeah, those are pretty damned sexy, cases and features, (producer case=ugly, and there are some insane features, like 2 optical bays and 4 HD spots on the producer, and on the 17 in one stuff like a subwoofer and built in video camra). But, did you look at all the specs? what about stuff you'd use, like the hard drives that COME with it, or airport, bluetooth, optical drives, thickness and weight (and they give weight w/o battery or optical drive), and most of all, PRICE!!! Good lord, if these things ran OS X and PB's ran windows....I might have to go for windows.

But, besides PC bashing, I think it's a great thing about computers, that while apple is the only big computer maker that really innovates and pushes the envelope with techonology, the PC market is so broad that there's always a high end PC with insanely cool tech stuff, and the comptetition is good for apple. I think you can probably get a PC that beats apples in any single way (except OS) be it price, graphics, cool features, light weight on portables, raw speed.... but I don't think there's really anything that gives you competition in everything...there's always something that sucks (in addition to windoze).

Now, if only apple had the market share to bust the software argument...
 
I really hope that they offer a superdrive for the iBooks as BTO. Today even the cheapest PC notebooks come with a DVD burner. Its a must ! For iBooks as well.
For all models !

Cheers
 
aftk2 said:
Heh, and while you're there, you can check out their Producer model, which, among other dubious specs, sports the capability for a supposed 4 internal hard drives. In a laptop.

Liebermann is bunk. At best, they're rebadged, rebranded knockoffs of other products (Sager notebooks, etc...). At worst, their specs and product descriptions are completely fabricated. Their website design style is pretty nice, though...heh, however...I think I may have seen it somewhere before.
Click to expand...

Actually, looking over their store page, I think it might be possible. However, it requires a thick-ass notebook, and you have to spend $5400 to get the P4EE version. Incidentally, it weight 9.4 pounds without the battery or the "bay options."

Oh, and four HDs means no optical drive, period. They mange the optical trick by using a thick, thick case. You might want to take their performance stats with a grain of salt, too, since they not only get the G5 wrong, but also use only a single processor. Oy.

Ouch.

The top of the line system is $7056.
 
I'd say that these updates are pretty good. If this new processor does as was rumored, the battery life should be much higher. Also, we may see bigger or faster hard drives in the 12" PB, as it has moved to 60gig standard. Well i better get some sleep so I can buy tomorrow.
 
alexandero said:
2 simple reasons why this PB Upgrade is a bad deal:

Speed:
A G4 1.5 GHz is probably more than enough for most of us in 2004 - but the average lifespan of a laptop is 3 years, and therefor a now purchased laptop has to be able to run software that is released in 2005/2006. By then we're talking of OSX 10.5, fully 64bit, and probably lots of programs that need power.
E.g. the average Apple laptop in 2001 (3 years ago) had a G3/G4 of 500MHz. Have you ever tried running Keynote, iPhoto, iMovie or anything similar on such a laptop? Forget it. Even the Finder is slow as these old laptops don't even support Quartz Extreme.
Click to expand...

Yeah, this has me worried. I don't NEED the speed now but in a few years and as my desktop replacement I can see my G4PB plummeting in value and usefulness in 2-3 years as most apps and the osx move across the 64 optimisation...


Screen Resolution:
SNIP
Additionally, a major part of Mac-users work in the creative industry (graphics, audio, video,...) and have higher needs than the average MS Office user. E.g. when designing the layout of a website, you need 1024x768 for its normal appearance plus space around it for all the Photoshop palettes. A width of 1280px is the absolute minimum, and everything else than convenient and satisfying.
As the rendering system of OSX (Quartz) is able to scale everything very well, OSX is better than XP for supporting higher screen resolutions. And as 1400x900 on a high quality 15" PC laptop is standard, why not on a Mac as well?
Click to expand...

I now have faint hope that this release will see any improvement in the screens. I hope I am wrong. If as ThinkSecret indicate the 2 high end PBs are dropping in price, then I think its clear that they don't have much more to offer apart from a little speed boost and a slightly better graphics card...

Apple is not stupid, and they know these facts as well. The G5 PB might not be ready before september, and therefor Apple had to make a modest speed bump for its notebooks. Enough for the people who urgenty need a new laptop and resist to buy one with the specs of september '03, but introduced rather silent, holding off with all the new features of the G5 PB for a major release later this year.
Click to expand...


If I KNEW it was September...I think I would wait, especially if I knew a bit more about the other features on the G5PB...

What to do :confused:
 
These updates look fine to me. And as I "predicted", there seems to be no 1.42 Ghz, but only 1.33 and 1.5 Ghz PBs, since the 1.42Ghz processor is not for laptops. Good news!! I shall order the 1.5Ghz 15" PB in a few hours!
Yiipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :D :D :D

Does anyone have an idea if it's worth to update from 64MB to 128MB videoram ??
 
chasingapple said:
Honestly for someone like me I would still be rather happy with a G4 500Mhz book with a 14" screen, but then again I dont do heavy CPU intensive things, just iLife and web stuff.
Click to expand...

If you're a serious iLife user, then I'd recommend as much CPU horsepower as you can get your hands on...iPhoto 4 is still a bit of a performance pig, and GarageBand is directly limited by the amount of CPU cycles available as to how many tracks you can play at once. I'd suggest you'd be quite limited on a 500MHz G4. I haven't used iDVD or iMovie enough to know, but rendering video effects in iMovie would suck up CPU time as well. I don't think iLife really sits in the same category of 'CPU-lite' apps as e-mail, word processing and web browsing...
 
Let me take a quick survery. How many hours do you think it'll be before the updates are up on apple's site?
 
regarding the IBM's...

Apple //e said:
yeah, the best pc laptops are ibms, second to none. check out the t41p. nice, but expensive

btw, isnt ddr on g4s more of a marketing gimmick?
Click to expand...

I got an IBM X31 a couple of months ago (subsidized by our school) with a Centrino 1.4 GHz, wireless Lan (802.11b), bluetooth, 40 GB hd, 256 MB of Ram... Yadayadayada... Anyway, concerning the build quality...

Several of my friends who got into the same deal says their cases are cracking up. I myself have not experienced this problem, instead the screws holding the case together are falling out! This can't be considered "good" in any way. Also, the measly 256 MB of memory that came with it isn't really enough. What I'm trying to get at is that it looks okay (oooh, IBM make great computers) but it doesn't really deliver. Sure, It was only $1200, but c'mon.

My old 15" pbook 667 (that I sold, it was simply too big to carry around) had so much more. Internal combo-drive, a graphics card that is a slap in the face of my IBM, and OS X. The OS is sooo much more important than what you're led to believe when looking at pure HW specs.


Footnote:
The people saying "why would you want a g5 laptop when the os isn't 64-bit?", think again. New G5 optimised software is becoming abundant (think Photoshop, FCPHD and a whole lot more). For people doing professional work on their Apple computers, the G5-optimisation is resulting in speed boosts, whether you like it or not. If a Powerbook would have a G5 it would aid graphics artists and video editing greatly. (of course, in its state of production your pbook could double as a hot plate, but that's a different issue)

Just my 2€. :)
 
Apple's apparent stance

Given
1: That all the Apple sites are now trumpeting their new software.

2: That a front-page banner on an Apple site lasts for several weeks.

3: That an earth-shattering hardware release would demand a complete publicity circus.

4: That the G4 is a little old as a base architecture and so it's legs are long enough and may not be able to be stretched any further.

Then the specifications guessed/quoted seem a reasonable set of figures with a few nice little tweaks that Apple may release quietly and softly one afternoon this week. Very much like the eMac revisions.

Doubtless there are many that have a desire for a portable with the power of the latest desktop machines, but considering the technical, financial and logistical feasibility of introducing a radical new portable now they may have to wait.

But the inside line is that a G6 set-top box is coming next Tuesday. ;)
 
DPazdanISU said:
1GHZ IS NOT ENOUGH. Apple needs to seriously go 64bit powerbooks real soon because this is just not fast enough in my mind. I mean they are great however to convert pc users to mac users is hard when they look at the hardware. I know I know, macs run faster than most pcs even though they have less processor speed however this is not noticeable to pc users. If we want to get a bigger market we need to orient to them- Come on Steve give us a mac that is truly the 25th aniversay mac! :)
Click to expand...


25th?
Isn't this the 20th anniversary of the Mac?
I can't believe nobody noticed :p
 
Offtopic

I think that eMac update last week and now PB/iB update this week also indicate imminent 1.5 ghz iMac update this week.

What do you think?
 
aswitcher said:
If I KNEW it was September...I think I would wait, especially if I knew a bit more about the other features on the G5PB...
Click to expand...

If you look at buyersguide.macrumors, you can see that the shortest cycle was 2 months, the most are 7 months, and the average across all Apple products was 9 months lately.

As todays update is a rather small one (modest speed bumps and price reductions), has come very late (why not in jan/feb? I know: Motorola) and as for the reason that a G4 1.5 MHz is approx as fast as a G5 1.0 GHz, making the best notebooks half as slow as the desktops, Apple will have major difficulties in selling these PBs. People who really need one will buy it, but the offer is not good enough to make people switch or update their 1-2yr old PB.

I guess that Apple was hoping to announce the G5 PB at WWDC, but 2-3 months ago they realized that they have to push back the release date by a couple of months (september 04?), as IBm is having troubles with the 90nm G5 production process and therefor released another modest update for the AluPBs.

In case I'm wrong, then the release date will be MWSF (jan '05), but then Apple will have major troubles with net income in 2004 - the notebooks make up 40% of their total sales, another 40% are (were) desktops (with a not selling iMac these days), and the rest are iPods (having a rather low margin per unit when summing up the r&d plus marketing costs for iPods *and* iTMS).

In other words, its a bad situation for Apple, and the stock price will reflect these problems in Q3 by latest.
 
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