Intel iBook at MWSF (January) 2006?

[jayscheuerle]

Because they suck at coding? 😕

I don't know, forget what I said then 😛

lol..

I'd say it's because they suck at coding when it's not going to bring them a profit with upgrade fees.

Adobe isn't going to release a native Intel/Mac version of their Creative suite for nothing. People can look forward to paying the full upgrade price when CS3 or CS4 rolls around (let's hope it's CS3). Remember, Photoshop 6 came out around the same time that 10.0 did and it wasn't native. CS2 came out over a year ago, which means CS3 has been in the works for some time. If CS3 isn't Intel/Mac native, then there's going to be another year wait... NOT very promising...

 

[iEdd]

*Comes back into thread on page 13*.
•Arguments about looks vs function. -I like both. I don't buy paint for function much anymore, usually just looks.
•Bible discussions. Well I don't have a bible, I actually have the Oxford Shortened dictionary.
-
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😛

 

[jayscheuerle]

*Comes back into thread on page 13*.
•Arguments about looks vs function. -I like both. I don't buy paint for function much anymore, usually just looks.
•Bible discussions. Well I don't have a bible, I actually have the Oxford Shortened dictionary.
-
--
---
😛

Shortened? Words beginning with A-F?

 

[d_and_n5000]

here's what I want-
a black, widescreen 13 inch intel iBook with a 2.5 ghz Pentium M, 64 dedicated graphics memory, 768 mb ram, 6 hr. battery, for US$799. doesn't sound too unreasonable to me.

 

[jadekitty24]

here's what I want-
a black, widescreen 13 inch intel iBook with a 2.5 ghz Pentium M, 64 dedicated graphics memory, 768 mb ram, 6 hr. battery, for US$799. doesn't sound too unreasonable to me.

😛 I second that😛

 

[ezekielrage_99]

Sign me up for one of those iBooks as well..... sounds kind of sweet😀

 

[aswitcher]

here's what I want-
a black, widescreen 13 inch intel iBook with a 2.5 ghz Pentium M, 64 dedicated graphics memory, 768 mb ram, 6 hr. battery, for US$799. doesn't sound too unreasonable to me.

Illuminated keyboard would be cool...really distinguish it from the PC lines...

I would even push up the VRAM to 128 meg as a BTO to give this some decent game performance and longevity.

Audio in is another desire...

120 gig+ HDD option...

DVI out... or even HDMI out..

I guess most of the PB features would be desireable...

The PB line will likely get the dual core chip, 2 gig max ram, "two button" trackpad, HD screens, iSight etc to distinguish them from the i line. Not to mention 15 and 17" screen sizes...

 

[AidenShaw]

2 GiB is "entry level" ;-)

The PB line will likely get the dual core chip, 2 gig max ram...

The Yonah chipset will support 4 GiB RAM....

And as soon as I can get a laptop that supports 4 GiB the P.O. will be flying over the wires to the vendor.

I have a couple of Pentium M laptops with 2 GiB RAM - and the reason that I have a "couple of them" is that 2 GiB isn't enough memory for my needs. Two laptops and a Gigabit Ethernet crossover cable is acceptable - but a 4 GiB RAM dual core Yonah would be sublime.

 

[matix]

The Yonah chipset will support 4 GiB RAM....

And as soon as I can get a laptop that supports 4 GiB the P.O. will be flying over the wires to the vendor.

I have a couple of Pentium M laptops with 2 GiB RAM - and the reason that I have a "couple of them" is that 2 GiB isn't enough memory for my needs. Two laptops and a Gigabit Ethernet crossover cable is acceptable - but a 4 GiB RAM dual core Yonah would be sublime.

I am dying to know what your needs are. *no sarcasm*

 

[generik]

I am dying to know what your needs are. *no sarcasm*

His laptop really is the database backend for Amazon's A9.com 🙄

 

[AidenShaw]

I am dying to know what your needs are. *no sarcasm*

I often do presentations and demos of datacenter applications, so it's nice to be able to run a full 3-tier transaction processing website from my briefcase.

That's a couple of Apache or IIS web servers for the front end, Weblogic or other J2EE business logic piece, and an Oracle or SQL server backend. If Windows-based, it's often useful (sometimes necessary) to have a domain controller as well.

And of course, you need a client or two to create the traffic for the website.

All running in Virtual Server and/or VMware virtual machines on a midsized (4.7 lb) laptop with 2 GiB RAM and 240 GB disk. The 240 GB of disk is enough for the whole lot, but 2 GiB of RAM isn't, so I need two laptops to run a complete system.

So, the "Amazon" quip wasn't that far off the mark 😀 !

ps: I also have some work environments in virtual machines, so that I can move the entire "system" around without worrying about missing a file or not having something installed where I'm working.

For example, I can run my Visual Studio .NET environment on my dual Xeon while I'm in the office - or move the virtual machine to the Xeon at home and have exactly the same environment there - or I can move the virtual machine to my laptop and use it on an airplane without any external network connection. Some of these like a GiB of RAM or more, so sometimes the 2 GiB on the laptop feels restrictive.

 

[nsjoker]

rofl.. man, you guys are hilarious if you think apple will sell a 13" wxga laptop w/ 768 ram and 64 mb of vid memory w/ a 2.4 ghz chip for 799. the lowest price will be 899, if that. expect a fair price, but not 200 dollar drops, it's just not happening. sorry 🙁

 

[jadekitty24]

rofl.. man, you guys are hilarious if you think apple will sell a 13" wxga laptop w/ 768 ram and 64 mb of vid memory w/ a 2.4 ghz chip for 799. the lowest price will be 899, if that. expect a fair price, but not 200 dollar drops, it's just not happening. sorry 🙁

I don't recall that we were PREDICTING, more like stating what we WANTED. And I want a 13" iBook for $800. Not saying it WILL happen (dreaming, though😉 )

 

[nsjoker]

I don't recall that we were PREDICTING, more like stating what we WANTED. And I want a 13" iBook for $800. Not saying it WILL happen (dreaming, though😉 )

fair enough, since we're just wanting, count me in with that 799 price point 😀

 

[dblissmn]

Hmmm...do you actually use Stata? Stata devs still haven't made any optimizations for the G5, and that's been out for 2.5 years now. (Heck, as far as I know they haven't made any optimizations for the P4, and that's been out for 5 years.)

Stata is currently developed in CodeWarrior. They will have to port it over to XCode before they can compile a Universal binary. That is not a trivial amount of work. I will be shocked if a Stata Universal binary is released in January. It will come, but it will take a while.

Yes, I do ACTUALLY use Stata -- on a G4 Digital Audio, a Powerbook, and a Pentium IV at work. While I know it has not been optimized on a G5, Stata themselves state that it benefits from the dual FPU units on the G5. I encourage you to take a look at comments on the Stata listserv that refer directly to this, such as this one. There is no benefit to optimizing Stata for Altivec, however. Single-precision Altivec wouldn't do it any good anyway. So on the G4 you're left with one FPU unit and no vector processing. Sort of Pentium III-ish, in other words.

Given that neither G4 nor the more limited G5 Altivec will do this software any good, I presume by lack of G5 optimization, you must be referring to lack of multiprocessing support? If so, I have a question for you -- is there a significant difference for non-SMP software between dual processors and a dual core processor?

The really depressing and sobering reality check part of your post is the news that Stata isn't even in the right compiling software for Universal Binary . . . . sounds like a project for Stata 10, I'm afraid. But the eternal optimist in me remembers how quick they were with Carbonizing Stata 7, a process completed and posted by August 2001 (and that was a mid-version upgrade, not a paid one).

 

[Multimedia]

All Apple Applications Are Already Universal Binary Intel Ready

Faster than expected. I'm quite impressed by the speed at which Apple is able to design and port over to the x86 instruction set.

Like the article mentions, it makes sense for Apple's lowest performer to go intel, with Power Mac G5s slated for summer 2007 when hopefully all their pro apps like Final Cut Pro go universal binary by then.

In June, Jobs stated that all Apple software is already developed for Intel as well as for PPC. So this has nothing to do with waiting for any Apple applications to be ready. They are all ready now. It's about waiting for Intel 64-bit dual core preocessors that exceed PPC G5 quad (dual dual core) processor performance. I doubt we will have to wiat until mid 2007 for the transition to be completed. More likely the Intel quad (dual dual core) PowerMacs will be shipping by January 2007 MacWorld San Francisco.

 

[efoto]

here's what I want-
a black, widescreen 13 inch intel iBook with a 2.5 ghz Pentium M, 64 dedicated graphics memory, 768 mb ram, 6 hr. battery, for US$799. doesn't sound too unreasonable to me.

Illuminated keyboard would be cool...really distinguish it from the PC lines...

I would even push up the VRAM to 128 meg as a BTO to give this some decent game performance and longevity.

Audio in is another desire...

120 gig+ HDD option...

DVI out... or even HDMI out..

I guess most of the PB features would be desireable...

The PB line will likely get the dual core chip, 2 gig max ram, "two button" trackpad, HD screens, iSight etc to distinguish them from the i line. Not to mention 15 and 17" screen sizes...

I don't see 120GB HDD option in an iBook, or HDMI out 🙄 Those features would have to be options on the PBooks first before they trickle down to the i series. I would be surprised to see some HDMI in the future, but it may be rev.b Intel stuff, simply because it isn't even that common in homes yet, let alone mobile computing.

The other issue is that if you add 128MB of v.ram 2GB or more of sys.ram your battery life will decrease due to added pull from all of that RAM alone....not to mention if you throw in a 120GB drive (assuming it would be 5400 or 7200 rpm), etc etc.

 

[generik]

I don't see 120GB HDD option in an iBook, or HDMI out 🙄 Those features would have to be options on the PBooks first before they trickle down to the i series. I would be surprised to see some HDMI in the future, but it may be rev.b Intel stuff, simply because it isn't even that common in homes yet, let alone mobile computing.

The other issue is that if you add 128MB of v.ram 2GB or more of sys.ram your battery life will decrease due to added pull from all of that RAM alone....not to mention if you throw in a 120GB drive (assuming it would be 5400 or 7200 rpm), etc etc.

Who cares if Apple's marketing decide if whether a 120gb hdd is "consumer" or "prosumer", at the prices apple charge to do the upgrade, you can get a stock iBook, THROW THE INCLUDED DRIVE AWAY, upgrade it yourself, and still come out ahead.

The same is true for ram too, ridiculous.

 

[actingbiz1]

Personally, I don't think intel is all that great... I think Apples PPC processers are pretty good! I have an alienware and it isn't nearly as fast as my apple... and the alienware is 3GHz my mac is 2GHz. I donno. Just as long as I can run all my software quickly, if not quicker than I have now.

 

[Legacy]

If this rumour is true I would guess something along the lines of:

Intel Pentium M (Whatever Jargon name they wish to call it in Apple language) at 2Ghz w/ 1Mb Cache
512MB DDR2 Memory (1.5GB MAX)
13.3ins Widescreen Display
Superdrive
Ati X600 Graphics w/ 64Mb VGA
Silver Form and probs thinner than current model
Slightly better speakers and a brighter screen with wider view angle
80GB Hard Drive 5200rpms
BT + Airport standard
56k Modem made optional (haha)

Price: £599-699 (probs the latter or maybe £649)

Intel Pentium M 2.33Ghz 2/ 1Mb Cache
512Mb Memory
15.4ins Widescreen
Superdrive Dual Layer
Ati x600 w/ 128Mb VGA
100GB Hard Drive 5200rpms

Price: £799-899

Can't expect much more from Apple

Regards

 

[Val-kyrie]

I concur!

People of this great forum, there will be no G4 as of MWSF 2006

There will be new Mac mini's, New PowerBooks and New iBooks.

WHY?

-They can't only update the iBooks coz they will kill the PowerBook's
-If they update the PB's they may as well upate the iBooks because the intel chip will make it cheaper
-The same deal is with the mini's, they will probabbly have the same spec's as the iBooks. and Intel could infact make it even cheaper

Otherwise we will see nothing. WHICH I DOUBT

I also think the 13.3" iBook widescreen rumor may be accurate. I wouldn't be surprised to see Apple stoke developers in January by eliminating the G4 completely. However, I don't expect much from Rev. A except for a chip change. I think form factor changes (e.g., 13.3" widescreen iBook), new hardware (e.g., Blue-Ray drives), etc., will happen around the release of Merom when the Intel architecture also changes. I would be disappointed if Apple were to use a Dothan, but I have braced myself for it. Maybe, instead of waiting, I just should have bought a Dothan PC and waited until '07 when Leopard and Merom will both be out.

 

[Cooknn]

I also think the 13.3" iBook widescreen rumor may be accurate.

I would be all over that. I hope you're right 😛

 

[Val-kyrie]

I think you're wrong. Adobe have already been quite vocal about the amount of work necessary to port their apps to Macintel and Apple probably won't release any of their high-end video offerings until NAB anyway. As most pro apps rely on altivec this would probably mean that the new iBooks will still run slower than the Powerbooks when it comes to pro apps...

My guess: iBooks/minis early next year. Powerbooks at the developer conference...

This is possible but unnecessary. I don't think Apple could cripple the iBook enough, even on a low-end Dothan chip, to make it slower than current PBs. Rather, I think it is more likely that Apple will announce/release all three in Jan, and let mobile pros stay with the last PPC release. And if Apple releases a PB in Jan, I expect it to be upgraded around June with the release of Merom.

 

[Val-kyrie]

Is there a reason why all of your iBook options must be integrated graphics? Come'on, even the Dell inspiron series offers discrete graphics. The PBs only need better gfx cards--think NVidia 7800 Go (PB) vs. ATI x600 (iBk).

Ugh, what's that thing at the end of the article about people liking 15" screens? Why is the 12" iBook and Powerbook so popular? Because of the smaller overall formfactor.

Anyway. Let's assume that the low-end iBook gets a $200 reduction.

$799 1.66GHz iBook
Single Core Yonah
Integrated Intel Graphics (yuk! But fairly common on Intel laptops)
12" Display, 1024x768

$999 1.66GHz iBook
Dual Core Yonah (at this speed they're only $30 more expensive)
Integrated Intel Graphics
12" Display, 1024x768

$1199 1.66GHz iBook
Dual Core Yonah
Integrated Intel Graphics
13" Widescreen Display, 1280x800

However one must remember the rumours about a 15" widescreen iBook earlier this year...

$1399 1.83GHz iBook
Dual Core Yonah
Integrated Intel Graphics
15" Widescreen Display, 1280x800 or 1440x900

The problem is that there are so many variables. How does the PowerBook get a look in? Quite possibly the PowerBook will get an update - either to the 7448 at 1.8GHz or even 2.0GHz to tide it over until the middle of the year, or it'll go Intel as well - at higher speeds.

$1599 2.0GHz PowerBook
Dual Core Yonah
ATI or nVidia Graphics
13.3" Widescreen, 1280x800 or 1440x900

$1999 2.16GHz PowerBook
Dual Core Yonah
High-end ATI or nVidia Graphics
15.4" Widescreen, 1440x900 or 1650x1050

$2499 2.16GHz PowerBook
17" Widescreen, 1650x1050

In all the above, assume the clock speeds could be a speed step in either direction as well.

 

[generik]

Personally, I don't think intel is all that great... I think Apples PPC processers are pretty good! I have an alienware and it isn't nearly as fast as my apple... and the alienware is 3GHz my mac is 2GHz. I donno. Just as long as I can run all my software quickly, if not quicker than I have now.

That is because it is 3Ghz (netburst) architecture.

The new Pentiums barely exceed 2Ghz.. the highest speed being 2.13Ghz I think.