Macworld San Francisco 2006 Coverage

[numediaman]

Anyone have a clue when we'l see a new intel iBook? I was ready to sell my G4 with a huge hope for me ordering an intel replacement tonight

- Joe

This is the way Apple does it. I assume they will introduce iBooks, or some sort of new version of the iBook later. Apple usually lets their chips migrate through the line. Right now the only chips they have are in the Macbooks -- when new ones come online they can migrate the old ones down.

 

[SiliconAddict]

How about dual booting with windows? Hopefully you can pop the disc in and install it on another partition and hold the option get when restarting to choose an OS...

I don't think it’s going to be as simple as that but I'm certain it can be done.

 

[kalisphoenix]

Exactly what I mean...anyone want a 15" 1Ghz Al Powerbook? Guessing no one would pay me more then $250 for it now and it is still a great laptop...just like new...oh well...progress I guess comes with a high cost to the consumer.

I'd pay you $275 shipped ;-)

 

[NYmacAttack]

Exactly what I mean...anyone want a 15" 1Ghz Al Powerbook? Guessing no one would pay me more then $250 for it now and it is still a great laptop...just like new...oh well...progress I guess comes with a high cost to the consumer.

I doubt prices will fall that much

 

[manu chao]

Apple is still selling the G4 Powerbooks for $ 2000.

Keynote will be here shortly:

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/mwsf06

 

[jovada]

For some reason, the Belgian (& Dutch) Apple Store is down again.
And while it was still open, the link to the store for students was broken. Strange...

 

[Jschultz]

I am still surprised at the lack of price drop on the 15" g4 powerbook.

why pay that much for something that was blatantly said to be up to 4-5x slower?

 

[DakotaGuy]

I'd pay you $275 shipped ;-)

Well I was thinking it should still be worth about $300 even with today's announcement. I would say that todays announcement has dropped the value by at least $300-400 because it shows there is not much future remaining in PowerPC products. How much is a person willing to pay for technology that might not work in a year or two??? Probably not much. But I am sure excited about the new machines. Just wish I was rich like the rest of you and could keep upgrading all the time!

I am thinking about selling the Powerbook. I know that my imac is really really dog slow compared to the new ones, but I just bought it like 10 months ago.

 

[mandis]

bye bye Firewire 800

 

[worldwearyeyes]

I doubt prices will fall that much

I agree. Most people aren't going to be able to afford a $2000 macbook pro. I don't think that will cause my 12" PB's worth to go from $1000-1100 down to $500, because there are plenty of people whose budget can afford a $1000 mac laptop.

Now when the affordable macbook line comes out, replacing the ibook, THEN I think all the powerbook values will plummet.

 

[Kelvin]

PowerBook -> MacBook worst name ever

What's next? MacMac Pro replaces PowerMac G5?

Stupidest name ever.
Damnit I'll probably still buy one.

 

[steve_hill4]

Can't wait to see what the other models offer, especially the MacBook Express.

Things missing in action so far:
Firewire 800
S-Video Out
60 pixels in the vertical direction
Dial-up modem

(Feel free to add your own)

 

[MacRohde]

Keynote

Keynote is up now. Yayyy

 

[jacg]

Regarding MBP battery life

I'm waiting until they confirm that battery life is a huge improvement on prior specs. I'm fed up with 1.5 h battery time (1.25 GHz, 15").

Other disappointments:

No modem or FW800, yet no extra USB ports. I have 2 FW800 drives for video editing. FW400 will be a step down. Express Card upgrade may be expensive or not exist.

I wonder if FCP 4.5 will work under Rosetta. If not, upgrade in March will be more than $49!

No right click option - no clever Mighty Mouse touch sensitive mouse button to achieve this.

CPU speeds. PCs are being released with 2GHz+ processors. Were these not suitable or is Apple artificially keeping the performance gains pegged down? Maybe battery life really was an issue. I wonder what effect the X1600 has in that respect?

Don't mean to cast gloom - I was SO ready to upgrade, even for a 1st revision Intel Pbook. I'm ordering iLife and iWork to keep me going. I wonder if the 20" iMacs still buzz?

 

[jacg]

Regarding MBP battery life

Double post - sorry

 

[Norse Son]

Huh!?!?! What do they put in the Nebraska water?

im not a very happy camper. as far as im concern apple can kiss me away cause im not going to waste my time with their products anymore. anyone know if 10.4.4 will work for non-apple-expensive-computers?

The Pentium M - Yonah's predeccesor - was built on 90nm technology (same as the G5). Even then, a Pentium M in (about) the 2GHz range was (roughly) as fast/efficient as a 3.4GHz (+ or -) Pentium 4... Think about that for a second. And Yonah is built on the 65nm process. That's why they can fit 2 cores on a piece of silicone that's about the same size as the older Pentium M.

Also, NEC, Dell & other PC makers already announced their first laptops with Yonah - all of which ship around the same time as Apple's MacBook Pro. And for the most part they are comparable in price & performance. But they're not putting Yonah dual-cores in their "bargain basement" consumer laptops, because the dual-core Yonah is a "high-end" chip. The single-core versions of Yonah are geared towards "consumer" laptops & desktops, it is the replacement/successor to the Pentium M, and will be released around March or so...

I, for one, never understood all these posters on MacRumors, or the "experts" around the Mac rumor web, who believed Apple could miraculously afford to put a high-end, dual-core chip like Yonah in either the iBook or the mini... In all honesty, the "target market" for both those machines did not need the extreme power that a dual-core Yonah would bring. If they needed it, then they should buy the iMac or MacBook Pro.

The iBook will get the single-core Yonah later this Spring. It may get a dual-core Yonah down the line, but not before the 64bit, dual-core Merom debuts around September (in a MacBook Pro)... And, no, the iBook does not need the Merom!

The MacBook Pro - I know, that name's something hard to get used to - is not an evolutionary step, like some have stated. It is easily 4 times faster than the G4. That "struggling" 1.67GHz G4 on its 167MHz bus is paleolithic compared to the dual-core-G5 equivalent dual-core Yonah, even the "paltry" 1.67GHz in the base model... There's nothing paltry about it.

As for Rosetta running "legacy" pro apps... How much slower will Photoshop run on a 1.83GHz dual-core Yonah MacBook Pro (CPU equivalent of a high-end dual-core G5 or P4) that is performance-pound-for-pound 4x faster than the 1.67GHz G4 of the PowerBook? I don't think there will be that much of a performance hit, if at all (in certain operations)... Who knows, it may even be faster in some tasks.

So, if you want to buy a Vaio, by all means, do it... Have fun with security issues... Hope that it will run Vista - whenever it eventually ships... Deal with "Plug & Pray" and "Prays for Sure" everytime you add new hardware or software...

 

[Norse Son]

Rest of PowerBooks?

Tid bit non-plussed at the lack of 17", 12", FW800 and DL DVD burning...faster with better graphics, but dropping some nice features.

My guess is that the 12" PowerBook will likely be replaced by a 13" widescreen, but likely with the 1.6GHz dual-core Yonah. And probably around March or April. The 17" is another matter, entirely... I wonder if they'd wait on it until Merom debuts around September, or release it with the 12/13"? Most likely what happened is that the 15" is their most popular model, so they concentrated their efforts on it first - remember that it was the laggard last time when they switched from Titanium to Aluminum...

As for FrWr 800... I'm not even sure if there were any consumer electronics out there, other than some hard drives, that actually used it... Any high end DV camcorders? Maybe it will reappear with the 17", or on the 15 & 17" models when they get Merom in the Fall... FrWr400 is still way better than USB2 for DV work, so at least that's still present - and Apple wouldn't drop the investment they've made in FireWire, especially when it became standard on DV camcorders.

As for the DL burning?... Maybe they're using a new drive mechanism that doesn't support it (yet?)... Then, again, when the MacBook Pros get the dual-core, 64bit Merom this Fall, they will, also, come standard with a BluRay drive...

 

[mbl42]

See me at Macworld on Wednesday! I will be wearing a grey Apple t-shirt and a tag that says 'mxlews'.