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More Powerbook Rumors...

GetSome681:

We have no reason to suspect that Apple's system controller is capable of handling a different FSB speed than RAM base clock (133mhz FSB => DDR-266, 166mhz FSB => DDR-333, etc), and I know that there is certainly no "PC166" RAM, so there is no known way for a PBook to run with a 166mhz FSB. Sure, in the future I suspect they will, but I do not believe any laptop RAM is available at the required speed yet.
 
Another 133 mhz bump after 6 months- pretty disappointing. I guess it is better than a bump to 733mhz and 867 respectively.

the new 9000 should at least be included otherwise who won't wait for the 1 ghz superdrive model in uhhhhh May or June.

With the 13" ibook seeming out of the question what does everyone think that the ibook will get during the upgrade:

I guess probably 12" at 700 and 800 mhz (same video, ram and optical drives and 14" at 800 mhz (same video, ram and optical drive):
 
the 6th...

sounds right to me (who would schedule a release to fall on election day?), so maybe they have their facts straight.
 
Originally posted by Megaquad
933 MHz?? Apple is expecting me to give 4500$ for 933 MHz laptop without radeon 9000? **** that, i can go and buy 2 GHz PC laptop and be happier, run games and apps faster... But I am addicted to macs.. crap crap why is this happening to me arrghhhhh
calm down its just a rumor, we'll see whats up on 5th or 6th november
btw, why are macs so ****ing expensive in europe? damn apple, they dont give a **** about us
Click to expand...

Apple's high end notebooks base price are only $3200...it is only if you add things like an extra display, Apple's overpriced RAM because of their contract with the RAM supplier, and a 60 GB hard drive that you start adding up to $4500. Don't panic! Unless you are talking Canadian or Australian dollars. Those numbers are higher even though they often work out about the same.

And if you are a student, teacher, government employee, or military person, you get a discount.
 
Originally posted by Kid Red

I've been saying that for weeks now. No one here realizes that Apple HAS ALWAYS (mostly) made the top end the low end the next rev.
Click to expand...

I love how people always come up with super-broad generalizations about Apple...

This is not true, and there is no reason for this to be true. There is no magic formula to Apple's upgrades.

You want an example? The last PowerMac upgrades, perhaps?

arn
 
Originally posted by impierced


I'll bet bank it's 800 and 933 Mhz... any takers?
Click to expand...

If they bring down the prices the original $2299 for the entry level, I would be really considering making my first Mac a TiPB. 😛
 
Why couldn't it be a 933 for the low end and duel 800 for the high end?

I know it would be a battery monster, not to mention heat, but that would, at least in my mind, justify having the chip speeds near each other.
 
Originally posted by mcrain
Why couldn't it be a 933 for the low end and duel 800 for the high end?

I know it would be a battery monster, not to mention heat, but that would, at least in my mind, justify having the chip speeds near each other.
Click to expand...

The problem was with 933 and 867 being too close in rating. 933 and 800 would seem fine for high and low end respectively.

Its highly unlikely that we'll see duals in the tibook. Look at the fans and the heat sinks in the new Powermacs. No way can they safely run dual chips in the Tibook if they require that much cooling. My 500mhz tibook gets so rediculously hot and when the fan comes on its so damn loud, i can't see how they could possibly run duals in the powerbook. Water cooling is just too expensive for a production laptop, at leas right now.
 
From a marketing prospect, I think that Apple would be better off announcing:

"the latest upgrade to the world's best laptop, the 1GHz TiBook!"

Besides, if there's not another upgrade for six months, the new G4 chips built on the 13nm process will probably be available and then the speed could go above 1 GHz with less heat and power consumption.

Originally quoted by mr evil brkfst
With the 13" ibook seeming out of the question
Click to expand...
Where did you hear that?
 
This is getting a bit rediculous. I mean come on, how much longer can we put up with being so much behind the PC world. I love the mac platform, we have the best OS available in my opinion but I can't wait for the day that mac's stand for the best of the best. The newest cutting edge technology in hardware and software. I love my mac but it is hard when people see my G4 and say WOW! that thing is sweet.....how fast is it....and I have to tell them 867mhz. No too impressive compared to a 2+ghz p4 in there eyes. I am tierd of explaing the mhz myth to everybody. It can only take us so far before we have to admit we are behind. The only hope we could have in the ppc world is to have the 64bit 1.8ghz power4lite now. 1 year from now it will barely keep up with the cometition. But we all know that even a year time frame is pushing it. I am just being realistic. I hope they have something up there sleaves that we have no clue about that will blow us away. But from past experience that will not happen. There is always project MAKLAR, that would at least allow us to be up to par with the rest of the world. Don't get me wrong, I hate intel as much as microsoft and that would be a last resort but we need something to save face. I know the hardware side is not apples fault and I don't mean to bash them at all. I would still keep my 867 even if somebody offered me a 2.8 p4 anyday. I just want to see progress.
 
Originally posted by pilotgi
From a marketing prospect, I think that Apple would be better off announcing:

"the latest upgrade to the world's best laptop, the 1GHz TiBook!"

Besides, if there's not another upgrade for six months, the new G4 chips built on the 13nm process will probably be available and then the speed could go above 1 GHz with less heat and power consumption.


Where did you hear that?
Click to expand...

I didn't hear that anywhere. Just idle speculation that Apple would not be making such a radical change to the ibook lineup without some sort of press conferance or annoucement or something. Also, if the lackluster powerbook rumors hold true, how can we much can we expect for the ibook?

I agree that the next powerbook update would sound more promising based on what you say above.
 
this sounds very strange to me. that would make to low & high end models too close in MHz, at least that's what i think. and no new vidoeo card? oh well....

maybe a new redesigned TiBook is not that far away, maybe next year? with superdrive, speeds of 1GHz+ and killer video card and a new case design?😱 🙂 they might just be trying to keep everyone happy while they perfect the new PowerBook. that article did mention that this would probably be the last revision before the newly designed model...😀
 
Originally posted by mr evil brkfast


Just idle speculation that Apple would not be making such a radical change to the ibook lineup without some sort of press conferance or annoucement or something.
Click to expand...

On the other hand, almost no buzz was made about the 14" iBook when it came out. It was a concession to consumer demand, and not a product Jobs had any interest in making, as it broke out of the simple product grid. I could see either the 12" or 14" iBook migrating to 13" (probably the 12" line) without much fanfare, unless they managed to do it without raising the price or the weight, then they'll start some "game of pounds and inches" meme or something.
 
"It can only take us so far before we have to admit we are behind. "

We already have to IMO. I have a 2.2Ghz P4 desktop and it's WAY faster and snappier than the fastest dual G4 desktop I tried at the apple store in SoHo recently. I tested a reboot, opening major productivity apps, scrolling in long docs, switching apps/windows, etc. I didn't need a stopwatch because I could very easily feel the G4 as sluggish compared to my P4. No, I did not try Photoshop or video editing (I don't really do those things). I acknowledge that the G4 would certainly have the edge in those activities, as the software has been optimized as such. But from a pure 'general useability' standpoint I gotta tell you guys that the G4, even at its best, is already behind in terms of overall system use. I also paid a fraction for my P4 (1 gig ram, 120GB hd, 18 inch digital flat panel) of what the Mac I tested cost.

Dont get me wrong, I love OSX and wish Apple nothing but the best. I have a 667 TiBook coming my way that I got for a song on Ebay, loaded with software. But dont delude yourselves. The Ghz myth may be just that on a Ghz to Ghz basis, but in terms of the gap now, PCs have the edge in terms of general system speed, whether that stem from CPU, bus, RAM speed, other subsystems or whatever.

TM
 
Just curious

I'd love to know how someone can "spot" a 1 GHz PowerBook in someone's posession.

Is there a big read "1 GHz" painted on the lid? Is there a massive heat sink protruding from the bottom? Do these people run up and ask the person what speed the CPU is and if its a "test" model (someone walking around with a one-offed/custom electronics anything on the Apple campus is rather unlikely).

Just something I have always wondered about with these so-called N MHz/GHz PowerBooks "sightings" that rumor sites throw out there.

Reminds me of the (quite old) rumor about an Apple employee riding a bike around the Cupertino campus with an Apple brand PDA/Newton-like prototype device on their person. Yeah THAT happened.
 
Originally posted by arn


I love how people always come up with super-broad generalizations about Apple...

This is not true, and there is no reason for this to be true. There is no magic formula to Apple's upgrades.

You want an example? The last PowerMac upgrades, perhaps?

arn
Click to expand...

There is, and if not for Moto then the trend would've continued. They couldn't get out anything faster then 1.2ghz. The new mobo had major heat issues and was therefore not ready. We will get it in jan and see if the 1.25 is the low end 🙂
 
how could they toss the mobility 9000? that's hands down the dumbest thing about the whole idea of this rumor. i don't care about 1 GHz. 66 MHz is no big difference. sure 1 GHz is a nice statement, but it pales thoroughly in comparison to the ability to say "we have the best graphics card for laptops in the world by any test." DDR RAM is useless to. i would much rather have 2 MB l3. going DDR would just make more heat, take more power, and not be any more useful than extra L3. DDR RAM on a 133/167 MHz bus is just not worth it. but my god, my god, why would they skip out on the radeon m 9000? this had better be BS.
 
Originally posted by User X
This is getting a bit rediculous. I mean come on, how much longer can we put up with being so much behind the PC world. I love the mac platform, we have the best OS available in my opinion but I can't wait for the day that mac's stand for the best of the best. The newest cutting edge technology in hardware and software. I love my mac but it is hard when people see my G4 and say WOW! that thing is sweet.....how fast is it....and I have to tell them 867mhz. No too impressive compared to a 2+ghz p4 in there eyes. I am tierd of explaing the mhz myth to everybody. It can only take us so far before we have to admit we are behind. The only hope we could have in the ppc world is to have the 64bit 1.8ghz power4lite now. 1 year from now it will barely keep up with the cometition. But we all know that even a year time frame is pushing it. I am just being realistic. I hope they have something up there sleaves that we have no clue about that will blow us away. But from past experience that will not happen. There is always project MAKLAR, that would at least allow us to be up to par with the rest of the world. Don't get me wrong, I hate intel as much as microsoft and that would be a last resort but we need something to save face. I know the hardware side is not apples fault and I don't mean to bash them at all. I would still keep my 867 even if somebody offered me a 2.8 p4 anyday. I just want to see progress.
Click to expand...

Instead of telling them 867 Mhz, tell them it does 13 billion floating point calculations a second.

Next thing you'll know, they'll try and find out how many billion floating point calculations their PCs can do. Mhz is so antiquated even AMD is no longer advertising its Mhz speed. The sooner we let go of the Mhz rating, the better for Apple.
 
Since almost everyone was assuming that a 1 GHz G4 was a given and after thinking a little more about some of my earlier statements (heat and power requirements -- I’ll admit that I was a little flamboyant in my statements -- i.e. technically I misspoke) I decided earlier this morning to compromise somewhat and thus my conclusion was the following:

933 MHz G4 on the high end. Same graphics, same display, maybe a bump in the HD size. Nothing else of note.

800 MHz G4 becomes the new low end.

What this amounts to then is a modest speed bump and little else. It does, however, allow the top end iBook to move to 800 MHz (I’m not saying the latter will happen, but it does open that product slot).

If Apple wants to save some money and at the same time lower prices I wonder if they might drop the level-3 cache. This would mean that the new machines would only be marginally faster (in most cases) than the existing PowerBooks but it could allow them to lower prices to some degree and it might help somewhat in the areas of heat and power consumption (but probably not by much). Many consumers may only look at the MHz ratings and nothing else, so this might be a viable marketing tactic. Of course the engineers at Apple would likely scream bloody murder about this, but the marketing people might consider it a smart move (i.e. higher MHz, lower cost, how can you lose?).

The only possible surprise for next week might be a PowerBook with a slot-loading SuperDrive. Although the latest rumors suggest this will not be possible I’m not entirely convinced that it won’t happen (i.e. Steve Jobs hasn’t had an opportunity to say “Oh, and one more thing” for quite a while now). A 933 MHz unit with a SuperDrive would be a nice enhancement over the current offerings. So, if Steve makes next week’s announcement you can probably assume that a SuperDrive-equipped PowerBook will be introduced -- but not shipped until next month ;-)

In any case, what I really want is a new desktop 19” LCD from Apple.
 
Originally posted by arn


Why do you think the price will be going up? The price will likely be the same as the current models.

arn
Click to expand...

yes apple seems to be good at keeping prices steady even with significant upgrades.
 
Hello? Saving money?

Originally posted by fpnc
933 MHz G4 on the high end. Same graphics, same display, maybe a bump in the HD size. Nothing else of note.

800 MHz G4 becomes the new low end.

What this amounts to then is a modest speed bump and little else.
Click to expand...
Everyone here seems to be missing the point (or at least a point): that this means a $600 drop in the price of the current fastest powerbook. Call them 'modest speed bumps,' 'disappointments,' or whatever else you want, but speaking as someone who was ready to buy a powerbook three weeks ago but didn't because I thought a refresh was on the way, this means I can get the powerbook I would have gotten, but for at least $600 less, and if I'm lucky it'll have a bigger hard drive, a faster display, and/or internal bluetooth as icing on the cake.

I'm not disappointed.

Kevin Fox
Me, me, me!: http://fury.com
 
this is pretty discouraging when you look at what else is on the market now.

P4 2.2 GHz
1GB DDR RAM
Radeon 9000
1600x1200
2 optical drives or 2nd battery/hdd

Granted the sex appeal of the hardware and the OS isn't there, but this is a better machine than the 2 yr old server at my work!

Apple needs to wake up and compete if they really want people to 'switch'
 
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