MWSF Announcement Details?

[shamino]

I know I know... I'm not really buying the Dell. But I think I am canceling my PB on the way and waiting until MWSF. Damnit... Must wait for my 17" of FCP love.

Good idea. Never buy any Mac immediately before a major conference (especially MWSF). Place your order in January and get more bang for your buck.

 

[Doctor Q]

Good idea. Never buy any Mac immediately before a major conference (especially MWSF). Place your order in January and get more bang for your buck.

You shouldn't completely rule out buying before announcements.

When you order right before a major Apple event, you risk missing out on price drops or new models, but Apple sometimes makes up for it with special deals that expire the day before the new announcements. When you can save hundreds of dollars on a new (about to be one-generation-out-of-date) system and get a free printer or extra RAM or other goodies along with the purchase, it's sometimes worth considering. Plus, it's usually well-known whether the products are in stock or have long lead times. In contrast, newly announced products are often high in demand and may or may not be available anytime soon after being announced.

If you pay attention, stay informed, look at price/performance, and consider both options, you'll be able to make the proper decision. If you aren't paying attention and aren't in a hurry to get your purchase in hand, by all means take the path of least resistance and order something newly announced.

 

[wouterkestevens]

G5 PB in january

I believe that the PB G5 will be annouced on the MWSF. If Apple is waiting any longer than january with a big update than it will lose many customers. I'm a mac freak but if you look at a HP portable. You can buy one of those for 3 time less than an PB.

 

[Mord]

while i agree the pb's are lagging behind a bit there i no way you can get an equally speced HP for a third of the price.

 

[MacsRgr8]

You shouldn't completely rule out buying before announcements.

Exactly. Because Apple know many hold off a purchase once a MW (or similar event) is coming within a couple of weeks, they make some interesting offers.
Mind you, Apple also really tries not to announce hardware updates at a MW event due to the expected loss of sale just prior to that event.
But Steve loves (and we love him doing it 😉 ) to announce these cool new stuff, so IMHO, you'll always get rewarded if you'll wat 😉 😀

 

[h'biki]

An anonymous submission today points to some possible releases at MWSF in January:

After playing with Motion quite a bit... my gut feeling is that Keynote 2 will use CoreImage to generate its transitions. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

 

[sord]

Honestly, I will be very upset if the eMac gets upgraded as claimed. I can't afford to buy a new computer and I buy on impulse 🙁

 

[TheSith]

Powerbook upgrades AND price drops - yes please!

I am absolutely dying here waiting to get a Powerbook. A slight speed increase, a nicer video card (9800 > 9700 😀), and a price drop - what more could a guy want?

I know it isn't G5, I know it isn't dual-core, but it still looks darn fast to me.

 

[wdlove]

Powerbook upgrades AND price drops - yes please!

I am absolutely dying here waiting to get a Powerbook. A slight speed increase, a nicer video card (9800 > 9700 😀), and a price drop - what more could a guy want?

I know it isn't G5, I know it isn't dual-core, but it still looks darn fast to me.

You have a good attitude on the upcoming updates. This way you won't be disappointed. Then if there is a surprise, it will make you all the happier.

 

[spaceballl]

I love how people rationalize slipped roadmaps and botched timelines to make themselves feel better about buying a CPU that has been around for five to six years. Mhz is not the only thing holding back the G4... Its architecture is nowhere near current.
-Kevin

 

[TWinbrook46636]

Apple has announced entirely new PowerBook designs at Macworld SF every other year for a while now. 2001... 2003.... 2005..? Lets hope they stick with tradition. Things are looking good though. The last official PowerBook comments were "No G5 PowerBooks until 2005" and "The current PowerBook offerings will last through the holiday season" if I recall.

 

[CMYanko]

It's a software conference.

This post is missing the mark. While there may well be hardware announcements that come out of MWSF it is the softeware that will make up all of the keynote. Certainly OS X .4 will be most of that. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if we see some iLife updates. I mean, here is this great core image/video technologies in the OS so we have to ask ourselves how might this stuff get used. A more robust iPhoto comes to mind. Betting image manipulation right in finder comes to mind. What about iMovie improvements? Even if just transitions and titles and the same for iDVD, more themes.

Think Software people.

 

[darkwing]

I love how people rationalize slipped roadmaps and botched timelines to make themselves feel better about buying a CPU that has been around for five to six years. Mhz is not the only thing holding back the G4... Its architecture is nowhere near current.
-Kevin

Exactly. Coupled with bugs that waste CPU time for nothing (that I've submitted to Apple) further explain that Apple sucks.. For the first time since I switched back in 2003 with a rev A 17" (now a rev C) I am wondering if I'm wasting my time with all this.

Steve (still bitter)

 

[shamino]

Mind you, Apple also really tries not to announce hardware updates at a MW event due to the expected loss of sale just prior to that event.

But this just means the announcements come out a week after that.

Like when I bought my Mac (Quicksilver-2002 G4). I waited for MW. There was no PowerMac announcement. I waited another two weeks, and then there was the announcement.

As a result of waiting I bought a dual 1GHz system for the price of a dual 800MHz system.

 

[shamino]

I love how people rationalize slipped roadmaps and botched timelines to make themselves feel better about buying a CPU that has been around for five to six years. Mhz is not the only thing holding back the G4... Its architecture is nowhere near current.

So you prefer..... what?

Something brand new that has no significant application support?

I guess, for you, the purpose of owning a computer is bragging to your neighbors about its capabilities instead of running your applications.

 

[Some_Big_Spoon]

I'm just wanting an increase in FSB in the PB. This thing is a dog compared to a G5 imac which is cheaper. I know, I know..

anyway, this 1.33GHz, 1.25GB RAM hotplate's just not cutting it, no matter what GPU you stick in it.

I'm waiting on price drops, should they come, at or after the keynote, then I'm ordering the maxed out imac in my cart. If a G5 emac's announced, I might get that one.. anything's better than these portables.

 

[wibbler]

how much power does a laptop need?

anything's better than these portables.

Of course a G5 Powerbook will be ace, but isn't it funny how four years ago something with spec of a 17 inch 1.5mhz G4 powerbook would have been sensational.

And now it seems it's not worth having!

Have demands on computing moved that fast? What are we all suddenly doing with our laptops that need so much horsepower?

I love my 17 and won't go back to desktop only ever. But I can't claim it downloads these pages any faster than my mates old 400mhz CRT iMac when on the same network. It even seems to play its iTunes tracks at the same speed as mine!

If you REALLY needed power, wouldn't you get a G5 tower - not a Powerbook which is a compromise of portability over reliability over power.

 

[darkwing]

Of course a G5 Powerbook will be ace, but isn't it funny how four years ago something with spec of a 17 inch 1.5mhz G4 powerbook would have been sensational.

And now it seems it's not worth having!

Have demands on computing moved that fast? What are we all suddenly doing with our laptops that need so much horsepower?

I love my 17 and won't go back to desktop only ever. But I can't claim it downloads these pages any faster than my mates old 400mhz CRT iMac when on the same network. It even seems to play its iTunes tracks at the same speed as mine!

If you REALLY needed power, wouldn't you get a G5 tower - not a Powerbook which is a compromise of portability over reliability over power.

What we're doing is paying more for less performance compared to a Dothan. Those things have 533 mhz FSB in a portable and are in some cases out performing the p4 laptops and getting more battery life than my brand new "top of the line" 17" PB. Apple's failed to improve their technology in the last several years. One poster in this thread said it best about Apple going full bore on the g5 desktops and forgetting that their portables are a big chunk of their sales. (Especially educational.)

For now this 17" powerbook is good enough for me but I am not not a happy customer. I'll be getting a PC laptop and going back to Linux if Apple can't deliver me the power I need (or feel I need) soon enough.

The problem with your argument is that you're making excuses for Apple's laptops being second best by saying we don't "need it." That's the same argument people who don't like SUVs use. We all like to buy what we want. I want a PowerBook that doesn't choke on its own pathetic FSB.

Steve

 

[wibbler]

second best

OK, some PCs may have more raw horsepower, on paper...

But they have an awful botch-up of an OS that can't harness it reliably or efficiently - and Linux isn't for every consumer - yet.

These PCs also look and feel awful, they are a collective style bypass.

Apples are too expensive (especially in England!!) but they are better build quality and they will always have higher resale value than the Dells etc in the future.

I don't want to apologise for Apple, far from it, they should be pushing the barriers a bit, even in portables ...maybe they are and they are about to stun us all once again ...

-- -- (and can they make Safari work properly please?) -- --

... I was just pointing out that a gig or so of G4 power is actually more than many of us NEED already!

 

[zelmo]

I agree with everyone that Apple needs to do something with the PB line, primarily because it has been a couple of years since a major rev, and it's about time for another one.

That being said, I don't fully understand what the horrible problem is with the current line. Yes, they are not G5's or dual-core G4's. Yes, the FSB is crippled at 167MHz. yadayadayada. But, apart from simply not being SOTA, they are sleek, gorgeous, and downright sexy. My wife's VAIO is a nice looking little laptop, but is downright ugly compared to my PB. They are fun to use, and work the way they are supposed to. My PB, which is not top-of-the-line (see sig), is plenty fast for what I do. Maybe I'm just used to slower computers (800 iMac G4 at home, and a 400MHz PowerMac G3 at work), so the PB seems fast by comparison. Maybe I'm not taxing it with the app's I use (Safari, Office, Adobe Creative Suite, iLife (incl. GarageBand and iMovie). What I find is that I hardly ever get annoyed with the speed at which things happen on my PB. It works as fast as I need it to. On those few occasions where I wish it'd hurry up, I am either trying to do too many things at once, or doing something I would not even have attempted on an older/slower computer.

Yes, get the G5 into the laptops as soon as you can, Apple. In the meantime, I'll be plenty productive on my "old" PowerBook.

 

[darkwing]

OK, some PCs may have more raw horsepower, on paper...

But they have an awful botch-up of an OS that can't harness it reliably or efficiently - and Linux isn't for every consumer - yet.

Well even with their botch-up OS, they manage to out render us, out game us, and out compile us. I'm appalled at how slow programs compile on my rev C 17" PB compared to my 2.6 ghz p4 linux box here at work. (I've been running Linux since 1995 when I got my first PC, so I don't mind it.) However, I've been able to outperfrom that linux box by several factors with some simple floating point tests I compiled on both systems. Big deal, though. I'd rather wait an extra 5 seconds for bogus floating point numbers on the linux box than wait an extra 2 minutes for something to build on the Powerbook.

The logic I hear from you guys is we already have more power than we "need" but you also says Mac laptops are better than PC ones. While I agree for the most part, power is part of being "better."

Macs are faster than PCs at things we do maybe 1% of the time. I do notice that my Mac "feels" faster than any PC I've used as far as browsing and opening windows and stuff. Last week I was burning compact flash card images with a PCMCIA-CF adapter and dd on a command line while burning CDs and typign up the documentation for the cards and CDs for an hour and the machine kept right on chugging along. I am confident no Windows machine could have handled that.

Steve

 

[spaceballl]

So you prefer..... what?

Something brand new that has no significant application support?

I guess, for you, the purpose of owning a computer is bragging to your neighbors about its capabilities instead of running your applications.

We're all mac users here which means our preference is Macs. If I had to buy a new Apple laptop these days, it would for sure be a powerbook. That being said, I'm not going to praise Apple for being behind the times... Sure their notebooks look nice from the outside, but a power laptop should be powerful.

 

[Frobozz]

I love how people rationalize slipped roadmaps and botched timelines to make themselves feel better about buying a CPU that has been around for five to six years. Mhz is not the only thing holding back the G4... Its architecture is nowhere near current.
-Kevin

I'm confused. Are you arguing that the Powerbook doesn't do the things you need it to, or are you arguing that it's not the latest technology? These are not mutually exclusive arguments.

I don't think you're ever going to see a PowerBook that can act as a high end desktop replacement. That's not why people buy portables. Portables have got to a point where they're fast enough for all the typical tasks users perform on them. Being a little faster is NOT a design goal if battery life and weight are affected.

My point is that the Powerbook does everything aside from replace a PowerMac or high end iMac. So why complain?

The PowerBook is the best looking laptop you can buy. It's usually cheaper than a equivalent spec'd PC latop. It's lighter. It's battery life is comparable. It has a great screen. It runs OS X. It has killer apps like Final Cut Pro and Motion available for it. More speed is always nice-- I'm all for it-- but there's really nothing wrong with the current crop of Powerbooks for the _vast_ majority of prosumers.

 

[Frobozz]

Well even with their botch-up OS, they manage to out render us, out game us, and out compile us. I'm appalled at how slow programs compile on my rev C 17" PB compared to my 2.6 ghz p4 linux box here at work.

Are you seriously trying to compare a 1.5 GHz laptop to a 2.6GHz desktop on a different CPU and OS architecture? Compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges.

You should be comparing the 1.5 GHz mac latop to a ~2 GHz PC laptop. OR, you should be comparing a 2.6 GHz x86 linux "box" to a 2.6 GHz PowerMac.

 

[sw1tcher]

Is the Radeon 9600 better then the GeForce FX 5200 Ultra?

He didn't say 9600XT nor 9600 Pro, only 9600. And the FX 5200 is the Ultra, not the 5200.

Is the 9600 lower than the 5200 Ultra?

I believe the 9600 (pro or xt) is better than the 5200 ultra. The 5200 ultra is a dog.