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New iBooks out now

ibooks Cheaper in Aussie

New ibooks are $200 cheaper at the Australian store. Which just about brings them inline with the exchange rate. (be great if apple did this with its whole range)

Though with the education discount they're damb cheap.
= May just have to get one.
 
Re: 128MB sucks

Originally posted by eric_n_dfw
I really am surprised that the built in, non-upgradable, memory is 128MB - even on the 12" PowerBooks! I would have thought they would have at least bumped that to 256MB. Adding a 512MB SODimm puts me at 640MB as a maximum which just barely above the minimum of 512MB that I would want to have.
Click to expand...



Exactly. Although the 100 Mhz speed bump, combo drive and 10 G hard disk update for the 12" iBook was decent enough, it would have been a GREAT update(given the suffocating processor situation bec of the PBs) if the RAM was AT LEAST 256. Hear us Apple!!! :mad:
 
Re: 128MB sucks

Originally posted by eric_n_dfw
I really am surprised that the built in, non-upgradable, memory is 128MB - even on the 12" PowerBooks! I would have thought they would have at least bumped that to 256MB. Adding a 512MB SODimm puts me at 640MB as a maximum which just barely above the minimum of 512MB that I would want to have.
Click to expand...



Exactly. Although the 100 Mhz speed bump, combo drive and 10 G hard disk update for the 12" iBook was decent enough, it would have been a GREAT update(given the suffocating processor situation bec of the PBs) if the RAM was AT LEAST 256. Hear us Apple!!! :mad:
 
Re: Re: CD-RW

Originally posted by ewinemiller
I'd actually like to see the opposite. I want a DVD to entertain me on the road, but don't really need to burn on the road. It'd be great if I could a DVD without paying the combo premium. It's a shame Apple doesn't allow just a little more customization. Though with a 60gb drive and I think I read someone saying DVD Player will play off the hard drive, I can probably stuff a few movies there.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Apple used to have a $50 DVD upgrade option on the low-end iBook. They eliminated that when they bumped up the ibooks to the 700/800 Sahara G3s and the Radeon 7500. Their ploy worked, though - I shelled out $1300 for the Combo drive model whereas I woul've only spend $1050 for the DVD-upgraded low-end model had that been an option. I suspect a lot of people who bought the Combo drive model felt the same way I did...
 
I bought the CD-ROm drive model but would definetly have liked a DVD only option. I have an IMac i dont need cd burning in my lappy
 
Re: Funny Whining

Originally posted by reedm007
So what I think is funny is that whenever Apple releases speedbumps (other companies do this as well, mind you), people bitch and moan about how horrible it is, and invariably someone will start posting about getting a win laptop because of it.

Now, what if Appld DIDN'T update the line? Then we'd still have the old models.. The prices didn't go up, we just get more bang for our buck than if we bought iBooks yesterday, right? So how could anyone possibly think this is a bad thing?

Sure it's not a major revamp of a line, but how can we possibly complain every time there's an update without a huge change? Isn't it better to release speedbumps at the same prices more regularly than to wait longer for bigger updates?

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Kudos to improved iBooks.
Click to expand...

it think i would agree with you if the speed bumps would come in shorter regular intervals but they dont. they come in the time of a major upgrade. and the people complain about going to wintel books because wintel books have the newer technology faster buses. faster proc. for cheaper (i know high end is a bit different.) but for the same price as the combo drive 14in. ibook at 900 mhz agp 2x 256 ram. i can get an 2.4 ghz p4 plus agp 4x and combo at 15 inchs. and 384 ram..
now to a regular consumer. what looks better to you.......
i am not mad at apple. i love the speed bumps. but i do agree they should have given us a bit more.
a 1 ghz ibook would have been great.;)
 
Originally posted by Perceptes
I need to get a laptop when I leave for college this fall... I like the style/price of the iBooks, but they're just too slow! Mac OS X can barely hold itself together on my G4/466! Nice to see they're upping it a little bit though.
Click to expand...

What are you talking about??? I have a G4/466 myself, and it runs 10.2.5 beautifully!

It's true that performance is truly subjective, but I am hard-pressed to believe that you'll find OS X slow on that machine. I have 704 MB RAM; maybe you should consider a memory upgrade before you invest in a new machine...
 
Re: Re: 128MB sucks

Originally posted by eric_n_dfw
I really am surprised that the built in, non-upgradable, memory is 128MB - even on the 12" PowerBooks! I would have thought they would have at least bumped that to 256MB. Adding a 512MB SODimm puts me at 640MB as a maximum which just barely above the minimum of 512MB that I would want to have.
Click to expand...

I remember that when 512MB wasn't available as a single card, the maximum used to be 384MB. Could this happen when 1GB/1024MB chips become available? Could the iBook/Powerbook address that much RAM (1152MB)?

AppleMatt
 
Re: Re: Re: confused

Originally posted by zimv20
can you post some pics?
Click to expand...

these pictures are rather crappy. as you can barely see, the hinge is white (crappy PC mouse plastic) instead of metallic silver and the interior is white (ditto) instead of silver.

also, the interior casing by the A/C port has extra plastic where it wasn't cleanly molded.



back.JPG

front.JPG
 
good and bad

the white hinge is nicer IMO than the silver. the silver looked out of place. i always correlated silver with the PB series...

the white plastic instead of clear with white paint on the inside isn't as nice looking :(

my guess is that the white plastic is better at NOT showing small scratches than the clear is.

--

regarding apple's earnings, those numbers are for the entire company. building all the new whic bang apple stores is not cheap. and they are not paying themselves off by any stretch. from what i recall, most struggle to break even at the end of the day. when $ in = $ out before taking into account creating the new store... your operational numbers will suck for a while.
 
Re: good and bad

Originally posted by yzedf
the white hinge is nicer IMO than the silver. the silver looked out of place. i always correlated silver with the PB series...

the white plastic instead of clear with white paint on the inside isn't as nice looking :(

my guess is that the white plastic is better at NOT showing small scratches than the clear is.
Click to expand...



My guess is that it is a lot cheaper to produce an unfinished surface.

You can't see it but the white unfinished plastic has little flaw marks all over it actually. There are also a couple of black marks that wont wipe off.

The only benefit I see is that the solid white outer casing would be less likely to show surface marks like the translucent casing does.

This would be cool for a $999 iBook but with AirPort and tax, I paid about $1479 for this setup.

If Apple wants to put out a cheaper finish on its iBooks, that's fine, just knock a $100 off the price and pass the savings along to us.
 
I have seen many posts comparing this upgrade to the last upgrade. Although, I have not once seen mention of the cashe increase at the last upgrade.

Some posts questioned how apple claimed a 30% performance boost last upgrade. I thought the cashe increase played a major role in this performance boost.

In truth, I know close to nothing about cashe. (I am not even sure if I am spelling it correctly.) Could someone explain how cashe effects performance?
 
All you guys whining about RAM issues, IMO, i think you guys are making a big deal out of nothing. The 12" isn't intended for performance. If you wanted that go buy desktop replacing 17", or the 15". I can understand maybe the grip about the 14" iBook, but even still I think Apple intended to have those notebooks be their versions of ultraslims, and the point usually with ultraslims isnt really performance, its portability. Just my two cents. And if i sound like I'm flaming, I'm sorry if i do, but I'm not.
 
Originally posted by John_DiMatteo
I have seen many posts comparing this upgrade to the last upgrade. Although, I have not once seen mention of the cashe increase at the last upgrade.

Some posts questioned how apple claimed a 30% performance boost last upgrade. I thought the cashe increase played a major role in this performance boost.

In truth, I know close to nothing about cashe. (I am not even sure if I am spelling it correctly.) Could someone explain how cashe effects performance?
Click to expand...

The G3 has always had 512K of L2 Cache. Basically this is 512K of memory on the processor running at full speed. Programs can offset specific instructions to this memory and benefit from it greatly.

The G3 is an awesome processor and can best a lowend G4 (256K L2 cache, no L3 cache) at the same speed on non AltiVec operations. AltiVec is an instruction set that programs can take advantage of to increase performance. The G3 is lacking AltiVec.

Another thing that makes the G3 shine in portables is its lack of heat due to low power consumption. iBooks have far superior battery performance compared to PowerBooks.
 
There was an increase in L2 cache

I have stated that there was an increase in L2 cashe in the iBook and, based on Apple's press releases, it seems that I am correct.

When Apple introduced the 14 inch iBook, all of the iBooks had 256 L2 cashe. Apple states this in this press release.

Could someone please tell me how much a change from 256 to 512 cashe effects performance?
 
Re: There was an increase in L2 cache

Originally posted by John_DiMatteo
I have stated that there was an increase in L2 cashe in the iBook and, based on Apple's press releases, it seems that I am correct.

When Apple introduced the 14 inch iBook, all of the iBooks had 256 L2 cashe. Apple states this in this press release.

Could someone please tell me how much a change from 256 to 512 cashe effects performance?
Click to expand...

My mistake, the 300-466MHz iBooks have 512K L2 cache. The 500-600MHz before May 2002 have 256K L2 cache. The 600-900MHz iBooks after May 2002 have 512K L2 cache again! I have only owned the the first and the latter and didn't realize it had changed in the middle.

In any case, cache, despite its small size is important. Doubling the cache will likely provide signficant performance gains. I know that the lack of L3 cache in the G4 seriously hinders performance.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: confused

Originally posted by MrMistyFreeze
these pictures are rather crappy. as you can barely see, the hinge is white (crappy PC mouse plastic) instead of metallic silver and the interior is white (ditto) instead of silver.
Click to expand...

thanks for posting them. it's kinda hard to see the differences from the pics; i'll have to go see them in person.

if you're thinking of returning it for the old 800 MHz ibook, i'd support that. that's the one i've got and it's great.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: confused

Originally posted by zimv20
thanks for posting them. it's kinda hard to see the differences from the pics; i'll have to go see them in person.

if you're thinking of returning it for the old 800 MHz ibook, i'd support that. that's the one i've got and it's great.
Click to expand...

Here is a better picture from ZDNet Japan showing the unpainted and painted iBooks side by side. The difference is very noticable.

books.jpg
 
hey, my brother is going to college next year and we are getting him a portable. he is majoring in film and music, should we get him a 12 inch powerbook, or the updated ibook 14 inch? he wants a to hook up a an old portable monitor at his dorm. which one?
eric
 
12" PB will prolly be the better choice for the long term.

smaller / faster (G4) / BT / better ext monitor support...

downside is the extra $$$ of course ;)
 
Originally posted by ericthemacpope
hey, my brother is going to college next year and we are getting him a portable. he is majoring in film and music, should we get him a 12 inch powerbook, or the updated ibook 14 inch? he wants a to hook up a an old portable monitor at his dorm. which one?
eric
Click to expand...

i would let him pick, i always get mad when ppl buy big things like this for me.
 
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