New Powerbooks and iBooks Next Tuesday?

Ya, Baby. That's what I''m buying....New PB and Jam

 

Well I should have one soon once I decide to get one with all the updates coming and all.

 

Can not wait for new PowerBooks.
Heres to hoping that they come out soon.

 

You PowerBook waiters can just sit and wait. The iBooks will be updated first.


Member of the iBook Waiter Club

 

Any chance that they will be updated before Cram and Jam is up? MacWorld Boston is next Tuesday. They can announce both the iBook update and the PowerBook update. The PB is nearing the 6 month mark and I think that computer manufacturers should update there products at least every 6 months.

 

I mean it would only make sense for Apple to update both lines before school starts. If they update both around late July/Early August that will be great for back to school.

 

New PowerBook today baby!

Yeah, Baby. That's what I just bo't....New PB and ACD (and iPod mini, of course!). Ordered online yesterday afternoon, it all arrived today, 24 hours later, 4:45 PM, in my hands!

Damn, I am impressed!

 

Not going to happen. The PB probably won't see an update until MW Paris at the earliest based on their new 8-9 month update cycle. When was the last time Apple announced a new product or update at MW Boston? Have they ever? I can't seem to remember.

 

12" PowerBook £1,049.00 (£892.77 ex VAT)

1.5GHz PowerPC G4
512MB DDR333 memory
60GB Ultra ATA/100
NVIDIA GeForce FX GO 5200 (64MB DDR)
Full size Keyboard
10/100BASE-T Ethernet
FireWire 400
2 USB 2
Mini-DVI out

Ships with Tiger

vs 12" iBook with various upgrades to match closer:
£824.00 (£701.28 ex VAT)

1.2GHz PowerPC G4
512MB DDR266 SDRAM
60GB Ultra ATA drive
ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 (32MB)
DVD/CD-RW
Bluetooth Module
AirPort Extreme Card
Two USB ports
One FireWire port

So for £225 pounds you get 300MHz, a barely better graphics card and miniDVI. Less battery life apparently? Less rugged?

And that's with Apple's pricing on upgrades. I could get a 1GB SoDIMM from Crucial instead of the Apple 256MB DIMM for just £88 (or get 256MB for £20). I could get my own much faster hard drive. Do I need bluetooth?

I'm sorry Apple, but I don't think that it is worth it at the moment.

 

Don't forget the much faster, blazing 5400 rpm hard drive!

 

Definitely.

I love my PowerBook. I was going to wait for an iBook update but when the PowerBooks go updated, I said screw it, and went with a PowerBook and I never looked back.

 

Any predictions about what that update will include? G5? HD? 2.0 Ghz? Standard 2GB of RAM? Now i am just making stuff up.

 

I wouldn't necessarily look to Paris for updates unless they are major ones. Since when does apple announce minor speed bumps and the like at major expos?

 

I think that Apple announces minor speed bump ups on their own website and with a press release. Those really are not keynote or media event material.

 

Bear in mind that the PB line is likely the first to be switched to pentiums for the simple reason that the G4 chip simply cannot keep up and it was obviously impossible to get the G5 working in a laptop.

Steve jobs said that Pentium-based macs would be out in a year or so from the WWDC (and a complete transition - i.e. the PMs - in 2 years).

So that means that in 11 months from now(ish) PB Macintels are likely to be announced/rolled out. I wouldn't hold out for a major PB upgrade in the mean time If I were you! Apple are probably hard at work getting the Pentium hardware/software together right now for that date.

Don't expect much from Boston (as has been said before) or Paris on the Mac front. iPod however - may be a different story.

Personally I'm just going to sit tight right now and wait for the Macintels to start rolling out.

 

Replaced With New Product

I ordered a 17" g4 powerbook a couple of nights ago. It's not supposed to ship until the 13th, and now its tagged in the Order Status as "Replaced with New Product"...could this be an updated powerbook or just something insignificant???

 

That seems to have been happening to lots of people randomly. I'd just assume its a glitch until apple announces something.

And I think there will be an in-between update with the PowerBook. They can't go without it if they want to keep sales up. What the update will be, I can't tell. It could be a G5 for all we know, because of IBMs new low power 970FX (though its unlikely because that we go against Jobs's reasons for going Intel). Or we may just see another speed bump, though I don't know how they could make it better.

And plus if they plan to update iBook, they'll have to update the PowerBook.

 

ibook vs. powerbook

Okay all you powerbookers, I see that your thread is taking its time catching on, so I thought I'd help out. I just posted this in the ibook thread, and so I'm posting it here to get your side of the story.

I cant' really afford a pb, but let's pretend I could. I seem to recall reading that powerbooks were less durable, had poorer battery life, and worse airport reception than ibooks. If powerbooks were in every way vastly superior to ibooks, I'd be tempted to just go ahead and max out the ol' credit card and buy one. But I'm sure as hell not going to do that if it means paying $500 to get a machine that runs a abit quicker and has some nifty features, but doesn't do the things that I need it to do most (surf the internet in my back yard so I can do research and write papers outside).

CAR ANALOGY WARNING! THE FOLLOWING TEXT CONTAINS CAR ANALOGIES!

ibook = older Japanese car, does everything you need it to do with very little trouble, and gets great gas mileage; powerbook = fancy italian sports car, goes really fast, handles like a dream, but sacrifices fuel economy and reliability.

So, since you all are so convinced that powerbooks are so great, tell me why. I've never owned either an ibook or pb, but I want to learn all I can. Does anyone have any realworld experience with both in terms of battery and airport? Is there something I don't know? Illuminate me, oh powerful ones!

 

Re: ibook vs. powerbook

I have owned several various PowerBooks over the years (PB 100, PB 180, PB G3 Firewire (Pismo), PB G4), and today's iBook is essentially very similar to the PowerBook G3 Firewire (Pismo), with an G4 CPU, a different colored case, and other minor parts upgrades. The PB G3 Firewire (Pismo) has a black plastic and rubber case which I prefer much more than the Aluminum of current PBs and the white plastic of the iBooks.

The battery (new) in my PB G4 lasts longer than the battery (new) in my PB G3. Battery technology has improved greatly, so I expect that an iBook ought to have better battery performance than the PowerBook because it has less power demands. I am curious to do a one-on-one comparison. If someone with an iBook wants to compare, then please let me know. We can come up with a series of tasks to see how long a fully charged battery lasts on each machine. I know I am getting around five hours from a fully charged battery on my PB G4 doing just normal tasks: surfing the 'net, iTunes, watching DVD, etc.

I knew the Airport performance on my PB G3 Firewire (Pismo) was excellent compared to others' Wintel laptops, but didn't realize how excellent until I got the PB G4. The PB G3 Firewire (Pismo) with an original Airport card has easily ten times better wireless reception both in distance and strength than my new PB G4 with an Airport Extreme card. I can take my PB G3 Firewire (Pismo) anywhere around my house inside or outside and get very good wireless signal. With my new PB G4 I essentially must be in the same room as the wireless transmitter. That really makes me mad, because what's the point of wireless if I can't be mobile?

So that is my experience with those machines.

 

Did you get any BTO options?

Ordering BTO options is what usually triggers the "Replaced with New Product" message. The order enters the system as a stock machine and then gets "Replaced with New Product," your custom BTO machine.

I think you must have ordered BTO options because I bought a 17" PB G4 last week and it arrived at my house 24 hours after I ordered it!

 

Apple only has 24 more days till it hits the Buyers guide average of 185 days or 6 months. Unless they pull an iBook right now (100+ days/3+ Months over average), we should see PowerBooks update near the end of July/early August. Personally I am waiting till mid September to switch. If it still did not update by then, I am still going to buy a 12" PB because the current revision is excellent for my needs and I want a free iPod Mini.

 

yeah i did order a BTO, just upgraded the RAM to 1 gig ... and it shipped today from China

 

The Apple Education Store.