New PowerBooks - Finally

[rjstanford]

Re: Re: Re: To buy'n'switch or not...

Originally posted by Hugin777
Right. I wouldn't call that a lie though. As far as I can tell it's like comparing apples and oranges; I wouldn't be surprised if a PowerBook is faster than a 1.6ghz P-M in some applications and slower in others. I just don't care. I want OS X, I want instant on after deep sleep, I want portability, FireWire, etc. etc. I want a PowerBook 15" 1.25 GHz

Agreed, with reservations - for most people, it will feel as fast (maybe not as a 1.6, but at least as fast as a 1.3) or faster, because of QE offloading graphic duties. However, its the number crunching side of things that bothers me, with the slow comparitive benchmarks even the mac sites are putting out. Not a big deal for most people, but can be an issue for some of the pro users. And there you can compare apples to (hmm) apples quite frankly, through spec and other benchmarks, and the G4 is at best clock-for-clock with the P-M and at worst about 75% as powerful (per cycle).

And no, I don't accept the argument that that shouldn't be a concern (not that you were making it, but others were recently) - this is the Pro notebook. Every comment about the experience being all that matters and people who need more power should get a desktop would apply - if this was the new iBook. Maybe it should be, in fact - ultra low power consumption, one mouse button, lower (but acceptable to many) screen resolutions, G4 power. It would be an amazing iBook, and all of my quibbles about it would disappear. However, its marketed (and priced) as the "professional" laptop, and I don't see why it shouldn't be evaluated as one.



Ah, well. Off to work - g'bye!

-Richard

 

[BagelTycoon]

15" PowerBooks sell out in NYC store < 2hrs.

I took a quick trip to NYC's Apple store yesterday hoping to get a look at the new PBooks, but they were already gone.

A store rep. said that the 15"ers went on sale at Noon, but they were all sold out by 2 pm.

No bluetooth keyboards or mice in the retail store either.

Who was the MacGenius on the supply for this one?

 

[Dell Dude]

Dude... I'm gettin a POWERBOOK... Just made the switch and I can't wait till it comes. Apple Rocks! I'm gonna go pick up a baggie to celebrate.

 

[crees!]

Originally posted by mrdeep
"*NEW** 15" POWERBOOK SPECIAL PRICE - A special bulk purchase enables us to offer the brand new 15" Powerbook 1.25GHz/512MB/80GB/SuperDrive/AirportExtreme/Bluetooth/BacklitKeyboard at a price of $1995. This is a limited quantity purchase and it is not clear if we will be able to repeat this offer when they are gone. Until September 27th, there is a $200 rebate if you purchase a Powerbook and an iPod. Another $100 back if you also buy a selected printer."

So i'll be getting:
$1995 15" Powerbook 1.25/512/80/Superdrive
$ 369 20GB Ipod
$ 239 3 years of Apple Care
$ 100 Printer
$-300 Rebates
$2403 Total

(FYI, "retail" ~= 3547 - whatever rebates are still availible).

For those of you ordering from the Apple Store Edu and you're doing the $300 Rebate deal w/ the iPod and HP printer.. remember the only printers available for that rebate are the 3 listed there.. all each about $300 a piece. There is that HP 5150 $99 printer in the next promotion below that and it's something different.. There's the Buy A Bundle and there's the You Save You Rave. Make sure you don't get them confused as I did.

 

[BagelTycoon]

Re: Dell Dude

Hey Dell Dude, when you get the munchies, don't forget about those bagels.

I'm guessing that you've got a preference for poppyseed.

Just be careful that you don't get any seeds inside that PowerBook keyboard and mousepad. Sesame, poppy, and garlic may be brain food, but they're not good for your PBook.

You might want to try a cinnamon-raisin with sliced Apple and walnut-raisin cream cheese.

Mmm

 

[richarch]

Originally posted by crees!
For those of you ordering from the Apple Store Edu and you're doing the $300 Rebate deal w/ the iPod and HP printer.. remember the only printers available for that rebate are the 3 listed there.. all each about $300 a piece. There is that HP 5150 $99 printer in the next promotion below that and it's something different.. There's the Buy A Bundle and there's the You Save You Rave. Make sure you don't get them confused as I did.

I don't think the statement above is completely correct.

The terms and conditions of the rebate form states:

"and any HP DeskJet printer with an MSRP of $99 or higher, any HP Photosmart printer with an MSRP of $149 or higher, or any HP All-in-One product with an MSRP of $149 or higher."

The buy-a-bundle page says:

"You’ll even get the world's best-selling MP3 player — any iPod you choose, and a free printer, too."

The printer could not be free if it cost more than $99.

I'm purchasing the HP 5150, including it as part of the rebate, and printing out all the documentation. If Apple changes the terms and conditions, I'm ready for a fight

-rich

 

[Pring]

Originally posted by crees!
For those of you ordering from the Apple Store Edu and you're doing the $300 Rebate deal w/ the iPod and HP printer.. remember the only printers available for that rebate are the 3 listed there.. all each about $300 a piece. There is that HP 5150 $99 printer in the next promotion below that and it's something different.. There's the Buy A Bundle and there's the You Save You Rave. Make sure you don't get them confused as I did.

Hmm are you sure? The Apple UK equivalent promotion states in the small print that the 5150 is included in the deal (which admittedly is quite odd, getting a printer for £19).

Update: Most of the HP printers on the AppleStore UK seem to be out of stock anyway, there's no "Add to Order" button beside them.

 

[Sun Baked]

Wow, it really looks like the new Intrepid chipset, used in the DDR iMacs/PowerBooks, was built without USB 2.0 support.

Look's like Apple is going ahead and using the PCI-to-USB bridge like they did in the Rev B MDD PowerMac G4 and the PowerMac G5.

Power Controller

The 15-inch PowerBook G4 can operate from a 15 volt power outlet on an airline, but for safety reasons, the computer will not allow battery charging. In order for the computer to detect the connection to airline power, the airline power cable should have a sense resistor of 24.3K ohms connected between the power plug's shell and ground.

The 15-inch PowerBook G4 has a variable speed fan control circuit and a thermal circuit that will force the unit to sleep and slow down the processor if the processor temperature exceeds 85 degrees Celsius. The circuit remains active during sleep so that it can continue to poll the temperature.

The power management controller in the 15-inch PowerBook G4 is a custom IC called the PMU99. It supports several power-saving modes of operation, including idle, doze, and sleep. For more information, see “Power Management”.

Processor and Bus Slewing

To lower power consumption and heat generation, the 15-inch PowerBook G4 incorporates an automatic power management technique called bus slewing. Bus slewing is designed to run at high processor speed, bus speeds, and voltage when the demand on the processor is high, and to run at low processor speed, bus speeds, and voltage when the demand on the processor is low. Switching between different processor/bus speeds and voltages is achieved by a transition that operates seamlessly to the user and should not impact system or application performance.

The 15-inch PowerBook G4 allows the user to control bus slewing mode. The options for specifying either high, reduced, or automatic processor and bus speeds are located at System Preferences>Energy Saver>Show Details>Options>Processor Performance; then select Automatic, Highest, or Reduced.

Slewing is enabled with the automatic setting. When the 15-inch PowerBook G4 is operating on AC power, the default is highest; when operating on battery power, the default is automatic.

If the 15-inch PowerBook G4 detects a system temperature that is too high, due to high ambient temperatures or other factors, it will automatically force the system to slew regardless of the selected setting.

When the 15-inch PowerBook G4 is in slewing mode, the processor, processor bus, and memory bus dynamically adjust their speeds based on the current needs of the system. In the 1.0 GHz configuration, the processor speed will switch between 1 GHz and 612 MHz. In the 1.25 GHz configuration, the processor speed will switch between 1.25 GHz and 765 MHz. For both configurations, the processor bus and memory bus will switch between 167 MHz and 102 MHz.

 

[socbyset]

Anyone know when to expect new 12" pbooks to appear in apple retail stores? Is it a matter of days, or weeks?

 

[tribalogical]

Re: 2 Button mouse for a PB

Originally posted by gloftis
There is one:

http://www.rocketmouse.com/

Also, you can get a Logitech marble mouse for 19.95

Geez, nice... now, if they could just do that one *wireless* I'd be in heaven....

tlc

 

[tribalogical]

Re: Re: 15.4" Powerbooks

Originally posted by KeareB
The difference is that 15.4' screens now have resolutions up to 1920x1200 - as is found on the current widescreen offerings of Dell - versus the (new) Powerbook with a screen resolution of 1280x854.

I'd call that .2" a pretty big difference, and the sole reason I'm not biting on this new 15" Powerbook.

I actually think that the fact that Powerbooks have lagged so far behind the Wintel world in terms of screen resolution to have been the biggest shortcoming of Powerbooks in the past few years.

I love running my G4 Tower at 1600x1200... but that's on a 19" monitor, and that's an absolute minimum... (as it is, I sometimes have trouble seeing/reading the small type on interfaces, like on my soft-synth plugins)...

Squeezing 1920x1200 into 15"?? How well do you squint??

I don't think I'd be able to read the tiny-type labels at all in that environment... not good...

I think Apple has held off on boosting res, not so much because they can't do otherwise, but because ergonomically, it just make sense to strike the best overall balance... 15":1280x854 seems a pretty good balance to me...

just one humble opinion

peace,

tribalogical

 

[mspock]

some early test

http://www.barefeats.com/al15.html

Some early test...not bad..just depending on what software you are running

but check the quake and unreal benchmark..not bad at all VS the 1.3 ghz centrino...

anyway these new powerbook look great..can't wait for panther...

 

[vrapan]

They don't say what type of graphics card the Centrino based laptop has. Windows based ultraportables tend to have really bad integrated graphics and a 1.3MHz P-M makes me believe that this is what it has. Given that the 9600 ATI is a really godd card I would like to see tests for the 5200Go on the 12" and a Centrino based laptop with a similar graphics. In any case 100FPS is really nice...

 

[esheep2001]

I'm not going to trawl through the entire thread so if this has already been posted then I apologise.

Here's a xbench comparison between an old 1GHz 1GB Ti and the new 1.25GHz 1GB Al.

enjoy

http://www.xrings.net/xrings/article.php3?id_article=239

e.

 

[Yuki]

why change from from Titanium to aluminum alloy ?
I though Ti should be better.

 

[SiliconAddict]

Originally posted by vrapan
TGiven that the 9600 ATI is a really godd card

I would agree ATI cards are god like

 

[dennis88]

I like the thought of being able to play unreal tournament 2003 in 75fps with "high" quality settings and 1024x768 on my powerbook!

 

[socbyset]

Originally posted by Yuki
why change from from Titanium to aluminum alloy ?
I though Ti should be better.

Ti is lighter & stronger, but from what I understand aluminum is a better heat conductor & the aluminum pbooks are more scratch resistant. I think the airport reception is also better but I'm not sure if this has anything to do with aluminum vs. ti.

 

[singletrack]

Aluminium is about half the weight of Ti and conducts heat better. It's about half as stiff though so you have to use more aluminium than Ti to retain structural rigidity although I suspect the rigidity in a Powerbook comes from the main chassis rather than the outside panels. If it's like an iBook, those are magnesium. Magnesium is quite brittle though so not such a good thing for an outside case. It (aluminium) does however dent more easily as it's not as ductile. Steel wins on the dent stakes although I can't see that being cool unless Apple started making Reynolds 853 air hardening laptops.

Carbon composite would be my choice for the outer case but heat issues may prevent that. IMHO the iBook case is technically a better piece of engineering although not as business like and people don't spend megabucks on plastic computers, well not from Apple anyway.

Can you tell I'm a bike journalist ;-)

 

[Nawlins]

It's a shame Apple couldn't have released the new Powerbooks over the summer so more college students would buy them. I've been in school for 3 weeks now - I had to buy a computer over the summer, and so did a lot of other people. It's a shame to see a computer many people bought updated so soon after they bought it, especially when Apple probably knew a lot of people would be in the market to buy a new computer over the summer.

Alex

 

[99paa]

One-Day Harvard Discount

In case anyone is wondering, There's a one-day special in Boylston hall (Harvard Yard) at Harvard. If you get there before 5 today, a 15" 1.25 ghz is $2199, the new 12" is 1299 (combo drive) and the 17" is 2599.

They don't have any new models on display. Now I have to decide if my 500mhz iBook is going to make it until the g5s get here or if I should pull the trigger on a 15" now...

Edited: Harvard Students/Faculty only.

 

[gif32]

Apple Finance

I ordered my new 1.25ghz 15" bright and early Tuesday morning (practically as Steve was announcing it in Paris...) and was very excited about the "available today” status on the website.

However - Apple called my house to verify that I was shipping it to a different location (my college apartment) than my credit card is billed, but I didn’t get that message until late Tuesday afternoon. I called Apple, waited on hold for up to 30 mins at a time to talk to 4 different people, and finally got things straightend out. My order status is still “open,” but changed to “On or before 9/18” (used to be 9/16.) I called this morning and they said it’s “marked for shipment” today, but they couldn’t tell me whether it was leaving from California or Tawain. Apparently it’s the origin that determines whether the 2-3 day shipping takes 2 days or 3. I’m leaving on a roadtrip on Friday afternoon and that would be a great chance to play with my new Powerbook, but only if it gets here in time!

I specifically decided not to BTO because I wanted it this week, and that cost me a little extra $$ for features I didn’t necessarily need.

Anyone who has received shipping conformation: where did yours ship from? Think I’ll get it by Friday? Is it normal for the public site to lag behind the information the phone rep gave me about being ready to ship?

BTW it’s my first mac - a new switcher - and I can’t wait!

 

[gif32]

15" Battery

So what's the deal with the battery life? Is Apple really silly enough to cut the watt-hours of the new 15" battery (over the old one) just to make it a few ounces lighter? I did read about a feature where you can put your powerbook to sleep and have three minutes to switch batteries while the system runs off a backup. Is that new or has that been standard powebook stuff for a while? Something my sony vaio (which gets about 45 mins of battery life - 30 if you use the wifi - no lie) never did!

 

[erik19]

Originally posted by Nawlins
It's a shame Apple couldn't have released the new Powerbooks over the summer so more college students would buy them. I've been in school for 3 weeks now - I had to buy a computer over the summer, and so did a lot of other people. It's a shame to see a computer many people bought updated so soon after they bought it, especially when Apple probably knew a lot of people would be in the market to buy a new computer over the summer.

Alex

True enough eh?

But at least now those of us who waited can reap the (slightly better) rewards.

(Yeah, i had to use my old iMac DV for a whole two weeks....shudder)

 

[zync]

Originally posted by KeareB
I actually do use in real life a WUXGA resolution screen. Admittedly, it's a matter of personal preference - my dad's eyes aren't good enough to be comfortable with the screen - but I absolutely love it. I most definitely thank the screen resolution gods every day that I work on a big spreadsheet, have multiple web browsing windows, have two word processing pages side by side. If I could trade in my current Powerbook for one that had a similar WUXGA screen as my PC notebook, I'd be super-happy.

Some of you may prefer nice big pixels and are satisfied with how much you currently can fit on the screen. All I'm pointing out is that Apple is _WAY_ behind state-of-the-art on screen resolution. All I'm asking for is a choice to be able to have a higher screen resolution Powerbook.

No offense, but why doesn't anyone ever think about dual monitor (well LCD and monitor, or LCD and LCD) support? I mean yes, it's great to have the ability to have a super huge resolution on the go, but you don't ALWAYS need it...if it's not entirely important, just wait until you get home and throw it on your TV or another display. If it is important that you can do this while on the go then I guess your best option is to wait for something better or settle.