New Powerbooks Next Week?

[arn]

cameron writes:

Look for new Ti PBs arriving next week. Top of the line will be a 800 MHz. CPU. Substantial price cuts on the 667 and 550 machines. No news on superdrive or integrated Bluetooth.

PowerPage provides some further details:

To be released Tuesday, 30 April 2002:

* 667 MHz G4, 20 GB HDD, 256 MB RAM, DVD/CD-RW, US$2499
* 800 MHz G4, 40 GB HDD, 512 MB RAM, DVD/CD-RW, US$3199

 

[Macmaniac]

Faster

That sounds cool. If they do come out then this has to mean that there has to be new PowerMacs at MWNY! I hope they do come out, it would be a big boost.

 

[Beej]

Certainly sounds reasonable. The Power Page usually isn't too far wrong, either.

Perhaps Apple saw the horrible state we were in yesterday (while nothing was going on in the world of Apple), and they decided to cheers us up!

Or perhaps not...

 

[PaulRod]

that can't be all...???

Let's hope.. if this turns out to be true.. that this is only a speed bump to hold us over til July...

I've got my finger on the trigger, just waiting to splurge $3000 on a new laptop.. but I don't think this will do it...

I'm more apt to pick up a 667 at a discount... or wait til July

But what's the chance of Apple updating the Ti's again in 2.5 months??

 

[jelloshotsrule]

it's a start...

but as people have said, this doesn't seem like enough. unless they do something else in july, which seems weird. but who knows.. nothing but surprises with apple

 

[barkmonster]

And how long have apple being sitting on this ??

When the 1Ghz G4 came out there way a low powered version available at exactly the same time from motorola, rated at up to 800Mhz, it didn't take inside knowledge to know at the time, just a quick look on the PPC page on the motorola site. why it's taken this long to release new TiBooks with the faster CPUs is beyond me, unless they wanted to clear most of their remaining stocks of the current models at full price before new models appeared.

Still it's good to see Apple are slowly bringing the portable line up to speed with the entry level desktop models.

 

[TyleRomeo]

hey do the new TiBooks have a faster system bus or just the plain old 133?

 

[sjs]

I don't see how this would be a good deal. PowerPage shows the new 667 with 256 RAM and 20 gig HD at $2499. Currently at the Apple Store the 550 with same RAM and HD is $2299.
So this means a bump from 550 to 667 for an extra $200. If that's true, it's fine, but its not a price drop.

Maybe that helps cover the higher costs of lcds and RAM.

 

[Falleron]

Sounds like the old bus. No DDRAM either (at least until next revision)!!

 

[eyelikeart]

hmm...maybe I will be putting mine up for sale soon???

guess we'll find out what's going on within the next week...he he he

 

[chibianh]

updated powerbook at the end of April and again in July?? would they do that? If they do, I'd rather wait another 2 months.. Any word on what the graphics chip might be? I'm more interested in that..

 

[sjs]

actually, if they drop the current 550 by $100, that means they are charging an extra $300 for the bump to 667, given that other components remain unchanged.

for $300 i'd wait...

 

[jelloshotsrule]

it seems silly to me that the 550 would only go down 100 and have the 667 (new) at 300 more... unless (as others have said) there will be some more specs to accompany it... graphics card, etc...

 

[IndyGopher]

Strange math you folks do...

I keep hearing the figure "2 months" and I keep checking my calendar to see which month got the axe.. from the end of April to the end of July is still 3 months on all my calendars.. hope I didn't get ripped off at the stationery store. That's a whole season... a quarter of a year. ALSO, since several of our fine folks here seem to forget, each and every time, that if there's anything significantly different announced in July (end of July, mind you) it will take 6 weeks to ship. Just like always Which means, of course, it will be more like 5 months (6 would not be a surprise) between April 30th and anything announced at July's MacWorld.

 

[iH8Quark]

http://www.dell.com/us/en/gen/topics/segtopic_inspiron8200.htm

The Inspiron 8200 gets you up and running with the fastest Mobile Intel Pentium 4 processors on the market today - up to 1.7 GHz - while the companion Intel 845MP chipset ratchets the Processor Support Bus (PSB) speed from its previous 133 MHz to a lightning 400 MHz. The system memory is Double Data Rate (DDR); the clock speed of the new memory modules is 266 MHz, twice the speed of the PC133 DIMMs used on earlier Inspiron platforms.


Not to mention the screen on the Dell is WAY higher in resolution.

Swing and a miss.

 

[chibianh]

Originally posted by IndyGopher
Strange math you folks do...

I keep hearing the figure "2 months" and I keep checking my calendar to see which month got the axe.. from the end of April to the end of July is still 3 months on all my calendars..

Actually, I've been the only one that said that.. and yes, you are right.. sorry... look what public education has done to me... 19 and I still can't add/subtract correctly.. or count months for that matter... oh well, makes ME wonder why they let me into this college... lol

Anyway, I just hope there the 800mhz is the 7445(?) and with a better graphics chip than current tibooks.. I got my hammer ready to bust open a HUGE piggy bank!!

 

[TyleRomeo]

ok 800MHZ G4 with a 133 bus blows away a 1.7 P4

 

[dongmin]

pipe dream alert

IF they announce new TiBooks next week, no way will they announce another update in three months. So stop dreaming.

 

[sjs]

This isn't a NEW TiBook. Its a speed bump with a more than commensurate premium for the extra few megahertz.

As someone said, the 800 processor has been available for some time already. This is just a crumb to hold us over.

Less charitably, it may just be a way to sneak in what amounts to a price increase without calling it that.

 

[sjs]

re: P4 1.7 yadeya

When they calculated the 1.7 ghz speed,were they including an allowance for the time it takes to reboot after your PC crashes?

 

[Mr. Anderson]

With WWDC in 2 weeks, what purpose does it serve to put out a new update to the TiPB one week in advance? Wouldn't it have been better for Jobs to use the announcement in his keynote?

Maybe there is a lot more in store at WWDC, but my guess is that the rumor is just a week off and we'll see the new TiPB then.

 

[TyleRomeo]

the 800 is definately just here to hold us over. it takes some of the pressure of apple's shoulders for a little while now they can make another breakthough this july or wait till september to give us a 933 powerbook.

 

[Vilacr]

If we only get a speed bump to 800 mhz we are far behind the peecee world. We get no graphics cards or ddr ram and still more than half behind in the mhz game. Apple needs to give us more. I am whinning for I truly know the TiPb 550 is about as fast as a PIII 650 mhz dell latitude in everyday tasks( not all of us do photoshop). So where does that leave a TiPb 800....far behind a peecee running at 1.7 ghz,64 meg graphics card and ddr ram.

 

[sjs]

ok i've got it figured out.

Over time the price of chips goes down, for the same speed, due to improving yields in manufacturing.

So, if a 550 tibook with 20 gig hd and 256 ram has been $2299 for several months now, we should at this time see the same configuration but with 667 at the same price.

But that configuration will be $2499 if the rumor is right. That is a price increase!

So what is happening here is that this is the equivalent of the iMac price increase, but instead of an announcement its disguised as a "new" tiBook.

Come on guys, thanks for the speed bump, but lets don't call this a new machine or a price decrease.

 

[G4scott]

Originally posted by iH8Quark


http://www.dell.com/us/en/gen/topics/segtopic_inspiron8200.htm

The Inspiron 8200 gets you up and running with the fastest Mobile Intel Pentium 4 processors on the market today - up to 1.7 GHz - while the companion Intel 845MP chipset ratchets the Processor Support Bus (PSB) speed from its previous 133 MHz to a lightning 400 MHz. The system memory is Double Data Rate (DDR); the clock speed of the new memory modules is 266 MHz, twice the speed of the PC133 DIMMs used on earlier Inspiron platforms.


Not to mention the screen on the Dell is WAY higher in resolution.

Swing and a miss.

and we are supposed to care about this because...???

Be happy with a Mac. You may have an indy 500 car, but you can't drive it on the streets where you NEED it. With a Mac, you can have the power you need and still be productive, instead of working with that 'other' platform...