No 3GHz Soon and No G5 Laptop

[awesomebase]

Much cheaper than that!

i agree, these duals should ship with at least 512 MB. (i guess that would be 2 x 256 MB since they need to come in pairs, right?) that adds $100, at most, to the cost of each PM. for a computer with dual processors costing $2000+, it's unacceptable to short change the user on such a petty level on the default configuration that it's hardly usable out of the box.

I'm just taking a wild guess at this, though I used build custom systems myself, but, I would guess that the extra 256MB might cost Apple an extra $25 to $30 at the most. Still, if they have bottom-line margins to meet, that could easily over-ride any other concerns.

 

[DonkeyKong]

so if we're not going to see any new updates for PowerMac, iMacs or PB's in WWDC, what do you guys think is going to be the "big surprise"?

 

[jxyama]

I'm just taking a wild guess at this, though I used build custom systems myself, but, I would guess that the extra 256MB might cost Apple an extra $25 to $30 at the most. Still, if they have bottom-line margins to meet, that could easily over-ride any other concerns.

well, the thing is, apple will need to put in two 256 MBs to replace the current two 128 MBs. so that's why i guessed on the high end and said $100. OEM parts in volume like this should bring the price down even further, probably to the leve you suggested.

decent amount of RAM is now almost a necessary part of a computer. for them to short change on RAM is like not including a mouse. it hardly makes a difference in terms of costs but leaves a really bad impression on the users that their machines are barely usable out of the box.

if they had to include 512 MB and increase the price by $50, so be it. i find it rather absurd that they even offer 256 MB as a default to begin with.

 

[abhishekit]

so that leaves us with what? what will be the surprise package of the conference? just new displays cant be it..or atleast it wd be a boring one, if they are...and yeah , its a developers conference..but still there wd definitely be something.,oh , i am confused

 

[awesomebase]

Don't know!

so if we're not going to see any new updates for PowerMac, iMacs or PB's in WWDC, what do you guys think is going to be the "big surprise"?

Maybe the big surprise will be 64-bit OS natively! Or it could be that the big surprise is that there is no big surprise!

 

[King Cobra]

Well is he going to release something this fall as 3GHZ or is this it? If this is it and we don't see a 3GHZ this fall, IBM is not living up to it's end of the bargain.

What I'm thinking is Steve might make a quick announcement at WWDC like: "A 3GHz PowerMac G5 is in the works and will be shipping towards the end of the summer," just to cover his back. But, even then, I don't see that happening.

We got longhorned!

lol well, almost. The new PowerMacs only require 1GB or 2 for the operating system.

 

[Papercut]

Seems like the new PM line is targeted solely to the serious pro. I guess whatever comes out at the WWDC is gonna be for the rest of us.

 

[jxyama]

so that leaves us with what? what will be the surprise package of the conference? just new displays cant be it..or atleast it wd be a boring one, if they are...and yeah , its a developers conference..but still there wd definitely be something.,oh , i am confused

i think WWDC will resort back to the way it's usually been: "boring" conference for developers. last year was an exception because G5 really was a major, major change in the architecture of Mac computing and really was of interest to developers. iMac upgrade isn't really that important to developers. neither is iPod stuff.

product announcement isn't the point of WWDC. tiger will be the big announcement and that'll probably be it.

 

[BakedBeans]

so if we're not going to see any new updates for PowerMac, iMacs or PB's in WWDC, what do you guys think is going to be the "big surprise"?

i think the surprise will be that they dont release anything and that they will keep on charging to much money and ripping of there loyal customers (sorry just how i feel today)

speed bumped imac, new displays, 13.3inch powerbook??
donnu but its looking pretty lame at the moment the 2.5 is fine but everything else is not good enough in my opinion

 

[Stewie]

where did you read that 90 nm is cooler?

smaller the feature size, more power that is needed to combat dark voltages and cross talks... no?

I thought I had read (to lazy to track it down) that one of the reasons for the delay in faster processors from IBM was a heat issue?

/But that is just my opinion, I could be wrong.

 

[awesomebase]

I agree 100%!!

if they had to include 512 MB and increase the price by $50, so be it. i find it rather absurd that they even offer 256 MB as a default to begin with.

Exactly!! Now if we can just get those Wi-Fi iPods, our attention will be diverted away from the PMs!!

 

[alexf]

Wow! I'm surprised that the dual 1.8 GHz and 2.0 GHz machines are actually DOWNGRADES from the previous models!

The dual 1.8 GHz model no longer has PCI-X, only has half of the previous hard drive size (80 GB), is now only expandible to 4 GB RAM, and ships with only 256 MB of memory instead of 512 MB.

And the graphics card of the dual 2.0 GHz machine has been downgraded to the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra!

Sure, the prices have been reduced and they now all have 8x superdrives (about which I could really care less), but this "downgrade" is incredible... How can this be?

 

[NusuniAdmin]

Are you guys going to finally stop speculating when the g5 pb will be released?

 

[jocknerd]

The big surprise?

so if we're not going to see any new updates for PowerMac, iMacs or PB's in WWDC, what do you guys think is going to be the "big surprise"?

Steve is announcing that he is leaving Apple to go run Disney. Just my guess. Apple's stock drops to $5 per share as a result.

 

[BakedBeans]

Apple just loves to piss me off this is why I am just going to Build a PC , Fu*k Apple , atleast they could have put out something better in the lower models. a single/dual 2ghz and Dual 2.2 low and mid end would have been great. and come on $3000 for a comp and all we get is a 2nd rate soon to be outdated and replaced Radeon 9600XT that should be minimum . a 9800XT should be standard on a 3K machine , i'd love to see Dell , HP or AlienWare try to pull this Bull Sh*t off. ALL APPLE HAS DONE IS UPDATE 1 MACHINE AND NOW IS TRYING 2 SELL US IT'S OVER STOCKED CRAP AT A DISCOUNT.

While i like the Liquid cooling alot i'm disappointed to see it's only on the High end. NOTE TO APPLE: AMD NOW HAS AN ATHLON 64 +3800. They will have a +4000 by Oct/Nov or sooner.

Also Why did they ever bother to put in a PCI-X Slot in. this is a complete waste as PCI-X will be used Exclusively for the Server Market, The PC Industry has already Picked the Better and faster PCI Express as the new Standard to replace PCI making PCI-X a total waste unless ur running an X-Serve. Doesn't Apple Realize i can Biuld me a Spanking new +3800/FX-53 system for under 2K , and don't let me jump on those Phoney Benchmarks where the new G5 2.5 beats the AMD 64 FX-53 by 93% .....LMAO yea right.

im in agreement with you that this upgrade sucks
apple bank on there very good os selling there over priced hardwar....just my tupence

 

[windowsblowsass]

Are you guys going to finally stop speculating when the g5 pb will be released?

they already said it wouldnt happen it wont stop them it may slow them down but not by much

 

[IBSNOWEDIN]

The new PMs are WAY over prices i think apple needs to fire their marketing team and get one from the PC world becasue the prices the way they are Apple will never sell any macs and in 10years down the road apple will be no more unless they do something... but apple thinks their PMs or even their imacs are priced right... for what they offer.. 256mb ram and 1.8ghz..and 80gbs harddriver for 1999US u can get a PC for 1000CAN (around 750US) that is 3.2ghz P4 1GB ram 120gb HD and a ATi 9800 XT... come on apple if u have to take one thing from the PC world take their marketing.

 

[hayesk]

Wow, some of you guys are a bunch of self-absorbed cry-baby whiners.

It goes like this: Apple makes products, you decide if you want to buy them or not. Apple doesn't owe you anything. But yet I read incessant bitching here like Apple owes you a new display, Apple should have bent the laws of time and physics to make you a Dual 3GHz machine, etc. etc.

You all get your self worked into a frenzy by reading rumours and speculation and now you're upset. Gee, well no wonder. And yet you wonder why Apple doesn't like rumour sites.

Give me a break people. A dual-2.5GHz PowerMac is a damned fine machine. A 3GHz would only be a wee bit faster (maybe 10%). Why is a dual 3GHz so great, and yet a slightly slower, but otherwise identical, machine so crummy?

 

[Mac|caM]

The "no 3Ghz anytime soon" comment is not too encouraging. Given Apple's recent problem with telling time (similar to what women say about men knowing distance), it could be a year or more before 3Ghz. That is not encouraging at all.

Steve does need to be careful about his comments (100 mil downloads, 3 gigs, etc). It is one thing to make those comments and back them up. People will respect and follow you to the end of the earth if you are that kind of a leader. Making promises or even just claims and not being able to follow through (regardless of your fault/control or not) will start to make people doubt your ability to lead or be trust worthy.

First off, it seems that IBM has gotten their 90nm processes at least under control to make pretty significant clock speed and bus speed increases. That means it should not be nearly as long 'till 3Ghz as it was to 2.5.

Secondly, Steve-O never said that they would have sold 100 million songs, only that they were trying to. Plus, since Steve says himself that he doesn't really understand chip structure or production (at last year's WWDC, he was confused about branch-prediction, etc.), he was simply going on IBM's technical estimates of timeframes, and put it out as a "promise", since he's the CEO and that's his job.

 

[pjkelnhofer]

Yeah, I know that they want you to upgrade and they want to make money, but, I think you're missing the point... every business wants you to upgrade, but Apple has a DUAL PROCESSOR machine... that means right off the bat it is a higher-end piece of hardware. They should be going to 1GB right off the line. The fact that they won't even start theirs at 512MB is absurd... especially in light of the fact that they didn't meet their 3GHz promise. It is almost like they made this release half-heartedly... like they didn't care. Well, it doesn't do them any good to make their top of the line machines look weak. After all, IBM probably doesn't make those memory chips. Apple could have just as easily added more memory to their machines and at least tried to bolster that part of the PM beyond what was offered a year ago. My 3-year old TiPB at 550MHz has 512MB... and it wasn't that special when I made the upgrade (I sold the 256MB 133MHz module and got 2 256MB 100MHz modules for $30 less). Do you think that would be so horrible? I think Apple is more than capable of doing AT LEAST that kind of an upgrade...

Just how is Apple supposed to add $200 of RAM along with a $200 more expensive video card without raising the overall product price?

 

[IBSNOWEDIN]

Wow, some of you guys are a bunch of self-absorbed cry-baby whiners.

It goes like this: Apple makes products, you decide if you want to buy them or not. Apple doesn't owe you anything. But yet I read incessant bitching here like Apple owes you a new display, Apple should have bent the laws of time and physics to make you a Dual 3GHz machine, etc. etc.

You all get your self worked into a frenzy by reading rumours and speculation and now you're upset. Gee, well no wonder. And yet you wonder why Apple doesn't like rumour sites.

Give me a break people. A dual-2.5GHz PowerMac is a damned fine machine. A 3GHz would only be a wee bit faster (maybe 10%). Why is a dual 3GHz so great, and yet a slightly slower, but otherwise identical, machine so crummy?

your right but still.. at least lower the prices or add 512 ram all around.. the update is great but what they offer with it is crap

 

[relimw]

Hopefully this will stop the "Apple will release 3GHz machines next week" speculation

arn

Dang it! I want my dual 3GHz machine with all the beels and whistles! If this is Steve's idea of 'shock and awe' I'm stunned by the silence

Hopefully he'll have something decent to show us at wwdc other than eye candy. Being able to have remote gui login of different accounts (ala X11, but for Mac gui) would be a nice feature.

But alas, I suppose I can't wait any long for my precious 3GHZ machine....

 

[The Red Wolf]

1984-2004

First off the G5 update has an 8X Superdrive. When the eMac was updated, everyone whined about their Pro machine (or not even purchased Pro machine) only having this and that. Much argued about and now seriously overlooked.

Now, the ATI 9800 XT 256 MB VRAM - Last I checked that was top of the line.

1.25 GHz bus. That's 500 MHz across the board for the dual processors not to mention RAM, PCI-X slots (on the top 2 machines), etc. Anyone got a PC with 8 GB RAM in it, or even the expansion for it on a 1.25 GHz bus?

Liquid cooling... I work with MDD G4s. They are the noisiest machines I believe Apple has ever made, all to cool them down. (NOT GOING TO TALK ABOUT THE STARTUP NOISE) I'm looking forward to them being replaced by G5s. Any G5s.

With that said, the WWDC is coming. iMac G5s? Maybe. Tiger yea, perhaps it will blow us away. New Screens maybe. Wireless Firewire to surpass blue tooth? Maybe. We can speculate about many things.

So here is my speculation: 84-04 Versions of the current line. Reasonable in price but with a bit more power. Kind of like a Wolfsburg Edition VW. Cheeper than the top of the line but with a Porsche suspension or some other goodie. A $2500 Dual 2.5 GHz with an 9800 XT standard but bluetooth and airport ready. Reasonable. Or unreasonable, insane, Steve Jobsian WWDC Keynote style. Shipping in Aug. 2004 The 84-04 PowerMac G5 Tower, Cube, and iMac. Also special edition G4 Portables. 20 Years of Macintosh. Let your imagination think up the specs. But not $10,000 with a leather keyboard. How about a single G5 2.8 GHz processor on the 130 process? Madness, it's all madness. Sit back and enjoy the show.

 

[hayesk]

The new PMs are WAY over prices i think apple needs to fire their marketing team and get one from the PC world becasue the prices the way they are Apple will never sell any macs and in 10years down the road apple will be no more unless they do something... but apple thinks their PMs or even their imacs are priced right... for what they offer.. 256mb ram and 1.8ghz..and 80gbs harddriver for 1999US u can get a PC for 1000CAN (around 750US) that is 3.2ghz P4 1GB ram 120gb HD and a ATi 9800 XT... come on apple if u have to take one thing from the PC world take their marketing.

Perhaps Apple's products cost more because it costs more to make them? There's more to pricing a product then just adding the cost of components and adding a bit of profit.

Apple has to develop the OS, develop the hardware, market the entire platform all by themselves (Lord knows the whiny "Apple is out to screw us" third party resellers don't help), and produce the machines. But yet you expect them to cost the same as a company that only has to produce the machines?

What marketing wizards are going to make all of this happen at a cheaper cost?

 

[aldo]

What a joke this update is.

1. Graphics cards - totally shambolic. You can get the top end cards in PCs that cost this much.
2. RAM - oh god, Apple drops the ball again!?
3. HDD space - 80GB in this kind of machine? Should be 160GB at the bottom and 2x 160GB in the top.

It's painfully obvious that Apple is way off getting good supplies of the 2.5GHz chips so they have resorted to liquid cooling - it's basically overclocking the CPU.

Also, CPU clockspeed gets less and less important every day. Apple drops themselves in for this by marketing all it's products with it's CPU speed. Apple now has the fastest clocked CPU out of IBM, Apple and Intel (Intel has switched to the Pentium-M core which is currently around 2GHz I belive). With some clever marketing they could of easily got round this, and they could of even marketed them as 5GHz machines (2x2.5GHz).

Overall a very disapointing update, and another broken promise. itunes, pepsi promotion, 3ghz - the list goes on. I personally am reconsidering what I want for my next computer - PC or Mac. Mac gets harder to justify everyday as I could build a totally kickass system for half the kind of price apple wants