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Of PowerBooks and PowerMacs
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I have personally given up on getting a new 15" PowerBook. I have already left for school two days ago and I am at my grandparent's house a day away from the college, so now I am just going to stick to my trusty PowerBook G3 for at least one more semester and perhaps wait until Christmas break. It's already given me nearly 4 1/2 years of perfect use and 2 years of college use, so one more semester won't kill me. It's probably better this way, too. It's all but a given that by Christmas break the new PowerBook G4 will be out, that it will have Panther pre-installed, and by then, there should be much stronger and more belieavable rumors/info about upcoming PowerBook G5s to either know to wait another month or two or to just get the current one at a great rate with Panther included. It sounds like the best bet to me. Here's to another half a year of service for my PowerBook G3, let it live long and prosper.
The very fact the creator put it as a low quality image, with the *reason* being that it was from a newspaper, shows that they didn't have a lot of time to pay attention to details! Was good for a laugh though
A Collection Of MY TWO CENTS
MY TWO CENTS on:
G5s in the PowerBooks and Xserves
Oh Please Let Them Be!
Realisticly though --
Does anyone actualy have power dissapation figure for the G5s yet? The 9 fans dont mean much, neither do the big heat sinks: the case needs to be wide enough for full size PCI cards and HDDs, so there is plenty of space over the processors; might as well bolt on as large a heat sink as posible. The fans are stated to run at extra low speeds to keep noise down.
The obvious choise for the next G5 bassed machine is the X-serve.
MY TWO CENTS on:
G5s in the PowerBooks and Xserves
Oh Please Let Them Be!
Realisticly though --
Does anyone actualy have power dissapation figure for the G5s yet? The 9 fans dont mean much, neither do the big heat sinks: the case needs to be wide enough for full size PCI cards and HDDs, so there is plenty of space over the processors; might as well bolt on as large a heat sink as posible. The fans are stated to run at extra low speeds to keep noise down.
The obvious choise for the next G5 bassed machine is the X-serve.
- Many server apps already 64bit, easily ported to X.
- X-serves run OSX Server, and its easier to switch that to a 64Bit OS than the main OS -- which has legacy suport considerations (Why Panther can't be 64Bit).
- X-Serves are Apple's most recent expansion -- they've done Desktops and Laptops for ever, but the X-sereves are a recent venture, and a major new market for Apple. And best of all its probably easier to get server customers to switch to Mac than desktop ones -- UNIX compatibility does matter and the'll probably be buying a new system at once rather than a few new machines.
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That said server customers can't tolerate bugs -- so there is some reason to wait a while and let the chip prove itself.
So X-serves get 2nd gen G5s?
There are several factors with laptops that cause real problems.
Limitid power supply (the battery) and cooling resticions due to the form factor. The latter is made worse by the fact that you cant bolt in a bunch of fans to make up because A) air vents are too easily blocked by clothing etc. B) fans draw power so back to the battery problem. Form factor also necessitates carefull design of Mobo and layout of componants like HDD and optical drive.
X-serves share the second probem to some extent: 1U rules out big heatsinks and requires a flat layout Just like laptops. Develop one, and it will make developing the other easier. Which one comes first? Xserve is easier to design (no battery, bigger case, no screen) but must be 'better' (more reliable -- near zero fault tollerence for servers nowadays).
I reckon one more generation of G4s in the Powerbooks; if only because the G5s will require a complete internal redesign. X-serveG5 probably berfore PBG5, but only after the G5 has been up and running for a while.
Which leads me on to:
The VT Cluster:
First of all: look at the numbers. 1100 is a nice order for Apple; and enough for them to do special things (ie unusual spec) but compared to the total number of orders its hardly going to cause a delay. If anything the size of the order and it's intended application would cause Apple to handle the VT order seperatly from the normal orders. IE they're not getting your dualie they're getting their special dualie.
Chances are the culster was one of the very first orders, and probably was made before the G5 was announced.
Of course Apple will treet VT rather well -- so they should. It will be great advertising for them and also great research -- I'd put money on the fact that Apple will be watching the culster closely for anything that will be relavent for future use of the G5 -- IE G5 X-Serves and Culster X-Serves. See above.
SteveNote at Paris
Last year no SteveNote: Software announcements mainly.
Next big software announcement from apple will probably be that Panther is shipping. Not that big an announcement realy. We've seen much of Panther (wittness the fact that the Panther preview pages seem to g into almost as much depth as the Jag pages on the website) at the WWDC and even there the key announcement was a bit bigger.
Jobs seems to like standing next to pretty bits of kit at keynotes -- I can still remember the photos of him smilling next to the G4 Cube. Realisticly I do expect a hardware annoucement in Paris, probably powerbooks.
Apple realy must ship the G5s before the Expo or they will look silly indeed, just as there is some logic to delaying new powerbooks untill after the G5s have shipped -- wich might expalin the 'unspecified' nature of the delays in the arival of the Powerbooks.
Anyway
sorry to have gone off topic at times -- I wasn't the first
sorry bout the copeus typos -- I'm using an peecee so am semi-comatosed
sorry about the length -- verbose mode you see
G5 or bust!
Just decided to drive down to Paris for the Sept. 16th keynote and stroll around the Apple Expo. Why not, right Hopefully, Steve will be announcing a G5 Powerbook 12" and iPod peripherals (as dreamed about before) so I can return to Amsterdam with a big smile on my face.
If he doesn't, I think I'll just get a secondhand G4/867 12" ... saves me 1000 euro's off a new one. And then I'll just wait for 2nd/3rd gen G5 Powerbooks.
Just decided to drive down to Paris for the Sept. 16th keynote and stroll around the Apple Expo. Why not, right
Hopefully, Steve will be announcing a G5 Powerbook 12" and iPod peripherals (as dreamed about before) so I can return to Amsterdam with a big smile on my face. If he doesn't, I think I'll just get a secondhand G4/867 12" ... saves me 1000 euro's off a new one. And then I'll just wait for 2nd/3rd gen G5 Powerbooks.
Apple will not be announcing PowerBooks with G5's. I would really love for that to happen, though. There have been arguments pro and con on this very point. And I think those who are thinking they will be G5's are setting themselves up for a serious let down.
Bust or Bust
looks like you're gonna be going 2nd hand buddy. The powerbook will probably be released Christmas 2003 or availible to the market by that time. Even if Mr. Jobs announce the release of the new/old powerbook in France, do you really think that it be availible to the consumers by the end of the Month?? The G-5 Powermac was availible for consumers a significant amount of time after he "released it". If there is a G-5 Powerbook (heh) I would'nt count on it until March 2004?
looks like you're gonna be going 2nd hand buddy. The powerbook will probably be released Christmas 2003 or availible to the market by that time. Even if Mr. Jobs announce the release of the new/old powerbook in France, do you really think that it be availible to the consumers by the end of the Month?? The G-5 Powermac was availible for consumers a significant amount of time after he "released it". If there is a G-5 Powerbook (heh) I would'nt count on it until March 2004?
hot powerbooks!
ok, not to add more fuel to the flame, but speaking of hot, has anyone dreaming about g5 powerbooks laid their palm on a g4 12" or 17"??? They're hot enough to fry bacon on! if i had to venture a guess i'd imagine before apple upgrades powerbooks to a g5, they need to turn down the temperature on the ones they've got! or at least move the location of the hard drive back to where it is on the tibook. i can't imagine anything hotter then the aluminum ones out there now.
ok, not to add more fuel to the flame, but speaking of hot, has anyone dreaming about g5 powerbooks laid their palm on a g4 12" or 17"??? They're hot enough to fry bacon on! if i had to venture a guess i'd imagine before apple upgrades powerbooks to a g5, they need to turn down the temperature on the ones they've got! or at least move the location of the hard drive back to where it is on the tibook. i can't imagine anything hotter then the aluminum ones out there now.
It would be a wonderful surprise if they announce a new PowerBook G5 lineup at Apple Expo Paris but I really wouldn't get my hopes up. It's much more likely that Motorola has once again dropped the ball. One rumor that really scares me is that they couldn't provide Apple with sufficient quantities of the new 1.0 Ghz and 1.3 Ghz 7457 chips until January~February so Apple, knowing that customers are not going to stand for it any longer, had to go back and redesign the PowerBook logicboards for these 1.0 Ghz and 1.25 Ghz 7455 chips so they have something to release this year. This would certainly cause a significant delay. I hope it's not true but knowing Motorola it very well could be.