pb "updates coming"?

[jamshark70]

Apologies if this has been covered before... also, I have another, related question to probably hasn't been covered.

I'm considering an upgrade to a PowerBook -- I have no problems with my current machine (700MHz G3 iBook), but I bought it to do live computer music using SuperCollider and I'm bumping into CPU limits often enough that I want more raw power.

So I see the advice in the buyers guide here is not to buy, updates are coming soon. How soon are we talking about? I can hold out for another six months, maybe longer, but we also have to factor in the supply chain.

My other big worry is that I depend on ViaVoice for OSX for my non-music writing. It seems to be a dead product (still only certified for 10.1, can you believe that?), but it still works reasonably well in 10.2 and some say in 10.3 as well. I'm concerned that if I wait too long, I may end up with a 10.4 machine and there may be horrible compatibility issues. (I tried MacSpeech also but I could never get it to work, but that was a while ago -- I hear there are some improvements since then.)

Or should I wait till the new models come out and capitalize on the price drop on older machines?



Thanks for the advice --

 

[jackieonasses]

Apologies if this has been covered before... also, I have another, related question to probably hasn't been covered.

I'm considering an upgrade to a PowerBook -- I have no problems with my current machine (700MHz G3 iBook), but I bought it to do live computer music using SuperCollider and I'm bumping into CPU limits often enough that I want more raw power.

So I see the advice in the buyers guide here is not to buy, updates are coming soon. How soon are we talking about? I can hold out for another six months, maybe longer, but we also have to factor in the supply chain.

My other big worry is that I depend on ViaVoice for OSX for my non-music writing. It seems to be a dead product (still only certified for 10.1, can you believe that?), but it still works reasonably well in 10.2 and some say in 10.3 as well. I'm concerned that if I wait too long, I may end up with a 10.4 machine and there may be horrible compatibility issues. (I tried MacSpeech also but I could never get it to work, but that was a while ago -- I hear there are some improvements since then.)

Or should I wait till the new models come out and capitalize on the price drop on older machines?



Thanks for the advice --

i hear new voice features are coming in tiger.....not sure if it is what you wanted, and i don't even know what it includes/

 

[jamshark70]

i hear new voice features are coming in tiger.....not sure if it is what you wanted, and i don't even know what it includes/

"Voice features" usually means recognition for commands... "small-vocabulary" speech recognition. I'd be really surprised if they put a large-vocab continuous speech recognition engine in there, as that is a real resource hog. Plus it requires training and is not as easy to learn to use as one might think.

Unfortunately for Mac users, it's either ViaVoice (stalled development) or MacSpeech (sketchy error-correction interface).

I'm leaning more and more toward picking up a Tiger machine after there's a price drop. Don't need the latest and greatest, just more power than I have now.

hjh

 

[James L]

Dude,

On Oct 19th (i.e, next week), it will be 6 months since the last PB update. Trust me, if you can wait for up to 6 months for another update there WILL be one. I would guess in January at MWSF personally.

I do not hold out for a big one, however. CPU upgrade, bigger or faster HD options, that kinda thing.

As to availability/shipping, I order my PB on April 19th of this year (the day they came out), and I had it in my hands exactly 1 week later. If the next update is the same thing (just small improvements on the current design), availability won't be an issue. the only time there are usually big backups for machines is when a new model comes out, a la the new iMac G5.

Cheers!


p.s., I did the exact same jump you are talking about. G3 600Mhz iBook to a G4 1.5Gh Powerbook. 640MB RAM to 1GB of RAM. 20GB 4200rpm HD to an 80GB 5400rpm HD. 8MB of VRAM to 128MB of VRAM. 100Mhz system bus to a 167Mhz system bus,etc. The difference was HUGE!!!

 

[cr2sh]

Ahh.. you know, the original Al PB as released in April or so 2003, it took a year and a half to get the update and since then they've been few and far between. Another thing, during that waiting game I believe macrumors was telling folks not to buy "updates coming soon."

It's a crap shoot, but the next update will likely bring those new core g4's - no g5 likely. If you need it, buy it - but damn, I'd be hard pressed recommending a new PB for your needs. There's no doubt a second gen. perhaps 12" PB 1GHz would do all that you need.

 

[Rod Rod]

cr2sh: the original aluminum PowerBook came out in January 2003. the 12" models were available at that time, and it took two more months or so for the 17" to show up (both the 12" and 17" were introduced at MWSF Jan '03).

James L: that's amazing that you got your CTO machine after only one week. I bought my stock-configured 12" three or four days after they were introduced, and it was really neat to just walk in, plunk down my money, and walk out with a just-introduced computer.

jamshark70: whether you take advantage of price drops on previous generation equipment or pick up the latest model, you can't go wrong. even right now you can get great deals on PowerBooks from the online Apple store, smalldog.com and macconnection.com.