Well, what could possibly be on a new 17"?
7457 is probably not due for a few months - only benefit is larger cache - slightly lower power or maybe slightly faster speed (1.1Ghz, 1.2Ghz?) - who knows when Motorola can deliver this in volume. The extra cache is probably the best feature - otherwise most users will probably not notice (we are probably looking at barely a 10% improvement)
Radeon 9600 Mobility could be included - but unless you live on games, or graphics programming, the current GeForceGo 440 is pretty decent. AGP 8x is also nothing woop-dee-do, especially for a laptop.
Faster DVD-RW? Not likely - the device is actually faster, but Apple limits the speed since apparently the device burns a lot of coasters the faster it goes.
Digital Sound? Probably not until the G5 PowerBook - and that's a ways off.
Better battery? Probably not.
Better screen? Doubt it.
Better AirPort? Huh?
Better Keyboard? Not sure how they'd do this (unless they made it bigger)
Better HDD? Sure - 80GB are available, or 50GB 7200RPM ones - but you could actually buy one of these anyways and use it with the current model. SATA support might wait until the G5 powerbook - besides how many SATA 2.5" drives are there?
Better case? Doesn't seem like there were any problems with the current one, so highly doubtful.
Better memory? Not sure if there's a point with the current G4 bus. DDR400 also consumes more power than the DDR333, but it could be dual channel - Apple could then rape you for memory because you'd have to buy 2 sticks at their prices
(and that would be more of a marketing ploy than an improvement... so yet another feature coming with the G5 powerbook)
Did I forget anything?
So there you go, buying a 17" now is still probably a good choice even if they do update it the day after you make a purchase.
Just don't beat me up if this happens ok?
-Wyrm
