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PowerBook Updates in September?
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Let me preface my devil's advocacy with my support for a G5 powerbook. I think it would be great. However, I don't think it's as great as it sounds...
CEO's are non-commital. He said "3 GHz in a year" and it got him burnt. I think he's just leaving his options open. So, at best, I consider this CEO-speak to leave himself wiggle room should the recent 970's need to bridge to the Intel PB.
Apple has a *lot* of projects that have up to multi-year R&D cycles that never see the shelf. I would not consider this to be any different, and shouldn't be considered a catayst. If anything, they'll use that R&D to augment the Intel PowerBook transition.
Not really. I see your point, but the iMac and the PowerBook are Apple's two best selling Macintosh lines. Raw speed, although nice, is not the only reason why people buy PowerBooks. In fact, I really don't see PowerBook buying in the corporate environment and home environments around me slowing down (not to say it hasn't elsewhere I suppose.)
Agreed. But I think the Intel Pentium M dual core will be in a PowerBook by June 2006. There needs to be one more revision... I guess we'll see.
Well, I met his statement with skepticism too. However, with the Friday announcement that Intel is transitioning ALL of it's chips to a fundamentally new low power architecture, I think this news makes more sense. Plain and simple, they told Jobs about it early and he bought into the future road map they had and the volumes they can produce:
http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/08/12/intel/index.php
digitalbiker said:
CEO's are non-commital. He said "3 GHz in a year" and it got him burnt. I think he's just leaving his options open. So, at best, I consider this CEO-speak to leave himself wiggle room should the recent 970's need to bridge to the Intel PB.
Apple has a *lot* of projects that have up to multi-year R&D cycles that never see the shelf. I would not consider this to be any different, and shouldn't be considered a catayst. If anything, they'll use that R&D to augment the Intel PowerBook transition.
Not really. I see your point, but the iMac and the PowerBook are Apple's two best selling Macintosh lines. Raw speed, although nice, is not the only reason why people buy PowerBooks. In fact, I really don't see PowerBook buying in the corporate environment and home environments around me slowing down (not to say it hasn't elsewhere I suppose.)
Agreed. But I think the Intel Pentium M dual core will be in a PowerBook by June 2006. There needs to be one more revision... I guess we'll see.
5) IBM pissed at Apple releases press announcement about the low power G5. Maybe they were suppose to wait until after Paris, so Jobs could be the first to announce the G5 and surprise everyone.
Well, I met his statement with skepticism too. However, with the Friday announcement that Intel is transitioning ALL of it's chips to a fundamentally new low power architecture, I think this news makes more sense. Plain and simple, they told Jobs about it early and he bought into the future road map they had and the volumes they can produce:
http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/08/12/intel/index.php
Bull
You are way off base.
Amiga OS was extremely small, very, very, stable. Programs ran in their own protected memory space with individual process control. It had a great C++ extendable programing environment. It was also truly multi-tasking.
Neither Apple nor microsoft had OS's that were as stable, had protected individual memory space for programs, was multiuser, and multitasking. Amiga Dos had all of this.
You are very mistaken with your comment and must be thinking of something else or you have never owned an Amiga.
BRLawyer said:
You are way off base.
Amiga OS was extremely small, very, very, stable. Programs ran in their own protected memory space with individual process control. It had a great C++ extendable programing environment. It was also truly multi-tasking.
Neither Apple nor microsoft had OS's that were as stable, had protected individual memory space for programs, was multiuser, and multitasking. Amiga Dos had all of this.
You are very mistaken with your comment and must be thinking of something else or you have never owned an Amiga.
Man, that would be sweet. Amiga OS with no Guru errors running on the latest PowerBook with a 30 Mhz boost. My first Amiga only ran at 7.1 Mhz or something.
New screen with those specs? Not posssible.
There is no way that a new PowerBook (even a 17") is gonna have an LCD that outclasses a 20" iMac in terms of resolution (1680 x 1050)... Unless Apple has stumbled across a radically better source for LCDs... I just don't see a notebook outclassing the largest all in one desktop made.
There is no way that a new PowerBook (even a 17") is gonna have an LCD that outclasses a 20" iMac in terms of resolution (1680 x 1050)... Unless Apple has stumbled across a radically better source for LCDs... I just don't see a notebook outclassing the largest all in one desktop made.
digitalbiker said:
No, Amiga OS had no memory protection, hence why programs crashing would often cause the "Guru Meditation Error" which required a reboot. Later on there may have been memory protection put in for 68030+ CPUs, but as the majority of Amigas (500s and 1200s) had 68000 or 68020 CPUs that had no memory management unit, there was no memory protection.
Amigas were great though, a lot more affordable to people like me when I was a teenager than a Mac. Plus IIRC you could actually emulate a Mac Classic using a dongle on the Amiga, although the biggest problem was that the disk drive could not read Amiga disks.
dr_lha said:
Absolutely correct on the lack of memory protection on the Amiga OS - ironically one of the worst apps on the platform was AmigaBASIC, written by our good friends at Microsoft. I believe they used the upper 8 bits of a memory address for flags, which worked fine on a 68000's 24-bit address space, but exploded horrifically on a 68020 or above.
I used to run ShapeShifter/Basilisk on my old A2000/040, which managed to benchmark slightly faster than the equivalent Quadra. Such a lovely app.
Xapplimatic said:
I wouldn't look at it as outclassing the iMac, the "Power"Book and "i"Mac are in different classes, aside from being separate systems (portable and desk). Actually, perhaps outclassing is an appropriate term in which case the PowerBook SHOULD outclass the iMac, seeing as Apple markets the Power line as higher performance than the i line.
Aside for the class differences here, I think that changes made to a portable wouldn't directly impact that perception of the mobile line. Personally I hate the ultra high-res pc screens I see lately when in BB or CC, they just look stuffed. Don't get me started on those stupid "glare-reducing" (glare creating) covers they are putting on all those things these days, they make them look even more plastic and shi**y.
digitalbiker said:You are way off base.
Amiga OS was extremely small, very, very, stable. Programs ran in their own protected memory space with individual process control. It had a great C++ extendable programing environment. It was also truly multi-tasking.
Neither Apple nor microsoft had OS's that were as stable, had protected individual memory space for programs, was multiuser, and multitasking. Amiga Dos had all of this.
You are very mistaken with your comment and must be thinking of something else or you have never owned an Amiga.
I agree. The first computer with a good GUI for the OS that I used was an Amiga. I used it for Lightwave 1.0 (ahh the days) and for video switching. I never really knew much about Amiga's line of computers, but I can say that that was one heck of a reliable computer. I don't remember it crashing once, and once rendering begin, it always finished.
It does require a laptop no matter what. They even force IBM Thinkpads on us, but I managed to find a group of Engineering Comp. Support techs who support macs, and I know my way well enough around them to do this. If you don't have a laptop, classes won't let you in. Most colleges are turning into this, where you MUST have a laptop, no matter what.Lord Kythe said:As far as I know, the Apple Expo events (with the exact dates) are clearly listed and easily accessible through Apple.com's hot news page.
Why would one buy a PB in mid August when there's such a major event in September?
Don't tell me your school requires that you have a laptop or you'll be thrown out!
I wonder...
Papajohn56 said:
Really? Wow... I guess I can't argue with that!
I'd still try to borrow one or rent one if I absolutely needed one before Mac Expo Paris; but I can see that if it can be a requirement, and you don't have a store that rents laptops or a friend with one, you might be tempted to buy before that event.
Nevertheless, you can't blame Apple for choosing optimal sales over students in the current world we're in. With the Intel switch and Ad campaign strategies, they're gonna need as much money as they can get!
Thanks for clearing up that one for me!
digitalbiker said:You are way off base.
Amiga OS was extremely small, very, very, stable. Programs ran in their own protected memory space with individual process control. It had a great C++ extendable programing environment. It was also truly multi-tasking.
Neither Apple nor microsoft had OS's that were as stable, had protected individual memory space for programs, was multiuser, and multitasking. Amiga Dos had all of this.
You are very mistaken with your comment and must be thinking of something else or you have never owned an Amiga.
Well, I have extensively used an Amiga and had an Apple IIGS at the time...I can tell you, the GS/OS was way better, notably in terms of UI and overall operability (and also because it linked so well GS/OS itself with ProDOS 8 and 16)...but perhaps you're right in the nitty-gritty details for more powerful Amiga systems...after all, I used only an Amiga 500, which was at the bottom of the scale.
Besides, the hardware quality of Amigas was waaaaaaaaaaay below that of Apple...especially the mouse was of such crappy quality; but yeah, the Amiga broke some new ground, this is true.
7448 @ 1.7GHz
9700 w/ 64 RAM
seems about right to me.
Why?
1) Last iBook update was small - need to keep the difference after PB update
2) all engineers on Intel Switch (even AI reports delays because of this)
3) new platform (aka G5 or MPC8641) make no sense for one model cycle
btw - that's why I got for myself a nice new iBook.
Cheers
LaForge
9700 w/ 64 RAM
seems about right to me.
Why?
1) Last iBook update was small - need to keep the difference after PB update
2) all engineers on Intel Switch (even AI reports delays because of this)
3) new platform (aka G5 or MPC8641) make no sense for one model cycle
btw - that's why I got for myself a nice new iBook.
Cheers
LaForge
Sorry guys, but why would the ibook keep it's slow 133 and 142 MHz FSB if the Powerbook moved to 200 or even 566 MHz? Just doesnt seem logical to me.
Also, if such a powerbook update would be around the corner i don't understand why there wasnt a third (more expensive) mac mini 1.67 option instead of the strange 'third virsion' that's identical to the second one.
Also, if such a powerbook update would be around the corner i don't understand why there wasnt a third (more expensive) mac mini 1.67 option instead of the strange 'third virsion' that's identical to the second one.
shyataroo said:
???
FreeScale are the same set of people that were Motorola's CPU division. FreeScale was spun out of Motorola to continue making PowerPC chips. It's just a different name for the same idiots...
minimax said:
Why did they keep the 133 and 142 MHz FSB? Because for some reason the like the 10x multiplier.
For once going higher than 10x does not make sense, but you are right, they could have moved it 167 MHz, but they probably wanted to keep a difference even it is only for two or three months, maybe it also runs a bit cooler like this and they can use lower grade chips for the system controller.
mdntcallr said:
*runs his hands across his face* Its too early in the morning for this ****. The PowerBooks will be out before or AT WWDC next year. Mark my words on that. I will eat crow if that isn't true but....god. Not going to rehash a previously posted comment...go back a few pages and see my justification for why I think that but at the end of the day the PPC PowerBook is going to see...what is smaller then a speedbump? A hiccup. The PPC PowerBook is going to go out not with a bang but a whimper. Well it could go out with a bang if the Apple engineering team has some going away ceremony.
In the same room...
Boy,
I'd like to be in the same room to hear the discussion about the "Last" PowerPC Powerbook.
Apple has some great choices:
- The G5 at 1.6 ?
- The 7448 at 2.0 ( if they can cool it )
- The 8641
And my personal favorite: the 8641D.
I'd like to see Apple go out with a bang on the PPC's
- One 15 inch G5
- One 17 inch 8641D.
Then release the Intel Dual Cores next year.
Ok, I just woke up...
Boy,
I'd like to be in the same room to hear the discussion about the "Last" PowerPC Powerbook.
Apple has some great choices:
- The G5 at 1.6 ?
- The 7448 at 2.0 ( if they can cool it )
- The 8641
And my personal favorite: the 8641D.
I'd like to see Apple go out with a bang on the PPC's
- One 15 inch G5
- One 17 inch 8641D.
Then release the Intel Dual Cores next year.
Ok, I just woke up...
SiliconAddict said:
Hey SiliconAddict,
You should just keep that reply stored on your clipboard or a sticky on the desktop or something. You'd really save yourself a lot of typing. Man, I bet you wish you had a dollar for every time you had to justify your position on the unlikelihood of a PB G5. And I'm with you on that. Every time it comes up, I just wait for your "go-to" response rather than replying myself. (Unless Apple engineers like to do a complete product makeover twice in 9 months. Who knows?
)Squire