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PowerBook Updates in September?

Buying my PB in late october of 2003 was one of the greatest desicions of my life. Very little has been updated since I got mine. There are only 4 things they have added that cannot be upgraded on my machine.

1. Faster ghz - Do i really need that in a portable?
2. Video Ram (same card) - maybe good for video games, haven't had a problem with FCP, or PS, or anything else video related.
3. Bluetooth EDR - Umm, is there any devices yet?
4. Faster System bus - from 133 to a whopping 167, sheesh we are speeding now.

My big concern is if Apple goes with the intel graphics controller and going the shared ram route, if that is the case i will probably not ever get a new powerbook. Im hoping they are teaming with ATI/Nvidia and won't use onboard stuff. If they discontinue the 12" i will find a corner to go cry in.... it is by far the best computer i have ever owned.
 
Sun Baked said:
Huge expense to switch to a new chipset when Apple doesn't plan on using it too long, didn't think the current Intrepid supported DDR2 or a 200MHz bus.

We usually saw Apple stick with major chipset revisions for 18-24 months on chips they built.
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It appears that Apple made the decision to do the Intel switch in a relatively short amount of time and rather recently. So it is likely that the chip set in question was under development and basically ready by the time the Intel switch was made. I have heard a few hardware folks, working on PPC projects, say that they got surprised by the announcement of the Intel switch and didn't know what it meant for the projects they happened to be working on (they of course knew that Mac OS X / application teams purposely maintained the x86 option just in case).

Anyway we are a good 12 months away from the first of the MacIntels, unless Apple pulls of some quick engineering both hardware and software wise. In other words a new chip set would have a decently useful life and if it is basically designed already (would have to be if this close to shipping) the development money has been spent, so why not go with it.
 
Koodauw said:
What is really interesting is the talk of the 12'' being discontinued. As a 12'' PB owner, I truely hope not, as I love this machine. (On the second now!)

That said though, the 12'' really isnt for the Power user, more so the Prosumer.
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Anyone think it might be the time to make the standard screen on the 12" Powerbook a little... wider. :eek:
 
areyouwishing said:
My big concern is if Apple goes with the intel graphics controller and going the shared ram route, if that is the case i will probably not ever get a new powerbook. Im hoping they are teaming with ATI/Nvidia and won't use onboard stuff.
Click to expand...

What makes you think they'd do that? On future iBooks, maybe, but PBs will almost certainly have a dedicated GPU. Even PC laptops (except Dells) aren't all shared memory - my year old Thinkpad has an ATI Mobility Fire GL 9000 GPU and current ones hava ATI x300s.
 
Rod Rod said:
I predict black anodized aluminum (similar to the Motorola RAZR v3 in black) for the x86 PowerBooks.
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Ewww...

I may be alone, but I think the RAZR is fugly. It looks like an artists rendering made in 1990 of what phones would look like in 2005. Not at all Apple-like.

Here's hoping that Apple stays away from black.
 
Koodauw said:
What is really interesting is the talk of the 12'' being discontinued. As a 12'' PB owner, I truely hope not, as I love this machine. (On the second now!)

That said though, the 12'' really isnt for the Power user, more so the Prosumer.
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I, for one, think the 12" 4:3 model should be replaced by a wide-screen, higher resolution model.
 
Depends

AConstant said:
That would imply they're using the new FreeScale chips with onboard memory controllers. I think it's unlikely they'd go to the effort of redesigning the motherboard for a machine that's only going to be in the wild for under a year.

A better display would be nice though.

EDIT: The MPC7xxx's only have a 200 mhz bus, and DDR2 memory on one of those would be a bad joke.
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Apple may have already sunk a bunch of money into the redesign based upon prototype chips from a year ago. Maybe it doesn't require much additional cost to get out from this point.

Also who says Apple will move the PB to Intel in less than a year. That's all speculation. Maybe Apple sees the Intel Merom chip as the next PB chip and is planning a major new design of the motherboard, form factor, GPU system, etc timed with the release of Leopard say MW January 2007.
 
lessee

Give me 128MB graphics at a decent size package (12" or 15") at a price under $2000 and I'll get one. Otherwise not.
 
VicMacs said:
if its not a G5 it's not worth it... :(
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Don't be so cynical.
It's an e600. Good enough. It should have some VERY good battery life at 1.7 GHz.

I'm very surprised its not dual core, actually.
 
why does the 12" PowerBook always get the short end of the stick. If they increased the res and made it widescreen, the 12" wouild be the coolest little thing. Something tells me that the G5 Powerbooks wont come in a 12" variant. :(

P.S. I think the design for the next-gen PowerBooks (and iBooks for that matter) will feature the removal of the rounded corners. So it looks like a rectangle from the side while the rounded corners from the top view remain. if ur confused, look at the mac mini. My hunch is that it will look very similar to that in basic design.

P.P.S. Do you think they'll bring back colors for the iBook?
 
Well you can already do most of that

Jarmo said:
Give me 128MB graphics at a decent size package (12" or 15") at a price under $2000 and I'll get one. Otherwise not.
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You can order a 15" with 128mb of ram right now. It costs more than $2000 but you can get close with educational discount and minium specs. :D
 
Interesting, this comes as a bit of a surprise to me. I would have thought that the PowerBooks would have been the first Mac to receive in Intel chip, due to the "rut" the line is currently in - I thought the state of the portable product line was one of the main driving factors for Apple's switch to Intel. But now, if the PowerBooks see one more update, it would not make much sense to introduce new components like this for a very short period of time, then release another set of new (Intel-based) components a few short months afterwards. Mind you, I guess Apple could still release an update near the end of September, and then announce new Intel PowerBooks @ MWSF, with shipping dates a few months out... I can't help but think that this PowerBook revision, if it comes to fruition, will be the PPC PowerBook's swan song, similar to the 20" G4 iMac when it was released shortly before the inevitable G5 iMac release.
 
~Shard~ said:
But now, if the PowerBooks see one more update, it would not make much sense to introduce new components like this for a very short period of time, then release another set of new (Intel-based) components a few short months afterwards.
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One thing that AFAIK has not been mentioned before: Why would it not be possible that Apple will offer both PPC and Intel versions of their hardware in the beginning of the switch? It would be a bit hard on customers that require a PPC-based Mac if from one day to the next no useable computers are available to them anymore!
 
~Shard~ said:
I can't help but think that this PowerBook revision, if it comes to fruition, will be the PPC PowerBook's swan song, similar to the 20" G4 iMac when it was released shortly before the inevitable G5 iMac release.
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Yup. 20" iMac G4: November, 2003. iMac G5: last day of August, 2004. So we're looking at around 9-10 months if the comparison holds up.
 
we most definatly likely to be dissapointed yet again,but you never know they could spring a surprise and bring out some nice rev's what i would really like are some sharper screens....

SHadOW
 
I hope the pBook comes out soon, my 1 year old 12inch just broke down last week. i'm on a loaner and desparately need a new computer. damn Apple products seem to do this everytime i want to sell my products. i had a perfectly good iPod 15GB, and the day before i was going to sell it... the iPod updater burned it out! took it to apple shop and they said it will cost 200 bucks to fix... ridiculous. then this week, i was about to sell my pBook and the whole thing breaks down, can't even get past the blue screen of death. right after the warranty ends... an accident? i don't think so... bastards. if only i wasn't so addicted to macs.. :(
 
amac4me said:
Let's say there is an update to the Powerbook line ... would anyone want to speculate if those Powerbooks would become collectors items as they would be the "last PowerPC based Powerbooks"?

I think they would be.
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Judging from Apple's sales levels, I don't think that the PowerBooks would be collector's items. If you're selling a few hundred thousand laptops per quarter (I don't remember the exact figures), it's not as if the items are rare. Why would PowerBooks be special anyway? If the entire Mac line is moving to Intel chips, shouldn't EVERY model be a collector's item? Who besides a few Mac geeks (maybe a couple hundred, many of whom probably frequent this site) would find additional worth in an end-of-line item?:confused: Chances are, they would buy them if they felt they'd be worth more to them personally. I don't see the resale value of them being any higher because they are the "last of the PPC PowerBooks." :rolleyes:
 
Ditherer

I must admit I'm dithering. My portability consists of a mid 2001 iBook, and it's getting on. I was just about to buy a replacement when this Intel news made me stop and think.

1. Buy now or wait until 2006/Intel PBs?
2. iBook or PB?
3. 12 or 15"?

I just want a second machine I can carry around easily on the road to do email, word processing, surfing, and presentations. Running a second display and doing all that cool dual-screen stuff with Keynote looks most appealing.

I've tried simulating the weights of the two low-end PBs by carrying around 4.6 and 5.6 lb bags of books, and can't really notice the difference, before I get bored after ten seconds and give up.
 
Perdix said:
I must admit I'm dithering. My portability consists of a mid 2001 iBook, and it's getting on. I was just about to buy a replacement when this Intel news made me stop and think.

1. Buy now or wait until 2006/Intel PBs?
2. iBook or PB?
3. 12 or 15"?

I just want a second machine I can carry around easily on the road to do email, word processing, surfing, and presentations. Running a second display and doing all that cool dual-screen stuff with Keynote looks most appealing.

I've tried simulating the weights of the two low-end PBs by carrying around 4.6 and 5.6 lb bags of books, and can't really notice the difference, before I get bored after ten seconds and give up.
Click to expand...

I think u'll be fine with 12 inch PB as long as you have an external display for serious work
 
beerpara said:
Oh dear, after all that waiting, and only a 30mhz speed boost. Why apple, why? :confused:
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300 mhz...MUCH better than the iBook update processor speed-wise, but then again, the PowerBook doesn't have much room to improve on other features. It won't likely get more standard ram. The hd will hardly get bigger. They may get dual-layer superdrives...but not much outside of the processor speed.
 
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