powerbooks... ough.

[tuartboy]

That's because I'm gonna study stuff related to graphics design + publishing

hold up! You are doing graphics and publishing and you are even considering non-mac? I don't want to seem like I'm beating a dead horse here, but all graphics and publishing in both college and work is done on macs (typed on a G5 while at my graphic design job...)

stick with it. If you really are going into that field you will regret having a peecee portable. trust me on this one.

 

[Hoffi]

so, ive been patient. for months upon months upon months. waiting for updates, hearing speculations or rumors all april... nothing at all in may, here we are in june and nothing after the wwdc thing or whatever...

I'm in the same boat as you. I'm a graphics major who is doing a year abroad in Japan. As much as I would love a G5 Powermac, I can't lug that thing back to the states with me (too expensive in shipping) I've been waiting for updates but I'm at the point where I'm just going to bite the bullet. I really can't wait till 2006, and it's pretty much now or never.

 

[apple_g5]

I'm in the same boat as you. I'm a graphics major who is doing a year abroad in Japan. As much as I would love a G5 Powermac, I can't lug that thing back to the states with me (too expensive in shipping) I've been waiting for updates but I'm at the point where I'm just going to bite the bullet. I really can't wait till 2006, and it's pretty much now or never.

It's a really stupid situation at the moment... I sure do hope Apple is going to do SOMETHING before they switch to INTEL - 1 year without any really significant update... dry time

 

[Plastic Avatar]

Graphic/Web Design Appz on PBs

hold up! You are doing graphics and publishing and you are even considering non-mac? I don't want to seem like I'm beating a dead horse here, but all graphics and publishing in both college and work is done on macs (typed on a G5 while at my graphic design job...)

stick with it. If you really are going into that field you will regret having a peecee portable. trust me on this one.

Agreed.

As for how well programs work on the new Powerbooks, well, they work great =)

My wife has a 12 incher (1.5Ghz), and it runs InDesign, GoLive, and the rest of the Adobe family quite well (plus all kinds of other programs).

As a matter of fact, Final Cut Pro 4 (to me) was more responsive on her machine than the 1.25Ghz MDD or dual 800Mhz Quicksilver G4s I use at school.

I know this isn't comparing the performance to a G5 desktop, but, in my book, the current PBs are more than fast enough for graphic design, prosumer video work (pro in a pinch), web/flash design, and gaming (within reasonable expectations).

I'm going to buy a new machine in the next couple of weeks. Though I'll be pissed if they bring out a dual-core G4 PB in a month or 2, I wouldn't want a Rev. A machine anyway (I learned my lesson when I got a Cube).

The biggest question for me is, how much better is a 15 inch PB with the 128MB video upgrade than the 64MB base?

Educational pricing puts the 15 inch Superdrive 1.67Ghz 128MB video at $2189. The 15 inch Superdrive 1.5Ghz 64MB video at $1934. With the little 12 inch Superdrive coming in at the bargain-basement price of $1499.

My biggest problem is deciding which machine is worth the money. The 12 is an awesome deal, but I want a card slot and the 128MB video- but is it worth an additional $688 for that and a 15 inch screen? I could buy an external LCD and an external dual-layer DVD burner for that kind of cash.

-S(n)

 

[The_Man]

Regarding the original question...

Get the powerbook now (and just to reinforce) you cant (or shouldnt) wait forever for a minor update.

 

[ssh]

The OS is the only reason why I'm still preferring apple... as I said before: I'm running out of arguments for Apple. Another thing that bothers me, is the fact that they are going to kill "our" OSX in about 2-3 years like they did with OS 9. I don't know whether I'm going to play the same game again (switch to ppc, switch os9 to osX)

Have you ever had to live with Windows as your primary OS? Are you sure you want to do that? Or live with the incompatibilities between Linux desktop apps and the rest of the world?

As someone who has used virtually ever OS available since 1980, I know the desktop one that I really want to use. I'm waiting on income to be able to pick up a new PB and throw away my Windows systems forever.

 

[ssh]

Its just a d*mn processor people, Apple is all about the operating system. If you think that OSX wasn't meant for Intel, it was built for Intel, they knew PPC techology was too expensive, and behind the times. G5 was big and slow compared to Intel processors, and not to mention twice as much. We are going to have the same freakin apples, faster and less expensive. Stop B*tching already.

Agreed. Any computer is all about the OS first, the apps second, and who cares what the processor is?

Frankly, I think it's all about the scheduler.

 

[weg]

Anyone know when Apple is gonna start shipping the 12" Pb/SuperDrive with Tiger? Wherever I look it's still shipping with Panther.

As for the switch, I think I'll buy this PPC PBook now and wait for some revisions of the Intel Mac before getting that (like in 2 yrs).

I'm posting this from my 12" Superdrive Powerbook that I bought 2 weeks ago in Vienna, Austria, and it came with Tiger preinstalled.

 

[weg]

Agreed.


My wife has a 12 incher (1.5Ghz), and it runs InDesign, GoLive, and the rest of the Adobe family quite well (plus all kinds of other programs).

Is the fan constantly running on her PB, too? I had a PB 12" 1.33GHz before I bought my 12" 1.5GHz (the former was stolen), and I have the perception that the new PB is significantly louder than my old one... with the 1.33GHz, the fan was running almost never.

 

[weg]

Have you ever had to live with Windows as your primary OS? Are you sure you want to do that? Or live with the incompatibilities between Linux desktop apps and the rest of the world?

As someone who has used virtually ever OS available since 1980, I know the desktop one that I really want to use. I'm waiting on income to be able to pick up a new PB and throw away my Windows systems forever.

Come on, Windows isn't that bad.. I'm using Windows at work, and Mac OS X and Linux at home, and I think that it mainly depends on the applications you use how well you get along with your computer. If you have to use a crappy program, even Mac OS X can't make the situation better.. while Windows can be fine-tuned with many little programs. I don't enjoy working with Windows as I do with Mac OS X or Linux, but I can live with it...

 

[aznsal612]

Is the fan constantly running on her PB, too? I had a PB 12" 1.33GHz before I bought my 12" 1.5GHz (the former was stolen), and I have the perception that the new PB is significantly louder than my old one... with the 1.33GHz, the fan was running almost never.

Maybe 'cause they overclocked the G4 to 1.5GHz, so that's why it's extra noisy? I assume the extra strain of getting the processor speed bump would already make it run louder, so running on max would result in some loud whirrrring. Just my guess.