PowerBooks Still Delayed

[lord_flash]

Personally I want a decent screen, Bluetooth, 54bit WiFi, Ethernet, Modem, and a workably fast computer.

I'd like it to be a Mac, as these are among the few machines that combine these without the need for PCMCIA cards or the like. Plus OS X is just better, and I hold a residual dislike of Billy Gates.

What I'm say is that for ages these haven't been successfully combined into a PC - even if they're all put in it manages to be ugly, weighty or have poor battery life. I don't think that's true anymore.

That makes speed important. OS X can be slow on my eMac, but it has only 384Mb RAM. And as we all know, MHz doesn't mean everything. But I'd like to know what it does mean. According to Apple's specint_2000 test a 2GHz G5 is a little slower than a 3GHz P4 (or a little faster for some other tasks). Is that a good rule of thumb? Does it apply to 1.7GHz centrino?

 

[mactastic]

Originally posted by buseman
I guess the only ones happy about this is those who bought a TiBook last November, who can still brag about having the fastest PB 🙂

Damn straight! My 1Ghz TiBook is fan-freakin-tastic. The longer this goes on, the happier I am that I bought mine when I did. I was a little upset after the 12" and 17" models came out 2 months after I bought mine, but I didn't want either of those sizes, so it all worked out!

That being said, my wife wants a 12" laptop, and I would like to get her a rev2 12"PB. However, I only will do that if apple fixes the major complaints people have ie. excess heat on the left palmrest, a second RAM slot so it can hold 1Gig (without paying $500 for a RAM chip), and a DVI out. PCMCIA card slot would be nice, but I can't see how they could fit it in if the rumors are true that apple is trying to slim the 12" down so it matches the 1" thickness of the 15" and 17". Fingers crossed that it happens soon, she can't really wait past mid-October for one.

 

[mainstreetmark]

Man.. with all this bad powerbook news (and the fact that my Dell 8100 reboots for me every day!) it's a wonder why I get up in the morning.

At least Wall Street hasn't heard about this, as AAPL stock is currently at a 52 week high, and climbing ($22.90)

 

[AidenShaw]

Re: Fiscal year most likely

Originally posted by iPC
Fiscal year in the USA is generally accepted as:

1 October—30 September

The US govt fiscal year is Oct to Sept. California's fiscal year is July to June.

http://www.bartleby.com/151/a93.html shows a table of governmental fiscal years.

Many companies have other fiscal years. Some are calendar years (my company is), and July to June is very common. There's no "generally accepted" fiscal year....

http://www.arl.org/sparc/GI/sectionB/B_5_11.html

"The most common fiscal year period is one of these four:

-- FY ending December 31, annual period January 1 - December 31, quarterly periods January-March, April-June, July-September, October-December.
-- FY ending March 31, annual period April 1 - March 31, quarterly periods April-June, July-September, October-December, January-March.
-- FY ending June 30, annual period July 1 - June 30, quarterly periods July-September, October-December, January-March, April-June.
-- FY ending September 30, annual period October 1 - December 31, quarterly periods October-December, January-March, April-June, July-September."

 

[airmac]

Originally posted by crenz
Well, I'm really glad that I went ahead and ordered a 12" PB. My only regret is that I didn't do it a month earlier! 🙂

You are absolutely right. I remember waiting a whole year for dual mdd and boy what a mistake that was. I was so pissed that i bought one..🙂

If you need one you'll buy one, period. If you are just sitting and waiting fot the next big thing like me, than "eventually" it will happen. But i'm not in a hurry, I'll buy 15 inch with panther preinstalled.

...btw enjoy your powerbook.

 

[ewinemiller]

Originally posted by lord_flash
Except me - my last (and current) notebook is a Vaio and I love it. Despite being over 3 years old now, it has firewire built in weighs virtually nothing, is just an inch thick and little bigger than it's 12" screen. Plus it looks better than almost everything else on the market today. (yes, sad I know, but that matters).

I have to agree, my father has one of those 10.5 inch Vaios from a few years back. It's awesome, weighs about as much as a thick paperback, wafer thin, relatively fast, battery lasts forever, fits in a purse, glovebox of your car, or small bag without a problem. I wouldn't use it to type a thesis, but it's a great traveling notebook. I wish Apple sold something in that segment.

 

[ewinemiller]

Originally posted by mainstreetmark
Man.. with all this bad powerbook news (and the fact that my Dell 8100 reboots for me every day!) it's a wonder why I get up in the morning.

At least Wall Street hasn't heard about this, as AAPL stock is currently at a 52 week high, and climbing ($22.90)

Had the same problem with my 8100 (assume your talking about the inspiron since this is a laptop thread), the key was never install the Dell branded video drivers. Apparently they got those interns from the commercials working on those, they are trash. For XP, the video drivers that show up on windows update work great. I only reboot my 8100 about once a month if there is anything in windows update that requires it.

 

[cr2sh]

Originally posted by iGAV
Heh-heh, exactly what I was thinking... 😉 lets face it, we sure have got value for money out of them this year!! 😉 😀

That said, I wish Apple could double their speed every 12 months and then I'd buy every 12 months....

My next upgrade... PowerBook G5!! 😀

Wow, you hit the nail on the head.. I bought the first 17" I ever saw and 5months later I'm still sitting pretty...

It'd have to be more than a 1.6GHz g5 for me to spend any amount fo money anytime soon though... A 2GHz is where my head will start to turn...

 

[Bruja]

Re: G4/G5 and VirtualPC

Originally posted by Hugin777
If you need VirtualPC you need a G4 (for the time being).

Especially on a portable it's nice to have access to a virtual PC when you need it.

I don't suppose that we could have a virtual Al Pbk. for the current line, could we?? 🙄

 

[pkradd]

G5 Chips

At last years MacWorld Paris Steve did the keynote (as he had the previous year as well) and there were no major new product announcements. Also, the keynote was not webcast live, only available later via Quicktime. It is not scheduled at this time to be live either.
PB's will have modest updates later this month. A completely new line using the G5 will not happen yet because the chips are not in production (except for some early pilot runs). The current IBM chip cannot be used for a portable. It runs too hot and uses up too much battery life. Have you people noticed that the new G5 has lots of fans and heat sinks for the processor? Why are some people unable to face reality. Anyway, most that are complaining will not get the money from their parents to buy a new Powerbook anyway.

 

[AidenShaw]

Centrino (Pentium M) faster per GHz than Pentium 4

Originally posted by lord_flash
Does it apply to 1.7GHz centrino?

Ignoring the questions about Apple's benchmarking claims 😉, at the Centrino announcement Intel said that the performance of the 1.6 GHz Pentium M (Centrino) was roughly equal to the 2.4 GHz Pentium 4.

The Pentium M has a large L2 cache (1 MiB), and a couple of other tweaks that give it better performance per GHz.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

These PB rumor posts are almost comical.

Let's see here. The new PBs have been sitting in a warehouse ready to ship since early Aug, but Apple hasn't announced anything because Moto is slow on delivering the G4 chips need to make them work. This despite the fact that the new PBs will have the G5 chip in them even though technically speaking the G5 is way too hot for a PB enclosure at this point, and that Apple officials have stated that there will be no G5 PBs soon.

So there you go. A nice little summary of the PB rumors of the past weeks. I think all the numbers are covered so someone has to be right. Right?

 

[NoPrideELF]

Help

If any of this is true, someone help me, please. I've waited almost a year for updates to the 15" so I could get one. Now i'm in college, I have nothing but this old-as-sin desktop wintel piece o' crap. If after all this time, crappy speed bumps (which would've been fine 4 months ago) is all we get, it just doesn't seem worth getting one. Then again, if I wait for a G5, I could do the same thing I've been doing this whole time. At that rate I would never get a powerbook because I'd just be perpetuously waiting for the next amazing, pant-crapper revision or update. Any suggestions?

 

[big]

what about that rumor about very very fast G3's? maybe apple will put 2ghz G3's in them, that's another rumor we should throw in, or maybe they are just discontinued....

either way, glad I got my 15" G4 last month

 

[DrBoar]

At least the G4 delivery from Motorola is consistent😉
Back in the days of the 40 Mhz 68030 in the IIfx more than 10 years ago Motorola was acually making a leading edge desktop CPU, but that was the last time...

1.68040 did not keep up with the 486 and the 68050 and 68060 was so late Appple had to migrate to PPC

2. Motorola had problem manufacturing fast 604 and got helped out by IBM

3. Motorola had problem manufacturing fast G3 and got helped out by IBM

4.Motorola had and have still 4 years later problem manufacturing fast G4 and get no help from IBM.

So here we are delayed G5 towers, no G4s to speed bump the PB, no blade servers from either IBM or Apple using the G5 AKA IBM970😡

Well at least Apple can use the 7455B to speed bump the iMac to 1.4 GHz so they have something more to show this year🙂

 

[Phinius]

What delay?

A Motorola press release clearly stated that the 7457 chips would be available in the fourth quarter of 2003. The fourth quarter starts in October, not July or August. Although Apple could announce updated notebooks this month and have them available in October when the 7457 chips are in full production.

Motorola's cutbacks in the last two years seems to have caused major delays in producing .13-um chips. Becoming profitable was the priority over losing money trying to keep up with Intel's pace of development.

Also, Apple likes to spread out the announcements of new products by at least two months. So that would mean at least a two month span of time between when the G5 Power Macs were introduced and the next product announcement.

 

[Squire]

Re: Why don't these rumour sites just admit they know absolutely nothing

Sorry. This is a long one.

Originally posted by LOZ23
Why don't these rumour sites just admit they know absolutely nothing about the powerbook situation........ Oh, silly me, that would mean reduced traffic and reduced advertising revenue. Please remember that the prime objective for sites like these is to make money, which is before there desire to offer advice to potential customers............ So, expect more rumors

There's a guy named Arn here. Send him a message asking how much profit he's made since the site started. If you're looking for a quick buck, he would probably advise against going into the Mac rumors/forum business. Besides, the article touched on the very fact you mentioned: PB delays because of Moto, arrival time unknown.

Originally posted by esheep2001
My guess is that the G5 has really put Moto's nose out of place and they're dragging their heels on the 7457. With the knowledge that Apple will eventually switch over to the G5 across the board why bother putting on a sweat? And this just says "See you do still need us, don't you?" to Apple.

I don't think Motorola's shareholders would approve of that approach. And there's no reason that Apple couldn't throw a G4 into the iBooks. No, I believe this screw-up is completely unintentional.

Originally posted by andyjamesnelson
this is just pointless pb speculation, clearing this rumor means nothing, i mean read it.. its sounds so lame, so void of actuall facts. its nothing but a bull**** rumors, cleary they have no idea when the ne PB is comming, furthermore they have no idea what its specs will be.

ru¡¤mor €€ n.
A piece of unverified information of uncertain origin usually spread by word of mouth.

Unverified information received from another; hearsay.

Originally posted by pyrotoaster
Um, don't they know there's a Stevenote coming up?

I don't think Steve would go all the way to Paris for a keynote and not release something interesting (like Powerbooks).

I recall reading somewhere that Steve gave the last Paris Keynote and that no significant products were launched. But I hope you're right. (Note: pkradd mentioned this as well.)

Originally posted by Stella
Apple should cut all ties and slap Motorolla with a big lawsuit!

There was news that they were going to do (or had already started the process of doing) exactly that. How would their case look? Anyone in corporate law? Moto would probably have some sort of clause in their contract that protected them against this sort of thing, wouldn't they?

Originally posted by ewinemiller
I have to agree, my father has one of those 10.5 inch Vaios from a few years back. It's awesome, weighs about as much as a thick paperback, wafer thin, relatively fast, battery lasts forever, fits in a purse, glovebox of your car, or small bag without a problem. I wouldn't use it to type a thesis, but it's a great traveling notebook. I wish Apple sold something in that segment.

Yeah, that would be cool. (Is that the Vaio with the built-in camera on the monitor?)

How's this? G5 in PowerBooks, new G4 in iBooks, new G3 in mini iBooks. I don't know why they don't get into that market. Why let Sony and Fujitsu take all the profits?

Squire

 

[killmoms]

I was talking to an Apple Distinguished Educator at my college (real high-up guy in video/TV production) about PowerBook updates, since I've been waiting for them to buy one. He looked at me knowingly and said something about September 18th, winked, and walked off. Could he be yanking my chain? You bet, but he does have connections at Apple and is a big proponant of their stuff. Who knows. Just adding more fuel to the fire I guess.

--Cless

 

[Sun Baked]

Originally posted by DrBoar
4.Motorola had and have still 4 years later problem manufacturing fast G4 and get no help from IBM.

They were getting help from AMD, until the relationship turned so bad they decided to part ways (in the future) -- then it got worse and they parted even quicker.

Now AMD is working with IBM, poor Motorola.

 

[cubist]

PB G5's in "early 2004"...

Given the rather loose interpretations of these things, and the way things are going, I'd guess that means that they will be announced at WWDC 2004, and actually delivered into people's hands in November 2004.

By that time, PowerMacs will be running dual 2.2GHz!

Oh, and that "3GHz within a year": It'll be within some year, that's for sure.😀

 

[tpjunkie]

At this point I'm just gonna say "whatever" to the powerbook updates. I HAD to get my 667 DVI when I did, before college started, and the november updates pained me. Now I'm just a broke college student, and I don't see myself upgrading until at the absolute earliest next year somtime (and thats assuming I somehow come into money). For those still holding out, just becomforted by thinking about the bragging rights you'll surely have when they do update the line.

 

[eric67]

read carefully what you are writing

Originally posted by pyrotoaster
Um, don't they know there's a Stevenote coming up?

I don't think Steve would go all the way to Paris for a keynote and not release something interesting (like Powerbooks).

Besides, AppleInsider and MacBidouille aren't exactly the most reliable sources out there, either. Back at WWDC they were the websites insisting there would be no Dual-processor models and no G5 Powerbooks for at least a year.

i agree regarding Steve Job venue in Paris Apple Expo, he will not come for nothing to present to the audience; but in other words those things are planned way in advance, so you never know, something went really wrong regarding the original Apple rodmap.

besides, i do not think that macbidouille.com is not a reliable info source; I mean, they never claimed no dual G5.... and in addition they said that there will be no PB G5 before 2004, that was in May 2003, so where is the point??? they say now Feb 2004; if it is true then they are pretty good.... so let see in January 2004 Apple announcement; and I hope to see you back there to apologize regarding this wrong information you are trying to spread.

Let see, from now it is about 10 days before the keynote

 

[jxyama]

one word:

ouch. 🙁

 

[pilotgi]

I'm continuing to think positive and attribute the delay to working out the details of a G5 PB.

A Motorola press release clearly stated that the 7457 chips would be available in the fourth quarter of 2003. The fourth quarter starts in October, not July or August.

Yes! Why do so many keep forgetting this fact?

And why do so many people keep saying the G5 is too hot for a notebook? There are no facts to support this!

The _fact_ is that a lower clocked G5 is _not_ too hot to put in a laptop.

 

[mustang_dvs]

Re: No no no no

Originally posted by mvc
I am struggling to believe this neverending litany of moto incompetence any longer.

I'd like to introduce you to the Motorola microelectronics division, which used to dominate the industry and, yet these days, has been subjected to major brain-drain, budgetary cuts and layoffs and now trails AMD, Intel and IBM in innovation.