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When will iBooks be Extreme?

C

Chuck

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 3, 2003
234
0
I'm an Australian freelance graphic designer and waited til MWSF to work out what new hardware to order. I was thinking about getting an iMac17 and a laptop but Apple produced the perfect solution with the Alu17 PB, so I've ordered that with the Airport Extreme base-station...

...However I was also going to order an iBook for my wife, who's about to finish work for good (baby due in 6 weeks), and since they don't currently accept the high speeds of Extreme, we've decided to wait until they come out with an iBook that uses the Extreme card.

Any ideas when that might be? It is 'the year of the laptop' after all, and we can't wait forever...

Graham Clarke
http://www.madebydesign.net
 
some idea...

some people have speculated that iBook revisons are do in February but i think that a completely new and redesigned (maybe not a lot though) iBooks will be released in April or May with the airport extreme amongst some other new features. But the real question here seems to be whether the 54 mbps will really be neccessary. No internet connection (to my knowledge) runs even close to that so the only reason that you would want airport extreme is for MASSIVE file sharing but otherwise i would just go and by an iBook now.
 
Re: some idea...

Originally posted by AWishForNoOne
some people have speculated that iBook revisons are do in February but i think that a completely new and redesigned (maybe not a lot though) iBooks will be released in April or May with the airport extreme amongst some other new features. But the real question here seems to be whether the 54 mbps will really be neccessary. No internet connection (to my knowledge) runs even close to that so the only reason that you would want airport extreme is for MASSIVE file sharing but otherwise i would just go and by an iBook now.
Click to expand...

I share files all the time. I can't imagine anyone using their WiFi for Net access alone (I know it happens, don't flame me). I take my iBook with me to transfer files rather than burn CDs. If only more of my Mac friends had Airport I would be in heaven. Of course, I wouldn't really feel right about it 'till it was Extreme! 8)

Dan
 
Especially for nonprofessional functionality, the current iBook will perform marvelously at evrything your wife could ever expect it to, including handling photos and video of the new baby, and *good* wireless capability for your wife when she has the book out and about.

The iBook is great exactly as it is. It is true that there may be a revision sometime in the next few months, but just from personal observation, I think we will see iMacs, eMacs, PowerMacs, 15" PowerBooks, new software, a digital device and potentially other releases before we see an updated iBook.

She will be happy with the Combo Drive 800 and Airport (Maybe a digital camera or camcorder too).

--Bonus- The iBook is Spit-up resistant--
 
Just out of interest, does anyone know when the last revision to the iBook was?
 
Yes I would also recommend going with an iBook now, rather than waiting. Internet connections won't go above 11Mbs for quite a while for consumers, and by massive file sharing, we're talking about tens or hundreds of megs back and forth continually. But if you really feel the need to go up to 54, there will soon be PCMCIA cards that support 802.11g, so you'll be able to use it for the remainder of the iBook's life with your wife.

:)
pnw
 
but the iBooks dont have a PCMCIA slot.

IMHO, i think 11mbit is fine for casual filesharing. I feel that if what needs to be transferred is a large amount, you can either plug in to an ethernet port, or use FW target disk mode. I say get the iBook now and enjoy. You can always sell it when the extreme ones come out.
 
ip over firewire is always a good tool... never tried it, but even airport extreme can't come close to firewire speed.....

of course, it's not wireless...

the other thing is, they might not put airport extreme in the new ibooks unless they put it in all the other macs first, given that it's the lowest line in effect.

that said, it certainly SHOULD show up in the next revision

i believe the ibooks were last revised in early november.... when the tibooks hit ghz at the same time...
 
Originally posted by MacBandit


That is what the Airport card is plugged into. All modern macs have a PCMCIA slot in the form of there Airport card slot.
Click to expand...

I was under the impression that the reason the airport extreme is on a mini pci bus is that PCMCIA was too slow. Also, if it were simple to make airport extreme in a pcmcia form factor, why would they switch to a new interface? I would love an airport extreme pcmcia card, but I seriously doubt it will happen.
 
Originally posted by WannabeSQ


I was under the impression that the reason the airport extreme is on a mini pci bus is that PCMCIA was too slow. Also, if it were simple to make airport extreme in a pcmcia form factor, why would they switch to a new interface? I would love an airport extreme pcmcia card, but I seriously doubt it will happen.
Click to expand...

I too was under that impression but I have been told and shown otherwise. Until the final tests come out I will not know for sure.

There are 802.11g PCMCIA cards already available. Who's to say why Apple changed the form factor. It could be for another option Apple may be intending to bring out or it could be to prevent everyone from using 3rd party WiFi cards, as people are doing now.
 
As someone who does small to large file transfers on Airport 11m every day, IT'S SO SLOW - wait for the extreme ones - plus you'll get a newer iBook probably with bluetooth and such.
 
File transfer will probably be minimal for us, as I'll be backing up my work on our external 80G HD. I just don't like the idea of buying old technology when the new is just around the corner. It makes me feel like the used-by date of the machine will come around much earlier than the extra time to wait for it to come out...
 
Originally posted by Chuck
File transfer will probably be minimal for us, as I'll be backing up my work on our external 80G HD. I just don't like the idea of buying old technology when the new is just around the corner. It makes me feel like the used-by date of the machine will come around much earlier than the extra time to wait for it to come out...
Click to expand...

I agree with you there - my file transfers are irregular in size, but performed infrequently. Waiting for the new technology suck - I'm waiting on a new PM, but need to it do something NEW, so that when I take it out of the box and turn it on, it's not just a Mac.

I mean that in the sense that, altohugh I love Macs, it's that same old think whether I'm using my Beige 333 or G4 500!!!... Ranting...
 
I think the iBook's airport reception is already just as good as the Extreme Ti's

At least that's what I thought Steve Jobs said in the keynote?
 
Re: some idea...

Originally posted by AWishForNoOne
some people have speculated that iBook revisons are do in February but i think that a completely new and redesigned (maybe not a lot though) iBooks will be released in April or May with the airport extreme amongst some other new features. But the real question here seems to be whether the 54 mbps will really be neccessary. No internet connection (to my knowledge) runs even close to that so the only reason that you would want airport extreme is for MASSIVE file sharing but otherwise i would just go and by an iBook now.
Click to expand...

Our school uses an airport network and all our files have to be saved in our directory on a file server. What i don't like is that it is soo slow, damn it's slow...
Airport Extreme helps a little, only problem now is to get macs with this technology installed.
 
The Sahara processor (G3) is in no way "old" technology. The current G3 is not the same as IBM's original G3. It is a highly efficient chip that uses less power than any other Apple machine, has the shortest pipeline of any Apple processor, has L3 cache, and is in general a good design. Some would say it is a better processor at heart than the G4, it just lacks vector processing.
 
Chuck,
I have a wireless bridge at home and use the connection for sharing files and internet connection between two buildings. It's great for the internet and streaming video, however, if you're going to be exchanging lot's of digital images or video with your wife then forget 802.11b. It's slow. We transfer some 30 to 40 high quality images and often run into problems. Other than that, it works great and is really good for sharing documents and other small files.
 
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