Widescreen iBooks?

[AliensAreFuzzy]

July 26,2005 will be the day we see Intel make their way into iBooks. Mark my words.

Marked and on the Calender. But it you're wrong... *Shakes fist*

 

[Doctor Q]

Anti-widescreen fanatics?

I'm not a fanatic about it, but I don't have a preference for widescreen, as I explained earlier. Then again, I haven't used the thread-rating feature because I don't find it very useful when others use it. Without explanations (i.e., a poll), the votes don't tell us much about people's real opinions.

 

[psxndc]

July 26,2005 will be the day we see Intel make their way into iBooks. Mark my words.

A saturday? I doubt it. Highly.

--EDIT--
Would have helped if I actually LOOKED at the calendar before making that comment. *sigh*

That said, my order got bumped and is supposed to ship on the 29th. I'd love for it to be an updated one, Intel or not.

-p-

 

[Rangerhall6]

July 26,2005 will be the day we see Intel make their way into iBooks. Mark my words.

I thought Steve Jobs said at WWDC that the switch to intel would start in june 2006

 

[AidenShaw]

Widescreen good - Shortscreen bad !

Anti-widescreen fanatics?

If they add 256 pixels to the width of a 1024x768 and call it "wide screen" - that's good.

If they subtract 154 pixels from the height of a 1024x768 and call it "wide screen" - that's bad.

I like more pixels... I'd rather have the 1280x1024 4x3 than a 1280x768 widescreen. But I'd also rather have a 1600x1024 widescreen than the 1280x1024.

More pixels....and smaller pixels. Apple tends to use huge pixels, and that makes for poor resolution imaging.

 

[rabadash]

July 26,2005 will be the day we see Intel make their way into iBooks. Mark my words.

I think theres only a very small chance apple could have designed a new ibook to incorporate intel processors at this time. I've heard everyone say that the ibook will use a single core centrino based chipset, if that's true and apple puts one into the ibook right now, the ibook really will be faster than the powerbook. I also remember someone saying that the intel announcement was a fairly recent decision to WWDC, and if that's true, apple really hasn't had enough time to develop an intel laptop by july 26th.

 

[nagromme]

Apple's pixels aren't at all big compared to average displays. (You want big pixels look at a Dell 19" LCD or similar!)

Higher DPI/smaller pixels is a two-edged sword. I'm very glad Apple doesn't make tinier pixels standard--I find that those high res displays crammed into too few inches sound good on paper, and work OK for some tasks, but in practice they make it harder to see things and painful to work for long hours. Not worth the privilege of cramming in more windows. (I prefer Exposé for that: tiny windows when I want them, not full-time.)

I find even the 12" 10x7 screens have pixels too small for my tastes if use them for too long. Menus are too small, Photoshop crosshairs are too small, etc. etc.

BUT I do think higher-res OPTIONS would be nice to have, for the people who want that. At least BTO on the 17" PowerBook if nothing else.

And I will want those tiny pixels too--not today, but in the future: once the UI is completely resolution-independent. (A feature hidden in Tiger, so I fully expect it with Leopard.)

THEN smaller pixels will have no downside (except maybe cost).

 

[CubaTBird]

well.

if a widescreen ibook does come out... it would go head to head i guess with this sony style 13.3 inch widescreen laptop.. i have seen it in person and i must say its a pretty slick machine.. the battery life.. well that's another story...

 

[monke]

More Good News!

iBooks are now 5-7 days in the Canada Store!!!

 

[~Shard~]

I'm not a fanatic about it, but I don't have a preference for widescreen, as I explained earlier. Then again, I haven't used the thread-rating feature because I don't find it very useful when others use it. Without explanations (i.e., a poll), the votes don't tell us much about people's real opinions.

Yah, I hear you. I think many people may just assume "widescreen=better" and rate this positive, whereas to some people it doesn't matter, or perhaps if it isn't implemented properly, some people would indeed see it as a negative. And then there might be the people who rate it negative because it won't be an Intel iBook.

If they add 256 pixels to the width of a 1024x768 and call it "wide screen" - that's good.

If they subtract 154 pixels from the height of a 1024x768 and call it "wide screen" - that's bad.

I like more pixels... I'd rather have the 1280x1024 4x3 than a 1280x768 widescreen. But I'd also rather have a 1600x1024 widescreen than the 1280x1024.

More pixels....and smaller pixels. Apple tends to use huge pixels, and that makes for poor resolution imaging.

See my above comments - absolutely, it depends how they define "widescreen". Still though, I would rate this as positive simply because it means a redesign (whether it's good or bad) and not simply just a marginal processor/memory/video card boost. After 9 months, Apple needs to do something more than what constitutes (in my mind) a marginal update, and I see this widescreen possibility as one way to accomplish that.

 

[tikibangout]

I hope widescreen isn't the only thing they add, I don't want to cancel my order just for that.

 

[berkleeboy210]

Kinda the wrong thread to post this on but, Mac Mini's Stock Model Shipping Time has increased to 5-7 Days. iBooks however still show same bus. day for stock models. but it still shows 7-10 when you add any BTO options.

I'm going w/ you guys on this one and saying definetely 7/26/05 we'll see an update across the board. Minis/iBooks/PBooks

 

[evolutioneight]

Re: Well...

Well if you are right....the iBook is doing pretty well going up against a machine thats about double in price. Also I'm pretty sure it might even be double in performance. But man, whoever wants a laptop that gets between 2.5 to 3 hours of battery life is beyond me. Think of all the freakin extra batteries you'd have to carry around if you were leaving outlet territory. One of those would have your praying for fuel cells pretty quick.

 

[~Shard~]

I hope widescreen isn't the only thing they add, I don't want to cancel my order just for that.

No, they will definitely update the standard RAM to 512 MB like every other line (sans eMac) And upgrade the outdated video card with a less-outdated video card. A speed bump would be prudent as well, obviously, even though it would only be a couple hundred MHz.

Of course, if Apple does go this route, what about the PowerBooks? Or are they content with simply having the iBook and PowerBook lines close to each other once again, resulting in less differentiation?

 

[bodeh6]

Yeah. I expect the Powerbook to be upgraded either the same day as the iBook or a week later. August 2 at the latest.

 

[fredwards]

I can't see them releasing something ridiculously small like a 10.3 inch widescreen as some people have mentioned in this thread. It would LOVE something comparable to the 13 inch Sony VAIO.

I'm primarily a PC user looking to switch to Macs and I've been holding out for a while for an updated ibook. The thing is when shopping and looking throughout the ENTIRE market, for the price of an ibook you can get SO MUCH MORE in a PC.

If apple is looking to upgrade the line up especially for back to school, they NEED to improve on the necessities. 32mbVRAM, 256MB RAM, and a 30GB HDD @ the price the ibook goes for is way below what the rest of the industry offers at around the same price.

Personally if they kept the same price for the 12inch and upgraded it to 512, 64 vid card, 40-60GB HDD and included bluetooth, they could even leave processor speeds and widescreens alone and i would be more than happy.

 

[AidenShaw]

why

I'm primarily a PC user looking to switch to Macs and I've been holding out for a while for an updated ibook.

Update in specs, or an update to get rid of the really dated white plastic look?

The thing is when shopping and looking throughout the ENTIRE market, for the price of an ibook you can get SO MUCH MORE in a PC.

The obvious question then is "why switch", if you can get so much more for the same price in a WinTel laptop?

PPC is officially dead according to the Lord God Jobs, so that can't be a reason. Malware - no big deal, just run Norton and any of the free spyware tools.

OS X is "prettier", perhaps - but only the guys at "Queer Eye..." would choose a tool because of the eye-candy in the GUI.

So why, inquiring minds want to know, why you'd want to spend more for less, just to have a Mac....

 

[corywoolf]

intel is def not happening this soon. I bet you it is a widescreen and a goodbye to the white plastic ibook, say hello to to the aluminum ibook (powerbook now has a younger brother), It makes sense when you think about it, if you can't add more power, make the thing look awsome and throw in some cool features (like what they did with the PB). I say minor speed boost and a face lift.

 

[woolfgang]

OS X is "prettier", perhaps - but only the guys at "Queer Eye..." would choose a tool because of the eye-candy in the GUI.

Is it worth even responding to idiots anymore?

 

[Alasta]

intel is def not happening this soon. I bet you it is a widescreen and a goodbye to the white plastic ibook, say hello to to the aluminum ibook (powerbook now has a younger brother), It makes sense when you think about it, if you can't add more power, make the thing look awsome and throw in some cool features (like what they did with the PB). I say minor speed boost and a face lift.

Fair comment. Considering that so many people believe that an update to the iBook would bring its specs too close to the Powerbook, it's entirely possible that the next iBook update may be more cosmetic than functional.

 

[Machead III]

Would be a good idea to release a tablet now, as a sort of low-end iBook. It could be powered by the many Intel processors for protable devices.

Yeah, I think the time is right for an iTablet alright, fanboy hype aside.

 

[arrizaba]

iBooks and Mac Minis will be updated, for sure. Now, the gap between iBooks and Powerbooks becomes so tiny that they might consider to update the powerbooks as well.
If they don't update the Powerbook, the main question is which will be the price of a new iBook. From what I have gathered from all the forums I've read is that the iBook could have the following specs (for the 12'' bottom-line)

-G4 1.33 Ghz
-40 Gb HD
-Radeon 9200 64 MB DDR
-512 MB RAM
-Aluminum cover

If the new IBook has these specs (I doubt it), then why buy a Powerbook 12'' for $1500 if you can buy almost the same for $1000?
My conclusion is:
-Either they update considerably the Powerbook or
-The update above for the Ibook is not realistic and Apple will just introduce a couple of changes (say, pick 2 from the list above).

 

[arrizaba]

The obvious question then is "why switch", if you can get so much more for the same price in a WinTel laptop?

Well, I'm not so sure about this. Look at the following comparisons:

http://www.systemshootouts.org/shootouts/laptop/2004/1019_lt1000.html

I would say that Macs tend to be slightly slower than PCs for the same price, but the other specification make up for the difference (including the Mac OS). Mac OS X is not just "eye-candy", come on.... The stability UNIX gives Mac OS X is far from what Windows can ever achieve.

 

[Hattig]

I don't see the new iBooks being Mactel machines. I mean, c'mon, don't you think that Apple would put the Intel chips into the prosumer machines long before the consumer machines? Desktops and Powerbooks usually get all the cutting edge stuff first, with iMacs & iBooks following suit significantly later.

We might see a change in form factor, but I think the Intel chips will go into the high-end machines first.

I don't think we'll see Intel based machines simply because last month Jobs said that they would start migrating in 2006. Unless I overslept, I make it July 2005 and we're talking about an update within the next couple of weeks.

I think it would be the ideal time to introduce a new formfactor however.

 

[jeffreyg]

I wouldn't. Maybe on a 15.4" PowerBook MacTel.

I sure would. The tinier the better.