Apple unveils faster iBooks
Apple today enhanced its iBook G4 line for consumers and education customers with faster Power PC G4 processors running up to 1.42 GHz, 512MB memory across the line, higher performance graphics and built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth wireless connectivity.
The new iBooks feature two patent-pending Apple technologies made popular in the PowerBook G4 line, the scrolling TrackPad and the Sudden Motion Sensor, with prices starting at an affordable $999.
"The new iBook is the perfect portable for the go anywhere, do anything digital lifestyle of consumers and students," said David Moody, Apple's vice president of Mac Product Marketing. "With improved performance, double the memory, and new mobility features like the scrolling TrackPad, Sudden Motion Sensor and Bluetooth, the new iBooks are an amazing value."
Encased in a sleek, durable polycarbonate plastic enclosure, the new 12- and 14-inch iBooks offer improved performance with either a 1.33 GHz or 1.42 GHz PowerPC G4 processor and provide up to six hours of battery life for all-day use on the road or in the classroom.
Each iBook features the ATI Mobility Radeon 9550 with 32MB of dedicated video memory for improved graphics and either a slot-load SuperDrive(TM), for burning DVDs and CDs, or a slot-load Combo drive for watching DVDs and burning CDs. Every iBook also includes a scrolling TrackPad to easily scroll through long web pages or pan across large photographs and Apple's Sudden Motion Sensor technology to help protect a spinning hard drive if the notebook is accidentally dropped.
Apple is the first computer maker to include both 802.11g and Bluetooth 2.0 wireless technologies across its entire line of notebook products. Every iBook now features built-in Bluetooth 2.0 and integrated AirPort Extreme 54 Mbps 802.11g WiFi wireless networking. Bluetooth 2.0+EDR delivers up to three times greater data rates for faster wireless connectivity to a range of peripherals and is also compatible with Bluetooth 1.2 devices such as the Apple Wireless Keyboard and Mouse. The new iBooks also include built-in 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet for high-speed networking, two USB 2.0 ports and one FireWire 400 port for easy plug-and-play connections to popular peripherals such as Apple's iPod digital music player, digital video camcorders, digital still cameras and printers.
Each iBook includes iLife '05, Apple's suite of digital lifestyle applications featuring iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand and iTunes. Mac OS X version 10.4 "Tiger," the fifth major release of the world's most advanced operating system, also comes with every iBook.
Pricing & Availability
The new iBook lineup is immediately available through The Apple Store, Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers in two standard configurations:
The 1.33 GHz PowerPC G4 iBook, weighing just 4.9 pounds, has a suggested retail price of $999 (US) and includes:
a 12.1-inch (diagonal) active-matrix TFT display;512MB DDR SDRAM expandable to up to 1.5GB maximum memory;a 40GB Ultra ATA hard drive;AirPort Extreme 54 Mbps 802.11g WiFi wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;two USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 400;VGA video out, S-video and composite video out support;56K v.92 modem, Ethernet (10/100 BASE-T); anda slot-load Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) drive.
The 1.42 GHz PowerPC G4 iBook, weighing just 5.9 pounds, has a suggested retail price of $1,299 (US) and includes:
a 14.1-inch (diagonal) active-matrix TFT display;512MB DDR SDRAM expandable to up to 1.5GB maximum memory;a 60GB Ultra ATA hard drive;AirPort Extreme 54 Mbps 802.11g WiFi wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;two USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 400;VGA video out, S-video and composite video out support;56K v.92 modem, Ethernet (10/100 BASE-T); anda slot-load SuperDrive (DVD+/-R/CD-RW) drive.
Additional build-to-order options for the new iBook include up to 1.5GB of DDR SDRAM, a 60GB, 80GB or 100GB Ultra ATA/100 hard drive and the AppleCare Protection Plan.
The new iBooks feature two patent-pending Apple technologies made popular in the PowerBook G4 line, the scrolling TrackPad and the Sudden Motion Sensor, with prices starting at an affordable $999.
"The new iBook is the perfect portable for the go anywhere, do anything digital lifestyle of consumers and students," said David Moody, Apple's vice president of Mac Product Marketing. "With improved performance, double the memory, and new mobility features like the scrolling TrackPad, Sudden Motion Sensor and Bluetooth, the new iBooks are an amazing value."
Encased in a sleek, durable polycarbonate plastic enclosure, the new 12- and 14-inch iBooks offer improved performance with either a 1.33 GHz or 1.42 GHz PowerPC G4 processor and provide up to six hours of battery life for all-day use on the road or in the classroom.
Each iBook features the ATI Mobility Radeon 9550 with 32MB of dedicated video memory for improved graphics and either a slot-load SuperDrive(TM), for burning DVDs and CDs, or a slot-load Combo drive for watching DVDs and burning CDs. Every iBook also includes a scrolling TrackPad to easily scroll through long web pages or pan across large photographs and Apple's Sudden Motion Sensor technology to help protect a spinning hard drive if the notebook is accidentally dropped.
Apple is the first computer maker to include both 802.11g and Bluetooth 2.0 wireless technologies across its entire line of notebook products. Every iBook now features built-in Bluetooth 2.0 and integrated AirPort Extreme 54 Mbps 802.11g WiFi wireless networking. Bluetooth 2.0+EDR delivers up to three times greater data rates for faster wireless connectivity to a range of peripherals and is also compatible with Bluetooth 1.2 devices such as the Apple Wireless Keyboard and Mouse. The new iBooks also include built-in 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet for high-speed networking, two USB 2.0 ports and one FireWire 400 port for easy plug-and-play connections to popular peripherals such as Apple's iPod digital music player, digital video camcorders, digital still cameras and printers.
Each iBook includes iLife '05, Apple's suite of digital lifestyle applications featuring iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand and iTunes. Mac OS X version 10.4 "Tiger," the fifth major release of the world's most advanced operating system, also comes with every iBook.
Pricing & Availability
The new iBook lineup is immediately available through The Apple Store, Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers in two standard configurations:
The 1.33 GHz PowerPC G4 iBook, weighing just 4.9 pounds, has a suggested retail price of $999 (US) and includes:
a 12.1-inch (diagonal) active-matrix TFT display;512MB DDR SDRAM expandable to up to 1.5GB maximum memory;a 40GB Ultra ATA hard drive;AirPort Extreme 54 Mbps 802.11g WiFi wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;two USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 400;VGA video out, S-video and composite video out support;56K v.92 modem, Ethernet (10/100 BASE-T); anda slot-load Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) drive.
The 1.42 GHz PowerPC G4 iBook, weighing just 5.9 pounds, has a suggested retail price of $1,299 (US) and includes:
a 14.1-inch (diagonal) active-matrix TFT display;512MB DDR SDRAM expandable to up to 1.5GB maximum memory;a 60GB Ultra ATA hard drive;AirPort Extreme 54 Mbps 802.11g WiFi wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;two USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 400;VGA video out, S-video and composite video out support;56K v.92 modem, Ethernet (10/100 BASE-T); anda slot-load SuperDrive (DVD+/-R/CD-RW) drive.
Additional build-to-order options for the new iBook include up to 1.5GB of DDR SDRAM, a 60GB, 80GB or 100GB Ultra ATA/100 hard drive and the AppleCare Protection Plan.
Comments
Originally posted by Gamrin
Are these what Jobs calls "great new products"? I'm not that impressed... though the (free?) addition of AirPort and Bluetooth is nice. The US Apple Store still hasn't updated yet, so it's easy to compare old specs with new.
The low-end model isn't much to sneeze at, but if you look at the 14" model, they packed a lot in and dropped the price. I work in the IT dept. at a college and we just bought 5 of the previous model 14" superdrive for a few hundred bucks more *each*. I think we paid 1499 a piece.
ouch.
Originally posted by Gamrin
Are these what Jobs calls "great new products"?
no
but why fix what isn't broke.
Originally posted by Gamrin
Are these what Jobs calls "great new products"? I'm not that impressed... though the (free?) addition of AirPort and Bluetooth is nice.
See them more as revisions, rather than great new products. The great new products tend to come out at developer conferences or Apple Expos. This announcement is happening at neither, so it is hardly surprising nothing spectacular got announced.
Anyway, off to the Apple store to buy a laptop for my daughter for her college career.
Originally posted by rickag
I know Apple has issues with cpu suppliers, but why can't they add Core Image capable graphics cards? I think this is inexcusable.
I agree completely, what are they thinking???
great powerpc products? no.
are they bringing out the big guns with Macintel? probably.
is the 14" tempting for me? no.
is the 12" tempting for me? quite certainly, yes. i also have a 512mb piece ready to drop into it. assuming screen spanning hack works, i'll get a nice lcd for workstation mode.
otherwise, iMac g5 for me, or i take over my dad's 14" iBook and get him a mac mini and some peripherals. mac mini is looking like the more affordable option
Originally posted by red_kola
Still haven't solved my main gripe: Why can't I have the faster processor in the 12" version (and a Superdrive for that matter). I don't want a 14" screen at 1024x768...
because that's what a powerbook is (faster processor and superdrive in 12")
yeah, fuck the 1024x768 14". that is sooooo last year
Originally posted by rickag
I know Apple has issues with cpu suppliers, but why can't they add Core Image capable graphics cards? I think this is inexcusable.
Anyway, off to the Apple store to buy a laptop for my daughter for her college career.
i, too, concur. only because the three things that can make a computer seem fast or slow over time are ram, video card, and processor, in that order. lots of ram can make up for a slower processor (especially if you can allot ram to specific applications, like photoshop), and the video card can pump more pixels to the screen faster, making up for background processing delays when need be. at least, that's been my experience.
oh well, still loads better than my wife's pismo, and almost half the price of it when it was new. if you're getting an ibook, you may as well get it now, because i think these will be the last models before the intel transition (and i think the laptops will get them first, to give them the biggest goose in sales). and i am not a pioneer when it comes to purchasing hardware -- let someone else take the arrows of i(ntel)Book v. 1.0.
Apparently Apple knows exactly how loyal we are to the OS.
I think this is a pretty fair barometer of the kind of update we will see with the Powerbooks in September or October.
They are gonna outright limp to Intel with the portables. The Year Of The iBook!
Originally posted by rok
....let someone else take the arrows of i(ntel)Book v. 1.0.
well, what a first half of the decade huh? when the i in i-everything stood for 'internet' or 'intelligent' or whatever.
now the i in i-Book will stand for Intel. soon, the i in i-Mac will stand for Intel
Originally posted by sunilraman
yeah, fuck the 1024x768 14". that is sooooo last year
Last year? More like sooooo two years ago!
I'm thoroughly disappointed. Looks like it's PB huntin' for me now.
Originally posted by 12houripod
no
but why fix what isn't broke.
Great. Except the iBook IS broke, so hopefully they have fixed it. How many people have been stuck with this current crop of iBooks with bad video problems? Enough, apparently, to cause Apple to have a program to repair them for free (hell, Apple hasn't even done this for the iMac G5s, which have a horrible history of capacitor issues and machines going 'poof!'). And they've had to extend it at least once, to a different batch of iBooks. Me, mine just went 'poof' over the weekend (it was acting a little wacky, but I was hoping to get a couple more weeks out of it). And this is the second time it'll be going back.
Yeah, I don't think I'll be buying another iBook anytime soon.
Originally posted by Invader Zim
Still no ouble-layer superdrive like the eMac and iMac's have.
1.42GHz PowerPC G4
512K L2 cache @1.42GHz
512MB memory (DDR333 SDRAM)
14.1-inch TFT Display
1024x768 resolution
ATI Mobility Radeon 9550
32MB DDR video memory
60GB Ultra ATA hard drive
SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Built-in AirPort Extreme
Built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
Scrolling Trackpad
Sudden Motion Sensor
http://www.apple.com/ibook/