When will we see a 15" Albook? - Page 4

WHATEVER IT IS!!! i would be very very happy if they release it next week

iam upgrading from an imac333

i want firewire...bluetooth...airport extreme...1ghz g4...a good graphics card..geeez...it has everything...dont complain!!!

apple!!! release it now!!!!!!!!

Remember Powerpage announced shortly after the new iBooks were released that new PowerBooks would come out on May 19th. That is tomorrow. And there is no sign that they'll be right. Another rumor site down the crapper.

wtf???!!!!

signs? \

i dont need signs...i mean....if i had a can of coke next to me now....THAT would be a sign...ok?!

Well I have the money to buy the top end 15" PowerBook when it comes out. Now if it would only come out soon! What would be a good price to sell my iMac 800 for? I was thinking USD999 or around there... I'll probably sell it cause I don't need two comps.

Well no one else has posted on this thread all day, so I thought I would see if I could get it started again.

What would you guys be happy with as the next PowerBook update, assuming the 970 is not ready for the PowerBooks yet?

As many of you know I am looking to buy one when they update. I would be quite content with the following:


15.4" good resolution
1.2Ghz G4
Radeon 9600 mobility GPU
167mhz bus (maybe 200mhz? if 7457 is ready)
512MB DDR333
1MB L3 cache
light up keyboard
airport extreme
firewire 800
$2800

I would buy a Powerbook with these specs tomorrow if it came out.

Also I have been wondering if the G4 may not be a better CPU for the PowerBooks than the 970. Lets compare a 1.4ghz 970 to a 1.4ghz 7457 in terms of Powerbook usefulness. The 970 will be faster, but the 7457 will use less power and produce less heat. I guess what I'm asking is would one really want a 970 laptop that one could not watch a whole movie with a single charge on? I for one am not sure if the extra power is worth the sacrifice running time. The 5 hour battery life of current PowerBooks is already highly overstated. However, I was able to watch a whole movie on my old 400mhz g4 PowerBook, and I loved being able to so this. I found that I could go a whole day without plugging it in, as long I put it to sleep whenever I wasn't using it.

I too am ready to pop for a 15 inch PB. I will get it regardless of the CPU, but I would like the 970.

To your list I would add Al skin, options for combo-drive and superdrive, at least one PC-card slot, a couple of USB 1.0 ports, headphone connector (maybe even audio-in though I am happy using iMic for that).

DVD playback is more related to the graphics chip than the CPU. I think the graphics chip does the heavy lifting of decoding the stream and putting video on the display.

I recall reading that the 970 clocked at 1.2GHz used about 12 watts, comparable to the draw of a G4. There is also the possibility that IBM would select processors that used less power and market them to Apple as low power versions useful for laptops. They already select for speed, why not power as well?

Another unknown for the 970 is how it can manage power. The G3 Sahara has the ability to shut down unused systems to conserve power. Can the 970 do the same? Can it go to sleep briefly when there is no work to do?

Earlier I thought I would get a small PB for travelling and rely on my tower and cinema display when at home. However, after the 12 inch PB came out I was disappointed that it was not lighter. I was hoping for something under three pounds. Checking xbench I discovered that the 1Ghz PB was already much faster than my 867MHz tower. The new one will be faster and it will have the connector to drive my cinema display plus a bunch of other features and it will weight in under six pounds so I changed my mind and decided in favor of the 15 inch PB. Now I have the decision and the cash I just need Apple to ship it.

The IBM 970 1.2GHz chip draws 19W.

Thanks for the quick clarification. That is a lot.

I noticed an interesting thing today, was reading the local paper and out popped an Apple pamphlet detailing their products and software. It included every product they sold except for... yep you guessed it, the 15" PowerBook.

This means one of two things:
1) Apple are not planning to update the 15" PowerBook at all and may not continue to sell it
2) The 15" PowerBook is going to be updated really, really soon

The problem is, I really can't see either of these things happening... but why would Apple not bother to include it in the pamphlet?

Anybody know what the MPC7457 power usage is at 1.2GHz, 1.4GHz and up?

and when the hell it is supposed to be out?

six months ago

FWIW: MacWarehouse is advertising the TiBook with a "clearance" price.

I don't know for 1.2, 1.4 and up, but for 1GHz, and it uses 12.6W typically. The low-power version of the 7457 uses 7.5W typically on that frequency.
It's supposed to be out Q4 2003, if memory serves me correctly. Way behind original schedule of course

I've gotten to the point that I don't care which chip is has as long as it would go ahead and come out!!!!

PowerPage has a report that the new 15 inch PBs are ready to ship, they are just waiting for the current Ti Book stocks to sell out. If this is correct then that would seem to indicate that these are G4 based.

PowerPage 15 Inch Al PB Report

Well.. more grist for the rumor mill:

If O'Grady is to be believed, there are new 15" Albooks boxed and ready to ship. See: http://www.powerpage.org/cgi-bin/Web...y?newsID=11023

maybe they drop the price on ibooks and powerbooks with the "introduction" of a 1ghz g4 in a 15"powerbook?

100 bucks off across the line?

You think they will add the lightup keyboard to the 15" and the ATI9600 GPU? If the new models had these features I would buy it right away.

O'Grady cannot be right. If you do a custom order on a 15-inch PowerBook, you get a ship time of 1-3 days. Titaniums must still be coming off the assembly line.

No, I mean you can order (for example) an 867MHz Ti and add a SuperDrive and a bigger hard drive and get it shipped in 1-3 days. Custom configurations like that are not done in the warehouse.

Guys, this is crazy. Get a grip of yourselves. Specultion on the imminent arrival of a new 15" has been rife since February! Its now comming up to June and there is still no sign whatsoever its gonna happen any time soon. Isnt it time you guys accepted what Apple has said pubicly, i.e. "it has no plans to update the 15" SD in the near future, and are very happy with the Titanium"

When, exactly, did they say that???

Hey, the only reason I care is that I WANT A NEW POWERBOOK and the wait is killing me!!!

me too, only i want it with a ppc970 processor, probally clive is right after all and i have to wait a little longer and ending up paying him 10 euro

Netro, Apple are on record as having said this to Macworld a few months ago. Lets face it AE + FW800 + Alumium case are not big enough reasons in themselves to bring out a new 15 laptop. I think Apple will only bring out a new 15 line (and the Al 15 would be a complete new line, not an upgrade to the Ti), when there is a new chip. And in a laptop that means next year.

the 17" is only 30% faster than the 15" no reason at all to update them... yea whatever! The 15" is missing a whole lot of features that the 17" has.
167mhz bus

DDR RAM

Firewire 800

airport extreme

AL case design

lightup keyboard

And where the hell did Apple say that the 15" was not going to be updated in a while? I have not heard about this until now if they did... I sure hope they didn't...

Actually I think I recall that as well, but I can't remember the details. It might have been in a financial conference call or it may have been an interview with someone like Greg Joswiak. In any event, I don't think it was very long after MWSF, so it probably doesn't mean much at this point.

Does anyone know WTF Apple is smoking? Where is the updated 15"?????????? I'm about to start shooting!!!! lol

Well, seeing as we're less than a month away from WWDC now, I really don't think we'll see another 15" model released until the 970 can go into it. The G4's not going anywhere fast; and as improbable as it has become to think of a 970 in the PowerBook anytime soon, it just seems this is case.

It's either a 970 or a G4 appears in a new 15" Al case come WWDC.

I wish this were the case, but I highly doubt it.

Ok, they may have said that as it sounds perfectly reasonable.

The only way Apple is going to release a new 15" is if there someting more to it than a simple titanium to alu transition. So, we may see the new alu 15" when the 17" is speed-bumped later this summer, or they may keep the titanium until they have the 970 ready for it. I don't see the 970 happening in the powerbook right now as Apple are probably working pretty hard just to get them into the powermacs. Later in the year is possible, but I honestly don't think we'll see the 970 in powerbooks before MWSF. So, who knows what's going to happen with the powerbooks before then. There's so many different factors in play here. Like they can't release a 970 15" alu before they update the 17" to use the 970. The 15" aluminium powerbook is going to be the best seller of the bunch, and Apple want to make sure that everybody notices that the now 'book has entered the market. I don't think there's any better way to do this, than to introduce it and the 970 in powerbooks at the same time, and update the 17" at the same time. The 12" will still be G4 for a while I think.
Does this make any sense???
So all things considered, we'll continue to have the 15" titanium until the 970 can hit the 'books, and that will probably be a bit later than the WWDC. If they could do it before the christmas season that would be cool, but I still think MWSF is the most probable release date for the 970 powerbooks. That means we'll have the titanium until then with possibly one more speed bump this autumn.

I disagree on two points.

First, upgrading the Ti book to an Al book with the same CPU speed would be very worthwhile. Look at the differences:

Ti-book - Al-book
Airport - Airport Extreme
std antenna - improved Airport antenna
FW400 - FW800
current LCD - improved LCD, possibly brighter with more pixels
optional bluetooth - builtin bluetooth
133MHz bus - 167MHz bus
Radeon 9000 - Radeon 9600 (possible)
std keyboard - backlit keyboard
painted Ti - Al (more scratch resistant, stiffer)

True, there is no increase of processor speed but the memory bus and GPU change can improve performance. Put these two computers side by side and which one would you take?

Second, I don't see why they can't upgrade the 15 inch PB to a 970 without simultaneosly upgrading the 17 inch PB. Certainly, the 17 inch PB should be upgraded within three to four months afterward. If the 15 inch got the 970 first it would have all the attention to itself. It would be a clear message to the consumer. Then when the 17 inch came out with the 970 that would be a fresh bump in media attention. At least that is one way to spin it.

right, but we're waiting for this machine since february'03 to be released. it's almost june'03 by now and we're still waiting. it will be outdated if they release this 15"pb with the already 7 months old 1Ghz G4 processor. not a very tempting option, so...

i agree with that totally, release that beast asap and i buy it (i buy it anyway)
suprice us, please

Ok, but that would KILL the 17" sales in the gap between the 15" 970 being released and the 17" being updated. Sure, I would very much like the 15" alu to be released now, but I don't think it will happen before they also can update the 17". Hope I'm wrong though

There is no way Apple will put a faster CPU in the 15" Powerbook than in the 17" Powerbook. No way in hell. The 17" is the high end, top-of-the-line laptop, therefore it gets the fastest CPU and the most advanced mobo. There is nothing odd about the current 15" Powerbook having a slower mobo than the 17".

IF Apple were to update the 15", it would be a case and mobo upgrade, but the same CPU, much like the Pismo to Titanium transition. This would be nice, but since the current 15" Powerbook is already very nice, and since it fits into the lineup well, there is little point in updating everything but the CPU. Apple doesn't have money to burn on retooling assembly lines so often.

My bet is that Apple waits until they have faster laptop CPUs and then updates the 12", 15" and 17" simultaneously.

...G3 to G4?

I have the money and I am just waiting for the new 15"! Come on already!


LOL! That won't happen if buyers read AI. We may never see the new ones...

I should have specified: Same MHz. 500 MHz G3 --> 500 MHz G4. Many saw this as a fairly small change, and unless one used altivec-intensive apps, which were more rare at the time, the new Titanium wasn't any faster than the Pismo.

It would be the same now if Apple updated the Ti without changing the CPU. Performance would get a modest increase from the new mobo, but nothing worth upgrading to from an existing Ti.