Apple unveils faster iBooks - Page 5

Can you point to a similarly-priced Wintel laptop with more than 32MB of dedicated VRAM? Or one that offers screen spanning? Most I've seen use "Integrated Intel Graphics" with no dedicated VRAM at all.

I'd say the iBook stacks up quite nicely (processor questions aside) compared with Dell's most competitive offering:

Mac vs. PC System Shootouts

Is it really Apple who's being greedy, or is it you?

i must say i was looking at a "special offer" brochure today with Asus (Asustek) laptop offerings, and the Apple 12" new iBook was looking very very very tasty.

if i could mod a 7200rpm 2.5" drive in there, that would be excellent. i've modded a 5400rpm into my dad's iBook g4 933mhz and, ummm, effectively violated the warranty, though with the 5400rpm and ATI 9200 overclocked 25%, its a good beast.

the new 12" would be nice for portability, then hooked up to a 17" at home for workstation mode. mod in a 7200rpm drive, drop in pc2700 512mb to bring it to 1gb of ALL pc2700 ram, overclock the ati 9550, you've got a nice powerbook-esque 12-incher there, albeit with no superdrive. but burning dvds is soooo last year, no? time to move on to burning blu-ray

hmmm but we will always want something faster and better. luckily at this stage i am soooo not interested in DVI out since DVI lcds cost more

somehow also i don't play games much nowadays... maybe when the PS3 comes out? \

Why did you change your "from"?

u think you need to get a life - i typed this with my nose

what was this topic about agan

i was wondering if this update would make it worth not waiting for an intel mac. i am a senior in college so after may i wont be able to get the student discount. so im looking for opinions on if i should get one of the new, updated ibooks, or just wait for an intel based machine (assuming they release them before i graduate).

The Intel machine could be 6 to 10 months away. Since no one knows what it will look like, what features it will have, how fast it will be, or what it will cost, it's not possible to give that kind of advice.

Having said that, I will proceed to do so!

If you need a notebook shortly, buy one.

If you don't, you might wait to see if there is another update a few months from now (it's always possible).

If you wait for the x86 version, remember that the software is the thing. Not the hardware. There will possibly be glitches with the new machines. If the software you need is not available yet in x86 native, you will have to make sure that it will run under Rossetta. If it does, it might run slowly. Rossetta will run software between 50%-70% of speed. but this depends on how fast the first gen of machines will be. If they are faster than expected, then they will run faster.

Rossetta won't run software that is optimized for the G4 or G5. Only for the G3. Nothing with the REQUIREMENT of Altivec will run. Photoshop uses it if it's there, but will run more slowly without it.

It also will not run Classic, or any programs that require it. This is Apple's way of finally forcing people to drop it. Maybe that's beyond their control, but there it is!

Can't help you beyond that, except to say that software for PPC machines will continue to be developed for several years after the x86 machines come out. A machine you buy now should be good for at least five years.