Superdrive is cool, but it won't happen soon I am guessing. I really wanted one but then realized DVD-Rs cost 5 bucks a pop. What they need to do is fix all the crap that is wrong with it (paint, Airport, dead pixels, crap hinges). The only feature it is missing that I think would have an impact on my every day use is the lack of serious sound output. It would be sweet if it could run Dolby DTS or 5.1. It is so small and portable it could easily replace my DVD and CD players.
The only direction I can see Apple MAYBE taking is a Xbook that is designed to be a step above the Powerbook. It would obviously be much larger in form but could run dual CPUs a hotter video card and a larger HD. Its size would make it more of a semi-portable for heavy duty use than a super-portable like the tibook. I dunno that is just my idea; fire away. <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />
I really doubt a complete redesign happening in September, but I am hoping for a speed bump, graphics bumb (top PC laptops all come with 64mb video cards now), and bluetooth standard internal. I can't imagine apple keeping that usb bluetooth adapter as the only solution, maybe for desktops but it's definitely not a good one for portable.
Just roll bluetooth functionality into the airport card. You instantly reach all current macs with a nice integrated solution and you don't bother those who don't want/need/trust it. So, you can sell updated airport cards to those without it, and possibly use their desire for one technology to push adoption of the other, and you can sell the USB dongle for those who already have an airport card.
Apple's Portables development team would like to know
how they're doing with the PowerBook and iBook. From your
perspective as users and developers, please comment on current
PowerBook and/or iBook product features and functionalities that
are compelling to PC users looking to switch. Please categorize
your comments as hardware, software, and Mac OS, and email to
[snip] before August 10, 2002.
Thanks for helping to make PowerBook and iBook products even more
amazing! (Note: Your comments will become the sole property of Apple
Computer and may be used by Apple or given to others without
compensation to you.)
And the fact the hardware page has no picture of the Titanium on it suggests an all new design is coming.
__________________
<hr></blockquote>
What do you think they are going to solicit feedback today, build it by the end of the week, and then have them all boxed up and ready to go by lunchtime on Monday!!?? <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
If anything, this indicates that work may be just beginning on the next major rev, think 6-8 months.
Wow, What a bunch of whiners. I want this and I want that. And this what the're making in PC portables. Who cares about what you can get in a PC portable. The fact is that Apple is years ahead of anybody in terms of design, OS, and even hardware. If you want a PC, go buy a PC. For me, I'd rather have the slot loading drive instead of the tray...titanium body instead of cheap plastic...beautiful screen instead of something thats not sharp edge to edge... a portable thats only 1" thick and turns heads wherever I take it...G4 rather than some Pentium piece of crap. The current Powerbooks are awesome! I don't care what PC laptops can do because most of them are junk (except for Sony.) Give Apple some credit. Lets face it, design makes people buy things. The day Apple makes something that looks like a PC is the day I stop using computers altogether. You know how hard its gonna be to cram a Superdrive, dual G4's, DDR memory, bigger hard drive, bluetooth, 64mb GPU, etc. into a Powerbook and lower the price to $2199?
[quote]Lets face it, design makes people buy things. <hr></blockquote>
I hate to say this pal, but it makes people like you buy things! What the F**k happened to the day when we mac users ruled by virtue of raw PPC horsepower. Where the mac was a tool, when we chanted, "it's about productivity, silly". Somewhere along the way, the platform was hiikacked by a bunch of chic-chic weenies, who could not care less what it has inside as long as it does not clash with their outfit. I want to return to the days when the Mac was for meat-loving, bad-ass-photoshoping, missfits, who sat up all night getting high, and eating nothing but Captain Crunch, rather than a bunch of granola and goat cheese eating, armani wearing, eurotrashy drama queens, who whine if they go to starbucks and their Powerbook does not attract enough attention.
<strong>Wow, What a bunch of whiners. I want this and I want that. And this what the're making in PC portables. Who cares about what you can get in a PC portable. The fact is that Apple is years ahead of anybody in terms of design, OS, and even hardware. If you want a PC, go buy a PC. For me, I'd rather have the slot loading drive instead of the tray...titanium body instead of cheap plastic...beautiful screen instead of something thats not sharp edge to edge... a portable thats only 1" thick and turns heads wherever I take it...G4 rather than some Pentium piece of crap. The current Powerbooks are awesome! I don't care what PC laptops can do because most of them are junk (except for Sony.) Give Apple some credit. Lets face it, design makes people buy things. The day Apple makes something that looks like a PC is the day I stop using computers altogether. You know how hard its gonna be to cram a Superdrive, dual G4's, DDR memory, bigger hard drive, bluetooth, 64mb GPU, etc. into a Powerbook and lower the price to $2199?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Mind you don't fall out of that ivory tower there!
I'm afraid your wrong on a lot of things. Apple is in no way ahead in terms of hardware. They're not exactly behind either, but the cpu is choked on all Macs right now. That is not Apples fault.
Adding DDR won't add cost - Sony manage it for nearly $2000 less. Obviously economies of scale play a part but prices are still far from competitive - look at the 17" iMac, $1799 and very similar components to a laptop in a similarly high cost form factor - so it can be done.
I hope Apple do continue to create amazing designs, but people need to be able to afford them too. Currently Vaios are much better value if you want a PC, but we shouldn't have to pay excessive amounts because we don't.
I'm really looking forward to buying a new Powerbook, but it won't be until an upgrade is worth my hard earned cash. That means it needs to be worth keeping too.
<strong>Just roll bluetooth functionality into the airport card. You instantly reach all current macs with a nice integrated solution and you don't bother those who don't want/need/trust it. So, you can sell updated airport cards to those without it, and possibly use their desire for one technology to push adoption of the other, and you can sell the USB dongle for those who already have an airport card.</strong><hr></blockquote>
It's the logical step isn't it? I think we'll have to wait until Airport goes to 802.11g before they do that because of the interference issue.
I'm just hoping Jagwire supports PC Card bluetooth adapters, it's neater.
What do you think they are going to solicit feedback today, build it by the end of the week, and then have them all boxed up and ready to go by lunchtime on Monday!!?? <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
If anything, this indicates that work may be just beginning on the next major rev, think 6-8 months.
The short feedback period struck me as odd. If this feedback is for the Switch campaign then either Apple has a number of designs it can choose from to be ready by, say, MWSF03, or Switch is here for a few years, in which case Mac loyalists might start feeling a bit left out as the platform gets morphed into something PC users want.
I hope Apple realise that rather defeats the object.
As opposed to the type of guy who buys a a Trans Am because its faster than a BMW in a straight line. Design doesn't matter right? Nice comeback.
For your info, I use my Mac mostly for Photoshop stuff and I don't care what the benchmarks say, Photoshop 7 is faster than Photoshop on a PC. I've seen it. So, to me, I'd say Apple isn't lagging in speed at all. It still controls it. Those days aren't gone.
I hate to say this pal, but it makes people like you buy things! What the F**k happened to the day when we mac users ruled by virtue of raw PPC horsepower. Where the mac was a tool, when we chanted, "it's about productivity, silly". Somewhere along the way, the platform was hiikacked by a bunch of chic-chic weenies, who could not care less what it has inside as long as it does not clash with their outfit. I want to return to the days when the Mac was for meat-loving, bad-ass-photoshoping, missfits, who sat up all night getting high, and eating nothing but Captain Crunch, rather than a bunch of granola and goat cheese eating, armani wearing, eurotrashy drama queens, who whine if they go to starbucks and their Powerbook does not attract enough attention. </strong><hr></blockquote>
Hey man, I love goat cheese! What da f*7ks wrong with goat cheese. Don't be dissin' the goat cheese!
Just so there is no misinformation spread here. A person can like goat cheese AND desire powerful hardware.
Design will only take you so far. And pure specs will only take you so far.
But Apple's design includes elegant computing solutions. If you don't require the power, then I think the elegant computing solutions can sell machines despite poor hardware performance.
My wife can't stand the look of beige boxes. She is very happy to use a mac because it looks nice. However, if she found it difficult she'd put up with the beige box. The fact is it looks nice and it runs nice. Now she would rather it process images faster than it does (333mhz iMac) but not if it meant getting an ugly beige box or a crappy OS. The iMac (no matter what the specs) is fantastic for my wife and many other users (like my parents).
I want performance over looks. However, I too want elegant solutions (not elegant looks). A beige box would be fine with me as long as it wasn't running windows.
I'd say users desire: (in order of importance)
1. Elegant solution to their computing needs
------------
An elegant solution for some people would be a nice OS running nice software on a powerfully fast box.
For others an elegant solution means a nice OS running nice software on a good looking box.
If they're asking for feedback they're NOT trying to figure out HOW to design their NEXT machine.
Ever been to a town zoning meeting??? All the big decisions have been made and it's (in the vast majority of cases) a pretense to democracy. You can rant and rave, but they aren't really asking for your imput, they're telling you what they plan to do and you can yell about if you want, but rest assured they major bits aren't changing. Apple's survey isn't exactly the same thing, but it's got a similarly deceptive spirit.
This is market rersearch not customer feedback. Trust me. What they're trying to find out is what they can get away with price/feature-wise. They have potential mods/designs already lined up. (As is always the case) they've been working on the replacement since the moment they started shipping the current model. They're NOT waiting for you to tell them what to build, don't be naive. They're trying to find-out WHAT YOU'D ACTUALLY PAY FOR (or in this case over-pay for). Whatever's ready won't change much, but such surveys prvide valuable imput when deciding what features to play up in your advertising, what prices you can affix to different models and options, etc etc...
The best response to such surveys is to list PRICE, PRICE and PRICE as the main concerns over and over again. Be serious, what can you tell them about hardware that they don't already know? NOTHING! Everybody knows we want it faster, cheaper, and easier. When you tell them what you specifically need, you only help them fine tune their marketing so they can charge you 2499 instead of 2199. They're learning how to sell you what they've already got cooking, they are not asking you what you want for dinner, even if it sounds that way.
I hate to say this pal, but it makes people like you buy things! What the F**k happened to the day when we mac users ruled by virtue of raw PPC horsepower. Where the mac was a tool, when we chanted, "it's about productivity, silly". Somewhere along the way, the platform was hiikacked by a bunch of chic-chic weenies, who could not care less what it has inside as long as it does not clash with their outfit. I want to return to the days when the Mac was for meat-loving, bad-ass-photoshoping, missfits, who sat up all night getting high, and eating nothing but Captain Crunch, rather than a bunch of granola and goat cheese eating, armani wearing, eurotrashy drama queens, who whine if they go to starbucks and their Powerbook does not attract enough attention. </strong><hr></blockquote>
Comments
The only direction I can see Apple MAYBE taking is a Xbook that is designed to be a step above the Powerbook. It would obviously be much larger in form but could run dual CPUs a hotter video card and a larger HD. Its size would make it more of a semi-portable for heavy duty use than a super-portable like the tibook. I dunno that is just my idea; fire away. <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[3] Portables Team Requests Feedback
Apple's Portables development team would like to know
how they're doing with the PowerBook and iBook. From your
perspective as users and developers, please comment on current
PowerBook and/or iBook product features and functionalities that
are compelling to PC users looking to switch. Please categorize
your comments as hardware, software, and Mac OS, and email to
[snip] before August 10, 2002.
Thanks for helping to make PowerBook and iBook products even more
amazing! (Note: Your comments will become the sole property of Apple
Computer and may be used by Apple or given to others without
compensation to you.)
And the fact the hardware page has no picture of the Titanium on it suggests an all new design is coming.
__________________
<hr></blockquote>
What do you think they are going to solicit feedback today, build it by the end of the week, and then have them all boxed up and ready to go by lunchtime on Monday!!?? <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
If anything, this indicates that work may be just beginning on the next major rev, think 6-8 months.
[ 07-29-2002: Message edited by: warpd ]</p>
I hate to say this pal, but it makes people like you buy things! What the F**k happened to the day when we mac users ruled by virtue of raw PPC horsepower. Where the mac was a tool, when we chanted, "it's about productivity, silly". Somewhere along the way, the platform was hiikacked by a bunch of chic-chic weenies, who could not care less what it has inside as long as it does not clash with their outfit. I want to return to the days when the Mac was for meat-loving, bad-ass-photoshoping, missfits, who sat up all night getting high, and eating nothing but Captain Crunch, rather than a bunch of granola and goat cheese eating, armani wearing, eurotrashy drama queens, who whine if they go to starbucks and their Powerbook does not attract enough attention.
<strong>Wow, What a bunch of whiners. I want this and I want that. And this what the're making in PC portables. Who cares about what you can get in a PC portable. The fact is that Apple is years ahead of anybody in terms of design, OS, and even hardware. If you want a PC, go buy a PC. For me, I'd rather have the slot loading drive instead of the tray...titanium body instead of cheap plastic...beautiful screen instead of something thats not sharp edge to edge... a portable thats only 1" thick and turns heads wherever I take it...G4 rather than some Pentium piece of crap. The current Powerbooks are awesome! I don't care what PC laptops can do because most of them are junk (except for Sony.) Give Apple some credit. Lets face it, design makes people buy things. The day Apple makes something that looks like a PC is the day I stop using computers altogether. You know how hard its gonna be to cram a Superdrive, dual G4's, DDR memory, bigger hard drive, bluetooth, 64mb GPU, etc. into a Powerbook and lower the price to $2199?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Mind you don't fall out of that ivory tower there!
I'm afraid your wrong on a lot of things. Apple is in no way ahead in terms of hardware. They're not exactly behind either, but the cpu is choked on all Macs right now. That is not Apples fault.
Adding DDR won't add cost - Sony manage it for nearly $2000 less. Obviously economies of scale play a part but prices are still far from competitive - look at the 17" iMac, $1799 and very similar components to a laptop in a similarly high cost form factor - so it can be done.
I hope Apple do continue to create amazing designs, but people need to be able to afford them too. Currently Vaios are much better value if you want a PC, but we shouldn't have to pay excessive amounts because we don't.
I'm really looking forward to buying a new Powerbook, but it won't be until an upgrade is worth my hard earned cash. That means it needs to be worth keeping too.
<strong>Just roll bluetooth functionality into the airport card. You instantly reach all current macs with a nice integrated solution and you don't bother those who don't want/need/trust it. So, you can sell updated airport cards to those without it, and possibly use their desire for one technology to push adoption of the other, and you can sell the USB dongle for those who already have an airport card.</strong><hr></blockquote>
It's the logical step isn't it? I think we'll have to wait until Airport goes to 802.11g before they do that because of the interference issue.
I'm just hoping Jagwire supports PC Card bluetooth adapters, it's neater.
<strong>
What do you think they are going to solicit feedback today, build it by the end of the week, and then have them all boxed up and ready to go by lunchtime on Monday!!?? <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
If anything, this indicates that work may be just beginning on the next major rev, think 6-8 months.
[ 07-29-2002: Message edited by: warpd ]</strong><hr></blockquote>
The short feedback period struck me as odd. If this feedback is for the Switch campaign then either Apple has a number of designs it can choose from to be ready by, say, MWSF03, or Switch is here for a few years, in which case Mac loyalists might start feeling a bit left out as the platform gets morphed into something PC users want.
I hope Apple realise that rather defeats the object.
For your info, I use my Mac mostly for Photoshop stuff and I don't care what the benchmarks say, Photoshop 7 is faster than Photoshop on a PC. I've seen it. So, to me, I'd say Apple isn't lagging in speed at all. It still controls it. Those days aren't gone.
<strong>TWO WORDS ~ DUAL G4</strong><hr></blockquote>
Two more words...
Short battery life
-----
Well, okay it's three words. sorry.
<strong>
I hate to say this pal, but it makes people like you buy things! What the F**k happened to the day when we mac users ruled by virtue of raw PPC horsepower. Where the mac was a tool, when we chanted, "it's about productivity, silly". Somewhere along the way, the platform was hiikacked by a bunch of chic-chic weenies, who could not care less what it has inside as long as it does not clash with their outfit. I want to return to the days when the Mac was for meat-loving, bad-ass-photoshoping, missfits, who sat up all night getting high, and eating nothing but Captain Crunch, rather than a bunch of granola and goat cheese eating, armani wearing, eurotrashy drama queens, who whine if they go to starbucks and their Powerbook does not attract enough attention.
Hey man, I love goat cheese! What da f*7ks wrong with goat cheese. Don't be dissin' the goat cheese!
Just so there is no misinformation spread here. A person can like goat cheese AND desire powerful hardware.
Design will only take you so far. And pure specs will only take you so far.
But Apple's design includes elegant computing solutions. If you don't require the power, then I think the elegant computing solutions can sell machines despite poor hardware performance.
My wife can't stand the look of beige boxes. She is very happy to use a mac because it looks nice. However, if she found it difficult she'd put up with the beige box. The fact is it looks nice and it runs nice. Now she would rather it process images faster than it does (333mhz iMac) but not if it meant getting an ugly beige box or a crappy OS. The iMac (no matter what the specs) is fantastic for my wife and many other users (like my parents).
I want performance over looks. However, I too want elegant solutions (not elegant looks). A beige box would be fine with me as long as it wasn't running windows.
I'd say users desire: (in order of importance)
1. Elegant solution to their computing needs
------------
An elegant solution for some people would be a nice OS running nice software on a powerfully fast box.
For others an elegant solution means a nice OS running nice software on a good looking box.
Ever been to a town zoning meeting??? All the big decisions have been made and it's (in the vast majority of cases) a pretense to democracy. You can rant and rave, but they aren't really asking for your imput, they're telling you what they plan to do and you can yell about if you want, but rest assured they major bits aren't changing. Apple's survey isn't exactly the same thing, but it's got a similarly deceptive spirit.
This is market rersearch not customer feedback. Trust me. What they're trying to find out is what they can get away with price/feature-wise. They have potential mods/designs already lined up. (As is always the case) they've been working on the replacement since the moment they started shipping the current model. They're NOT waiting for you to tell them what to build, don't be naive. They're trying to find-out WHAT YOU'D ACTUALLY PAY FOR (or in this case over-pay for). Whatever's ready won't change much, but such surveys prvide valuable imput when deciding what features to play up in your advertising, what prices you can affix to different models and options, etc etc...
The best response to such surveys is to list PRICE, PRICE and PRICE as the main concerns over and over again. Be serious, what can you tell them about hardware that they don't already know? NOTHING! Everybody knows we want it faster, cheaper, and easier. When you tell them what you specifically need, you only help them fine tune their marketing so they can charge you 2499 instead of 2199. They're learning how to sell you what they've already got cooking, they are not asking you what you want for dinner, even if it sounds that way.
[ 07-29-2002: Message edited by: Matsu ]</p>
[quote]Originally posted by warpd:
<strong>
I hate to say this pal, but it makes people like you buy things! What the F**k happened to the day when we mac users ruled by virtue of raw PPC horsepower. Where the mac was a tool, when we chanted, "it's about productivity, silly". Somewhere along the way, the platform was hiikacked by a bunch of chic-chic weenies, who could not care less what it has inside as long as it does not clash with their outfit. I want to return to the days when the Mac was for meat-loving, bad-ass-photoshoping, missfits, who sat up all night getting high, and eating nothing but Captain Crunch, rather than a bunch of granola and goat cheese eating, armani wearing, eurotrashy drama queens, who whine if they go to starbucks and their Powerbook does not attract enough attention.
<strong>
Two more words...
Short battery life
.</strong><hr></blockquote>
New techniques by IBM to keep chips running cool and to extend battery life up to 10 times is reported in the following link:
<a href="http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/17712.html"; target="_blank">http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/17712.html</a>;
If IBM implements this it could make the Power series work with new Apple designs, including the PowerBook.