New ibooks when?
I've read a lot of post and some say the new ibook will come in september, others say it may be in october and enven others in november. So what do you think?
What should we expect from the new ibook?
Will it be 700-800 mhz and 256 mb ram (base)?
And will it have improved speakers?
And what about the graphics chip, will it be update (new chip or more vram)?
Will a bluetooth chip be soldered to the board?
Will the touchpad have two buttons (correct if it already has)?
Any battery improvements? <img src="confused.gif" border="0">
What should we expect from the new ibook?
Will it be 700-800 mhz and 256 mb ram (base)?
And will it have improved speakers?
And what about the graphics chip, will it be update (new chip or more vram)?
Will a bluetooth chip be soldered to the board?
Will the touchpad have two buttons (correct if it already has)?
Any battery improvements? <img src="confused.gif" border="0">
Comments
Nobody knows the specs either, so don't believe anything you read.
People can make educated guesses about what will come out, but so can you. Here's how:
If an Apple computer has not been updated in 6 months, it could be updated in the next few months.
Watch news and press releases from IBM and Motorola and see what new technologies they have available.
Watch the PC industry in general to see what technologies exist that Apple may wish to incorporate.
Look at other Apple hardware because technologies introduced in the professional lines tend to eventually trickle down to the consumer lines, but at the same time some technologies will stay Pro to make a differentiation. (such as Gigabit Ethernet for the time being)
By following these instructions and using your brain a bit, you too can make up bullshit rumors to post on message boards!
What should we expect from the new ibook?
The same, only better. It's one of their most popular models, so I doubt they're going to do anything radical to it.
Will it be 700-800 mhz and 256 mb ram (base)?
Not a bad guess, since the CPUs in the existing iBooks can be overclocked to 800MHz safely. The hardware should improve incrementally. The bus speed might get a bump, too.
And will it have improved speakers?
Doubtful.
And what about the graphics chip, will it be update (new chip or more vram)?
Probably a mobile version of ATi's 9000 when that appears; I'd guess 32MB on-chip. Since it doesn't do monitor spanning it doesn't need gobs of RAM.
Will a bluetooth chip be soldered to the board?
Doubtful, but possible.
Will the touchpad have two buttons (correct if it already has)?
0% chance, IMO. Even if Apple goes to a three button mouse on the pro machines, the consumer machines will almost certainly stay at one button.
Any battery improvements?
There's always room.
That's my guess, anyway. Apple will roll them out in time for people and institutions to buy them for spring semester.
[ 08-13-2002: Message edited by: Amorph ]</p>
<strong>no one on this board knows. if you neeed one now. buy one now. if you don't need one now, wait until you do.</strong><hr></blockquote>
woah... thats really deep dude
jokes aside, the iBook is insanely popular for Apple. I wouldn't expect major changes (like new, thinner case, etc) until MAYBE MWSF in January and maybe MWNY next year. At that point you'll be seeing all sorts of new hardware updates.
For now, just look at incremental speed updates (800mhz), maybe more base ram (the soldered one mind you.. i wish), HD sizes prob the same. Graphics updates won't come until iBook 3. 16MB Mobile Radeon is pretty damn good for a consumer laptop. Remember how long it stayed at 8MB 128? Too long.
<strong>Don't expect anything. Nobody on this board knows when there will be new iBooks and they are spewing absolute bull shit if they claim otherwise.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Well, iBooks were recently updated, so there is no reason why they should be updated anytime soon. The new upgrade is a pretty good upgrade, designed for OS 10.2.
The next reasonable time for an upgrade would be just in time for Christmas. If you want an ibook before then (e.g. for school), then buy one of the new ones. If you don't need an iBook anytime before Feb or March, then wait because they will probably be upgraded by that time.
This is of course all my own thoughts, but don't expect a sudden surprise upgrade anytime soon. Christmas to March is the timeframe for an upgrade.
But there's a bottleneck at the PowerBook, which is limited to 800Mhz now.
But I think now that the PowerMacs are all dual, the iMacs/PowerBooks/eMacs will get faster G4s in the upcoming months, and the iBook will move up similarly.
Case in point: I dropped my iBook and trashed the tray. Everything else survived unscathed. I'm so enthusiatstic about a slot-load optical drive for the iBook that I am currently looking into installing the Matsushita (Panasonic) CW-8121 from a TiBook in my iBook. I have to fix my broken drive anyway, so I might as well look into an upgrade. Let me know if you have any thoughts on a slot-loading iBook.
Escher
[Edit: corrected the spelling of susceptible. Shame on me.]
[ 08-13-2002: Message edited by: Escher ]</p>
<strong>Anyone here clocked their iBook 700?</strong><hr></blockquote>
we overclocked a friend's iBook 700 to 800. Was super easy. Just need the CHUD Tools and the instructions. Thing is, you have to re-do the overclock eachtime you restart. Doesnt keep the setting. Nonetheless, if someone could make somekind of script at startup, that would be wicked.
1. 1GHz CPU
2. Faster bus (I'm at 100MHz now)
3. The current iBook comes with the "ATI Mobility Radeon with 16MB of VRAM". Apparently this this Quartz Extreme-compliant. That's probably good enough for me for now, though more VRAM surely cannot hurt.
4. Slot-loading CD drive.
5. A light on the power button the tells me the machine is on (even when the screen is asleep but the machine as a whole is not). Function over form here please.
6. Colors? Doubtful. Not even sure I'd buy other colors. Might be interesting to see some mock-ups anyhow.
7. Fix the "sleeve" on the power supply connector so it doesn't come lose after 2-3 months!
8. Bluetooth.
That's about it I guess.
I love my iBook. I see only the need for incremental improvements in this product at this point. A year from now might be a different story. But who the heck knows what will happen in a year.
[ 08-13-2002: Message edited by: Chris Cuilla ]</p>
The Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dweller tools?
Sorry, I just loved that crappy old B movie. heh heh
I don't even know if this is true, but if it is it raises the intriguing possibility of over-clocking the 667 without so much more than a ROM flashing. We know that the iBook's 700 can be switched up to 800 via software, perhaps the TiBook is capable of a similar feat?
<strong>I will immediately buy a 1GHz iBook with a Superdrive even if it still has a G3!</strong><hr></blockquote>
The first portable DVD burners will be tray-loading and will thus not fit the TiBook. I bet that we won't see slot-loading portable DVD burners for at least another 12 months. I guarantee you that the iBook will not feature a SuperDrive before 2004, and most definitely not with a G3. What's the point of a SuperDrive if you don't have the processing power to encode data for it? I think that Apple will keep the iBook where it is now for years, as an inexpensive and rugged portable for the masses. The G4 won't fit that profile for a while, much less the SuperDrive.
My optimism only goes so far.
Escher
For the first time in the G4's existence, there is now a relatively large range of proc speeds to choose from, ranging from 700 all the way up to 1250. Imagine, for example, the Powerbook going up to near 1 GHz. The iBook could then 'switch' to the G4 at current speeds (like the 400/500 G3 Pismo-->400/500 G4 TiBook conversion) at around 700 MHz.
Yes, I know an Apple exec said the iBook will stay G3, but all he said was 'for a while' or something, and that could mean anything, really.
FWIW, I don't think it will, but it is at least now more plausible than ever.
Jet
[ 08-13-2002: Message edited by: Jet Powers ]</p>
[quote] \t
Of course, even with all the involuntary salivary output over the tenuous prospect of 1.6 GHz G4s surfacing soon, we'd be remiss (uh, make that "even more remiss than usual") to ignore the recent buzz over what's going on in terms of PowerPC development these days. Motorola, the designer and manufacturer of the current G4 processors, has long been the target of scathing criticism for, among other things, its glacial progress in upping PowerPC clock speeds, its low and late chip yields, its constant layoffs over the years, the way it switched its own staff from Motorola-powered Macs to PCs running its competitor's chips, and that sort of snorting gurgly noise it makes when it eats soup. Clearly, if Apple can get its chips elsewhere, there are some compelling reasons why it might want to consider those alternatives.
And no, we're not talking about Intel or AMD. Despite some long-running speculation and a recent misquoting of Captain Steve, Apple has given every indication that it's pretty sold on sticking with the PowerPC architecture for the foreseeable future. So if not Motorola, who? Just say "Big Blue." IBM, in its role as the third arm of the PowerPC AIM alliance, has made a slew of chips for Macs over the years-- including the original 601s that shipped in the first Power Macs ever. And let's not forget that even after IBM decided that it didn't want to get into Altivec-style technologies, the company bailed Apple and Motorola out of a tough spot by agreeing to manufacture G4s to Motorola's spec so Apple would have more than eight or nine Power Macs to sell one quarter. And it's stamped out zippy G3s for ages.
True, while Motorola went for Altivec, IBM veered off into server-oriented chip design... but according to a CNET article pointed out by faithful viewer Mac the Fork, pretty soon Apple may well be able to look to Big Blue as a source for new and nifty Mac chips. Reportedly IBM is tweaking its high-end POWER4 architecture into a new PowerPC chip suitable for use in desktop computers, slated for an unveiling at the Microprocessor Forum in two months' time. Details are slim, but apparently clocks speeds in the 2 GHz range aren't out of the question, and IBM's new mystery PowerPC will also reportedly feature a vector-processing unit like the G4's Altivec.
Will Apple take the bait? Only time will tell, but CNET claims that "sources familiar with the chip" are reporting that IBM is definitely "wooing Apple Computer," and given Apple's strained relationship with Motorola over the years (and the fact that Motorola's PowerPC road map seems much more suited to embedded systems and not desktop Macs), we wouldn't be terribly surprised if IBM's new chip finds its way into the Power Mac G5. Or G6, if the G5 is spoken for. Whatever. Hey, at least it'll be a PowerPC instead of an Intel thingy. Plus, we understand that IBM has excellent table manners and eats soup like a real gentleman.
<hr></blockquote>
What would we do without atAT and crazyapplerumors.com!? They really put things in perspective! <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
The Apple Store had the iBook, Powerbook, and PowerMac labled "NEW" before MWNY. After MW, those three turned "old" as they no longer had a "New" sticker. The PowerMac has already been updated (today). I the iBook wasn't really "just" updated. That was a while ago. I believe September will bring new iBooks (Paris) and possibly new Powerbooks (Seybold). That's what I am hoping as I am in the market to buy an iBook soon. I would really like a G4, but a 800MHz G3 w/ Combo is good
Just my 2¢ <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />
Thats a good guess, I guess.