Man I really hope they do a redesign of the iBook. I'm sure one of the reasons they're not is that they might upset all the schools with big iBook contracts - though they could retain the same battery form factor which might be the solution...
Anyway, the design is getting really really old. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would snap one up in an instant if they redesigned it - working in a school and seeing 20+ iBooks for the past few years, the current design is a total eyesore!
I love my new iBook look. Of course, I am not seeing but one every day and before I got it a month or so ago, I didn't see one at all.
I wish they would add the following options on the iBook below (in order of importance):
1. Super Drive (it is lame not to offer A DVD burner, I will go aftermarket for this when DL catches on)
2. Fire Wire 800
3. Slightly larger battery
4. Better Video Card (64 meg ram would be all I would ask for)
I wish they would add the following options on the iBook below (in order of importance):
1. Super Drive (it is lame not to offer A DVD burner, I will go aftermarket for this when DL catches on)
2. Fire Wire 800
3. Slightly larger battery
4. Better Video Card (64 meg ram would be all I would ask for)
Eric
Larger battery!? How good do you want it to be? I've heard people get about 6 hours, sometimes even up to 7. Compared with most other laptops on the market, this is amazing!
I have a feeling that Apple is working rather hard on future directions of the iMac. I don't look for a "better" GPU until they have one that will fit all needs, including heat issues. Hate to admit it, but I'm rather pleased with my 20" G5 iMac and wouldn't put it on ebay for either a 2.0 G5 or a more powerful GPU. A speed bump would, however, be nice for those waiting for rev b.
A 23" iMac is not on the top of my list for things I (as a shareholder) would like to see Apple do. I use a 23" display with my PB in the office and the user experience between that and the iMac is very close. People mixing songs (like my son in law who borrows the 23" display) like the larger screen, but the 20 iMac has a glorious display.
I would like to see Apple stick the 1.6 G5 into the eMac, but doubt it would happen for a while - probably about the same time the Mac mini goes G5s. I still want to see it around as an AIO design because it's a good computer at its price point. Too many people turn their noses up at the eMac in my opinion.
I think that the iBook will be the sleeper in the ranges that could be upgraded in April. My wife has a 12" iBook and loves it. For me it is almost as good as the 15" PB I use for work. The iBook has killer sales in the back to school market - especially last year when they had the iBook + iPod offer and hit 60% of the market in some universities. April would be a great time to come out with a new one as it allow Apple to meet initial demand and then build up inventory for back to school.
As I see it this perfect for an introduction of a PowerMac at WWDC. If Apple updates these lines now, or as soon as they think, it takes tons of pressure off them to release anything else immediately. And I think Apple wants more time on the PowerMac anyway. It's their show stopper. With the success of the iPod (that they can't live on forever) this should be the year Apple makes it's big moves that it couldn't risk in the past with their biggest Pro Machine.
Larger battery!? How good do you want it to be? I've heard people get about 6 hours, sometimes even up to 7. Compared with most other laptops on the market, this is amazing!
5 hours is a resonable expection if you don't burn CD's and don't work in demanding applications (MS Office is a drain) with the current setup. I can squeeze 6 out of it but turning the screen brightness down that low tends to hurt my eyes.
I said, "slightly", I could benifit from another 45 minutes to 1 hour of real use on top of what it gives now. Besides, the battery's physical size is very small, a lot smaller than most battery's. I am sure they could squeeze another wee-bit in there.
My Dell M60 gets 5 hours of use burning it up and it has a large wide screen, dvd burner, and I use autocad and a few other surveying programs all the time with no significant reduction in battery life over normal fiddling around.
A GeForce 6600 or Radeon X600 would be a good card for the iMac (usually PCI-Express too ).
How much power (and how much heat) do these cards consume/produce? If its greater, then do you have to increase the size of the power supply and the speed of the fans to remove the heat from both the vid card and the power supply.
Call me stupid, but it was always my impression that the NV FX5200U was chosen because it had a reasonable heat/power profile. They would have loved to stick a ATI 9600XT in there as an option, but what other compromises would you have to make to cater for this change.
How much power (and how much heat) do these cards consume/produce? If its greater, then do you have to increase the size of the power supply and the speed of the fans to remove the heat from both the vid card and the power supply.
Call me stupid, but it was always my impression that the NV FX5200U was chosen because it had a reasonable heat/power profile. They would have loved to stick a ATI 9600XT in there as an option, but what other compromises would you have to make to cater for this change.
I'd say the FX 5200 was chosen more because of cost and because it maintained a certain feature set. The GeForce 6200 hadn't been announced yet - and even if it was, the $129-149 initial retail cost would have hurt it. Now, you can see them online for $70-100 for 128 MB versions (and I don't mean turbocache versions, either), and the chipset is AGP-capable as well.
Comments
Originally posted by JtheLemur
Man I really hope they do a redesign of the iBook. I'm sure one of the reasons they're not is that they might upset all the schools with big iBook contracts - though they could retain the same battery form factor which might be the solution...
Anyway, the design is getting really really old. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would snap one up in an instant if they redesigned it - working in a school and seeing 20+ iBooks for the past few years, the current design is a total eyesore!
I love my new iBook look. Of course, I am not seeing but one every day and before I got it a month or so ago, I didn't see one at all.
I wish they would add the following options on the iBook below (in order of importance):
1. Super Drive (it is lame not to offer A DVD burner, I will go aftermarket for this when DL catches on)
2. Fire Wire 800
3. Slightly larger battery
4. Better Video Card (64 meg ram would be all I would ask for)
Eric
The other stuff would seem reasonable to include, especially when comparing the competition from similar priced wintel notebooks..
Originally posted by aplnub
I wish they would add the following options on the iBook below (in order of importance):
1. Super Drive (it is lame not to offer A DVD burner, I will go aftermarket for this when DL catches on)
2. Fire Wire 800
3. Slightly larger battery
4. Better Video Card (64 meg ram would be all I would ask for)
Eric
Larger battery!? How good do you want it to be? I've heard people get about 6 hours, sometimes even up to 7. Compared with most other laptops on the market, this is amazing!
A 23" iMac is not on the top of my list for things I (as a shareholder) would like to see Apple do. I use a 23" display with my PB in the office and the user experience between that and the iMac is very close. People mixing songs (like my son in law who borrows the 23" display) like the larger screen, but the 20 iMac has a glorious display.
I would like to see Apple stick the 1.6 G5 into the eMac, but doubt it would happen for a while - probably about the same time the Mac mini goes G5s. I still want to see it around as an AIO design because it's a good computer at its price point. Too many people turn their noses up at the eMac in my opinion.
I think that the iBook will be the sleeper in the ranges that could be upgraded in April. My wife has a 12" iBook and loves it. For me it is almost as good as the 15" PB I use for work. The iBook has killer sales in the back to school market - especially last year when they had the iBook + iPod offer and hit 60% of the market in some universities. April would be a great time to come out with a new one as it allow Apple to meet initial demand and then build up inventory for back to school.
Originally posted by timmyb
Larger battery!? How good do you want it to be? I've heard people get about 6 hours, sometimes even up to 7. Compared with most other laptops on the market, this is amazing!
5 hours is a resonable expection if you don't burn CD's and don't work in demanding applications (MS Office is a drain) with the current setup. I can squeeze 6 out of it but turning the screen brightness down that low tends to hurt my eyes.
I said, "slightly", I could benifit from another 45 minutes to 1 hour of real use on top of what it gives now. Besides, the battery's physical size is very small, a lot smaller than most battery's. I am sure they could squeeze another wee-bit in there.
My Dell M60 gets 5 hours of use burning it up and it has a large wide screen, dvd burner, and I use autocad and a few other surveying programs all the time with no significant reduction in battery life over normal fiddling around.
Eric
Originally posted by Stoo
A GeForce 6600 or Radeon X600 would be a good card for the iMac (usually PCI-Express too
How much power (and how much heat) do these cards consume/produce? If its greater, then do you have to increase the size of the power supply and the speed of the fans to remove the heat from both the vid card and the power supply.
Call me stupid, but it was always my impression that the NV FX5200U was chosen because it had a reasonable heat/power profile. They would have loved to stick a ATI 9600XT in there as an option, but what other compromises would you have to make to cater for this change.
Originally posted by a j stev
How much power (and how much heat) do these cards consume/produce? If its greater, then do you have to increase the size of the power supply and the speed of the fans to remove the heat from both the vid card and the power supply.
Call me stupid, but it was always my impression that the NV FX5200U was chosen because it had a reasonable heat/power profile. They would have loved to stick a ATI 9600XT in there as an option, but what other compromises would you have to make to cater for this change.
I'd say the FX 5200 was chosen more because of cost and because it maintained a certain feature set. The GeForce 6200 hadn't been announced yet - and even if it was, the $129-149 initial retail cost would have hurt it. Now, you can see them online for $70-100 for 128 MB versions (and I don't mean turbocache versions, either), and the chipset is AGP-capable as well.