Sorry, I just don't buy it. Apple is cheap. Extremely cheap. When we all complained about the G5 towers still lacking PCI Express, it was "They're waiting for the next chips, since its cheaper to do it all at once". I just don't buy apple making a whole new widescreen iBook just to come out with a slightly faster processor.
They wouldn't be doing it because of a faster processor. They would be doing it because it is a highly requested feature, competes better with similar PC offerings and will boost sales during the inevitable pre-Intel lull. It's not that big a deal either. Pop in a wider display and mold a revised case to hold it. Just think of the current iBook only wider. They may have been developing it for quite a while now.
They wouldn't be doing it because of a faster processor. They would be doing it because it is a highly requested feature, competes better with similar PC offerings and will boost sales during the inevitable pre-Intel lull. It's not that big a deal either. Pop in a wider display and mold a revised case to hold it. Just think of the current iBook only wider. They may have been developing it for quite a while now.
re: pre-intel lull... AppleInsider (and Kasper himself) has mentioned that this widescreen iBook will come in next year, with G4 7448 coming in Oct 2005
the only thing that is puzzling me still is what Apple has got up its sleeve for the July-Sep 2005 'back-to-school' quarter. are they going to risk riding on what they have? i suspect refreshed iBooks and iPods announced next week to coincide with EDU conference. Mac minis, maybe just a price drop (if not already factored into promotions and rebates etc. by dealers worldwide).
The Big guns, eg, Widescreen iBooks, updated Mac minis, must-have iPods, updated iMac g5, prolly will come out for Oct-Dec 2005 christmas frenzy...
This should hold Apple profitable through what would otherwise have been considered a 'loss-leader' kind of 2nd half of 2005...
2006, well should be sorted now with MacIntesh's leading the charge.
Okay. its becoming clearer now, and I think i'm ready to stop bitching about Mac Minis and updated iBooks. if i need to get a Mac mini for my dad, i'll do it, so be it if they come out with something new tomorrow. whatever. this waiting game thing can make one quite unhappy.... and one can never have a fast enough GPU, it's just getting silly \
My experiences of Asustek have been not good...the latest being a mate's top of the line laptop falling apart after a month of sitting on a desk...i understand that its all designed to reduce the price of the end machine... lets just hope that it sticks to Apple's quality control...my PB is still as tight as the day i took it home......
someone is bound to tell me they are reasonable, cheap products but hey, this is just my opinion
Asustek are already producing the 12" iBook and 12" Powerbook. I'm not sure about the other iBook or Powerbook models, though.
heh... 4:3 is so... 20th century. 16:9 or 16:10 is the new aspect ratio of the millenium...!!!
umm although i guess film has always been 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 ultra wide
who decided on 16:9 anyway? that's a nasty ass number, 16 divide by 9 is 1.777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777 77777777777777777777777777777777777777777etc.
i guess 16:10 is nicer, it is 16 divide by 10 = 1.6
here's a cool widescreen ratio:
pi : pi/2
edit:
oh shit... this isn't tobacco i'm smoking....
nah, it's cool. i just got sidetracked for some reason.
carry on, nothing to see here.
edit2:
oh wait: art and maths buffs, what is the ideal aspect ratio according to 'golden mean' rules? i think it's like 1.85:1 right? which is some movie aspect ratios...
14" widescreen 16:10 is a very nice ratio. No taller than the 4:3 12", just under 2" wider.
The form factor of such a book would be very nice too. Expect something marginally thinnner than the current iBook, lighter than the current 14" but with longer battery life than the 12".
The 12" may soldier on as a neutered entry level machine, and the widescreen becomes the machine of choice. Buyers in this segment want bigger screens. This size and ratio lets Apple deliver without building a pig.
The Golden Mean (or Golden Section), represented by the Greek letter phi, is one of those mysterious natural numbers, like e or pi, that seem to arise out of the basic structure of our cosmos. Unlike those abstract numbers, however, phi appears clearly and regularly in the realm of things that grow and unfold in steps, and that includes living things.
The decimal representation of phi is 1.6180339887499... .
You can find it in a number of places:
Number Series
If you start with the numbers 0 and 1, and make a list in which each new number is the sum of the previous two, you get a list like this:
If you then take the ratio of any two sequential numbers in this series, you'll find that it falls into an increasingly narrow range:
1/0 = Whoa! That one doesn't count.
1/1 = 1
2/1 = 2
3/2 = 1.5
5/3 = 1.6666...
8/5 = 1.6
13/8 = 1.625
21/13 = 1.61538...
34/21 = 1.61904...
and so on, with each addition coming ever closer to multiplying by some as-yet-undetermined number.
The number that this ratio is oscillating around is phi (1.6180339887499...). It's interesting to note that the ratio 21/13 differs from phi by less than .003, and 34/21 by only about .001 (less than 1/10 of one percent!), thus providing our less technically-advanced ancestors an easy way to derive phi on a large scale in the real world with a high degree of precision.
thanks Bryan. good stuff. damn you appleinsiders are so smart!
hmm so 16:10 looks like the closest to golden mean... interesting, it's quite arbitrary isn't it, that there's also 16:9 and 1.85:1 and 2.35:1 that came about due to various technical or historical requirements, eg. a CD fits 74mins normally because that's the length of beethoven's (something) symphony
yes, IIRC some basic art history, rennaisance master painters are known to employ golden mean ratios in their compositions a lot.
i can't believe no one has solved why this Phi exists etc... but it's cool that there are many mysteries still for us to ponder, and for mathematicians to get grants and do whatever it is they 'do' at universities and stuff
re: pre-intel lull... AppleInsider (and Kasper himself) has mentioned that this widescreen iBook will come in next year, with G4 7448 coming in Oct 2005
Nope. Read it again. He said a 14.1" widescreen iBook is in developement with an initial order of 500,000 (sounds like its ready to go) and later a 15.4" widescreen iBook will debut sometime in 2006.
This makes sense. iBook's target market wants larger screens. The benefits of the 12" ibook have been bestowed upon cognoscenti almost as an accident of technological evolution. However, the small portable is better suited to the Powerbook line. Don't get me wrong, I love the 12" size for a tote everywhere machine, and I would get another one, it's just that consumers seem to be looking for a more one-size-fits-all solution. I don't want to say desktop replacement, for fear of the awful imagery that it conjures up, but consumers are looking for an all-in-one solution when it comes to laptops. They generally don't dock them -- many people buy the 15"+ sizes so that they can forego even hooking up a second display. iBook needs to cater to that market, the current 12" and 14" don't.
That said, I don't know that I would buy a 15.4" iBook, but I would definitely take a look at a 14" widescreen model. It really is a nice size/ratio to balance screen size against portability...
I remember when 17" seemed out of the question, a 20" could happen, not from Apple, but no one ever accused the average consumer of having too much sense, or style.
I was on a 5 hour bus ride the other weekend. A colleague had a huge 17" hp laptop. It had such a huge honking bezel on it, that it looked like it could just about accomodate a 19" LCD if they just slimmed down the bezel to a more Apple-esque dimension...
I was on a 5 hour bus ride the other weekend. A colleague had a huge 17" hp laptop. It had such a huge honking bezel on it, that it looked like it could just about accomodate a 19" LCD if they just slimmed down the bezel to a more Apple-esque dimension...
I remember when 17" seemed out of the question, a 20" could happen, not from Apple, but no one ever accused the average consumer of having too much sense, or style.
I was on a 5 hour bus ride the other weekend. A colleague had a huge 17" hp laptop. It had such a huge honking bezel on it, that it looked like it could just about accomodate a 19" LCD if they just slimmed down the bezel to a more Apple-esque dimension...
Why don't you think Apple would create such a laptop?
It might be totally impractical for travel and coffee shops, but I could see Apple marketing a 20" Lapzilla as a portable video studio, for editing DV on location or on the go. Anyone who plans on buying only one Mac and doesn't need full portability, a 20" PowerSLAB would rock. Take a Mac user who drives to work, walks from the parking lot 50 feet into the building, another 20 feet to his desk, and sets down his laptop. This Mac user works on his Powerslab at home on a desk, in front of the TeeVee, and sometimes he lays in bed and views porn when his wife is away. He doesn't need full portability, all he needs is a self-contained unit that is luggable, and Apple could make exactly what this hypothetical Mac user needs.
Just imagine how much computer could be crammed into a 20" laptop!
Introducing the Apple Powerslab - a video studio you can use on location in the Rocky Mountains, at work, or in the den. Featuring Intel's new Powerswitcher technology that manages the Powerslab's four CPU cores for long lasting battery life on the go, and for searing performance when plugged in.
I'd buy a Powerslab in a heartbeat. Then I could use it as my "luggable desktop", and get a 12" Powerbook for portable computing - except at cafes, where I'd use my Powerslab to pick up chicks.
Comments
Originally posted by Louzer
Sorry, I just don't buy it. Apple is cheap. Extremely cheap. When we all complained about the G5 towers still lacking PCI Express, it was "They're waiting for the next chips, since its cheaper to do it all at once". I just don't buy apple making a whole new widescreen iBook just to come out with a slightly faster processor.
They wouldn't be doing it because of a faster processor. They would be doing it because it is a highly requested feature, competes better with similar PC offerings and will boost sales during the inevitable pre-Intel lull. It's not that big a deal either. Pop in a wider display and mold a revised case to hold it. Just think of the current iBook only wider. They may have been developing it for quite a while now.
Originally posted by 1984
They wouldn't be doing it because of a faster processor. They would be doing it because it is a highly requested feature, competes better with similar PC offerings and will boost sales during the inevitable pre-Intel lull. It's not that big a deal either. Pop in a wider display and mold a revised case to hold it. Just think of the current iBook only wider. They may have been developing it for quite a while now.
re: pre-intel lull... AppleInsider (and Kasper himself)
the only thing that is puzzling me still is what Apple has got up its sleeve for the July-Sep 2005 'back-to-school' quarter. are they going to risk riding on what they have? i suspect refreshed iBooks and iPods announced next week to coincide with EDU conference. Mac minis, maybe just a price drop (if not already factored into promotions and rebates etc. by dealers worldwide).
The Big guns, eg, Widescreen iBooks, updated Mac minis, must-have iPods, updated iMac g5, prolly will come out for Oct-Dec 2005 christmas frenzy...
This should hold Apple profitable through what would otherwise have been considered a 'loss-leader' kind of 2nd half of 2005...
2006, well should be sorted now
Okay. its becoming clearer now, and I think i'm ready to stop bitching about Mac Minis and updated iBooks. if i need to get a Mac mini for my dad, i'll do it, so be it if they come out with something new tomorrow. whatever. this waiting game thing can make one quite unhappy.... and one can never have a fast enough GPU, it's just getting silly
Originally posted by itsamac
I will definately be wary of that model...
My experiences of Asustek have been not good...the latest being a mate's top of the line laptop falling apart after a month of sitting on a desk...i understand that its all designed to reduce the price of the end machine... lets just hope that it sticks to Apple's quality control...my PB is still as tight as the day i took it home......
someone is bound to tell me they are reasonable, cheap products but hey, this is just my opinion
Asustek are already producing the 12" iBook and 12" Powerbook. I'm not sure about the other iBook or Powerbook models, though.
Originally posted by cj171
12" widescreen ibook...oh boy that'd be sweet
heh... 4:3 is so... 20th century. 16:9 or 16:10 is the new aspect ratio of the millenium...!!!
umm although i guess film has always been 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 ultra wide
who decided on 16:9 anyway? that's a nasty ass number, 16 divide by 9 is 1.777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777 77777777777777777777777777777777777777777etc.
i guess 16:10 is nicer, it is 16 divide by 10 = 1.6
here's a cool widescreen ratio:
pi : pi/2
edit:
oh shit... this isn't tobacco i'm smoking....
nah, it's cool. i just got sidetracked for some reason.
carry on, nothing to see here.
edit2:
oh wait: art and maths buffs, what is the ideal aspect ratio according to 'golden mean' rules? i think it's like 1.85:1 right? which is some movie aspect ratios...
what is the ideal aspect ratio according to 'golden mean' rules?
1.6:1
Originally posted by bryan.fury
1.6:1
No. It's (1+sqrt(5))/2 :1.
The form factor of such a book would be very nice too. Expect something marginally thinnner than the current iBook, lighter than the current 14" but with longer battery life than the 12".
The 12" may soldier on as a neutered entry level machine, and the widescreen becomes the machine of choice. Buyers in this segment want bigger screens. This size and ratio lets Apple deliver without building a pig.
The decimal representation of phi is 1.6180339887499... .
You can find it in a number of places:
Number Series
If you start with the numbers 0 and 1, and make a list in which each new number is the sum of the previous two, you get a list like this:
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, ... to infinity-->
This is called a 'Fibonacci series'.
If you then take the ratio of any two sequential numbers in this series, you'll find that it falls into an increasingly narrow range:
1/0 = Whoa! That one doesn't count.
1/1 = 1
2/1 = 2
3/2 = 1.5
5/3 = 1.6666...
8/5 = 1.6
13/8 = 1.625
21/13 = 1.61538...
34/21 = 1.61904...
and so on, with each addition coming ever closer to multiplying by some as-yet-undetermined number.
The number that this ratio is oscillating around is phi (1.6180339887499...). It's interesting to note that the ratio 21/13 differs from phi by less than .003, and 34/21 by only about .001 (less than 1/10 of one percent!), thus providing our less technically-advanced ancestors an easy way to derive phi on a large scale in the real world with a high degree of precision.
hmm so 16:10 looks like the closest to golden mean... interesting, it's quite arbitrary isn't it, that there's also 16:9 and 1.85:1 and 2.35:1 that came about due to various technical or historical requirements, eg. a CD fits 74mins normally because that's the length of beethoven's (something) symphony
yes, IIRC some basic art history, rennaisance master painters are known to employ golden mean ratios in their compositions a lot.
i can't believe no one has solved why this Phi exists etc... but it's cool that there are many mysteries still for us to ponder, and for mathematicians to get grants and do whatever it is they 'do' at universities and stuff
Originally posted by sunilraman
thanks Bryan. good stuff. damn you appleinsiders are so smart!
well, it was a simple copy&paste job
but i remembered the 1.6:1 from my art classes ...
Originally posted by sunilraman
re: pre-intel lull... AppleInsider (and Kasper himself)
Nope. Read it again. He said a 14.1" widescreen iBook is in developement with an initial order of 500,000 (sounds like its ready to go) and later a 15.4" widescreen iBook will debut sometime in 2006.
That said, I don't know that I would buy a 15.4" iBook, but I would definitely take a look at a 14" widescreen model. It really is a nice size/ratio to balance screen size against portability...
I was on a 5 hour bus ride the other weekend. A colleague had a huge 17" hp laptop. It had such a huge honking bezel on it, that it looked like it could just about accomodate a 19" LCD if they just slimmed down the bezel to a more Apple-esque dimension...
Originally posted by Matsu
I was on a 5 hour bus ride the other weekend. A colleague had a huge 17" hp laptop. It had such a huge honking bezel on it, that it looked like it could just about accomodate a 19" LCD if they just slimmed down the bezel to a more Apple-esque dimension...
Ask, and ye shall receive: Doubles as a coffee table, perhaps.
Originally posted by Matsu
I remember when 17" seemed out of the question, a 20" could happen, not from Apple, but no one ever accused the average consumer of having too much sense, or style.
I was on a 5 hour bus ride the other weekend. A colleague had a huge 17" hp laptop. It had such a huge honking bezel on it, that it looked like it could just about accomodate a 19" LCD if they just slimmed down the bezel to a more Apple-esque dimension...
Why don't you think Apple would create such a laptop?
It might be totally impractical for travel and coffee shops, but I could see Apple marketing a 20" Lapzilla as a portable video studio, for editing DV on location or on the go. Anyone who plans on buying only one Mac and doesn't need full portability, a 20" PowerSLAB would rock. Take a Mac user who drives to work, walks from the parking lot 50 feet into the building, another 20 feet to his desk, and sets down his laptop. This Mac user works on his Powerslab at home on a desk, in front of the TeeVee, and sometimes he lays in bed and views porn when his wife is away. He doesn't need full portability, all he needs is a self-contained unit that is luggable, and Apple could make exactly what this hypothetical Mac user needs.
Just imagine how much computer could be crammed into a 20" laptop!
Introducing the Apple Powerslab - a video studio you can use on location in the Rocky Mountains, at work, or in the den. Featuring Intel's new Powerswitcher technology that manages the Powerslab's four CPU cores for long lasting battery life on the go, and for searing performance when plugged in.
I'd buy a Powerslab in a heartbeat. Then I could use it as my "luggable desktop", and get a 12" Powerbook for portable computing - except at cafes, where I'd use my Powerslab to pick up chicks.