First of all thank you for the answers. Having read that there probably won't be an increase in the price as long as there is just a slight update, I've also decided to wait until the end of september. The fact that many people seem to think that the Powerbooks contain old technology for a too high price made me consider if it wasn't the best to buy another notebook this year to wait for the Apple-Intel-Line. So now my decision really depends on what the update will be like. I hope for 1024 DDRII Ram as well as the "Superdrive" as a standart for less than 2000 ? (I'm from Germany). The present display could have a higher resolution I think, but besides that I really like the way it is. For my eyes are quite sensitive to bright light, I don't like most of the new Notebook displays (especially the very bright one's from Sony).
The present display (especially the 12") is unusable outdoors or with any direct light. At least with an X-brite screen (as found on the Sony Vaio and many others) you can turn down the brightness if it is not to your liking. Unlike PowerBook owners who have to scuttle into the shadows to read their email.
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The present display could have a higher resolution I think, but besides that I really like the way it is. For my eyes are quite sensitive to bright light, I don't like most of the new Notebook displays (especially the very bright one's from Sony).
The present display (especially the 12") is unusable outdoors or with any direct light. At least with an X-brite screen (as found on the Sony Vaio and many others) you can turn down the brightness if it is not to your liking. Unlike PowerBook owners who have to scuttle into the shadows to read their email.
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The present display could have a higher resolution I think, but besides that I really like the way it is. For my eyes are quite sensitive to bright light, I don't like most of the new Notebook displays (especially the very bright one's from Sony).
_____
Since when can you not turn down the brightness of a powerbook?
Well I guess you always could turn the brightness down, but - I cannot really explain why - I figured out, that for example I cannot work with flatscreens even if I turn the brightness far down. Some notebook's displays work with a similar technology I guess and others like the ones from Apple do not. Just don't ask me why - it's just the experiences I made.
The present display (especially the 12") is unusable outdoors or with any direct light. At least with an X-brite screen
It is, of course, a double-edged sword. Ultra bright displays are extremely power hungry, almost to the extent that you won't get much battery run-time at all with it outside. I'd rather see Apple adopt something novel, such as a Samsung TMR panel, to combat outdoor readability problems.
I think the price will remain the same. The powerbooks are pricy as is. I however LOVE my 17" powerbook and wouldn't change a thing about it. I waited for a month for the speedbump to come out with my new powerbook, it was worth the wait. My advice, wait till the end of September, if nothing comes buy the old powerbook.
Quote:
Originally posted by SummerChris
Hi!
I'm planning to buy a Powerbook and I have read about rumors, stating that there could be a new Powerbook Series at the end of September, by the time of the Apple Expo in Paris. My question now is, if Apple uses to increase the price for such a new series or if it usually remains the same. What was it like when the new iBooks were released? Was there an increase in the price?
Would you recomment, to wait until the end of September?
You can bet that the aluminum enclosure will be gone in a year or two. With the Intel transition, all the specialty stuff will disappear. Apples will be just like Dells; the laptops will be flimsy plastic with foil appliques.
I disagree. Just because Apple is switching to using Intel CPUs doeesn't mean that they'll change everything else, simply to make them like PCs. I think Apple will keep their basic designs and style to keep them distinctive.
I'm curious what's happening re: PowerBook updates now that Jobs isn't doing a keynote at Paris Expo. Like many others, I've been listening to the rumors that suggested he'd mention PowerBook updates... and was waiting for then before ordering. I don't have any interest in being a guinea pig for the MacTel PowerBooks and was hoping to get the last PBook rev before the big switch.
I believe that we might see updates for PowerBooks as well as PowerMacs before or at Paris. The thing is Steve is not going to announce them. Apple probably will only update without Steve presence. So we might expect no major upgrade. Maybe few MHz faster for both.
I think at this point Apple will only wait for Intel. Then we might see something major. Until then I personally not expecting much.
You can bet that the aluminum enclosure will be gone in a year or two. With the Intel transition, all the specialty stuff will disappear. Apples will be just like Dells; the laptops will be flimsy plastic with foil appliques.
This is one of the most absurd comments I have ever read in this forum. You have no clue.
Apple is famous for their design and ability to make amazing cool products. This is one of their strongest assets. Through the years they keep innovating and blowing away the competition in that respect.
Just because they are switching to Intel it doesn't mean suddenly they will be like Dell's. Come on!
The switch is because the roadmap and ability to produce chips that will help Apple continue with their design innovation and creation of amazing products.
If one day Apple becomes like Dell, then my friend Apple will just disappear.
Does anyone else find the glare of an XBrite completely unexceptable? I mean, don't get me wrong, they are wonderfully bright, but I'll not take that if it means I need the horried glare reflector glue atop of it.
Re the LED backlights: LEDs have been notorious for inconsistant color temperature from light to light and difficulty in getting a good fairly neutral light as of yet; personally I think I'll pass on an LED backlight until someone can show me they produce "calibratable" quality light.
Re Apple will drink the Dell hardware koolaid: check out andy hertzfeld's recent interview on NerdTV, folklore.org or his new book on the topic of Steve Jobs, and you will understand why this will never happen under ole Steve's watch.
It should be noted that at about the same time Apple decided to switch to Intel Dell announced a coming line of high end, "luxury line" computers that are better built than their standard POS. Dell is recognizing that with the emerging asian markets and the continual commoditization of the PC, there will soon be little/no money in making the standard fare bare bones corporate desk/home PC. Add to that the upscale move of game consoles, and Dell is going to need a successful higher margin business (PC or otherwise) to ride out the next 10 years.
I'd be willing to bet Lenovo will be shipping the highest volume of PC boxes within 10 years.
I'm starting to think the folks saying we'll be waiting until Merom hits are on the money. The dual core Yonah's just won't carry things like the Adobe suite and the many other pro type apps that won't be Intel native at launch time considerably faster than the G4 powerbooks. Waiting for Merom affords them a much better upgrade value and gives people the option of running their current Adobe suite or an upgrade shortly afterwards (I'm sure other apps will be coming in around the same time, it's just Adobe that's actually announced anything).
Also, don't count on Apple actually paying the published "retail" prices. I doubt Dell, HP, etc. do, and at least out of the gate Jobs likely negotiated a pretty attractive price structure.
1. Not zippy, my 1.67ghz fully loaded powerbook, shows the beachball more than I would like. It's great for web browsing and such but not good enough for the constant editing of photoshop, or having multiple programs running and/ navigating in the finder... it just gets sluggish.... I think a 2.4ghz processor would fix that nicely ;-)
2. display is sooooo outdating. hold it next to any pc in a typical computer store and suddenly you will want to cry, and the whites, and brightness...
3. video card..
4. Amount of Ram
Hopefully these things will be address in the september 20th update. [/B]
Re#1: the beachball generally has more to do with the speed of you hard drive/amount of RAM than the CPU. Apple has always used relatively slow/quiet drives in their laptops, and buying say a 100 7200 RPM drive will drastically reduce TiB (Time in Beach). Also, if you are using multiple apps/photoshop with large files you owe it to yourself to buy 2x1GB RAM sticks. It addresses #4 without jacking up the price by buying them from Apple. Unless you are a heavy gamer or using 12" Powerbooks, I don't think #3 is all that big an issue.
#2, outdated yes. I'd love a higher res screen. I do however respect Apple for waiting until they've got a res independent OS to implement it. The XBrite stuff is not a terribly attractive feature for graphics(print at least, maybe not web) work, IMO.
Comments
First of all thank you for the answers. Having read that there probably won't be an increase in the price as long as there is just a slight update, I've also decided to wait until the end of september. The fact that many people seem to think that the Powerbooks contain old technology for a too high price made me consider if it wasn't the best to buy another notebook this year to wait for the Apple-Intel-Line. So now my decision really depends on what the update will be like. I hope for 1024 DDRII Ram as well as the "Superdrive" as a standart for less than 2000 ? (I'm from Germany). The present display could have a higher resolution I think, but besides that I really like the way it is. For my eyes are quite sensitive to bright light, I don't like most of the new Notebook displays (especially the very bright one's from Sony).
Thanks again!
Christian
_____
The present display could have a higher resolution I think, but besides that I really like the way it is. For my eyes are quite sensitive to bright light, I don't like most of the new Notebook displays (especially the very bright one's from Sony).
_____
Originally posted by hellasketchy
The present display (especially the 12") is unusable outdoors or with any direct light. At least with an X-brite screen (as found on the Sony Vaio and many others) you can turn down the brightness if it is not to your liking. Unlike PowerBook owners who have to scuttle into the shadows to read their email.
_____
The present display could have a higher resolution I think, but besides that I really like the way it is. For my eyes are quite sensitive to bright light, I don't like most of the new Notebook displays (especially the very bright one's from Sony).
_____
Since when can you not turn down the brightness of a powerbook?
Originally posted by hellasketchy
The present display (especially the 12") is unusable outdoors or with any direct light. At least with an X-brite screen
It is, of course, a double-edged sword. Ultra bright displays are extremely power hungry, almost to the extent that you won't get much battery run-time at all with it outside. I'd rather see Apple adopt something novel, such as a Samsung TMR panel, to combat outdoor readability problems.
Originally posted by SummerChris
Hi!
I'm planning to buy a Powerbook and I have read about rumors, stating that there could be a new Powerbook Series at the end of September, by the time of the Apple Expo in Paris. My question now is, if Apple uses to increase the price for such a new series or if it usually remains the same. What was it like when the new iBooks were released? Was there an increase in the price?
Would you recomment, to wait until the end of September?
Thank you for your help!
Christian
Originally posted by cubist
You can bet that the aluminum enclosure will be gone in a year or two. With the Intel transition, all the specialty stuff will disappear. Apples will be just like Dells; the laptops will be flimsy plastic with foil appliques.
I disagree. Just because Apple is switching to using Intel CPUs doeesn't mean that they'll change everything else, simply to make them like PCs. I think Apple will keep their basic designs and style to keep them distinctive.
I think at this point Apple will only wait for Intel. Then we might see something major. Until then I personally not expecting much.
Originally posted by cubist
You can bet that the aluminum enclosure will be gone in a year or two. With the Intel transition, all the specialty stuff will disappear. Apples will be just like Dells; the laptops will be flimsy plastic with foil appliques.
This is one of the most absurd comments I have ever read in this forum. You have no clue.
Apple is famous for their design and ability to make amazing cool products. This is one of their strongest assets. Through the years they keep innovating and blowing away the competition in that respect.
Just because they are switching to Intel it doesn't mean suddenly they will be like Dell's. Come on!
The switch is because the roadmap and ability to produce chips that will help Apple continue with their design innovation and creation of amazing products.
If one day Apple becomes like Dell, then my friend Apple will just disappear.
Re the LED backlights: LEDs have been notorious for inconsistant color temperature from light to light and difficulty in getting a good fairly neutral light as of yet; personally I think I'll pass on an LED backlight until someone can show me they produce "calibratable" quality light.
Re Apple will drink the Dell hardware koolaid: check out andy hertzfeld's recent interview on NerdTV, folklore.org or his new book on the topic of Steve Jobs, and you will understand why this will never happen under ole Steve's watch.
It should be noted that at about the same time Apple decided to switch to Intel Dell announced a coming line of high end, "luxury line" computers that are better built than their standard POS. Dell is recognizing that with the emerging asian markets and the continual commoditization of the PC, there will soon be little/no money in making the standard fare bare bones corporate desk/home PC. Add to that the upscale move of game consoles, and Dell is going to need a successful higher margin business (PC or otherwise) to ride out the next 10 years.
I'd be willing to bet Lenovo will be shipping the highest volume of PC boxes within 10 years.
Also, don't count on Apple actually paying the published "retail" prices. I doubt Dell, HP, etc. do, and at least out of the gate Jobs likely negotiated a pretty attractive price structure.
Originally posted by webmail
1. Not zippy, my 1.67ghz fully loaded powerbook, shows the beachball more than I would like. It's great for web browsing and such but not good enough for the constant editing of photoshop, or having multiple programs running and/ navigating in the finder... it just gets sluggish.... I think a 2.4ghz processor would fix that nicely ;-)
2. display is sooooo outdating. hold it next to any pc in a typical computer store and suddenly you will want to cry, and the whites, and brightness...
3. video card..
4. Amount of Ram
Hopefully these things will be address in the september 20th update. [/B]
Re#1: the beachball generally has more to do with the speed of you hard drive/amount of RAM than the CPU. Apple has always used relatively slow/quiet drives in their laptops, and buying say a 100 7200 RPM drive will drastically reduce TiB (Time in Beach). Also, if you are using multiple apps/photoshop with large files you owe it to yourself to buy 2x1GB RAM sticks. It addresses #4 without jacking up the price by buying them from Apple. Unless you are a heavy gamer or using 12" Powerbooks, I don't think #3 is all that big an issue.
#2, outdated yes. I'd love a higher res screen. I do however respect Apple for waiting until they've got a res independent OS to implement it. The XBrite stuff is not a terribly attractive feature for graphics(print at least, maybe not web) work, IMO.