I really would've like to see the resolution on the smallest PB increased too. Not necessarily a 12", as a 13.3" would be fantastic, something like the same sized Sony Vaio, though as light as the current 12".
A 13.3" with the same resolution as the old 15" would have gotten my attention. I'm totally untempted by the 12" PB with the same resolution as my 4-year-old 12" iBook G3 it would replace. Although it's bigger than I'd like I may eventually consider a 15" if the right deal comes along.
Those things are fine, but come on, PowerBooks hit 1.33 Ghz in 2003, 2 frickin years ago. Now they're at... 1.67 Ghz. That's pathetic. In the same time period the PowerMacs have gone from using a 1.4Ghz G4 to a dual-core 2.5 Ghz G5. This is why Apple is switching to Intel.
I don't want to defend IBM here, but I seriously doubt this was the best option that can be provided. I do however, think it's the best option considering the next version of the Powerbook will have Intel Inside?
a) It's really not worth putting the engineering work into the PPC line anymore.
b) The Intel Powerbooks are now just going to looks sweeter in benchmarks and price/performance numbers.
Who will explain what happened to MPC7448? I cannot believe that there still is the 7447 there in.
Believe! page 25 of the technical specs pdf on the powerbook page has the miserable facts. Freescale hasn't managed to produce enough 7448s yet by the looks of things.
Apple isn't happy...it looks like they have tried to bury the FSB and cache specs on all the easily available info. The FSB is 167 Mhz and the cache is 512k (rather than 200FSB and 1Mb cache for the 7448).
I guess that we can expect another incremental update to the powerbooks and mini in February if the 7448 is to ever be included in this Apple line up. Either that or its all the way with x86.\
Who will explain what happened to MPC7448? I cannot believe that there still is the 7447 there in.
Sorry man! I did warn u! Those processors don't exist for Macs until thay are actually in Macs and the fat Apple logo chimes...
The big question is whether it's Freescale with delivery, or where it's Apple - who have given over all there teams to doing the Intel project. Personally, I'm for the rumor that because of lack of personel on the project unforseen engineering tech. prob. were not possible to overcome without the adequate resources to fix them = abandon and no new processor in-da-box. It is a real shame. If I had the money I would be hanging out for the top PPC PB..
Im selling my 12" Powerbook to get a iMac i've decided, having waited for the PB update, seems a ilttle disapointing but the price drop is very welcomed
I haven't heard much word on it, Apple of course hasn't said anything about it.
I imagine PowerBook's are still selling well but Apple is going to need to do something soon about the PowerBooks
I could imagine Apple announcing the G5 PowerBook in January. Allowing that update to carry them through 2006, until launching OS X.5 and their 64 bit solution on the Intel platform.
noone seems to be making much hoopla about the powerbooks 7200rpm option.... correct me if Im wrong but this should single handedly make the powerbooks perform faster than the last build....to me this is the biggest feature of them all and it's free! although you have to sacrifice 20gig off the storage space from the standard.
At last! I've been waiting and waiting for a PB update before buying a new computer. They updated today, and I bought tonight. I am now the proud new owner of a 12" PowerBook.
"A 12" PowerBook?" you all ask? Yes. I find it to be the perfect size, with a great amount of power. And the best part is what most sites aren't reporting on: there may not have been a big upgrade to them, but there was quite a good price drop. 20 extra gigs of hard drive space, plus a Super Drive for the price of the Combo. In addition, almost no one noticed that Apple also dropped the price of dropping in a gig of RAM from $475 to $250.
So, I've finally joined the club, and I'm enjoying what I see so far. I've only had a couple hours to play around tonight. Real trials will come tomorrow and over the weekend. I need to set up .mac and build a website about my honeymoon.
Hope there are some other happy people around here.
I imagine PowerBook's are still selling well but Apple is going to need to do something soon about the PowerBooks
I could imagine Apple announcing the G5 PowerBook in January. Allowing that update to carry them through 2006, until launching OS X.5 and their 64 bit solution on the Intel platform.
The low power G5 would be nice, though last I heard, it maxes out at 1.6GHz, which isn't impressive when AMD's Turion 64 line starts at that same speed with twice the cache and goes up to 2.2GHz and maybe higher. The Pentium-M clocks up to 2.26GHz and can be had with 2x to 4x the cache.
I had $2500 ready to blow today on a new PB, but I think I'm going to wait now... While the PM update was pretty good, the PB update was lame. If they had thrown in an iSight and FrontRow, even with the lack of speed I would have gone there.
My 1Gig TiBook is getting a tad long in the tooth, but I really don't feel compelled to cough up 2k for a new one. Also, I don't care so much for the current design with all the ports on the sides (especially the DVI) makes for a messy desk and a pain to "dock." Maybe they will at least put a dock connector on the MacTels.
What is the deal with optical in/out and no FrontRow and remote anyway?
I had $2500 ready to blow today on a new PB, but I think I'm going to wait now... While the PM update was pretty good, the PB update was lame. If they had thrown in an iSight and FrontRow, even with the lack of speed I would have gone there.
My 1Gig TiBook is getting a tad long in the tooth, but I really don't feel compelled to cough up 2k for a new one. Also, I don't care so much for the current design with all the ports on the sides (especially the DVI) makes for a messy desk and a pain to "dock." Maybe they will at least put a dock connector on the MacTels.
What is the deal with optical in/out and no FrontRow and remote anyway?
Maybe I'll buy a new iMac and play with that...
Corey
I had a 1Ghz TiBook but sold it in jan for a PowerMac. I still miss it sometimes...
Re the 12" staying the same... it ALREADY has tiny pixels. Packing in more res sounds good on paper, but it's bad for readability. That's not good for most users.
Only because the OS does not allow the user to select the font sizes for individual UI elements. Smaller pixels are better because it can form much nicer looking fonts, if the fonts were scalable. I understand that buttons and other graphics are raster images that may not scale properly, but surely text is scalable! Other OSes have been doing this for ages!
The low power G5 would be nice, though last I heard, it maxes out at 1.6GHz, which isn't impressive when AMD's Turion 64 line starts at that same speed with twice the cache and goes up to 2.2GHz and maybe higher. The Pentium-M clocks up to 2.26GHz and can be had with 2x to 4x the cache.
If this is true, IBM could improve the situation.
With Apple leaving PPC would it be worth the effort?
Apple needs to do something to radically improve the PowerBook next year.
Only because the OS does not allow the user to select the font sizes for individual UI elements. Smaller pixels are better because it can form much nicer looking fonts, if the fonts were scalable. I understand that buttons and other graphics are raster images that may not scale properly, but surely text is scalable! Other OSes have been doing this for ages!
Isn't that something you can do with Tinker Tool and similar utilities? Better if part of the OS, but I've been using TT for a while and like the options on fonts and font sizes for UI elements, as well as turning off anti-aliasing. Weird that Apple doesn't have these in the OS though.
A 13.3" with the same resolution as the old 15" would have gotten my attention. I'm totally untempted by the 12" PB with the same resolution as my 4-year-old 12" iBook G3 it would replace. Although it's bigger than I'd like I may eventually consider a 15" if the right deal comes along.
Yeah, I deliberately mentioned the Sony Vaio 13.3" that has a 1280x800 resolution, IIRC. And it weighs less than the 12" PB. It's also black, which I'd love in a powerbook. Anyway, seeing as Apple has used Sony-designed PBs in the past, it'd be great if, once they move to Intel, if they could put out something similar to the Vaio 13.3". In the meantime, I'll be holding onto my 12" PB 1.33 with 4x Superdrive, which more than does the job and connects great to my 19" LCD with DVI when working at home. Just a great setup for someone who isn't on the road every day... in which case I'd probably go for the 15", which is a fantastic deal, as others have mentioned: not enough to make me want to upgrade right away, but if I were in the market for a new PB, I wouldn't hesitate.
Comments
Originally posted by csean
I really would've like to see the resolution on the smallest PB increased too. Not necessarily a 12", as a 13.3" would be fantastic, something like the same sized Sony Vaio, though as light as the current 12".
A 13.3" with the same resolution as the old 15" would have gotten my attention. I'm totally untempted by the 12" PB with the same resolution as my 4-year-old 12" iBook G3 it would replace. Although it's bigger than I'd like I may eventually consider a 15" if the right deal comes along.
Originally posted by BRussell
Those things are fine, but come on, PowerBooks hit 1.33 Ghz in 2003, 2 frickin years ago. Now they're at... 1.67 Ghz. That's pathetic. In the same time period the PowerMacs have gone from using a 1.4Ghz G4 to a dual-core 2.5 Ghz G5. This is why Apple is switching to Intel.
I don't want to defend IBM here, but I seriously doubt this was the best option that can be provided. I do however, think it's the best option considering the next version of the Powerbook will have Intel Inside?
a) It's really not worth putting the engineering work into the PPC line anymore.
b) The Intel Powerbooks are now just going to looks sweeter in benchmarks and price/performance numbers.
Originally posted by PB
Who will explain what happened to MPC7448? I cannot believe that there still is the 7447 there in.
Believe! page 25 of the technical specs pdf on the powerbook page has the miserable facts. Freescale hasn't managed to produce enough 7448s yet by the looks of things.
Apple isn't happy...it looks like they have tried to bury the FSB and cache specs on all the easily available info. The FSB is 167 Mhz and the cache is 512k (rather than 200FSB and 1Mb cache for the 7448).
I guess that we can expect another incremental update to the powerbooks and mini in February if the 7448 is to ever be included in this Apple line up. Either that or its all the way with x86.
Originally posted by PB
Who will explain what happened to MPC7448? I cannot believe that there still is the 7447 there in.
Sorry man! I did warn u! Those processors don't exist for Macs until thay are actually in Macs and the fat Apple logo chimes...
The big question is whether it's Freescale with delivery, or where it's Apple - who have given over all there teams to doing the Intel project. Personally, I'm for the rumor that because of lack of personel on the project unforseen engineering tech. prob. were not possible to overcome without the adequate resources to fix them = abandon and no new processor in-da-box. It is a real shame. If I had the money I would be hanging out for the top PPC PB..
I haven't heard much word on it, Apple of course hasn't said anything about it.
I imagine PowerBook's are still selling well but Apple is going to need to do something soon about the PowerBooks
I could imagine Apple announcing the G5 PowerBook in January. Allowing that update to carry them through 2006, until launching OS X.5 and their 64 bit solution on the Intel platform.
"A 12" PowerBook?" you all ask? Yes. I find it to be the perfect size, with a great amount of power. And the best part is what most sites aren't reporting on: there may not have been a big upgrade to them, but there was quite a good price drop. 20 extra gigs of hard drive space, plus a Super Drive for the price of the Combo. In addition, almost no one noticed that Apple also dropped the price of dropping in a gig of RAM from $475 to $250.
So, I've finally joined the club, and I'm enjoying what I see so far. I've only had a couple hours to play around tonight. Real trials will come tomorrow and over the weekend. I need to set up .mac and build a website about my honeymoon.
Hope there are some other happy people around here.
Originally posted by TenoBell
IBM does have a low power G5 processor.
I imagine PowerBook's are still selling well but Apple is going to need to do something soon about the PowerBooks
I could imagine Apple announcing the G5 PowerBook in January. Allowing that update to carry them through 2006, until launching OS X.5 and their 64 bit solution on the Intel platform.
The low power G5 would be nice, though last I heard, it maxes out at 1.6GHz, which isn't impressive when AMD's Turion 64 line starts at that same speed with twice the cache and goes up to 2.2GHz and maybe higher. The Pentium-M clocks up to 2.26GHz and can be had with 2x to 4x the cache.
My 1Gig TiBook is getting a tad long in the tooth, but I really don't feel compelled to cough up 2k for a new one. Also, I don't care so much for the current design with all the ports on the sides (especially the DVI) makes for a messy desk and a pain to "dock." Maybe they will at least put a dock connector on the MacTels.
What is the deal with optical in/out and no FrontRow and remote anyway?
Maybe I'll buy a new iMac and play with that...
Corey
Originally posted by Corey
I had $2500 ready to blow today on a new PB, but I think I'm going to wait now... While the PM update was pretty good, the PB update was lame. If they had thrown in an iSight and FrontRow, even with the lack of speed I would have gone there.
My 1Gig TiBook is getting a tad long in the tooth, but I really don't feel compelled to cough up 2k for a new one. Also, I don't care so much for the current design with all the ports on the sides (especially the DVI) makes for a messy desk and a pain to "dock." Maybe they will at least put a dock connector on the MacTels.
What is the deal with optical in/out and no FrontRow and remote anyway?
Maybe I'll buy a new iMac and play with that...
Corey
I had a 1Ghz TiBook but sold it in jan for a PowerMac. I still miss it sometimes...
Originally posted by nagromme
Re the 12" staying the same... it ALREADY has tiny pixels. Packing in more res sounds good on paper, but it's bad for readability. That's not good for most users.
Only because the OS does not allow the user to select the font sizes for individual UI elements. Smaller pixels are better because it can form much nicer looking fonts, if the fonts were scalable. I understand that buttons and other graphics are raster images that may not scale properly, but surely text is scalable! Other OSes have been doing this for ages!
Originally posted by JeffDM
The low power G5 would be nice, though last I heard, it maxes out at 1.6GHz, which isn't impressive when AMD's Turion 64 line starts at that same speed with twice the cache and goes up to 2.2GHz and maybe higher. The Pentium-M clocks up to 2.26GHz and can be had with 2x to 4x the cache.
If this is true, IBM could improve the situation.
With Apple leaving PPC would it be worth the effort?
Apple needs to do something to radically improve the PowerBook next year.
We shall see.
Originally posted by drumsticks
Only because the OS does not allow the user to select the font sizes for individual UI elements. Smaller pixels are better because it can form much nicer looking fonts, if the fonts were scalable. I understand that buttons and other graphics are raster images that may not scale properly, but surely text is scalable! Other OSes have been doing this for ages!
------------------------------------------------------
Isn't that something you can do with Tinker Tool and similar utilities? Better if part of the OS, but I've been using TT for a while and like the options on fonts and font sizes for UI elements, as well as turning off anti-aliasing. Weird that Apple doesn't have these in the OS though.
Originally posted by Mr. H
You're confusing Front Side Bus (FSB) speed with System (RAM) Bus speed. ...
The 7447 has a maximum FSB speed of 167 MHz, and the 7448 has a max FSB speed of 200 MHz.
I wasn't confusing the two, I just wasn't being clear in my haste to post amid work chaos.
What I meant was: a 333 RAM speed suggests the FSB is still at 167 (167*2 = 333). 333/200 = 5/3, an odd stepping ratio.
If the CPU was a 7448, with 200 FSB, I'd expect RAM speed to be a more reasonable multiple of 200, eg: 400.
Originally posted by sjk
A 13.3" with the same resolution as the old 15" would have gotten my attention. I'm totally untempted by the 12" PB with the same resolution as my 4-year-old 12" iBook G3 it would replace. Although it's bigger than I'd like I may eventually consider a 15" if the right deal comes along.
---------------------------------------------------
Yeah, I deliberately mentioned the Sony Vaio 13.3" that has a 1280x800 resolution, IIRC. And it weighs less than the 12" PB. It's also black, which I'd love in a powerbook. Anyway, seeing as Apple has used Sony-designed PBs in the past, it'd be great if, once they move to Intel, if they could put out something similar to the Vaio 13.3". In the meantime, I'll be holding onto my 12" PB 1.33 with 4x Superdrive, which more than does the job and connects great to my 19" LCD with DVI when working at home. Just a great setup for someone who isn't on the road every day... in which case I'd probably go for the 15", which is a fantastic deal, as others have mentioned: not enough to make me want to upgrade right away, but if I were in the market for a new PB, I wouldn't hesitate.