14" iBook needs G4 to distinguish

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
itself from the rest of the line. Apart from the increased size there needs to be a greater differentiation.



I know of five people who are looking at an Apple laptop. The Ti is too expensive and the 12" iBook is too small.



The 14" iBook is almost perfect...none of them want to run OSX on a G3.

Give us a 500 or 550 mHz G4. If you like, keep the bus at 100 (although 133 would be nice).
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 27
    [quote]Originally posted by satchmo:

    <strong>

    I know of five people who are looking at an Apple laptop. The Ti is too expensive and the 12" iBook is too small.



    .</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Tell them to get the iBook. It runs perfectly with 384MB RAM or more.

    As there are some benefits of Altivec for Mac OS X, it is not that much altogether. If they would buy a G4/550 they can buy a G3/600 with no noticable difference unless they use Photoshop and Final Cut Pro all the time.

  • Reply 2 of 27
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    Instead of putting a G4 in the 14" iBook, Apple should just get rid of it. It's big and ugly and the 12" screen looks better.



    [ 02-05-2002: Message edited by: EmAn ]</p>
  • Reply 3 of 27
    [quote]Originally posted by EmAn:

    <strong>Instead of putting a G4 in the 14" iBook, Apple should just get rid of it. It's big and ugly and the 12" screen looks better.



    [ 02-05-2002: Message edited by: EmAn ]</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Bollocks. It's the mainstream future iBook

  • Reply 4 of 27
    satchmosatchmo Posts: 2,699member
    Does Illustrator or Quark make use of the Altivec?

    Most of them are designers who use those two programs and only occasionally Photoshop.



    Oh and also Filemaker for database.
  • Reply 5 of 27
    Apple should just make the iBook 14'' but redesign it to be about 1'' thick and cut some of the plastic boarder off of the sides.



    The 14'' is sickly ugly. It would be nice to get a new iBook "slim fast" design tweak sometime later this year.



    [ 02-05-2002: Message edited by: Macintosh ]</p>
  • Reply 6 of 27
    I think the 14" iBook looks terrible. The 12" screen is much smaller, and so portable. A G4 in a small iBook would be loverly......



    or even better.....



    A 13" TiBook (same size as current small iBook - but much thinner, faster, titanium etc)
  • Reply 7 of 27
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    [quote]Originally posted by Macintosh:

    <strong>Apple should just make the iBook 14'' but redesign it to be about 1'' thick and cut some of the plastic boarder off of the sides.

    </strong><hr></blockquote>



    Exactly. Even if they didn't make it 1" thick, all the extra platic around they keyboard and stuff just looks so bad, it really needs to be taken away. I would never buy one of the ugly iBooks. The 12" iBook looks alot better, is more portable, and good features for the price.
  • Reply 8 of 27
    [quote]Originally posted by EmAn:

    <strong>



    Exactly. Even if they didn't make it 1" thick, all the extra platic around they keyboard and stuff just looks so bad, it really needs to be taken away. I would never buy one of the ugly iBooks. The 12" iBook looks alot better, is more portable, and good features for the price.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Even if you love the small iBook, like me, the bigger one in front of you IS NOT UGLY. It looks beautiful. maybe not as sexy as the small one, okay, but a 14" screen and please compare this one to a mainstream pc laptop, come on...



    <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
  • Reply 9 of 27
    max8319max8319 Posts: 347member
    actually, a G4 helps OSX a lot. i went from a pismo 500 to a ti400 and osx is a lot faster! there IS a noticable difference in OS X on a G4
  • Reply 10 of 27
    All in all I think the ibook is the second most needy of a design tweak. Remove the extra plastic and shave some thickness.
  • Reply 11 of 27
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    [quote]Originally posted by antaisce:

    <strong>



    Even if you love the small iBook, like me, the bigger one in front of you IS NOT UGLY. It looks beautiful. maybe not as sexy as the small one, okay, but a 14" screen and please compare this one to a mainstream pc laptop, come on...



    <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>



    You like all that silver plastic around the keyboard? I just think it doesn't fit into the iBook's design.
  • Reply 12 of 27
    Solution to the 14" iBook:



    Paint it black. It's a nice book, but it is so big and white that it's kinda (dare I say it?) ugly.



    If Apple made a midnight/eyes-slide-off-it-is-so-dark/glossy iBook with a black Apple logo that glowed red when turned on, they'd have a winner.



    SDA
  • Reply 13 of 27
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    [quote]Originally posted by suckfuldotagain:

    <strong>Solution to the 14" iBook:



    Paint it black. It's a nice book, but it is so big and white that it's kinda (dare I say it?) ugly.



    If Apple made a midnight/eyes-slide-off-it-is-so-dark/glossy iBook with a black Apple logo that glowed red when turned on, they'd have a winner.



    SDA</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Why not just bring back the Lombard/Pismo case? That'd be fine with me. Great design there.
  • Reply 14 of 27
    [quote]Originally posted by satchmo:

    <strong>Does Illustrator or Quark make use of the Altivec?

    Most of them are designers who use those two programs and only occasionally Photoshop..</strong><hr></blockquote>



    The iBooks resolution makes it unlikely that a designer (print designer?let?s clarify) is going to use the iBook for their main system.



    Not to mention the subset keyboard.
  • Reply 15 of 27
    macgregormacgregor Posts: 1,434member
    The 14" iBook is just fine except for screen resolution. It would be great to put a G4 in the iBook, but only if it was in both of them. I've seen both and if I didn't have the smaller one there, I wouldn't notice any aesthetic problems.



    The size of the 14" iBook is fine, though to keep it a beginners FIRST portable, it needs to be rugged and relatively inexpensive. There is no need to slim it down. Have you all forgotten the whole point of the iBook? A portable iMac! If screen res were close to the iMac, I'd be happy. And yes the iMac is now G4, but that is a matter of price and time.



    The very fact that someone is looking at the 14" iBook and the TiBook at the same time, means that it IS a good size and guess what?!?!? We even have choice in that size range! Go ahead and complain, because that helps drive the tech business, but don't be unrealistic about a 1/4 of plastic here or there.



    I agree that I'd love to have a black or graphite version, but don't go putting iBooks out of the financial reach of the general public just so you can run Photoshop on it when most people just want a basic computer.



    What this points to, I think is that there is an even bigger market for portables (duh) and room for a smaller TiBook and an even subnotebook sized iBook or TiBook.
  • Reply 16 of 27
    bellebelle Posts: 1,574member
    The whole iBook range needs the G4. There must be room in that big old case to squeeze one in without too many modifications to handle the heat.



    Because the current high end iBook has a 600MHz G3, I guess everyone's going to expect at least a 600MHz G4. Shame really, there must be plenty of 400 and 500MHz G4s out there, and the cost per unit can't be much more than higher MHz G3s.



    It doesn't matter if the G4 doesn't noticably improve the performance of OS X - it does noticably improve the performance of iPhoto, iTunes, and iMovie - the features Apple uses to sell the iBook.



    I have a feeling the 14 inch iBook won't be around for very long. It'll be interesting to see the initial sales figures.

    [quote]Originally posted by MacGregor:

    <strong>The size of the 14" iBook is fine, though to keep it a beginners FIRST portable, it needs to be rugged and relatively inexpensive. There is no need to slim it down.</strong><hr></blockquote>

    Couldn't agree more. The PowerBook actually suffers a little from being too thin.



    The size of the 12in iBook is almost perfect for me. It feels nice and chunky, but is very portable. And the keyboard is nice and big.



    I wouldn't complain if it lost a little weight, though.



    [ 02-06-2002: Message edited by: Belle ]</p>
  • Reply 17 of 27
    [quote] The iBooks resolution makes it unlikely that a designer (print designer?let?s clarify) is going to use the iBook for their main system. <hr></blockquote>



    ok, I use inDesign, Quark, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Dreamweaver on my iBook.



    I am a Graphic Designer and do a lot of print work. My iBook is my only system. I make my living off of it.



    Mac Guru
  • Reply 18 of 27
    jasonppjasonpp Posts: 308member
    Well I saw the 12 and 14" iBooks side by side on the weekend.



    The 12" iBook is still a much better portable computer than the 14". My cousin got one and in it's bag you don't even think it's a laptop!



    With the screen resolution the same there's no reason anyone (unless you're farsighted) should get the 14".



    Now if Apple updated it to a G4 and a 1280x1024 screen I'd buy it today. I keep thinking this is their plan for the next few months.. but sales numbers will tell the whole story...
  • Reply 19 of 27
    macgregormacgregor Posts: 1,434member
    Mac Guru, you should be highlighted on the Apple website of professionals! "And she/he does all of this on the CONSUMER portable!"
  • Reply 20 of 27
    cubitcubit Posts: 846member
    I use my Japanese 12.1" iBook for, well, Japanese



    I keep everything moble, and linked via AirPort, on my G3 Pismo 500 with a slew of VST add plug-ins which I cann slip in and out as needed-- 250 Zip, original DVD, Extra HD, and a CD Burner when absolutely needed and SuperDisk when I am in Japan. It all fits and runs brilliantly AND works with iPod and has real Video out,...







    In other words, a light note-taker and positively fabulously designed new ibook in Brilliant white is just what I need in the air and archives. The G3 was the desktop on the go! I held off on TiBook because of both cost and the quality of screen resolution-- not good enough and it originally had just the DVD. Of course, I would have loved to kick back and view the wide-screen <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />



    So, while the iBook 14 has the bigger screen, it does not have anything to lure me; I'm waiting to see what appears in Tokyo and hope for a new rev TiBook that has the same quality of screen as the iBook 12.1 AND combo drive. Maybe a G4 can be priced a little lower, but the flexibility on TiBooks does not really seem to be the Apple Plan. <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" />
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