What does the iMac or iBook need for you to buy one?
I guess I'm aiming this more towards people who would normally buy the professional Powermacs and Powerbooks. I think both the iMac and iBook are slowly becoming viable alternatives to paying a lot more for a PowerMac or Powerbook.
Right now if I were buying I would likely still buy a dual 867 tower but the 17 inch iMac is extremely tempting. I'm waiting till MWSF to see if they do what I want to it. For me to get the iMac I would want
1.) 1Ghz G4 with at least 1MB L3 cache
2.) DDR RAM and faster busses
3.) fix the wobbly issue with the 17 inch display. I know that's how they all are but it creates a sense of weakness when mvoing it. I don't like that on something that costs $2000
4.) Firewire 2 and USB 2
5.) 120GB HD
Apple does that in January and the iMac 17 inch is mine.
iBook if I were looking for a portable:
1.) G4
2.) radeon 7500
3.) extended desktop support
Right now if I were buying I would likely still buy a dual 867 tower but the 17 inch iMac is extremely tempting. I'm waiting till MWSF to see if they do what I want to it. For me to get the iMac I would want
1.) 1Ghz G4 with at least 1MB L3 cache
2.) DDR RAM and faster busses
3.) fix the wobbly issue with the 17 inch display. I know that's how they all are but it creates a sense of weakness when mvoing it. I don't like that on something that costs $2000
4.) Firewire 2 and USB 2
5.) 120GB HD
Apple does that in January and the iMac 17 inch is mine.
iBook if I were looking for a portable:
1.) G4
2.) radeon 7500
3.) extended desktop support
Comments
Proper audio i/o, maybe RCA.
Video out would be nice too.
Better keyboard + mouse.
All I need to buy an iBook is the money. Really, it's already a sweet little machine. The LCD on the 12" is gorgeous, and the keyboard feels nice to me - allowing for the fact that all laptop keyboards are a little strange. The whole machine feels nice. A G4 would be a downgrade - performance notwithstanding - if it made the 'Book run hot and diminished the battery life.
Maybe I'm easy to please.
I would like to see the iBook turn into more of a subnotebook type portable. My ideal iBook would have a 13.3" screen (1440x whatever resoltuon), 600-700 MHz low power G4, Radeon 7500, and around 3 lbs.
Using Photoshop and iTunes as much as I do (not to mention OS X itself) I'd feel comfortable sticking with a G4.
Ideally, if I had a fantasy one-off Mac custom built for me, it would simply be an 800MHz G4 iBook with a nice video/graphics card, 60-80GB hard drive and a speedy combo drive.
Oh, and a cool wide screen at, say, the resolution of the first-generation TiBook.
In other words, TiBook guts and screen size/resolution, BUT in a tough, snazzy iBook shell.
The iBook however, that's different.
I'd like to see one with a blue Apple logo, like the one in OSX, and a larger hard drive. Also, a sub-$1000 configuration, with a 500mhz G3, 256mb RAM, 30gb hard drive, and 12.1in screen. Around $900. Then I would buy one.
What does the iBook need?
A G4 (or some kind of altivec)
Bigger HD, standard.
32MB VRAM
Support for higher external resolutions not spanning, more like enhanced mirroring to go together with...
closed book operation.
Gimme the above, priced between the top iBook 14 and the bottom TiBook, and you have a sale.
I want to use a bigger (with MORE RESOLUTION) display when I'm at home but I wouldn't mind the smaller 12" form factor when I'm on the road.
We need a modern Duo without the dock! Just nice clean closed book, high-res DVI operation. Perfect! 1999-2199 and I'm there.
What does the iMac need?
EXPANSION (4x AGP slot and CPU daughtercard)
I know that's never happening, so, now that the PM's are all dual, let's see,
The same CPU speeds as the PM (but single only)
867, 1Ghz, and 1.25Ghz
133 and 167 busses on DDR266 and 333
1MB L3 cache on all models.
4X AGP, 32-64MB video
hard-drive options as is
17" combo drive option.
1GHz G4 (or better)
60-120GB 7200RPM HDs (faster HDs make a huge difference in performance)
nVidia Ti 200 or nVidia Ti 4200 - 64MB Video Cards (or better)
32X CDRW/DVD Combo Drive (the SuperDrive at this stage is not for me)
These components are readily available and are NOT expensive and are still crippled enough to be labeled 'Consumer' (though I will never understand the huge divide). Faster HDs, video cards and optical drives will make up for the lack of processing power right now. If the components are available and affordable, why not use them? What's keeping me away from a new Apple 'Consumer' Mac is the loud, noisy and slow HDs, the weak video cards and the fact that you have to get the SuperDrive in order to get the 'high end' model.
Being able to fully customize an iMac and or an eMac would be the ultimate. Keep everyone happy with their computing needs for their particular budgets.
They need to find a way to fix those things, cool it, and get a G4 in.
Higher resolution on an external display SHOULD be there too.
It had a quiet, 7200 RPM hard drive
It had a higher resolution screen at a lower price point (or alternately, the 17" model was available across the board or with a choice of drives)
It had 4X AGP with at least a 64MB GeForce 4MX (preferably a Ti, but that won't happen until the Ti is standard on the low-end PowerMac, and it's not even standard on the high-end yet)
It had a 133MHz or faster bus speed
It had some means of expansion (anything - removable hard drive, both RAM slots user-accessable, CPU daughtercard, AGP slot)
Pretty much the same thing with the iBook. I would buy an iBook and replace my old laptop and tower if it had a G4, better graphics, a removable hard drive, two RAM slots (or at least more base RAM), high resolution mirroring or spanning, and a PC card slot. Looks like I just described a previous generation TiBook.
With DVI out and closed book operation a 12" iBook case would make a perfect little brick to deploy with a bigger LCD screen. A lot of people don't need/want dual displays, but a lot of us need a small computer to trvael with, and a LOT of us NEED a bigger display when we park our butts at a desk. A kind of Enhanced mirror that ran at higher than native resolutions with the lid closed would be perfect.
I see it now, I take my tiny 12" G4 notebook out of my bag, plug in a keyboard and mouse and big flat panel and, though the lid is closed, the machine automatically turns on when it senses a USB port and the DVI port have been plugged in. OR, for coolness, when a usb port is plugged in a simple touch of the Apple logo turns on the machine.
Apple is stratifying it's desktops and it's time to do the same with laptops. Aim the iBooks a little lower, keep the TiBooks where they are (they cost enough already) and slot a nice middle book right down the 1999-2199 range.
The line-up could look something like this:
12" iBooks, 1199 to 1399, G3
14" iBooks, 1599 to 1799, G3
DuoBook 12 or 13.3", 1999 to 2199 G4
PowerBooks 2499 to 3799, G4, dual display, 15.2, big L3, faster bus, faster/bigger HDD, faster video, yadda yadda yadda...
Nice even $200 increments with different users nicely targeted with different features/capacities:
Budget compact.
Budget Consumer desktop replacement.
Prosumer/Executive compact.
Professional slim desktop replacement.
Perhaps IBM will finally show it's SIMD G3 part (Sahara + VMX?) They originally spoke if it being available right about now, but then tempered their projections. Could it be in the cards?
A .13u, Low-K, 512KB L2, 5 stage, Sahara with a 200Mhz FSB and altivec or equivalent would probably kick the snot out of Motos G4's and be cooler at the same time.
Could be good, if it exists?
The iBook...kill the damn 14" and put a widescreen standard across all the variations. The case is okay, but maybe lessen the curvyness a bit. Make it a little more durable as well...and add a Radeon 7500.
I've decided that I'm never going to buy another computer no matter what with 1024x768 res. It's just too damn limiting in X. Therefore the current iBook is out of the running.
Okay I'll just take the video spanning.