I want a kickass i-book....NOW!
I am waiting for the day that Apple will design an i-book that is totally droolworthy. I mean amazing performance, petite size and incredible price! Don't get me wrong, the new ibooks are nice but... I would still like to see a few things...
Like:
- 7,200 rpm hard drives
- slot loading dvd-rom/cdrw
- under an inch thick
- under 4.5 pounds
- sleek new enclosure (NO WHITE, would love a nice dark blue though)
- rubberized enclosure, less prone to fingerprints, scratches
- be capable of handling more than 640mb of ram
- new IBM 750GX processor or higher at 1.4Ghz
- updated system architecture
- 200Mhz ddr front-side bus
- 1MB of L2 cache at processor speed
- battery life of at least 4 hours under performance conditions
- airport extreme with better reception/connectivity
- Bluetooth support
- firewire 400, 800, usb 2.0, 1 or 2 ports
- 10/100 ethernet or better maybe 10/100/1000
- video mirroring/spanning
- better fullsize keyboard
- better onboard sound (look at harmon kardon set-up in Toshiba's Satellite series)
- A graphics card with at least 64mb of ddr vram (preferably ATI)
- super low power dvd mode
And all of this for under 3000 dollars Canadian which is 2,257.73 American. Wow, isn't that a lot to ask for? Maybe it is but I still want it! It is do-able if IBM and Apple optimize their production methods. But it's a shame that a machine such as this will never be released before a much faster Powerbook G4 is released! Comon, Apple pick up the pace! I want me dream i-book....NOW!!!('
')
Like:
- 7,200 rpm hard drives
- slot loading dvd-rom/cdrw
- under an inch thick
- under 4.5 pounds
- sleek new enclosure (NO WHITE, would love a nice dark blue though)
- rubberized enclosure, less prone to fingerprints, scratches
- be capable of handling more than 640mb of ram
- new IBM 750GX processor or higher at 1.4Ghz
- updated system architecture
- 200Mhz ddr front-side bus
- 1MB of L2 cache at processor speed
- battery life of at least 4 hours under performance conditions
- airport extreme with better reception/connectivity
- Bluetooth support
- firewire 400, 800, usb 2.0, 1 or 2 ports
- 10/100 ethernet or better maybe 10/100/1000
- video mirroring/spanning
- better fullsize keyboard
- better onboard sound (look at harmon kardon set-up in Toshiba's Satellite series)
- A graphics card with at least 64mb of ddr vram (preferably ATI)
- super low power dvd mode
And all of this for under 3000 dollars Canadian which is 2,257.73 American. Wow, isn't that a lot to ask for? Maybe it is but I still want it! It is do-able if IBM and Apple optimize their production methods. But it's a shame that a machine such as this will never be released before a much faster Powerbook G4 is released! Comon, Apple pick up the pace! I want me dream i-book....NOW!!!('
')
Comments
iBook will stay with 4200 RPM hard drives for the forseeable future. Right now, even 5400 RPM is just an option on the PowerBooks. Once it becomes standard on all PowerBooks, it MIGHT be an option for iBooks.
A slot loading Combo drive is a definite possibility. I never liked the iBook's flimsy-feeling tray drive, and if they get a new, thinner enclosure, a slot loading drive would help.
Under an inch thick? I think not. The 12" PowerBook is 1.18" thick, and the iBooks are all 1.35" thick. I could see the iBooks hitting 1.2", or even just 1" (that is if the PowerBook also gets thinner).
Getting under 4.5 lbs would be a great challenge as well. As before, the 12" PowerBook isn't that small, it's 4.6 lbs, so I don't think Apple would make their cheap low end laptop even smaller and lighter. But maybe 4.7-4.8 lbs, just a slight weight loss, would be doable (meanwhile the 14" could drop to 5.3-5.6 lbs, about the weight of a 15" PowerBook).
I think the iBook's next enclosure will still be white, possibly a matte finish like the iMac's dome. A dark blue one would be nice though! As long as it looks professional and not gaudy. A thinner, lighter, sleeker enclosure would be the next logical step for the iBook.
I doubt it will have a rubberized enclosure but it's possible I guess, if Apple wants to seriously promote the iBook's durability to students. Still, that would add to the weight and dimensions, so I don't think it'll happen.
The iBook will eventually be capable of addressing more than 640 MB of RAM. Eventually it'll get DDR to handle 1 GB SODIMMs, and also it'll eventually get 256 MB of RAM on the motherboard.
The next iBook will certainly use a newer IBM G3 processor, because the current one (the 750fx) is maxed out at 900 MHz. I could see a 1.0 or 1.133 GHz one being used. With the new processor will come enhanced features like DDR RAM (even if it's only useful for raising the RAM ceiling) and a faster bus. But the bus speed will not eclipse that of the PowerBooks. It will slowly increase, to 133 MHz at first. Apple's finally raising the bus speeds of the eMac and iMac, with 133 MHz on the eMac and 133 MHz or 167 MHz on the iMac. They were sitting at 100 MHz since late 1999
Airport Extreme will certainly make its way into the next iBook. It's ridiculous that it hasn't become part if them yet. I mean... the only Mac being sold now that can't have Airport Extreme is the iBook. And yet the PowerMacs, eMacs and iMacs can have it! Same goes with Bluetooth.
I think USB 2.0 will be part of it but FireWire 800 won't. Apple markets FW800 as a "pro" feature whereas USB 2.0 is looked at as an "everyone" feature. It's on the G5s and PowerBooks, but it's also on the new iMacs. It should make its way to the eMacs and iBooks soon. Not that I really care
Spanning probably won't make it, although I don't doubt they'll continue to use video cards that support it with a hack. Just be careful!
I fully expect a better keyboard for the iBooks. Their current one is a bit spongy, although it is pretty good. Still nothing compared to the PowerBooks.
It would be nice if the iBook had just slightly better internal speakers. The current ones are barely loud enough for the user to hear clearly, and it's impossible for anyone else near the computer to hear. At least beef up the amplifier a little bit, even if it makes the sound crack a little.
I think the next iBooks might get 32 MB Radeon 9000s or GeForce 4 420 Gos. They'll probably stay with 32 MB because that is within the realm of the 12" PowerBook without exceeding it. Once the 12" PowerBook gets 64 MB (and it will fairly soon), the iBooks will have 32 MB low end and 64 MB high end, maybe even 64 MB standard.
Prices on the iBooks won't change much. But if you want something like you described at current prices, you'll be waiting quite a while, probably a year at least.
Also, iBooks already have 10/100 Ethernet. You must have made a slip while making that crazy wish list.
Edit: Preemptive explanation - while much of what's on the list isn't really off the wall, expecting it in an iBook when the 12" PB doesn't meet several of those specs is a bit too wishful IMO.
We need a rule banning first posts as new threads.
I'll give points for enthusiasm.
...and besides, the iBooks look nice, they're cheap enough...but let's face it...they're not really ahead of the tech' curve... It's been a while since their last design refresh.
iBooks need a shot in the arm. (Wouldn't mind a price trim...keep pressure on Dell in the Edu' sector...) Just how long can Apple keep shipping a sub 1 gig machine? Who am I to argue...they appear to be selling...?
Newbie won't get everything he's asking for but he's right to demand it.
Lemon Bon Bon
Seriously, that's a pretty hefty wishlist, and most of the things wished for exist in the current PowerBooks.
Kinda like owning a Beetle and wanting VW to give it all the things to make it a Passat.
Just buy a Passat and be done with it.
I don't see most of those things on an iBook for some time...
Originally posted by macaddict74
It is "ibook" after all.
Actually it's,"iBook".
Originally posted by macaddict74
Thanks for all who responded! Oh and sorry for the i-book WRONG spelling... It was really late and I somehow missed it. It is "ibook" after all. Now, I never said it would happen in the near future but I just wish that apple would dump Motorola into an industrial-size garbirator and stick with IBM. If that happened, not only would there be better speed increases in a reasonable amount of time but it is possible that more revisions could also be made in a shorter amount of time to an existing product line like the ibook.
The iBook has shipped with an IBM chip from the day the first blue clamshell appeared, and it's run with IBM's latest and greatest G3s ever since. The 900MHz G3 in the current iBook is the fastest G3 IBM offers right now (that will change shortly - by a max of 200MHz).
The problem is that when you have to hit the iBook's price point, and you have a power budget of 8 watts, there's a hard limit on how much raw computational muscle you can expect.
Check out the AppleInsider post (in News Comments, or on the front page) on the rumored (and logically forthcoming) iBook refresh. It won't hit every bullet point in your wish list, but you might be pleasantly surprised.
As for Motorola and the G4, the new PowerBooks seem to be getting excellent reviews and holding their own performance-wise against Centrino-based notebooks - not to mention that Apple's notebook share just jumped upward - so just be glad that Apple no longer has to use a notebook CPU in a pro tower.
But what do you people want in an iBook? I guess what I really want is a zippy, light and aesthetically pleasant looking iBook that will last me for a couple of years!
Going back to why we (wife & myself) bought an iBook for Christmas 2001: it was the cheapest Apple laptop, period (OK, we went for the combo drive model...).
Notice the word "cheapest" in conjunction with "Apple laptop".
Biggest minuses today in our iBook:
- only 8MB video card (some ATI Rage 128), therefore no QE (and therefore it's not that snappyTM)
- only 10GB hard drive
Concluding from this, a future iBook (at least, for us) should have:
- QE-enabling graphics (they have that already).
- "reasonable" hard drive sizes (OK, that's already there, too - but remember that in 2001, Apple had those breezy promotional videos with the "iBook the centre of your digital life" message... and they had only 10GB hard drives!).
- speedier bus and processor (not quite there yet, but probably with the next rev).
- Airport Extreme (not there yet, but as I understand it, for AE to implement, they'd need to do a new motherboard, so if they use new bus & processor, they might enable AE as well).
- Either Bluetooth (one reason mainly: to email and surf the web through your Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone) OR a small bay or something where you can put your SIM card from your mobile phone (that would need some antenna inside as well, but that could work like Airport Extreme and Bluetooth work now in the PowerBooks)!
- PRICE COMPETITIVE!!! I mean, really competitive. Have the CD-DVD model (notice they don't have that either yet) for $899 and the combo-drive model for $1199 (that's probably not REALLY competitive, just a notch more competitive - though currently, the iBooks have a good price/performance ratio).
That's sort of a "reasonable" wish-list (and one that's probably going to be realized with the next revision).
A more "conceptual wish-list" would be: the iBook should be a cheap and light basic Apple laptop. Difference to the "reasonable wish-list": it could be probablly a bit smaller, and it should be lighter - read "Sub-Notebook" here. But I'm perfectly aware that form and especially WEIGHT might prove difficult to reduce.
Anyway, the iBook can pretty much stay the same. Just ADJUST the prices!
Originally posted by macaddict74
Oh well, I think I will have to hold off purchasing an iBook for at least a year anyway (I don't have the money to spend on it). However, by the time I am able to purchase an iBook I have no doubt that some amazing things will have happened by then! I first have to upgrade my G4 350's processor anyway, it is tooooooooooo slow..... Ok I'll end it there!
But what do you people want in an iBook? I guess what I really want is a zippy, light and aesthetically pleasant looking iBook that will last me for a couple of years!
If iBook to be center of digital hub it has to have all the connectivity and the HD to work it all. AE, BT,>/=1ghz and optional drives, your iPod shouldn't hold more than your iBook
I'd like to see faster cdrw and >40g HD Right now it's one of the two best looking laptops (PB#1) very distinctive
so
40,60 HD
BT
AE
widescreen
but as posted can apple do an ibook line with only a 13 widescreen, it would save in inventory and not have to have both 14 and 12, the question is widescreen or keep 14 12 and with widescreen could they get there laptop in the $800 range with a combo drive. gateway and dell can get close. my sister in law got a gateway 14, 30HD combo for 850 last christmas afte rebates. service for 4 yrs at 169 and they threw in a case and free shipping. People want cheaper laptops, desktops for families especially with wifi is dying.
iBooks out of stock at The Apple Store
Friday, October 10 2003 @ 11:37 PM CT | Article Link
Late this evening, all three iBook models went from 'Same Day' delivery at The Apple Store to a 5-7 day wait. We'll let you know if the wait time grows beyond 5-7 days.
If it's any consolation to the recent AppleInsider story + the fact there's an event scheduled for next week (even though music is the focus of the event).
-zoidberg.