I must say that this highly entertaining, watching everyone wake up, see this news, go "Huh?" and then post their thoughts. Good fun to read over breakfast
Yes... I saw my first rumor just a few minutes before the store went down... Got my 12" BTO configuration saved and waiting for a little extra cushioning to my savings.
Which reminds me.. anyone want to buy a 14" WallStreet? lol
Check out the picture gallery. It actually says "iBook g4" on the machine itself. I do not believe that Apple has ever done this on a consumer machine.
First of all this rocks for most people! Now folks can get a low end ibook with combo drive for 1100 or less if you are a student. This is hugely important psychologically. Students will see an immediate improvement in MP3 ripping times 8)
Seriously though, The very cheap portable G4 will tempt some creative windows types to get one as a little video editor or photo studio. And great timing with the panther publicity. I can see lots of macheads owning much older machines making this their bridge machine to get current while they wait for the G5s to fall in price and spread downward in the lineup.
There are just several issues for us "iBook power users" that might be disconcerting. \
If indeed this chip is an older 7455 this is mixed news - what about the ibook's famed battery life? Did Apple put the rest of the components on a tighter power budget or something or will we see battery life drop from the 3.5+ hours to the 2+ hours range where the powerbooks have been hovering recently? If this is not the 7455 could it be an IBM G3+Altivec rebranded? Is there something in the bus speed/ L2 cache numbers which say definitively either way?
Also, what about all of the work that went into hacking the ATI 7500 graphix cards to support monitor spanning? That hack made the iBook into suitable main computer for poorer 2D creatives who need screen real estate but not the horsepower for video encoding and such. I hope that the ATI 9200 has not been sealed off by Apple from enabling these supported features in order to protect the now precarious position of the little powerbooks. I do have a suspicion that this is why the video cards changed though.
Lastly and least importantly, it seems Apple is taking some cues from people that the all white look was not going over so well. The new iBooks appear to be clad similarly to the previous G3 800 generation internally (Silver inner faces), but has the transparent outer shell returned? To my mind the opaque white outer casing on the G3 900 iBooks looks terrible, and I can't tell from the gallery photos whether the outer is back the the good old days. If they do have a transparent casing with this slot loading drive I deem these the most beautiful iBooks ever!
So in essence, I'm hopefull, but uneasy until some of the uncertainty is cleared up.
Check out the picture gallery. It actually says "iBook g4" on the machine itself. I do not believe that Apple has ever done this on a consumer machine.
It HAS been a long time since apple put a speed, processor or ANY number on a Mac. And since the late 90's introduction of the product grid, this is definitely the first time is has been put on a "Consumer" machine.
Just bought a powerbook g4 12" with a combo drive and got it last friday. Can I return it? Should I return it if I can and get the ibook? I'm kinda bummed about this. I wish I waited.
Sorry to hear that. Depends if you did a custom order, then there's no returns that I'm aware of under any circumstances (except things like DOA, defects, etc. which would be repaired). If it's a standard config, then a 10% open box fee applies. Check Apple's Sales/Refunds page for more info:
Has anyone noticed that the batteries in the new iBooks are actually better than any of those available on the powerbook line.
iBooks: 50 watt-hour (12in) and 61 watt-hour (14in) compared with:
Powerbooks: 47 (12in), 46 (15in) and 58 (17in)
Why can't we have decent batteries in the Powerbook. I was all ready to order a 15in AlBook when it came out but was disappinted that battery life is worse in the 15in than the tiny 12in. It is really gutting to see the 14in iBook get a 32% longer-lasting battery, which with a less powerful processor to power will probably result in 1-2 hours more real usage time.
This makes the iBooks very tempting, but unfortunately I need all the speed and screen size I can get for sloooowwwwww Dreamweaver MX (but that's another post altogether)!
For what it's worth: I'm running on a RevB TiBook, 550MHz, 768MB RAM, and have zero speed issues with Dreamweaver MX. I typically also have iTunes, Photoshop, iChat, Mail and Transmit running at the same time as Dreamweaver...
Dammit. Low end model is £849. The old iBook low end model was £799. Was going to buy one if the price on the low end fell or at least stayed the same, but now I really can't afford it .
PS: Does anyone know if you can use none-apple WiFi cards with it? I'm not paying an extra £50 just for a card with apple's name on it
Nice refresh for Apple... caught me off guard. I initially had buyer's remorse on my 12" PB, but after looking at the specs I'm not disappointed at all.
I wonder who the heck is going to buy that 1 GHz iBook though, $200 extra for a 60GB HD (which is a $50 upgrade on the 933 MHz model) and 67 more MHz?
That is so STUPID how they MAKE you get a 14" if you want 1ghz. They should let you have a 1ghz or 933mhz 12" iBook.
Man my poor 12" PB...wishing it had ATI! You pay for it's smallness and great keyboard too though so I'm happy. Maybe my mom will get an iBook G4 now instead of a PowerBook. The Radeon 9200 has to be a league better than the GeForce 420 Go right? Also it would look better if the lowed end was $999 not $1099. But damn, like someone here said, the new Apple knows how to execute!
do you guys think it'll get to me faster if I order from the apple store online or go to an apple store physically to get it? I called the apple store and they said they would have it in a couple of weeks, they probably had no idea.
Comments
Originally posted by BRussell
It appears to be using the old 7455/7445 G4s instead of the new 7s (because of the 256 rather than 512 cache). I wonder why.
So it doesn't eat into the powerbook sales i suppose.
Originally posted by Gabid
I must say that this highly entertaining, watching everyone wake up, see this news, go "Huh?" and then post their thoughts. Good fun to read over breakfast
Agreed.
Originally posted by rageous
Wow, this one really came in under the radar.
Yes... I saw my first rumor just a few minutes before the store went down... Got my 12" BTO configuration saved and waiting for a little extra cushioning to my savings.
Which reminds me.. anyone want to buy a 14" WallStreet? lol
First of all this rocks for most people! Now folks can get a low end ibook with combo drive for 1100 or less if you are a student. This is hugely important psychologically. Students will see an immediate improvement in MP3 ripping times 8)
Seriously though, The very cheap portable G4 will tempt some creative windows types to get one as a little video editor or photo studio. And great timing with the panther publicity. I can see lots of macheads owning much older machines making this their bridge machine to get current while they wait for the G5s to fall in price and spread downward in the lineup.
There are just several issues for us "iBook power users" that might be disconcerting.
If indeed this chip is an older 7455 this is mixed news - what about the ibook's famed battery life? Did Apple put the rest of the components on a tighter power budget or something or will we see battery life drop from the 3.5+ hours to the 2+ hours range where the powerbooks have been hovering recently? If this is not the 7455 could it be an IBM G3+Altivec rebranded? Is there something in the bus speed/ L2 cache numbers which say definitively either way?
Also, what about all of the work that went into hacking the ATI 7500 graphix cards to support monitor spanning? That hack made the iBook into suitable main computer for poorer 2D creatives who need screen real estate but not the horsepower for video encoding and such. I hope that the ATI 9200 has not been sealed off by Apple from enabling these supported features in order to protect the now precarious position of the little powerbooks. I do have a suspicion that this is why the video cards changed though.
Lastly and least importantly, it seems Apple is taking some cues from people that the all white look was not going over so well. The new iBooks appear to be clad similarly to the previous G3 800 generation internally (Silver inner faces), but has the transparent outer shell returned? To my mind the opaque white outer casing on the G3 900 iBooks looks terrible, and I can't tell from the gallery photos whether the outer is back the the good old days. If they do have a transparent casing with this slot loading drive I deem these the most beautiful iBooks ever!
So in essence, I'm hopefull, but uneasy until some of the uncertainty is cleared up.
Peace,
Curufinwe
Originally posted by jdbon2
Check out the picture gallery. It actually says "iBook g4" on the machine itself. I do not believe that Apple has ever done this on a consumer machine.
It HAS been a long time since apple put a speed, processor or ANY number on a Mac. And since the late 90's introduction of the product grid, this is definitely the first time is has been put on a "Consumer" machine.
Originally posted by uyman
Just bought a powerbook g4 12" with a combo drive and got it last friday. Can I return it? Should I return it if I can and get the ibook? I'm kinda bummed about this. I wish I waited.
Sorry to hear that. Depends if you did a custom order, then there's no returns that I'm aware of under any circumstances (except things like DOA, defects, etc. which would be repaired). If it's a standard config, then a 10% open box fee applies. Check Apple's Sales/Refunds page for more info:
http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Im...eturn%20Policy
(still waiting for this *******, ****, *****,** ! 15" AL)
But seriously, G4 iBook, great!
Must... wait.. for ... G5 powerbook...
iBooks: 50 watt-hour (12in) and 61 watt-hour (14in) compared with:
Powerbooks: 47 (12in), 46 (15in) and 58 (17in)
Why can't we have decent batteries in the Powerbook. I was all ready to order a 15in AlBook when it came out but was disappinted that battery life is worse in the 15in than the tiny 12in. It is really gutting to see the 14in iBook get a 32% longer-lasting battery, which with a less powerful processor to power will probably result in 1-2 hours more real usage time.
This makes the iBooks very tempting, but unfortunately I need all the speed and screen size I can get for sloooowwwwww Dreamweaver MX (but that's another post altogether)!
PS: Does anyone know if you can use none-apple WiFi cards with it? I'm not paying an extra £50 just for a card with apple's name on it
I wonder who the heck is going to buy that 1 GHz iBook though, $200 extra for a 60GB HD (which is a $50 upgrade on the 933 MHz model) and 67 more MHz?
Originally posted by aldo
PS: Does anyone know if you can use none-apple WiFi cards with it? I'm not paying an extra £50 just for a card with apple's name on it
You cannot use non apple cards with it! There is no pc card slot on the iBooks and the airport extreme card is proprietary.
Yup, I called apple. No returns on custuom configs. Oh well. It's not hard to live with a pb g4
Man my poor 12" PB...wishing it had ATI! You pay for it's smallness and great keyboard too though so I'm happy. Maybe my mom will get an iBook G4 now instead of a PowerBook. The Radeon 9200 has to be a league better than the GeForce 420 Go right? Also it would look better if the lowed end was $999 not $1099. But damn, like someone here said, the new Apple knows how to execute!