Without getting into specific dates at this time, sources familiar with Apple's Macintosh hardware roadmap say the company is striving to unveil a completely redesigned set of Intel iBook laptops just in time for next year's K-12 educational buying season, which takes place around April or May. Expected to make its debut even earlier than the new iBooks will be Apple's first Intel-based PowerBook, sources added.
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Glad I bought my 12" PowerBook now. I'm surprised Apple is dropping the model, it's the most convenient, most portable and coolest looking laptop I've ever owned. I guess I'll reserve judgment until I see the new 13" iBook though.
Is anybody planning on rushing out and buying these things the moment they're released? To me it would be like buying the first generation of a new car model...best to wait till the next model revision so all the initial bugs can be worked out.
Member since:2005-07-06
I'm surprised as well; I've heard that a lot of people opted for the 12inch model because of its small form factor; for me, I've got a 12inch iBook - admitingly it isn't the same thing, but in regards to form factor, I can understand.
I'll say those who know nothing about the transition, that is, the regular customer, will purchae it without a care; those who will wait for rev B will be the IT orientated customer who knows a fair bit about computers; for me, my next computer will be the super high end PowerBook as a replacement for my current laptop and desktop; as for games, I'll probably either go for either an XBox 360 or Playstation 3 - both seem very good.
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Exactly what I'm what I'm thinking. Since my current notebook is only inches away from breaking apart I plan to order a PowerBook 12" now since I'm really not in the mood for first generation hardware. I somehow don't expect to see any difference between using first generation cars and first generation computer hardware *g*
And as long as the Universal Binary thing really works as good as I hope it will, I see absolutely no problem with using a PowerPC based notebook for the next 3-4 years.
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2005-07-06
I'm really looking forward to the next generation of PowerBook. This one is definitely getting long in the tooth. Super-fast Pentium M-based chips, built-in iSight, Windows-compatibility -- this is going to mark an important new phase of Apple's never-a-dull-moment Macintosh saga.
I just watched Pirates of Silicon Valley on DVD last night, which I'd never seen before, and it's pretty amazing to think just how much of a threat Apple is to the established PC paradigms again. I fully believe they can turn the Mac into the next iPod if they play their cards right, and the move to Intel IMHO is going to play a much bigger part of that then anyone realizes.
Jared
Member since:2005-07-07
Super-fast Pentium M-based chips
Thanks a lot, now you owe me a keyboard.
Damn, funniest joke of the week. (p.s. have to learn not to drink coffe while reading Intel-Apple comments). Intel LACKS speed not the other way around, and I hope you don't think they will suddenly boost everything skyhigh. From year to year everybody else in CPU bussiness is just gaining on Intel not lossing.
p.s. I'm not trolling, I'm just a long time dissatisfied customer of Intel who finaly moved off after years (which could be described as from worst to even worster) of hearing that AMD is better.
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Actually, the only thing that is lacking in the Pentium M department is decent fpu performance, apart from that, compared to the personal-nuclear-power-station-demanding P4, the performance of the Pentium M is pretty damn good when you look at the matrices and compare it with price/performance and performance/watt.
What the issue will be, not so much whether they can deliver the successor to the Pentium M, but whether they can deliver it ontime and in volume before AMD wins over too many converts; especially those once skeptical 'Anything But AMD" crowd who seem to dominate the enterprise world - with the rise of SUN's adoption of Opteron in serious servers - 8 way smp machines.
To write off Intel considering that they're virtually printing money at this moment in time is stupid to say the least; thats as unwise as saying that Singapore Airlines is about to go bust.
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I rally want to justify getting a new one once it comes out, but I'll have to wait for at least another couple years untill I'm I get my bachelors degree. I think that between graduation and going to grad school will be a perfect time to get a new computer, most likely a laptop, unless my wife wants a new one. Let's hope...
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2005-06-28
As I wrote in my blog a month ago, I expect new x86 machines in Macworld in January, not in June.
http://slashdot.org/~Eugenia%20Loli/journal/118605
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I own a 12" iBook G4, and I must say it's one of the best-looking laptops I've seen in a while. There are no protruding parts, it's all a smooth, single shell, and it's extremely portable. When Apple says they've got new eye-catching designs coming, I have to wonder how else they could have made it sexier. Thinner is good, though. Thin is awesome.
I don't plan on buying a new Mac laptop any time soon, because this little thing packs quite a punch for its size and price (only $1,200 CAD), but I'm looking forward to these Intel machines. Thinner, hopefully longer battery life, awesome performance ... all in a sexy case. :-) I'd say it's probably time to invest in Apple if you haven't already done so.
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Eh, zie Amazon's top 10's:
- 5 out 10 notebooks are Apple's.
- 1 out of 10 desktop is an Apple.
They are hotter than they've ever been.
"Wat Apple can do, so can other manufacturers"
Yeah, that's what we've been seeing the past 3 years. Check Amazon again:
- 9 out of 10 sold mobile music players are iPod's.
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Stupid question: What would apple be without british design and advertising?
[Probably equally just as stupid] Answer: a company who produces the best-quality, most stable, bug-free OS out there... just not too many people would know about it (lack of advertising) and the cases would still look like the first iMacs (lack of british design).
Sure apple can do what other manufacturers can do, it's just that apple does it first and everyone else follows... ala iMac, iPod, and Mini.
What do macs have to do with playstations? If you wanna hack up a playstation or an xbox or something and run linux or BeOS or whatever you prefer, go ahead. Meanwhile I'll buy my next mac that will be ready to go right out of the box.
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Sure apple can do what other manufacturers can do, it's just that apple does it first and everyone else follows... ala iMac, iPod, and Mini.
AARGH! iPod would be NOTHING if other portable mp3-player vendors hadn't already paved the market and fought all the expensive and hard legal battles. And miniaturised desktop computers are hardly Apple's invention either.
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"I think i'm most excited about the conversion because i'll be able to dual boot OSX and linux w/ an X86 variant."
I totally agree. I have to run VPC only to run one application that my college requires for one class. Should another class require windows-only software, it sure would be nice to be able to run a dual-boot OSX/Windows system, so that it won't be so slow under VPC.
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"Should another class require windows-only software, it sure would be nice to be able to run a dual-boot OSX/Windows system, so that it won't be so slow under VPC."
I see your piont, but think the other wat around. VPC will be much faster (like vmware) when it can run native on a x86. No need to reboot / dualboot. And near native speed (or at least much better than the current PPC VPC x86 emulator).
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So why are we comparing the PS3 to macs anyway? So the PS3 can run oses and stream HD... it isn't even out yet!!! Who knows if apple won't have something equivalent to that next year? Besides, a PS3 is a game console. If I play games, and especially if I plunk down that much money for a console, I expect it to perform amazingly, but I'd never depend on a PS3 to do all my serious work on.
Oh and, there's planty more facts out there to debunk all the opinionated crap you said on your last post. Of course, I've very opinionated as well, so wha cares? It just comes down to a matter of taste. If you want your PS3 to run all that stuff, fine, that's great. I personally prefer to have my iBook handy for all my work and leave the home entertainment stuff to my home entertainment system.
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2005-07-06
I am so excited for the new Mactel mini's to get released. If the are announced in January I will be one of the happiest geeks alive. But now maybe it is April. But Steve says June. AAAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!
Yonah will be a solid CPU. I do like AMD, they've created some great CPUs. But Intel is no slouch, they get a bad rap all of the time for their early P4's, but their CPUs were pretty decent up to that point.
I'm starting to get excited now. The first second Apple announces that they are taking pre-orders for the new mini's I am all over it.
I've been wondering about that, btw... with the lack of Apple announcing new mini's w/64MB VRAM and the faster 1.3 and 1.5 CPUS... I have been wondering if they are just using better equipment because they are running out of the older chips? But that would not explain the extra VRAM. Oh well.
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2005-09-10
> Sure apple can do what other manufacturers can do, it's just that apple does it first and everyone else follows... ala iMac, iPod, and Mini.
Yeah, right. Sorry to disturb the Macfest. I distinctly remember having a compact 486 all-in-one multimedia Compaq box back in '94 and seeing Archos and iRiver portable MP3 players and mini-ITX based computers years before the first iPod and mini. Please explain how the iMac, iPod and Mini can be seen as new innovations.
I can give Apple two thumbs up for INTEGRATION, not innovation. But shouldn't you really expect this from a company that controls both the platform hardware and the OS?
Member since:2005-07-06
I can give Apple two thumbs up for INTEGRATION, not innovation. But shouldn't you really expect this from a company that controls both the platform hardware and the OS?
What stops anyone else from doing that? or would that require the HP's and Dells of the world to, shock bloody horror, re-invest their profits back into developing their own software line up - hell, why not grab the FreeBSD core, and build a MacOS X like operating system ontop of it using OpenStep - except design a more user friend interface than the standard NeXT Step interface.
Nothing stops them except their laziness.
Member since:2005-07-06
"I can give Apple two thumbs up for INTEGRATION, not innovation. But shouldn't you really expect this from a company that controls both the platform hardware and the OS?"
What stops anyone else from doing that? or would that require the HP's and Dells of the world to, shock bloody horror, re-invest their profits back into developing their own software line up - hell, why not grab the FreeBSD core, and build a MacOS X like operating system ontop of it using OpenStep - except design a more user friend interface than the standard NeXT Step interface.
Nothing stops them except their laziness.
Yeah. That and Be, Inc + NeXT + Amiga trying and failing.
Member since:2005-07-07
[i]Yeah, right. Sorry to disturb the Macfest. I distinctly remember having a compact 486 all-in-one multimedia Compaq box back in '94 and seeing Archos and iRiver portable MP3 players and mini-ITX based computers years before the first iPod and mini. Please explain how the iMac, iPod and Mini can be seen as new innovations. </>
They are innovations in Industrial Design. Show me another product that Karl Lagerfeld uses to signal chanel's future into the digital age.
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/pcs/karl-lagerfeld-is-the-new-steve-...
Let's see I wonder why AOpen would release a Mac Mini like clone if the design were'nt inspiring and inovative.
http://news.com.com/AOpen+box+inspired+by+Mac+Mini/2100-1042_3-5885...
I don't see any Dell, IBM or Shuttle ripoffs in the market. Just because you don't get industrial design and innovation in it doesn't mean other desigers don't or Apple doesn't have innovative designs.
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The new PowerBooks sound very exciting. I just hope they will be based on the new dual core notebook chips and not a Pentium M. Still, the thought of using OS X the majority of the time but being able to boot into Fedora or Solaris is very cool. I would not sully my PowerBook by installing Windows.
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2005-06-29
I'll be the first one in line for the new powerbooks if Apple will offer me what I'm looking for. I'm not looking for an ultra-mobile. I want a desktop replacement, with a beefy processor, and preferrably an upgradeable video card (yeah, wishful thinking).
I have a feeling it's not going to happen, so I guess I'll be looking at http://www.pctorque.com again.
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Thus far the only credible speculation for an earlier release is related to the release date of Yonah.
And while Apple may want to move early, they will also want their first generation to clearly differentiate itself from the competition. They will want their powerbooks to be more than just another Pentium M laptop.
Apple has a reputation for leading the industry in design and integration. Surely they will want to capitalize on that with the first generation of powerbooks. If the analysts are going to be figuatively comparing apples to apples, they will want something fancy to make people go Oooh!! Surely this is not just slapping together another basic PC laptop "in a couple weeks", but months and months of work.
There is also their boutique products like the iMac and the Mini. Products which don't have anything to quite that extreme level of design and simplicity, hence nothing to copy from others.
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"Surely this is not just slapping together another basic PC laptop 'in a couple weeks', but months and months of work."
I'm sure Apple has had this concept in their product pipeline for a long time and has already finished or is very close to finishing the design. I doubt a highly strategic company would wait to the last minute to create a product... they are not college students, staying up late to write an essay for class the next morning.
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Rather odd that you'd say "We, people outside of US" if you didn't know what K-12 meant. Especially with you quoting "term" like that. If you really didn't know what K-12 meant, how could you possibly know it's a US-centric term? There really isn't any need for declaring yourself a non-US citizen to ask what a "term" means. How cool, we even have cultural trolls now!
Back on topic, I'm really looking forward to the 13" model. I've been waiting for a nice portable widescreen to replace my 12" PB. I really do enjoy the 16:9 aspect ratio, even my digital camera supports it (Panasonic LX1). Go Apple!
Edited 2005-11-07 01:10
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Shame to see the 12" Powerbook go - I bought mine for the compact size and love it. I'll keep an open mind about a widescreen 13" model, but not sure it'll be what I'm looking for. I guess I haven't seen the fuss about widescreen laptops (and before any asks, the laptop I had before my Powerbook was widescreen - and my laptop from work is as well).
While disappointed with the switch to Intel, it'll be interesting to see how these new machines shape up... although I'll give them a miss until the early bugs are ironed out.
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"Following a trend that began with Apple's new iMac desktops last month (and first predicted in this AppleInsider report), both the new 15- and 17-inch are scheduled to include a built-in iSight video camera."
alright, i thought they would only do this on the pretty iMac's.. but i was wrong. seriously, who needs a built-in camera on a laptop? i think it's ridiculous and i think it should be optional. having a camera objective looking at me when i'm working all the time is stupid, i don't need that... but well... what do you think?
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It's for videoconferencing, which will become more and more common for talking to family and friends through software ala skype and google talk.
And for business it will soon become ubiquitous in many companies for communication with clients and co-workers. My company is about to begin a project to install webcams on 3000 of our PCs, which will allow employees to talk to each other from our geographically dispersed centers. This improves teamwork and reduces the need for a lot of trips.
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I like Mac OS but like a lot of people there are a few Windows apps that I find hard to leave behind. Being able to run them in Mac OS without a massive drop in speed would be brilliant, and I'm sure that will be made possible soon after the release of Intel Macs. Getting Windows games running in Mac OS X may be more difficult, but if Linux can do it...
IMO dual booting is a very poor solution, having to quit all the other apps I'm running and reboot just to use an app would be totally unacceptable to me. Having to reboot every so often to install hardware and drivers is annoying enough.
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