ThinkSecret reports that Apple is preparing updated iMacs and Powerbooks, while two new development seeds were also sent to beta testers.
New iMacs, Powerbooks, Development Builds
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I wonder what the new 17″ model will have, hardware-wise. In other news, I may have a 1GHz 17″ for sale soon…
The first 2 components that are interesting to see in these notebooks are: the CPU and the video card. ATI has the Radeon 9600 mobility chip and I don’t know what Nvidia has, so I’m hoping to see a better video chip with this upcoming update. And obviously they’d kick the CPU speed up a notch, or is it not so obviously?
We’ve seen and heard about new notebook hard drives pushing bigger capacities and faster RPM speeds with roughly similar power consumption and heat dissipation of 5400 RPM drives, and even 5400 RPM drives that compete with 4200 RPM drives. So it would be nice to have better performing drives. Many people are convinced that PowerBooks are great for video editing and such multimedia tasks on the road, so faster drives would make them happy. I know I would be.
nice to see you back
cheers
anyweb
I wish I could get a G4 iBook.
When are the G5 powerbooks going to start shipping? Will they be available by christmas?
Donn’t count on seeing a G5 powerbook for a very long time. Have you seen the heatsinks on the G5s?!
Kevin typed:
Donn’t count on seeing a G5 powerbook for a very long time. Have you seen the heatsinks on the G5s?!
Actually Apple is trying for February for a G5 Powerbook. I don’t think that is a terribly long time to wait.
http://www.digitmag.co.uk/news/display_news.cfm?NewsID=3033
That is also not the first article I have read on the issue. I am sure that I can easily dig up other links. When I get around to it I’ll post ’em.
As for the heat sinks…I recall opening a 333 Mhz P2 built by Gateway at the lab and finding a comparable heat sink.
Well I’m hoping for G5 17inch power book by early next spring.
Bevis, there is a G4 iBook, it’s called a 12″ powerbook.
Kevin,
Yeah the G5 has big heat sinks, as do most desktop PCs. Apple will do like is done for all mobile chips, make a low power version of them, maybe shrink the fab to. There not going to put a 2.0 ghtz G5 out of the tower straight into a powerbook. Same as any other laptops. A few companies (alien ware, have put desktop CPUs in laptops and they natural are no good. Also the G5 heat sink is large mainly to allow extra cooling and to work with those huge slower speed fans. The could go much smaller but just have to move more air. Also Apple could go watercooling.
G5 powerbooks will happen. Laptops are Apples top market. They will need to get them in there.
Now when will the 19″ Powerbooks with dual cpu’s come out ?
Also be nice if they finaly offer at least a two button option for the laptops, since there is no way around it without one bigtime hack. Also like to see them put in much bigger battery. With all the extra space that must be in the 17″ chassis they apparently didn’t bother to double the battery. I like many could care less about weight in a laptop. If it’s small, it’s easy to move, and i much rather get 10 hours of use out of it then have it be a bit lighter, or have to carry more extras.
If Apple can get G5 17″ers out were i can have one in my hands by May 1st I will be a happy guy.
Another product that would benefit from the G5 is the Xserver.
The G5 is SO very much an improvment over the G4, that *any* caught buying one is going to be embarressed.
Another build of OS X 10.2.39,648,352?
You realize that all these special builds are for hardware specific features, that may break other machines.
I know of at least 56 diffrent builds of OS X 10.2.x
Apple is just cutting corners in the testing, and users are going to have to pay for it dearly in the coming years. i.e. you loose your origonal OEM CD, and your totally hosed. ( It has already happened to 2 iMac users I know. )
The result was: I pulled the drives, and installed and updated OS X on a machine that I did have the OEM CD for, and got everything working. 10+ hours. nice fat fee.. Thanks Apple!!!)
Interesting hardware announcements BUT …
I think Apple is creating too, too many variants of Mac OS X. Having a desktop and a server version is ok BUT now we have 10.2.7 for G5 in the interium (10.3 later) and now something called Blackrider (a variant of 10.2.7). Just how many versions of Mac OS X do you want to update and support. I suppose that they are going to bring them back together at some point with 10.3 but what do users do in the interum if you wish to buy the new hardware. It is not a simple matter of restoring my 10.2.6 on any of the new hardware and would mean a reinstall of all my applications which is significant. Apple needs to get back to just the Desktop and Server versions or allow people to update to at least a common version (variant) of Mac OS X that runs on all OS X supported Apple hardware (new and old). I guess it would mean waiting until 10.3.
“Another build of OS X 10.2.39,648,352?
You realize that all these special builds are for hardware specific features, that may break other machines.
I know of at least 56 diffrent builds of OS X 10.2.x
Apple is just cutting corners in the testing, and users are going to have to pay for it dearly in the coming years. i.e. you loose your original OEM CD, and your totally hosed. ( It has already happened to 2 iMac users I know. )
The result was: I pulled the drives, and installed and updated OS X on a machine that I did have the OEM CD for, and got everything working. 10+ hours. nice fat fee.. Thanks Apple!!!)”
A Jag retail CD will install on an iMac 233 on up. Works on Beige G3s too but its not guaranteed. If you lose the OEM boot CD its no big deal, just use the retail.
The retail CD of course will not install the bundled apps, you’ll need the recovery CD.
When you run all of the same software updates on different Macs the build numbers are going to be the same regardless of the hardware. There is no custom version of MacOSX for iMacs, eMacs or G4s.
I didnt figure they’d update the powerbooks. Bought one this week the 15″/1ghz/combo drive model. Guess I should have waited. But I couldnt wait any longer. It’s a nice though computer. I can live with it!!!!
I am not back yet, I just have better internet access for a few days during my holidays
A Jag retail CD will install on an iMac 233 on up. Works on Beige G3s too but its not guaranteed.
Jaguar won’t install on my iMac 333; my iMac absolutely hates Jaguar. Looks like I’ll be taking Apple up on the $25 coupon they are offering to G3 users. Too bad they won’t give me a refund for the hardware that is now useless because Jaguar won’t run on Apple’s POS iMac. (yes I am bitter!)