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Apple Releases New PowerBook and the eMac
Martin Kallisti writes "Apple has released new PowerBook models whose improvements include faster processors (up to 800MHz), better resolution, 1MB of L3 cache and 32MB of video memory. Also, a new computer looking much like the old iMacs, called the eMac, has seen the light of day. It's primarily targeted at the education market, and boasts a 700MHz G4 processor and a flat 17" monitor. " As Troc pointed out in another submission, the eMac will be available only to profs/teachers, students and higher education institutions.
I really hope noone excpect to use exactly the same computer _model_ when they leave school.
Job interview:
You write you have experience from school with Dell, was it their Optiplex line?
Yes, the Optiplex GX.
That old stuff? Too bad, we use Optiplex GXpro here, so your experience is worthless. But thanks for considering us. Bye.
" the eMac will be availible only to profs/teachers, students and higher education institutions."
Great going: limit availability of your product just for the hell of it. Great way to remain a mere "niche" player! Reminds me of the days when you could get PC's from a bazillion mail order places, but you could only get Apples from rare overpriced rude "authorized dealers".
Compare Google's cache of Apple's old Powerbook page and Apple's new Powerbook page. They've raised the prices, along with refreshing their product line.
The URL Google gave me has an IP number rather than xxxx.google.com so it looks a little suspicious. If you're worried I'm sending you off to goat sex, do a Google search for "apple store powerbook" and take the second result.
High-speed Road Trip (18.000KPH)
This reminds me of when I bought my Powerbook 5300. I got it as part of a special deal. They were initially (for the first 2-3 months) going to be selling them only to people affiliated with the University of Michigan. This was why they only had photocopied brochures instead of glossy ones.
A smaller market means less feedback from consumers about design flaws, and it means fewer customers to alienate if things go wrong and Apple decides to pull the plug on support. One might say that Apple knows that the educational market is its most loyal customer base, but the U of M is part of an educational institution and Apple convinced it to push 5300s and not support them or accept returns on defective merchandise.
This comment is not meant to be negative towards Apple in particular. But it is based on an experience that I have had with Apple in the past.
Amazing magic tricks
No computer platform has ever been shrouded in so much mystery and voodoo as MacOS. This is because the users never have a clue, the pundits need to protect their emotional investment, and Apple never tells you anything. MacOS X just continues this well established tradition.
The search for "the thing makes MacOS X slow" is a chimera. First of all it's not that slow, considering what it does. If anything is hard, it is to make something look easy. Apple customers are more than happy to pay that price.
Second, forget about the first point. MacOS is slow, and it doesn't make sense to look for a single spot that makes it slow -- the slowness pervades throughout the system. Font rendering is slow, Mach is slow, the CPU is slow, memory is slow, file I/O is slow, Carbon is slow, Classic is slow, applications are slow. It is really no surprise that the system as a whole is slow.
And it won't get better. Mac people like to think that future OS revisions will make OS X run faster on their iMac/iBook. But that's just because Mac people like this idea of the computer becoming gradually, magically, faster; the underdog slowly growing stronger, that kind of thing. It's not true. While future revisions of OS X will undoubtedly incorporate faster code, that does not keep Apple from adding things that make it run slower again. Meanwhile your iMac/iBook hardware keeps aging, until in a couple of years time, the introduction of the G5 or G6 or Gwhatever, Apple finds an excuse to basically drop support for your outdated hardware altogether. And then the cycle starts anew. The promise of an "all-native" system will never actually have been realized for your hardware, but Mac people won't mind, since they are ideologically compelled to look to the future, not whine about the past.
It is rumored that chairman Stalin once said: "The communist ideal is already on the horizon!". When questioned by somebody in the audience as to when the ideal would be reached, he just smiled and said: "Comrade, don't you know you can never reach the horizon?".
This is nothing new. If you've been exposed to Apple sales literature, this is the kind of thing that their marketing weasels have been putting out for a good long time.
Why the hell is this news? If we saw a /. announcement every time any time a major computer mfgr launched a new line, slashdot would be flooded with this ad copy...woops too late.
These things are neither innovative, new...or even the fastest things out there. Save some bandwidth and post some actual news.
I'm absolutely amazed that you opened your mouth and this kind of craptacular nonesense flooded out. I noticed that you've got a bit of a high userid and a penchant for buggery, but I'm still simply amazed.
I think it's time you cracked out the old brainbox and did a bit of a grep on your reality. If you'd had a minute tiny little itty-bitty clue, you would know that the company called "Apple Computer" was formed by a whacky couple of teenagers who shared the name "Steve".
STEVE WOZNIAKand...
STEVE JOBS
Now that you've clued yourself in, I'm sure that you're feeling like a real smart cookie... why don't you go back to your sandbox and grab your toys and go home because no one is interested in listening to your stupid childish ranting.
An 800MHz PowerPC processor runs at 800 MHz. IT does more calculations becuase of wider datapaths and a modern design than an 800MHz Intel chip. It is FASTER.
Secondly, on a laptop there is no such thing as a 1GHz Intel chip. Why? Because when you're not plugged in, that chip runs at 250MHz or slower.
Intel chips cannot run low power at 1GHz, they are too big, and to complicated and draw too much power.
So, you're actually whining that Apple doen't have a 200MHz processor in their laptop, which you'd prefer over the 800MHz processor they do have?
THIS MAKES NO SENSE.
Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23