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Apple Updates iBook
micq writes "After the PowerBook was updated with a faster processor at the end of April, the iBook was sure to follow. Apple announced today that the popular iBook line has been updated, upping it to a 700MHz G3. It's good to see they're still keeping the 12.1" models, which are of the few remaining small screen, ultra-portables..." They've also improved the video card to an ATI Mobility Radeon. Prices range from $1500 to $1800 for the 700MHz model (12" and 14"), and there's a 12"/600MHz model for $1200.
Something that should help the revised iBook's speed beyond the 100MHz speed boost is the doubling of it's L2 cache to 512K from it's previous 256K.
The G3 processors are the only processors below the magic $200 price point, and that's why these will continue to be used in iBooks and iMacs.
;-)
Somebody's going to nail you on this one, I'm afraid. I just wanted to do it gently.
Both the iMac and the new eMac have G4 processors. You're absolutely right about the G3 price point, of course, but I'm afraid you're wrong about the iMac.
until today the ibook had 8MB VRAM, i don't see them jumping right up to 32MB when that's what the TiBook is shipping with right now. i agree, iw ould like to see the ibook optimized to take full advantage of all aspects of 10.2, but hey. i do not know how much of an issue it will really be, all reports of people installing the developer version of 10.2 (with lots of begugging stuff added) on 600mghz ibooks said it was way faster than the 10.1.4 they had been running. it wqould have been nice tto start the lower ones with a lil more than 128 megs of ram though. yes, it's cheap and easy to upgrade yourself, but it's the point.
over all i think it's a pretty good upgrade. nothing shocking, but nobody really expected that.
If only I had the money for one of these I would probably buy the lowest spec or perhaps a new iMac? :D~
As long as it's a Radeon, on Apple's OS X page:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/newversion/
Near the bottom in grey.
Anyway, you're saying the small form factor, the reasonable price, the excellent battery life, the full complement of ports and features, the Unixy OS, *and* it's future OS update isn't enough for you?
Man, what do you want then?
GPL Deconstructed
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2002/03/29/i book_linux.html
For the old iBook: http://people.debian.org/~branden/ibook.html
The TiBook setup is reportedly similar, I suspect that the new iBook will also be.
-Yarn - Rio Karma: Excellent
It *looks* like this is IBM's new PowerPC 750CX with the 512K L2 cache being the best indicative of that.
Check the specs of the PowerPC 750FX and the PowerPC 750CX (which was used in the last iBook generation).
It's not just gaming.
Quartz double buffers every window in memory. QE will do the same thing, but using hardware to do it. So, not only are you storing 1024x768x32 (3MB) in memory for the screen, but every window to be accelerated will also need to be stored in memory. This will add up very quick in an environment like the Mac. 16MB will be pushing it after only a few windows are opened.
The new iBook runs up to 35 percent faster than previous models in CPU performance tests such as encoding a song from an audio CD into an MP3 file using iTunes(TM). iBook also now features a new video-out port that supports VGA output, as well as S-video and composite video with optional adapter.
Quite a little performer. The G3 has some life in it yet. Check out IBM's spec sheet on the PowerPC 750FX Microprocessor.
blakespot
-- Heisenberg may have slept here.
iPod Hacks.com
> As a former user of this machine, let me tell you that this computer (even after the speed-bump) is woefully underpowered if you intend to run OS X.
Speed was an issue with my 500 MHz (66 MHz system bus) before OS X 10.1, but not any more.
In fact, with OS X 10.1.4, the machine is fast for almost everything I do (surfing, programming, graphics, etc). IE is still slower on my iBook relative to an equivalent Wintel notebook, but I use OmniWeb most of the times.