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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.
The G3 is a nice, lower-power chip at a decent speed. It's probably a better choice for an ultraportable than the G4 would be. And with the upgrade to a Radeon, it's now capable of taking advantage of Quartz Extreme (though not optimized, it now meets the spec). 700 MHz is a respectable speedbump - which we all knew would come soon after the PBG4 was bumped to 800 MHz. Personally, the only thing I'd like to see is the ability to support a little higher res (maybe 1152x870 or something like it) on the 14" model, but it's a nice upgrade anyways.
A lot of folks squawk about the iBook's lacking a Cardbus slot, but I don't see it as a problem. The most common additions you'll see via Cardbus are Ethernet, modems, and wireless cards - these already have 'em, plus a Firewire port as well.
This makes a heck of a nice little reasonably-priced Unix box, really. I've owned both the old toilet seat model and the newer iceBook model, and they're darn near bulletproof.
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
This is a really bad move they should focus on upping the speed on their G4 chips and dicontinue the G3 all together.
This statement is a great illustration of what I think is the biggest fallacy in the computing industry right now: that speed is everything.
The consumer mentality really comes through. You've been taught to believe that you should always buy the best/fastest/coolest/most expensive thing on the market. If there's something better/faster/whatever than what you've got, then you suck!
I really don't care how fast my iBook is, as long as it's fast enough. I use it for email and web browsing, and it's fast enough for that. I also use it for basic office-type tasks, like light word processing and page layout, and it doesn't need a G4 for that. I also use it to run Project Builder, and it certainly doesn't need a G4 for that.
The extra megahertz are nice and all-- if I could trade my 500 MHz iBook for a 700 MHz one, I would, as long as I could keep my 12-inch form factor. But I wouldn't be willing to pay any more for it, or deal with any more size, weight, or heat. I'm definitely not going to be trading in until there's something that I want or need to do with my iBook that I can't accomplish without newer hardware.
Besides, this megahertz space-race is really bad for the industry as a whole. I certainly don't shop for CPUs very often, but I'd be surprised if you could buy a new 500 MHz Pentium any more. Which is a shame, because if you could, they'd probably cost about $10. But instead, you have to get a 1.5 GHz monster or something, even if it's just going to be a router or email host. Yeah, yeah, Intel (or whoever) is in it to make money, and margins are higher on top-of-the-line parts. Oh, well.
Which is just as irrelevant, as the G3 they're using now has double the L2 cache as their last G3, which is at least one architectural improvement. I wouldn't be surprised if this were IBM's Sahara chip...
But we'll see.
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