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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.
If you want optimum performance form an Apple notebook, you need to buy the Powerbook. That is the point of the Powerbook, it is a better machine. The iBook is great of email, internet, and basic office type functions, if you want good graphics, and gaming possibilities, the iBook is not the one.
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."
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.
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.
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.
I really like these devices and want to try them. But I need Debian Woody on it. So had anybody already tried one of the new IBooks with Woody? Are there any special components (like soundcard) or ports (like usb) which don't work at the moment?
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.
GPL Deconstructed
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
Is it not possible that 32mb of VRAM would be entirely wasted on a system capable of no greater than 1024x768 resolution, even with Quartz Extreme?
True, the iMac has the same resolution and 32MB VRAM, but I would assume that's mainly for gaming; I would not expect gaming to be a priority for iBook users.
I remember when upgrading my beige PowerMac G3 to 6mb VRAM gave me all the VRAM I thought we'd ever need. I'm going to guess that even with Quartz Extreme, 16MB would be ample at the resolutions iBooks run at.
Otherwise, you'd need tons more VRAM if you ran a Cinema Display or Cinema HD Display, and I see nothing to that effect in the specifications.
Of course if I'm wrong, I'd welcome corrections.
D
He obviously confused mobile and desktop processor prices. I don't have any figures myself, but if the G4/800 is $550 in the laptop version, it's $225 in the desktop version (per his statement that desktops are about half the price). So the desktop G4/800 just squeezes itself into viability here, with its presence in the top iMac.
If his prices are accurate - and they seem to be, in view of what Apple charges for the finished products - it's pretty obvious that we won't see G4 iBooks any time soon, regardless of how much Steve wants to get rid of the moldy old thing.
D
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).
Aw, damn. So you can only buy an iBook (THE CONSUMER LEVER LAPTOP) with a G3. But wait! You could buy a TiBook - and hey! That has a G4!
But I guess that only has one cpu in it, and not 2 [sigh].
Quit whining. It turns out that a G3 at 700 Mhz is plenty enough to run OSX. If you're planning on playing games -- maybe not (if they're hardcore 3D, anyway).
But I'm sitting here doing Dev work on mine, and it is FINE. If I had any complaint, it'd be the disk speed - but it can't be all that bad, or I'd have upgraded it myself by now. I do wish I could find a ramdisk for OSX, though. That'd suite me fine.
You'd be surprised how much mileage you can get out of a processor. For most of my uses, my Thinkpad 365 (486DX75, 24 Mb RAM) running AbiWord, etc... does most of what I need to do (really!), and I find that when I need real firepower, I just jump on my desktop G4 system.
A speedier iBook would be nice, but really, do you need it? I say just remove software that wastes processor cycles (read: MS). How many people (me included) really utilize their G4's?
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
It will have support for hardware accelerated Quartz as well as an extra 100MHz on the olde iBooks.
GPL Deconstructed
If I understand correctly, Quartz Extreme will be an OPTION, meaning that the beige G3's won't run any slower than they do now, and this could only help higher end systems.
Also, my friend had a chance to talk to one of the Mac Geniuses, and he said he had 10.2 running on his wallstreet, and it was much faster and snappier than 10.1.4. The way I understand it, what kind of Graphics Card (Radeon) would be more important than the amount of VRAM.
> 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.