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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.
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.
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
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
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?
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.