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Apple Gives Laptops Speed Bumps

sockit2me9000 writes "Apple released their new PowerBook today. They include faster processors across the board (up to 1GHz), Radeon 9000 GPUs, and the top-of-the-line model will include a slot-loading SuperDrive. Price points remain about the same. New iBook was released as well."

12 of 738 comments (clear)

  1. PowerBook G4 & iBook by catwh0re · · Score: 4, Informative

    All laptops are now $200(USD) cheaper than before.

  2. Re:argh by MoxCamel · · Score: 5, Informative

    Be advised that Apple (well, the Apple Store) has a "no return" policy if you change any configuration, such as adding more memory or a bigger hard drive.

    I know this because I wanted to exchange my 15" iMac for a 17" iMac. They didn't want to do it because I had ordered my iMac with extra memory. I had to talk to a manager who not only accepted the exchange, but waived the stocking fee. Their staff was courteous and professional, but persistence pays.

  3. Re:Apple proves the 'rumours guys' wrong by zaren · · Score: 5, Informative

    MOSR has been irrelevant in the rumors "industry" (in my opinion) since they completely missed the boat on the iMac all those years ago. Their "rumors" tend to come from pie-eyed "what-if" scenarios snarfed form IRC these days.

    There's much better Mac rumor sites out there - MacRumors and Macslash being two of them.

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  4. Re:Must be a first by binaryDigit · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well not quite. They still have the original iMac for $799. So the iBook can be thought of as the most expensive G3 they sell.

  5. Re:It's expensive, but .... by strictnein · · Score: 4, Informative

    IMHO a 1Ghz G4 is about the same as a 4Ghz P4 in speed.

    lol

    come on now, that's just silly and you know it. the length of pipeline does not a processor make (or some stupid thing like that)

    IMHO I am the sexiest man alive. But, in reality, it seems that most (all?) women don't agree.

  6. Re:128MB? by dhovis · · Score: 5, Informative
    cracking an iBook or PowerBook open can be a little daunting (and warranty-voiding if done wrong)

    You haven't done it, have you? Easy as pie. Pop off the keyboard. On the TiBook, you will see the 2 slots. On the iBook, you need to remove the Airport card (if installed), and 2 small screws to remove the cover over the memory slot. Even if you don't know what you are doing, it doesn't take more than 10 minutes.

    In fact, I think there is a diagram on the bottom of the keyboard to help you. There are definitely directions in the owners manual.

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  7. Re:128MB? by Fugly · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, while normally outrageously expensive, apple memory happens to be pretty cheap right now. You can double the ram in any system for $40. Bumping the TiBook from 512MB of RAM to a gig of RAM for $40 sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me. Bumping the 256MB iBook to 512MB for $40 doesn't sound bad either.

  8. Re:MegaHertz Myth!! by kasparov · · Score: 5, Informative
    Google to the rescue!

    So as not to be a complete ass, the first link from that article as a statement that a P4 overclocked to 3.9GHz (wow--he used liquid nitrogen) was only able to do 4.9 Gigaflops. A dual-G4 1GHz did 15 Gigaflops...

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  9. Re:It's expensive, but .... by pauljlucas · · Score: 5, Informative
    Maybe a USB-serial converter would work.
    They do work. Try Keyspan.
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  10. Re:"speed bumps"? by qengho · · Score: 4, Informative

    where I live, speed bumps are used to slow people down.

    Heh. Although the term seems incongruous, it's shorthand for "bumps up the speed."

  11. Re:battery life by BinxBolling · · Score: 5, Informative
    So can I watch an entire DVD on a single battery charge?

    Yes. Also, if you download something like DVDBackup and use it to copy the DVD to your hard drive before your trip, the Apple DVD player can play it from there, which will probably consume less power than spinning the DVD drive would.

  12. Re:iBook still stuck at G3 by 0x69 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The current iBooks use the new IBM 750fx "G3" CPU's. What's holding them back is *marketing* - the 750fx goes up to 1GHz (25% faster) with 200MHz (100% faster) bus, but Apple's too afraid of eating into (more profitable) TiBook sales to ship faster iBooks.

    IBM did a *really* nice job designing the 750fx CPU. Back in May/June (when Apple introduced it in the iBook) one of the Apple hardware sites did some G3(750fx) vs. G4(Moto) comparison benchmarks. Bottom line: for anything that wasn't written to use AltiVec, the IBM G3 was just as fast as the Moto G4 (at same MHz).

    Weak video systems really slowed older iBooks down in (eye-candy-full) OSX. It's far less a problem in the new iBooks.

    Understand what you'll be using it for and do your homework BEFORE spending the $$$ to get a G4.

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