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G5 PowerBook "Challenge"
CarlBenda writes "MacWorld/UK has some interesting quotes from Jon Rubinstein, senior vice president of Hardware Engineering at Apple concerning the possibility of a G5 powerbook. He's said that a G5 powerbook is "an issue of good, solid engineering" and that "a few years ago, nobody thought it would be possible to get a G4 processor in a PowerBook". Start saving your money."
A G5 PowerBook.. not bad for a company that has been dying for 20+ years according to the trolls.
Trolling is a art,
- The G5 processor runs really hot
- Notebooks don't like heat
- It'll be tough to get the G5 in a PowerBook
How did this made the front page?Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
By the time the G5 Powerbooks come out, I think I might be able to actually afford a Macintosh laptop system. Here in Canada, the Powerbooks are at least $2300, and the iBooks are at least $1400. Right now, this is not feasible. But, by the time the cooling system works properly, I might be able to scrape up the thousands of dollars required.
I do applaud Apple for not releasing information on products that it is unsure about, including these G5 laptops. They have strongly hinted in the article that they are looking at it, but they did not make any promises as to when it will be released. This way, they are not forced to rush production which would result in an inferior product. They are going to make sure they have quality over timeframe, which is something some other software companies should learn. Before you set a release date, get a demo/prototype done, and do at least a minimal level of testing!
Given that God is infinite, and the Universe is also infinite, would you like some toast?
no one wants to hack it
... then they aren't working on anything remotely resembling a product. If they were they'd be keeping very quiet about it all. This article has the tone of GM execs talking about flying cars.
___
Cogito cogito, ergo cogito sum.
They could make one with a G5 tomorrow. But, it would only be maybe a little over 1GHz (10-15 watt range for the G5)*. That is certainly doable in a laptop and Apple has made them in that power range before. Ufortunately, the clock speed won't be any higher than the G4 and you wouldn't be able to take advantage of huge amounts of RAM (that won't happen for years). So, from a marketing perspective the G4 is still an easier sell.
People just assume that G5 consumes this enormous amount of power because of all the fans in the G5 desktop. This isn't true. Even the 2G takes only about 40 watts or so. One P4 3G takes in the range of 80 watts of power. All of the extra G5 fans are to make the cooling quieter.
*note that in the PC world 20-30 watt peak power consumption has been considered useable in a laptop.
We can only start to hold our collective breaths (for a significant time) until IBM kinda announces a G5 revision that's suspiciously low-power and is much cooler (surely helped with some of the latest IBM fab breakthroughs). They might or might not talk the same Moto gibberish of aiming at the embedded market, blah blah.
Only then Rubinstein and his faeries can reasonably start to work their magic. Supposedly, once bi'blue hints them they can start engineering the wondruous shrinkage of the original G5 motherboard without actually having a G5' sample. After that heroic feat, that industrial design archangel and his minions will come down and design yet another striking enclosure...
By then, a couple of revisions of the motherboard will have shipped, as well as a couple of G5 tower speed bumps. Besides, one might expect that preceding the mobile G5 we will see the infamous speedy G3+Altivec (IBM's G4) that bi'blue is secretly eager to hurl into Motto's face, to prove their incompetence.
My two eurocents. You can safely spend your money now
dani++
"but does anyone really need the power of a G5 in a notebook?"
ummm... yes. Some people use their laptops as their primary machine and some people actually use them for more than just web browsing, pr0n and mp3s. I know plenty of people who need quite a bit of processing power (mostly animators and musicians/producers) and the portability of a laptop. The g4 powerbook has been the choice of many, and I'm sure they would welcome the g5.
Asking if anyone 'really needs' X is -NOT- a good argument against X.
And the G5 chassis is basically a giant wind tunnel with carefully aligned vanes and aerofoils. There's no easy way to fit that sort of design into a chassis less than an inch deep (even if it is over 17" wide).
If they were like, "the G5 Powerbooks will be coming out in 6 months", they would have a hard time selling any full-priced G4 laptops. So they wait as long as possible. It's the same reason car companies disguise their prototypes.
I bought a Powerbook 12" right before they announced additional price cuts for education users back in May... but if they announced it too early, it hurts sales. Of course, I bought 2nd gen iPod for 50% off after the 3rd gen ones came out, so when knowledge is out their, buyers can win - but then apple loses.
I have blog like everyone else
The only thing stopping me going out and buying a G5 right now is the fact that it only has one CD/DVD drive bay. I had a go on one at the week-end, and nearly drooled on the floor.
The default setup of OSX doesn't have SSH enabled...so the average user isn't concerned by such patch. I guess that if you're Unix-savvy enough to need to SSH to your OSX box then maybe you're Unix-savvy enough to install the patch by yourself without waiting for Apple to distribute it via SoftwareUpdate.
Don't forget to think different.
They don't lie. Their statement is absolutely true ... for a given value of true.
... the big one!". Voila, you have "the most powerful personal computer in the world".
Go to an Apple store and say "Gimme that grater, yeahhh...
Or you can have one built to your specs - by your friends no doubt - which either won't match the G5's specs - but may very well be better in one or two area's FOR YOU - or can't run your run of the mill programs except in simulation mode - which sort of defeats the purpose.
There are a few more powerful systems, but they can't reasonably be called "personal computers".
There are a few configurations which might be good enough for you and blindingly fast, but again, you won't match the out of the box specs of the G5 - and you'll pay just as much or more (if you don't go over the hill and buy the flatscreen, 3button mouse, iPod, surround speaker set, 8Gigs of ram etc..)
Personally I don't care if it's the most powerful or just an extremely powerful PC, it's a mac, and it's features are just right.
And its advertising is imo less "outrageous" than most IT-related ads.
I think, therefore I am...I think.