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Apple Updates iBook Line With G4 Processor
Kyro writes "Apple today upgraded their iBook notebook range across the board to G4 processors, Airport Extreme, bluetooth, USB 2.0, and slot-loading combo drives. All models ship with Mac OS X 10.3, and the 12" model gets a 800Mhz G4 while the 14" models get a choice of 933Mhz or 1Ghz. Prices largely remain the same as the old G3 versions." Mwongozi adds "Although not announced on the front page, the Apple Store was updated just a few minutes ago to show the new iBook."
I thought it was a given thing that computers tend to get faster CPUs as time goes on. Yes it's nice that Apple are making faster machines, but what's the big deal about upgrading a machine with a CPU that's readily available in other machines?
It's not surprising or anything, just something that would happen sooner or later. I bet it got a bigger hard drive too...
I honestly do not find the iBooks--at least the 12.1" versions--to be that large. They are a bit thicker than competition, but they also can take a tremendous beating. I have dropped my current iBook three times, and my previous one four or five, and neither was hurt at all. (What finally did my old iBook in was actually when idiot moving people dropped a 100 pound crate on it, which cracked the LCD. I currently use it as my home server.) By comparison, I have heard stories from my friends of when they drop their IBM and Sony laptops and they shatter badly. Yes, this is anecdotal, but If we're talking only about a pound difference weight-wise for the extra stability then it's certainly worth it to me.
Can someone explain why a 14.1 in display would have the same resolution (1024x768) as the 12.1 in display? I would expect to see a higher resolution as the screen gets bigger. Can you see the difference when comparing the two side by side (clarity of the icons, etc)?
I'm wondering if that's actually what these G4's are. "G4" is really a marketing term, not a designation for a single chip; and I remember the "Road Warrior" guy on MacOpinion predicting a few months ago that Apple would eventually stick IBM's 750+Altivec chip inside an iBook and call it a G4. Is it possible that this has already happened? IBM and Apple are both pretty good at keeping their mouths shut these days.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
AltiVec really is the only significant difference between the G3 and the G4 anyway. There are some other minor differences, but the "bolt on altivec and call it a G4" story is not new.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
DVI out, Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 800, SuperDrive. Plus, you know, the PowerBook is faster.
I have just bought a new top-of-range Al Powerbook and although I am extremely happy with it I am concerned that Apple has not got enough of a differentiation between the iBook and Powerbook line.
Bluetooth and a larger L2 cache is hardly a justification and the superdrive is personally neither here nor there. I think the sooner they get the liquid cooled G5 fitted into a powerbook the better. Hey I might even be *forced* to part with even more money for the sheer coolness of it.
However I think that this market segmentation is crucial for Apple to keep an aspirational difference between consumer and pro lines. And frankly these releases are dangerously close to blurring them...
I would suggest that plastic vs metal case is *not* gonna be enough if they are both based on the same processor architecture...
---- The Open Source Record Label : : LOCARECORDS.COM
When you consider that the beige G3s are now around 5 years old, I don't actually think it's too bad that Apple are only now withdrawing support from a current operating system. It may not be unreasonable to expect that current or near-current G3 models would be supported for a similar timeframe.
Why would you want to try and run Panther on a 233-300 Mhz G3 machine anyway? I can't imagine the performance issues on that slow a processor would be worth it.
SofaMan -- Occasionally Battling Evil With His Mighty Powers Of Indolence.
Its difficult to justify buying the 12" PowerBook with the new 12" iBook. I know the PowerBook is slightly faster, has slightly better graphics card, DVI out and a slightly nicer casing but the price difference is so large that you'd really have to need one of these specialised features to justify the purchase of a PowerBook 12".
I actually considered going w/ an iBook (got to use a couple at TUG2003 in Hawai'i and thought the 12" model was a good fit---found the 14" too big, guess I'm still remembering my Sharp PC-6220, the first truly usable laptop (and I had a GRiDCase III plus, NEC Ultralite and Toshiba 1200xe before that)).
But, I'd have to haul around a separate graphics tablet (at least these days w/ USB you don't need a wall-wart power supply like my ThinkPad and Wacom ArtZ did), and the handwriting recognition is ``merely'' the print recognizer from Newton OS 2.x and doesn't learn, and there's no built-in support for gestures beyond basic editing for other aspects of pen UI.
Surely Apple could engineer a nice double-hinge setup which was elegant, durable, reliable and innovative (look at recent stories on interesting laptop designs from IBM as examples of what they should surpass).
So, I got a Fujitsu Stylistic instead, at least I didn't have to compromise and get a convertible, but got a true slate---for Mac OS X, I'd probably compromise though, especially if they added further pen-specific aspects to the UI.
I really miss PenPoint though (ran it on an NCR-3125), and have always kind of wished that Go had teamed up with HP, and that NeXT had gone w/ PenPoint for their portables (say w/ some kind of synch arrangement like to the Palm Pilot).
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
The screen size is the turnoff to me. A 12' screen is way too small for me to get anything done on.
I was considering buying the 12 inch powerbook until I actually saw the screen sitting next to the 15. Now I am sure that I do not want a twelve inch but don't want to pay the extra for the 15 inch.
Not everything is analogous to cars. Car analogies rarely work.
The slowest PB-G4 is 1 GHz, and the only way to get above 800 MHz is to go up to the 12" model, so there's not much overlap in the 12" units at all. And since the 14" units still only have a 1024x768 screen (same as the 12" *books) that's the big difference between the 14" iBook & 15" PB. They did a pretty good job of no overlap.
That aside, it would be interesting to see how the 133 MHz/1 GHz G4 with 256k cache in the iBooks compares to the 167 MHz 1 GHz G4 with 512 in the PB. (barefeats, are you listening?) I was also wondering how long Apple was going to make G3s, G4s, and G5s. Now they're back to just 2 CPUs.
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this is a great point. for one, apple could never substantially increase their share without dramatically changing their structure. i was an econ major, not business, but i know a a little about vert/horiz integration and economic scalability. apple is a "niche" player. to be able to compete with the dell $799 un-inspiron or the best buy special o' the week, they would have to cut back on what makes them a "mac". then they are not different, and they cannot compete, because they can't scale that high. so, they are better off being where they are. if they change, they don't compete, they die. great point.
My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
Uh, i think you're right but your perception of Apple's segment is all wrong. First time users are NOT apple's market anymore. First time users have been buying "whatever's cheapest" for the past few years.
Apple's market is now experienced computer users who find that the Windows world has failed them and the Linux world still takes too much effort. It is people who want to USE computers and are tired of FIXING them. This includes many students and artists and lawyers and writers and scientists whose first priority is not securing and optimizing their computer's environment.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
The differences that led me to buy a new 15" PowerBook over a comparable iBook actually had nothing to do with processing power. An 800 or 900 MHz G3 would have been fine with me as I spend most of my time in BBEdit and Terminal. If the iBooks have not been significantly improved in the following areas, then I would still buy a PowerBook over a new iBook.
I haven't noticed these 3 PB features in the comments so far:
1.) Noticeably better quality display. I don't know what the technical details are but when you line up any iBook next to any PowerBook, the differences in contrast, color saturation, etc. are like night and day. The iBook appears fuzzy and washed-out while the PowerBook looks sharp, detailed and rich in color. And, yes, I adjusted brightness on both machines.
2.) Vastly superior keyboard. The keyboard action on the PowerBook is the best I have ever felt on any laptop - period. The iBook keyboard feels cheap and sloppy by comparison.
3.) Lid-closed operation. I have a 20" Cinema Display at home so this feature allowed me to entirely replace my PowerMac with the PowerBook. The DVI out (not available on the iBook) was also neccessary to make this work without losing image quality or features. Another plus is Apple's flexible extended desktop display support (not available on the iBook) which lets me set up the Cinema Display as my primary monitor and the PB as the extended area. So I can simply pop open the PB when I need some extra desktop space and it handles the transition on the fly. Close the PB, everything moves back to the Cinema Display - simple and intuitive.
None of these features are terribly sexy and they don't carry much weight in the context of an ad, brochure, or feature highlights list, but they are critical to the overall quality and flexibility of your computing experience. High-end visual and tactile feedback are both productivity and health issues and, along with the features mentioned elsewhere, still easily justify the PB's premium price.
You're kidding right? Talk to a lawer? He bought the iBook just after it came out, and that would make it sometime back in April. Apple has a standard upgrade pattern of roughly 6 months between updates. At the time, he obviously thought it was worth it, and common sense dictates that computers will get faster.
The only case he would have is if Apple guaranteed him that this would be the fastest iBook ever. And since that's unreasonable, there is no case.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984