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PowerBooks & iBooks Get Speed Bumped
Currawong writes "Apple has, as rumors predicted, speed bumped its line of portables. The PowerBooks now come in 1.33 and 1.5Ghz G4 versions, including either NVidia 5200's or Radeon 9700 video hardware. The iBooks can now be had at 1 or 1.2Ghz with Radeon 9200 video included. All can be purchased at the Apple Store. This complements nicely the recent speed and feature increases on the eMac range."
Guess now I will just have to wait for my carbon-fiber, dual G5 PowerBook with fold out twin displays and fuel cell technology battery with 12 hours of life that the rumor sites are talking about.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
Why does Apple never drop the price of current hardware instead? I would love a 700mhz Powerbook for $600 or so (no thanks, refurbed units).
http://www.rayn.net . Funny. Stuff.
I have a year old powerbook and the new ones for the same deal I got have halk gigahertz speed improvement, 20 gig bigger hard drive, over twice the speed of dvd burn, faster wireless, faster firewire bluetooth and more. And it's the same price. That's quite an increase for a year. It's so cool to see yet so depressing at the same time.
Evolution or ID?
Is there any news available about if or when there are going to be G5 based laptops released?
I'm looking to get an Apple notebook in about 6 months but I don't want to have a big jump like the G4 to G5 be released a few months later when I could've gone without it for a little longer and then got the G5.
Is this a standard term to describe the process of increasing processor speed in a line of computers? If so it's very poorly thought out. A speedbump is normally something that is used to slow down motorists on a tretch of road. So I instinctively interpreted that as meaning that Apple had released a line with capped processor speeds!
I suspect that this is just the poster's own term to describe this. Oh well!
A little planning goes a long way...
It's a bit like buying a Ferrari: The first one is really costly, but resale value makes later models pretty affordable.
The real question (rumor?) floating around other mac-specific news sites is whether or not this is just to hold us over until the release of G5 notebooks sometime in the not to distant future (January?) A couple interesting threads:
Apple Insider
MacNN
Posting as directed.
"The prohibitive price is still a bottleneck for me though."
Go price out a PC notebook with all the bells and whistles in an apple. then compare prices. The apple will be less expensive when it comes to bang for your buck.
Evolution or ID?
seriously, if you are buying an apple laptop with the prospect of playing doom3 or half-life2 you are an idiot. I am not entirely sure if half-life2 is even slated for a mac release. In any case, for a laptop that you are using to do day to day stuff with, then a 5200 is a pretty decent card. If you honestly think you might use it for gaming get a laptop with a 9700. In both cases you are looking a mobile version of these cards which means you are getting a somewhat underpowered card to begin with.
Fear trumps hope and ignorance trumps both
Because dropping the price would kill their nice margins, and they wouldn't make as much money. Let's say it costs (pulling numbers out of thin air) $500 to build a $1500 laptop, and $200 to build a $800 laptop. Assuming they sell the same number of each, which are they going to want to sell? Of course, they'd probably sell more of the $800 laptop, but they'd have to sell a lot more to make it worthwhile...
You can usually find good deals on older hardware right around the time that they are about to announce a new model. They just don't offer it to everyone through the Apple Store. Instead, I usually see them advertised in the Mac User's Group store and places that other long time customers have a chance at them.
Maybe if you get a Mac you won't have to drink so much...
Why does Apple never drop the price of current hardware instead? I would love a 700mhz Powerbook for $600 or so (no thanks, refurbed units).
The answer is simple really. Apple would like to maintain their products as objects of desire. Sexy bits of computer art that both inspire lust and allow us to accomplish our work easier and/or faster than ever before, making a difference. To lower the prices would reduce Apple computers to commodity items much like the rest of the Wintel world.
How many Dell, HP, Compaq, graybox etc.... hardware rollouts are greeted with the same kind of fervor that Apple computer hardware announcements inspire?
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
That depends which conversion algorithm you use :)
The "Apple Zealot" converts 1.5GHz G4 into 3GHz P4
The "PC Weenie" converts 1.5GHz G4 into 0.1 GHz P4 as that's about the speed it runs Virtual PC (probably, assuming anyone actually bought a Mac. Which nobody does. etc)
The "Geek Index" says 1.5GHz G4 is about 2-2.5GHz P4 probably but it depends what you are doing and anyway it's all easily fast enough to code stuff and surf for pr0n.
The "SETI Weirdo" calculates that a 1.5GHz G4 does more units than their rival^h^h^h^h^hfriend. So that's ok.
The "Arty type people" think oooh a mac. It runs FCP.
8 out of 10 CEOs go "a shiny thing"
etc
Troc
Troc's dubious podcast and blog: http://www.trocnet.net
Troll?
Hey Taco:
I propose a new poll:
"Which sub-group on Slashdot take themselves too seriously?"
My vote has to be the coders. Post a joke in a Perl thread, and you will be modded -1 flamebait. These people are obsolutely incapable of laughing at themselves. Maybe they should get out more.
Some of the Mac people here are almost as bad. This guy asked for a speed comparison between Intel and Apple procs. Sure, it may be a troll, but its not as obvious as the "Apple is (still) dying" thread.
At least the BSD guys usually post the obligatory "BSD is dying" message before anybody else gets a chance too.
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
How much faster, I will not say, but a 1.4GHz G4 is very different from a 1.4GHz P4. Or P3.
And impossible to do, really, because the amount of difference depends heavily on the application being used. Some applications can take, and are designed to take, better advantage of the PPC + Altivec. Other applications don't benefit nearly as much.
So it all depends on what you want to do with it, really--and I recommend that you determine what you'll be doing with such a laptop most of the time, and then clock those processes. If speed is your chief concern.
--
$tar -xvf
The 1.25 GHz eMac is a steal at 749$ with your college discount. Mine is serving me well, and it is a 1 GHz. If you hate the all-in-one design, there is some good news. While you won't get extra PCI slots, the eMac does have 4 channels of IDE (instead of two), can do display mirroring out-of-the-box (dual display with a little software hack). With a little work / modding, you could get past the all-in-one ness and have a pretty nice desktop.
If all-in-one is okay, then you should have no other complaints. The price is right for all the apps / great OS / great hardware. Besides, it's easier to move around than a monitor + box. That is important if you move from room to room every couple of semesters.
A caution to anyone who'd likely buy one of these new PowerBooks: may your lap beware!
I own one of the "older" 12" G4 PowerBooks (867 MHz), which I absolutely adore, but it has heat issues. The main heat venting location on the case (that I've found) is the bottom rear of the machine. This means that if you're sitting down with it on your lap and you're wearing shorts, prolonged use (3+ hours) may result in warming to the point of extreme skin discomfort. This isn't usually a problem, though it's something you become aware of after the first couple of times you accidentally scald yourself. With the increase in speed, however, the speedy processor would cause an even higher temperature level, barring a radical change to the way in which heat is vented (which is not apparent from the official specs).
Mercifully (in a way), a semi-recent update changed the fan kick-in temperature to a lower threshold, meaning less built-up heat but a lower battery life. Expect the batteries on the new PowerBooks to not quite last as long as they're listed as, though they'd probably last long enough as is. For a college student like me, just having them last through class so that I can go back to my dorm and plug in for the evening's homework is fine.
I'd still buy one (if I had the money and needed a new computer), though I'd be careful to do most of my work on a table.
Misery loves company. Online misery loves unsuspecting random strangers.
In keeping with a 50-year-old trend, the latest computers from [insert name here] are faster and more powerful than the previous generation. Wow. There's news.
And usually a troll is a mythical being that lives under bridges and eats people who pass by.
Terms and expressions can mean different things in different contexts.
This space intentionally left blank.
I have the previous version of the 12" PowerBook running at 1ghz and it's noticably faster than my p4 1.5ghz. I'd rate it as feeling about the same as a 2.0ghz p4.
So I'd say the 1.5 would be about a 2.8 or 3.0ghz pentium.
While we're on this topic I'd like to point out that Macs feel much faster than they actually are because of the superb multi tasking and UI response under heavy load.
When I am encoding a video on my Windows machine I can't do anything else on my computer, if I try to click something it takes about 30 seconds for the menu to popup.
On the other hand, my Mac can have 20 apps running and encoding a video at the same time and the UI still responds beautifully.
This is why using a Mac is a great experience, you so rarely get frustrated at it because it just works.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
The local CompUSA is trying to hawk a 500 MHz icebook for $1000... It's a loaded machine, too. 10 GB Hard Drive. CD Rom, 128 Megabytes of memory. And it runs 9.2.2 like a dream.
Because a benchmark of a modern FPS game is a terrible way to benchmark the processor since most of the work is dependant on video cards.
Here's is something from a post I made somewhere above concerning speed compairisons:
--------
I have the previous version of the 12" PowerBook running at 1ghz and it's noticably faster than my p4 1.5ghz. I'd rate it as feeling about the same as a 2.0ghz p4.
So I'd say the 1.5 would be about a 2.8 or 3.0ghz pentium.
While we're on this topic I'd like to point out that Macs feel much faster than they actually are because of the superb multi tasking and UI response under heavy load.
When I am encoding a video on my Windows machine I can't do anything else on my computer, if I try to click something it takes about 30 seconds for the menu to popup.
On the other hand, my Mac can have 20 apps running and encoding a video at the same time and the UI still responds beautifully.
This is why using a Mac is a great experience, you so rarely get frustrated at it because it just works.
----
FYI it has the same NVidia FX5200 the new ones have and it plays all the current games very well (Except the super high end FPS games like Ut2004...playable but not that enjoyable). Anyway, anyone who intends to do serious gaming on a laptop is a damn fool, even more so on a Mac laptop.
So on the offchance that you're not trolling:
- Fink isn't developed by Apple, and they have nothing to do with it, aside from some possible back channel help. However, it did not come "included" on your PowerBook, unless you bought it used.
- You can check for a more recent version of fink by: % sudo fink selfupdate
- You don't need to sell your hardware to update your software.
Hope this helps. Welcome to the Mac.--
$tar -xvf
'Speed increase' is no better. If there's more speed, why is it in a crease?
Perhaps 'road hump' doesn't mean gettin' some in the car anymore.
I have done the bang for your buck with comparisons and you get more with apple. You need to price them out as equal systems. Take a 15' powerpc and compare it to a top end speed PC laptop with dvd burner, dvd authoring software and all the other bells and whistles including bluetooth and the 54mbs wireless plus gigabit ethernet.
You have to evaluate bang for your buck. Apple wins out there.
Evolution or ID?
I surely wish BMW would sell me a 2002 3-series instead of the improved 2005. I don't want to buy a used one, I just want to buy a new old one. I mean, surely they keep all those old parts around.
Dude, warehousing old graphics cards, HDs, etc costs money and would actually increase Apple's Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). If they then dropped prices, they would have slimmer margins in both directions (lower revenues, higher COGS).
I got my dad to buy a Apple refurb iBook and save $300. It works great, has no physicial defect and as far as I can tell, is identical to a new one with three $100 bills stuck in the DVD/CDR combo drive.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
resellers including smalldog.com and macmall.com often offer older models (ones that are totally gone from the apple store) for more reasonable prices.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
When I am encoding a video on my Windows machine I can't do anything else on my computer, if I try to click something it takes about 30 seconds for the menu to popup.
That's a result of Windows's semi brain-dead priority system. Pop open task manager, find the encoding process (the one that's gobbling all your CPU), right click on it and set priority to 'Low' or 'Idle'.
I used to play Unreal Tournament while encoding videos all the time without a problem. It encodes slower at low priority but UT didn't suffer much of a performance hit. Made me miss my old dual-CPU system though.
Unless of course you're running that 9X/ME crap, which even most Windows users these days realize sucks.
That this is a video card for a low-end consumer laptop, not a 1337 game system, maybe?
Hold on a minute there. One moment people here claim that all Apple hardware should be compared to medium or top-range PC stuff, and that this makes them reasonably good value for money. And then, when people do exactly that, it is suddenly unfair because the Apple is really a low-end system?
You cannot both have your cake and eat it. Either the 12" model is quite overpriced as a "low-end consumer" machine at $1600-$1800, or it's got a really shitty graphics card for a medium/high range machine.
Your sig is ironic.
:)
So your whole point is that your 64b Athlon computer is only good for games?
How about XSan? Motion? FCP? FCP HD? DVD SP? Shake? Logic? BLAST?
You forget that some people actually make money with their machines.
You also forget that for some people, especially those that earn something in the $40 to $50 an higher an hour range, time is money. Linux, BSD, and Windows is too expensive, and strangely enough, Macs, with their plug and play nature, are cheaper. Literally, if it takes me one day to set up something in Linux, and 10 minutes on my Mac, that's the difference between $500 spent/wasted and $10 spent. Over the course of a month, then, a Mac will have paid itself off.
Especially when you're talking about a $1,400 iBook. Make a DVD? Insert a disk, arrange the menus, and hit burn. 20 minutes later you're done. Make a movie? Plug in the camcorder, import video, arrange the video, and 30 minutes later you're done. Send the DVD off for replication, make 500 copies, and start on your next project.
GPL Deconstructed
First a disclaimer: I am a Mac fanboy. I've got one, I love it and I reccomend it to everyone who's looking for a new computer.
But what the heck is with all the sexy nonsense? Since when did we start humping Macs and iPods?
"Sexy bits of computer art that both inspire lust..."
Lust?
Sure their products might be sleek and very well designed, but to call them sexy and lusty ALL the time? I'll take good ol' T&A over hardware any day.
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
Altivec code, on the other hand, seems to be very different. Code that heavily uses the altivec, like MP3/AAC encoding, graphics work, Folding@Home, and the OS X UI seems to be much faster at the same clock speed. For doing Folding@home, for example, my 1.25GHz G4 is quite a bit faster than my 1.7GHz Pentium-M. A few years ago, I had a 667 G4 and a 1.2GHz athlon. The G4 was nearly twice as fast as the athlon when doing Distributed.NET type stuff (rc5-64 at the time, I think).
For those of you doing Java, a G4 seems to run Java code of any sort, including the compiler, the same speed as an Athlon XP or Pentium-M at a 50% greater clock speed, or 80% higher for a P4. I did tests compiling the same code in the same IDE, doing code refactoring, etc. The disks drives, btw, were approximately the same speed and the ram was the same for all these tests.
I know I haven't done really official tests, I'm just stating my experience.
I'm typing this on a 1998 PowerBook (G3 300) with 10.3.2 installed with a little help from XPostFacto. And OS X has gotten faster with each successive release. Don't let the higher initial cost fool you; PowerBooks maintain their value for a long time. Check eBay and see how much my PB is going for these days; one sold the other day with specs similar to mine for ~$300. Not too bad 6 years later.
And yes, I've said this before. No, I am not a karma whore. Yes, I want to change some perceptions regarding the Macintosh platform.
(I should add that XPostFacto has broken a couple of things,
(tig)
Ignorance and prejudice and fear
Walk hand in hand
Search for "refurbished" at the Apple Store for great deals. These are usually returns, got a 1GHz G4 17" with 512MB RAM, 60GB drive, superdrive, Airport Extreme, etc., for $2300 there about two months back. In perfect condition, no less.
It is not an CISC vs. RISC issue, it is an IPC-count issue. The G4 typically has better IPC-counts than a P4 thanks to a pipeline flush being a lot cheaper. They are still slower overall of course on account of the P4's pipeline allowing the rather incredible clock frequencies it does. The current G4 is not really cache-starved, at 512 kilobytes of L2 it is behind the P4 but it is not really bad. It features more L1 cache than a P4 and has lower access latencies for both L1 and L2.
All in all the G4 is faster clock-by-clock than the P4 in most cases. It doesnt make it faster than the P4 either way though since it still clocks far too low, but it is a competent CPU.
Fast forward one year. "The G5 laptops are OUT?!?...."
(This is a repost of an old post of mine, but as relevant today as it was then...:)
Dell: 533 MHz FSB
Mac: 800 MHz FSB
Dell: ATA/100
Mac: SATA
Dell: 100 Mbps Ethernet
Mac: Gigabit Ethernet
Also lacking in the Dell: ports for 802.11g and Bluetooth, FireWire 400 or 800, optical audio I/O ports, AGP 8X, and a capacity of 4 GB of RAM.
You proved the poster's point: yes, you can build a PC that has fewer features and costs less than a Mac. But you can't find a PC that is feature-comparable to a Mac and yet costs significantly less.
(The 1.6 GHz G5 is kind of a waste of money, anyway. It only has room for 4 GB of RAM as opposed to 8 GB in the other G5's, and it doesn't have PCI-X. The 1.8 GHz is a better value.)
Your response here, based on the normal Slashdot way of doing things, should be something along the lines of, "Nobody needs FireWire anyway, 'cause USB is faster." Or something like that.
I write in my journal
You forgot to yell "you kids get off my lawn".
Obviously to you, if you don't perceive a need for it, then nobody needs it.
You don't get out much, do you? I know a number of people that have gigabit networks in their homes (including mine), much less at work. There are quite a few inexpensive gigabit ethernet switches on the market, including the NetGear GS108 (8 port) for $150 and the GS105 (5 port) for $80.
With gigabit, I can do AFP or SMB transfers at over 50MB/sec which is a good 5x faster than a 100mb network to/from the network file server, and that is w/o jumbo packets.
Even the slow ATA drive in laptop can push 20-30MB/sec, so network performance would benefit from gigabit over fast ethernet. Try pushing around some video clips and you'll appreciate the speed difference.
I ordered a PowerBook 1.25ghz 15" SuperDrive on Friday. I awoke this morning to see that my order had been cancled, but re added. I was pretty confused until I saw this post on slashdot, and I checked some emails, and bam! They switched my order for me! Why do I think this wouldn't have happened with a company whose name begins with M and ends with -onopoly.
The 8600 configured as you speced, except for a 9600Pro w/ SXGA+ screen, and integrated bluetooth is $2,654(they are running a free dvd-burner pro-mo so this will be a little higher after wed). Buying your second stick of 512mb at crucial brings the price down to $2,509
A Powerbook specced similarly, but with a G4 1.5Ghz, a 9700 w/ SXGA+ screen, and a 5400rpm drive is $2,999.00. Buying the second stick at crucial brings the price down to $2,829
The powerbook costs $320 more, pretty close. A sale in the other direction could make the powerbook cheaper.
I want a portable laptop, the 12" powerbook is considerably cheaper than a inspirion 300m, it also has more options.
Could any (well, all) of those features not be compensated for with some of the $1,000+ one saves buying the PC?
;-)
Sure. But in that case, you're not saving all of that money, are you? You're having to spend it to get what you want.
As for the FSB, the PC has a faster CPU anyway, so the FSB isn't going to catch the Mac up.
Uh...
If things like 8X AGP are really worth $1,000 then buy the Mac. But I think it's a disservice to say Macs are a better value than PCs.
When you buy a Mac, you generally get more stuff--more features, more software, the whole package--for the money. Therefore, by any objective measurement, the Mac is a better value, where value refers to amount of stuff obtained per dollar spent.
I write in my journal
SS = "spec sheet"
The 15" and 17" PowerBooks include a single Type I & II PC Card slot, and always have. The iBooks don't have it as a means of feature differentiation from the PowerBook line. The 12" PowerBook doesn't have it for obvious reasons.
Of all the people I know with PowerBooks, absolutely none of them have ever used a PC Card in one. Why would you, when every PowerBook since about 1998 has had everything you'd add via PC Card already built-in?
The only thing I can think of anymore that someone might have a use for is a memory card reader-- but why buy a PC Card one and limit yourself when you can use a USB one on any computer?
~Philly
So, you're the one who was responsible for the last Matrix.
You know what?
Ahrm.
So why is it you need PCMCIA? Is the current Cardbus slot not sufficient? It's like PCMCIA, only much faster and with a wider bus.
Oh, and it's backwards compatible.
Let me guess -- didn't read the specs? I understand.
"Mac users (me in particular) don't admit we're paying a huge premium for the Mac brand name because, in fact, we're not."
That's great and of course not. The valuation of what one purchases is very much subjective to the party involved. To you, it's not a huge premium, to others it is. There is no right or wrong in this case.
"Anyone who believes a bottom of the line Dull is comparable to a Mac workstation deserves exactly what they get when buying said Dull."
A spectacularly impressive argumentative tactic, taking the name of the particular company being argued against and turning it into name calling. This gives about as much credibility to your presentation as someone referring to Apple as Crapple or the Macintosh as the Crapintosh. Just wonderful.
"You're comparing Apples with oranges (or better yet, Apples with crap)."
I've worked with "crappy" Dells and Apples and great ones. It's true!
"add in a OS to compare with OS/X (oops - there aren't any)"
Wonderful. Continue the absurdity by stating that nothing compares to OS/X. Statements like this make a constructive, sensible debate impossible. You sir, are a wall.
"and the other standard software packages (iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, etc., etc.)."
It is wonderful that you like these and see value in them. That said, others do not. Like me for example. Don't care for any of them, particularly iTunes. But that is just my opinion, and in no way is a statement that you to must see it as I do.
"Why can't PC bigots get over the fact that today's Macs are price competitive with PC's?"
What is a PC bigot exactly? A person who sees things differently is a bigot? Here in Canada, Macs are, in my humble opinion, very much competitive with PCs in the laptop area and yet bigot that I am, I still prefer the PC and one of the factors is price, and the other is features. Having said that, other opinions are welcome and not judged, unless of course they offered in oh you unholy unwashed masses sense. Let's take a look at an example or two shall we?
The 17" Powerbook is $3,699.
The 17" Toshiba Satellite P20 is $3499.
Features vary, such a RAM, Firewire ports, etc. but its all down to which one you like better. What's your name for Toshiba? Toshita?
Now as for desktops, I recently upgraded to a P4 2.8Ghz with a Gig of RAM, 800MHz FSB, 36 GIG SATA, Pioneer 107 DVD-R+R, ATI 9600, 120 GIG ATA second drive, new case, external drive enclosure for the CD-ROM, external drive enclosure for a third Hard-Drive (ATA - 80 gig) for $1800.
I can pick up a PowerMac G5 1.6 Ghz (I know, the speed varies across platforms and OS's) for a mere $2499! I find the PC in this case to be a far better deal in this case. Does this make me a PC bigot? Does recommending the new eMac to a client who personally finds using Macs easier make me a bigot as well? My god, just the other day I was praising InDesign and talking about its advantages over Quark (I didn't say Quirk however). I must be an Adobe bigot! Oh the humanity. When will this rampant platformism ever stop?
Very peculiar. Do people actually see other people as defined by their computer system? Are there millions of PC people out there? What sort of clothes do they where? What strange foods do they eat?
It's true that OS X has far superior multi-tasking relative to Windows. When I do a processor intensive task on my Windows boxes, I have to walk away and let it finish. I'm not sure why more people don't bring this issue up. Being able to perform other tasks and have the system and other apps remain responsive while encoding video in the background is huge productivity enhancer.
I recently configured a low-end Dell for my sister. I figured the 2.4 GHz Celeron would easily smoke my old 800 MHz G4 TiBook. And I have no doubt that on a single-application benchmark, it would. But in practice, I was cursing at the thing because it seemed so damned slow. My laptop just feels faster. And that perception seems to be because virtually nothing bogs it down, so I've gotten in the habit of multitasking. Start an application installation or system update, and then check my email while it is in process. Start three applications at the same time and browse the web while they load. Start a graphics program rendering a big tiff, then switch to Word and work on a document. I was expecting to do the same thing on the Dell, but often one application will bog down the entire system. But for the way I've gotten in the habit of working, it feels pokey.
If you were happy with the product and the price you paid when you bought the iBook, then quit worrying about today and just accept that the timing happened the way it did. Take their $49 rebate and have a decent dinner with somebody.
There will ALWAYS be "better deals" after you buy. You can only worry about what things were like when you bought. If your reseller won't happen to help you as a courtesy, there's nothing you can do other than irritate yourself further with anger or worry. It's your choice whether you enjoy your new iBook or complain about something beyond your control.
Yeah, I just got mine in december...
Oh well, at least it's still cooler than the competition.
ibook12" annecdote:
I was complaining to my friend in a cafe the other day that when I use airport to download large files as well as listen to itunes, run word, Fire im, and a dozen other apps, my battery life only lasts for about 3 and a half hours instead of 5. He told me to go fuck myself because his computer lasts about half as long and most of that time is spent configuring his wireless card, then his computer froze up and he had to take out the battery to reboot it.
Man I wish I owned a wintel!
: )
value is calculated as ultility / cost.
The key is that utility is a function of desired quality.
For me, for example, 3d acceleration has zero utility, while an extremely high-res (I'm eyeing the dell laptop w/ 1920x1200 @17") LCD has a very high utility. Likewise, I prefer MB over MHz, and low weight over internal optical drives.
I think many people who object to apple's prices do so because you may get a lot for your money, but you may not WANT half of it.
Some people just look at price alone and nothing else. Try doing video editing an a PC laptop and you'll understand why people get Mac laptops for video work.
Lindows Steals Copyrighted Art and Promotes Porn
A DVD burner without a reader is useless to me.
Are you saying you don't think a DVD burner can read DVDs? Are you saying you don't realize that set-top DVD players can be had for $35 at Kmart? Are you just afraid of the DVD standard because you love VHS so much?
No parallel or serial port? That means I'd have to throw out all of my hardware and buy new stuff.
What ghetto hardware do you have that needs parallel and serial ports?? You'd better say $30,000 medical-imaging systems or something, because unless your hardware is highly specialized (or essential for business but not produced in a modern version), you're at serious risk of being branded a silly Luddite. Personally, the last printer I bought that didn't have a USB port was the one I got in 1999. Next one was combo (USB+parallel) and thereafter, they're USB-only. Last serial device was an old Palm cradle (that's $30 to replace by the way, but my current Palm came with USB only.
iTunes? I've got Winamp. It's free.
I've got iTunes. It's free too. And it's better--it does everything the paid version of Winamp does (in terms of audio; QT does the video stuff), for free.
Silly troll.
Most peolpe don't want and/or need all of that stuff, and certainly don't want to pay for it.
Correction: Most people want or need most of that stuff, and obviously many are willing to pay for it. Some people want actual modern technology on their laptops! And the only thing Wintel laptops can offer that is cheaper than a similarly-outfitted PowerBook or iBook is CELERON! Sorry, that's unacceptable to me. Celeron is just plain pathetic and I will never own a Celeron-based machine of any kind. Celeron laptops are for people who want to say they have a laptop and who just want to get on the IntarWeb and run Kazaa in their dorm rooms. Real computers are a totally different market.
Perhaps my entire comment can just be summed up in a revision of yours:
I disagree completely. I have no need for a parallel or serial port. I need DVD authoring. A portable video-editing studio without DVD recording is useless to me. No FireWire or Bluetooth? That means I'd have to throw out half of my hardware and buy cheap, crappy stuff. Winamp Pro? I've got iTunes. It's free. The Apple laptops are full of actual modern technology that you (and obviously, not many others) are afraid to adopt. Cheap PC laptops are designed for those with a SERIOUS budget problem, and no real demands for performance. They have their niche, but that's all it is: a niche. Many people want or need a lot of those features, and clearly 711,000 people were willing to pay for it last quarter alone.
Apple laptops have ordinary Synaptic's touchpads. You just need a better driver. See here.
Voilá, scrolling areas and tap corners (==5 mouse buttons). Also a Windows-style acceleration mode, which IMO makes the whole touchpad much more useable.
“Wait for Hurd if you want something real” –Linus