New iBooks 'Any Day Now'

teewurstmann writes "Thinksecret reports that 'sources have confirmed that Apple's consumer laptop will receive a long overdue refresh very soon, possibly as early as this week.' They speculate that the new iBooks might have a widescreen display. I sure hope they are right! I've been waiting to buy one of those suckers for half a year now!"

Comments

Better screens

[djtripp]

Wide screen would be nice, but it would be even better if they are using screens similar to the Sony Vaios. Those screens are very very sharp and crisp.

Re:Better screens

[gardyloo]

I'm interested why you say to avoid the Acer. They had a bad reputation several years ago, as far as I know, but things are a lot better now. In any case, my Travelmate is really a great little computer. Runs extremely quietly, very fast, has good battery life, a good, sharp screen (my complaint here is that it has a quite small "sweet spot"), and is great for some tough numeric work and presentations. If I were asked to recommend an all-around laptop to someone who doesn't want to lug a big media center laptop about, it would be an Acer (at least based on my -- very limited -- experience with this one).
Oh, and when I spilled some water on the keyboard and it went fritzy, their customer service was extremely helpful, and I had a new replacement here in two days. Meanwhile, I just snagged a USB keyboard from an iMac, plugged it in (Mepis linux), and it just worked.

it would be much better

[VolciMaster]

if this were an actual news story, and not just another rumor posting. Yes, Thinksecret has gotten stuff right in the past, they've also blown it a couple times. As opposed to the recent items about the video iPod, which at least have backing in terms of talks between different companies, and multiple reports, citing not all the same sources, this item, while fun to think about, isn't news. It's a rumor, out of one of the more famous rumor mills.

Re:it would be much better

[Secret Agent 99]

Not only stale, but the kind of rumor that's so bloody obvious that it must eventually come true.

Put this back in the oven

[HTTP Error 403 403.9]

This story is not fully cooked.

Re:CPU?

[Golias]

If I had to guess, it will be the same 1.4 GHz G4 that's going into the mini and the eMac.

The iBook is Apple's "budget" laptop. If they do an IBM G5 based one, it will probably be in the PowerBook line.

All lot will wait for Intel

[RUFFyamahaRYDER]

A lot of people are going to hang on to their older Apple laptops until they have the faster Intel chip version... I was considering getting an iBook (even though I'm mostly a windows/linux guy) but I stopped considering it until Intel starts producing the faster chips.

Re:Why?

[Golias]

why not wait till they get the intel based laptops out?

Maybe because Intel-based Macs are more than a year off, and some people need a computer now, and would like it to be reasonably up-to-date.

Just a theory.

Re:Why?

[adamjaskie]

Because it has already been 9 months or so since the last update of the iBook, and Mactels aren't due until 2006. They need something fresh on the market for back to school.

Re:Why?

[fracai]

Because some people like (need) to be productive now, not a year from now.
Because the new laptops will be just as effective at tasks as they would have been without knowledge of a new processor line.
Because computers are always being upgraded and waiting for the next best line to come out means you never make a purchase.

I think that about sums up most of the arguments.

Re:Why?

[John Harrison]

also, the intel decision was made relatively recently. I would guess that they have been working on this new hardware for quite some time. It would be silly to throw out all that work and give up on the martket until an Intel-based solution is ready for market.

Also, it is back-to-school time. The iBook is the one machine that is key to have refreshed for this season. College kids are going to want to buy a fresh iBook instead of a year-old one.

Lighter?

[ry4an]

If they can get it under three pounds (remove the optical drive, I don't care) I'd grab one in a second. More than three pounds is just too heavy for a portable.

Re:I highly doubt the widescreen rumor is true

[BioCS.Nerd]

I respectfully disagree that this next update won't include a widescreen display. The next line of iBooks will have a widescreen display as Apple needs to keep up the pressure and incentives on their consumer line. I would have bought an iBook instead of my Powerbook, for instance, had Apple offered a widescreen display.

Lastly, new != more expensive. The widescreen display may in fact cost less than the current display. For instance, perhaps the manufacturer wants to move away from the old style because it's cheaper to produce the newer style. They may offer a price incentive for their customers to cease production of the old, more costly version (we do this sometimes where I work with new product formulations, i.e. move to a new cheaper formula, charge less, but retain the margins).

Re:Why?

[InadequateCamel]

I think you have overlooked those self-described "purists" who want to buy (one of) the last of the PPC systems.

Re:I might be seen as naive but...

[RatBastard]

I bought a 12" iBook because it does what I need and I couldn't justify the extra $500.00 for the Powerbook. I use it on the road, not as a desktop replacement. I do my CPU intensive stuff on my G5 Powermac on my desk. For me, and I can't speak for anyone but myself, the iBook was what I needed.

I sure hope they're wrong!

[CrazyTalk]

One of the big selling points for me when I bought my iBook was the small form factor with the 12" screen.

Re:I think iBook will be the first to go intel

[mrchaotica]

No, the first line to go Intel will be the PowerBook. Not only is the G4 way too slow for a "pro" computer, but there's no way they'd make the iBook better than the Powerbook (and if it has a Pentium-M while the Powerbook still had a G4, it would be better by a wide margin).

The iBook, Mac Mini, and eMac will follow quickly after the PowerBook, of course.

Would be unusual to upgrade before back-to-school.

[alexhmit01]

Apple has "historically" (the last 2-3 years) done upgrades AFTER major buying times. Instead of getting a new model out for "back-to-school" shopping, they run "extra RAM" or other promotions for back-to-school folks to think that they are getting a good deal, sell out their existing inventory at basically full price with the shopping season (schools upgrade labs, parents buy kids computers, etc), then roll out new computers in October... It's annoying, but smart business... Most schools/universities turn over their fiscal year in either August, September, or October, to either roll the school year into one (September), or basically do that but not being trying to do year close-outs during the transition (hence August/October).

That means if they have money left in the budget to spend on the year, they buy the soon-to-be-closed out models at full price, then Apple starts a separate buying frenzy soon after.

For that reason, iPods tend NOT to get upgraded in late October (announce, ship in November) (in time for Christmas shopping, they get upgraded in January).

It's a margin maximizing move.

Now, with Apple's increased market (37% year-to-year increase in Computers, with US Marketshare at 4.5% last quarter), they may have just sold their inventory, so rather than making an old computer, they announce an upgrade and sell it... as I'd imagine as Freescale improves processors, there is no price break on the older ones, so Apple will upgrade, but we shall see.

Alex

Re:Very specific details

[gstoddart]

Details of the updated iBook are unknown, as is a firm release date, given the fickle nature of hardware updates.

The only thing we get out of this is that they are planning on revising the iBook, but we don't know how or when.

And the only thing we know about Longhorn is that it will eventually exist.

These "nothing to report yet" stories do get annoying don't they?

Everyone is clambering to report that they don't know more than ysterday, but that they're the first to report it.

Re:gimme SXGA+ or more

[aclarke]

Right. People don't seem to realize that having a higher resolution doesn't mean they have to deal with smaller fonts. Just sharper ones.

Perhaps this stems from the fact that in Windows if you change the default font size from either of the "normal" or "larger" settings to a custom size, it screws up many dialog boxes and other display functions. This doesn't seem to be the problem on OS X though.

Re:I don't get the fascination with widescreen.

[mh101]

With a widescreen monitor, you're not getting the top cut off, but you're getting the sides extended. On a current 14" iBook, your resolution would be 1024x768. The 15" widescreen Powerbooks have a resolution of 1280x854 so it actually has more pixels in both dimensions.