Macworld to Bring Updates to Laptop Lines?

An anonymous reader writes "Reuters is reporting on the breathless anticipation that leads up to Macworld every year. Many analysts are hedging their bets that this year will bring a long overdue update to the Mac laptop family. From the article: 'We think the iBook, PowerBook, Mac Mini, and potentially Xserve are areas that are going to move to Intel first,' said Shaw Wu, an analyst at American Technology Research."

Comments

Burn baby Burn

[Anonymous Coward]

If only I could get a hold of the old Mac commercials when they slam on the Intel Processors

Re:Burn baby Burn

[goombah99]

Clueless comment. If you watched the last Apple meeting they played they commerical before they brought in the intel speakers. It was their humble pie. In a way it was a compliment to intel too. Intel did have a heat problem and look at all the new processors: low power.

Now lets look at the CES show with it's tepid announcements. Google-pak? well okay make it easy for the unwashed to have a standard set of apps all the technorati have. Of course those or better have always come on apples so we can forgive all the apple owners with the WTF look on their faces. And some TV show downloads? hmmm whoopeee. What are they going to play them on, an Achos pocket brick? And then there's a flock of dull over prices ipod wanabees, that got scooped by the Nano and cant even compete on price.

In any case tommorrow all apple has to do to blow the pants off everyone is to announce, feature length movies available .mac starting tommorrow, and the intel processors availabel in march on ibooks and mac minis. For the pro-crowd they just need to stretch their pro-video and maybe throw in some eye candy like 32 inch displays or intel plasma display. Maybe announce a toshiba SED by august (probably not though). Apple wont announce much other pro stuff since that usually comes at the developers conf later in the year.

This year CES made it easy. everything at CES is so far behind the curve and unintegrated apple hardly has to do more than what people already expect and everyone will be happy. This is the first year there's no breathless anticipation. (though I'm mighty curious about the intels, since I'm a pro-user I'm not expecting anything for me this go-around).

beating a dead horse?

[thedak]

I think at this point it's pretty much common sense that something is going to be done to the ibook line with macworld occuring.. tomorrow I guess it would be (unless you're in a timezone in which it is currently monday.. in which case.. greeettiinngs frromm the paaassttt..), we know the intel switch is coming, we know they have said that they are likely to release the ibook and mini lines first with intel chips (yonah most likely it seems, that's about the only thing that would make any sense)

With the keynote occuring tomorrow, it's probably time to stop repeating the speculation, or at least vary it up a little, Jobs to release iRock, a portable Steve Jobs shrine, so you can worship him in all his bald glory anywhere you go! :o I know I'd buy one >.> (typing from my beloved 12" ibook G4).

Here's hoping...

[WigginX]

My money is on the Apple Tablet being unveiled. ... but maybe that's just wishful thinking.

Re:Here's hoping...

[jerkmark]

Can we please call any Apple branded tablet the "Applet" from now on? I want to so bad.

Dual boot laptop

[shut_up_man]

I had considered a Mac last time I was shopping for a laptop, but I couldn't get past the facts that:

a) I can't work on Microsoft products like SQL Server on a Mac
b) The Mac only has a few games, compared to the PC

If these Intel Mac laptops arrive, and they really can be dual booted into XP, these two problems go away. I could easily see myself getting a Powerbook and using OSX for all my daily fiddling, and then booting into Windows when I needed to. /me crosses fingers...

Re:No G4 laptops or desktops - that is my predicti

[richdun]

Actually, the article suggests they will update the current G4-based models... "Apple has said it will start selling Intel-based computers by the middle of this year. But many analysts have said for months they expect an earlier introduction of some Macintosh models, particularly ones using the older G4 processor."

Something else up his sleeve?

[The Ancients]

Said analyst Bajarin, a long-time Silicon Valley watcher: "He also has something else up his sleeve that none of us have a clue about."

An 'Intel Inside' tattoo?

Doutful on X86 Xserves (for a while)

[csoto]

First, they don't move that platform very quickly. Secondly, their real cluster sales go towards SciViz, which have a particular fondness for the G5 platform.

second gen Pentium M

[green pizza]

Back in those days it was Apple/Motorola slamming the first gen Pentium II versus their first gen Power PC 750 "G3".

The G3 in 233 and 266 MHz flavors was faster than the PII in its 233 and 266 MHz flavors. But eventually the PII was shipping at 450 MHz while Motorola was still churning out 350 MHz G3s. Apple slipped behind and had to use other tactics (more cache, wider busses, etc) to try to compete.

Today Intel has the Pentium M, more specifically, the second generation Pentium M, available with dual cores. Sure looks a lot better than the vaporware that Motorola/Freescale is advertising, or the big and hot IBM PowerPC 970 "G5" or the in-order (poor for multitasking) game console versions of the G5.

I think Apple made the right move, I just wish Intel had a better naming system for their CPUs.

Re:second gen Pentium M

[Cadallin]

I understand the argument there, but I'm inclined to think that the game consoles stealing IBM's attention is a bit of a red herring. I think the real reasons are:

1. Marketing (Most people won't look any further than a CPU's clockspeed to evaluate it's "performance," even though this is often a weak indicator at best)

2. Steve's ego, and his anger at IBM for failing to deliver as promised. (Even though EVERYONE had a disasterous time with the 90nm transition. Nobody was really prepared to deal with the immense increase in heat dissipation, and if you'll remember, even Intel stalled during this period)

3. I think it's very like Intel made Apple "an offer they couldn't refuse," (especially keeping in mind point 2) The PC platform is stagnating really badly, and there aren't any Apps really driving the sale of higher performance desktops, Intel NEEDED Apple, as they are the only ones pushing in this direction. I think Apple probably got some OBSCENE discounts for agreeing to become an Intel shop.

Re:second gen Pentium M

[moonbender]

All of the current top3 Supercomputers in the world are POWER5 IBM designs.

Clearly, that makes it an obvious choice for a laptop CPU.

Re:Waiting for the big dissapointment...

[burris]

Apple was planning to introduce intel Macs at this Macworld all along. They just said it would be "a year and a half" (i.e. Macworld 2007) to avoid the so-called "Osbourne Effect." People are supposed to think "Well, I really can't wait another year, so I'll buy a new computer now."

I predict....

[Anonymous Coward]

..that Steve Jobs will be wearing a rather tight black shirt of some kind.

Re:No G4 laptops or desktops - that is my predicti

[Arctic Fox]

The article suggests...

I'm sorry. You must be new here. Usually these threads are full of speculation and wild-ass guesses, not someone reading article. Sheesh!

Re:My predictions...

[dr.badass]

iBook (all with 13.3" widescreen display and integrated graphics - 945GM MCH)

I dobut you'll see any Apple system with Intel's graphics. They've put a lot of energy into Core Image, which requires programmable pixel shaders, and if I remember correctly, Intel's pixel shader support is laughable, with hardly any hardware accelleration. Given that current iBooks do support Core Image, it would be a step backwards. (This, and laughable graphics performance in general.) Not completely impossible, but unlikely.

Also, the main reason to use Intel's graphics support would be to cash in on "Centrino" marketing. I don't think Apple needs or wants to overrun their very strong brands (iBook, PowerBook) with Intel's. The same reason I wouldn't expect to see an "Intel Inside" sticker.

Mini $499: Intel Centrino Duo LV 1.5Ghz

If it's going to be plugged into a wall, there's no reason for the low-voltage version of the chip. The current Mini form factor has plenty of room to disperse the heat of the normal version. I would expect to see the LV version in some kind of ultraportable, if anything.

iBook upgrades...

[ElectroBot]

- CPU will most likely be upgraded to Intel Yonah Single Core CPU
- FSB will be upgraded (142MHz to ?)
- Default RAM will stay at 512MB
- 802.11G and Bluetooth 2.0 EDR will remain
-Optional HD upgrade might go from 100GB max to 120GB max
- don't know about displays (widescreen ?, 13.3 ?)
- Video RAM BETTER be upgraded to 64MB (32MB isn't enough for games or full Core Image functionality and the iBook has had 32MB for 5 or 6 updates (3 or 4 years!)
- Firewire 400 WILL continue to be on the iBook (lots of people with Digital Video Cameras and iMovie would be useless otherwise)
- Battery life might go from theoretical 6 hours to theoretical 5 hours
- LCDs might be upgraded the same way Powerbook LCDs were, BUT resolution might not change
- Hopefully the iBook will gain an internal iSight like the iMac G5
- The iBook won't get a remote (people would lose it too easily) but it might get a few function keys added/changed to allow easier FrontRow control
- The iBook P4 will look somewhat different just like the iBook changed when the CPU changed from G3 to G4


That would be an iBook that I would be willing to trade up for (I have an early 2004 iBook G4 14" 1GHz)