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New Powerbook

post #1 of 40
2/1/05 at 2:15am
Thread Starter 
In case anyone's missed it, Apple released an updated Powerbook today.

http://www.apple.com

Upped the processor speed, scrolling trackpad, plus other improvements. They've also lowered the prices.

-Frank
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post #2 of 40
2/1/05 at 2:57am
Yup, I saw it today morning. But we're stil stuck with G4 processors. When are they going to get a G5 PowerBook. I know that they said that the G5 is going to be the "mother of all thermal engineering," I want a G5 PowerBook. I guess I really don't care actually. Because I'm getting a PowerMac G5 in the summer with the release of Tiger.
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post #3 of 40
2/1/05 at 3:38am
bah.. weak update they are falling behind once again
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post #4 of 40
2/1/05 at 3:51am

help me

Hi


I was looking for a laptop for the past one month for a budget of $1500..

After seeing the new upgrade in the apple G4 powerbook i am thinking of going with it..


any suggestions plzzzz

regards
sens
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post #5 of 40
2/1/05 at 3:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by h00ligan
bah.. weak update they are falling behind once again
How is it falling behind? They are somehow managing to fit a 128MB 9700 in a chassis that is only 1.1" thick and weighs 5.6lbs. That kicks my Dell's ass and outclasses most other PC laptops.

Not that I would buy a Mac. Not enough games...
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post #6 of 40
2/1/05 at 4:22am
Thread Starter 
If you have a 1500 budget, look at the 12" Powerbooks. Or perhaps the ibooks? What do you want to do with it?

I'm leaning towards the new 17" powerbook. DVI support for a 30" cinema display is nice. Digital audio in, etc etc. The BTO model is perfect. Just buy after market ram and it's gold.

Who wants to spend over $500 for playing games, anyway?
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post #7 of 40
2/1/05 at 4:46am
The 15 can support the 30 inch Cinema Display too if you change the video card option.


And the Mac might not have every game under the sun, but it has the ones that count. Halo, Sim City, Warcraft, Neverwinter Nights...those are the ones I care about. Doom 3 will be out soon too with significantly reduced specs...Aspyr was saying you needed a top of the line G5 to run it; now they're saying I can play it with my PowerBook.
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post #8 of 40
2/1/05 at 1:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wooster
How is it falling behind? They are somehow managing to fit a 128MB 9700 in a chassis that is only 1.1" thick and weighs 5.6lbs. That kicks my Dell's ass and outclasses most other PC laptops.

Not that I would buy a Mac. Not enough games...
Its falling behind because they gave it a 166 Mhz upgrade from the last gen. Wooo hooo. And the 128 MB card can only be had in the 17" model, which is pretty stupid if you ask me.
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post #9 of 40
2/1/05 at 1:34pm
The 128 meg cards have always been available in both the 17 and 15 inch PowerBooks.

It's the 12 inch that uses a completely different card.
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post #10 of 40
2/1/05 at 1:44pm
Oh yea you just have to pay extra for it, thats right. The 17" has it default, the 15" has to be configured for it.

Still, I think this update is mediocre at best. I can't belive they just now switched the default RAM on them to 512 MB, 256 is not enought to run OSX unless you run one app at a time, after that it becomes dog slow. And the amount they charged to upgrade the ram was ludicris
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post #11 of 40
2/1/05 at 1:58pm
The G4 processors generate less heat so putting in an ATI 9700 128 Meg doesn't strain the thermal dissipation of the Powerbook as much. A G5 cpu is an entirely diffrent monster. IE Balrog:

I wonder if Apple will resort to water-cooling for a G5 powerbook.
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post #12 of 40
2/1/05 at 2:56pm

Macs are cool, but not updated enough

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wooster
How is it falling behind? They are somehow managing to fit a 128MB 9700 in a chassis that is only 1.1" thick and weighs 5.6lbs. That kicks my Dell's ass and outclasses most other PC laptops.

Not that I would buy a Mac. Not enough games...
I think the Mac is a very spiffy platform, and who wouldn't like UNIX machine that runs Microsoft Office? But these updates are pretty weak.

No hi-res LCDs, and no PCI-E.

So, aside from the cool chassis, what levels up the Mac beyond the ankle-biter PC offerings?

Couldn't Apple jam a second G4 CPU in there? Or a second HDD? Or more SO-DIMM slots for 4GB+ of RAM? Or even a lousy numeric key pad, a video cam, a second battery, &c &c &c ....
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post #13 of 40
2/1/05 at 3:04pm
I really wish they would have better screen options. I would otherwise be sorely tempted to get a powerbook. Everyone at my work seems to be infatuated with them because of their unix compatibility, but I would really like to have a better screen resolution on the 15". Could they at least offer it as an option? I guess Apple isn't too into offering different options, though...
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post #14 of 40
2/1/05 at 3:25pm
The ability to now use the 17" stock Powerbook and the 15" with the 128mb vram 9700 video card with Apples 30" Cinema Display is a big plus for those who have the display. Until now you needed a G5 Powermac with a $400-$500 video card to use the 30" display. Though the clockspeed update is anemic at best the combination of the clockspeed update, faster hard drive and video ram along with the $100 price drop adds up to a decent update.
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post #15 of 40
2/1/05 at 3:55pm
Does it matter whether it is a G5 or not ?

Not talking about games, I would say that the answer is no.
OS X is a clever piece of software in an expensive hardware.
Intel is kicking Apple in hardware but it lacks a good and reliable OS.
That's it, nothing else. Many linux users move from Window$ trying to
lure themselves that they have something better than OSX.

I did not jump on this powerbook release because I can not work with
a 166MHz system bus. That's absurd and Steve Jobs knows it. He just
keep shining other aspects but the bottom ground is that Apple is
in trouble with these portable line. THAT's where the powerbooks should
be improved ! 166MHz is hideous !!!

Also, the only reason to have this late-late upgrade is to not canibalizing the
most expensive ibook. It was strange to see two almost identical machines
with a US$ 500 price tag difference.

Besides the powerbooks, tt is also a SHAME to release the ibooks and mac minis
without being fully compatible with the next OSX version. Core Image will
be very cool and there is not reason (than $$$) to keep selling
these old and cripped videocards.

Just my 2 cents...

S.
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post #16 of 40
2/1/05 at 9:00pm

mac op system

I wish they would capitulate and licence their software for AMD/Intel machines

Bet they would make millions....

The apple products would not be eroded bacause of the brand name factor
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post #17 of 40
2/1/05 at 9:55pm
Apple LCDs are 100 DPI because that's the resolution that Apple discovered to be the most comfortable to read and constantly use.
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post #18 of 40
2/2/05 at 2:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MAC640
I wish they would capitulate and licence their software for AMD/Intel machines

Bet they would make millions....
Software profits are just a drop in the bucket compared to hardware profits for Apple. This was true even before the iPod success.

Porting OS X fully over to x86 would cost a decent bit, add a lot of support overhead for the 5,000,000,000 combinations of PC hardware, and would likely actually show no noticible profit increase for Apple.

The day OS X runs on x86 will be when Apple releases propritary x86 boxes.
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post #19 of 40
2/2/05 at 12:13pm
i think the update was more focused on lowering the price than increasing performance that much. before a loaded 12" pb with superdrive, 80gb, 512mb, etc was at least $2000. now it's $1700. pretty big difference.

as for porting os x over to x86, i've been wanting apple to do this for ever. i love os x, but not so much apple's hardware. i doubt it's ever going to happen, however...
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post #20 of 40
2/2/05 at 12:45pm
I agree with jnev in that the main purpose of the update was to lower the price. That, and the bump up to 512 ram, which is also a lowering in price, in theory. I think they are just trying to make the product more enticing to a larger crowd of people. Personally, I would buy one in an instant and get rid of this gateway (which I do really love) if it were not for the fact that I need AutoCad in all it's glory. Until that day comes, I'll have to have my pc and my mac, but that's a whole nother topic.


I want one.
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