[Parrot]

It appears that the only difference between the old and new 12" combo iBook is 800 vs 900MHz processor speed and 30G vs 40G hard drive. Anything else???

[Superchicken]

looks like the prices dropped by 100 bucks in Canada which is good... this update still sucks though, the only benifit is a better video card in the low end and a pathetic speed bump. Sadly I think apple might have roped me into buying a power book... although I might just spite em and buy a low end iBook and wait for a 970 power mac low end.

[scaught]

meh. its just a minor update. nothing to get terribly huffed over. its happened to the other product lines before.

[ShotgunEd]

better than a kick in the stones I suppose.

[dampeoples]

I suppose if it were a G4, you'd complain there was no need for a PB?

[Parrot]

I guess the upgrade pretty much in line with previous 12" IBook upgrades

iBook 500/66MHz bus/10G HD/8MB VRAM

iBook 600/100MHz bus/20G HD/8MB VRAM

iBook 700/100MHz bus/20G HD/16MB VRAM

iBook 800/100MHz bus/30G HD/32MB VRAM

iBook 900/100MHz bus/40G HD/32MB VRAM

I think the biggest performance difference was between the iBook 600 and 700 because the the processor was changed from a Motorola to IBM G3 with double the L2 cache.

Faster ie 133MHz bus speed would have been nice, 1GHz would have been nicer. However the iBook 900 is already getting too close to the 12"PB is terms of speed.

[Colonel Panic]

they now indicate that the ATI 7500 has 32MB of *DDR* memory (as opposed to sdram), which is new.

very interested in the xbench opengl score for the new books.

[slider]

Hey, it was better than no update. It's a good machine for the price. An 800Mhz iBook for $999, I mean come on, that's pretty good. Personally my sights are on a PowerBook anyways, but that's just me.

[scottiB]

Nice thing, too, is that at the $999 price, you can substitute a 60 GB drive for $75 (or $50 for the 12.1" 900mhz model). This couldn't be done before, AFAIK.

Good bump, still a good value.

[BHD]

No Bluetooth. Given the broader Bluetooth push at Apple, this one seems strange.

[xtal]

Originally posted by BHD:
No Bluetooth. Given the broader Bluetooth push at Apple, this one seems strange.

To me it's not too surprising that we haven't seen an iBook with BT yet, especially since the TiBooks still need to have an external adaptor to utilize BT technology.

[MrNo]

They didn't even add Airport Extreme, so diapointing ...

[xtal]

Originally posted by ShotgunEd:
better than a kick in the stones I suppose.

I would tend to agree.

[AssassyN]

Originally posted by MrNo:
They didn't even add Airport Extreme, so diapointing ...

You guys have to realize Apple cannot kill their market for the 12" PB. If they integrated all the features from the PowerBook onto the iBook, who in the world would spend more for a PowerBook? It's not that they forget, it's strictly business.

However, I feel that the 900Mhz processor, updated hard drive, and most importantly, DDR Video RAM, were QUITE nice updates to their "low-end" notebook line.

[Peter]

Apple are in quite a problem, the iBooks are in need of an update (bluetooth, faster processor) when they have recently introduced a 12" PowerBook, so if they add bluetooth to the iBooks, people will purchase the iBook because of the lower price (the average person cant tell the difference between G3 & G4) Also with the update of 60Gb, I think that was a major mistake, there is now very few things between the 12" PB and the 12" iBook -
G4 867 Vs G3 900
32Mb VRAM Vs 32Mb VRAM
640Mb Vs 640Mb
60Gb Vs 60Gb
SuperDrive Vs CDRW *
Bluetooth & Airport Extreme Vs Airport *

Seeing that the last option is a must there will soon be a very strange in house Apple laptop 'battle'
I of course use the word battle very losely

[Kestral]

Also:

133 mhz bus vs 100 mhz bus
DDR RAM vs SODIMM

[gator]

Originally posted by PeterClark2002:
Apple are in quite a problem, the iBooks are in need of an update (bluetooth, faster processor) when they have recently introduced a 12" PowerBook, so if they add bluetooth to the iBooks, people will purchase the iBook because of the lower price (the average person cant tell the difference between G3 & G4) Also with the update of 60Gb, I think that was a major mistake, there is now very few things between the 12" PB and the 12" iBook -
G4 867 Vs G3 900
32Mb VRAM Vs 32Mb VRAM
640Mb Vs 640Mb
60Gb Vs 60Gb
SuperDrive Vs CDRW *
Bluetooth & Airport Extreme Vs Airport *

Seeing that the last option is a must there will soon be a very strange in house Apple laptop 'battle'
I of course use the word battle very losely

The target market for which the 12" PB was intended for knows the difference between the two and would still select the 12" PB, IMO. Sure, the value difference has dropped a little, but feature wise (esp the G4 processor) it's still quite better than the updated iBook.

[Peter]

Originally posted by gator:
The target market for which the 12" PB was intended for knows the difference between the two and would still select the 12" PB, IMO. Sure, the value difference has dropped a little, but feature wise (esp the G4 processor) it's still quite better
than the updated iBook.

yeah it is better,but if you were looking for a new computer and hadn't a clue about computers you may chose the 14" 900 because of the higher processor 'mhz' and larger screen?

[bluedog]

Originally posted by PeterClark2002:
yeah it is better,but if you were looking for a new computer and hadn't a clue about computers you may chose the 14" 900 because of the higher processor 'mhz' and larger screen?

So what Apple should do is forget about the G4 and just ramp up the speed of the G3 to 3Gigahertz. Then everyone would be happy, right?

[chipchen]

haha... everyone seems to want an ibook with a G4 processor, airport extreme, bluetooth, the ability to drive a second monitor, a new case design....

hmm... i dunno about you guys... sounds familiar to me though...

[Peter]

ramp both the iBook and PB to 1Ghz, then the laptops will be sold to the correct people

[Superchicken]

I'm thinking I might settle for a low end iBook after this dismal update and just buy a power mac when the 970s are in their third or fourth revs.

It seems kinda pointless to buy a fast laptop from apple when pretty soon the 970s will be outpacing it like no one's busness.

[typoon]

Originally posted by AssassyN:
You guys have to realize Apple cannot kill their market for the 12" PB. If they integrated all the features from the PowerBook onto the iBook, who in the world would spend more for a PowerBook? It's not that they forget, it's strictly business.

However, I feel that the 900Mhz processor, updated hard drive, and most importantly, DDR Video RAM, were QUITE nice updates to their "low-end" notebook line.

Hell I would just for the G4 and the ability to burn DVD's on the 12" PB.

[typoon]

Originally posted by bluedog:
So what Apple should do is forget about the G4 and just ramp up the speed of the G3 to 3Gigahertz. Then everyone would be happy, right?

No because the G3 doesn't have Altivec. Also I think the future will be in the 970 anyway.

[bleee]

But regardless of all the whining some of you will snap, trade in your new 800Mhz and upgrade to 900Mhz

[RMXO]

Originally posted by bleee:
But regardless of all the whining some of you will snap, trade in your new 800Mhz and upgrade to 900Mhz

true. no matter how much Apple does an update someone will never be satisfied with it.

[Stratus Fear]

Originally posted by Colonel Panic:
they now indicate that the ATI 7500 has 32MB of *DDR* memory (as opposed to sdram), which is new.

very interested in the xbench opengl score for the new books.

The Radeon Mobility chips in the 700 MHz 16MB VRAM iBooks from last May actually have DDR VRAM...

[ccsccs7]

By adding more integrated hardware (such as Bluetooth) or "new" technology (such as AirPort Extreme) I'd think Mac OS 9 might have trouble running without modification.

So, will they be OS 9 bootable? They're essentially the same iBooks as last year's models except with a faster processor.