[habibman]

Hi, I am bout to buy a 12" PB, prolly before the school deal runs out. Just wanted to know if this is a bad move. I will be using it for editing, though not on the 12" LCD. I could wait if updates might be around the corner, but otherwise, it still seems better than an iBook to me, though I would love to hear opinions, thanks a bunch.

[Randman]

If you can wait till after Paris, just to make sure there's no small revision (like 512 standard ram) ...

[budster101]

12" PB comes with 512mb standard now...

Was that sarcasm?

[Randman]

Does it? Missed that one.

[powerbook911]

Randman,

All Macs come with 512MB of memory standard, except the low-end emac.

To the original question -

You should probably wait 1-2 weeks after Paris. The last Powerbook update came two weeks after MacWorld.

[ChrisF]

Originally Posted by budster101

12" PB comes with 512mb standard now...

Was that sarcasm?

But the 12" PB has only one RAM slot which currently ships filled with a 256MB DIMM with another 256MB built into the motherboard. The iBook currently has 512MB on the board with a free RAM slot, so the iBook has a higher maximum RAM capacity than the Powerbook.

[Randman]

Originally Posted by powerbook911

Randman,

All Macs come with 512MB of memory standard, except the low-end emac.

I was thinking max ram. The new iBooks can now go to 1.5GB, but the latest round of PB12s can still only go to 1.25GB, right?

[budster101]

Yes. 1.25 GB.

256 On board.
256 In the Slot.

---

[habibman]

any thoughts on whether the hard drive or screen resolution get better? would it be too wishfu lto ask for a firewire 800 port on the 12ers before mactels? so does that mean that if they are updated within two weeks that they are coming with the new Freescale chips? thanks.

[mrmister]

Nothing is changing, nothing is changing until January at the earliest. If they were able to bump, they would have already...and if they bump now, it will be a minor bump anyway.

[MarkJ61]

Nothing is changing until January at the earliest.... if they bump now, it will be a minor bump anyway.

Pretty strong opinions. But which one?

I'm also playing the game of wondering what the next month brings, if anything.

I don't really follow the Mac rumor mills an have no insight to Apple dev, but Ive followed Apple since the beginning and they many times they would announce an upgrade or bump just after a big promo expired.

Lots of promos ending at near the same time. Apple BTS, Amazon rebates, MacMall/Clubmac rebates, CDW/MacWare rebates all end either last week in Sept of first week in Oct.

Could mean nothing, and Jan is just over 3 months away, But I am still hoping for a PB bump this year. If not I'm all over an iBook 12" to get me by as I need a portable box soon since my Ti just died.

[habibman]

if nothing changes until january 2006 that means almost a year without updates, followed by a short 6 month period before the mactels. i wonder if apple would do that. doesn't seem logical to mean. even a minor bump right now would be swell considering how close the ibook is to the PB 12.

[mrmister]

"Pretty strong opinions. But which one?"

Both. They don't have chips that fit in the PowerBooks--i think they were planning to update at Paris, but the chips were delayed AGAIN and so they cancelled the keynote.

if they do update, it will be low-key and in the existing enclosures...and I suspect they may just push on through to a Macintel powerbook instead.

remember, Jobs said there would be Macintels out by June 2006. That means they hit the street anytime before then—so announcing in January, shipping in March would fit the bill, if they are ready.

[jesset]

Originally Posted by mrmister

That means they hit the street anytime before then—so announcing in January, shipping in March would fit the bill, if they are ready.

Generally speaking, Apple doesn't make product announcements to the public unless the product is available the day they announce it.

[tooki]

I would sooner buy a 12" iBook than a 12" PowerBook. The differences in feature hardly warrant the price difference. (Remember: Screen Spanning Doctor!)

tooki

[Simon]

Originally Posted by tooki

(Remember: Screen Spanning Doctor!)

Remember DVI. Anybody with a digital monitor has no choice but to buy the PowerBook.