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superblue · Apr 7, 2003, 04:22 AM

From http://thinksecret.com

"Apple will soon announce new iBook models with speeds up to 900MHz, but will not break the 1GHz barrier."

I was hoping for graphics cards boosts and Airport Extreme too, but if this article is right, we won't be seeing them yet

ae86_16v · Apr 7, 2003, 04:29 AM

Yeah that blows...I was hoping for a new enclosure, although the current one is nice, I thought it needed an update.

Thinksecret has been wrong before e.g. "No new Hardware in MWSF03", "Not enough quantity of Slot-loading Superdrives", etc.

andreas_g4 · Apr 7, 2003, 05:26 AM

I didn't monitor how reliable TS is, but if that specs are true, i'll probably keep my 600 MHz/CD 12" iBook until the next revision.

jetta_gt · Apr 7, 2003, 05:53 AM

If i don't see Bluetooth on the high-end 12" I am gonna be ticked off...

x user · Apr 7, 2003, 10:01 AM

TS can take their predictions and shove them. Did you see their other "Prediction" for the day? What a bunch of ... well.. I won't say.

joelcpa · Apr 7, 2003, 10:09 AM

Originally posted by x user:
TS can take their predictions and shove them. Did you see their other "Prediction" for the day? What a bunch of ... well.. I won't say.

Huh? Because they were right about Acrobat 6.0, you think ThinkSecret stinks?

Usually rumor sites get grief for being wrong. This is a first!

Krusty · Apr 7, 2003, 01:51 PM

ThinkSecret really is one of the best rumor sites (not perfect, but right A LOT). If they're right, this is a disappointment .. the numbers imply no bump in bus speed either. Personally I don't really care if Apple hit the "magic" 1ghz mark but I really did want to see 133mhz bus, built in blutooth, and a FREAKIN' 256mb chip in the inaccessible memory slot (and a 40gb hdd with a $50 60gb option like the PB 12"). As is, what are they offering that an enterprising overclocker couldn't do for himself?

*sigh*

xtal · Apr 7, 2003, 01:56 PM

If the TS site is true, then I think it's simply a case of "if it isn't broken..." on Apple's part. We have to face it, the iBook is a great machine. Messing with it doesn't behoove Apple's future prospects.

Peter · Apr 7, 2003, 03:19 PM

Why is everyone taking this so seriously?
Rumours, not confirmed and all.
I dislike how they wrote:
"Think Secret has confirmed specifications on the three new models through various highly reliable sources as well as company documents. "
How the heck are they so sure?

proux · Apr 7, 2003, 03:34 PM

Think Secret has been suprisingly right lately.

BUT

900mhz with no blueetooth or Airport Extreme is a big letdown. Might as well not change anything and keep the 800mhz for a couple more months, even if it means lowering the price by $100.

x user · Apr 7, 2003, 06:35 PM

What I'm trying to say is they didn't really predict anything... It was already released. They probably just saw it on their website...

Krusty · Apr 7, 2003, 07:45 PM

Originally posted by x user:
What I'm trying to say is they didn't really predict anything... It was already released. They probably just saw it on their website...

gotcha, dude.

... they aren't ONLY a prediction site. They do engage in simply reporting what has happened sometimes too. And it looks like they really hit this story right when the official announcement came anyway.

Since Apple has tended to debut new hardware on Tuesdays, their current "scoop" about new iBooks may prove to be only 1 day before the official announcement too. Let's at least hope that the fact that they didn't mention Bluetooth and Airport Extreme means that these two features WILL be the highlights of an otherwise lame update.

I guess if someone were looking to buy an iBook in the near future anyway, this update will be a nice "bonus". For those looking for major changes ... its almost non-newsworthy.

Weezer · Apr 7, 2003, 08:52 PM

Wouldn't it be unlikely for Apple to release new ibooks right after the new video apps? I would think they would want those on the main page for more than a few days.

BrettOZ · Apr 7, 2003, 09:12 PM

Weezer, if they do release the new iBooks, they will probably just cycle the main Apple index page like they have done for other major Macworld releases. A refresh of the page gives you a new product displayed (Video Apps and iBooks)

iamnid · Apr 7, 2003, 10:00 PM

133mhz system bus would be highly unlikely seeing as how the iMac... with a 1Ghz G4 has yet to get a system bus faster than 100mhz.

Krusty · Apr 7, 2003, 10:05 PM

Originally posted by iamnid:
133mhz system bus would be highly unlikely seeing as how the iMac... with a 1Ghz G4 has yet to get a system bus faster than 100mhz.

Actually the 1ghz iMac DOES have a 133mhz bus. But, the emac does still wallow at 100mhz.

Check out the tech specs in the right column

Lateralus · Apr 7, 2003, 10:48 PM

Need I remind everyone of ThinkSecrets TOTAL **** UP with their predictions for the most recent Mac World?

Krusty · Apr 7, 2003, 11:11 PM

Originally posted by PowerMacMan:
Need I remind everyone of ThinkSecrets TOTAL **** UP with their predictions for the most recent Mac World?

Here's hoping for a pleasant surprise ... and that ThinkSecret is totally wrong about everything (except that new iBook are coming soon).

xtal · Apr 8, 2003, 10:03 AM

Originally posted by PowerMacMan:
Need I remind everyone of ThinkSecrets TOTAL **** UP with their predictions for the most recent Mac World?

True. But they were completely on the ball for the last iBook revision in November 2002.

http://www.thinksecret.com/news/nov6ibooks.html

OldManMac · Apr 8, 2003, 10:14 AM

Well, where are they?

SeSawaya · Apr 8, 2003, 01:51 PM

so on a computer thats been out for 2 years, we've only seen a 300 mhz speed bump (maybe a 400 - but its yet to bee seen)

How pathetic. I'm not looking for a 2 ghz machine (ok I guess I am) but come on. My ibook 500 was a dog, my 700 is a lot better but no where near where it needs to be in OSX.
If I where thinking about switching from a 1.6 + ghz laptop, WHY would I even think of cutting to 1/2 the speed?

I WANT SPEED!!!

jumping off my soapbox now-

Krusty · Apr 8, 2003, 04:00 PM

Originally posted by SeSawaya:
so on a computer thats been out for 2 years, we've only seen a 300 mhz speed bump (maybe a 400 - but its yet to bee seen)

How pathetic. <snip>

No kidding. I'm still using an iMac DV (which when new, was actually somewhat comparable speed-wise with consumer wintel boxes at the time) and I just haven't seen anythng that makes me want to upgrade yet. The speed of Wintel boxes made really took off right after I purchased this. This box has 100mhz bus, firewire, & 100BaseT networking ... all STILL standard on Apple's current consumer offerings (except the new 1ghz iMac with a 133 bus). Plust the ram is *easily* expandable to 1 gigabyte. My rule of thumb for upgrading is that I must have at LEAST twice the clock speed if I go laptop and at least 3 times if I go desktop. A faster bus, upgraded connectivity (1000BaseT and/or FW 800) should also be present. I really thought I'd be upgrading much sooner .. but its been over 3 years and there just isn't anything out there that makes the cost of a new machine worth it.

Of course, it really just makes me appreciate my G3 iMac that much more. This thing has truly been a great machine. I hope I'm lucky enough to have a similar level of reliability, utility and longevity out of my next Mac purchase.

agentz · Apr 8, 2003, 04:14 PM

Originally posted by SeSawaya:
so on a computer thats been out for 2 years, we've only seen a 300 mhz speed bump (maybe a 400 - but its yet to bee seen)

How pathetic. I'm not looking for a 2 ghz machine (ok I guess I am) but come on. My ibook 500 was a dog, my 700 is a lot better but no where near where it needs to be in OSX.
If I where thinking about switching from a 1.6 + ghz laptop, WHY would I even think of cutting to 1/2 the speed?

I WANT SPEED!!!

jumping off my soapbox now-

Megahertz is such a crock, it really is. And even Intel have realised this. I'm just back from a product tour held by a major PC vendor and they were showing us their new laptop lines using the Intel Pentium M processor (as opposed to the Pentium 4M). Wheras they had previously been using P4M processors at up to 2GHz they are now using Pentium M processors at 1.3GHz, 1.4GHz and 1.6GHz and can actually benchmark an (admittedly slight) increase in performance over the 'faster' machines.

But yeah, its about time that Apple refreshed the iBook line. I'm using a 600MHz 12.1" Combo which is just over a year old and while its a marked improvement over my old machine there are times when 10.2 just stops and spins that bloody beach ball at me - I wish it was just a bit quicker because there'd be less chance of that happening.

RMXO · Apr 9, 2003, 04:21 AM

iBook has been updated by 100Mhz everytime there is an update?

eg:

500, 600, 700, 800

so if we follow their speed bumps then we will see a 900 Mhz. iBooks are not gonna be higher than PBs. once it does then the PBs will be updated higher.

just my 2cents..

Silencer · Apr 9, 2003, 04:52 AM

I really hope that that prediction is wrong I have been holding out for 2 months for a worthy update, and I have another 2 months or so until they get released, they better find something else to boost the appeal of the iBook to make me feel that it will be a worthy purchase, I'll be buying one whatever happens as I need a laptop for school, but i would have liked to see 1Ghz and additional ram.

Krusty · Apr 9, 2003, 06:39 AM

Originally posted by RMXO:
iBook has been updated by 100Mhz everytime there is an update?

eg:

500, 600, 700, 800

so if we follow their speed bumps then we will see a 900 Mhz. iBooks are not gonna be higher than PBs. once it does then the PBs will be updated higher.

just my 2cents..

True about the speed bumps, but that's more of a bus speed issue. If they bumped the bus, then they would increment more than 100 mhz in an upgrade. (eg. Powerbooks were incremented by mulitples of 50 or 100 when they had a 100mhz bus, but were incremented by 67 or 133 once they went to a 133mhz bus)

Also, the very first dual usb iBook debuted at a single speed of 500mhz when the PB G4 was clocking 400/500 (ie. the SLOWEST iBook clocked the same as the FASTEST Powerbook) and that situation held for about 3-4 months before the next PB update. Once the initial rush to buy Al Powerbooks has passed, there is no reason for Apple NOT to make the next iBook look as attractive as possible to generate sales for it as Powerbook sales start to cool. Then they update the powerbooks and make them look super attractive again.

I'm not saying they WILL do this with the next iBook .. just that they HAVE done this before in the very recent past. So saying they absolutely wouldn't have an iBook clocked the same as the top end PB for a coupla months isn't exactly what I'd call a hard and fast rule.

Alas, I wouldn't be surprised if ThinkSecret is on the money with their prediction. If they are, it will be the first time that I EVER have seen a 9x processor to bus ratio in a mac (which is WAY to high, IMHO).

rmendis · Apr 9, 2003, 08:26 AM

Originally posted by superblue:
From http://thinksecret.com

"Apple will soon announce new iBook models with speeds up to 900MHz, but will not break the 1GHz barrier."

I'm sure that the updates to the iBooks this year will include either a new enclosure and/or the reintroduction of colours.

And perhaps more importantly, i reckon that the iBook will become Apple's new entry level Mac with prices starting as low as $899 or even $849. Particularly now that the iMac (Classic/CRT) is no longer on sale.

Not sure about MHz, but it should use IBM's new Sahara G3s that scale to 1GHz and beyond.

OldManMac · Apr 9, 2003, 10:03 AM

Well, where are they?

Raidiant · Apr 9, 2003, 10:54 AM

the sahara is currently available at 1ghz and IBM has state that it won't take much effort for them to expand the sahara to 2ghz if anybody is interested in buying it like apple, and the battery drain levels will remain the same it is unclear why apple still chooses to keep its ibooks at such a low clockspeed.

The current 800mhz ibook can outdo the 12 icnh PB in some tests and more interestingly a 1ghz or 2 ghz ibook can effectively blow most of the pb out of the water. the G4 is essentially just a G3 with altivec snapped on if not concerning altivec tasks the G3 is actualy faster then the G4 at the same clockspeed.

The G3 is also somewhat speedy in comparison to pentiums the 800mhz has a effective floating point of equivilent of 1.7ghz of a pentium. Sound unbelievable but..

I've preformned several runs on my 1.5ghz pentium and my 800mhz ibook it is clear to me that a ibook running FCP is faster then premiere on a pc with the same footage. Also FCP needs altivec and drains more energy the premiere. This proves the G3 to be a incredibly good proccesor as the footage is proccesed faster on my ibook thought without realtime effects its as good as it gets for a G3.

On the pentium it took 10 seconds to move the slider on my 20 minute footage.

Superchicken · Apr 9, 2003, 02:51 PM

haha imagin a 2Ghz G3 in an iBook! That would be impressive!

My only question is if the G3 is s similar to the G4 sans Altivec why not just put a lil work into strapping on a VMX unit and crank up the G3s to 2Ghz?

Scooterboy · Apr 9, 2003, 08:47 PM

The IBM 750 FX (Sahara) G3 is significantly faster than the older 750CXe, so there has been more than just 100 Mhz speed bumps. That said, the iBook is more than ready for some changes, and those should be:

1 Ghz G3, 133 Mhz system bus, 900 Mhz, 800 Mhz on 100 Mhz system bus (low end)
Bluetooth integrated
Airport Extreme
FireWire 800
ATi Radeon 9000 64MB and 32MB, ATi Radeon 7500 32 MB (low end)
256 MB RAM
better speakers
Same or similar white enclosure
30 GB HD with 40 GB BTO
Same screens and 2 enclosures or one enclosure with 13.3" or 12" screens (low end), at same ppi as current 12".

If we don't get new iBooks this good then I can wait longer to upgrade. iBooks have to be this good to compete with Centrino laptops.

milhouse · Apr 9, 2003, 09:39 PM

I've read that IBM has had problems fabbing chips at 2Ghz, Don't recall where though.

The iBook @ 800 and 32MB Video is no slouch at all.
Even at 700 it's a real champ.

I doubt we'll see a G3 that challenges sales of Apples G4 line.

Raidiant · Apr 10, 2003, 02:49 AM

Originally posted by Scooterboy:
The IBM 750 FX (Sahara) G3 is significantly faster than the older 750CXe, so there has been more than just 100 Mhz speed bumps. That said, the iBook is more than ready for some changes, and those should be:

1 Ghz G3, 133 Mhz system bus, 900 Mhz, 800 Mhz on 100 Mhz system bus (low end)
Bluetooth integrated
Airport Extreme
FireWire 800
ATi Radeon 9000 64MB and 32MB, ATi Radeon 7500 32 MB (low end)
256 MB RAM
better speakers
Same or similar white enclosure
30 GB HD with 40 GB BTO
Same screens and 2 enclosures or one enclosure with 13.3" or 12" screens (low end), at same ppi as current 12".

If we don't get new iBooks this good then I can wait longer to upgrade. iBooks have to be this good to compete with Centrino laptops.

riodiculous forget it thats too much for a low price. I doubt we'll ever see ibook have any features of a PB typical of apple.

seanyepez · Apr 10, 2003, 05:06 AM

Originally posted by Raidiant:
riodiculous forget it thats too much for a low price. I doubt we'll ever see ibook have any features of a PB typical of apple.

The new iBooks won't have FireWire 800. Bluetooth will be optional (just like it is on the 1-gigahertz iMacs). The rest of what he's asking for is perfectly reasonable.

seanyepez · Apr 10, 2003, 05:08 AM

The new iBooks will have 32 megabytes of video memory.

Raidiant · Apr 10, 2003, 05:43 AM

ATi Radeon 9000 64MB is a rather powerfull laptop card

im_noahselby · Apr 10, 2003, 06:05 AM

Originally posted by seanyepez:
The new iBooks will have 32 megabytes of video memory.

No, really!?

Noah

Athens · 06:15 AM

Who cares only boobs use laptops to play games!

andreas_g4 · Apr 10, 2003, 12:47 PM

Maybe the specs are right. Eventually Apple will update them like that, and come along with whole new iBooks just after the Powerbooks get a revision. Sure this would p*ss of all the ones that bought the 800/900 MHz models, but Apple can't serve everyone.

joltguy · Apr 10, 2003, 01:16 PM

I think the thought process that mandates "no 1GHz in the iBook until the PBG4s are faster" is flawed, even if it is an accurate reflection of Apple's attitude. People justify this by saying that shoppers who see 1GHz in both specs will automatically opt for the iBook, hurting Powerbook sales. Nonsense. The Powerbooks are supposed to be targetted at professionals. Professionals tend to know what they want/need and will grab a Powerbook because they know the G4 is a "better" processor, not to mention all the other bells & whistles they get. A consumer, on the other hand, may indeed opt for the iBook over the Powerbook... not because the processors are the same clock speed, but because of the large price difference. However, seeing that 1GHz number (vs 8-900MHz) means that same consumer may opt for the iBook instead of the similarly-priced 1.4GHz toshiba laptop a couple of aisles over. The point: the consumer still buys an Apple product, even if it's not the higher-profit-margin Apple product.

Needless to say, I really hope the next iBooks have 1GHz G3 processors.

andreas_g4 · Apr 10, 2003, 01:48 PM

joltguy,

I agree to your thoughts. But I know a quite a few professionals that are not aware of technical stuff like processors etc. Those often have their strenghs in the creative field or elsewhere, but they can definitively not tell the difference between a G3 and a G4.

OldManMac · Apr 10, 2003, 08:42 PM

Originally posted by seanyepez:
The new iBooks will have 32 megabytes of video memory.

Two of the current ones already have that.

Eug · Apr 13, 2003, 01:52 AM

Apple Store is down...

ae86_16v · Apr 13, 2003, 03:40 AM

Originally posted by Eug:
Apple Store is down...

Hahahah.....this is it...we'll find out soon

seanyepez · Apr 13, 2003, 04:34 AM

Originally posted by KarlG:
Two of the current ones already have that.

That doesn't rule out the possibility that the new ones will have 32 megabytes of video RAM as well.

escher · Apr 13, 2003, 11:12 AM

Originally posted by Athens:
Who cares only boobs use laptops to play games!

It's much simpler: Only boobs play games!

Escher

(Sorry, I couldn't resist.

)

Mohammed Al-Sabah · Apr 13, 2003, 03:02 PM

no one knows what they have in mind

what i think is that when G5 ever comes in service ibooks would be using G4's and anything on G4's switched to G5's

this is what i think tho.....

iamnid · Apr 14, 2003, 02:03 AM

could be that once the g5 (or 970 or whatever it's calleD) comes out, the 12" powerbook becomes the ibook and the 15" and 17" powerbooks get the new processor. Although that could be a bit of a stretch.

Raidiant · Apr 14, 2003, 07:29 AM

maybe when 12 inch pb fame starts coolint they will delete the ibook completely since the 12 inch pb is a better comp in many ways. not to mention it is lighter and smaller.

I think its obvious apple does nothing to the ibooks I mean they don't even come up in macworlds.

Simon · Apr 14, 2003, 07:38 AM

Originally posted by Raidiant:
maybe when 12 inch pb fame starts coolint they will delete the ibook completely since the 12 inch pb is a better comp in many ways. not to mention it is lighter and smaller.

I could imagine that they keep an iBook model like the current 700MHz with a white plastic case to have something in the portable line like the eMac is for desktops.

The 12" PowerBook could then take over as the "small-but-powerful" portable. Well, give it a DVI, some L3, put back the Radeon9000 and then it would be.