[Alpha-sphere]

What kind of innovating feature will we be getting in the next powerbooks?

Apple's innovating laptop features
- 15" widescreen
- airport 802.11b
- Slotloading optical drives
- superdrive (dvd burner)
- FireWire 800
- 17" widescreen
- ambient light sensor for backlit keyboard and screen brightness
- airport Extreme

Am I forgetting something?
So what will we be getting next?

[ASIMO]

USB 2.0

[neutrino23]

I'm not sure I understand your post. Apart from a speed bump in the processor and a better graphics card I don't expect any new technologies in the next powerbook. I am expecting that the 15" will get the features now in the 17" PB.

I think the PB is now extremely good as far as features go. What I really like is how all the features seem to play nicely together. The harmony of all the parts is extraordinary.

I had a friend who had a DEC laptop some years ago. It had an IR port. This was part of the specs. However, there was a note in the box that warned him not to try to use the port or it would damage the machine. That is not an example of good harmony.

On a wish list I would put
-longer battery life. Six hours of reliable, real world use banging on the keyboard, playing presentations would mean I could leave the adapter home in the morning.

-Faster GPU. The G5 will solve this.

-Better AppleScript support. All Apple apps should be scriptable and recordable.

-less weight. this may be nearly impossible, but hey, it is a wish list.

[Alpha-sphere]

Originally posted by ASIMO:
USB 2.0

Sorry about not being clear bout what i was trying to say. What I meant was what new innovating technological feature the next powerbook will be getting that has never been implemented before.

Take the airport extreme for example. Apple was the first with a laptop that has 802.11G build in while the rest didn't even have 802.11b standard in there laptops. And wasn't Apple the first with a DVD burner in a laptop?

[neutrino23]

In a broad sense I don't think we'll see any huge changes for a year or more. All of the big changes have already come about.

SCSI -> FW
ADB -> USB
SCSI HD -> ATA drives
CRT -> LCD
PPC -> 970 (in transition)
OS 9 -> OS X
ATA -> SATA (in G5)
adding bluetooth
adding 802.11b and g
optical audio (in G5)

Looking farther out we may see (I guess)
OLED flat panel displays
Replacement for HD magnetic technology
Replacement for DRAM technology (MRAM?)

Likely to see:
Faster CPU
Faster GPU
Faster Superdrive
Lighter PowerBooks
Longer lasting batteries
Faster broadband technology
Broader use of Gigabit Ethernet
Much more sophisticated OS X

I still think the really impressive feature to look for is better integration of all the technologies we have already. Just like iPods sync seamlessly with OS X we should see all the parts "just work" when they are plugged in. This will include digital cameras, DV cams, scanners, printers, iSight cameras, Bluetooth phones, iDisk, PDAs (if they are still around) and whatever other lifestyle devices Apple comes out with.

[yoyoman]

Originally posted by Alpha-sphere:
Sorry about not being clear bout what i was trying to say. What I meant was what new innovating technological feature the next powerbook will be getting that has never been implemented before.

Take the airport extreme for example. Apple was the first with a laptop that has 802.11G build in while the rest didn't even have 802.11b standard in there laptops. And wasn't Apple the first with a DVD burner in a laptop?

Sony beat them to it. Darn. By a few months only though.

[SEkker]

We're really in the second iteration of many changes:

FW800 instead of FW400
Airport Extreme instead of Airport

I'm looking forward to the peripherals that take advantage of this new infrastructure -- bluetooth notebook mouse, etc.

I do wish we had USB2