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bettafish · Dec 20, 2003, 09:51 PM

I was informed today of the upcoming Powerbook G5. What is going to be so special about this new Powerbook? Apple has redesigned the look of the PB while still retaining the slim design of the current G4's. The new PB's will be constructed out of an aluminum body, and a(surprisingly) black coated surface. (The apple logo will glow blue on the units lid). The keyboard also has the ambient lighting feature, and the machine is cooled by small grill holes that will run along the side of the unit. All units will have DVD burning optical drives as a standard feature. The new screens will be 14" and 17" in size, boasting higher resolution, supporting up to 1152x864 on the 14" model, and 1440x900 on the 17". Compact Flash and Secure Digital memory expansion slots will be standard in the 17" units. Higher capacity hard drives(60 Gig for the 14", and 80 Gig for the 17"). Actual G5 processor speeds are not yet available, but will be substantially revamped to provide excellent power saving. Battery life? Apple promises the new PB's to provide up to 8 hours on one battery. Airport extreme and Bluetooth are now standard in both models. Memory will 3 times more expandable, thanks to the G5's expandable architecture and support. The 14" will boast a generous 512 DDR memory, while the 17" will boast a whopping 1 Gigabyte DDR memory. Video? The new PB's will be using Nvidias upcoming(unreleased) G-Force series video accelerator. What else can we expect from these machines? We will have to wait and see!

benb · Dec 20, 2003, 09:57 PM

According to who?

uv23 · Dec 20, 2003, 10:02 PM

Indeed I heard the same news, with the additional bit being that the Pope himself hand delivers each unit.

TheIceMan · Dec 20, 2003, 10:08 PM

Originally posted by uv23:
Indeed I heard the same news, with the additional bit being that the Pope himself hand delivers each unit.

ROTFLMAO!

jgcan · Dec 20, 2003, 10:13 PM

Oh boy, what a stupid and impossible prediction. Please, if you want to make us believe your lies, first look at the current specs of actual PB's

The Pope thing is more possible to me than the original post

jango · Dec 20, 2003, 10:19 PM

At least the guy is funny.

jgcan · Dec 20, 2003, 10:24 PM

Originally posted by jango:
At least the guy is funny.

Well, I have to agree ...

Shaddim · Dec 20, 2003, 10:36 PM

Apple keeps a design look for at least 3 years, otherwise they'd have wasted all that R&D money. Not to mention how beautiful they are now... no way is Apple going to change the PB's asthetics.

Sorry, I say bull$hit.

romanesq · Dec 20, 2003, 11:08 PM

Ah, (spit)

ae86_16v · Dec 20, 2003, 11:45 PM

=) . . . can't wait. . . please tell us more. . . does it have one of those cool Virtual Displays?

RooneyX · Dec 20, 2003, 11:55 PM

'Compact Flash and Secure Digital memory expansion slots will be standard in the 17" units'

Bullshite. Only ugly laptops have those. Black paint? Ha.

Chemmy · Dec 21, 2003, 12:08 AM

Originally posted by bettafish:
The new screens will be 14" and 17" in size, boasting higher resolution, supporting up to 1152x864 on the 14" model, and 1440x900 on the 17".

So Apple is going to scrap the very popular 1280x854 15" and replace it with an 1152x864 14" screen? A screen that's less wide, but taller (in terms of pixels) than the 15" screen?

You don't know a thing about the G5PB.

TheIceMan · Dec 21, 2003, 01:19 AM

Originally posted by Chemmy:
So Apple is going to scrap the very popular 1280x854 15" and replace it with an 1152x864 14" screen? A screen that's less wide, but taller (in terms of pixels) than the 15" screen?

You don't know a thing about the G5PB.

I was thinking the exact same thing.

bettafish · Dec 21, 2003, 04:19 AM

This posting is valid. The information posted here came from a valid source, and the new year WILL bring these new units. The G5 PB's are going to set a new standard in mobile computing. The 14" model(which many of you seem to believe is false), is indeed in production. Why 14"? The smaller screen helps keep price down and has a large deciding factor to the overall construct of the unit. The new 14" is aimed at being extremely mobile, whilst providing the user quality in exchange for their money. 12" simply will not cut it, a 14" is affordable production wise and consumer wise. 15" is crossing the line between home user and professional user. The 14" has an external dvd-r drive that is USB 2.0 compliant, and is included with the unit. The unit itself is a "mobile" laptop, therefore lacking the built-in optical drive. Apple has also desided to create an external drive due to the G5's heat issues. (The unit needs air flow.) In terms of expansion, the unit does not suffer, in fact it gains. Built in memory starts at 512, and is expandable from then on. The 17" on the other hand is extremely portable, adopting an even thinner design than the current 17" G4. As for the "black" paint, do not think of this black color in terms of orinary "PC" looking plastic laptops. Instead, imagine a glossy, professional finish that has both a metallic finish, and a sleek black coating to give it an impressive look. The combination of blue and black color contrast give the new PB's a stunning feel and look to them. The keyboards ambient light sensors glow blue, the slow loading drive door glows blue, the power button glows, the Apple logo shines on the units lid. Imagine all that, and you have got yourself the new PB G5.

Daytonaaaaa · Dec 21, 2003, 04:34 AM

The 14" has an external dvd-r drive that is USB 2.0 compliant, and is included with the unit.

An *external* optical drive?!

The iBook doesn't even get this deseperate!

The unit itself is a "mobile" laptop, therefore lacking the built-in optical drive.

The 12-inch looks pretty damn mobile to me.

The combination of blue and black color contrast give the new PB's a stunning feel and look to them. The keyboards ambient light sensors glow blue, the slow loading drive door glows blue, the power button glows, the Apple logo shines on the units lid. Imagine all that, and you have got yourself the new PB G5.

The Apple logo grows BLUE? I am not sure if I like that part.

Daytona

James L · Dec 21, 2003, 04:38 AM

sooooo....

I'm not one to say either way, but you do realize that you have absolutely no credibility when someone has asked you where you got your information from and you chose to ignore the question on your very next post.

I wouldn't bother posting on this thread again without doing that, as you are just inviting the comments/insults... unless you are full of crap, in which case you deserve them!

effgee · Dec 21, 2003, 05:56 AM

So, according to bettafish we'll be seeing two laptops:

a 14" which would be, in accordance with the current 12" and 15" models, priced in the low to mid $2000 range and
a 17" model which should cost around $3400

and nothing in between? That would be one weird-ass model line ... and I don't even want to comment on the external optical drive thing ...

Here's a tip - even if you or your source actually did see a pre-production Powerbook (excuse me while I remain extremely suspicious of that claim), you should keep in mind that Apple often produces many different color-/material-/spec-variants of future models to be given out to developers in order to either test various hardware designs and/or not reveal the look of a design that has already been signed-off.

Considering Apple's NDA's and the fact that there's only a small group of people who usually see these pre-production units, I sure hope you made that stuff up - or you might find yourself in a world of trouble.

sworthy · Dec 21, 2003, 06:05 AM

Originally posted by bettafish:
The 14" has an external dvd-r drive that is USB 2.0 compliant.

Does anyone think that apple would ever make a usb burner?. Come on... at least put in firewire to make it seem like you've done a little research

11011001 · Dec 21, 2003, 06:45 AM

Dude, aren't you a little early for April fools?

ae86_16v · Dec 21, 2003, 07:02 AM

Originally posted by sworthy:
Does anyone think that apple would ever make a usb burner?. Come on... at least put in firewire to make it seem like you've done a little research

Exactly. . .

This is very very funny. . .

anaphora68 · Dec 21, 2003, 07:57 AM

Hey I heard that it will be running the new 3D OS that apple's developing.

Come on now, you won't even list your source. Bah humbug.

Spheric Harlot · Dec 21, 2003, 09:01 AM

Originally posted by ae86_16v:
Exactly. . .

This is very very funny. . .

He failed to mention that the machines will be built and sold by Dell. The "G5" is a typo; it's supposed to read "P5".

Everything will be external and USB 2.0 only.

-s*

agentmouthwash · Dec 21, 2003, 10:32 AM

I'm glad I bought the 15" in September.
14" is too small and 17" is too big.
Plus I love my shinny silver computer with
built-in superdrive.

Dubya's Dealer · Dec 21, 2003, 10:34 AM

That said a 14" pb with excellent battery life would be fine by me.

OldManMac · Dec 21, 2003, 11:25 AM

That's strange; I heard they were going to be powered by a miniaturized VW TDI Diesel engine, so they would run for six weeks on a thimble full of fuel, without a battery!

RooneyX · Dec 21, 2003, 12:21 PM

Next he's going to say the PBG5 has an external cooling system and battery you have to carry around like a Ghostbuster.

blacksheep · Dec 21, 2003, 12:59 PM

Did I see or hear the word, PAINT!!??!!

Remember the Titanium peeling fiasco?

roders · Dec 21, 2003, 01:17 PM

If this guy really has been given this info (seems 2 believe it), and is'nt making it up himself, I wonder if Apples' tresting for leaks; or his "source" is takin the piss out of him.

tooki · Dec 21, 2003, 01:23 PM

Ugh. Please, no rumor threads.

tooki