[jhunt5247]

Well, I don't know about rest of you, but this previous month of speculations and rumors has all but exhausted me. Hopefully this week we all can enjoy the release of a new Powerbook and an iBook too.

For me though, I am seriously looking into the idea of getting an iBook to hold me over a while if the Powerbook is a lame little update.

Let me clarify a bit. I know the speculations on the superdrive have been going back and forth - no superdrive, yes superdrive, no superdrive, yes superdrive. This fact is not going to prevent from buying a Powerbook. What is going to prevent from buying a powerbook is no new video update. If the ATI 9000 line is not included (32 megs is fine for *me*, but it was be suicide not to include 64mb for Apple), a little speed bump is not going to convince me to buy, even if it was a 1ghz. Bluetooth? Give me a break, maybe in Europe, but not in US. This country just doesn't give a rat�s *** about messaging on little phones and such like the Brits do. (just my opinion, others may vary)

The real crime here is how the Powerbook has all but crippled a great machine like the iBook and its G3, which could be at 1.2ghz by now. But no, it might get a little 100mhz bump just to make sure it doesn't hurt the pretty little Powerbook sales.

Another couple of items have given me great reservation from this forum. The recent poll indicating that over half of the TiBook owners are experiencing paint chipping problems and weak airport reception are two more things to include in this equation. I have no problem paying the 3200 dollars for the laptop. However, if it is going to be chipping in 6 months, then I just don�t know � Hopefully this problem might even be addressed in the upcoming release. Indeed this going to be a hard decision, but the iBook, especially with its rumored price decrease, is looking like a real option unless the Powerbook brings us what we �need�.

Hopefully this is point is going to be moot and the Powerbook is going to get an ATI 9000 64 meg card, a modest little speed bump, and even the superdrive.

3 days and counting... (hopefully)

[iBorg]

As the past couple of weeks of speculation and discussion have ensued, I'm thinking along the same lines. My Pismo 500 is just *too slow* to be happy using OS X, and I need an upgrade to use Photoshop, InDesign, VPC and some other CPU-intensive apps comfortably.

But I cannot justify spending over $3000 for a minor-upgraded Ti, that I won't be happy using for at least 2 years. If the new Ti comes with 1 GHZ, cooler temps, and video upgrade to at least the ATI 9000 line (and maybe then, only if it has 64 MB VRAM), I've "got the money burning a hole in my pocket," ready to give to Apple! I'd prefer the superdrive, but I'd forgive Apple this omission if they come through with the rest! (Oh yeah - Apple must have solved the ridiculous "peeling paint problem!")

If not, I have 2 choices: 1) wait until Spring '03 for a "major upgrade," (and keep my fingers crossed, again, while plodding along with my trusty Pismo!), or 2) spend 60% less for a fairly speedy little G3 iBook, with plans to upgrade to a Ti once it meets my needs (and keep the cute little feller for sub-notebook travel needs!)



iBorg

[seanyepez]

The new PowerBook will address the exact paint peeling issues you speak of. It's a good update all-around. Playing Doom 3 at 13 frames per second is a feat in itself. Mind you, a Pentium 4 at 2.53 gigahertz with an nVIDIA GeForce4 Titanium 4600 achieves only 30 frames per second. The machine also runs significantly cooler.

You won't be disappointed. That, and the next update to Apple's portables won't happen until June or July of 2003.

[iBorg]

Sounds hopeful - the paint issue is a "must be solved" thing. Cooler temps are great. We know that the speed bump will be nice (unless they drop the cache amounts -better not!), but the video chip upgrade is really important.

The next couple of days are going to be long! I'm hoping that Apple comes through with what we all want and need - otherwise, I'll have to make do with a speed-bumped iBook at a substantial cost-savings for now.



iBorg

[Macka]

Well now Sean...

You won't be disappointed. That, and the next update to Apple's portables won't happen until June or July of 2003.

That's a pretty big statement. There's been a lot of conjecture around this just being a minor speed bump, no superdrives etc. and that they'll be in the January update.

So are you now saying that the new powerbooks (rumored) to be released this week will be it for another 6-7 months?

Is that via a source, or your own conjecture. By the way, were you of the "yes there will be a superdrive" or a "no there won't" opinion?

[seanyepez]

That's out of personal reasoning; Apple seldom releases a machine planning to update it based on component availability only a few months later. If a machine is indeed released on November 5th, there won't be an update until June or July of 2003.

Bluetooth might become standard functionality in the meantime, but there will always be USB-based adapters to deal with that problem. There are always SuperDrives from third parties such as Formac (www.formac.com) to add DVD-burning functionality to any FireWire-enabled machine.

I was of the "I don't know whether a SuperDrive is going to be in the new PowerBook or not" crowd.

My sources say the casing's very similar. It's notably changed, but for the most part, it adheres to the same design philosophy of a titanium-based, wide-screened notebook. It's pretty much the same size, too. The painting process is a little different, and hopefully, that'll fix our problems of peeling, chipping, and bubbling paint. The slot-loading optical drive is confirmed.

Because of that, I'm not sure whether a SuperDrive will be available as an option in the new PowerBooks. Sony has a tray-loading DVD-R drive, but I've yet to hear of availability of a notebook-sized, slot-loading DVD-R drive.

[jhunt5247]

Originally posted by iBorg:

If not, I have 2 choices: 1) wait until Spring '03 for a "major upgrade," (and keep my fingers crossed, again, while plodding along with my trusty Pismo!), or 2) spend 60% less for a fairly speedy little G3 iBook, with plans to upgrade to a Ti once it meets my needs (and keep the cute little feller for sub-notebook travel needs!)



iBorg

I hear ya. Especially if you max out the iBook with memory and buy an IBM Travelstar 40GNX drive for 148.00. Now if the Powerbook doesn't get a video upgrade, and the iBook gets the ATI 7500 32mb version, then this is exactly what I am doing. That video card, with the max memory and that drive will make it very snappy.

Not to mention, you will spend about $1,000 less.

[beefstu01]

Originally posted by seanyepez:
The new PowerBook will address the exact paint peeling issues you speak of. It's a good update all-around. Playing Doom 3 at 13 frames per second is a feat in itself. Mind you, a Pentium 4 at 2.53 gigahertz with an nVIDIA GeForce4 Titanium 4600 achieves only 30 frames per second. The machine also runs significantly cooler.

As I stated in the other thread, Doom III is only in the alpha stage. The max that someone has gotten the FPS rate to is only 30, and that drops to 4FPS during a gunfight. Doom III should not be used as a benchmark at this point in time because of obvious reasons (don't believe me? Head on over to slashdot {http://slashdot.org} and look for the Doom III article.)

And Sean, not to attack your credibility (I respect your comments very much), but the leaked alpha was PC only. id software develops most of their stuff for Windows first, then linux comes second, and the mac port is done by a third party such as aspyr. I don't want to pull a BS card here, but could you explain how your friend has the leaked alpha on his Ti? Remember that this alpha was leaked from ATI, and id reports say that it was the PC version.

Don't disregard this because of my post count; I may be new here, but I'm not new in other places.

That being said- I want a TiBook if the upgrades are nice, but since time isn't of the essence for me, I think holding off for a redesign may be the best. Any word as to when Apple's going to implement the 802.11a or 802.11g standards to the Air Port? Or how bout USB2? Thanks.

[jhunt5247]

Originally posted by beefstu01:

id software develops most of their stuff for Windows first, then linux comes second, and the mac port is done by a third party such as aspyr. I don't want to pull a BS card here, but could you explain how your friend has the leaked alpha on his Ti? Remember that this alpha was leaked from ATI, and id reports say that it was the PC version.

Yeah I saw this post under a different thread, and I was anxiously awaiting an answer there too. This should be interesting. What your saying is exactly correct, and I don't understand how this could be a possibility (Running on a Mac).

One thing to note here is; remember that the demo of Quake III Arena was first released for the Mac. I think id got slammed for that one pretty freaking hard though, so they are not going to make a mistake like that again. I would find it *very* hard to believe that there is even a working copy for the Mac, and almost impossible that there is a leaked Mac version.