[beachmark]

Okay Steve has given his keynote and presented the long awiated thingies. For everybody who waited for these: was it worth waiting for or are you disappointed. And if so the latter, what do you miss?

[LeeG]

Absolutely. I waited for the 12", and got exactly what I expected, nothing less, nothing more...Rev B. I wanted a modest speed bump (867-1Ghz), USB2, larger HD (80), and DVI was a bonus. I am psyched, although if I had NEEDED a new laptop a month or 2 ago, I would've bought one, the laptops have been great for a while, I had the luxury of being able to wait....

Lee

[slow moe]

Today's update of the 12" PB was more evolutionary than revolutionary, and so I'm still feeling good about my rev. A. I could have waited a couple of months, but now that the rev. B's are out, I don't see me upgrading anytime soon. I'll wait for rev. C or whatever is available next summer. Over the years, I've come to feel better about upgrading on my own terms, and not waiting for Apple to update a certain product. One reason is that you never know when they'll get around to updating the product you want!

btw/ It looks like Apple is still using 4200 RPM HDDs in the rev. B 12" PBs, which is going to be the system's biggest bottleneck, just like in the rev. A's. You would think they would make 5400 RPM drives standard across the board. I mean the PowerBooks are the "Professional" line, hello!

[JHromadka]

It has all the features I need. If I wasn't leaving in two days for Canada, I'd buy one now. Instead, I'll either wait till I get back or until Panther comes out.

[TAZ]

Yes, it was for me. My 400Ti is kind of long in the tooth so the 1.25 Gig 15" is going work great. Even the price is good for the model. $2300+ tax with EDU discount. That is less than I paid for the original Ti which lasted almost 4 years. Would have been even more extatic with a 1.2 Gig G5, but hey.

[NYCFarmboy]

Well I'm kinda let down.

I guess at the very least folks who have present models should not feel left out.

but I'm going to wait at least until Panther ships with these before I upgrade from my 12" ibook.

I'm on the edge of replacing my white ibook, but today's announcements weren't enough to make me bite.

[woodsman]

Yes. I'm replacing my 667 Ti PB that had only 40GB of HD and could NOT burn DVDs. I'll go from 667MHz to 1.25 GHz, a huge increase (plus 512 of cache instead of 256) I also will have airport extreme (my current PB does not work on the outside deck, 25 feet from the base), Bluetooth, and FW 800. For doing photography the Radeon 9600 (64MB DDR) video board should be a great improvement.
I waited, and I'm happy with the choice.

Originally posted by beachmark:
Okay Steve has given his keynote and presented the long awiated thingies. For everybody who waited for these: was it worth waiting for or are you disappointed. And if so the latter, what do you miss?

[Loopydude]

No, it wasn't worth the wait, but I don't see how things could be otherwise. Apple's dealings with Slowtorolla have led to the following result: A 25% increase in processor speed over about 11 months. Given the worst-case Moore's Law estimate (100% over 18 months), Apple's notebooks are speeding up at half the rate they should. I imagine the addition of 256k more of LII cache (at the expense of any LIII cache) will do little to mitigate this sad fact. Some faster ports, a new video card. Par for the course, at best, I'm afraid.

And still damn expensive.

I'm really hoping the Mojave chips from IBM can redeem the PB line. They can't come soon enough. I wonder if Gobi will find its way to the iBook, or maybe they'll just get the old Slowtorolla G4s.

[slow moe]

Well, at least the ship dates are impressive.

[bauhaus]

absolutely not worth the wait.

disappointing.

that is all.

(all the new PBs are oudated alreday, not even much of a stop-gap measure. here's to the new expo bringing something worthwhile )

[Kahpoosta Kid]

Originally posted by beachmark:
Okay Steve has given his keynote and presented the long awiated thingies. For everybody who waited for these: was it worth waiting for or are you disappointed. And if so the latter, what do you miss?

Why, sure. I bought a 15 ALPB 1.25 for my daughter. Replacing her 450 imac slotter. She is thrilled! Maybe now she'll help me with the leaves this fall! (ha) --And try lugging that imac around in a backpack. For everyone who ordered one--cheers!, enjoy!

"You paid twunny tousand dollars fer dat car?? Man, dat's a lotta kahpoosta!"

[michaelb]

Originally posted by NYCFarmboy:
Well I'm kinda let down, especially on lack of USB2 support.

What's lacking there?

15"


12"

[IronPen]

I just want to say that I am glad I didn't wait. Sure, the new 12" has 512 L2 cache, and a different graphics card and mini DVI out, but I got my 12" PB with EDU discount, and an iPod, which I got a $200 rebate on, then sold it on eBay for more than I gave for it, making the cost of my PB shy of $1200. I've been enjoying it and I plan to continue doing so for a long time to come. Even if I had waited, I wouldn't have gotten as good of a deal, the iPod, and I'd still be waiting because the 12" PBs aren't shipping yet. So now we all get to hear the new 12" buyers asking, "Where's my PB? When are they going to ship?"

[tgrundke]

Just curious, Taz - if the original Ti was announced in January 2001 - - how do you get 'almost 4 years'? I see about 2.5 years myself.

Now, my Pismo 400 that I bought in February, 2000 - now *that* is heading on four years...talk about long in the tooth!

Originally posted by TAZ:
Yes, it was for me. My 400Ti is kind of long in the tooth so the 1.25 Gig 15" is going work great. Even the price is good for the model. $2300+ tax with EDU discount. That is less than I paid for the original Ti which lasted almost 4 years. Would have been even more extatic with a 1.2 Gig G5, but hey.

[LeeG]

Originally posted by IronPen:
I just want to say that I am glad I didn't wait. Sure, the new 12" has 512 L2 cache, and a different graphics card and mini DVI out, but I got my 12" PB with EDU discount, and an iPod, which I got a $200 rebate on, then sold it on eBay for more than I gave for it, making the cost of my PB shy of $1200. I've been enjoying it and I plan to continue doing so for a long time to come. Even if I had waited, I wouldn't have gotten as good of a deal, the iPod, and I'd still be waiting because the 12" PBs aren't shipping yet. So now we all get to hear the new 12" buyers asking, "Where's my PB? When are they going to ship?"

I am happy I waited, but I didn't NEED a laptop, if I had, I would've bit earlier, I knew the machines were long overdue, and I waited so I could have the few benefits of a newer model.

I also used EDU pricing - and bought my 12" - still $200 off the apple store, and the $200 off iPod is STILL good, used that also, and got: 1GHz, 512 L2 Cache, USB2, DVI, and 80 GB HD - Ends up all this cost almost exactly the same as the one I priced out before the expo - and the iPod deal is still good, and my ship time is 5-7 days.

Not Bad all in all, but if you needed one earlier, the rev a is a GREAT machine, no wonder it was still in the store's top 10 up until the expo-

I hope everyone enjoys their machines...

Lee

[todrain]

Since I sold my iBook in Feb these new models are not worth 8 months without a mac to me!

If I would have been waiting since maybe late July, then perhaps they were. You can never have enough HD space, and the new units are slightly faster which never hurts.

Still, I don't care about firewire 800, bluetooth, Airport Extreme (really, how many people are not just using airport for their internet connection? 11mbps is more than fast enough!) or a light-up keyboard. While I like the AL exterior, I don't care for the side ports with no cover. (my ibook ports would easily get lint inside just from carrying it in my bag)

My next PowerBook will be a Rev B PowerBook G5. I figure that they should be out late 2004/early 2005. My TI has more than enough horsepower to last until then!

[Darksider]

Originally posted by bauhaus:
absolutely not worth the wait.

disappointing.

that is all.

(all the new PBs are oudated alreday, not even much of a stop-gap measure. here's to the new expo bringing something worthwhile )

Ditto, typical apple marketing. They should of had these things in the beginning.

[nobitacu]

For the 12inch... yes, 15inch... maybe/kindof, 17inch, heck no, not even close, I'm glad I didn't wait.

Ming

[Simon]

For me the wait was well worth it.

I wanted a 12" with
- more CPU power
- DVI
- more soldered RAM and a free slot

I got all that plus
- better GPU
- USB2

What I didn't get was
- L3 (doesn't matter with the increased amount of L2)
- 167/333MHz bus (I'll be OK with the 133/266MHz bus however)
- 64MB VRAM (not that big an issue since I'm not a gamer)
- FW800 (Apple should have included it - even if the case was too small for both FW400 and FW800 they should have rather dropped the FW400 and went with a FW800 plus 800->400 adapter than with just pure FW400)

The wait was really worth it. I bought the new 12" yesterday right after the show!

Happy me.

[Evinyatar]

I don't regret having bought my Ti. I still think the Ti looks nicer than the new models. But then, I could just be in denial

[Helvetica Neue]

A disappointment. Very glad I've deciced to stick with the Ti for the past 8 months, and no need to replace it...

[MusicalTone]

A bit dissapointing overall - glad I bought my Ti back in March. The only thing that would be nice for me would be the new Aluminium case. But love my Ti just as much as when I bought it. Mind you, it shows what a hole Apple have been in with the 15" upgrade - just a .25 Ghz speed bump almost 7 months after the 12" and 17" models were introduced. I can see now why they didnt come any sooner - Apple had nothing up its sleeve!

Lets hope they keep the design and form factor for the G5s or whatever comes next.

[Darksider]

Is there anyway I can trade in my 12" rev A for a rev B?