[iPoder]

Originally posted by NeilCharter:
You may have to wait for G5 PB till June.

Reason being

1. Low yields on 970FX

2. Large demand for all G5 processors in existing products.

Apple probably can't cope with the demand for iMac and G5 desktops - simply because IBM can't make them faster enough.

iMac is important for the holiday season, so that takes priority.

The high-end G5 is constrained because of poor yields of 970FX. This takes precedence over PB because of its high profit margin.

My bet is speedbump G4s (no dualcore - they are not available and not in production) in January.

Apple have probably sorted out the power / heat issues for a G5 PB using 970FX, they just need the yields to improve so they can deliver a 1.8 GHz processor without going bankrupt.

If what you say is true, I think that both iMac and Powerbook will be in the limbo for a while.

iMac just got its rev up, and got a crapy GPU to protect Powerbook's performance edge and justify its higher price.

If Powerbook cannot get a significant update in January (it will be 9 months since last update), iMac will not get its due in the next rev (let's say in April).

So what we will see is in the next few months will be pretty much what we saw in the last few months.

It might cause ripple effect to iBook line too, because iBook's value is preceivably better than PowerBook now.

I know there is some truth in IBM yield problem, but I hope Apple and IBM can get their technical problems solved fast.

[SierraDragon]

I agree with "balls." We will see a G5 PB announced in January. G4 on the high end is dead.

Both 970FX and 970MP (dual core) G5s are either in production or close to it. The G5 architectural advantage means that they could use the low clocked chips that are too slow for the PowerMac line; even a 1.3 GHz clock speed would be enough for me to buy one if the rest of the box is well configured, and I am a power-demanding user. 1.4 and above would be a bonus.

Lower clock speeds reduces heat. Dual core technology spreads heat a bit, which also could help. Fluid cooling of some kind is hardly rocket science - we may well see it in a PB.

My guess is that PBs are high margin, not low margin. Therefore they should get good claim on the limited chip pool. Add in the fact that PBs could use G5s that are too slow for PowerMacs and G5s seem to me the only way for Apple to go since the low end iBooks are pretty much topping out the high end in single processor G4s.

[NeilCharter]

I was kinda surprised that Apple pushed the iMac out so soon.

I figure this was because the G5 desktops are not selling too well. The market for G5 appears to be the high end stuff and most people in that market want something in the 3 GHz range. Why? Don't ask me!

Therefore Apple is in a bind. The G5 is perfect for high end machines but the supply of fast processors is not available.

Most people don't need super fast machines - they rather have cool equipment. Apple have a lot of 1.6-1.8 G5s compared to 2-2.5 GHz chips. Therefore, they appear to have made the descision to push the iMac out since they are more marketable and apple could easily sell over 250K in a quarter.

I believe that is the right descision. IBM have not perfected the 90nm process yet and this is hurting the progression of the G5 desktop. Better to move the iMac along than wait for the right chip for the powerbook or even for the desktop.

The G5 PB will turn up when low power G5 processors are available. I suspect this will happen around June.

[ggirton]

An interesting possibility is that new powerbooks will accompany TIGer 10.4, fully tested and optimized for a new graphics subsystem. Portable, and amazingly fast.

This is going to be somewhat of a stopgap until the G5 or dual-core G4's are available later in 2005, but what a stopgap it will be!

Sorry, ought to have said "would be somewhat of a stopgap" and "what a stopgap it could be," since I am under no obligation to keep to myself anything whatsoever. No non-disclosures, no pre-release hardware on my desk, no "kimono-opening" secrets from a credulous Wall Street analyst.

Just a sure knowledge of how amazing the Tiger graphics will be, and what Apple engineers can do given enough breathing space to devote months to optimization.

Now that 10.3.6 has shipped (and been installed by hoi polloi like myself), I am sure we will not see too much of our Apple friends in Cupertino for the next couple of months. They will be living normal lives! They will be having Chrismas vacation! They will have Thanksgiving with their families! They will be getting plenty of sleep, so their creative thoughts can emanate from their well-rested brains!

And when they have finished their next powerbook product, complex, colorful, and instantaneously appearing full-color graphics will burst forth from a low-cost, high-powered computer, fully portable with over 100GB of hard drive storage, a dual-layer writable optical drive, AND ... just one more thing...

You'll actually be able to take delivery of one, just by ratcheting up your charge card one last time.

After the next powerbook, you'll never really need another computer.

(signed)
Mr. Enthusiast.

[crooner]

Originally posted by MilkmanDan:
My guess is that Apple will replace the G4 chip with a new, but slower, 'potato' based chip. This new chip will feature not only improved taste, but 44% less grease. While analysts warned that this chip may turn off the 'health nut' consumer base, it will attract the very large US 'obese techy' base.

Apple's stock shot up 12 points on this announcement, even though the new computer will not ship for up to 6 months.

[flukewurm]

Originally posted by ggirton:
After the next powerbook, you'll never really need another computer.

sign me up!!

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by NeilCharter:
I was kinda surprised that Apple pushed the iMac out so soon.

Soon? It came out several months late.

[Commodus]

The PowerBook G5 won't be coming out in January, unless IBM has been hiding the development of a laptop-friendly G5 chip even up until the last moment.

The fact is that even with the energy conservation on a 1.6 GHz 970FX chip, there's still the problem of a fairly power-hungry system controller. The combination of the two is wholly impractical for a laptop, and the performance benefits would be negligible.

What IBM needs is a G5 with an on-die memory controller, and a suitably stripped-down system controller. It also needs to refine the 90 nm process to the point where the chips can consume less power and generate less heat at the same clock speed (witness the difference between the MPC7447 and 7447A). Both are very likely coming in 2005, but it's a question of when.

My belief/hope is that we'll see one last PowerBook G4 revision in late winter/early spring, then a PowerBook G5 in the fall. In the worst case, the fall update becomes an MPC8641 (hopefully 8641D, for dual-core) and the PowerBook G5 is reserved for 2006.

[avaughs]

Here's my two cents based soley on my gut feeling (so I'm probably wrong). Speed bumped PowerBooks will be announced this comming week. Tweleve (12) inch at 1.5 and the fifteen (15) and seventeen (17) inchers at 1.7.

Yes I know this flies in the face of the comments made by a high up Apple manager at the iBook speed bump, however, there is no reason Apple could not have changed direction after that statement was made.

The chips will come from a built up stock pile of 7447A's that run at 1.7 GHz. These will be in shorter supply, but, will only have to meet demand through the end of December or mid March 05.

Apple will demonstrate that it still hasn't learned its lesson and will have demand overstrip supply of the 1.7 giger's but will be able to meet the demand for the 1.5Gig/Radeon M9800 15 and 17 inch units.

Apple releases G5 PowerBook in June or July at WWDC '05.

...at this point my vision gets blurry and then goes black...

[shabbasuraj]

Originally posted by avaughs:
Here's my two cents based soley on my gut feeling (so I'm probably wrong). Speed bumped PowerBooks will be announced this comming week. Tweleve (12) inch at 1.5 and the fifteen (15) and seventeen (17) inchers at 1.7.

Yes I know this flies in the face of the comments made by a high up Apple manager at the iBook speed bump, however, there is no reason Apple could not have changed direction after that statement was made.

The chips will come from a built up stock pile of 7447A's that run at 1.7 GHz. These will be in shorter supply, but, will only have to meet demand through the end of December or mid March 05.

Apple will demonstrate that it still hasn't learned its lesson and will have demand overstrip supply of the 1.7 giger's but will be able to meet the demand for the 1.5Gig/Radeon M9800 15 and 17 inch units.

Apple releases G5 PowerBook in June or July at WWDC '05.

...at this point my vision gets blurry and then goes black...

I believe a few weeks ago, soem Apple exec clearly stated that the current PB line is what will be offered for the Xmas season. Is this still the case, or have some new reports surfaced?

[alexlop]

I just want very high speed computers. they are powerfull enough for me, for exemple for the 12 inch.
for the 17 it would be great to have a g5: big computer, lot of power
But all need to be upgrade for : screen, hard drive, Ram, bus freq, video card.

for me it would be enough to have
12" G4 1.7 GHz or more
15" G5 1.6 GHz
17" G5 1.8 GHz

[dopik]

I think the 12' will get a new size screen... May be a 13.3'

I also believe that the G series should be for desktop and Apple should use a M or whatever they want to call it for their laptop. Like that they could release let say a M5 which would not be obviously a G5, may be a G4 dual-core, but that would give them breath for advertising a new CPU with new laptops.

In any case, I will wait until 10.4 to change my PowerBook 12' Rev A.

Do

[flukewurm]

Originally posted by dopik:

In any case, I will wait until 10.4 to change my PowerBook 12' Rev A.

hrm. good idear

[Agazzie]

Originally posted by dopik:
I think the 12' will get a new size screen... May be a 13.3'

Do

That would be a great size! (atleast for me )

[balls]

The dual-core G5 does not generate much more heat than the single-core G5, and low-power versions exist of both. Just something to think about.

[kenaustus]

I don't believe that Apple will release the G5 PB until they are happy with it, especially in the areas of heat and battery life.

While the G5 chips may be tight in terms of availability at the faster speeds, especially the 2.5s, I have a feeling that the supply in the 1.6 and 1.8 ranges are OK. The main reason is that Apple indicated that the 20" iMacs would have tighter supply than the 17", even though the 17" has a 1.8 option.

I would not be surprised to see Apple give Freescale one more chance with a speed bump on the PB after the holidays, bit see that as a filler for the G5. As for the G5, my bet is June, with the 1.8 as the base chip.

[choard]

Yeah, I too am hoping for a dual core. I just got my wife 'switched' over and using my Powerbook (12" rev a) for school and relegating me back to my PowerMac. Clearly, I need to gift her with the unit that has all her schoolwork on it, and pick up a nice 1.33 dual core 12" for me.

I agree with a previous poster - Sony is not sitting still with the Vaio line, I especially like the screens which seem more durable than Apples. I think the safe move is to wait until 10.4 comes out from a purchase standpoint, but as HP has proven in the printer business, 'innovate or die' is the watchword.

Instead of marking time, Apple should be launching the best tech they can support, not piecemeal upgrades. Amaze Wintelers by doing the whole dualcore thingy; just as the Wintel crowd is breathing a sigh of relief that 2 years down the line Microsoft (and its ilk) won't make them pay extra for software running on a dual processor machine, BAM! we come out with one now, not early 2007, early 2005. It plants the subtle seed that while you look to the future, WE (Apple) are the future, look here!

Chas

[wilsonng]

Read this article at zdnet:

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/chi...9172863,00.htm

Instead of boosting CPU clock speeds, chip manufacturers such as IBM, Motorola, and Intel are looking towards other ways of chip augmentation to get speed boosts.

Things like bigger onboard cache and dual-core G5s sounds like the path that Apple is wanting to take in terms of future chips. So a lower speed G5 with dual-cores would make sense in a PowerBook. Add in better graphics cards and hard drives will help boost the PowerBooks performance.

Don't underestimate Apple and IBM. Those lab monkeys will usually find a way to surprise us (hopefully in JAN 05) :-D

Originally posted by balls:
The dual-core G5 does not generate much more heat than the single-core G5, and low-power versions exist of both. Just something to think about.

[sucafrutpi]

as much as i love to dream about G5 power on the go, i think something more conclusive would have slipped out about it by now from ibm. the biggest deal about this upgrade would be the system bus. i remember when pentium III was hot with a 167 mhz system bus in '99...and for apple to be charging more than $3000 for the same technology 5 years later is a disgrace :/
i'm expecting a small speed bump and some extra features/lower price. i'm surprised that no one mentioned upgrading the graphics in the pb so that it can drive the 30" apple display as a possibility.

[Commodus]

The problem with the "omg dual-core/G5/whatever PowerBook in January!" predictions is that there's been no indication from Freescale or IBM that they would have a new chip ready for then - even the MPC7448 likely wouldn't be announced at the MWSF keynote. Virtually every significant change to a CPU model has seen some advance news from the manufacturer, even if Apple has forced them to stay vague. We knew about the PPC970 (i.e. the original G5) in fall 2002, and the 970FX roughly a year later, one or two months ahead of the Xserve G5 announcement. People knew about the MPC7447 in advance of when the fall 2003 PowerBooks used it.

Conversely, we haven't really seen anything suggesting that either Freescale or IBM will have a dramatically new CPU ready for January. We know that there could be a "970MP" (dual-core G5) sometime in 2005, and we know that Freescale will have the MPC8641 in the latter half of 2005. But the IBM solution may not even work within a PowerBook at low speeds, and the Freescale solution isn't due for several months at best. So please, stop working up these unrealistic expectations!

On the subject of screen size, I think it would be a smart idea for Apple to change the 12" PowerBook to a 13.3" widescreen PowerBook. It would still have a slightly lower resolution than the 15" (1280x768 versus 1280x854), while at the same time making for a thinner and cooler-running system. They could even theoretically increase the battery size.

[DaveyJJ]

Originally posted by Commodus:
Okay, I don't think there will be any revolutionary technology in early 2005, but I do think there will be a PowerBook release around then. It'll probably use the Freescale MPC7448 chip and an architecture which is otherwise very similar to that of the existing PowerBooks. My guess as to the specs:

12-inch
1.5 GHz G4
200 MHz front side bus
512 MB of RAM (2x256 MB)
64 MB GeForce 6200 Go (i.e. low-end 6-series mobile video)
60 GB hard drive
$1499

15-inch Combo
1.5 GHz G4
200 MHz front side bus
512 MB of RAM (2x256 MB)
128 MB Mobility Radeon 9800
80 GB hard drive (4200 RPM)
$1899

15-inch Superdrive
1.7 GHz G4
200 MHz front side bus
512 MB of RAM (1x512 MB)
128 MB Mobility Radeon 9800
80 GB hard drive (5400 RPM)
$2499

17-inch
Same specs as 15-inch Superdrive
$2799

Got to agree mostly with Commodus here. BTW, long time reader, first time poster, Apple user since 1986 -- more than twenty different Macs owned. Lots of friends work at Apple. Former Apple (Canada) Hypercard developer, now senior graphic designer (pure CSS and W3C compliant web mostly now).

That being said, the only changes I'd make to Commodus' post would be that the 128MB Mobility Radeon card will only be found in the 15" Superdrive and 17" models. Not the lower end 15" or 12". I might even downgrade the RAM in the two lower end ones, Commodus, to 256MB. Only after we see Tiger available will Apple's start putting in 512 as a base RAM.

But I wonder if these Freescale chips will be available in decent quantities until early middle of 2005?

The 12" might also morph into a 13.x" display? Highly unlikely, I know, but ...

No way there'll be G5 laptops at MWSF. Not a chance. Announcements for those are next summer with availability in late summer/just before school starts in Sept 2005.

Don't get me wrong, I'll be one of the first to buy a G5 or very much improved laptop when they come out, but I'm wondering (in my professional mindset) how soon Steve will need to let go some of his "form" to get some of the "function" we're all demanding.

[jamil5454]

Originally posted by Commodus:
Do your homework! The Mobility Radeon 9800 is actually based on the X800 architecture. See Anandtech's article for details. Yeah, it's confusing that they didn't just call it the Mobility Radeon X800, but performance-wise it's more comparable to the desktop Radeon 9700/9800.

I already did.

The GeForce 6 series is also architecturally superior to the Radeon x800 series, and this means the mobility 9800. It has higher precision shaders and an on-die video processor. It was built from the ground up as a next generation graphics chip, while the X800 series is basically a 9800 on steroids. Hang out at any PC enthusiast forum and you'll see. This is why a simple patch is all that's needed to run the ATI Ruby demo on a 9500 or higher. Besides, the X800 architecture provides only a handful of new features compared to the R360 series(up to 512 length pixel shaders mainly). Speaking of which, will Tiger take advantage of the NV40's video processor?

My English writing skills dominate.

[yoyoman]

amd has a 64bit laptop already and has been for while now. Apple needs to step it up with a duel core to keep in the game.

[RonnieoftheRose]

In two years you will be able to buy...

PowerBook G5
Dualcore G5 3Ghz
17" 1920x1200
1GB G-DDR memory
250GB 7200RPM hard disk
512MB Geforce 8900 Go
BlueRay Superdrive
Mac OS 10.5

Doesn't it make your mouth water?

[flukewurm]

holy mother of god

[im_noahselby]

Originally posted by Commodus:
12-inch
1.5 GHz G4
200 MHz front side bus
512 MB of RAM (2x256 MB)
64 MB GeForce 6200 Go (i.e. low-end 6-series mobile video)
60 GB hard drive
$1499

15-inch Combo
1.5 GHz G4
200 MHz front side bus
512 MB of RAM (2x256 MB)
128 MB Mobility Radeon 9800
80 GB hard drive (4200 RPM)
$1899

15-inch Superdrive
1.7 GHz G4
200 MHz front side bus
512 MB of RAM (1x512 MB)
128 MB Mobility Radeon 9800
80 GB hard drive (5400 RPM)
$2499

17-inch
Same specs as 15-inch Superdrive
$2799

These specs look fairly realistic.

My own predictons are that Apple will make the SuperDrive standard on all PowerBooks and drop the combo drive configurations. Instead of lowering the price, as you have done, I think it's more likely they will up the ram and make the superdrive standard. By lowering the price of the 12" PB, it will cut into iBook sales, so I don't see Apple bringing the price any lower. The current price point of the 12" PB is a proven success for them. They may, or may not opt to keep two 15" models.

For example:

12-inch Superdrive
1.5 GHz G4
200 MHz front side bus
512 MB of RAM (2x256 MB)
64 MB GeForce 6200 Go (i.e. low-end 6-series mobile video)
60 GB hard drive
$1599 (current price of 12" superdrive is $1799)

15-inch Superdrive
1.7 GHz G4
200 MHz front side bus
512 MB of RAM (1x512 MB)
128 MB Mobility Radeon 9800
80 GB hard drive (5400 RPM)
$2199 (current price of 15" superdrive is $2499)

17-inch Superdrive
Same specs as 15-inch Superdrive
$2599 (current price of 17" superdrive is $2799)

Noah

[Simon]

Originally posted by im_noahselby:
These specs look fairly realistic.

No, they don't.

There is no 7447 or 7457 on this planet that can run on a 200MHz bus. 167MHz is the MaxBus' limit.

The only chance is with Freescale's new 7448 which won't be introduced till the current line of PowerBooks reaches 12 months age. The next PowerBook line-up will arrive earlier.

[GENERAL_SMILEY]

During my brief wander round 1 Infinite Loop last week I was shown the revised Powerbooks, due to come out in the new year. They will continue to be G4 based, 2GHZ being the top end processor (use up stock?).

However the new thing, and this will no doubt turn some of you old schoolers on, is that they have ditched the silver shell, for some sort of ultra light, super hard, unscratchable carbon fiber black case, with red LED styling.

This will happen, and for the many doubters (and who can blame you), I will bring up this post when they are released.

However the real surprise will be for the next generation Powermacs, and that tale, boys and girls, I will save for another day.

[Simon]

And what makes you so important that you get to see stuff Steve doesn't even mention to his family?

[Commodus]

Originally posted by Simon:
No, they don't.

There is no 7447 or 7457 on this planet that can run on a 200MHz bus. 167MHz is the MaxBus' limit.

The only chance is with Freescale's new 7448 which won't be introduced till the current line of PowerBooks reaches 12 months age. The next PowerBook line-up will arrive earlier.

Since there will be no more PowerBook updates in 2004, I don't quite see the reasoning here. Why would Apple release, say, a "7447B" PowerBook in early 2005 when they could wait just a month or two (if they have to wait at all, by then!) and have 7448s instead?

Part of the point of my claim was that Apple might have a somewhat unusual launch schedule in 2005, since they probably want either a much-improved G4 (8641/8641D) or G5 in the lineup by year's end. Waiting until April to update would be awkward. They could probably have a short 5-month interval between then and, say, an Apple Expo announcement of much faster models... but that doesn't seem too likely.

[Simon]

The point is that Freescale might announce these chips by March 05 at the earliest. Until they sort out production issues, ship in volume and can satisfy Apple's demand it might take another three months. That puts us in summer 05.

You will have trouble finding three people on this board (exlcuding those who just bought a new PB) who want to wait until summer 05 for the next rev to ship. By that time the current PowerBooks would be 14 months old.

[Pierre B.]

Originally posted by Simon:
The point is that Freescale might announce these chips by March 05 at the earliest. Until they sort out production issues, ship in volume and can satisfy Apple's demand it might take another three months. That puts us in summer 05.

Quite true Simon. Unless Freescale produce a custom chip designed around the G4 core and using features of the 7448. Either way, I am too not very optimistic about the time frame.

I am very curious to see Apple's offering in the beginning of 2005 for the Powerbook, as well as what are these mysterious statements from GENERAL_SMILEY.

[macaddict0001]

its like I've been saying
there will be a g5 powerbook at macworld in january.

[Agazzie]

Originally posted by macaddict0001:
its like I've been saying
there will be a g5 powerbook at macworld in january.

We can only keep our hope..

[cenutrio]

Ok, I've been reading your posts lately but did not have much to comment. Of course, I agreed that new PBs would be welcome since the line offer was getting a little mature.

Ok, I was checking at my University tech store and found that there's a rebate for all laptops (they include a Epson printer now). A little sign that something new may be coming soon (offer ends in January 10).

[Phossil]

I would love to see a G5 powerbook but I honestly don't see it happening until august or september at the very earliest. There will have to be a new powerbook announcement in January as the powerbooks have gone a long time without an update, and they are very close in preformance to the new ibooks now (well at least the 12 inch is).

I am hopeful for a dual-core G4, higher proscessor speeds (2.0 possibly?) and improved screens similar to those being used right now by sony, gateway, dell and so on that have better resolution and that shiny finish to allow them to be read in sunlight.

I personally will be waiting at least until tiger comes out before I get a new powerbook for College (so I need to buy in August at the absolute latest). Right now I am trying my best to get used to OS X with my old 366 mhz G3 clamshell iBook running 10.3.6 on 578MB RAM. which actully runs alright, but I would love to get my hands on a faster G3 or even a G4 for learning purposes (I am migrating from Linux, not a huge jump but I really like OS X and want to get more involved in it now)

[jamil5454]

Originally posted by Phossil:
I would love to see a G5 powerbook but I honestly don't see it happening until august or september at the very earliest. There will have to be a new powerbook announcement in January as the powerbooks have gone a long time without an update, and they are very close in preformance to the new ibooks now (well at least the 12 inch is).

I am hopeful for a dual-core G4, higher proscessor speeds (2.0 possibly?) and improved screens similar to those being used right now by sony, gateway, dell and so on that have better resolution and that shiny finish to allow them to be read in sunlight.

I personally will be waiting at least until tiger comes out before I get a new powerbook for College (so I need to buy in August at the absolute latest). Right now I am trying my best to get used to OS X with my old 366 mhz G3 clamshell iBook running 10.3.6 on 578MB RAM. which actully runs alright, but I would love to get my hands on a faster G3 or even a G4 for learning purposes (I am migrating from Linux, not a huge jump but I really like OS X and want to get more involved in it now)

I feel for you. If I had more money I'd personally buy you at least a new iBook.

[Phossil]

I feel for you. If I had more money I'd personally buy you at least a new iBook.

Thanks buddy, speaking of which I have little money, but I do have trades to offer if anyone is looking to part with a faster-than-366-mhz apple computer. Here is the thread: http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.php?threadid=234432

[molala]

any chance we'll see something next week at MacWorld London? if they're making such minor updates, they can introduce those now. of course, i'm being very hopeful.

personally, i'm willing to wait for a 12" with a PC card slot - even if they have to widen the PB by an inch.

[Phossil]

Nope - Apple has already officially stated that they will not introduce any new powerbooks in 2004.

[Simon]

Here's ThinkSecret's take on the matter.

The low-power mobile 970 is being tested at 1.6-1.8GHz but there is no shipping date yet.

If it doesn't arrive in time Apple will take Freescale's 7448 which is pin-compatible to the 7447A in use today. The 7448 will start at 1.5GHz, have 1MB L2 and be manufactured on 90nm SOI which should make it run cooler than the 7447A. There is however no shipping date for the 7448 yet, so we could be stuck with the 7447A for quite some time!

To me this sounds like either Apple needs a miracle to happen or they will have to announce another 7447A PowerBook at MWSF 05. Or, God forbid, they will just hold out with the current line-up until Freescale or IBM puts us out of the misery sometime in late spring/summer.

[Pierre B.]

Originally posted by Simon:
There is however no shipping date for the 7448 yet, so we could be stuck with the 7447A for quite some time!

Where did you get that from? Here is what Think Secret says:

If the PowerBook G5 isn't ready then, sources say Apple may turn to Freescale's PowerPC 7448, which is said to be almost finished.

Did they update the article after you posted?

If this is true, then Freescale may deliver the 7448 chips well ahead of schedule. Which would be godsend for Apple, given the (at least apparent) lack of new processors for a Powerbook update.

[sbc]

G4 will live on forever *laughs*

Seriously, I wish Apple would go into the tablet market. It would be great to see a 10-inch or 12-inch tablet, on the PB line. Throw in FW400/800, 64MB v-ram, super-drive and it will sell like hotcakes *cheers*

Wishful thinking on my behalf! Trying to forecasts Apples next move is damn near impossible. Apple consumers are patient and devoted, and Apple could ride the G4 for another six months with slim to no problem. That is not to say that the G4 is bad. Apple competes against itself, there is not a significat amount of pressure to deliver quickly.

[RonnieoftheRose]

Does a high end PowerBook G5 have to be an inch thick? How about an inch and a half at the top near the screen and then slim at the bottom near the slot drive?

I see no problem with that. It will give the CPU space to breath, allow for a better GPU and the slant will provide a better angle for typing. Weight and volume won't increase by much. Other benefits could be repositioning the ports or an extra firewire or USB port. The current slim designs can continue on slower and smaller models. Examples...

17" PowerBook G5 2Ghz
Nvidia Gefore 6800 Go 256MB
New slanted design.
3xUSB, 2xfirewire 400, 1xfirewire 800
Weight 7.5 pounds

17" PowerBook G5 1.8ghz
ATI Radeon 9800 Mobility
Current design but new cooling system
Weight 7 pounds

15" PowerBook G5 1.6Ghz
ATI Radeon 9800 Mobility
Current design but new cooling system
Weight 6 pounds

I've added a small amount of weight to the current designs as the G5 might require an update to the current cooling system. An intelligent one like the iMac has. Even with the above specs they are still reasonably light and better designed than high spec Wintel machines.

[MrForgetable]

Originally posted by GENERAL_SMILEY:
During my brief wander round 1 Infinite Loop last week I was shown the revised Powerbooks, due to come out in the new year. They will continue to be G4 based, 2GHZ being the top end processor (use up stock?).

However the new thing, and this will no doubt turn some of you old schoolers on, is that they have ditched the silver shell, for some sort of ultra light, super hard, unscratchable carbon fiber black case, with red LED styling.

This will happen, and for the many doubters (and who can blame you), I will bring up this post when they are released.

However the real surprise will be for the next generation Powermacs, and that tale, boys and girls, I will save for another day.

****, if i knew they were coming out with a carbon fiber Pbookk, i would haave waited.

[macaddict0001]

Originally posted by MrForgetable:
****, if i knew they were coming out with a carbon fiber Pbookk, i would haave waited.

general_smiley is a liar. why bother to listen to what he has to say. He allegedly has more info than anyone lest those in the industrial design labs at apple and those on apples board. I officially call BullSh*t on his claim.

[Phossil]

I would love to see an update in January, but my Dillema is that I do not really need a new book until July and I don't know if I should upgrade from my clamshell 366mhz iBook with 578MB RAM in January because an update could be released before July - I don't know how much longer I can use this sluggish notebook.

[shabbasuraj]

Originally posted by Phossil:
I would love to see an update in January, but my Dillema is that I do not really need a new book until July and I don't know if I should upgrade from my clamshell 366mhz iBook with 578MB RAM in January because an update could be released before July - I don't know how much longer I can use this sluggish notebook.

I say buy now, sell later, buy again later (a RevB G5 PB).

[NeilCharter]

If you are having problems with your current ibook then I would recommend getting a new book soon.

Since January is just around the corner, it makes sense to wait till then. There will be an update to the powerbook line, but it will probably only be a modest one.

I waited till the powerbook was updated to 1.33 GHz and that Panther release was announced before I got mine. That way I didn't have to pay for Panther when it became available.

If the powerbook updates are minor then the new machines should be available soon after MWSF.

If a major overhaul is done (including G5 - which I seriously doubt) then you likely have several months to wait before it is shipped. If that is the case you will have to decide if you can wait that long or go for one of the earlier models at a discounted price.

[Simon]

Originally posted by Pierre B.:
Where did you get that from? Here is what Think Secret says...

ThinkSecret mentions that the design is quote 'almost finished'.

That says nothing about dealing with the quirks of production (90nm has up to now given every manufacturer huge problems) and shipping in volume.

You have to be very optimistic to believe this is an improvement over the previously given Freescale time table (i.e. 7448 ramp up in spring, volume manufacturing by summer).