[GreenHat09]

First of all, this is not a rumor, it is just something that came to my mind. Everyone is saying how slow the burning capabilities are of the current G4 superdrive. If we are expecting a G5 sometime around late summer, do you think they will bump the superdrive burning speeds up a little. I know this will be a complete guess, but just wondering. Thanks alot!

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by GreenHat09:
First of all, this is not a rumor, it is just something that came to my mind. Everyone is saying how slow the burning capabilities are of the current G4 superdrive. If we are expecting a G5 sometime around late summer, do you think they will bump the superdrive burning speeds up a little. I know this will be a complete guess, but just wondering. Thanks alot!

I'd be surprised if a 4X laptop SuperDrive showed up in the next PB iteration (unless it's quite some time from now).

[GreenHat09]

I can wait at the latest until next December, do you consider that a long enough time for a higher burning superdrive?

[nobitacu]

I'm sure the speed will be improved, but how much improved is unknown and hard to guess... but I would say at least 4x for the G5 when it comes out, which won't happen for awhile I think.

Ming

[Eug Wanker]

I wouldn't be surprised if a G5 PowerBook came sooner rather than later, and it came with a 2X DVD-R burner.

A 4X would be nice though. End of 2004? Who knows?

[Buck_W]

Obviously going from 1x to 2x is "doubling" your burning speed, but realistically, what kind of a bump in speed would that actually produce? Would it be that noticeable?

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by Buck_W:
Obviously going from 1x to 2x is "doubling" your burning speed, but realistically, what kind of a bump in speed would that actually produce?

About 100%?

Would it be that noticeable?

From 60 minutes to 30 minutes is pretty noticeable. And 15 minutes for a 4X would be even nicer.

[Zaffir]

I don't think we'll go much beyond 4x. You have to remember that "4x" is 4.7 gigs in what, 30 minutes? That's about the same as burning a CD in 5 minutes (feel free to check my math, it's late and i'm tired). If we go a whole lot faster we'll start breaking discs.

[Crusoe]

I doubt they'll go to 4x. They have to contend with heat, noise and power consumption, two of which will be a big concern with the G5 powerbooks.

[Patcarla]

Originally posted by GreenHat09:
First of all, this is not a rumor, it is just something that came to my mind. Everyone is saying how slow the burning capabilities are of the current G4 superdrive. If we are expecting a G5 sometime around late summer, do you think they will bump the superdrive burning speeds up a little. I know this will be a complete guess, but just wondering. Thanks alot!

Tha would be great if a pb G5 would come late summer but I'm not that optimistic..

[Eug]

Originally posted by Zaffir:
I don't think we'll go much beyond 4x. You have to remember that "4x" is 4.7 gigs in what, 30 minutes? That's about the same as burning a CD in 5 minutes (feel free to check my math, it's late and i'm tired). If we go a whole lot faster we'll start breaking discs.

If you look up just one message, you'll see that 4X is 15 minutes. (1X is defined as 1 hour on a DVD.) And it's about 4.37 GB. (Check my sig for the details on this 4.37 vs. 4.7 business.)

That's equivalent to an entire CD in about 2-3 minutes.

Originally posted by Crusoe:
I doubt they'll go to 4x. They have to contend with heat, noise and power consumption, two of which will be a big concern with the G5 powerbooks.

I think that Apple will likely eventually get a laptop 4X DVD burner. I just don't know when.

[acadian]

It's entirely possible, As far as battery and heat issues are concerned, they could easily throttle back the burning speed when on battery power, just like they do with processors.

[baglunch]

i doubt we'll see dvd-r 4x in laptops until dvd-r hits 8x on desktops. Pioneer is supposed to be releasing an 8x dvd-r burner this quarter. There is already dvd+r, but apple doesn't really embrace the dvd+r standard like some of the PC manufacturers do which is fine since dvd-r is more widely supported by set top dvd players.

[Toccatexx]

there is the 8x pioneer dvd-r in stores now. in Fry's palo alto for about 250$$

not on any web sites yet that I can see. will wait for the 'discount" its internal for desktops.

the 4x pioneer is about $113 on the web

will the PW support an Ext pioneer DVD-R 8x firewire?

Tocca

[runejoha]

Originally posted by Patcarla:
Tha would be great if a pb G5 would come late summer but I'm not that optimistic..

Probably they will release it as soon it is good enough for selling. If they can sell it sooner they will take more of the laptop market, which is very important for apple to do if thay are going to survive.

Probably we will see it in late May/June. If not, AMD win the 64 bit laptop race (as x86 always did). I think Apple for once has a opportunity to change this, so when Jobs says late December to a local paper i Spain (to make sure that nobody thinks he says it to the US marked as just for making Hp-Compaq etc. to relax etc. but enough to set out a rumor) it will be here before. The G5 powerbook will hit the marked even without any guarantee for making money in the beginning (blodbath) to take marked segments.

[Appleman]

Originally posted by runejoha:
If they can sell it sooner they will take more of the laptop market, which is very important for apple to do if thay are going to survive.

My guess is that you are referring to surviving in the laptop market?
Until now, Apple always have been very strong in this segment, specially on innovation and reliability. Notebooks/laptops are very important to Apple, historically speaking, and there's no way of letting that go.

Having Xserves G5, the next step would be PowerBooks G5, though you might need to live at the northpole...