[jooka]

i'm going to be switcher soon and now waiting macworld's possible announcements of new powerbook's before i place my order on applestore.

i'm very much in love with current design of the powerbook - sleek aluminium. do you guys (and gals!) think there's going to be new design for the powerbook-line or do they go with current design?

has powerbook line received a "facelift" everytime when it comes to design, when they have announced new machines?

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by jooka:
has powerbook line received a "facelift" everytime when it comes to design, when they have announced new machines?

No.

That says absolutely nothing, though.

Nobody can until the 11th.

[Randman]

Assuming there even will be an announcement this month.

Basically, it depends on what the next revision will be, whenever it does come out. If it's just going to rev d and bumping up specs, don't expect any cosmetic changes.

[striker100]

I don't believe there will be any cosmetic changes to the Powerbook line until Apple puts the G5 chip in the Powerbooks. There will be changes in the CPU, video card and hopefully hard drive, I hope Apple makes the 5400rpm HD standard and an option for a 7200rpm HD.

[Fiete5401]

OMG! Only 9 days left and counting!

[cpac]

Originally posted by striker100:
I don't believe there will be any cosmetic changes to the Powerbook line until Apple puts the G5 chip in the Powerbooks.

Exactly.

I'd love it if they switched to a carbon fiber case (the metal just doesn't last as well as the old plastic did (paint scratches) - and carbon fiber should put both to shame).

[jooka]

does anyone know, will the current powerbook's pricing drop at all when they announce new machines?

is there going to be rebate sales or something?

[Musti]

Originally posted by jooka:
does anyone know, will the current powerbook's pricing drop at all when they announce new machines?

is there going to be rebate sales or something?

This is usually what happens when new products are announced. If not at Apple Stores online and retail, other retailers usually want to clear their inventories to make room for upcoming products. Amazon.com is a good example.

However, personally, I don't think new PowerBooks will be announced. I'd love to be proven wrong come the 11th.

[jooka]

don't you think they need some sort of upgrade at the moment - speedbump or something?

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by jooka:
does anyone know, will the current powerbook's pricing drop at all when they announce new machines?

is there going to be rebate sales or something?

Actually, usually the rebates are in the weeks before the new release, to clear inventory.

The goal is to have no machines left to drop the price on once the new machines are released. A badly timed release can cost Apple - and resellers - millions.

Apple is quite good about timing new releases with inventory depletion - with notable exceptions, such as the iMac G5, which was running late.

[jooka]

here in europe prices of current powerbook's has been dropped today. my choice, 15" pb price dropped from 2804 to 2549.

so tempted to order now - but still want to see next week upcoming stuff...

[ichibod]

They could always just dump one of the machines and add the dual core processor. Or I'm full of it. Just speculating.

[Cheetah223]

They're supposed to bump the processor speed up on powerbooks this month, along with more standard VRAM and a few other things. Cosmetic changes aren't going to happen for a while if you ask me. And the aluminum is far better looking than carbon fiber would be IMO, carbon fiber's far overdone.

The price drops in Europe came along with the prices of Apple Displays dropping, Apple simply re-calibrated so their international prices would be more accurate with the current exchange rate.

[James L]

OK, first off, NO ONE KNOWS AND WE ARE ALL GUESSING!!!

A couple of things... price drops just occured in Canada and parts of Europe due to currency changes... Apple is just slow in this regard.

The PB is due, but I really don't believe anything major will come of the revision. In my opinion, don't expect anything more than a slight processor jump (100-200Mhz faster, but still a G4), maybe more RAM standard, maybe a bigger HD option, maybe a video card upgrade. All nice boosts, but quite negligable on performance in the grand scheme of things.

With that in mind, the above upgrade does not really warrant a show announcement. There wasn't any announcement for the last round of PB upgrades, nor for the last two rounds of iBook upgrades. Minor bumps like above are just not show worthy type things.

Is it coming soon... yup. If I was about to buy would I wait... yup. I was ready to buy in Feb last year, but waited for the April upgrade. It just makes sense to do so. Just don't expect a lot.

Now, if Steve proves me wrong, all the better! I will be at the keynote to see it first hand!

[jooka]

so basically if changes are only minor speedbump and more vram (which you can get allready on applestore), there is no worth of waiting months for it - unless price drops.

i'll wait for expo and see what it brings (if anything) and order my first mac whether it's current or upcoming on next week.

bit tired of waiting.

[James L]

jooka,

Remember, again, we ARE ALL GUESSING. I just want to make sure you are making your own mind up and not taking anyone's word as a certainty here as no can be certain on a forum.

My belief is as you say... a minor bump with a minor price drop. Could I be wrong??? Everyday according to my wife!

The only thing people know for sure is that today is 262 days after the last update..in other words about 9 months. Is it due for an update soon? Yup.

...that's really all we know. Personally, even if the update and price drop is negligable, I would wait to buy IF IT WERE ME. Nothing sucks more than buying a machine, only to have a new one come out a week later. If it was 4 months ago I would have bought (mid product cycle)... now I would wait.

Last thought... ALWAYS buy as much machine as you can afford to make it last longer.

Cheers!

James

[SEkker]

'Headless iMac, new iPod, iLife 2, Keynote 2, 5GB iPodmini'... All nice additions to the Apple lineup of products, but not really big new steps.

Rumor mills seem confident of everything -- except the update to the PB line.

I think Jobs will wait a few months to release something as big as the G5 PB -- after all, it will be touted as the 'fastest notebook on the planet'.

I'd like to be wrong, but looks like a Freescale dual core G4 is the next iteration for the PB CPU. Nice, but not especially revolutionary.

[Sudogenic]

I love the current design - It goes well with the G5 desktops and the new Apple Displays.

I hope Apple don't change the current design, even when it comes to the release of the G5 Powerbook.

I've had my Powerbook for a while now and haven't got any scratches - IMO, this design is much better than the Ti.

[rambo47]

A couple of hundred MHz speed bump won't make any difference to me. I'm looking for a graphics card bump and a move to the Freescale processor. Battery life that competes with the Centrino processors by Intel should be the focus for Apple's PowerBook lineup IMHO. I'd also like to see lots more RAM as part of the standard configuration, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

[chrisutley]

Originally posted by James L:
jooka,
Last thought... ALWAYS buy as much machine as you can afford to make it last longer.

I disagree. I can afford top of the line Macs, but I don't need top of the line performance and I upgrade every 1.5 years or so. I'd be throwing money away in bunches if I took that advice. ALWAYS is a red flag to me ... evaluate your own needs, some some common sense is all you need.

[teknopimp]

likely no cosmetic change until the G5 PB comes out.

[James L]

Originally posted by chrisutley:
I disagree. I can afford top of the line Macs, but I don't need top of the line performance and I upgrade every 1.5 years or so. I'd be throwing money away in bunches if I took that advice. ALWAYS is a red flag to me ... evaluate your own needs, some some common sense is all you need.

you upgrade every 1.5 years??? What apps possibly change that often that your machine loses its ability to function well after a little over a year??

While it is nice to always have the latest toy, in 2002 you could buy a 1 Ghz Powerbook with 64 MB of VRAM, a superdrive, etc.

Now, assuming you have a powerbook bought this year, and you don't buy top of the line, that means you have a 1.33 Ghz PB at the highest right now.

There is no app I can think of that would run on a 1.33 that wouldn't run on a 1 Ghz machine, and at a negligible speed difference at that.

Seems to me that upgrading your machine every year or so would be abigger waste of money.

Just curious... why upgrade so often? I tend to get 3 years or more out of my machines and I do design work.

[jooka]

Originally posted by James L:
jooka,

Remember, again, we ARE ALL GUESSING. I just want to make sure you are making your own mind up and not taking anyone's word as a certainty here as no can be certain on a forum.

yeah, i understand completely. and yes, i'm making my own mind on this subject.

current 1,5ghz model is allready offering me what i need (and more i think!). i just wanna wait for next week if they annouce speedbump for current line which you get in same price you're paying for "older" model. if nothing happens - i won't wait any longer. i will get my pb next week.

even if they announce like 1,67mhz version of the powerbook, i could easily see myself buying 1,5mhz model. not big difference to me.

[GENERAL_SMILEY]

Black case, ultra light, ultra tough, supposedly unscratchable, don't know enough about materials to speculate if that is carbon fiber. Red LED styling involved. No G5s yet.

[milhous]

well it's time for me to get a new notebook. the pismo has served me well in school for the past 4+ years. it's running out of steam, so it's time for a change.

here's my crazy prediction. the 12 is changed to a 13.3" widescreen display with the expected speedbump. 1.5ghz would be very nice to see. asides from comparing bus speed and the g4's inclusion of altivec, i'll have a system with a cpu that's 3x faster than the pismo.

no more stuttering expose, no more typing delays, no more random lockups.

this will be a good year.

[skyslushy]

Do you know when next week the change will most likely be announced? Will the bargains start the day after the announcement?

[mrmister]

"Just curious... why upgrade so often?"

Resale value. I upgrade just shy of 2 years, and by timing it right I pay what i consider a reasonably low amount, and I get a new Mac more often. if you wait longer the Macs resale value plummets, so for some people it's a viable strategy.

[weed_]

Resale value.

That's it. For every tech product it is viable to identify the economic breaking point between estimated resale price and the price of a new one. In two years you lose around 700 EUR per year, that is my personal Mac abonnement. This time I wait longer until a major upgrade follows (not design: FSB, clock speed, keyboard layout with numpad for 17" and other nifty innovations is what will make me the upgrade.)

If you don't care about changing your system this strategy is perfect. If you don't like changing, it could be more useful to use the PB until the end of its technical lifecyle.

[SeSawaya]

I buy new minimum every 10 months.

Why? Well resale is at the highest it will every be. Get out of it and into a brand new one with new warrenty for very, very little. (once I did it for $18)

So I never have to pony up a large sum of money, I always have a new machine (although not always the top of the line...well virtually never) and I never worry about warrenty issues.

Seems like a waste to hang on to a machine to me.

[paully dub]

Originally posted by SeSawaya:
I buy new minimum every 10 months.

Why? Well resale is at the highest it will every be. Get out of it and into a brand new one with new warrenty for very, very little. (once I did it for $18)

So I never have to pony up a large sum of money, I always have a new machine (although not always the top of the line...well virtually never) and I never worry about warrenty issues.

Seems like a waste to hang on to a machine to me.

I'd be that way if i didn't constantly have big projects that I didn't want to stop in the middle of, clone my drive on an external one that had enough room, zero the drive, find all the different cords and pieces, box and documentation and then wait till I've A: sold powerbook # 1 and B: bought powerbook # 2. Restoring my cloned OS shouldn't take too long, but it's yet another step.

I have one machine, and even though I have a couple external hard drives for back up and storage, I can't usually afford the inconvenience of an interruption. Plus god forbid the new model has some kind of flaw or defect.

I would do this if I foresaw a break in my schedule that corresponded with a good buying/selling time. But I rarely pay attention to that.

I'm confortable with this machine, and since I have AppleCare, i'm confident I'll get 4 years of use out of it. Then the new machine will seem AMAZINGLY better instead of slightly better and I'll bask in its glow for months.

[mrmister]

"I'd be that way if i didn't constantly have big projects that I didn't want to stop in the middle of, clone my drive on an external one that had enough room, zero the drive, find all the different cords and pieces, box and documentation and then wait till I've A: sold powerbook # 1 and B: bought powerbook # 2. Restoring my cloned OS shouldn't take too long, but it's yet another step."

Your system of hanging on is fine, but I have to say that once you've gotten the hang of hanging onto everything, the cloning and zeroing takes no time at all--I never experience more than 4 hours of downtime, and that's once every 16 months or so. It's negligible, really.

[chrisutley]

I work with computers for a living, and I enjoy working with the latest and greatest technology. As others have pointed out here, flipping machines at the right time allows you to stay current without spending too much out of pocket. I keep an eye on what Apple is up to, and sell/upgrade accorrdinly.

Regarding the topic that led to this question, I believe that in general that the top of the line Mac is typically the worst value of the lineup. These machines simply don't hold their value in the resale market as well as the cheaper configs. If you plan to hold on to your Mac until it dies, maybe buy the most you can afford is sound advice.

Originally posted by James L:
Just curious... why upgrade so often? I tend to get 3 years or more out of my machines and I do design work.

[cc_foo]

I like the current design as well. But hope that there could be a few small improvements. e.g. small feet that stick on firmer, and are impossible to come off.

I'd also like hinges that look less flimsy, and maybe (if possible) thicker metal that doesn't warp as much or dent as easily. And maybe better ventilation for the 12" machines so that the fan doesn't come on with large hires external displays.

The overall design for the iBook is fantastic. But the current models are IMHO leaps and bounds better than the initial release in 2001. Small improvments in the hinge, the plastics, the keyboard and now the slot loading drive make all the difference over time.

2 cents.

[Lancer409]

Originally posted by cc_foo:
I like the current design as well. But hope that there could be a few small improvements. e.g. small feet that stick on firmer, and are impossible to come off.

I'd also like hinges that look less flimsy, and maybe (if possible) thicker metal that doesn't warp as much or dent as easily. And maybe better ventilation for the 12" machines so that the fan doesn't come on with large hires external displays.

The overall design for the iBook is fantastic. But the current models are IMHO leaps and bounds better than the initial release in 2001. Small improvments in the hinge, the plastics, the keyboard and now the slot loading drive make all the difference over time.

2 cents.

i think this hinge is plenty sturdy. it's not as fragile looking as the pc notebooks which use a hinge that looks sorta like the Ti.

that being said, i have a sticky hinge (hinge is closer on the right .. very slight gap. the gap on left is slightly larger. will get that fixed when i find the time and dont need to work on my laptop.