[scarab]

www.apple.com/powerbook

no combo drive

What will the discounted price be on the older models?

Any thoughts?

Hey c'mon,

Not having combo is not that bad

It is easy to get a burner and they do not cost too much

[jamesa]

notable:

- new graphics card (hoorah!): ATI Radeon Mobility, 16meg
- bigger battery. 55.3 watt hour vs 50 watt hour
- the top of the lines have airport standard
- gigabit ethernet across the line
- 133mhz sys bus on top of the line ones
- IBM 5400RPM drive on the top of the line one; this is the extremely quiet one


All in all, an impressive new array of machines.

-- james

[Avenir]

Slightly faster MHZ, faster Bus, CD-RW (but not combo), new power adapter, more RAM/HD stock, gigabit ethernet, better graphics...

... and one Ti 500 owner who's very happy they bought their PowerBook in February.

This is a nice upgrade though, Apple has started to clear up some issues that everyone wanted to see fixed... finally.

Oh, and my Madsonline adapter is still smaller... nya nya nya

[ 10-16-2001: Message edited by: Avenir ]

[Avenir]

Originally posted by <Anonymaus>:
<STRONG>Hey c'mon,

Not having combo is not that bad

It is easy to get a burner and they do not cost too much </STRONG>

agreed, it's $100 more and you lose the ability to play DVD's, which is something I'd still like. I'd just go with the stand-alone burner as it is.

[Keda]

These look like VERY nive machines.

I am disappointed that a combo drive was not included. It makes a difference when you need to give files to people who you are not networked with.

Its nota show stopper for me, but it would have been nice.

[Avenir]

Originally posted by Keda:
<STRONG>These look like VERY nive machines.

I am disappointed that a combo drive was not included. It makes a difference when you need to give files to people who you are not networked with.

Its nota show stopper for me, but it would have been nice.</STRONG>

guess they still haven't mastered the slot-loading combo yet. next rev I suppose

[u2zoo]

I'm rather curious myself . . what is the chance I'll be able to walk into an Apple retail store today and grab a Ti500 discounted? slim or good?

[Colonel Panic]

sweet, 133Mhz bus on the high-end one. 667 is at the top end of of what anyone predicted for speed. 512MB standard for now...finally can get a stock machine without having to order 3rd party RAM! RADEON Mobility is pretty much best-case for a portable graphics chip as far as I'm concerned. A como would have made this thing even better, or at least a driv ebay so I could replace it some day if it really gets annoying not having it in the machine.....

I'm retiring my trusty but ageing Pismo for this rev. Hope it works out....(gulp)

[SMacSteve]

Originally posted by u2zoo:
<STRONG>I'm rather curious myself . . what is the chance I'll be able to walk into an Apple retail store today and grab a Ti500 discounted? slim or good?</STRONG>

It's worth a call, but I'd be willing to bet Apple depleated it's stock before intrducing the new TiBook. Remember the wait 4 or 4 days ago was just that 4 or 5 days. That means there's no more of the ones you would be ordering then and as we see now you would have been getting the new revision.

[scarab]

Originally posted by Colonel Panic:
<STRONG>sweet, 133Mhz bus on the high-end one. 667 is at the top end of of what anyone predicted for speed. 512MB standard for now...finally can get a stock machine without having to order 3rd party RAM! RADEON Mobility is pretty much best-case for a portable graphics chip as far as I'm concerned. A como would have made this thing even better, or at least a driv ebay so I could replace it some day if it really gets annoying not having it in the machine.....

I'm retiring my trusty but ageing Pismo for this rev. Hope it works out....(gulp)</STRONG>

Me too! If my parents agree, that is!

[redrockdes]

This is part of an e-mail I just received about my pending TiBook order:

To Our Valued Apple Customer:

Thank you for placing an order at the Apple Store.

Apple is pleased to announce a new generation of PowerBook G4s! We invite you
to visit the Apple Store at &lt;www.apple.com/store&gt; for details.

Please choose one of the following options and email your response to
&lt;[email protected]&gt; or call Apple Store Sales Support at
1-800-676-2775 ext. 55850.

My order number is __________________.

1. ___ Please ship my new PowerBook G4 with a DVD ROM drive at no additional
cost. Upgraded system includes a 667 MHz processor and larger hard drive.
*Estimated to be shipped within 12 business days.

2. ___ Please ship my new PowerBook G4 with a Rewritable CD drive for $100
more. Upgraded system includes a 667 MHz processor and larger hard drive.
*Estimated to be shipped within 12 business days.

3. ___Please cancel my order. I will call 1-800-MY-APPLE or visit
&lt;www.apple.com/store&gt; to place a new order.

[IUJHJSDHE]

Ok that is it!

I am going to save up from now untill I can get one of these!

[redrockdes]

This is part of an e-mail I just received about my pending TiBook order:

To Our Valued Apple Customer:

Thank you for placing an order at the Apple Store.

Apple is pleased to announce a new generation of PowerBook G4s! We invite you
to visit the Apple Store at &lt;www.apple.com/store&gt; for details.

Please choose one of the following options and email your response to
&lt;[email protected]&gt; or call Apple Store Sales Support at
1-800-676-2775 ext. 55850.

My order number is __________________.

1. ___ Please ship my new PowerBook G4 with a DVD ROM drive at no additional
cost. Upgraded system includes a 667 MHz processor and larger hard drive.
*Estimated to be shipped within 12 business days.

2. ___ Please ship my new PowerBook G4 with a Rewritable CD drive for $100
more. Upgraded system includes a 667 MHz processor and larger hard drive.
*Estimated to be shipped within 12 business days.

3. ___Please cancel my order. I will call 1-800-MY-APPLE or visit
&lt;www.apple.com/store&gt; to place a new order.

[jessola]

Any idea if the woeful Airport reception has been improved? The Ti sucks compared to Pismo.

[IUJHJSDHE]

Originally posted by jessola:
<STRONG>Any idea if the woeful Airport reception has been improved? The Ti sucks compared to Pismo.</STRONG>

That is because the tibook is a TIbook

The Titaniam Makes the the reception very bad

I STILL WANT ONE!

[escher]

Originally posted by Avenir:
<STRONG>Oh, and my Madsonline adapter is still smaller... nya nya nya
</STRONG>

I'm curious to see how the Madsonline micro adapter and the new Apple square power adapter will compare in real life. The Madsonline is obviously tiny. But the Apple square still has the roll up cord advantage of the UFO.

I'm waiting for a comparative picture, measurements and weight.

Escher

[Dan Szwarc]

THIS is the TiBook that SHOULD have come out in January.
Faster than Pismo.
Better Graphics than Pismo.
More Standard RAM (at least until Dec 31).
Gigabit Ethernet (while nice, not a necessity).
Lower Price than Pismo!

Wahh! I want one! (I got a Pismo).

[Thunderbird]

Originally posted by u2zoo:
<STRONG>I'm rather curious myself . . what is the chance I'll be able to walk into an Apple retail store today and grab a Ti500 discounted? slim or good?</STRONG>

I just called the Woodfield Apple Store... They have the older model in stock, but the price has not been discounted yet.

[mithral]

All in all, I'm very pleased with the revisions. My only question is...

Why didn't apple give the low end PB 533/133 instead of 550/100? Does this necessarily mean that they're using two different motherboards? I had thought that using two motherboards would have been cost-prohibitive. I've read some posts that suggest overclocking - can anyone clear this up?

Lastly, which would be faster in real world applications, 533/133 or 550/100? If I had to guess, I'd guess the 533/133 - anyone know for sure?

Other than that (and no combo; whatever), these are really sweet machines that will keep Apple competitive until it's time for the major overhaul in March.

Sweeeet...

[SMacSteve]

Originally posted by mithral:
<STRONG>All in all, I'm very pleased with the revisions. My only question is...

Why didn't apple give the low end PB 533/133 instead of 550/100? Does this necessarily mean that they're using two different motherboards? I had thought that using two motherboards would have been cost-prohibitive. I've read some posts that suggest overclocking - can anyone clear this up?

Lastly, which would be faster in real world applications, 533/133 or 550/100? If I had to guess, I'd guess the 533/133 - anyone know for sure?

Other than that (and no combo; whatever), these are really sweet machines that will keep Apple competitive until it's time for the major overhaul in March.

Sweeeet...</STRONG>

I believe these are two different mother boards. The 550 is a 7410 and is using the same motherboard as the previous 500 the 667 I believe is the new motherboard design and a new chip, the 7440. Although I haven't yet found the documentation to back it up, this makes the most since.

[mycatsnameis]

I believe these are two different mother boards. The 550 is a 7410 and is using the same motherboard as the previous 500 the 667 I believe
is the new motherboard design and a new chip, the 7440. Although I haven't yet found the documentation to back it up, this makes the most since.

I don't think so.

Both machines have GB ethernet and the Radeon GA which both have to be incorporated into the mobo.

Also, both the 550 and 667 mHz chips have a 256k cache (at 1:1) as opposed to the 1m half speed cache that the 7410's had.

Definitely new mobos on both and definitely 7440's on both.

catman

[vmarks]

Are you sure?

I would have thought a different arrangement of the resistors soldered to the same motherboard would change the FSB from 100 to 133 the same way the iBook hacks brought the 66mhz to 100.

I'm betting these are the same motherboards with different chips soldered on the same in the same positions as in earlier TiBooks.

[mycatsnameis]

Originally posted by vmarks:
<STRONG>Are you sure?

I would have thought a different arrangement of the resistors soldered to the same motherboard would change the FSB from 100 to 133 the same way the iBook hacks brought the 66mhz to 100.

I'm betting these are the same motherboards with different chips soldered on the same in the same positions as in earlier TiBooks.</STRONG>

Not sure if you're responding to my message or not but I think we're both stating the same thing.

My contention was simply that the low end machine shares an upgraded motherboard with the high end machine (with the bus speed regulated, no doubt, by resistor arrangements).

The first post in this thread suggested that the low end machine still had the old mobo and a 7410 chip. I don't see how that's possible given that both the new machines have all the same mobo features with the exception of bus speed (which is easily altered as you point out).

catman

[Xool]

Speaking as a Ti 500 user, I'm very excited about the new models. They address every complaint I've had about mine (weak gfx card, boring old 500 MHz, etc...) and outdo it (gigabit, 667 + 133 bus, 5400 rpm drives)!

droooooolll....

Now my model (500/30/512/AirPort) starts feeling outdated, and it was killer just a bit ago. I guess that's life in my industry. Too bad that my $3500 PowerBook is now worth $2250.

Airport reception HAS been improved a good deal on the new TiBooks. Confirmed by, let's say, "the man" at Apple when it comes to portables.

Originally posted by &lt;Anonymaus&gt;:
<STRONG>Hey c'mon,

Not having combo is not that bad

It is easy to get a burner and they do not cost too much </STRONG>

Slimline cd burners are not cheap

Not to mention not being able to burn away from a powerpoint

[SMacSteve]

Originally posted by &lt;Tarbash&gt;:
<STRONG>Airport reception HAS been improved a good deal on the new TiBooks. Confirmed by, let's say, "the man" at Apple when it comes to portables. </STRONG>

How did they improve the Airport reception without a change in the case as this was supposed to be the problem, the titanium that is?

[k2man]

Hey Tarbash,

Why don't you ask "the man" at Apple who's a Powerbook authority when I can expect a Ti with:

1) Radeon 7500
2) Higher res screen
3) Combo drive

Many thanks, appreciate it....

Look, the Airport reception is improved. I don't know exactly how they did it, but they did. That's from Greg Joswiak himself. As for the other stuff to ask him, HA! 1. I wouldn't do it. 2. He wouldn't say if I did. Although I do know that once a revision gets out, the Ti engineers are always working on the next big thing.

I would be glad to hear about if the issues I've been reading about the hinge have been addressed.

Also, I've been reading from some people that due to the cache size & other issues, the 7440 is a slower chip even at higher clock speeds, similar to how the 733 compared to the 533 when the Desktop line's chips were revised. (I'm tired, so I hope this is making sense!) Does anyone know how the 7440 667 would compare to the original Ti/500 on a speed basis? Some places (forum postings) have conjectured that the 667 would not be much faster because of the 7440's chip architecture.

Anyone in the know have comments about clock speed or the new hinges?

I would imagine the 667 would have a pretty good performance boost, simply due to the 133 MHz bus. As for hinge issues, I do know that some minor structural adjustments were made, but nothing major. Although maybe the hinge got a tweak. I don't know exactly.

I talked to the folks in the Palo Alto Apple store. The pricing on remaining first gen PBG4s is something like $1799 for the 400 and $2499 for the 500. Don't hold me to those prices closely -- I was shopping for a 667, so I wasn't paying close attention -- but I'm in the ballpark.

Odd, though, now that I think about it, how they're still selling a 500 for more than the 550. Regardless, closeout prices on the old PBs have been set, so if you're looking for a bargain (well, for the 400), go check your friendly neighborhood Apple Store again.

Originally posted by k2man:
<STRONG>Hey Tarbash,

Why don't you ask "the man" at Apple who's a Powerbook authority when I can expect a Ti with:

1) Radeon 7500
2) Higher res screen
3) Combo drive

Many thanks, appreciate it....</STRONG>

Why a higher screen res? Its allready high enough, and any higher would result in a less-than-perfect display for users who dont want to have to look at the screen through a telescope.

[spiggott]

Originally posted by &lt;TiBookNumber9&gt;:
<STRONG>

Why a higher screen res? Its allready high enough, and any higher would result in a less-than-perfect display for users who dont want to have to look at the screen through a telescope.</STRONG>

The higher screen res would really be nice in OS X.

I just don't get why they wouldn't put a Radeon 7500 in it!

Most all PC manufactures went with the Geforce2go instead of the Radeon Mobility because the Geforce2Go was so much faster... (GPU onboard)

now nVidia comes out with the 7500 which offer 2x the speed of the GeForce2go (hardware transform and lighting) and about 1/2 the battery consumption and Stevie doesn't use it??? I dont understand...

The Radeon Mobilty (non 7500) is better than the 128, but still pretty much sucks...

you can't even play q3 max'ed out... like you can with Geforce2Go...

All I can think of is that the next speed bump/upgrade will include a combo and a 7500... (I hope)