[ajprice]

Re pete's removable keyboard, here's a Lenovo concept laptop (on the left) that just won a Red Dot award.

Engadget article

[Tesseract]

Originally Posted by niji

gunmetal shade of a magnesium alloy

Like this?

[pete]

Originally Posted by ajprice

Re pete's removable keyboard, here's a Lenovo concept laptop (on the left) that just won a Red Dot award.

Engadget article

That's very cool! I like the concept a lot, although one of the key problems is the height of the display. It would be great if there was a way to slide it up some how to make the whole work environment more ergonomic. Actually, Siemens produced a greeat, albeit large, laptop in 1998 (I think) that had a magnesium casing and a detachable keyboard. Very cool design, but once they merged with Fujitsu, it was never developed. It was called the siemens mobile 800 - here's a review I just found:

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/1248/...bile-800.html#

[pete]

http://images.ciao.com/iuk/images/pr...ct-5377701.jpg

[runejoha]

What about this:

The iBooks will be black or white, like the iPods.

The PB will keep its looks with few modifications (thinner) and the 12'' PB is ditched.

Never change a winning team. Why change the looks because of a new CPU?

[Rob van dam]

New form/factor Intel Aluminium PowerBooks will be announed at WWDC 2006, these will use the Conroe chips, they have built in feet, old skool style, but also a removable/rotateable screen which can be used with the lid closed tablet style. They'll feature Blue-Ray superdrives and contain hybrid hard drives which feature NAND flash on SATA II interfaces. Firewire will be gone, replaced with SATA II ports running with burst rates faster then 1.5 Gb/s.

ASam.....[/QUOTE]


Very nice rumour.From memory isnt conroe a deskptop CPU?

[driven]

I'm not sure that they CAN make a laptop as thin and nice as the current powerbooks while using an Intel processor.

Think about it:
- Toshiba, Dell, AlienWare, others all make laptops with similar specs to the Powerbook, but with an Intel processor.
- Almost universally these laptops are at least twice as thick and often several pounds heavier. Why? Is it because these vendors WANT to make big laptops?

I'm fairly certain that the next Powerbooks are going to grow ... by a LOT.

That said: If it's possible, I'd like to see one similar to the current PB.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by driven

My office just bought me one of these:
<snip D810 image>
I got to spec it out .. it's as close to a Powerbook as I can make it.
1GB RAM, 128MB video card, 15.4" wide-screen, 2.13 Ghz Pentium-M processor.

For a PC, not bad. BUT: What's with the design?
- I put this next to my Powerbook G4 and this thing is nearly 3X as thick!!!
- It weighs several pounds more.
- The fans never ever shut off ... so it's loud too.

Wow, you certainly had your troll flakes for breakfast. Your D810 is 45% thicker than your PowerBook and about a pound heavier.
I'm surprised it's so loud. Most of the current Dell biz laptops use larger, slower fans (~50mm instead of ~20mm) which are quieter. The fan on my D610 sits at idle most of the time and rarely spins up to an audible level.

[Rob van dam]

Originally Posted by driven

I'm not sure that they CAN make a laptop as thin and nice as the current powerbooks while using an Intel processor.

Think about it:
- Toshiba, Dell, AlienWare, others all make laptops with similar specs to the Powerbook, but with an Intel processor.
- Almost universally these laptops are at least twice as thick and often several pounds heavier. Why? Is it because these vendors WANT to make big laptops?

I'm fairly certain that the next Powerbooks are going to grow ... by a LOT.

That said: If it's possible, I'd like to see one similar to the current PB.

Do you think they maybe the same thickness as one of the new 17" asus notebooks.

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=4011

[driven]

Originally Posted by mduell

Wow, you certainly had your troll flakes for breakfast. Your D810 is 45% thicker than your PowerBook and about a pound heavier.
I'm surprised it's so loud. Most of the current Dell biz laptops use larger, slower fans (~50mm instead of ~20mm) which are quieter. The fan on my D610 sits at idle most of the time and rarely spins up to an audible level.

Troll flakes? I was actually complimenting my Powerbook, not bashing it!

Buying the Dell for work just really made me appreciate how much I love my Powerbook. Not sure if that's a troll or not, but if so, sorry ....

[mduell]

Originally Posted by driven

Troll flakes? I was actually complimenting my Powerbook, not bashing it!

You were trolling about the Dell with gross exaggerations of its thickness and weight.

[Simon]

No, it's just that he actually uses a Dell *and* a PowerBook. So he knows what a POS the Dell really is.

[driven]

Originally Posted by mduell

You were trolling about the Dell with gross exaggerations of its thickness and weight.

It sure looks more than 45% thicker. Perhaps it's the rubber feet on the bottom. It also feels MUCH heavier.

Not trolling, just explaining my initial impressions of the thing.
Sorry if I offended you. Not my intention. Each his own I guess.

[beofiend]

Ive's design doctrine of minimalism will continue...as it should. I expect no dramatic cosmetic changes. I expect they may sneak an isight into the lid which could only be accomplished by lowering the screen slightly. My dream however would be to sneak an 18" screen into the 17" frame. Ive been wondering why itunes and some other app's now have crisp squared corners rather than rounded. Id love to see every bit of the PB bezel to be utilized. The Japanese will never sell Apple superior displays. (xbrite,etc) So we are stuck with the current so called "brighter screens"
There are plenty of areas performance wise (new chip) which are higher on the to-do list. I am expecting a silver/alum... slighter thinner.... with an isight....with real speed and thats it.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by driven

I'm not sure that they CAN make a laptop as thin and nice as the current powerbooks while using an Intel processor.

Think about it:
- Toshiba, Dell, AlienWare, others all make laptops with similar specs to the Powerbook, but with an Intel processor.
- Almost universally these laptops are at least twice as thick and often several pounds heavier. Why? Is it because these vendors WANT to make big laptops?

I'm fairly certain that the next Powerbooks are going to grow ... by a LOT.

That said: If it's possible, I'd like to see one similar to the current PB.

If you want to see thin and light laptop, look at the Panasonic W2,Dell Latitude X1, and Sony X505 (I know the latter two lack an optical drive, but look at the numbers). Makes the 12" PowerBook pretty chunky when they can take out the optical drive and remove half the thickness and weight.
Small/light Intel-based laptops can be done, but few PC users are demanding them; they'd rather have features and performance for a low price. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with the design tradeoffs that Apple has made, but Apple isn't selling that many 15/17" PowerBooks; the bulk of their laptop sales are iBooks and 12" PowerBooks.

Also, the consumer PC market is incredibly price sensitive. If Dell made all their laptops a quarter to a half inch thinner (pretty much the same as the PowerBooks) and raised prices $200-500 for the additional effort/cost, I think they'd lose a ton of sales to the other OEMs who offer the same specs (except thickness) for $350 less.

[driven]

Point taken.

I thought the 15" Powerbook was the big seller though, and that thing is more feature rich than most PC laptops ... and is actually cheaper than the aforementioned Dell that my company bought me. (By a significant margin I may add).

The Dell was $2600, my Powerbook was a tad over $2100.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by driven

I thought the 15" Powerbook was the big seller though, and that thing is more feature rich than most PC laptops ... and is actually cheaper than the aforementioned Dell that my company bought me. (By a significant margin I may add).

The Dell was $2600, my Powerbook was a tad over $2100.

Someone on these forums did the math a while back based on some reasonable guesses. Unfortunately Apple has stopped reporting sales by product family "for strategic reasons" so now all the iBooks are lumped in with the PowerBooks under laptop sales.

Your Dell has a couple expensive upgrades over the PowerBook, like a 2.13Ghz CPU ($320 more than 1.73Ghz from Dell) and 3 year warranty (which would add $350 to the PowerBook).

[driven]

Originally Posted by mduell

Someone on these forums did the math a while back based on some reasonable guesses. Unfortunately Apple has stopped reporting sales by product family "for strategic reasons" so now all the iBooks are lumped in with the PowerBooks under laptop sales.

Your Dell has a couple expensive upgrades over the PowerBook, like a 2.13Ghz CPU ($320 more than 1.73Ghz from Dell) and 3 year warranty (which would add $350 to the PowerBook).

Actually I don't have the 3 year warrantee. Our company does this internally.
It *DOES* have the "tiny font" screen though. That's probably another $100 or so.

As far as clock speed .. the Powerbook certainly feels faster. (Is "snappier" the term they use on this board.) The Dell feels sluggish at times, especially in Lotus Notes which flys on the Powerbook. So .... I'm not sure it's not a valid comparison.

[rparke1]

what i would like to see come back to the powerbook lineup is the ethernet, modem, usb, firewire, and video ports on the back of the machine rather than the sides. my argument: my friend has the new side ports and he hates the cables being on the sides and not hidden very well due to the sideness. mine on the other hand is a 1ghz Ti PB, WITH the ports on the back. i can hide the wires easier and more effectivly AND even though i have to reach behind to get to everything rather than seeing it on the sides (which i assume thats the reason they did the switch, oh, and the sleekness factor) id rather have the ability to hide the wires easier rather than having to see them on the sides.

my 2 cents

[headbirth]

I would love to see Apple take a hand in developing and using technology such as eInk:

http://www.eink.com/

[headbirth]

I would love to see Apple take a hand in developing and using technology such as eInk:

http://www.eink.com/

[Al G]

I also prefer the ports on the back. But Apple moved them to the side for a very good reason: to accommodate a redesigned, improved hinge. Tibook hinge problems were very common. Alu hinge problems are almost non-existent.

However, that doesn't explain my biggest peeve about the 15" Alu: why the did they put the lock slot toward the front and in the way of everything instead of at the back (still on the side) where it should be? It's where it should be on the 17" but not the 15".

[_kevin]

One word: wood.

[JKT]

Whatever they decide on, I just hope the bugger is a lot easier to keep clean (and to clean) than the current models are... including the screen.