You're right and wrong. I was not referring to graphics pros, but business pros. But 1024x768 is neither acceptable on a consumer laptop, especially on the 14" model.

...That the new iBooks are snappier than my old iBook. I had a clamshell and it worked fine until the new ones came out, then all the sudden I backed over the clamshell with my car. Silly me! My clamshell was no longer snappy, but my new iBook was. That was a few years ago, and it looks like my current iBook may accidently get squished. Geez.. I hope I remember to back up all my p***!

You can get more max memory in a 12" ibook than a powerbook now. I want a proper 12" powerbook.

Apple made their consumer (and student) laptop line better in time for the upcoming school year. You now get more speed, and more features, for less money. Were you really expecting something revolutionary?! This is the iBook-- they can't take it any further until the next PowerBook revision.

February '06 is too late for new PBs. It's pathetic, truly pathetic.

Feature bumps my eye. I love my 1.33 Ghz 12" G4 PB, but I want to be able replace it NOW with a PB that is at least as fast as an iMac. What a joke.

Don't give me this 'wait for Intel" nonsense as IBM has already announced chips that will do Speed and low power consumption, basically proving Jobs as spouting nonsense.

And where are the innovative products? Hello Tablet Mac or PDA Mac? Hello Video Pod? Hello Flash Based Pod with a screen? Hello anyone home at all?

Yeah, I didn't think so... They can't even release the iPhone on time.

Apple's too cheap to update their computers when they're already planning on an intel rollout over the next two+ years. So don't expect anything NEW from apple until then. If you do that, you can't be disappointed with any of their 'upgrades'. Its apple. They're cheap. And they take forever to develop a new case/motherboard, because all you apple-fools keep demanding that Apple come out with a fancy computer, not just a computer. Its got to look good (even though I know no one who goes "Wow, look how nice my computer looks! Sure, its got lame video, but it looks good!")

So, to sum up. No new computers/cases until Apple goes Intel. Deal with it.

With this 32MB Video Graphics installed, Core Image will still be unsupported, right?

yes, I'm afraid so sertian.

The "iPhone" isn't an Apple product, it's a MOTOROLA and we ALL know Moto's track record for getting ANYTHING out on time. Moto's ideals are announce it now, ship it in 6 years. Apple's is announce it today and ship (a version of it) tomorrow, wait 6 months for the version everyone wants. Other factors like carriers have prevented it.

That's just sick. Drop a G and can't even use the darn thing to initiate a multiconference chat.

Someone is terribly misinformed about IBM's "New" PPC 970FX! Ehemm! It uses 27 Watts ( Which is 90 minutes of battery + extra fans -without screen ) The screen is actually the big power hog. Ever felt how hot PB's are now? They use a 10 watt CPU!!! You want a G5 laptop? It IS possible, at 700MHz, and no screen, BUT, IBM "announced" a low power chip...which is NOT shipping ( Back 2 our CPU issues - IBM/Freescale have almost zero interest in shipping them) IBM mainly announced to "appear" less retarded. Once more for the slower folks, LOOK at the 9 fans in a G5, or the blow hole chimney in the iMac G5, it's too hot to cool!! If a battery has 65 watt/hours - you cannot use 1/2 on just a CPU ( MEMORY, GPU use as much - now we have a PB with 23 minutes on battery? All the power of last years desktops with 200 degree heat, and no more than a UPS power protector?

IBM is having problems with 3.2GHz for consoles ( 200 MILLION of them ) They have no interest in a 5-10 watt CPU, at ANY speed, and without 1 GHz bus speed, a G5 cannot keep up with a G4..... Sorry, you are misinformed... Apple wants to ship faster, cooler, better laptops....and as soon as possible, will.....some PPC (maybe even G5 will ship, if IBM releases it in a year, as stated, but they are being flaky....and you wont pay an extra grand for it, will you?

Great analysis of the real situation for the stupid whiners, Armas -- you pretty much laid it as it is.

Let's see if IBM will be able to ship those chips for the xbox consoles in time for Christmas, or if the xbox 360 ends up being majorly constrained when shipping at Christmas (i.e. they only shipped enough chips to claim they are shipping).

My guess is that that's what we'll see...

ZinkDifferent

If the new G5 IBM is talking about actually beats the Pentium-M in terms of speed and battery conciousness, then I have a million dollars to give you.

It's not totally impossible that the next PB is waiting on the Freescale MPC8641. "only" 1.6 GHz, but dual-core and with a faster memory bus than the Intel Pentium M, plus the most efficient core available, they should get at least comparable performance to Yonah.

And all in 10W including most of the support chipset.

I wouldn't bet on it, not with the Intel books coming in late '06, but the timelines DO match up.

airport extreme already (Free)...

FYI.

Not too shabby. For a great price, you get a pretty darn good machine (in the 12" model). Of course, there's the artificial delineation between the lines by dumbed down VRAM and lack of a Superdrive option, but great value for price.

It seems that with rare exception, most of you are whiners and will find anything to whine about as long as you can whine.

I will be the first to admit that the current iBook form factor is getting a bit stale after four years. But did anyone bother to think that perhaps, just perhaps, Apple has not changed the design because the form factor is in a sense an Apple trademark? Between the iMac G5 and ,more importantly, the iPod, the iBook design is easily recognizable as Apple. It matches the iPod. The young, iPod using high school/college student market is very important to Apple right now and that market is hooked on design and cool factor. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

And did any of your bother to consider the fact that the Intel switch is right around the corner and the first Macs to go Intel will be the consumer line? That means iBooks will be the first laptops to go Intel. Why come up with a completely new form factor now, something that will only be around a few months, when you will have to come up with yet another form factor for the Intel design?

If you pay attention to Apple's designs over the last few years, you will see that for the most part, major case redesigns happen around major chip or feature changes. Look at PowerBooks. New curvy cases on the switch from 1st Gen PPC to G3. New titanium cases on the switch from G3 to G4. New aluminum cases with the advent of the 17in form factor.

Following this logic, Apple should have probably redesigned the iBook with the switch to G4 processors. (Slightly done with the slot-loading drive.) OH, but wait... see above.

Now everyone quit your bitching.

OsakaBill hits the nail on the head. Thanks. It was like being in a room full of four year olds whining that they didn't get their dessert. Crimeny.

As I have predicted in the past.... the whiners are usually A. PC Trolls B. Still using a 1400, 3400 or even older laptop. The $1299 is a killer deal. Plain and simple. If you need to go and ask why the powerbooks are better, you must be ignorant. You are the kind of person who looks at two cars.... a Ferrari and a Ford Escort and sees them both as "just cars".... dual monitor support... DVI, back lit keyboard.. PC Card expansion, bigger screen options WITH higher resolution.... if this isn't enough to get a couple hundred bucks out of you, go back to playing dungeons and dragons in your mom's basement.

Does anyone here, who is not taking drugs (prescription or otherwise), honestly think that the "low power" G5 would find its way into the CONSUMER level iBook and Mac mini first?

OH, I understand. In addition to announcing revised Mac-minis and iBooks, you also wanted Apple to announce new PowerBooks as well. Or perhaps instead? Never mind the fact that it has been nearly 10 months since the last iBook revision and the Mac-mini is now a good, solid 6 months old. Never mind the fact that the current PowerBook line-up is only 3-4 months old. Never mind the fact that about this time next year Intel based PowerBooks should be available. Apple should defy all logic and set aside all its plans just to make a PowerBook G5 so you can be happy.

Small dose of reality, please.

As has been pointed out, the "low power" G5 still consumes far more power than the current G4 chip and generates far more heat. Try using a PowerBook G4 in your lap while rendering video. And you want something hotter in your lap? Or perhaps the idea of lugging around a 12 lb. laptop that only runs 60-90 minutes on its battery appeals to you?

Oh, and while you are popping chubbies about this lower power G5, take a moment to ask yourself if IBM has said it has started shipping this chips or has given a date when these chips will ship in quantity.

The iBook is meant for students-reg'lar folks can use it too, but it's designed, like the Emac, for the education field. If you're professional, get a Powerbook. I sincerely doubt we'll see a G5 laptop ever! and even if we do, I'll bet it's more akin to an iMac than a workstation. WE might get dual cores ( i imagine dual core intel chips are in the works) so that the chip could be swapped out. I'm pretty convinced that the 3 ghz g5 vapor chips for Apple have to do with heat and poser issues. I have an iMac g5 which is wonderful however it is NOISY and HOTTER than a taqueria in El paso in July. I'm glad Apple updated "lightly" and this time in time for the school season. Your next ibook refresh could be very interesting indeed.

Well, it sounds like we got a lot of experts here...

I don't see why you would demand a redesign, because from the first day the iBook came out up til today, I say that you can't ask for a more perfect design and complete machine. The iBook is incredibly beautiful, great compact design and has all I ever need! When they made the iBook, it was like they heard all my wishes. So long live the iBook!

...why Apple needs to redesign the iBook. It looks good, it functions.

I also don't understand why some people here think they should be given the moon for $999. It's the low end. It's not going to have a high end video card. Who cares if MacOS X has CoreImage? If you need it, get a PowerBook. If you don't (and I'm guessing you don't) then who cares?

MacOS X supports dual CPUs too, but I don't hear you whining that the iBook should have 2 CPUs.

Quote "For those whining about new designs, etc. All Apple Pro and Consumser computers are getting a redesign when they ship with Intel chips. Not before then."

this is the exact opposite of both what they should do, and what Steve Jobs promised would happen.

Steve Jobs said they had great products in development..powerpc based products that would continue to be released up until the intel transition...and truly apple has no particular reason to kill sales for the next two years...

probably they didn't do better because they 'cannot'...they just don't have the chips to speed bump...and also partly because they are doing what they promised they wouldn't...they are distracted by the transition and are going to drop the baton on the hand off.

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It sucks.

this is the exact opposite of both what they should do, and what Steve Jobs promised would happen.

Steve just said there are great PowerPC products in development, not that every new release they make would be a great new product.

And, to me at least, a redesigned iBook doesn't fall into the "great new products" category. That's more of a "here's a rehash of last year's iBook, this time with a fancy case - but same internals!"

Yeah, I was hoping new iBooks would finally be revised with transparent aluminum casing.

Oh wait, that's not until the 23rd century.

Mcheih .... how do you know that Apple didn't invent the stuff? :-)

not to be argumentative, but the same thinking that keeps people from buying powerpc when they know intel is around the corner...that same type of logic plagues middle management at any large company.

Middle managers are stupid. Lets get that out of the way. They know they aren't really that smart, so they look for intelligent ideas, looking to borrow them anywhere.

Its only a matter of time before middle management 'figures out' that they need to stop putting money into powerpc development, because intel is the future of apple.

they will summarily kill projects and decide they can appease people by increasing the amount of stock ram and taking formerly optional features and bundling them.

yeah yeah...easy to say in hindsight, but I'm not sure everyone even realizes what we are witnessing.

This sucks...because we do really have to wait on intel now....I hate these stutter steps...apple was finally clicking.

A couple of interesting things about the specs in the new iBooks.

Though they come with 32MB of VRAM, the chip itself is a Radeon 9550. Core Image depends not on the amount of RAM but on the GPU. Core Image requires an ATi 9600 or above or an ATi mobility 9700 or higher. The question is, where does the 9550 fit in?

The other interesting spec is the bus speed. Instead of 167 MHz, the bus speed is exactly 1/10th the processor speed (133 MHz and 142 MHz respectively). This may indicate that these iBooks use the new G4 derivative processors from FreeScale.

You can now get bt 2.0 + edr. Hmmnn...ok that's good. There's like almost no devices that use it, but it means you have the highest possible compatibility w/ older devices and w/ 2.0 devs you get better battery life. That's a plus. Built in airport..erm. yeah that's always good. Been there....and it's in most consumer machines anyways, but it's still good. Does the chip support core image? Doesn't the graphics page say " What’s more, the Radeon 9550 renders incredibly realistic graphics, thanks to support from the latest advances in programmability" so maybe you get it and maybe you don't and the same goes for the as yet unimplemented quartz 2d extreme..then again you're falling back to a faster processor (did anyone even consider that in the graphics argument?) so the buzzword technologies aren't that important. Sure, more graphics memory would be good, but if I was to spend 999 I would want more normal memory 512 for a budget buyer. Mouse gesture type trackpad thing...yeah guess we gotta wait for intel processors before Apple goes back to putting more than one button on their portables (this is still a really lame thing across the apple line since multibutton trackpads are cheap as dirt). But hey..it's a little better trackpad manager and maybe it avoids accidental input better. Sudden Motion Sensor: about time. This should have gone into the ibooks w/ their cheap as h*** drives to begin w/. If you have not had a bad block on your drive yet (not automatically mapped out) then you just haven't used your old ibook enough. 'SMS' yeah it's taken...OWNS. This is huge for keeping your data safe and computer functional. It's just underappreciated. As to the case...Whoever thinks the latest revision w/ the matte texture is cool can go worship the moto/freescale/ibm gods again. Sorry. The previous version w/ the aluminum and white looked MUCH better imho and didn't get anywhere near as dirty as the new version does. They could have trimmed the thing a bit better b/c it doesn't look ipod/imac-like. It looks cheap. Ipods got chrome. imacs have an aluminum stand and silver grill. These are vroom aspects...in comparison..the ibook looks like a pontiac fiero. (sorry to any fiero owners). It's like a rebranded isuzu sneaking into the GM lineup. Just get on w/ the redesign or give us some kinda overlay to cover the ugliness.. Remember the ive's ravign about the hinge video..oh yeah those hinges going back that far are just great (they could have been working on swivel and flat hinges but no). So for the guts good..for the body...still gory and the older ones were better.

Anyone else notice that these new iBooks have the 512MB RAM built-in. Sitting here on my 1.5Ghz 12" PB feeling stink cos it has only 256 built-in-- iBook can fit more RAM than my 'BETTER' PowerBook. Apart from if your running two screens there is NO reason to buy the PowerBook. Wish I could go back and buy the iBook, put the money saved on PowerBook and 17" LCD toward an iMac for home too.

The extra 32M of VRAM is going to make a LOT more difference to performance under Tiger than the extra 256M of SDRAM.

Too bad I didn't wait 15 days to get my brand new iBook but whatever. Funny how the Mac geeks are so eager to claw at Apple's throat. So much for loyalty.

I'm Donald, I'm a regular consumer these iBooks are clearly marketted for, and I am a very happy owner of a iBook 1.2Ghz G4 model.

I surf the net, participate in these BBS/blog sites, write e-mail, listen to music, use GarageBand, play Unreal 2004 and Simcity 4.

It works, it's pretty fast, and get this I only have 256MB of RAM, wait until I up the RAM. :D Of course 512MB now comes built in to the iBook now. Sweet? Yes.

what EXACTLY about having an Intel processor will make them decide yo need more than one button on a mouse / trackpad?

The PowerBooks GPU is better but if you check out xlr8yourmac.com the iBook's new card is Core Image capable, which seems to be the main UI hang-up on Tiger. Once your past that, if you are a user like me (always on the net, giving presentations, doing heaps of database work BUT no games or 3D) the graphics card aint matter too much. Faster hard-drives and more memory are key in my position. Mind you...the PowerBook is still one up on the iBook in that it has a faster hard drive.

This is probably the last (or second to last) update for the PPC machines. So no major changes, but some nice upgrades. I'd rather have a widescreen iBook this time next year, and buy something older and cheaper until then.

As for the guy tired of seeing "250+ iBooks," try seeing 25 Dells and Toshibas, all running XP, and being responsible for them. Helping someone by introducing them to Mozilla, and being told installing it is probably "why they can't find one of their e-mails."

sniff

sniff

sniff

Now for a real test....