Apple Announces New iBooks 678
vasqzr writes "Apple has announced new iBooks. New features include G4 processor up to 1.33GHz, built-in wireless networking capability, a DVD-burning SuperDrive and up to 1.25GB of memory. G5 PowerBooks can only be closer...They also show a single processor 1.8GHz G5 PowerMac desktop for $1,499"
Price Matching now? (Score:5, Informative)
Price Match details and FAQ [apple.com]
I usually only see the resellers selling for $3 or $4 less on most products though, so not sure how much this will help sales. Where Apple seems to maybe get bitten on this is when resellers are bundling printers and other items with big hardware purchases.
Re:Price Matching now? (Score:3, Informative)
From the price match faq:
"Bundled, used, refurbished, discontinued, demonstration or exhibit products, and products from other manufacturers are not eligible."
Re:Price Matching now? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Price Matching now? (Score:5, Insightful)
90-day warranty on some models.
7lb, 2-inch thick 'portable'
1.5 hour battery life!
2.2 GHz Celeron processor (1100), or a 2.8GHz P4 (115)
No CD-RW (1150)
Integrated graphics adapter
Let me tell you what you don't get:
BlueTooth
Firewire
AirPort wireless networking
S-VIDEO/Composite output
You can't even get a 12.1" notebook from Dell unless you pay $1,159
Re:Price Matching now? (Score:4, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Price Matching now? (Score:4, Informative)
Your two definitions of "integrated" got confused. He was saying it's not integrated into the chipset as part of the northbridge, as many x86 machines are. You know the ones, where they have video memory "shared" with system RAM. On the iBook, the Radeon is separate from the system chipset. It has its own memory, and hence its own bandwidth. This is a better solution from a performance point of view, though a bit more expensive to produce since it makes the motherboard bigger, and requires extra memory.
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Stop spreading FUD (Score:5, Informative)
I can't find the 1100 Dell's web site but I found (Score:5, Informative)
-No S Video
-No Radeon 9200 (i.e. integrated shit video)
-No combo drive for the $999 one
-No firewire
-No PCMCIA
FYI, wireless was debuted by Apple in an *iBook*. That's right, the first machine shipped by Apple to have AirPort was an iBook so no it's not a recent change. I am yet to see more than an hour and a half hours of life from any PC non-Centrino laptop (the bricks with two batteries not counted). Your girlfriend has one hell of a laptop there for $999.
Re:Price Matching now? (Score:4, Interesting)
I know you weren't trying to do a direct comparison, but the Dell you referenced is not really an equivalent machine:
$799 is only after a $150 mail-in rebate, which means you pay tax on the full $949 and your rebate check will take months to arrive.
Add $59 for the 802.11a/g wireless card to bring it into parity with the iBook - can you possibly imagine a portable computer without WiFi these days?
Add $39 for an upgrade to a normal battery - the one they bundle with the cheapo model is intentionally crippled.
And you're still stuck with integrated video, instead of what Apple gives you: ATI's Mobility Radeon 9200 graphics with 32MB of dedicated DDR memory and AGP 4X support! Not bad for a sub-$1000 laptop.
Finally, also note that Apple is selling the discontinued models for as low as $700, while supplies last.
Re:Price Matching now? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Price Matching now? (Score:5, Insightful)
So if you're like my brother and bought an iBook two weeks ago, you're screwed.
Re:Price Matching now? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Price Matching now? (Score:5, Interesting)
Up until this point my experiance with ordering from Apple has been pleasant. Now I'm absolutely positive that buying a Mac was a good idea.
Re:Price Matching now? (Score:5, Funny)
It's been 20 years. Let it go...or seek counseling!
Re:Price Matching now? (Score:3, Informative)
I bought an iBook from Small Dog Electronics [smalldog.com] a few months ago for several hundred dollars less than everywhere else was charging. I'm not sure why they were the only ones that seemed to be substantially cheaper than buying direct from Apple, but I was quite happy with the purchase.
Re:Price Matching now? (Score:4, Interesting)
Small Dog Electronics is an Authorized Apple Reseller and Service Provider. Due to contract limitations imposed by Apple, sales of New Apple Products on the internet is limited to current customers of Small Dog Electronics. If you aren't a current customer with a user name & log-on password, please visit our Waitsfield, Vermont location.
So the only way I can buy a new iBook from them is to drive 8+ hours to Vermont and register? Apple is definitely not reseller friendly and only consumer friendly if you buy from them. I'd like to own some Apple hardware one day but I can never justify the premium I'd have to pay when on a limited budget.
Re:Price Matching now? (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, you can buy a refurbished or used or non-Apple product from Small Dog. Buy a third-party mouse or something. Then you'll be a customer. Then order whatever the heck you want. So, no driving to Vermont is not the only way.
In general, it's true that, excepting 'closeout special' offers and refurbs, you'll not get much of a better deal from Small Dog than Apple directly, excluding perhaps sales tax. That fact aside, Small Dog and several other small Apple Resellers do quite well by purchasing and selling the discontinued or soon-to-be discontinued stuff Apple has sitting around in warehouses, though that doesn't tend to happen often, thus 'small' businesses. And you can often get that stuff from them at a pretty decent discount.
And yea, I'm a happy Small Dog customer, glad to recommend these guys. Getting in on their offers is definitely worth buying something small and random before ordering new computer systems. Actually, I bought a refubished iMac... which was very like new, except several hundred dollars cheaper. With full warranty.
Yea, so Apple would rather have your business directly... I'm no fan of their reseller practices, but it's easy to work around and a hell of a lot more competition-friendly than Microsoft's ( or Dell's ) practices...
Re:Price Matching now? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Price Matching now? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Price Matching now? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Price Matching now? (Score:5, Interesting)
Which is why resellers advertise bundles at the listed MAP - it gets them around the requirement and still lets them undersell in a way that passes Apple's muster.
Also new Xserve RAID; pricing (Score:5, Informative)
Also, with the new 1.2GHz iBook with 256MB RAM, 30GB drive, and 802.11g wireless coming in at $899 (education), and the eMacs and iMac G5s coming in at $599 and $1099 (education), respectively, I fail to see how people continue to say Macs are too expensive. Even Walt Mossberg notes [wsj.com] "If you tried to match the specs of the base iMac G5 in a traditional Dell tower, you'd also pay more. A Dell Dimension 4600, with the best processor, Windows XP Pro, the best 17-inch flat-panel monitor, a CD recorder and the same graphics card, costs $7 more than the 17-inch iMac. And it's much bulkier and uglier."
Re:Also new Xserve RAID; pricing (Score:5, Informative)
I'm not. Walt Mossberg was comparing retail.
And as for the education prices, if you add $100, you get retail.
Secondly, from everything I've read, you in no way need to get the best Intel chip available to compare with Apple in terms of speed. Everything I've read says that you need Apple's top processor/memory packages to make OSX zippy.
Well, that's completely and totally wrong, since first, it's subjective, and second, you most certainly do not need the "top processor/memory packages" to make OS X "zippy".
Plus, I have no idea what you're looking at, but Dell's chapest PC is $469 with monitor, while Apple's seems to be $799 with that ridiculous monitor built in, plus with half as much RAM.
Take it up with Walt Mossberg [wsj.com]. He's not even an "Apple guy". And someone will ALWAYS come up with some configuration of something else that's "cheaper" than some model of Mac. You can ALWAYS do this. Christ, if you think it's a rip off (it's not), don't buy one (and I imagine you won't).
Re:Also new Xserve RAID; pricing (Score:5, Insightful)
However, telling everyone that you think Mac's are a "very expensive doorstop" in a business setting just shows your lack of knowledge. I write code for a living and shudder at the thought of being forced back onto a Windows machine. Fortunately the companies I contract with don't care what operating system I use as long as the code works. There are many other people in my line of work who us Apple computers instead of Windows. Or perhaps we are all glorified graphic artists?
Apple computers have their place. I see people in every part of the corporate infrastructure using them day in and day out and very happy about it. Just because you don't feel they are a good deal does not make it so.
As for your price comparison, no one every said that Apple computers compete at the bottom of the price brackets. Never have, doubt they ever will. However, when you compare mid-range and high end systems, that is where the deal is to be made. Dell competes at the bottom, Apple competes at the top.
Re:Also new Xserve RAID; pricing (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Also new Xserve RAID; pricing (Score:5, Insightful)
"Playing" does not acclimatize you to the workings of the system. If you are good at using windows and not good at using OS X, then you will be faster on windows. If you are good at using both, then you will be faster on OS X due to time saved through a more efficient and better designed user environment combined with fewer maintenance needs. Other applications will not steal focus, exposé allows you to access your needed applications more quickly. I still find it astonishing that microsoft has not streamlined the entering and selection of multiple network configuration through a simple interface [osxfaq.com]. Most people don't know how or want to create scripted netsh commands. And you don't waste your time worrying about patching and rebooting for worm avoidance, keeping your lusers out of IE for spyware avoidance, maintaining firewall rules, and keeping your antivirus up to date. Windows is becoming more and more annoying because you have to manage all kinds of little things in order to keep it safe, secure and working smoothly. You don't have to worry about any of this on a mac and so your time is spent doing your work instead of maintaining the system.
As to just plugging in and working, I hope that you are behind a router or firewall or a mac/linux box sharing the connection, because just plugging an XP box into a broadband connection ill get you owned by a worm in under an hour, even if you do absolutely nothing. This is of much safer with a mac (but of course not perfectly safe with a mac or linux or anything else.) If you want to do that with XP, you'll have to get hundreds of MB of updates (I hope you download faster than the trojans find you), and turn off your network messenger to avoid the popups, shut off your uPnP to avoid vulnerabilities, and probably get a firewall set up because it's next to impossbile to close all ports on a windows box.
And when you are done with the mac, you can sell it of course. My iBook is 20 months old now and on eBay it's still going for 40-45% of what I purchased it for. Can you sell an x86 box for 40-45% of its original purchase price after 20 months of use?
Don't get me wrong, I have windows, linux and mac machines. I use each one for what it's good at. And the mac is good for getting work done. And I have found that when it comes down to doing work, if you are good at using all systems, the mac is by far the least intrusive and just gets out of the way so you can do what you're doing.
Of course, you can indeed patch up your XP box to make it almost as safe as a mac, requiring plenty of time installing the patches and installing/configuring third party software. And this takes a lot of time. How many $/h is your time worth? What's the difference in price between a mac and PC (even though it is totally an apples and oranges comparison to begin with?)
x86 is only cheaper than mac if your time has no value.
Re:Also new Xserve RAID; pricing (Score:5, Insightful)
Now if you actually started to configure that 469 deal with "firewire" and other features the mac includes and a decent gfx card to match, it ends up costing more. This is known as reeling people in with "bait". That monitor they include is a piece of crap and nobody in their right mind would used that on a daily basis with it's low refresh rates that make even the Emac monitor look bad.
Did you see the low end ibook price? Got anything bad to say about it?
Re:Also new Xserve RAID; pricing (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Also new Xserve RAID; pricing (Score:4, Funny)
I think I've worked out why your new PC laptop was cheap...
Re:Also new Xserve RAID; pricing (Score:4, Interesting)
I've got OS X 10.3 and might pass on 10.4 because the new features coming up don't interest me. But going from 10.2 to 10.3 was a major step in terms of system performance and features. Our old Blue & White G3 400 actually got faster when we upgraded to 10.3.
Re:Also new Xserve RAID; pricing (Score:4, Informative)
However, he's most likely wrong about it not speeding up your machine. I had a 400mhz PowerBook G4 when it was first introduced, and the menus were pretty sluggish. Quartz Extreme fixed this when I upgraded to the 1ghz model. But then I sold that and temporarily got a 400mhz PowerBook again with Panther.
It was much, much faster than my original 400mhz PowerBook. Menus and basic functions were almost as fast as the 1ghz model. Of course meaty processor-intensive functions were a lot slower, but the point I'm making is that the optimizations made even an old machine shine.
The other major advantage is that the Finder has really been smoothed up nicely. It works a lot better than in earlier versions because they noticed a lot of the usability bottlenecks and fixed them.
Of course at this point you might just want to wait until Tiger (you have maybe six months to go) unless you can get Panther cheap.
D
Re:Also new Xserve RAID; pricing (Score:4, Interesting)
Didn't MS charge for the point upgrade from 2000 Pro to XP Pro (5.0-5.1)? Version numbering is completely arbitrary and is not a way to measure whether a version is a major upgrade or not.
I work in software development and sometimes version number increases are done for versioning reasons rather than by the amount of features.
Re:Also new Xserve RAID; pricing (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I'm curious... (Score:3)
It was pretty cool compiling libpcap and snort and just having it work.
I bought my 12" ibook about two weeks ago ($999 refurb)...I've gotta say I don't feel too put out that I had to pay for the airport extreme card ($70 refurb) as the only real difference was the
I've had 6 or 7 really intensive things go
Bus speed nitpick... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Bus speed nitpick... (Score:5, Interesting)
I expect to see the 7448 as an incremental update to the PowerBooks, until apple can stick the MPC8461D dual-cores in their place later next year. Apple is, as usual, playing their cards close to their chest, but anyone that's been paying attention to Freescale's moves knows that Crolles2 is online and rolling out parts from the production lines. They've got functional 90nm production, the last I heard, and are working on tooling for samples at 65nm in 2005.
Re:Yeah, with Crolles2, the 7448 and the MPC7448 (Score:5, Informative)
The processors that Apple dubbed the "G4" are various iterations of the Motorola 74xx core. Targetted at the embedded and low-power draw computing markets, originally, the highly efficient design was very competitive with anything else in the same price bracket for a while.
When Motorla spun off their semiconductor division, it took the name Freescale and began to ally itself with other technology firms. Right now, Freescale, Phillips, and STMicroelectronics [freescale.com] are sharing fabrication space in a facility they built in France. This site, known as Crolles2, is intended to be a next-generation workhorse and research lab, where they can apply the lessons learned from the failing and lagging Motorola line. They'd had successfuly 90nm test runs as early as 2003, with engineering samples being produces in 2004, and a plan to start the sampling process for 65nm in 2005.
The product line for Freescale is one of legacy - older Motorla cores like the 74xx series, the 603e, and others - and some new designs. Among the new designs are the e300 and e500 embedded systems chips (shipping now), and the e600 and e700 [freescale.com] designs. The first appearance of the once-e600 will be the MPC9461D, which is a dual-core enhanced 74xx chip that will have two 128-bit AltiVec SIMD units, 1 MB of L2 cache per processor, on-die memory control and access to DDR2 (up to 667mhz), four on-die MACs for networking, encryption protocol support on the chip, and the ability to scale past 1.5ghz (the current high-end for 74xx cores).
As a stepping stone between the present [freescale.com] and the future, [eetimes.com] Freescale is revising the existing MPC7447A processor. Breaking from the traditional upper limit of 167mhz on the MPX system bus, they're offering it at 200mhz on the bus, with a jump in core frequency to 1.8ghz. This compares to the previous high-end chips, the MPC7447A and older 7445/7455, with higher clocks and system access ability but lower power draw.
There... Just as geeky, but now more informative.
Powerbook soon to follow (Score:5, Insightful)
sofa king sick of naysayers (Score:5, Funny)
Even though... (Score:4, Insightful)
From what I've seen, Apple is not really afraid to take risks (hence the IMac design, 2nd IMac design and the latest IMac, OSX). I've also been quite impressed by their network/server solutions, they do seem to have a lot of horsepower for their intended job.
Even though I'm not buying one (I'm more of a PC gamer/tech than an Apple one), I hope they will do well in the future
No relation to ibook and g5 PB (Score:5, Insightful)
However, There really is no correlation between improved iBooks and the problems that apple face in getting the G5 to stay cool enough for use in the powerbook design. It's just wishful thinking.
Re:No relation to ibook and g5 PB (Score:3, Informative)
Can't wait for a G5 Powerbook, but it's going to be a while I think. I think we'll see another revision of the G4 Powerbooks first.
It might be interesting if they went dual-core on the Powerbooks actually. Probably similar heat problems though.
yet more confusion between ibook and powerbook (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:yet more confusion between ibook and powerbook (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:yet more confusion between ibook and powerbook (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes. Wait, No.
"Need" is one of those funny bendable words. I just helped someone who's fairly broke get a low-end iBook in order to finish postproduction on a major project (12 one-hour training videos). It's working fine, just a little slow switching in and out of Photoshop and FCP (needs more RAM and hasn't started the dual monitor hack yet).
I have friends who are getting short (20+ mins.) films into major festivals using souped-up G3 450's, and I'm busy (ahem, /. aside) running a 1hr. feature through a dual 450. Yes, faster machines make for better render times, but you need to take a break anyway (and need to respect your deadlines well). The real speed comes with knowing what you're doing, and that's wetware not hardware.
Don't believe the hype. Rendering speed is only a major issue when you have to cycle stuff out the door quickly to make the bucks. Otherwise, the interface is responsive enough, and I generally get just as much done on the G4 dual450 as I do on the spanky fast dualG5, if it's basic editing.
Re:yet more confusion between ibook and powerbook (Score:5, Informative)
More built-ins: 802.11g, BT, larger HD. More video RAM, which i guess is more important with Quartz. Better case (aluminium > plastic
*That was actually important for my Corpo sister. She can't go on a board meeting with a shiny, cutesy iBook.
Re:yet more confusion between ibook and powerbook (Score:3, Informative)
Re:yet more confusion between ibook and powerbook (Score:5, Informative)
Re:yet more confusion between ibook and powerbook (Score:4, Informative)
I've got it enabled on my iBook (the first model, G3/800, in the white plastic design).
Re:yet more confusion between ibook and powerbook (Score:4, Interesting)
I really want a 12" though! I've been eyeing the refurb 12" PBs on Apple's special deals page for quite a while now.
With this refresh of the iBook line, however, I think I can wait a bit longer and see what they do with the PBs in the next few months. I'd be shocked to see G5 PBs, but there's a lot they could do to make the PB line more appealing, better graphics being one.
Anyway, if they haven't released or announced anything by MWSF, I might just settle.
Re:yet more confusion between ibook and powerbook (Score:3, Informative)
Re:yet more confusion between ibook and powerbook (Score:4, Insightful)
While I haven't looked in a while, I recall some points about the PowerBook seemed better than the iBook for video uses. The ability to plug in a second monitor at home was one (Final Cut loves screen space).
Powerbooks have their downside though. The metal case on mine has become very scratched and ugly (definitely get a case designed for a PowerBook to carry it in if you get a PB). The thin DVD drive right below the palm rest seems succeptible to skipping when I have my hand on the rest and typing away. The metal case does seem to offer slightly worse WiFi reception that the iBook (not by much, but it is noticable). And the plastic feet just never, ever stay on (which probably leads to more scratches on its bottom). None of these are horrible defects, but that tough, shiny motorcycle plastic body on the iBook is actually a very good thing if your machine is constantly on the move.
Honestly, I think either iBook or PowerBook will work well for college tasks of writing papers and so forth. I think the iBook is better constructed for the rough college life, but the PowerBook has a bit more oomf and video versatility that may make video editing more comfortable. Both seem quite fashionable on my campus though.
Also Xserve RAID (Score:4, Interesting)
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/sep/19raid.h
Still mirrored video (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple still cripples the iBook with mirrored-only video. No desktop spanning. The Radeon chipsets they use do support it, but Apple reserves that feature for the Powerbooks.
Should $1800 really be the cost of entry for a dual-head capable laptop in 2004? And if Apple really wants to make Bluetooth ubiquitous it's probably time to make it standard equipment on every machine like they did with USB and 1394.
Re:Still mirrored video (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.rutemoeller.com/mp/ibook/ibook_e.htm
This works well, is incredibly easy to do, and can be reverted at any time.
Re:Still mirrored video (Score:5, Informative)
I've no idea why they continue do it, but it's easily worked around [rutemoeller.com].
Re:Still mirrored video (Score:3, Interesting)
I've produced 7 or 8 DVDs (mostly concert movies) on my 12" Powerbook 12" (867Mhz, 640MB, 60GB) at that resolution. It works fine for me working alone.
After all, 1024x768 is similar or better resolution to NTSC, right? If you are putting fine detail in a video that you need a big screen to see properly, will it really come over well on the typical system?
However, when I did a "showing" for a band so we could chop one of their gigs down to a three-live-track promo, I s
Re:Still mirrored video (Score:3, Informative)
You can update the flash memory on the iBook to allow dual screen support. I was torn between a powerbook and my iBook but in the end I decided that the difference in price for the dual screen capability wasn't worth it. Then I found you could patch the iBook to support the feature and I have been extremely happy as a result.
My iBo
Knoppix-like Linux for iBook? (Score:5, Interesting)
When I travel, I prefer the iBook because it's small/light, has a better keyboard than most laptops (though nothing like an IBM's, sadly), and gets good battery life.
However, when I'm near an outlet at least, I prefer my Toshiba laptop or other intel-type machine just because I like the gigantic rafts of software that come with a typical Linux distro, I like auto-raise windows (is there any way to do this with OS X?) and virtual desktops (again -- maybe they exist for OS X, but I don't see built-in to the OS
Also, though I understand it to be a nice application, I don't use iTunes (though I have used it) and don't at this date own an iPod (though I might one day). I am not a big fan of the iTunes interface -- many people like it, and I'll call it better than most interfaces but just not my thing. When I pop in a CD, it used to annoy me that iTunes would load rather than a simpler CD player app. So I'm perhaps not the typical OS X users
So:
Is there any current live Linux CD that will a) work spiffily - wireless, sound, sleep, keyboard controls for brightness and sound - on all current macs, or even all G3/G4 current macs? and b) serve as an easy installer, the way Knoppix or Mepis (or a bunch of others) will on x86?
Something that comes with OpenOffice (with good fonts), AbiWord, The GIMP, XMMS, mplayer / vlc / firefox / gaim / several window managers would be good. Yes, I know some if not all of these are available for OS X, but only piecemeal afaik.
I'm not knocking OS X: it's a very nice OS. I like it. However, I'd rather have a Linux desktop in general (I like the underlying software as well as the application software to be Free, for one thing, and for another thing, there's no accounting for taste), and I'm lazy. I've tried -- last year sometime -- the Gentoo PPC live CD, which was slow and IMO buggy on my iBook, and took googling just to find out how to reach X. There's been a PPC knoppix version, but I don't see any versions newer than July 2003. (Which might be OK, I have not yet tried that on my iBook.)
Since the iBook hardware (and Apple hardware in general) is pretty stable (not to say "limited"
timothy
p.s. Really, I've read the flames on this topic before, so you can just say "FLAME" if you want; I'll get your meaning, and you'll save your wrists. I like OS X and do not demand that Live CD-Installers exist, but I am hopeful and curious.
Re:Knoppix-like Linux for iBook? (Score:3, Informative)
Yes. Try out CodeTek Virtual Desktop... not only will it give you virtual desktops, more than you can shake a stick at... but it also gives you the option of 'Focus-Follows-Mouse'... check it out here:
http://codetek.com/ctvd/ [codetek.com]
Re:Knoppix-like Linux for iBook? (Score:5, Informative)
Install the X11 server from apple. Then go to fink.sourceforge.net. Install fink.
Then type things like "fink install bundle-gnome", "fink install gimp". "fink install windowmaker". OpenOffice distributes a binary for OSX www.openoffice.org
In X11 preferences menu, set to Full Screen. Now you can run any window manager you like, full screen, command-option-A will swap you back to your normal OS X desktop. Set your xinitrc files to load the wm you want, and/or start gnome, etc...
Another handy hint: add the line "export DISPLAY=:0.0" to your
Best of both worlds!
-Spyky
I read about this yesterday (Score:4, Informative)
Today's Theme: Enterprise (Score:5, Insightful)
1.) They released a new iBook, at a lower price point, with more included than before. A fully useful Mac laptop is now $999.
2.) They released a new XServe RAID. They are competing at $2 a gig. This is much more aggressive pricing than their competitors, allowing them to edge into the enterprise based both on price and performance.
3.) They now offer a single processor low-end G5. This lowers the price of entry into their pro-range. It helps keep up with demand, given that supply of G5 processors is an issue.
What is this all about? Well, it lowers the price of entry for the platform. That is good for average consumers, and wooing people to the platform.
However, look at which units these are. The low-end G5 is a great office machine. This is the computer you put under your desk. The iBook is a great laptop for someone who already has a desktop. The XServe RAID gets Macs into the server room. This is all about the Enterprise. Go for the solid midrange, and they will come.
Re:Today's Theme: Enterprise (Score:4, Informative)
Still Radeon 9200 Mobility? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Still Radeon 9200 Mobility? (Score:4, Informative)
Core Image, like Core Audio, is an optional toolset for people who feel like adding on to their programs. It's not at all a requirement to use the enhancements in Tiger. Hell, if Apple keeps up their delivery on performance, Tiger will probably be even faster than previous iterations, depending on how they handle Spotlight and the other new features.
1024? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:1024? (Score:4, Interesting)
What's the use of more pixels if you can't see any of them?
Meh. I can build the equivilent pc for... (Score:4, Funny)
Rest assured... (Score:4, Interesting)
Here's a little maths for you:
A 17-inch 1.8GHz iMac is $US1,499, or $AU2,499.
A 1.8GHz Power Mac is $US1,499, or $AU2,699.
So, why the $200?
Re:Price point (Score:5, Funny)
Welcome to the world of technology where it's obsolete the moment you buy it.
I would still go with the PowerMac (Score:3, Interesting)
In one year, I will want a new video card. In 1 1/2 years a second hard disk, one year later a third.
Maybe, in a few years, processor upgrade cards become available.
My current Mac used to be a Powermac G4 running at 400Mhz, a 20 gig HD and a really slow ATI video card.
Now it's a Dual-1Ghz (Powerlogix), 1.5 GB RAM, 3 Harddisks and a ATI Radeon 8500 (I also need video-out for watching films o the TV). Considering I bought the system more t
Comparable? (Score:3, Insightful)
If you had said $1000, I might believe you. Apparently you've not seen a Power Mac G5 before, nor taken a good look at its specs.
Re:Heh (Score:5, Insightful)
You're going to tell me that every part in the bottom-of-the-barrel crap case, motherboard, etc., you're going to buy for your build-it-yourself Athlon64 are just as good as what Apple is using in the Power Mac G5? And NO, I'm not talking about things that are predictable and/or identical no matter where you buy them, like the video card and processor...I'm talking about the power supply, case, the RAM you select, the sound capability (Power Mac G5 has optical in and out, etc., so you have to take that into account), no single vendor support (some people actually care about this), no #1 Consumer Reports ranking for tech support, quality, need for repairs, etc. (some people actually care about this), no fantastic industrial design of the case in general (some people actually care about this).
Look, if you want a whitebox homebuilt, that's your business. And YOU might personally consider it "comparable", but it's not.
Re:1499 is too much (Score:5, Insightful)
I love X. But it's just sooooo unfair for X to do this. Y does it so much better, I just can't believe it!
PS - I'm a huge fan of X, so what I'm saying MUST be true!
Example (Score:5, Interesting)
$100 - Motherboard
$100 - Radeon 9600-class video card
$50 - Case and power supply
$60 - 80GB SATA drive
$30 - 256MB RAM
-----
$490
So you're telling me that this machine is *comparable* to a Power Mac G5? If you don't care about quality assurance, support, dealing with a single vendor, survey-proven reliability, industrial design, or anything else relating to Apple hardware and specifically the Power Mac G5, great...build your own box. But if you CARE about any of those things, you're automatically talking about someone like Dell, and any Dell machine under $1000 is most certainly nowhere near in the same class of construction as a Power Mac G5.
And perhaps you missed Walt Mossberg's recent column (http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20040923.html
"If you tried to match the specs of the base iMac G5 in a traditional Dell tower, you'd also pay more. A Dell Dimension 4600, with the best processor, Windows XP Pro, the best 17-inch flat-panel monitor, a CD recorder and the same graphics card, costs $7 more than the 17-inch iMac. And it's much bulkier and uglier."
Of course, you can change a million different options and everything is up for debate, but this idea that "Macs are so expensive" - especially in an institutional setting when TCO is considered - is very, very tired.
Re:Example (Score:5, Insightful)
I said, "that's why I use a Mac." He told me he wanted a Mac, but they were $200-$300 more expensive! I just can't understand that mindset. Sure, but just think of the time savings. My Macs never break. They never get viruses. I don't have to worry about virus scanners and spyware and all the rest of that garbage. I'll crash maybe once every two months. How is all that time saved not worth a few hundred bucks, especially when a computer is vital to your business?
While it may be ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:While it may be ... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:1499 is too much (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, I have had experience with both single and dual processor G4 and G5 machines, and the speed boost is no small deal
I was skeptical at first too, given that on Windows machines I am used to an intensive application sucking up all of one processor and just letting the other take care of mouse clicks in the GUI. However, with Apple software, and actaully a lot of non-apple software I have found that it thread very, very well, and utilizes both processors to their maximum almost all of the time during an intensive process.
Just a FYI that I have noticed working with these in the past
Re:Not News (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Is it just me... (Score:5, Insightful)
So, smaller laptop with longer battery-life, AND better CPU (Pentium-M is good, but those aren't usually in low-end machines)? Sounds like a good deal to me!
Re:Is it just me... (Score:4, Interesting)
Having used a low-end Mac and a high-end Viao, the Mac is a much more complete package. You aren't running an OS with Laptop drivers bolted into it. You are running an OS that was designed for your Laptop and vice versa.
Software upgrades on PC laptops are horrible. My 505 came with Windows ME. I had so much fun trying to upgrade the puppy to XP that I finally reformatted the thing and ran Linux. (First RedHat, then Gentoo.) Apple stuff tends to upgrade very well, assuming you have enough RAM and horsepower. It's easy to find an 8 year old Mac serving files.
An 8 year old x86 would have been thrown out by now. A top of the line box would have been a 200Mhz Pentium Classic then. My cutoff date for a salvageble PC is a PII 450, Circa 1998.
Re:Is it just me... (Score:3, Insightful)
But in terms of hardware, System Shootout [systemshootouts.org] lists a 1.33GHz G4 as the same 1.5Ghz Pentium-M. They're two different architectures, so as always take any such comparisons with a grain a salt.
Re:Is it just me... (Score:4, Informative)
I was really under the impression that the new Pentium M chips are fast, but its performance was really quite poor compared to my powerbook. I haven't done any application benchmarking, but I can tell you for sure that the Powerbook feels much faster.
The G4 and Pentium certainly can't be compared clock for clock. You would get people equating a 1.5 G4 with anything between a 1.8-2.5 Ghz Pentium 4. All I can tell you is that the Powerbook feels very responsive, much more so than any Pentium M or Pentium 4 laptop I've used (I haven't yet used the psycho Alienware type laptops).
Re:No "Combo Drive", thanks. (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, like Longhorn, 10.4 will apparently require a DVD drive.
In other words, don't be so shortsighted
Re:No "Combo Drive", thanks. (Score:4, Insightful)
Probably not a lower price tag at all. Since the drives are built into the machines, it would mean that Apple would have to produce a third version of each iBook, and one that would be in very low demand.
We're talking HIGHER price tag for that, not lower. Cost of a product is a lot more than just the sum of the values/costs of the parts.
Moderators! (Score:3, Insightful)
At the very least it was a throwaway comment that doesn't need any moderation... but a -1?
I've got to meta-moderate more...
Re:Off Topic Apple Question (Score:3, Informative)
You really don't want to get a G3 these days; even though OSX will run on it, it's going to run dead-slow.
And buy more ram. No matter what Apple says, you need more ram.
Re:Off Topic Apple Question (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Off Topic Apple Question (Score:3, Interesting)
Hey, I was in your shoes two years ago. I did switch and... I am still using the system that I bought. Here is what I got:
1. PowerMac G4 867MHz.
2. 768MB of RAM.
3. No monitor.
I bought the box from a local retailer, SmallDog Electronics (Vermont) and used my old monitor with it. So far, it has been great. If you do not want to shell out mad cash, get a used system. If I were you, I'd get something with a CPU 1+ MHz and spend extra bucks on memory. I do Java development, surfing and video editing from ti
all I have is a G3 iBook (Score:3, Informative)
video editing with iMovie
Photoshop
Illustrator
InDesign
GoLive
I usually have 3 browsers open plus iTunes going, plus several other things going on.
all on 640mb of RAM and OS 10.2.8, once I move to Panther (10.3) I expect a bit more performance.
so basically, anything you buy will be better than what I have and what I have is fine for what you want.
Re:Trackpoint anyone? Or maybe Slower processor? (Score:3, Insightful)
Then again, I can't stand the trackpoints in general either.
Re:Trackpoint anyone? Or maybe Slower processor? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Is there an adapter for s-video to normal video (Score:3, Informative)
Anyway, yes, you can get cheap adaptors starting at $10, or you can wire your own. Here are some (google, 10 seconds)
http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/svide
http://www.cablestogo.com/product_list.asp?ca
Re:You know... (Score:5, Interesting)
I find that Apple has really done it's homework designing the OS for the hardware, and the hardware for the OS. My PC laptops, even the Sonys (designed from the ground up as a consumer electronic) to be Windows with laptop features bolted on. Macs on the other hand are an integrated package. You just turn the thing on, and it works. You plug in peripherals and they simply work. (I did have to buy a piece of shareware for OS X to talk to my Sony Clie, though.)
The other nifty thing about the units is that they come with all the software you need to make them useful. Work would happily buy me a copy of Office for X, but I find that AppleWorks does everything I need it to do.
Now what do I do on this thing? I run a 200 person network. My "killer app" is a package called Fink that lets me compile Unix applications under OSX. I have all of my Linux tools (even our in-house intranet application) ported over to run natively on my iBook.
When it comes time to upgrade, most of the time the new OS will happily install on your old hardware. I came into OS/X late, but many people have reported that 10.3 actually run better on older machines than 10.2. We have original iMacs that are still in operation, and running the latest OS. That's a computer from 1998. Try running Windows XP on a PII 400. Even if a PII/400 was powerful enough, I've tried to upgrade a laptop. Tracking down the right drivers is a royal pain in the neck.
So yes, an iBook is a bit more expensive than an x86 PC. But you can be sure that it will be actively supported for years beyond what is possible for an x86 PC.
(On a sidenote, I did luck out with this particular model of Sony though. The line lasted from 1999 until 2002. Later varients were bundled with 2000 and XP, so drivers were available for my old one. Then again, a Viao isn't exactly cheap either.)
Re:Broadcom (Score:5, Informative)
Apple should decide whether they want Linux users using their hardware (and the resulting money) or whether having total control of their platform and product is more important to them. They can't have it both ways.
That is correct; Apple doesn't care about Linux. How much clearer do you want them to be?
The number of PowerBook Linux users is so small that you discredit yourself by threatening to switch to another platform.
Re:Apple seem intent in being non-existent in the (Score:4, Funny)
Maybe you haven't met a Mac owner because they don't hang out in crack houses?