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Portables (Apple) Businesses Hardware Apple

New iBooks 'Any Day Now' 360

Posted by timothy from the rumorous-is-putting-it-mildly dept.
teewurstmann writes "Thinksecret reports that 'sources have confirmed that Apple's consumer laptop will receive a long overdue refresh very soon, possibly as early as this week.' They speculate that the new iBooks might have a widescreen display. I sure hope they are right! I've been waiting to buy one of those suckers for half a year now!"
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New iBooks 'Any Day Now' More

New iBooks 'Any Day Now'

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  • Consumer laptop (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Consumer laptop? Who's their other line made for?

    • Re:Consumer laptop (Score:5, Funny)

      by ettlz ( 639203 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @03:14PM (#13116060) Journal
      Consumer laptop? Who's their other line made for?
      Florists.

    • Re:Consumer laptop (Score:5, Interesting)

      by generic-man ( 33649 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @03:24PM (#13116156) Homepage Journal
      "Prosumers." You know, people who think they have to spend $600 more to get features like dual-monitor support that Apple cripples out of the iBook*.

      (Posted from a 12" PowerBook)

      * Apparently you have to hack an iBook to get its graphics card to do something it was built to do.

      • Re:Consumer laptop (Score:2, Interesting)

        by xenoandroid ( 696729 )
        Yep, but the hack isn't hard and sometimes I wonder if it was disabled for another reason. It seems that people who used the hack had more frequent issues with the logic board.

      • Re:Consumer laptop (Score:5, Informative)

        by hackstraw ( 262471 ) * on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @04:24PM (#13116768)
        "Prosumers." You know, people who think they have to spend $600 more to get features like dual-monitor support that Apple cripples out of the iBook*.

        (Posted from a 12" PowerBook)

        * Apparently you have to hack an iBook to get its graphics card to do something it was built to do.

        Here is the hack: http://www.rutemoeller.com/mp/ibook/supportlist_e. html [rutemoeller.com]

  • CPU? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by LurkerXXX ( 667952 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @03:04PM (#13115931)
    But will they have the new fast, low-power chips that IBM recently announced?

    • Re:CPU? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Golias ( 176380 )
      If I had to guess, it will be the same 1.4 GHz G4 that's going into the mini and the eMac.

      The iBook is Apple's "budget" laptop. If they do an IBM G5 based one, it will probably be in the PowerBook line.
      • The chip can do 1.7GHz [infoworld.com].

        I bought a 1.2 last year - I'd upgrade for 1.7 but not 1.4.

        Hopefully the PowerBook will see the new IBM G5 chips so they don't have to retard the iBook's G4. More L2 cache will be especially yummy since compiles suck on this thing (fink).

    • Not a chance. If anything gets them, it'll be PowerBooks, and I doubt even that much. They won't be selling them for long enough to justify the expense and Pentium Ms are so much faster than 1.6 ghz G5s that it would be pointless.

  • Obligatory rant... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Alakaboo ( 171129 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @03:04PM (#13115935) Homepage
    Oh, no! I just bought an iBook ten months ago! Now it's obsolete. Apple obviously doesn't care about customer loyalty.

  • Better screens (Score:4, Insightful)

    by djtripp ( 468558 ) <djtrippNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @03:04PM (#13115936) Homepage Journal
    Wide screen would be nice, but it would be even better if they are using screens similar to the Sony Vaios. Those screens are very very sharp and crisp.

    • Re:Better screens (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Peter Cooper ( 660482 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @03:19PM (#13116102) Homepage Journal
      I agree.

      I think Apple's screen quality is surrounded in a lot of hype. I'm a real Mac die-hard these days, but I don't think the screens live up to what I've heard. I remember people claiming the iBook and PowerBook screens were amazingly "bright and crisp". Okay, the color accuracy is amazing, but bright? My iBook is not particularly bright at full brightness, and neither are any of the PowerBooks I've looked after or worked on. Put it this way, my father's Acer (avoid with a barge pole) has a much brighter and crisper screen than any Apple notebook I've seen. Even better are those Sony glare-free "coated" TFTs, which have insanely bright and vivid colors.

      • Re:Better screens (Score:2, Insightful)

        by gardyloo ( 512791 )
        I'm interested why you say to avoid the Acer. They had a bad reputation several years ago, as far as I know, but things are a lot better now. In any case, my Travelmate is really a great little computer. Runs extremely quietly, very fast, has good battery life, a good, sharp screen (my complaint here is that it has a quite small "sweet spot"), and is great for some tough numeric work and presentations. If I were asked to recommend an all-around laptop to someone who doesn't want to lug a big media center la

      • Re:Better screens (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Sentry21 ( 8183 )
        My 12" Powerbook G4 (purchased in September), is completely unusable if there is sunlight within my field of vision - I literally can't even see if there's something on the screen unless I shade my eyes. If I am using it, it has to be indoors and out of the sun (which sucks because my desk faces my window to avoid glare on the screen).

        Fantastic machine, mediocre LCD.

      • Re:Better screens (Score:3, Informative)

        by DrXym ( 126579 )
        I have an Acer Travelmate 803 in my menagerie of computers and I haven't had much trouble with it at all. The screen is excellent, the wireless works well, the keyboard is spacious, it has lots of ports (4 USB & 1 Firewire) and it's pretty fast for the price I paid for it.

        The only gripe (and it is a big gripe) is that the 3D support sucks. It does have accelerated 3D but the ATI Radeon driver is horrible and hasn't been upgraded. I hate manufacturers that just dump machines after 6 or 12 months on the

    • Re:Better screens (Score:3, Interesting)

      by OmniVector ( 569062 )
      i really hope you're not talking about those shiny, glare prone, xbrite screens? those things are awful.

  • it would be much better (Score:4, Insightful)

    by VolciMaster ( 821873 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @03:04PM (#13115945) Homepage
    if this were an actual news story, and not just another rumor posting. Yes, Thinksecret has gotten stuff right in the past, they've also blown it a couple times. As opposed to the recent items about the video iPod, which at least have backing in terms of talks between different companies, and multiple reports, citing not all the same sources, this item, while fun to think about, isn't news. It's a rumor, out of one of the more famous rumor mills.
  • This story is not fully cooked.

  • Very specific details (Score:3, Funny)

    by Nytewynd ( 829901 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @03:05PM (#13115948)
    Details of the updated iBook are unknown, as is a firm release date, given the fickle nature of hardware updates.

    The only thing we get out of this is that they are planning on revising the iBook, but we don't know how or when.

    • Re:Very specific details (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gstoddart ( 321705 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @04:35PM (#13116846) Homepage
      Details of the updated iBook are unknown, as is a firm release date, given the fickle nature of hardware updates.

      The only thing we get out of this is that they are planning on revising the iBook, but we don't know how or when.

      And the only thing we know about Longhorn is that it will eventually exist.

      These "nothing to report yet" stories do get annoying don't they?

      Everyone is clambering to report that they don't know more than ysterday, but that they're the first to report it.

  • So? (Score:5, Informative)

    by tktk ( 540564 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @03:05PM (#13115949)
    It's been "Any Day Now" for months.

    If you check the Mac Buyer's Guide it's way overdue.

    http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/ [macrumors.com]

    • It's been "Any Day Now" for months. If you check the Mac Buyer's Guide it's way overdue.

      A friend in Cupertino tells me they're waiting for Duke Nukem Forever to be released on OSX, so they can show off the new Mac's new graphical posibilities in tradeshows...

  • 12 x 7 on a 14" screen would be the logical choice. Perhaps the new iBooks will sport the next wave in Apple's more general laptop design, much as the original iBook did, and later as the icebook heralded the era of "white-is-for-consumer".
  • A lot of people are going to hang on to their older Apple laptops until they have the faster Intel chip version... I was considering getting an iBook (even though I'm mostly a windows/linux guy) but I stopped considering it until Intel starts producing the faster chips.
  • Why would Apple make a widescreen laptop? These laptops are meant for schools, which means the pricepoint they have to sell at remains basically a constant. Since the price of screens hasn't really come down since October 2004, why would Apple make a more expensive model now when they weren't willing to before? Almost everyone over school age gets the powerbook as it a prettier, albeit less durable. I highly doubt schools will be willing to shell out an extra $150 bucks for an extra inch on the monitor, wh
    • since when do widescreen notebooks mean they are more expensive? There was a Compaq 14.1" widescreen being sold for 399$ last week. I walked into best buy last month and of the 15 or so models in the store, 12 of them were widescreen.

      ibook != powerbook. why would they release a new version and not a speed update?

      "This is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk, but Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now, think about that. That does not make sense! Why would a Wookiee - an eight foo
    • I respectfully disagree that this next update won't include a widescreen display. The next line of iBooks will have a widescreen display as Apple needs to keep up the pressure and incentives on their consumer line. I would have bought an iBook instead of my Powerbook, for instance, had Apple offered a widescreen display.

      Lastly, new != more expensive. The widescreen display may in fact cost less than the current display. For instance, perhaps the manufacturer wants to move away from the old style becaus
      • I would have bought an iBook instead of my Powerbook, for instance, had Apple offered a widescreen display.

        Yep. Someone at Apple still cries themselves to sleep at night over that lost iBook sale. Wait a sec, you bought a Powerbook. What did Apple lose on this deal?

        The iBook, as well as Apple's whole consumer line, has to straddle the price point of being only slightly more expensive than cheapo PCs and not being too much less than the lucrative Power*** line.

        Apple really would much rather have all o
    • Why wouldn't Apple give them a widescreen display? Their other consumer-oriented computer (iMac) has one...

    • Why would Apple make a widescreen laptop?

      Why wouldn't they? A 15" widescreen (9:16 ratio) has almost identical total surface area to a 14" standard (3:4 ratio) screen, so despite the $150 figure you throw out, the cost to mass-produce them should be quite comparable. Yet of the two, the widescreen sounds more impressive (ooh it's got a widescreen) beats the other screen on the spec sheet (15" > 14"), and to many people looks larger. And going from standard to widescreen without bumping up the diago

    • powerbook as it a prettier, albeit less durable.

      Huh? This is the first time I have ever heard of the PB being less durable than the iBook. Did something change recently?

  • What about CPU upgrade? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Zo0ok ( 209803 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @03:10PM (#13116013) Homepage
    Can they make any significant CPU-upgrade at all? The iBooks are already close to the PowerBook, and if they dont upgrade the PowerBooks the difference will be insignificant.

    I hope for more RAM and lower price. The current CPUs are fast enough, and I dont want any more heat/less battery time.

    The iBook will have to wait another year for the Intel CPUs - they are probably the last ones (along with the eMac) to switch from G4.
    • "The iBooks are already close to the PowerBook, and if they dont upgrade the PowerBooks the difference will be insignificant."

      As having been the owner of both a 2004 800mhz G4 iBook and a 2002 800mhz G4 powerbook... I can firmly attest that when used side by side, the 2002 powerbook was far more responsive and "snappier"&reg than the iBook.

      For about $400.00 more you can get the 12" powerbook.
      I'd really recommend you at least check it out before commiting to an iBook, not that an iBook is bad per se..
    • Pro Macs are built for people who use heavy-duty commercial applications for design purposes or scientific research

      Apple would do well to transition the iBook and Mac Mini first as the users will be more inclined toward using Apple's apps (iDVD, Safari, Mail, iPhoto) and less hung-up by the slow porting of expensive apps - the most pricy app a home user needs is usually Microsoft Office, which will run on Rosetta and probably will be ported early anyway.(anyone remember how long it took for QuarkExpress
      • No, the first line to go Intel will be the PowerBook. Not only is the G4 way too slow for a "pro" computer, but there's no way they'd make the iBook better than the Powerbook (and if it has a Pentium-M while the Powerbook still had a G4, it would be better by a wide margin).

        The iBook, Mac Mini, and eMac will follow quickly after the PowerBook, of course.
    • You only get 1024x768 resolution on the iBook (or 12 inch Powerbook). That's not insignificant compared to a 15 inch powerbook. I agree that between the 12 inch models its not worth the extra cash, but the difference in power between a 14 inch iBook and a 15 Powerbook is much more. Screen resolution, CPU Speed, bus speed, PCMCIA, Gigabit ethernet, dual monitors, (there's an unsupported hack for the iBook), DVI, lit keyboard, etc.

      None of this is "must have" for me but I'd rather get a refurbed 15 inch Pow

  • Clarifications (Score:5, Informative)

    by debrain ( 29228 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @03:13PM (#13116047) Journal
    For those who don't want to read the article (or links), I believe the gist is as follows:

    - The rumour for widescreens is substantiated by an internal Asustek memo indicating that Apple is buying wide screen laptops.

    - The forthcoming iBook update is at least furthered by the lack of an iBook update in a very long time (for iBook updates). See, e.g. Macrumours Buyers Guide [macrumors.com]. It's been 274 days since an iBook update, where the average is 158. It's writing on the wall.

    - It almost certainly won't have an Intel processor. Apple's plans to move to Intel supposedly start in Q1 2006.

    Time will tell, of course.

  • Lighter? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ry4an ( 1568 ) <ry4an-slashdot@NospaM.ry4an.org> on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @03:15PM (#13116069) Homepage
    If they can get it under three pounds (remove the optical drive, I don't care) I'd grab one in a second. More than three pounds is just too heavy for a portable.

  • If Only... (Score:3, Funny)

    by __aaclcg7560 ( 824291 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @03:15PM (#13116073)
    I would buy an iBook if Apple could charge my Dell account (which has a zero balance). Didn't Dell say they wanted to sell Apple hardware? :)
    • Why would you want to do that?
      • So I don't have to go through the hassle of setting up another charge account. If you have too many credit cards with low or zero balances, it reduces your credit score and creditors will think you want to go on a spending spree that you won't be able to pay back (never mind that's what their marketing ads want you to do). Dell wants me to buy a new PC since I have a zero balance on my charge account, but I want to buy an Apple computer. Go figure.

  • Closing th Gap to Pro Models (Score:3, Interesting)

    by kannibal_klown ( 531544 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @03:23PM (#13116154)
    Don't get me wrong, I love it when Apple announces a product update.

    But with Widescreens, there's now even less difference between the iBook and PowerBook.

    Both already have G4 CPUs
    Both have Superdrives
    Both have DVI out

    I know there are some minor arch differences, but they're getting a little too close for comfort.

  • Keep the 12" (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Peter Cooper ( 660482 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @03:24PM (#13116160) Homepage Journal
    The "article" talks about revisions to the 14" line, and possibly a new 15" line. I really hope the 12" line doesn't go though. A lot of us bought iBooks because they're a lot smaller and cheaper than comparable PCs at that size. 12" is ideal for flights, carrying around like a book, and just throwing in your bag wherever you want to go. By all means, increase the res of the 12" (1024x768 is a let down), but don't ditch the line, because its compactness makes it useful. Whereas the 14"? It has the same res.. so a waste of money.

  • gimme SXGA+ or more (Score:5, Informative)

    by xeno ( 2667 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @03:25PM (#13116184)
    I understand the desire for consistency in display pitch, but Apple seems stuck on the idea that no one wants a small hires display. After using a Thinkpad with a 14 inch SXGA+ (1400x1050) and a Zaurus with 640x480 on a 3.7 inch display for a couple of years, the usual 15-in XGA seems positively clunky. Hell, the Dell D800 my new employer gave me seems ridiculous -- who the hell wants to lug around a monster 8-lb 17-in screen and get only a wXGA display? Surely the market will support an iBook or PowerBook with a hires (SXGA on 12-14 or UXGA on 15-17in) display.

    And no, I do not have extraordinary eyesight -- I wear glasses. It's just a matter of seeing more = more work done faster, and I don't think that's uncommon for mobile computer users.

  • I sure hope they're wrong! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by CrazyTalk ( 662055 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @03:37PM (#13116305)
    One of the big selling points for me when I bought my iBook was the small form factor with the 12" screen.
  • Nah, they're about a month off [macpredict.com].

    They speculate that the new iBooks might have a widescreen display.
    Well it'd be about time. But the speculation about that is hardly a new story.

  • Mod Points and Apple (Score:3, Funny)

    by mejesster ( 813444 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @03:48PM (#13116405)
    Nobody has enough mod points to possibly mod down all the flamebait on this thread.
  • why not buy a PowerBook? They have been available in widescreen for a long time. Plus, as someone who has several of both, I can tell you the PowerBook is a lot nicer.

  • Another round of faulty logic boards? (Score:4, Informative)

    by DesertEagleMan ( 835040 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @04:29PM (#13116810)
    I really can't understand why people still drool over this POS hardware. FYI the logic board problems have not been resolved yet. The G4 iBooks are plagued with the exact same logic board problems as the G3s. This wouldn't be that bad if the G4s were covered under Apple's recall program but unfortunately they're are not. It will probably take another class action before they even acknowledge the problem. I seriously hope that Apple have learned from their past mistakes and have designed a completely new logic board for this iBook update. If not, be prepared for another round of whacky trackpads and dead screens.
    • I had (a few) bad logic boards in my G3 iBook. After the third logic board went bad, I got the guy at the Apple Store to declare the computer a lemon (3 AppleCare repairs = lemon) and I got me a brand new G4 iBook. They were even nice enough to let me keep the extra power adapter.

      So the logic boards might still suck, but if you have AppleCare, and back up your data regularly, you should still be set.

    • Re:Another round of faulty logic boards? (Score:4, Informative)

      by blonde rser ( 253047 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @08:39PM (#13119445) Homepage
      Just a note. My G4 just crapped out 4 or so months out of warranty (issue with the power cable between the mainboard and the display). I called up apple and they are repairing everything free of charge. So yes there isn't a recall but the problems are much less frequent than they were with the G3's and they are repairing them out of warranty. I'm actually pretty impressed at how apple will take care of their customers.

  • Apple lawsuit (Score:3, Funny)

    by ross.w ( 87751 ) <rwonderley AT gmail DOT com> on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @08:21PM (#13119291) Journal
    against Thinkecret in 3...2...1...

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