Apple Planning Intel iBook Debut for January? 577
axonis writes "Apple is planning to release its first entry-level iBook laptops with Intel processors next January at Macworld Expo in San Francisco, highly reliable sources have confirmed to Think Secret." From the article: "Apple will almost certainly tap Intel's forthcoming Yonah processor for the iBooks, a successor to the company's Pentium M. It is unknown whether Apple will go with a dual-core version of the processor, slated for release in January, or a single-core version, which Intel announced in August would be delivered shortly after the dual-core version. The dual-core Yonah chip could very likely deliver performance greater than Apple's current G4-based PowerBooks."
Re:WTD does *next* January mean? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:How many? (Score:5, Informative)
I think Apple just gave mid summer as an estimate to give the developers of 3rd party applications more time, as well as themselves if they needed it. Now they've figured out that the developers were quick to transition, everyone's bitting at the chops, and delaying it any longer seems to be a bad idea. Can't wait to get my hands on one.
Re:Humor & irony (Score:3, Informative)
The MS guys have been working with IBM engineers for 2 years to build the XBOX360 chip (based on the IBM PPE design, which is also PS3's Cell root and more than likely the base of Revolution's CPU as well. A completely different beast than the Power4 which was the base for Apple's Power970 chips)
Re:Intel- "Ready"? (Score:3, Informative)
This means the software is "Intel-Ready", just as your computer might come "Internet-ready"; it has all the software installed and configured for any number of different internet connections, but it is up to you to choose which one to use.
The only issue I see is dust-busting the system to remove all the cruft you don't need; Fat binaries are a waste of space if you're not flipping back and forth between archetechures, so the sooner someone comes out with a fat-binary stripper, the better.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:How many? (Score:3, Informative)
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/X86_s
xbox 360 (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, it marketize and is confusing, but xbox 180 clearly would send the wrong message regarding their confidence/commitment when the last platform didn't totally bomb. Now other companies that have had horribly bad reputations have done things like say 'we screwed up and learned, try us again', but if their isn't the wide perception of screwing up, the message would just be bizarre.
Highly variable predictions from ThinkSecret (Score:4, Informative)
The highly reliable sources ThinkSecret often cites, most of the time produces so, so predictions.
Statments like "The dual-core Yonah chip could very likely deliver performance greater than Apple's current G4-based PowerBooks." does not sound too reliable. Why on earth would Apple intro systems with less performance than current models -- and I am not just thinking in terms of real processsor performance, but perceived system performance? They'd be the laughing stock of the industry. Unless they can put a system into the market that gives a noticeable better performance than what is possible with the G4, they will wait. Apple does not want the Intel experience to be mediocre. They want it to be top notch.
I find the predictions AppleInsider made last Friday to be more sensible, but I am still not sure if Apple would put the 32-bit Yonah into the iMac, as it may be seen as a step back from the 64-bit G5. I've commented on Apple's 64-bit roadmap and how to get there [andwest.com], mentioning av 64-bit Yonah, which is really the Merom. Perhaps Intel may have been able to bring this chip forward in time from fall 2006 to this spring, enabling Apple to go straight to 64-bit from day one.
Re:How many? (Score:5, Informative)
Adobe was prominently on stage for the announcement of Apple moving to Intel and promised their eventual support. They did say that there was going to be a bit of work because they were still a PowerPlant house, but they were going to make the transition.
And that does not take into account the recent announcement from Metroworks that they were going to make a PowerPlant Mac/Intel version of their compiler after all. That could make the transition much easier. I would still rather that they moved over to an XCode project, but that might not be convenient with the requirement that this build quickly on both MacOS X and Windows from the same codebase (it is of course possible... I am talking about convenient).
Now Apple has released a few great products recently, and in the video space they are directly competing with Adobe... although most people would say that they are more accurately competing against Avid... But in the image space: I can't think of any product that Adobe makes that compares with Aperture... unless you talk about the image browser in Photoshop, and that is really stretching things. Aperture is going to sell more copies of Photoshop.
Pro vs. Consumer (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Don't buy this. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How many? (Score:5, Informative)
I run Photoshop all the time on the current iBook.
Some filters take a few extra seconds to apply, but it works great.
No need to be all bold-type incredulous, sport.
Re:Is the G4 really that good? (Score:5, Informative)
I'm sure they've run out of ways to squeeze more out of it, though.
Could very likely?!? (Score:5, Informative)
Could very likely? That's quite a bit of uncertainty.
The Pentium M is roughly performance-equivalent to an Athlon64 of the same clockspeed (The PM is still a bit weak in the multimedia department, but Yonah is expected to fix that. The statement holds true for gaming, at least). Assuming that the dual core Yonah ships at the same max speed as current Dothan processors, that means 2.26GHz. That's roughly an Athlon64 X2 4400+. The PowerBook ships with a single 1.67GHz G4. I think it is safe to say that the processor "definately destroys performance-wise" rather than "could very likely deliver performance greater than".
Re:I want to see... (Score:3, Informative)
Have you seen how fast a Mac goes into and wakes up from sleep? Hint: it's much faster than suspend.
Taft
Re:And the point is? (Score:4, Informative)
Err... because it's a Mac, is faster than a G4 Mac, but still runs OS X? I *like* OS X, but that's not what "zealot" means. Nor does "zealot" mean "someone who disagrees with Nagora." "Zealot" means "A person who is fanatical and uncompromising in their religious, political, or other ideals." Interestingly, you and I can be on opposite sides of the "Is OS X better than Windows?" question and still both be right. Those are "opinions", you see. To each cat his own rat, and all that.
Oh, and here's another definition for you: "Troll: 2) Informal computing. A message or posting on the internet designed to provoke an indignant response in the reader." My opinion is that you got downmodded, not by zealots, but for posting a troll. HAND.
Re:Is the G4 really that good? (Score:5, Informative)
'Course... that's a wild ass guess.
But, it "fits" the facts a lot better.
Especially when you consider that right off the bat there will still be a lot of non-native software. People really will expect to install a lot of their *current* software.
Re:Now I wonder... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:All right (Score:3, Informative)
"Harrison Bergeron" was a short story by Kurt Vonnegut, not Heinlein.
Re:Don't buy this. (Score:3, Informative)
When I take notes in my music history class my spell checker borks on almost all of the names and most of the terms. The problem is that a lot of the time I'm switching into german or italian. A spell checker with any warning more severe than a red underline needs to be a lot smarter than anything we have now.
Re:How many? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I want to see... (Score:2, Informative)
Have you seen how fast a Mac goes into and wakes up from sleep? Hint: it's much faster than suspend.
My Thinkpad T23 (running Windows XP) comes out of suspend in less than half a second. Maybe that's not as fast as Mac laptops, but certainly fast enough for me. My Mac Mini actually wakes up slower than that, though.. So I don't know what you're talking about.
Re:Please give me resolutions that don't suck... (Score:3, Informative)
Don't forget about an external monitor through DVI. I recently went laptop shopping (I needed an XP machine), and I couldn't find a laptop with DVI other than the Powerbook. With an Intel CPU and Windows Dual Boot, thats gonna be a hard laptop to resist.
Re:I want to see... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Please give me resolutions that don't suck... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I want to see... (Score:3, Informative)
My notebook can wake as fast as the hard drive can spin up. I have raced it against a friend's PowerBook - and won.
Re:I want to see... (Score:3, Informative)
My old ThinkPad 600X takes many seconds to start up from suspend. OTOH my new ThinkPad X40 wakes in about a second. I open it, count to one, and start working. Done and done. Hibernation is optional (and very nice on this machine, about 20 seconds cold start, I basically use it instead of power off). That you personally haven't seen it doesn't mean that it hasn't been done on "Intel arch", whatever that means. It basically all comes down to the BIOS implementation, of which there are many varieties.
Re:I want to see... (Score:4, Informative)
I don't know if the difference in power usage represents something fundamental, or just different designers being more or less careful with power management. I don't really doubt that Apple will be just as careful with their Intel designs as they have been with their PowePC ones.
Re:I want to see... (Score:4, Informative)
It's fully enabled on the newest PowerBooks but you need to fiddle around a bit to get it enabled on previous models.
Here's a guide on how to do it: http://www.andrewescobar.com/archive/2005/11/11/h
Re:How many? (Score:1, Informative)