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."
Don't buy this. (Score:0, Interesting)
I will continue to use my Linux boxen, both desktop and laptop, with the knowledge that I only buy hardware which I am permitted to hack with at my own discretion.
iBook = Mac Mini, no? (Score:5, Interesting)
Surely if Apple announces an Intel based iBook, an Intel based Mac Mini will be there too? Or will follow very shortly.
Sam
Re:All right (Score:2, Interesting)
Now that you know that, my previous post will make more sense.
Re:All right (Score:2, Interesting)
After hurricane Katrina hit us, my work decided we needed portability.
Along comes the 12" powerbooks.
Its cool and all, and it seems to be fast enough to run quark, photoshop, illustrator, flash, and dreamweaver on my machine. But I know other machines run it all faster.
One of the photogs neandered in here with a 17" behemoth PC with a 3.2ghz proc. I dont care about the diff in architectures...a 3.2ghz p4 is still faster than a 1.5ghz g4 all day long.
Even if i have 1.25gig ram vs his 768.
But there have been several features added. It's kinda nice. Oh, and for those who dont know, the 12" powerbook is just a 3rd iBook. Apple decided the silver aluminum case would be better.
dual-core ? (Score:3, Interesting)
This is why I love Apple (Score:4, Interesting)
Apple says they'll deliver something by a particular date, and instead deliver it six months earlier. That's very cool. Microsoft should learn from them and stop promising and then failing to deliver products on time.
Greater performance than current G4? (Score:5, Interesting)
I want to see... (Score:5, Interesting)
And it it can be easily implemented on Intel arch, why hasn't it been done?
Is the G4 really that good? (Score:5, Interesting)
So a dual core new offering might be as good as a 2+ year old G4??
Is the Pentium M really that bad? Is the G4 really THAT good?
Laptop sales plunge until June? (Score:1, Interesting)
* Holiday sales: Who will buy PowerPC iBooks (or other Mac hardware) during the holidays, with the Intels coming out in January? If you want to keep your computer for a few years, as many consumers do, you'll want the Intel.
* Version 1.0: Who wants to buy version 1.0 of the Intel-based Macs, fresh out of design and off the production line?
* No apps: Who wants to buy a platform with no native apps?
Re:How many? (Score:4, Interesting)
I thought the Adobe CEO was at the Intel annoucement and said something like "We wanted you to switch to Intel years ago!"
Personally, I think Adobe will be ready, but they will be ready according to the pre-determined CS3 product schedule, meaning late 2006. (Because they have apps built around the old environments, it is not just a recompile for them.)
Re:Humor & irony (Score:3, Interesting)
As to whether the new Macs could come out as early as January, it certainly is possible, but I am not going to hold my breath and I won't get all depresive if it doesn't happen. At the end of the day, other than a different CPU everything else is the same. If it is a question of games, then the existence of D3D for Mac would be of more interest.
A great opportunity for Apple to go tablet... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:iBook = Mac Mini, no? (Score:5, Interesting)
Surely if Apple announces an Intel based iBook, an Intel based Mac Mini will be there too? Or will follow very shortly.
Minis are closer to Powerbooks, but either way, it raises a question for me. The Mac mini, PowerBooks, and iBooks all use similar components. If the switch to Intel is going to allow Apple to make their laptops thinner, lighter, more power-efficient, and more powerful, wouldn't it be a mistake to upgrade iBooks without upgrading PowerBooks? Otherwise, you'd probably end up with iBooks (the budget model) that were better than PowerBooks (the high-end).
Also, if the Intel iBooks are really that great, and the price drops a couple hundred dollars (which has been reported), then wouldn't it start to cut into the Mini's market? I mean, is it worth getting the Mini for $700 when you can get a much better computer, in laptop form, for $800?
So, if I were Apple, I don't think I'd let there be much of a delay between the release of Intel iBooks and the Intel PowerBooks/Minis. If I didn't do it all at the same time, I wouldn't be planning to sell many PowerPC models during the lag.
A prediction (Score:5, Interesting)
I can easily justify the purchase of an iBook as a desktop replacement for my boss if the cost stays at around $1000. For this price, he'd be "buying" my current system as a replacement/"new" PC for others in the company as well as a portable system for me to use at home. However, this is only feasible in my environment if the machine can dual-boot Windows. I am a current Mac user and will be able to use OS X for its UNIX-y goodness but will have to fight Redmond's best minds from time to time as I use several tools that are only available in Microsoft-land. suspect that I'm not alone and that there is a sizeable market for users like me with bosses like mine.
I can't help but think that since Apple is a hardware company - and not a software company - that they don't care what we do with the hardware once we have it in our grubby little mitts.
Re:WTD does *next* January mean? (Score:4, Interesting)
Please give me resolutions that don't suck... (Score:5, Interesting)
I just bought an Access Virus TI Desktop [access-music.de] and the fact that you can use it as an audio and MIDI interface as well as a knob box with direct access with a VST plugin is making me seriously consider moving away from Linux after five years... I can't stand MacOS, but I can't stand dualbooting even more.
PPC updates? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:And the point is? (Score:3, Interesting)
Not sure how a "too far away" menubar could possibly be a benefit. It was done that way to make it easier to get to. His point that the screen has outgrown the UI is spot-on. The menubar is no longer easy to use.
Of course, the answer to the question is to run OSX. That's obvious in any case. The real question is "why?"
Re:Leaked Picture link here! (Score:2, Interesting)
Better yet, make those laptops 200$ for USA market. This way the purchase could be turned into a charity. When you buy one for yourself you also buy one for those kids in Africa.
I would pay 200$ for one here in Romania knowing that it is worth 100$ and that the other 100$ is used to buy one for some kid in Africa.
What happens to the Powerbooks? (Score:2, Interesting)
Not civil rights, but commercial/property rights (Score:4, Interesting)
No, it's a commercial right or property rights movement. Civil rights is about the rights a person has as a citizen of a country. Note the word "civil".
Re:A prediction (Score:3, Interesting)
Ahh, so Apple doesn't make software? Have you heard about OS X? What about iTunes or Mail or iChat or iPhoto or Final Cut or Logic or Aperture?
I don't understand that statement "Apple is a hardware company - and not a software company..." It is simply untrue. They are both a hardware and a software company.
Re:Intel CPU better? Yes Price drops? No (Score:3, Interesting)
The rumor of a ~$800 iBook came from the same source that indicated a Intel iBook in January. Apparently, the same source that also predicted the Mini and photo iPod. The Mini is a "loss leader" of sorts, Apple is really betting on the second and hopefully "bigger" Mac that Mini owners eventually buy.
No doubt that the Mini was produced in the hopes of luring Windows customers, but it isn't a "loss leader". I bet we see a $400 Mini within the next year, and even that will be profitable for Apple.
Apple told truth in a way easily misinterpreted (Score:4, Interesting)
The truth is that Apple told the truth but that it was cleverly phrased by marketing people so that consumers, and/or more importantly zealots, would misinterpret it. The truth is that:
1. Historically and in general a PowerPC CPU is 25-35% faster than an Intel CPU of the *same* clockrate. Apple used phrases like "up to twice as fast" and this was true, you could find a specialized app that greatly benefitted from the RISC architecture of the PowerPC and get to 2X. However clockrates were not the same, clockrate is not the perfect measurement but it does matter.
2. Apple was disingenuous in some of it's comparisons, the comparisons were "rigged" to a certain degree. The ByteMarks comparison where they used an old 486 version on a Pentium CPU. Fudged SPEC comparisons. Gcc "leveling the playing field" when gcc x86 is known to be weaker than gcc ppc and better x86 compilers are used for commercial x86 apps. Apple didn't lie, they did fully disclose all this in the "small print" but few had the technical sophistication to understand. While unacceptable in a paper presented to a scientific journal it was all pretty standard stuff for maketing literature and advertisements.
Re:Found out via a few 'poison apples' at the Duke (Score:3, Interesting)
Once Apple has enough developers transitioned to the new imaging model (Quartz 2D) rather than QuickDraw, I imagine they will initiate this move in the hardware.
The main constraint here is software at the moment...
Re:All right (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Don't buy this. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:All right (Score:3, Interesting)
In my opinion, you'd be better focusing on hard drive and memory speed boosts.
Re:It's the Apple Way. (Score:3, Interesting)
Still, that said, you're basically right about IDE, (they went back to SCSI next time they released pro hardware with the jump to PPC and the 6100, etc.) but the whole IDE thing is a bad example for me to have cited. SCSI was superior back then (14 devices per chain instead of 2, internal and external connectors instead of internal only, direct device-device data transfer instead of the computer having to process everything, and higher data speeds), and Apple viewed the move to IDE as a cost-cutting measure, because SCSI drives cost so much, not as an upgrade.
I do sort of miss the numeric designations, it did clear up the specifications, but the clarity and organization of the product line is remarkably improved. Before Jobs came back, their product offerings were insanely confusing, and it was very difficult to figure out what the heck was going on, and what market various models were supposed to appeal to.