7.15.03: 20% chance for 15" Powerbook Update

[MacQuest]

What do you think?!

[Taken from O'Grady's PowerPage]

Among the other predictions provided in the link below, this one is probably the most anticipated:

Aluminum PowerBook 15-Inch. Joz could unveil the most anticipated PowerBook since the original Titanium design. The new PB15 will ship with a 1 GHz G4 processor, 15.4-inch LCD, built-in Bluetooth, Airport Extreme, FireWire 800 and possibly ambient keyboard lighting. If he does announce the PB15, it will only be to say that they will ship in "September" which means October to us mere mortals. PowerPage odds - 20 percent chance.

http://www.powerpage.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/powerpage.woa/wa/story?newsID=11229

 

[MacQuest]

Also of interest from the same article

Bluetooth Input Devices. A Bluetooth tab has been spotted in the Keyboard and Mouse System Preference in the German build of Panther.

 

[Megaquad]

Huh?? 1GHz G4? That makes no sense.

 

[maradong]

Originally posted by Megaquad
Huh?? 1GHz G4? That makes no sense.

why shouldn t it ?
giving it ae, bigger hd s , newer controllers, and of course backlight keyboad ;-) is worth the update.

 

[Megaquad]

Originally posted by maradong
why shouldn t it ?
giving it ae, bigger hd s , newer controllers, and of course backlight keyboad ;-) is worth the update.

That would really be sad, very sad.
Come on...at least 1.25-1.33 GHz

 

[Lyle]

Re: 7.15.03: 20% chance for 15" Powerbook Update

Originally posted by MacQuest
... If he does announce the PB15, it will only be to say that they will ship in "September" which means October to us mere mortals...

The suckiness of the PowerBook-update situation is growing by leaps and bounds.

After WWDC came and went, I resigned myself to the fact that the updated PB wouldn't have a G5 "anytime soon". But I didn't think it was unreasonable to expect a less ambitious update, say, with the existing 1 GHz G4 (or possibly a small speedbump), the Aluminum case, AirPort Extreme, etc. In other words, stuff to bring it back in line with the 12" and 17" models. What is the holdup in making these available immediately? Still too many TiBooks in the pipeline?

 

[Freg3000]

I think the awkward time period many of us expected between the PowerMac G4 and the G5 is going to happen to the PowerBook.

In the weeks leading up to WWDC, the PowerMac was due for an update. However, the G5 was not ready for Late August/September, and the G4 was already pushed to its limits. So what does Apple do; leave the PowerMac sitting there all summer without and update? No, they pre-announced the G5, giving advanced shipping dates.

Now the same situation is facing the PowerBooks. However, this time we are not waiting for the G5 (although many of us dream) but rather the G4 (7457) which increases the bus, doubles the cache, and lowers heat dissipation. But that is not coming out until the end of the year. So what can Apple do? The PowerBooks are in desperate need of an update, but putting a 1.25 Ghz chip in there is crazy, it will be too hot. So we have to wait, and maybe even have an update with no clock speed increase, and maybe just price cuts and added features.

Sure it is sad, but this is what you get from Motorola. Now at least we have a future with IBM.

P.S. I realize that this probably is overly simplistic because Apple looks into the future more than a couple months, and knew that this would happen. Hopefully they have had enough time since the beginning of "the year of the laptop" that they have developed a solution to this problem.

 

[jbomber]

too many Tibooks in the pipeline

I dunno what Apple's waiting for. If no one's buying the damn things, then sitting on them isn't going to make them move faster. If they really want them out of the warehouses, they need to drop the price again. People know that the Tibooks are flawed and they've been waiting rather patiently for a VERY overdue update.

 

[Schiffi]

Bah, I say Apple just stick the remaining TiBooks in storage for parts. Cause you know they'll be needing parts. Maybe extend the Applecare for Ti's to cover more than defects.