Shaddup about G5 PowerBooks already!

It's curious to see how closely Fryke's details of what he wants in a PowerBook G4 all seemed to come true in the last update (including the update itself).

Perhaps Apple's business plan is as complex as "Do what Fryke says"?

Fryke, would you mind writing a short gripe about how dual-core G4s should have been developed by now... or at least some way to fit two of them into a PowerBook... oh, with a free trade-up policy for current 15" PowerBook G4 owners?
 
What I'd like to know is why do people who seemingly "need" a G5 PowerBook continue to ask average Macintosh users with no connection to Apple when they'll be released? Even if some of us did have connections to Apple, do those people think that those connections somehow entitle them to privileged information like the G5 PowerBook release date? Do they want an exact date? Ballpark estimate (within a month... two months... six months... not this year... etc.)?

If you're an average Joe who visits the forums and you don't know when the G5 PowerBooks are going to be released, what in the world gave you the stupid idea that other average Joes, just like you, would know?
 
haha, very good El', I am wondering just what sort of computing power these people need on their laps! For one thing, I believe they are some sort of S&M cult who wish to roast their "bits" with the high heat of the supposed G5 'book. If you NEED G5 power, get a desktop, at least for now. I believe (and again, not an expert) that we are approaching a plateau in terms of internal chip design vs. usability in various platforms. I just wish people would stop asking for the GB books. Do these people absolutely HAVE to reconstruct the human genome while sipping their $9 coffee at starbucks?? NO!
 
My thoughts exactly. Most would say I'm "limping" along with a 6 year old computer, yet it serves me just fine. I'm not a novice when it comes to computers, and I'd be willing to bet I can accomplish more with this old hunk of junk than those who seemingly need "bleeding edge" technology.

A faster computer doesn't make you any better, nor does it allow you to do things you couldn't do before. I can cut video on this old machine just as good as anyone on a G5 could -- sure, they can probably render it faster, but the speed at which the actual "work" takes place is dependent on the skill of the operator.

Would I like to have a G5 PowerBook? Most definitely. Do I need one? Most definitely not. I've heard a lot of people threatening to "jump ship" on Apple if the G5 PowerBook doesn't make it soon... why? They just gotta learn the difference between "want" and "need." You need food. You need water. You need air. You don't need a PowerBook G5.
 
"Yeah, but it's Apple! And IBM! They've got billions of dollars and technology -- they should be able to figure it out by now! Apple's holding back for some reason -- just to tick me off!"

Shaddap, dumbass. I hear that argument over and over.
 
ElDiabloConCaca said:
My thoughts exactly. Most would say I'm "limping" along with a 6 year old computer, yet it serves me just fine. I'm not a novice when it comes to computers, and I'd be willing to bet I can accomplish more with this old hunk of junk than those who seemingly need "bleeding edge" technology.
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Yeah, I love that "my computer is out of date" argument. It's not like some magic date is going to come along and the computer will melt. And contrary to what it may seem to the yoinks who buy into the retail 'experts', the computer doesn't creep to a halt (excepting software bloat and download-ware, of course) over time. All things being equal, computers run just as fast 10 years old as the day they were built. It's only when you load it up with software and try to run software beyond the machine limits do they 'slow down' with use.
 
Yup... my girlfriend's parents were amazed when I reloaded Windows ME (yep, they're stuck in the stone age) on their computer. They had so much spyware and crap installed that it took ages to do anything. I wiped it clean, reloaded ME and a good virus scanner, set up their firewall, and everything's been speedy since.

I'll bet Dell hates me... they wanna get another few years out of this computer now!

It's not just Macs that last a long time in theory -- although in real life that's usually the case since we're not targets of virii and spyware as much as Windows is. I'll bet at least half of the people looking for a new, faster computer do so because their current one is slow due to spyware and crap software all over the place. Little do they realize it's not the computer that's slow, but the software...
 
chornbe said:
Yeah, I love that "my computer is out of date" argument. It's not like some magic date is going to come along and the computer will melt.
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Haha. I'm extremely content with my 1.5 year old 1 GHz TiPB. I don't plan on getting a new Mac until after grad school (another 4-5 years or so)...

...and what a great day that will be :)
 
A G5 powerbook would be a major upgrade which will most probably come along with a new case design. I would lie if I say I am not hardly waiting for it. I don't believe there will be an increase in speed toward the current G4 chips as less as I believe it will run as hot as many in this forum think. It wouldn't take ibm or apple so much time to release a G5 in the powerbooks if they were planing to picked the desktop chips. Beside that I would be very curious how they will connect the memory to the system and how the higher fsb (if at all) will influence the system and also if we'll finally get a dual layer burner in the books and a hdtv accelerating graphic unit.
So, I think most of the ppl are not so much curious about the G5 chip in the upcoming powerbooks but rather what will be included in this major update. We all know how the G5s perform and that they are not so roughly outperforming current G4 systems (Mac Mini vs. iMac G5).
 
MBHockey said:
Haha. I'm extremely content with my 1.5 year old 1 GHz TiPB. I don't plan on getting a new Mac until after grad school (another 4-5 years or so)...

...and what a great day that will be :)
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mmh, my last Mac was in 97, I don't know if things have changed but one thing that always struck me about Mac users was the lack of the constant upgrade mentality which is prevalent in the PC world. When my Mac comes, short of a disaster (like with my old Mac) I won't be upgrading for a long time.
 
i saw a sony vaio in dixons the other day. it was truly tine, half the size of a 12" pBook. i thought - laughable little pda! but no. instead of an even smaller desktop space than the stupid 12" pBook (1024x768 is impossible for pro apps these days, it's useless as a promachine - if you want to show clients work, print it out! don't spend £1500) it had a bigger deskspace nearly, than the 15" pBook

10" display, 1280x768 screen res. that was bloody impressive.

for the next powerbooks they need to get this into commission. imagine if you will:
the 16" (17 really is too big to carry around :p) HD Powerbook

as for G5: no. it is the time now for desktop and notebook processors to go seperate ways - a powerhouse on your desk, a portable on your lap - look at the intel centrino technology and also mobile graphics. wintel have seen that low energy consumption and optimised-for-wi-fi are of far greater importance than sheer clock speed now. apple should see this too. the IBM PowerPC 'M'5 chip? mobile mac chips.

pc laptops now are making the powerbooks look a bit silly. they're not the smallest anymore, nor the fastest, not even the sexiest anymore in some cases. just... apple, now
 
If the WinTel world would chop back on the "let's cram everything onto this portable multimedia workhorse" so the current flavor of notebooks didn't look so crazy, the power and usefulness of the Centrino would really shine. right now it's kind of blurred under a layer of digital bling that really makes a lot of current WinTel notebooks look like stupid overkill. It's the main reason I bought my iBook. It's simple, clean and has a very basic look and feel - exactly what I was looking for. The battery life is kicking butt and it's plenty fast enough for everything I run.

$.02
 
The reason that most people are so anxious for G5 PowerBooks is that they know that it's only a matter of time before Apple releases a G5 in a laptop form-factor, and they don't want to go out and buy a really high-end G4 PowerBook that, in two or three months time is completely out of date. I have a G3 PowerBook. It is the weakest system in my house in OS X - there'll be an OS revision in the not TOO distant future (I'm thinking 10.7) that will be fully 64-bit, in which case the G4 PowerBooks will again be useless.

It's perfectly understandable to want for a G5 PowerBook; they're supposed to be Powerful machines. Now they're just iBooks with shorter battery life, better screens and slightly faster clock-speed.
 
I think people just hear G5 PowerBook and assume it'll be a massive difference in computing, which it won't. Dual-core G4 might hit 2.0Ghz before a single-core G5 in a PB.
If a G5 came out, it'll be about 1.8Ghz. The hard drives are already 100GB and the video card got any upgrade with the rev ds. Plus, it'll be only for the 17s and maybe the 15s. Even if they conquered the heat and power issues, I think the iMac will need to get a performance bump first.
 
Oh, no argument that they're desired and people are anxious for them. But, for me, the questions of necessity and price/power trade off come in to play. For what you can spend on a top end notebook of major power, you can alternately get yourself a decent iBook or low-end powerbook, *and* a sweet G5 iMac. I would venture to say it's the rare person who *needs* the power of a major dual G5 PowerMac *and* a top end PowerBook or the portability it offers.

Apple would be really ill advised to rush a niche product to market before it's really ready. Pentium/4 top end notebooks are an abysmal failure because of... wait for it... power consumption and heat... You won't hear much about it but Toshiba just recalled *another* 889 b'zillion batteries or system-boards for charging systems, or some crap like that, and Intel is secretly/quietly admonishing notebook makers for building machines out of spec (Intel does not officially recommend any P4, non "m" class, for portable use). Behind the scenes, to which I'm partially privy due to some friends I've made over the years in various companies, it's a pretty hectic time to be in the computer manufacturing biz.

Anyway, the Centrinos are kicking butt (again, if you can stomache the rediculous case designs and over-engineered plethora of pointless buttons) because they were made from the git-go to address problems particular to the mobile market.

$.02

texanpenguin said:
The reason that most people are so anxious for G5 PowerBooks is that they know that it's only a matter of time before Apple releases a G5 in a laptop form-factor, and they don't want to go out and buy a really high-end G4 PowerBook that, in two or three months time is completely out of date. I have a G3 PowerBook. It is the weakest system in my house in OS X - there'll be an OS revision in the not TOO distant future (I'm thinking 10.7) that will be fully 64-bit, in which case the G4 PowerBooks will again be useless.

It's perfectly understandable to want for a G5 PowerBook; they're supposed to be Powerful machines. Now they're just iBooks with shorter battery life, better screens and slightly faster clock-speed.
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No computer ever released was outdated in two or three months. That's a big exaggeration. If I purchased a 1.67GHz G4 PowerBook now, I'd rest assured that it would not be outdated for at least a year or two -- even with the presence of G5 PowerBooks.
 
I don't mean useless.
I mean out of date. Not new anymore.

People who spend a whole lot of money for something that is the ABSOLUTE top of the line don't want to have something that's not even in the same GENERATION as the next best thing two months later.
 
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