SFNE Freak Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 Hey everybody, I'm about to be in the market for a new 12" PowerBook and I was wondering when you think the next speed bump or other change to the PowerBooks (specifically the 12") will occur? I always like to have the latest thing and don't want to buy in January just to see them updated a month later. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fusion Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 Hey everybody,I'm about to be in the market for a new 12" PowerBook and I was wondering when you think the next speed bump or other change to the PowerBooks (specifically the 12") will occur? I always like to have the latest thing and don't want to buy in January just to see them updated a month later. Thanks! I'm sorry but these topics always confuse me. If you need the hardware now, get it. If it can do what you need it to do right now, then why do you have to have the latest thing? If it cannot do what you want it to do, then maybe you should think about looking for something else. I waited till they got updated last time to get the 12 inch powerbook. I knew exactly what I wanted out of a Mac, and there was no laptop on the market that could meet it. The 12 inch was very tempting but the heat issue turned me off. I did not NEED the hardware at the time so I just told myself I would wait for a specific amount of time. If they had not been updated by then I would buy a PC laptop, and if they had, I would buy the powerbook. Rev. B of the 12 inch powerbook fixed most of the issues that Apple knew about from Rev. A. Is there something about the Rev. B's that you do not like or think they need to update? Always wanting to have the latest thing seems pretty ridiculous to me. Whatever hardware you buy will always be outdated some day. Whether it be by January or next year, what does it matter? You still have the hardware that you needed that performs everything you needed it to. If it does not, then I wouldn't buy the powerbook. The good news for you is that Apple computers hold their value very well. So if you buy something right now, and in January they are updated, and you have to have the new one, you could always sell it and get the new one for very little money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macman87 Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 for apple's sake, i hope to see g5 powerbooks in the next update... apple's powerbooks need updating because most of the wintel laptops are catching up with the same features and they are alot cheaper. a g5 powerbook will make the powerbooks sell really well, like the g5 powermacs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kairon Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 I highly doubt G5 are going in powerbooks any time soon. I read a while back of an apple exec saying that the g4 still has life yet in powerbooks and iBooks. Not only that but with current G5 it is practically unfeasible due to the extreme heat it puts off.Maybe when IBM develops G5's with throttling features, k? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFNE Freak Posted December 21, 2003 Author Share Posted December 21, 2003 I'm sorry but these topics always confuse me. If you need the hardware now, get it. If it can do what you need it to do right now, then why do you have to have the latest thing? If it cannot do what you want it to do, then maybe you should think about looking for something else.I waited till they got updated last time to get the 12 inch powerbook. I knew exactly what I wanted out of a Mac, and there was no laptop on the market that could meet it. The 12 inch was very tempting but the heat issue turned me off. I did not NEED the hardware at the time so I just told myself I would wait for a specific amount of time. If they had not been updated by then I would buy a PC laptop, and if they had, I would buy the powerbook. Rev. B of the 12 inch powerbook fixed most of the issues that Apple knew about from Rev. A. Is there something about the Rev. B's that you do not like or think they need to update? Always wanting to have the latest thing seems pretty ridiculous to me. Whatever hardware you buy will always be outdated some day. Whether it be by January or next year, what does it matter? You still have the hardware that you needed that performs everything you needed it to. If it does not, then I wouldn't buy the powerbook. The good news for you is that Apple computers hold their value very well. So if you buy something right now, and in January they are updated, and you have to have the new one, you could always sell it and get the new one for very little money. Currently, I'm worried that 1Ghz won't be adequate for heavy editing with iMovie and would prefer something along the lines of 1.25 or 1.33Ghz. But, I still want the 12" and don't want to go through the hassle of selling a notebook on eBay right after buying it to have the latest thing. I can wait, thats the thing. I don't have anything depending on this, I just want to prolong the obsoleteness as much as possible. ;) The latest I'll wait is April. After that, I'll just buy the latest PB 12" and hope for the best. But, I don't mind waiting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aldo Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 Wait until MacWorld SF (6th Jan - 9th) and watch out for Mr. Jobs keynote at 5pm GMT (should be streamed on quicktime). If Powerbook revisions happen it will most likley be then. Apple sometimes jumps out with new updates (like the G5 ones) which you can't be sure of, but anyway you can just sell on ebay if you find it a huge problem. BTW: There is very little you can do in iMovie to require huge amounts of CPU power. Shake or FCP, yes, but not iMovie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFNE Freak Posted December 22, 2003 Author Share Posted December 22, 2003 Wait until MacWorld SF (6th Jan - 9th) and watch out for Mr. Jobs keynote at 5pm GMT (should be streamed on quicktime).If Powerbook revisions happen it will most likley be then. Apple sometimes jumps out with new updates (like the G5 ones) which you can't be sure of, but anyway you can just sell on ebay if you find it a huge problem. BTW: There is very little you can do in iMovie to require huge amounts of CPU power. Shake or FCP, yes, but not iMovie. I know to expect them for MWSF, which will be streamed here, bye the way. But, if they don't announce them during it, I'm willing to wait until April. Regarding iMovie; its not the speed of doing everything, its the import speed. It take 5 minutes just to import a 10MB 320x240 AVI file. I don't want to even think about importing DV footage. Does anybody know what in my iBook might be imposing this limitation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VGVL Posted December 22, 2003 Share Posted December 22, 2003 Currently, I'm worried that 1Ghz won't be adequate for heavy editing with iMovie and would prefer something along the lines of 1.25 or 1.33Ghz. But, I still want the 12" If you're going to be doing heavy DV Editing the 1024x768 display on the 12" PowerBook just wont cut it, unless you use it with a secondary monitor. The 4200RPM HDD will also be a bottleneck. You should try to get an external FireWire800 7200RPM HDD, but the 12" PowerBook doesn't have any FireWire800 ports, so you might as well just get the 15" PowerBook which has a better screen and is faster for DV Editing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isus Posted December 22, 2003 Share Posted December 22, 2003 extreme heat will not be a problem of the g5 soon enough... the 130nm ones put out quite a bit of heat, but the new 90nm that are gonna be in the new g5's can come down to 12w. the current g4 takes 10 i think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluebsh Posted December 22, 2003 Share Posted December 22, 2003 for apple's sake, i hope to see g5 powerbooks in the next update... apple's powerbooks need updating because most of the wintel laptops are catching up with the same features and they are alot cheaper. a g5 powerbook will make the powerbooks sell really well, like the g5 powermacs. you mean like the 64bit AMD laptops that are starting to pop up? ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFNE Freak Posted December 22, 2003 Author Share Posted December 22, 2003 If you're going to be doing heavy DV Editing the 1024x768 display on the 12" PowerBook just wont cut it, unless you use it with a secondary monitor.The 4200RPM HDD will also be a bottleneck. You should try to get an external FireWire800 7200RPM HDD, but the 12" PowerBook doesn't have any FireWire800 ports, so you might as well just get the 15" PowerBook which has a better screen and is faster for DV Editing. iMovie wouldn't take advantage of more than one screen, its an all-in-one App. ;) I plan on buying an external drive (probably this one) which is 7200RPM. But the question then is if 400kb/s of Firewire will be able to keep up with the 7200RPM HDD speed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron901 Posted December 23, 2003 Share Posted December 23, 2003 editting video on 1024x768 is a pain in the ass. :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFNE Freak Posted December 23, 2003 Author Share Posted December 23, 2003 Well, I don't know any different. My 14" HP laptop was 1024x768 and my current 12" iBook is the same. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron901 Posted December 23, 2003 Share Posted December 23, 2003 that's why you need to experience something different now. :D 1024x768 just won't cut it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts