About to pull the trigger on a Powerbook...

[Peter Johnson]

Mac-heads, or anyone who knows about this sort of thing:

(sorry, not interested in the mac vs. pc debate!)

We're about ready to get a powerbook, but are concerned about the notion that Apple might have a new release on the horizon. How can I find out about this? Are there rumor sites, or the like? When does Apple usually release new products?

Thanks for your help!

PJ

Edited September 13, 2005 by Peter Johnson

[Chuck Nessa]

[J Larsen]

Mac-heads, or anyone who knows about this sort of thing:

(sorry, not interested in the mac vs. pc debate!)

We're about ready to get a powerbook, but are concerned about the notion that Apple might have a new release on the horizon.  How can I find out about this?  Are there rumor sites, or the like?  When does Apple usually release new products?

Thanks for your help!

PJ

←

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/

[J Larsen]

BTW, given that Apple is saying that they will have converted their entire line to pentium processors by the end of 2007, buy knowing that Apple is likely to have some backwards compatibility issues in a couple of years. From what I've read about the Rosetta stone solution, it sounds like it will be annoyingly slow.

[Guest akanalog]

this exact thing happend to me!

i bought a powebook and literally the next day, the store got in a whole new series of improved powerbooks.

they gave me a hard time and kept claiming mac doesn't tell them when things are coming out, which i have a hard time believing since they must have already been in storage waiting to be put on shelves...but anyway-after much haggling and fighting i was offered a free iPod to placate me. not the best solution, but i was ok with it at the time.

otherwise i would have had to pay some bogus restocking fees for my opened laptop and, well i don't remember the rest-but the store, which was my school computer store, was not too cool about the whole thing.

[J Larsen]

You may have been entitled to get some cash back. The day that a new product is released, Apple slashes the prices on the predecessor product. They also have a (little-advertised) price protection program - it's good for something like 30 days. The caveat is that I'm not certain that the price protection program covers discontinued products - my gut tells me it probably doesn't - but if you find yourself in this situation again, it would be worth looking into.

BTW, you can bank on a PowerBook update very soon. I wouldn't count on anything earth-shattering, but you'll probably be able to get a marginally better machine for a couple hundred bucks less within the next month.

[Peter Johnson]

Sorry to up my own thread, but...JLarsen, a friend of mine mentioned that this is the time of year when Apple puts out updated models in anticipation of the new school year. Is that what you were referring to when you suggested waiting a month or so?

[J Larsen]

Sorry to up my own thread, but...JLarsen, a friend of mine mentioned that this is the time of year when Apple puts out updated models in anticipation of the new school year.  Is that what you were referring to when you suggested waiting a month or so?

←

My opinion is based a few things: 1) The school year point 2) the fact that they tend to update the Powerbooks twice a year and the last time was six months ago and 3) having followed Apple closely for a long time, I know that they tend to update one line after the other pretty quickly, and within the last several weeks they've upgraded the iBooks, the iPods, and the Mac Mini. The smart money says the PowerBook will be next. (I also ocassionally get a little inside info, but not lately. )

BTW, if you're not doing anything seriously computationally intensive, and if you aren't doing any video editing, the new iBooks compare quite nicely with the existing PowerBooks, especially for the price. Personally, I wouldn't want to sink too much into Apple hardware right now with the Intel switch on the horizon.

[Peter Johnson]

Has anyone heard anything? All seems quiet...

[Jim Dye]

I'm playing the waiting game too, Peter. I am going to be getting one at work. I'm waiting until Apple Expo Paris on the 20th to see if they announce new models.

[Christiern]

I highly recommend AppleNova.com, a BBS that is dedicated to Macs and inhabited by many knowledgeable Mac people. Go to forums. They even have a Genius Bar.

[J Larsen]

Word on the street is that they will (finally) roll out the update at the Paris expo next week. From what I've heard, it is not expected to be an earth-shattering update - the processor on each model will be a few hundred MHz faster, but that's about it.

[Jim Dye]

Look for new PowerBook, PowerMac and iPod updates today. Possibly, a video iPod!

[Peter Johnson]

ARRRRGH!

Everything _BUT_ powerbooks!

Oh well.

Look for new PowerBook, PowerMac and iPod updates today. Possibly, a video iPod!

←

[J Larsen]

I don't think they'll do a powerbook or powermac revision until the first-generation Intel machines. No one wants to pay that kind of money for a machine that will be borderline obsolete in a year.

[Peter Johnson]

Okay, hypothetically speaking, If I were to purchase one, would you mac users recommend increasing the ram from 512 MB to 1 or even 2 Gigs? I do not plan on doing video production, FWIW.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[J Larsen]

I've never had a problem with 512MB. I mostly run OpenOffice, Mathematica and the Apple Developers' Tools package.