Macintosh -- Will you buy one now or later?

[American Oyaji]

One thing occured to me and I was wondering about it.

G6.

They couldn't name the next generation G6 because Pontiac recently released a car called the G6 (Why the hell would you name a new type of car G6 anyway? Car is shite too)

Diff companies seem to think they can swipe at Apple for different "infringements". I think Pontiac would have done the same thing.

just a random thought.

[cstaylor]

I think they'll change the naming after Apple drops support for the chip IMHO.

[mr. sparkle]

Don't you mean 2.7 dual G5? -

Ooops. I meant G5, yes.

As currently there is no 2.7 G4 in the apple line up in desktops nor PBooks?

Sorry, it's a dual 2.7 G5, not G4. See pic below:

-One, where does this leave classic support (even though there is only one app I use in classic, it's still vital as fuck to me)?

Start migrating to OS X qualified apps ASAP is the only advice I can give you.

Where is the 64bit support going to be in an Intel based Mac, as we have yet to really see a 64Bit Pentium where AMD already had them beat?

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I'm going to run with the horses and see how this pentium/OSX thing plays out, but I'm gonna sit tight on my G5 and G4-17" for the next 3 years not giving a shit.

Right on brother, me too.

[emperor]

I bought the Athlon 64 3500+. I can upgrade the AMD system with a BIOS flash and a quick (<20minute) CPU swap.

Im running on that same chip at the moment - will you sell off your used cpu 2nd hand once you remove it?

Ive got 1GB of ram running - and i find its more then enough - using 2 and 4 gbs of ram seems overkill dont you think?


I wanted to sell my (2" thick, 1 hr battery) 15" 2.4ghz Vaio running Jap XP in lieu of a 12" ibook or powerbook for uni - because of the smaller size, weight, and ability to switch between eng and jap.
If the current G4s give you 4 hours of usage, and part of Apples move to intel seems to be about the pentium-M's - maybe its worth holding on - isnt it next summer theyre saying the first of the new notebooks will come?
What about these rumours of a widescreen ibook contract that was awarded recently? - i dont need the widescreen - but maybe theyll upgrade a couple of other things while theyre at it??

[FG Lurker]

I bought the Athlon 64 3500+. I can upgrade the AMD system with a BIOS flash and a quick (<20minute) CPU swap.

Im running on that same chip at the moment - will you sell off your used cpu 2nd hand once you remove it?

Probably... I don't have any other Socket 939 motherboards around that I could use it in.

Ive got 1GB of ram running - and i find its more then enough - using 2 and 4 gbs of ram seems overkill dont you think?

I still have issues with 2GB actually. 8mp digital images take a lot of memory, as do high-res scans (thankfully I rarely scan anymore). If I didn't already have 4x512MB I would consider 4x1GB. 1GB DIMMs have really dropped in price.

Speaking of price... I remember buying an 8MB SIMM for Cdn$500. Now a 1GB DDR DIMM is about Cdn$150. Nothing like getting 128x the memory for 30% of the price.

[cstaylor]

My Dual 2Ghz G5 arrived today. Very nice... next step is adding another SATA drive so I can RAID them for faster performance.

[mr. sparkle]

My Dual 2Ghz G5 arrived today. Very nice... next step is adding another SATA drive so I can RAID them for faster performance.

Curious....
Why are you bothering with RAID unless you are doing something like video with it? You gonna RAID your boot drive and this additional drive? I don't like my boot drive to be a part of any array. With a G5, unfortunately, you need an adapter set (Wiebetech.com) and a SATA PCI card to build an internal array of additional HDs. The cool thing is that the adapter kit can fit up to 5 drives. With this configuration, you can possibly do something as crazy as uncompressed 1080i HDTV.

[cstaylor]

FCP 4.0, plus RAID-0 is faster for booting.

[FG Lurker]

FCP 4.0, plus RAID-0 is faster for booting.

A single 10,000rpm WD Raptor SATA drive will be faster than RAID0 for boot. Also a *lot* more reliable as it is a single server-class drive vs two desktop class ones.

[cstaylor]

FCP 4.0, plus RAID-0 is faster for booting.

A single 10,000rpm WD Raptor SATA drive will be faster than RAID0 for boot. Also a *lot* more reliable as it is a single server-class drive vs two desktop class ones.

And 2 10,000RPM WD Raptor drives in RAID-0 config will be event faster.

[nullpointer]

IBM to Apple: eat these chips

As a parting shot to Apple, a piqued IBM today announced two new lines of its PowerPC 970 processor, better known as the G5. And they're impressive beasts.

A new, low power 970FX consumes between 13 and 16 Watts at frequencies of 1.2Ghz, 1.4Ghz and 1.6GHz. That's more than the 10 Watts that the Freescale MPC7448 found in today's 1.5Ghz PowerBooks consumes, but around half the power consumption of Intel's Pentium M, which powers today's Centrino laptops. IBM is also unveiled the dual core 970MP codenamed Antares, at clock frequencies of 1.4Ghz to 2.5Ghz. Each core has 1MB of Level 2 cache, and one core can be turned off to save power.

[cstaylor]

Apple will probably still use those dual-core chips in a new PowerMac IMHO.

[nullpointer]

Expect Steve Jobs to announce: "Hehe, I can't believe you guys really bought what we said about moving to Intel."

[Charles]

So now we have a 1.6Ghz G5 for laptops to compete with the 1.67Ghz G4. And a dual core 2.5Ghz G5 to compete with the dual processor 2.7Ghz G5.

I am underwhelmed.

[FG Lurker]

I'm actually impressed. It should be interesting to see what a dual-cpu dual-core 2.5GHz G5 machine can do.

The low power chips are also interesting. Clock-for-clock the G5 is quite a bit more powerful than the G4, right?

[American Oyaji]

Ya know.
IBM knew Apple was getting pissy about the chips.

They obviously had these chips, and I'm guessing Apple knew they had them.

What was IBM doing? Trying to make Steve Jobs blink or call his bluff?

[nullpointer]

ars reports

Apple negotiate for a new processor chip. Being Apple, they want "most favored customer" treatment, with fab-fill margins for the vendor. What's more, they want this for what amounts to a custom processor chip, so any oversupply will just sit on the shelf until Apple decides they want them, and sometimes Apple will let them sit a while to see if they can get a price break -- it always pays to remind the world that one is, after all, the Steve Jobs.

With terms like that, custom chip vendors only start as many lots as the customer contracts to accept right off the line. Apple, not exactly rolling in cash, isn't going to highball that estimate. In fact, they play it conservative and only order a small startup batch. The rest follows, of course: the product sells, Apple orders more to cover the demand, and IBM tells them that processors have a 6-month lead time.

Apple complains publicly about IBM (does this sound like anyone we know?) IBM, being grown-ups, doesn't say anything that might be perceived as negative about a customer.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Well, time goes by and IBM has other customers who actually pay up front for custom designs and who don't insist on having IBM tailor their product roadmap around a few million units a year. Apple again demands that IBM dedicate their CPU design teams to making an Apple special that will never generate much revenue. If IBM won't play, Apple will go to Intel.


IBM does a Rhett Butler, and the rest is history. Note that you aren't hearing one way or the other f rom IBM on this story.

Class bunch, IBM.

[emperor]

Im checking ebay now and then for powerbooks, but im not in any hurry to buy.
However, Ive just come across a listing that finishs in 11 hours and the price seems really good... almost too good... to be true?

http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5408055113&fromMakeTrack=true

I emailed asking what the catch was and this was the reply:

First I want to tell you that my powerbooks are brand new, unopened box all listed accessories included and also an 3 years apple care warranty. The invoice will come at the same time with the package.
My buy it now price is the best you could get, including the shipping and insurance taxes. We will pay them because the package will be delivered from Europe. As delivery service we use UPS2daysair service (with insurance and 15 days return policy), because it's the faster. And if you will have a quick payment, we must also have a quick delivery. So that's why we use as a payment method Western Union money transfer, the fastest and also very secure way of sending money. So, if you agree with my terms I'm sure that we can close the deal as soon as possible.
Waiting your quick answer right now

The seller has 99.9% positive feedback, from 3600 transactions...

What do y'all think? Should I buy or beware?

[FG Lurker]

Sounds like a hacked account to me...

[emperor]

Sounds like a hacked account to me...

does that happen often?

[FG Lurker]

HACKED FOR SURE! STAY FAAAAAAR AWAY!

Look at his completed auctions. The guy usually sells underwear, tshirts, etc., low value items.

[FG Lurker]

Sounds like a hacked account to me...

does that happen often?

It's not rare.

You have to watch carefully and compare what is being sold with what the guy usually sells.

Also prices that are too good to be true are a big warning, as are email addresses displayed in the auction to encourage direct contact instead of via eBay's email system. Insistence on prepayment via Western Union or Bank Transfer are other big ripoff signs, especially if the seller's other auctions list PayPal.

In particular if you see two or more "oddities" then you should report the auction to eBay and stay away. In this case I would say 100% for sure the auction is a scam.

[emperor]

Sounds like a hacked account to me...

does that happen often?

It's not rare.
You have to watch carefully and compare what is being sold with what the guy usually sells.
Also prices that are too good to be true are a big warning, as are email addresses displayed in the auction to encourage direct contact instead of via eBay's email system. Insistence on prepayment via Western Union or Bank Transfer are other big ripoff signs, especially if the seller's other auctions list PayPal.
In particular if you see two or more "oddities" then you should report the auction to eBay and stay away. In this case I would say 100% for sure the auction is a scam.

Well I notified ebay of the suspicion.
If they get back to me saying its all good, then ill buy... but they wont.
I HATE WHEN THINGS ARE TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE!!!

[FG Lurker]

There is no way that auction is real... Sorry.

It's even classified as size 12 women's clothes... The account got hacked and someone has changed one (or more) of the guys auctions to scams.

I wish people would choose stronger passwords!!!!!

I also reported it to eBay. Hopefully they will take it down soon. Glad you didn't get sucked in!

[emperor]

Domo 4 the advice FGL!

[Charles]

I just bought a PowerBook 15in 1.67Ghz with the 128Mb VRAM option. Now get this: I just found out that Apple will do price matching of any authorized Apple dealer. Amazon.com has a $150 rebate on Powerbooks. I asked Apple, and they gave me $210 off! Plus $110 off Applecare. Plus free shipping with an upgrade to FedEx 2 day (which will take 4 days since it's coming from Shanghai). What a deal.

Now the downside is, of course the day after I placed the order, there was a rumor of new Powerbooks announcing at the end of this month. But Apple has a 14 day price protection, if a new model ships, I can send my (unopened) unit back and swap for the equivalent new unit. What a deal. I guess I won't be opening the box right away, until the rumor gets confirmed or shot down. At this point, it looks like new iBooks, not new Powerbooks. Even if there are new Powerbooks, they haven't been increasing in speed, I figure the best they could do would be maybe 1.8Ghz which is only a minor speed bump, so maybe it is safe to just go with the unit I bought, maybe wrangle an additional price break if a new unit ships and they drop prices on the old model.

[amdg]

[emperor]

[Charles]

[Greji]