Portable News
 PB Zone

 iMac News
 Daily iMac

 Forum
 MacDebate.com

 Gaming News
 Mac 3D Dot Com

 Mac OS X
 X Appeal

 
 Quotes

 
 

Evaluating all the rumors out there and adding our own information and opinions is quickly becoming a Macworld tradition for The PowerBook Zone. You can read older MW reports here, here, or here. Ee're going to explore all the rumors out there, tell you what we know, and make some predictions. It's less than a week to Steve Jobs' keynote at 9 AM Pacific Time on Tuesday, so hold on to your hat. First, let's see what's likely to be updated:

Price Drops

Apple steeply reduced the prices of the G4 desktops, PowerMac G4 Cube, and PowerBooks. The iMacs and iBooks were recently updated. This would most logically suggest that we have three areas to give a lot of attention first:

New PowerMac G4s

Let's face it: a dual processor PowerMac G4 running at 500 MHz is a significant powerhouse for Mac users that understand that all MHz aren't created equal. However, this doesn't mean a hill of beans to the new user that walks into CompUSA today, and looks at the dual processor 500 MHz G4, then looks at the Pentium 4 running at 1.5 GHz. Furthermore, Athlon 1 GHz processors are under $200, allowing WinTel manufacturers to release dirt-cheap high-performance systems. We love Apple a whole helluva lot here, but the MHz gap has widened to a ridiculous level. That debate is best left to another article, so we'll focus on what's to come next week:

Apple's G4s will probably stick with the same form factor or something similar; it simply works well. A CDRW drive will be offered in at least one of the configurations, possibly a DVD that doubles as a CDRW. Look for speeds starting at 533 MHz, based on a 133 MHz bus. C|Net/ZDNet (it's the same article, ah the wonders of media mergers) are reporting that the top of the line is a single processor at 733 MHz. Apple will pump up the RAM and HD of the current systems and will send these machines on their way.

Cubes

The PowerMac G4 cube will get the same treatment: the form factor will not be messed with much at all, again, it's an award-winning design. However, the on/off switch will probably be 100% fixed in this iteration. MHz, RAM, and HD will be pumped up at more competitive prices and again, this machine will be available soon.

PowerBooks

This is where we have substantial info compared to our info on other machines. Without a doubt, Apple has shoehorned a G4 processor into Mercury. The usuals are all there: AirPort, USB, FireWire, two RAM slots, 56k modem, 100bt ethernet, VGA out, but no ADC. The Apple Display Connector couldn't be used on a PowerBook because it can't provide 28V power, in addition to the fact that no LCD projectors used in presentations have ADC interfaces.

While the form factor of Wallstreet, Lombard, and Pismo have been essentially the same, with thickness improvements coming in the Lombard transition, it's time for a change. The form factor is the most guarded secret at Apple. As such, you won't see even a hint of what it might be on this site. We doubt anyone outside of Apple will see it before you do on Tuesday, and even inside the Great Fruit Company, very few need to see the design, most simply work on mundane internal electronics.

The most exciting element of Mercury's design will be the thickness. Apple has significantly improved on the already-thin Pismo design. It's entirely possible the unit will be as thick as the lower half of a Pismo PowerBook. How they managed to increase all the offerings (RAM, HD, processor) and simultaneously reduced the unit's thickness will be one of Apple's greatest engineering triumphs. Apple has had basically since May of 1998 (Wallstreet's introduction) to revolutionize the form factor of its professional portables. Expect greatness.

Pricing

Apple has generally tried to keep pricing the same as the previous lineup of a certain sector of machines. Lombard and Pismo were prices similarly. Same with many of the G4 upgrades. The trouble with the Cube's price was highlighted because it was a completely new product sector. Apple will try to be aggressive where it can with pricing, but don't expect any miracles.

Mac OS 9.1

Moving on from hardware, we broke the story yesterday that Mac OS 9.1 will be a free downloadable update to be released on Tuesday. Here are the details of this new OS:

Here are the details:

• 72 MB download, free to anyone.
• If you want the upgrade version on CD, it'll cost you $19. If you want the full version, it'll be $99.
• The upgrade also will ship with the pro keyboard, as 9.1 will enable the volume and eject buttons on that keyboard for older USB Macs. Note that this isn't a free keyboard with purchase of the upgrade, it's a free upgrade with purchase of the keyboard.
• The upgrade requires 350 MB free.
• The major changes are a new nanokernel, new process manager, and FireWire 2.7. iDisk, part of Apple's iTools, is now included in navigation services.
• Perhaps very importantly, Mac OS 9.1 will not boot in OSX as Classic. This won't be fixed until OSX goes Golden Master.
• New version of OpenGL included.
• "Window" menu in Finder's menubar, allowing you to switch between open windows in the Finder.
• A new startup disk control panel will allow you to select OSX.

Weird Stuff...Take with a Huge Grain of Salt

We have to include this stuff, it's just plain interesting. A friend at MacWarehouse contacted us with some discoveries. Some systems listed as "cancelled" so that sales reps can't sell them (yet) have some interesting configurations and names.

We must say: we don't really think any of this can be for real, but we're going to post it so you can form your own opinions. These are the configurations that were in the MacWarehouse system: