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With the recent introductions of the iBook, Power Macintosh G4, and slot-loading iMacs, the 7 month-old PowerBook G3 Series "Bronze" is now the oldest member of Apple's rapidly transitioning product line.

Thus, Apple will introduce "Pismo," the next generation of the company's professional portable product line. Pismo, referred to by its codename since it will likely be the fourth PowerBook to sport the name of "PowerBook G3 Series." Without further ado, here are our official The PowerBook Zone expectations of the new machine:

Spec	Low End	High End
Processor Speed	Motorola G3 450 MHz	Motorola G3 500 MHz
RAM	64 MB	128 MB
Bus Speed	100 MHz	100 MHz
Backside Cache	1 Megabyte	1 Megabyte
Max RAM	512 MB	512 MB
Hard Drive	6/8 GB	8/10/12 GB
I/O	Two 12 Mbit USB ports, Two FireWire ports, 10/100 Ethernet
Modem	Same V.90 56Kbit modem used in new iMacs, iBooks, G4s
Airport	Built In	Built In
PC Card Support	One Type II PC Card slot, manual eject
Display	14.1" TFT LCD	14.1" TFT LCD
Video	Rage 128 Based	Rage 128 Based
Media	DVD-ROM, MPEG-2 Decoding Support	DVD-ROM, MPEG-2 Decoding Support
Battery Life	5-6 Hours	5-6 Hours
Trackpad	Same Design	Same Design
Launch Date	End January	End January
Price	$2199-$2499	$3199-$3499

Now that you've gotten this far, it's clear to you that not many details are known anywhere about Pismo other than its rough expected specifications. Now for a few points:

• The likely introduction is with two models, but depending on component costs, Apple can easily use a 400 MHz configuration, as well as a highly unlikely 550 MHz that's been seen in the labs, but isn't expected to make it to market.
• The design of the enclosure will almost certainly not be seen until January 5th. However, Apple Insider may have some vector sketches of Pismo soon. The enclosure is expected to be slightly thinner, though no exposed metals are expected to be used in the casing. Improvements in weight will be nominal, as Apple has reduced almost as much heft as possible with the "Bronze" series of machines.
• The USB as well as FireWire busses are independently controlled, meaning two devices can be using each bus at 12 Mbit for USB and 400 Mbit for FireWire. This was first seen on the PowerMac G4s and slot-loading iMacs.

Reader's Fake Pismo Images

Our "Pismo Fake Contest" was a competition among the PBZone readers to see how close they can get to the real Pismo when it's released. Some are meant only to be funny, while some are quite good:

Our first fake of the day is described by its author:

Took a bit of work...I think I got what I am looking for. This is what I want Pismo to look like. It's sleek...and it looks better than that crappy FireWire fake I originally did. This isn't just FireWire or AirPort, but my complete interpretation #1 of Pismo.

Next, we have quite a humorous fake:

Okay, so it's not a Pismo fake specifically...and maybe I'm just delirious from the flu, but I thought this would be pretty funny, especially after A Certain Other Apple Rumor Site's speculation on a graphite iBook for those "not comfortable" with an orange laptop. So...tan and hunter green. You just can't get any manlier than that.

The iBook Eddie Bauer Edition(TM) will include a 12 volt cigarette lighter adapter for plugging into your SUV and coupons valued at $10.00 off at Starbuck's Coffee. A stylish and color-coordinated fly-fishing vest (with extra large pockets for holding CD's and cables) is available as an option.

We were amused by this, we hope you are too. Moving along, we have this rendition of Pismo, which as you might remember, is a beach in California:

We had quite a few submissions over the weekend. Here's the last for this edition:

We've got the latest below, and we encourage all other Photoshop wizards to send in their rendition of Apple's next PowerBook:

We got some fun and creative contest entries over the weekend. First, please remember that we know these are fake, don't email us saying "but the FireWire port shouldn't look like blah blah..." Other photoshop wizards out there should send their entries via email to info@pbzone.com as a JPEG file. Here are today's entries:

Entry One

We really think this is the most serious and best fake we've got. This is likely how the back panel of Pismo will look. However, the FireWire ports will most likely be vertical, as they are on all other Apple products.

Entry Two

This one is obviously very tongue-in-cheek Pismo image.

Entry Three
This image is best described by our secret agent that captured it on film:

Please do not tell anyone where you got this satellite photo of the actual working prototype of what is to be Pismo's successor. Here is Oyster, so named for its graceful external appearance and its pearlescent interior. Our marketing research has shown a great demand for computers with a pearlescent interior. In fact we have added every feature which our marketing research team had a request for. Hence the casters.

To see this image, go here.

Check back very often to this page. As we recieve tidbits of information from sources, we'll be keeping this page updated as much as possible until the introduction of the new machine.