Apple Unviels New Powerbooks

Well they’ve finally done it, my powerbook is out of date. Thanks, Apple.

Still available in 3 tasty flavors, 12 inch, 15 inch, and 17 inch, the newly revved Powerbooks include the normal processor upgrades, they now are available in 1.5GHz PowerPC G4 and 1.67GHz PowerPC G4. 512 RAM is standard across the board as is AirPort Extreme and enhanced Bluetooth 2.0.

The most interesting new features are:

A trackpad equipped with new scrolling technology. If you want to scroll all you have to do is drag two fingers over the trackpad to scroll vertically and horizontally or pan around any active window, of course this is modifiable via system preferences
Apple’s Sudden Motion Sensor, which is much like IBM’s technology, senses when your Powerbook is suddenly falling and prepares the harddrive by spinning it down to avoid damage.

You can also opt for the new, speedy, 8x Superdrive to burn those ‘home movies’ of yours.

The 12 inch Powerbooks sports a NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 and the 15 inch and 17 inch both have the ATI Mobility Radeon 9700though you’ll need to pony up the cash for the 17 incher if you want 128MB of DDR SDRAM standard (the 15 inch ships with the 64MB version, but you can upgrade as a BTO).

Overall, a solid upgrade if you ask me, and now with my Powerbook looking absolutely acient I might have to pick myself up one or two (and trade them with my friends).

Thanks to Michael Dunn for tipping us off.

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Well they’ve finally done it, my powerbook is out of date. Thanks, Apple. Still available in 3 tasty flavors, 12...

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Ryan McLean

I use sidetrack and don't find my input to be jerky at all. Take some time to re-calibrate it, then set the filtering (Accuracy section) to a really really low value.

January 31 2005 at 5:19 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

CR Hamilton

Scott, I would appreciate any info you can pass on. Does anyone else find Sidetrack to be a little quirky? Or do I just need to do a little more tweaking?

January 31 2005 at 3:59 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Brad

Suddenly, my tricked out iBook isn't looking so tricked out...

January 31 2005 at 1:00 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Small Paul

I think the improvements are all we could realistically hope for, especially given G5s might surface in the summer. But I do think the price is too high on these puppies. My desired spec (15", 128Mb graphics, 80Gb HD) is now about 100 cheaper than yesterday, but it was pretty over-priced anyway. Compared to the iBooks, ~I don't see the extra bits justifying the extra cost.

January 31 2005 at 12:47 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Scott McNulty

Mikey, Apple is doing 512 across the board, as long as that board only consists of Powerbooks. CR, that is a good question, I will look into it and see what I can find.

January 31 2005 at 12:15 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

CR Hamilton

So, is this new trackpad feature a hardware thing ? Or is it software that will work with my powerbook? Sidetrack works for scrolling, but it makes all other input really jumpy and quirky.

January 31 2005 at 11:39 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mikey

They should go 512 MB standard across the board. Can't do squat with 256.

January 31 2005 at 11:28 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jeremiah

I am a little disappointed. I mean, come on, this isn't as big a deal as I was hoping. I am an avid Powerbook fan and I was really hoping for a little more all across the board, not just a small bump here and there. Oh well, I have to upgrade out of my 12" 867 anyway so I might as well order up a 15". I wonder what the backorder is gonna be like on these? Guess I need to hurry up and put this 12" on eBay!!

January 31 2005 at 11:07 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mikey

YAY I feel special now!!

January 31 2005 at 10:05 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply