[drillbo]

"I think you mean a G5. A video or sound pro generally wouldn't be doing their main work on an iMac or laptop."
I was talking about the existing Powerbook that is still on sale and hasn't come down in price. According to the Rosetta page some applications may not work well in emulation and it seems like those would be video and sound. I was just guessing that if video and sound pros need something portable, the G4 Powerbook may be the only choice until their applications can run on an intel processor.

[canuck15]

Just do a control-option-command-8 and the screen will reverse to make it easier to read the page.

[minderbinder]

"I was talking about the existing Powerbook that is still on sale and hasn't come down in price."
Yep. And that's a box that most audio/video folks won't be using anyway.
Pros in general are going to wait until their apps are native. But they're also going to do the vast majority of their work on a desktop system, not a portable one.

[fenzel]

I assume the lack of Dual Layer DVD writing is due to Apple predicting that pretty soon there may be Blu-Ray or HD-DVD burning built in the new computers? It took about three years (give or take a few), from the introduction of DVD in 1996 to the first DVD writers (DVD RAM in 1999).
Therefore would Apple be side-tracking a technology whose horizon is nearing? I certainly would purchase a Blu-Ray burner in a couple of years, and I can do without dual layer DVD burning. Realistically, what can you store on 9GB that you can't store on 4.7GB? Only a full length movie methinks...

[MacGod]

For those prognosticating on the potential demise of FW400 (now that FW800 seems to be not-long-for-this-world), just a reminder:
Apple is pushing (and pushing hard) to be a leader in the home video-editing revolution. And DV cameras use FireWire, almost exclusively. So they won't be dropping FW400 any time soon. As for FW800, if you really need it in your MacBookPro, I'm sure there will be an ExpressCard upgrade to add it.
I agree it would be nice to see FW800 included, but it just didn't seem to have the wide-scale acceptance it deserved.

[montgomery_burns]

In reply to:

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Those that buy a Powerbook can say they have the really best.

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ATI also has Mobility FireGL and NVidia has Quadro FX Go for laptops.

[montgomery_burns]

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Apple and USB are a good example - USB only caught on because Apple took the lead in creating a market for USB products.

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Another reason USB 2 caught on is not only greater performance than USB 1, but it also uses the same connector unlike Firewire 800 vs 400.

[quick_silver]

While SATA will probably overtake FW800, those who still need FW 800 can get it with the new MacBook... I found a FW800 card that should work...
http://www.abocom.co...tail.php?id=326

[HumanJHawkins]

Does anyone know the USB / Intel counterpart to FireWire 800? Perhaps the reason FW800 is missing is that Apple is planning to transition to a next generation technology from the USB camp... Perhaps one that resolves many of USB's lingering issues?

[Nobody]

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Does anybody remember the Powerbook Duo?

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Yes I do.
It was a classic case of Apple flawed design and where they didn't listen to commonsense.
The idea was good but the design slotted into an all encompassing sleeve. Soon as Apple upgraded the screen and the Duo body became too fat they had to issue an entirely different dock just to fit. It was laughably stupid, if you didn't have a matching duo and dock it was no go.
PC laptops had the sense to make the dock a shelf and align the ports.
But history repeats. Apple has done the same with the iPod.
Just adds to the expense and annoyance for the consumer. Not happy about Apple moving away from FW either. First the iPod now FW800 on their new machines.

[HumanJHawkins]

I have to say that this is a pretty retarded launch for apple... Difficult to read the web site, no info on battery life for a laptop launch, and utter confusion about DVD-DL support (or lack thereof)
As Steve indicated, they are ahead of schedule. Perhaps they intended to announce next month, but Intel got the chips done early? THen everyone else had to rush?

[HumanJHawkins]

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WTF no modem?

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That was my first thought. But then I saw their solution and thought about it... This is so rarely needed, why not make it a USB dongle? Save dealing with all of the battery drain / can't put the computer to sleep / etc. issues that have come up in the past.
It isn't like there is no modem... Just that it isn't built in.

[HumanJHawkins]

In reply to:

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I think you mean a G5. A video or sound pro generally wouldn't be doing their main work on an iMac or laptop.

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I can't speak to video, but a 1st generation Powerbook G4 (500MHz) can handle most of what ProTools can throw at it as long as it is jacked up on memnory. Any powerbook from the last year or two would be more than enough to make an audio pro some $.

[Mav]

Hello USB modem dongle sigh. Ever since they excised the modem from the iMac G5, I had this sinking feeling they'd remove it from all of their computers. Let's hope they at least keep modems in the low-end Mac mini until AirPort/Bluetooth is added (Power Macs have no modems, and thus no connectivity other than Ethernet out of the box!)
As for vid cards...I'm no expert on 'em, but I have heard that the X1600 is a very decent card with 12 pixel pipelines as opposed to the rebranded X600's miserable 4. Question is, are we getting that same card? It doesn't help that NVIDIA and ATI release multiple versions of the "same" card (e.g. GTX and GT for NVIDIA, XT, Pro and XL for ATI, etc.), and Apple's not helping things along by not telling us exactly what type of card it is. Why does this make a difference? The low-end dual-core 2GHz Power Mac contains the pathetic, obviously crippled 4 pixel pipeline GeForce 6600LE (Lame Edition?) -- a card I didn't even know existed, since all other GeForce 6600s I've heard of have a far more robust 8 pixel pipelines.