I'm looking at getting a laptop for college and saw the PowerBook G4 at the Apple store the other day. It looked pretty appealing, except for the fact that it's due to be replaced soon. The PowerBook G5, I know, has had serious development problems due to the size of the notebooks, and as far as I know, no one's sure when it'll come out. But, I'd hate to get the G4 only to find it replaced the following month.

Does anyone know much about Apple? Any insider info?
As a side note, I'm the kind of guy who can't stand to have old technology.

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Jason,

These web sites may help you out in figuring out where Apple is headed with product releases. I use Macs in addition to Windows and Linux based computers.

http://www.thinksecret.com/
http://www.appleinsider.com/

Since revisions to Apple's systems only come out every once in a while, it can be very beneficial to time your purchases in accordance with their product releases. Also, as a student, you can get discounts from the Apple Store for education.
http://www.apple.com/education/

In the past, you could get an even greater discount on Apple products by taking a programming class and joining the "student developer" program. Here is where you can read about the program to see about eligibility and the type of discounts they may be offering these days.
http://developer.apple.com/students/sthardware.html

By the way, I don't know any Apple insider info, but if I did then I wouldn't post it since Apple has been aggressive recently in prosecuting those who do.

Hope this helps.

I took a look at both sites, but didn't really find any useful information. Everything's speculation. I don't particularly want an ugly IBM. Dells are starting to bug me. Heck, Windows is bugging me.

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Hi Jason,

Sounds like you should talk to a Mac fanatic -- like me :-)

At equivalent Mhz, the G4 and G5 have pretty similar performance. The G5 can be ramped up to much higher speeds, at the cost of much higher heat production. Bottom line: the G5 is a *great* desktop chip, and an *awful* notebook chip. For confirmation, just compare the iMac G5 to the G4. The G4 is faster, because behind the back, the G5 iMac throttles down the cpu speed because to heat problems.

Apple puts the G5 in small packages because of market demand; technically, it is a very poor choice.

I use a G4 667 Mhz TiBook 15 incher, and find the performance fine for everyday tasks. Whether web design will feel slow on a mac notebook depends entirely what software you use. Dreamweaver and most of the Adobe apps (photoshop excluded) are better optimized for 8086, unfortunately.

Mac OS X design and interface is absolutely wonderful; not having to worry and deal with malware -- the only way to go. For performance, trial your apps before deciding unless they are mac only or open-source ports, in which case you are good to go.

I understand most of that, but not all.
I currently run on a 1.8 Ghz P4 with 512 RAM. When I'm working on the site, it wouldn't be atypical for me to have the following programs running at once:

Trillian
Mozilla FireFox
Mozilla Thunderbird
Adobe Photoshop CS
Macromedia Dreamweaver MX
WS_FTP Pro

I'm not thrilled with the speed of this computer, but can't say I really know how things compare. I doubt you'd call these "everyday tasks."

If the G4 is faster, why do they use a G5? Also, I hear they have a new OS coming out soonish. Any info on that?

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Jason,

I would think a bigger consideration would be OS 10.4 not the G5. It seems that OS 10.4 Tiger will be quite an upgrade and worth waiting for.

Jeff
Mr. Kash's Prius Page
http://mrkash.com/prius

What's the ETA? Any idea. I'd like to have a laptop this summer before I head to college.

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Tiger will be out by mid June at the latest. (Steve Jobs said at Mac World that it would be out the first half of the year.) My guess is it will be out some time in mid April before the developers conference.

Jeff
Mr. Kash's Prius Page
http://mrkash.com/prius

And, if I buy a PowerBook after the new OS comes out, am I going to be outdated with a new notebook just months afterwards?

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It depends on how soon after you buy the new computer. Apple will probably give free upgrades if you buy your computer right before Tiger is released, but I have no idea with the time allotment will be. If Apple keeps pricing the same, Tiger will not be much more than $100. The drag will be getting your system set up again.

Jeff
Mr. Kash's Prius Page
http://mrkash.com/prius