As the Apple Turns: Scene 4602: Keep Watching The Skies (3/30/04)

Keep Watching The Skies (3/30/04)

While we're on the subject of imminent hardware introductions, you probably recall that whispers of soon-to-surface new PowerBooks have been wafting around through the rumoric ether lately. The last we'd heard on the subject showed some pretty wide variance in expected release dates and specs; AppleInsider says it's a PowerBook G4 and it's due in or after the "final week of April," while some German site called MacTechNews claims it'll be an honest-to-goshness PowerBook G5 and won't appear until WWDC at the end of June. Our own sources claim it'll be a PowerBook G6 packing four processors and it'll ship last Thursday, but we suspect they're just trying to spread things around a little for harmony's sake. It's like Feng Shui or something.

Well, it's time to add another smiley face to the scatter graph, because faithful viewer Troy informs us that the PowerPage says that new PowerBooks are coming this week. As in, practically right now. Heck, if the PowerPage is right, there may be a press release by the time you even see this. We're not counting on it, of course, but with the new Power Macs apparently stuck indefinitely in Mac Limbo ("How low can you go?"), it's nice to think that we may at least get some new hardware by the end of March.

As far as the specs on these puppies go, the PowerPage practically redefines the word "vague." Processor speed? "Faster." RAM? (Silence.) Storage? "Faster" and "larger." Video? "New," and with the option to go as high as 128 MB of VRAM. Form factor? "Same." And that's about all we get. Still, that's all right in line with what any reasonable person would expect of a PowerBook debuting this week: the good ol' speed bump. Keep the same chassis, crank up the processor a bit, maybe bump up the RAM and hard disk and update the video circuitry, and voilà: a sagging product line suddenly looks four to six months younger. It's like BOTOX for Macs, only no one needs to get jabbed with a hypodermic filled with botulism for it to happen. Unless, you know, they want to.

Now, the bad news: if you were holding out hope for a PowerBook G5 by WWDC, the PowerPage's report pretty much nukes any chance of that happening. For one thing, WWDC is only three months away, and Apple generally leaves at least six months between product revisions. For another, despite the fact that the article's title is "New PowerBooks This Week: Last of the G4s," the PowerPage claims that "there will be one more update to the aluminum PowerBook G4 after this one before the PowerBook G5 is announced." (Ultimate, penultimate, whatever.) So unless you think Apple has made the leap to a 1.5-month product refresh cycle, it sounds like the G5 won't make it into a portable until sometime next year-- again, all assuming that the PowerPage is right in the first place.

Given that there are only three days left in the week, it won't be long before we know if at least part of the report is true. We have to admit, we have our doubts; how can we possibly be expected to believe a report that doesn't even cite "sources close to Apple"? Geez, there are certain traditions to follow, here, people...

SceneLink (4602)

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The above scene was taken from the 3/30/04 episode:

March 30, 2004: At least one site claims that Apple's new Power Mac promo doesn't mean that new G5s are delayed until June. Meanwhile, another site says new PowerBooks will ship this week, and Apple applies to patent the iPod's user interface; will Dell have to reach for its checkbook?...

Other scenes from that episode:

4601: Hope For The Grief-Stricken (3/30/04) Okay, we've spent the last twenty-four hours breathing into a paper bag and visualizing the color green, and we think we've finally got that whole hyperventilation thing under control. We actually consider ourselves lucky that the implications of Apple's new "Brilliant savings" Power Mac promo only triggered respiratory issues...
4603: Frinky Would Be Proud (3/30/04) You know, not a day goes by that we aren't struck by how incredible the iPod's user interface happens to be. Okay, we may have skipped a day last November while we were busy doing holiday cards, and last Saturday we got distracted by a dog with a puffy tail...

Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast...


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