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We finally figured the big exciting announcement Apple was
planning for the expo keynote, widespread PowerBook availability!
Well, maybe not, but this is the first week that the
December PowerBooks can be found at just about every store,
a vast improvement from last week. In fact, the only store
that doesn't have both 'Books in stock is the Apple store
which now lists a 7 day wait, up from 5 last week.
Apple's "Double For Nothing" promotion officially
ended December 31st, but there are still PowerBooks in the
channel with the extra RAM as the PowerBooks were shipped
to the stores with the RAM pre-installed by Apple.
The Lexmark
promotion ($50 mail in rebate with the purchase of a PowerBook,
$30 rebate without PowerBook) has been extended through March
30th although most stores have not updated their sites to
reflect this fact.
This Week's Best PowerBook Deals:
PowerBook G4/550 - MacMallorMacConnection
.
Both are offering enticing selection of bundles.
PowerBook G4/667 - MacMall,MacConnection
orClubMac.
The first two for their bundle selection, and ClubMac for
their $100 "Instant rebate."
As always check your tax status at these merchants so that
you don't get a nasty shock at checkout time
Note: We receive
a small commission on computers purchased using the links
below. Though this adds no cost to your purchase price it
does help us defray the cost of running MacReviewZone and
MacSpeedZone. Your help is appreciated! Shipping charges
are to California... your mileage may vary!
1.) Word 2001 & Entourage Special Edition ($133
value).
2.) Free carrying case and Pearl Harbor DVD
3.) Free carrying case and snow White DVD
4.) Palm m100 ($95
value)
5.) X-Tools
& Darwin
Collection for $100 additional.
6.) Free AirPort card ($99
value.) No install fee.
7.) Pro keyboard and mouse.
Double for Nothing
Promotion and one of the following:
1.) Word 2001 & Entourage Special Edition ($133
value).
2.) Free carrying case and Pearl Harbor DVD
3.) Palm m100 ($95
value)
4.) X-Tools
& Darwin
Collection for $100 additional.
5.) Pro keyboard and mouse.
** Shipping charges to California and does
not factor the cost of bundled items, your price may vary
... For the outpost, the free shipping option is only good
on orders that are under 100 pounds in weight. If you are
buying more than two machines, order the first two machines,
wait for them to arrive, and then order the next batch (if
you are only ordering PowerBooks you can order quite a few
before you go over the 100 pound limit)
On
Tuesday, October 16th, Apple rolled out a speed bumped PowerBook
G4 line. The new 'Books come in two speeds, G4/550 and G4/667.
The speed bump is certainly welcome, but doesn't tell the
whole story. The first generation Titanium PowerBook, introduced
last Winter, sported G4/400 and G4/500 processors with a 1MB
backside cache running at half the processor speed. The new
PowerBooks do away with the backside cache entirely in favor
of a 256K "on chip" cache running at full processor
speed. We will be putting the new PowerBooks through their
paces, so look for a performance comparison over at MacSpeedZone
in the near future.
The ATI
Radeon Mobility chip has replaced the aging RAGE
128 Mobility found in the previous G4 PowerBooks and current
iBook.
The Radeon Mobility sports 16MB of the faster DDR RAM compared
to 8MB of SDRAM on the RAGE Mobility. The Radeon also features
a lot of design improvements over the RAGE which should improve
the PowerBook's viability as a gaming machine.
Apple has also improved networking on the new
'Books, offering built in 10/100/1000Base-T Ethernet on both
models and an installed AirPort card on the G4/667. Hard drive
space has also been bumped up from 10 & 20GB in the previous
PowerBooks to 20 & 30GB. A faster 48GB configuration is
also available exclusively through the Apple Store. RAM remains
the same, 128MB or 256MB although apple is currently offering
a "double for nothing" promotion
where they will double the installed RAM at no cost. This
offer is valid at any Apple authorized retailer and runs through
the end of the year. Both of the New PowerBooks still sport
slot loading DVD-ROM drives, but a slot loading CD-RW drive
is now a BTO option.
On December 17th, Apple made slot loading "Combination
drives" standard on the PowerBook G4. The combination
drive can read DVD's and read and write CD's. They also doubled
the standard RAM from 128MB and 256MB on the G4/550 and G4/667
respectively to 256MB and 512MB. Apple has bumped the price
of the G4/550 up $100 to $2,299. The stock G4/667 remains
at $2,999 and the G4/667 with a 48GB drive and 1GB RAM has
been bumped up $300 to $3,599. Previously this configuration
only had 256MB RAM.
Copyright 1996-2007 by Cider Press Publishing LLC all rights reserved. MacReviewZone is not authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Computer. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iPod, iBook, iMac, eMac, and PowerBook are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.
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