[Ti] Am I missing something?

[Bill Reburn]

On 2/5/03 8:25 AM, "John Griffin" <jwegriffin at mac.com> wrote:

> On  Tue, 04 Feb 2003 15:26:36 -0800 Bill Reburn <bill at pacificcoast.net>
> wrote:
> 
>> I don't understand how you see this as Apple "hobbling" you computer.. The
>> 17" Ti came out (only about 5 people in the world have them so far) after
>> the 15" and the new iMacs were just announced today (they're not EVEN out
>> yet). The previous iMac is a desktop computer - not portable, considerations
>> have to be made for size, battery, is the drive the EXACT same size?
>> 
> 
> If the mechanism in the 1 Ghz is capable of 2x DVD burning (it is the same
> mechanism in the 17" Powerbook) and it is shipped with the ability to only
> burn at 1x, I call it "Hobbling."

IS it capable? Is it only a firmware upgrade? I do not know myself, but I
don't think I have ever seen a cd burner with the ability to burn at a
higher rate after any software upgrade. (do they exist?) I always thought
that was a hardware issue.

This does bring to light Apple's marketing steps of including only the best
features in the hottest items - but EVERY company does that (anyone buy an
electric shaver recently? Yikes!).. Currently I see many 12" PowerBook
purchasers choked that they do not get a backlit keyboard, yet none of them
have an issue with no FW800 or L3 cache (that exist in the 17" model) -
strange.

But the Ti only received the SuperDrive upgrade after significant
shoehorning of that drive into the form factor of the Ti. At the time of
engineering, the 1X was what existed, that is what was/is installed.

You don't seriously expect Apple to supply an upgrade - no matter how easy -
to provide an older machine with the functionality of their newest models?!
Do you think they should supply us with backlit keyboards and FW800 upgrades
too? I know many would buy them, but for Apple that's not a win, it's a
customer not purchasing a new machine for a long time.

>> You say you can't afford to wait for a DVD to burn at that speed - but when
>> that machine came out (several months ago, a lot of time in computer terms)
>> - it was the fastest DVD at that time and the same one that was in the other
>> computers of that time. This is the computer you bought, any computer you
>> buy is "obsolete" the next day (who coined that phrase because I hate it).
> 
> Sorry, but this simply is not true. All DVD burners that have been released
> since the middle of last year all burn at 2x (except the 1 ghz Powerbook at
> 1x and the latest iMacs and PowerMacs which burn at 4x).

Ok, you know better than me here - I do not own a SD, but I seem to remember
people wondering whether the SD would appear or not in the Ghz Ti.. If Apple
had the 12" and 17" in the wings for anywhere near 6-12 months from today -
then they obviously took that step to insure future sales..

> My point is that it would only take a simple firmware upgrade to make the 1
> ghz Powerbooks capable of 2x DVD burning. Why will they not do this?

I am not sure that it is a matter of a firmware upgrade (I am not
knowledgeable in this area), but all these machines have timelines for
production/sales/maintenance. The timeline for the Ti is technically dead if
not very close to it.. Unfortunately I don't think Apple spends too much
(any?) time working on models that are nearing the end of their life. The
decision/option for 1X burning was probably made months before the Ti was on
the streets. Does Apple have the resources to provide such an upgrade?

Simple answer to your question = $.
Other answer = They need to sell more machines and more installed copies of
OSX on machines that will only run OSX.

It is kinda of lame, but not new for Apple. I am one of the few lucky enough
to buy a pre Combo Ti from someone willing to sell it to me minus the
upgrade cost. If I had purchased it weeks earlier - it would be a $500CDN
upgrade from full price, Ouch. The 550 is even a step slower than the
previous 400/500 versions of Powerbooks, but the upgraded graphics output
had me sold. There is almost always a trade off with every machine you buy.


Bill Reburn