“By giving students new laptops almost six months early, Greene County Schools is saving more than $1 million in computer costs,” Michael Abernethy reports for The Kinston Free Press (North Carolina, USA). “At a special meeting held Monday night at the Greene County Board of Commissioners meeting, the Greene County Board of Education voted to refinance its lease from Apple Computers. The school system will sell its 2,041 existing laptops [prior] to Macworld before the company announces its new product lines Jan. 9, 2006.”
“The change comes at no additional cost to parents. The AppleCare Warranty originally purchased two and-a-half years ago is still good until the summer of 2007,” Abernethy reports. “The computers’ unusually high trade-in value – estimated to bring almost $450,000 to the schools – combined with existing wear and tear on the original laptops made it a good time for the school system to refinance, said Superintendent Steve Mazingo. The threat of bugs in newer-model computers the schools would have to purchase later in the year also made Greene County Schools move early to refresh laptops. The transition should happen quickly but smoothly. The new computers will be readied for use by Apple over the holiday break. The familiar software will also make the trade easy for students and teachers to use in the classroom after the switch.”
Abernethy reports, “Mazingo praised the results of the county’s two- and-a-half-year-old laptop program as a breakthrough. ‘Our test scores are up and more kids are staying in school,’ Mazingo said. ‘Now, we’re looked at with respect – because of 21st-century teaching and learning.’ Greene County Schools still had $1.6 million left to pay in its lease with Apple, with two more years of $800,000 payments. The renegotiated deal adds nearly $1.6 million to that but also saves the system almost as much, said Harvey Gay, Greene County Schools finance officer.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This is excellent confirmation of the rumors of new Intel-based iBooks coming from Apple at Macworld Expo. Sometimes reports about Apple that come from oblique angles contain the most useful information. The reporter and the superintendent obviously don’t grasp the secrecy that surrounds Apple’s hardware announcements; they don’t seem to know they’re not supposed to tell certain things. Abernethy also doesn’t seem to recognize the scoop he really has in his hands, but we do. To us, it seems pretty clear that Greene County Schools officials were told by their Apple rep(s) that new Intel-based iBooks were coming at Macworld – first generation hardware that may “contain bugs” initially – and offered the latest current PowerPC iBooks if they upgraded right now, before Apple “announces its new product lines Jan. 9, 2006.” Apple also gets to whittle down iBook G4 inventory by another 2,000 or so units. So, there you go, all tied up nicely with a bow.
FYI: The iBook went from G3 to G4 processors in October 2003, right around the time Greene County Schools first added Apple iBooks to their school system. Most likely the iBooks that Greene County Schools are upgrading are iBook G4 models running somewhere between 800MHz -1GHz, but they could also be previous gen 800/900 MHz G3-based iBooks. Greene County Schools did not immediately respond to our inquiry about which iBook model(s) they are currently using.
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Related articles:
Nearly 2,000 Apple iBooks ready to boot up Greene County, NC schools – October 03, 2003
North Carolina’s Greene County endorses plan to give iBooks to every student in grades 6-12 – June 10, 2003
RUMOR: New Intel-based iBook, Mac mini models to debut at Macworld along with new iPod shuffles – December 19, 2005
RUMOR: No Intel-based Apple Mac debut at Macworld Expo in January 2006 – December 16, 2005
Will Apple slap ‘Intel Inside’ stickers on Macs? – December 16, 2005
Apple’s Mac mini, PowerBook, iBook may go Intel first in early 2006 – December 15, 2005
Intel’s Yonah demo shows TiVo-like features buoying rumors of Apple Mac mini digital hub with DVR – December 14, 2005
Intel’s Napa chip bound for Apple PowerBook, iBook? – December 14, 2005
Report: Intel to debut ‘Yonah’ processor on January 6th – December 12, 2005
It’s official: Apple CEO Steve Jobs to deliver Macworld San Francisco 2006 keynote address – December 01, 2005
Citigroup: Intel-based PowerBook in January, Apple target price raised to $71 – November 30, 2005
Intel: no comment on Apple participating in ‘Viiv’ entertainment platform – November 30, 2005
Intel starts up internal ‘Apple group’ – November 22, 2005
RUMOR: Intel-based Apple iBooks coming in January with extremely low price tags – November 17, 2005
Will future Intel-based Apple Macs offer multiple OS worlds via virtualization? – November 16, 2005
Intel-based Macs dominate January’s Macworld Expo 2006 rumor mill – November 14, 2005
JupiterResearch analyst wouldn’t be shocked to see Intel-based Mac debut in January 2006 – November 09, 2005
UBS: Apple to unveil Intel-based Mac mini in January; AAPL share price target raised to $74 – November 07, 2005
Apple patent application describes Intel-based Macs that run Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows – November 05, 2005
RUMOR: Apple’s Intel-based Macs coming in first quarter 2006 – November 04, 2005
Intel to renovate desktop processor line in 2006 with transition from 90 nm to 65 nm (Yonah) – July 15, 2005
Apple-bound Intel ‘Yonah’ processor prices revealed – June 09, 2005
Analysts think ‘Yonah’ Pentium M may power Apple’s first Intel-based Mac – June 08, 2005
Apple to use Intel microprocessors beginning in 2006, all Macs to be Intel-based by end of 2007 – June 06, 2005
Re: Rosetta doesn’t affect G4’s
You’re correct, I misspoke. What I should have said is that we don’t know how much of a performance decrease there will be when new software has to support 2 possible architectures, or how many (and how soon) developers will start producing Intel-only applications.
Fred Mertz:
Have you never done a deal for an as yet unanounced product? Happens more often than you would think.
The first such deal I did was with HP back in the late 70s. The first significant deal I worked on was actively negotiating with Sun Microsystems for about a million dollars of workstations and servers that would not be officially announced for a couple months yet. This was back in the mid 80s [back when Sun sold Apple LaserWriters as their own with a Sun logo glued over the Apple logo]. Another deal was with Tektronix for workstations/monitors. Another was with Data General. Most recently was with IBM (within the last 5 years). Times have not changed. These types of deals continue to this day.
They could still be announcing PPC based iBooks at MWSF and the deal, in principle, already be done for those — as yet unanounced — iBooks.
Will Apple announce PPC or Intel based iBooks at MWSF? Who knows? The statement in the article COULD be read to mean that the last generation (speed bump?) of PPC iBooks will be announced in January. But then, English is NOT the most definitive of languages.
Who here remembers the transition to PPC architecture? Was it smooth? Were there a few glitches before it stabalized? Just curious.
If anything, Apple has the advantage of having gone through this kind of switch before.
Don’t believe a word of it until you see the goods.
But for those that want more info on the original Greene deal with Apple can look here:
http://www.apple.com/education/profiles/greene/
Interesting, though, that at the time Greene actually got the original iBooks, they stated “The equipment will be replaced after four years.” That was in July 2003. See:
http://www.kinston.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=12432&Section=Local
In Oct 2003, Greene said that “About 1,700 of the Apple iBooks eventually will be distributed to every middle and high school student in Greene County.” So I wonder how many have died since then of being dropped, etc (ie, no warranty).
http://www.kinston.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=15231&Section=Local
Thinking about the price, if Henrico is anything to go by, Greene will sell these things below the sort-of “eBay completed auction” average price, I’m sure. But they are hoping to sell all of these _before_ Macworld 2006? Yea, right. No way. Right there makes me suspicious of this whole thing.
It’ll be fun to keep track of this story.
BTW, I couldn’t find the specs on these iBooks (in the 10 mins I spent looking), but I do know they have “wireless”. Viz:
http://www.kinston.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=18120&Section=Local
The PPC transition was long and drawn out; the first PPCS macs were clearly transitional models.
That said, this should be a much simpler transition than the PPC one; mainly because they’ve been working on it all along.
I’m going to bet that the first Intel macs out of the gate are going to be pretty good; don’t forget they’re likely partnering with Intel on the design, and Intel’s got a wee bit of experience…
If you’re going to wait for the third-gen of Intel Macs, be prepared for a long wait, though. The FIRST gen isn’t going to be out on all model lines until sometime in 2007.
“”Our test scores are up and more kids are staying in school,” Mazingo said. “Now, we’re looked at with respect – because of 21st-century teaching and learning.””
Can you image if they had bought Dells with Windoze?…
Our test scores are down and kids are dropping out of school left and right. We’re the laughing stock of the education community because we’re using crappy computer technology and a rip-off OS from a second-rate stone-age software company.
Dell announces first Yonah based (just like what Apple will use) laptops:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=28454
“DELL IS GOING to launch Yonah based notebooks in early February. It will launch a full range of models, Precision M90, Lattitude D620 and D820. The documents seen by the Inquirer are using the ‘old new’ Intel naming scheme, but since they are both awful enough to be ignored, you can just use the numbers. They are as follows:
PWS M90 – Intel Yonah 756 (1.66GHz/2MB L2 cache/667MHz FSB)
PWS M90 – Intel Core T1300 (1.66GHz/2MB L2 cache/667MHz FSB)
PWS M90 – Intel Core T1400 (1.83GHz/2MB L2 cache/667MHz FSB)
PWS M90 – Intel Core T1500 (2.00GHz/2MB L2 cache/667MHz FSB)
PWS M90 – Intel Core T1600 (2.16GHz/2MB L2 cache/667MHz FSB)”
Who is buying these ibooks? I want a piece of the action, because if you calculate it out, they are selling for $220.48 each. Used or not, if they run at all I’d say that’s a steal!
I really really hope there is more Intel stuff announced than just the iBook. Mac fans need something MAC for a change. iPods play music and video on tiny screens and not much more. It’s time we get over it and focus on the future of Macs. Seen any Mac ads lately? I haven’t seen anything since the “World’s fastest computer” commercials from a couple years ago. Sheesh!
On an unrelated note, I rewatched the Ballmer Monkey Boy Stage-bouncing tirade video thingee yesterday and am now traumatized for the holidays. I’m not sure why I did it, but I suppose it had something to do with proving it wasn’t just a bad dream. There is something not right with that guy. I wish someone would have stopped me. Please be kind whilest I recover.
So if the school is going to sell its iBook prior to MWSF, do they expect a new supply instantly? I don’t think so.
I think the school has decided to stay with the G4 and buying those in the summer instead of the Intel-based iBooks which SJ suggested might arrive in June. They probably got a good price clearing out Apple’s excess inventory.
How does this confirm, or hint at, Intel anything? There could certainly be new iBooks to come, but I don’t see any Intel suggestions anywhere.
Streeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetch
Actually interpretation of the article is that there won’t be ibooks at MacWorld. “The threat of bugs in newer-model computers the schools would have to purchase later in the year also made Greene County Schools move early to refresh laptops” sounds more like well after MacWorld.
just my take
hmm, yeah this article is all over the rumor sites, this person writing the article seems to have a flakey writing style that contradicts itself. The article also says about refreshing their product line on Jan. 9th. Means nothing really, but I’m hoping Steve pulls a new Powerbook out of his pants. I won’t buy that one, but maybe one like it
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I’ve been posting and reading here for some time, but never got around to taking and uploading photos of my Collection. So here it is, the machines currently laying around, alternatively titled, “Pardon My Beige.”Compaq Portable. Saved this from the trash last week, and with the help of Raven, found out that it actually boots and runs just fine.Sun SparcStation 20, saved along with the Portable above. This probably runs too. I have the keyboard and mouse, but didn’t save the monitor on account of the size and weight and missing base. And as luck would have it, this computer is not compatible with standard monitors without a special adapter. Also saved last week, a Gateway 2000 in a tall tower. This will probably be my next restoration project. Likely just needs a new hard drive; old one was removed and destroyed prior to scrapping.Bought this one a while back, an Apple G3 Beige. It came with OSX, which was a piece of crap, so I installed MacOS9 and now it’s one of my favorite machines, definitely my favorite Mac.Someone gave me this a few weeks back, a Packard Bell MultiMedia 450r. It ran well when received, but was cluttered with crap. So the drive has been reformatted and ready for a ‘new’ OS. A friend is waiting on this one, to use for a simple Windows 95 game machine.Couple of Ataris, purchased from a forum member.This was my everyday laptop, an IBM 365XD. Bought it from a co-worker years ago for fifty bucks and used it for traveling – internet access at motels, GPS transfers, etc. Lots of accessories for this one too, including a couple docking stations.PowerComputing Mac clone. Made just before Apple shut down the clones, my purpose for keeping this is to have a machine for dual-booting MacOS and BeOS.Gateway 2000 desktop. This baby used to boot and run just fine after being rescued from a local school’s storage room, but something has broken on it. Either a dead PSU or MB. A couple of members have asked if I’d part with this computer, so I intend to offer it for auction as soon as it’s operational again.Not pictured, a stack of Leading Edge Fortiva 5000 machines saved from the trash at a local school. Currently being salvaged and cannibalized, trying to get a few working machines out of the pile. Some members have asked for these too.Continued…