Re:Bigger and better (Score 1)

I for one am glad to see these new releases, considering they don't co-incide with a major Apple conference.

Actually, Macworld Tokyo is underway as we speak. The announcements came on the web a few hours or so after Steve Jobs' keynote (which was, unfortunately, not webcast).

iBook: I got to mess with the original for a bit, the keyboard didn't seem shoddy (but I've bothered with very few notebooks, so it's hard to compare). As for "delicate" hardware, I wish all notebooks had casings as strong. These things can take a serious beating (which is why all that extra plastic is there... shock absorber).

G4: This is more a symbolic release than anything. Remember when the G4s came out, they were to go to 500MHz, but Motorola found a bug that caused them to be unreliable at that and higher speeds. This says "Hey, we fixed that bug, more goodies on the way". I'd expect a highspeed chip coming out by Macworld NY.

Pismo (Powerbook): Late due to some unforseen problems with Minuet (OS9.0.1), which is needed to run the hardware. And so what if it's a month late? As you've pointed out, this thing has a definite drool-factor to it :)