Apple Notebook Event

[LtPage1]

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. My Powerbook G4 is still going strong, but I'll be looking to replace it in the next year or so-- the Macbook is perfect for my needs, but no Firewire is a deal-killer. I'm going to have to save up longer for a Pro, when the time comes.

 

[marketsons1985]

Originally posted by: Ns1
eh fuck I'll just go to the apple store tmr and decide

You could also go with Clearanced items from the apple store. That way you get a brand new item, not refurbed. The 15.4" MBP is only $1399 so $50 more than the refurb.

 

[Kmax82]

Yea.. I think I might swing by the Apple Store tomorrow just to see these in person. Might get rid of my 15" for one of the smaller 13" for personal use, since my work is grabbing me a new 15". We'll see...

 

[mchammer187]

1440x900 and no matte screen make it no dice for me

i have a 17" santa rosa MBP from last ocober though so i'm in no rush

only thing i wish i had was multi touch

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: LtPage1

Originally posted by: ElFenix
1440x900


why the hell are all the 15.4" LCDs so low res?

Have you used one? I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want a display that was any more dense than that. Watching 1080p video would be sweet, but everything else would be awkward, I feel.

i've used smaller screens with more pixels. so, yes. 1680x1050 would be perfect. my current 14" 4:3 notebook has a vertical height of 8.4" and resolution of 1050. a 15.4" widescreen has a vertical height of 8.16" and the same resolution. so not much smaller.

I have a (now broken) laptop with a 15.4" 1900x1200 screen. It was really nice. The writing wasn't small as I just turned up the font size.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

As a current Penryn MBP owner, my complaints for the new MBPs are:

1) No Matte option. Not as bad as some whiners make it sound like on macrumors forums. Get a glare protector.

2) The new look is ok, more iPhone looking, but not revolutionary to me. It's not dead sexy from the slides they show but it looks dead sexy on the Apple site (of course those are marketing pics that make it look awesome).

3) Battery life is down. 4 hours on 9600 vs 5 hrs on 8600. Battery went from 60whr to 50whr, and while Montevina will save some power, it's clearly a loss in battery life. Telling me that I can now use the 9400 doesn't say much. If anything, we should expect battery life to increase when you compare apples to apples like using a 9600 vs the old 8600 full time. But I guess shrinking things required shrinking the battery. No one's really complained but I'm sure real world tests won't be too generous if you need the 9600. MBPs only do so well in power because they use speed step AGGRESSIVELY compared to PCs. You expect your 60whr Thinkpad battery to do that well? Hell no. I'd rather have a better battery than to use tricks up the sleeve to make the laptop look like it lasts long.

4) Pricing. Education pricing is ghetto now. $1899 for a MBP? No $200 discount anymore? Apple, your stuff is expensive enough. They're great products, but pricing is horrendous. I remember customizing a Dell XPS1530 the week after I got my MBP. It was like 1200 or something for specs at or above the level of my MBP. Who cares. Stupid impulsive buyers like me will still fall for them.

Overall it's what I expected, not a major overhaul. More of an internal design overhaul that might make assembly for them easier and streamlined manufacturing. As a manufacturing engineer, I suppose more of the change was an internal thing, making it easier to upgrade through the years especially when Nehalem requires an architecture overhaul.

People expected quad cores, huge speed increases, BD, blah blah but like I said it doesn't make marketing sense for something totally new in 6 months especially when Nehalem is the bigger change in the future. This sets things in stone so they CAN put in BD one day or upgrade the resolution, blah blah blah while retaining the same manufacturing and design layout.

 

[Kaido]

Wow no Firewire on the 13" model, and no way to add it via ExpressCard. Major bummer

I hate being caught in a product transition with older technology lol...I'm not gonna give up my Firewire HD camcorder

 

[Ns1]

anybody know what they're doing at retail apple stores? Selling the old mb's/mbp's at regular price today and then shipping them all back to apple tomorrow?

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: KeithP

Originally posted by: TheStu

Why so adamant Bearxor? I generally felt the same way until I got my MacBook with a glossy screen, and I love it. What are your reasons for not liking glossy?

I can't speak for Bearxor but I have a BlackBook with a glossy screen and don't like it. I can live with it, but I won't be buying another laptop with a glossy screen. The reflections are distracting. Plus, in the case of the now previous generation MacBooks, they simply aren't high quality screens.

It will be interesting to see one of these new screens in person. LED backlighting doesn't automatically make for a great display.

Also, I just realized the new MacBooks lack a firewire port. I can't believe Apple did that. I use the FW port on mine all the time.

-KeithP

They definitely should have added FW800 to the 13" Macbooks - it's small and people would use it. USB 2.0 isn't a good replacement for those of us with FW Camcorders, Hard Drives, and other devices. I love the 13", but I'm not going to upgrade all of my equipment so that I can get poorer performance on USB 2.0. I know that Flash-based Camcorders are the "wave of the future", but for those of us with equipment with FW ports, it's not so great. I can understand it being a product transition, but I don't see USB 3.0 or WUSB on here, so what's the deal? I was all set to get a 13", but now I'll have to shell out double for the 15" just to get FW. Arggg...

And still no word on the Mac Mini!

 

[manly]

Originally posted by: Kaido
And still no word on the Mac Mini!

Here's a guess, Mac mini will get the Santa Rosa update in late 2009.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: manly

Originally posted by: Kaido
And still no word on the Mac Mini!

Here's a guess, Mac mini will get the Santa Rosa update in late 2009.

And it will be made with Brick manufacturing technology!

 

[Kaido]

Haha, you have to Log out to switch graphics modes in the Macbook Pro:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/1...switch-graphics-modes/

 

[Kaido]

Okay, I'm a huge fan of the glossy screens, but holy cow:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/1...-super-shiny-hands-on/

That's SUPER reflective :Q I wonder how many professionals will be dumping Apple laptops and monitors due to the glare...that looks ridiculous! Hope it's not that bad in real life, and that moving the angle actually helps...my 13" White Macbook has a glossy screen and is fine most of the time...

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Kaido
Haha, you have to Log out to switch graphics modes in the Macbook Pro:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/1...switch-graphics-modes/

When i was first looking at getting my current MacBook, the Sony TZ (I think it was the TZ) was just coming out. That was the one with the onboard intel and the 7300 graphics, with a switch to cycle between the two. I think for that one it was the same way (it may even have been a full restart). It might be possible that down the road Apple will release an update for OS X that will allow the system to cycle between the two with just a few seconds downtime, but as it stands right now, having to log out is that big of a chore.

 

[IHAVEAQUESTION]

Has anyone have trouble watching the keynote on apple.com? It shows 404 not found for me. Weird.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: TheStu

Originally posted by: Kaido
Haha, you have to Log out to switch graphics modes in the Macbook Pro:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/1...switch-graphics-modes/

When i was first looking at getting my current MacBook, the Sony TZ (I think it was the TZ) was just coming out. That was the one with the onboard intel and the 7300 graphics, with a switch to cycle between the two. I think for that one it was the same way (it may even have been a full restart). It might be possible that down the road Apple will release an update for OS X that will allow the system to cycle between the two with just a few seconds downtime, but as it stands right now, having to log out is that big of a chore.

Yeah I actually laughed when I first read it, I thought "big deal, hit the logout button", but when you have your workspace setup and files open, that's a much bigger hassle. I hate getting out of my creative flow!

 

[suklee]

Originally posted by: IHAVEAQUESTION
Has anyone have trouble watching the keynote on apple.com? It shows 404 not found for me. Weird.

Works for me. And they added a HD version.

 

[IHAVEAQUESTION]

Originally posted by: Kai920

Originally posted by: IHAVEAQUESTION
Has anyone have trouble watching the keynote on apple.com? It shows 404 not found for me. Weird.

Works for me. And they added a HD version.

It's weird. It shows the page for a second then quickly turns to 404 not found.

 

[bearxor]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: TheStu

Originally posted by: Kaido
Haha, you have to Log out to switch graphics modes in the Macbook Pro:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/1...switch-graphics-modes/

When i was first looking at getting my current MacBook, the Sony TZ (I think it was the TZ) was just coming out. That was the one with the onboard intel and the 7300 graphics, with a switch to cycle between the two. I think for that one it was the same way (it may even have been a full restart). It might be possible that down the road Apple will release an update for OS X that will allow the system to cycle between the two with just a few seconds downtime, but as it stands right now, having to log out is that big of a chore.

Yeah I actually laughed when I first read it, I thought "big deal, hit the logout button", but when you have your workspace setup and files open, that's a much bigger hassle. I hate getting out of my creative flow!

The new versions of the Sony series that use nVidia chipsets and GPU's don't require you to log out of Vista or restart, it just seamlessly switches.

I fully expect Apple to have this fixed by 5.6 or 5.7 at the latest.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: LtPage1

Originally posted by: ElFenix
1440x900


why the hell are all the 15.4" LCDs so low res?

Have you used one? I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want a display that was any more dense than that. Watching 1080p video would be sweet, but everything else would be awkward, I feel.

i've used smaller screens with more pixels. so, yes. 1680x1050 would be perfect. my current 14" 4:3 notebook has a vertical height of 8.4" and resolution of 1050. a 15.4" widescreen has a vertical height of 8.16" and the same resolution. so not much smaller.

I have a (now broken) laptop with a 15.4" 1900x1200 screen. It was really nice. The writing wasn't small as I just turned up the font size.

yea 1680x1050 is pretty sweet at 15"
its not at all too dense because of the set viewing distance from the lcd forced by laptop design.

 

[0roo0roo]

near the end of the keynote video they show the manufacturing process for the case

 

[ViRGE]

If that new LED backlit monitor is IPS, oh baby oh baby oh baby!:Q

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: KeithP
Also, I just realized the new MacBooks lack a firewire port. I can't believe Apple did that. I use the FW port on mine all the time.

Yeah, that is messed up. I use my Firewire port to dump video from MiniDV camcorder frequently. No Firewire on the new MB means no new MB for me.

 

[bearxor]

When did Apple drop that second Enter key by the spacebar? Not that I'm complaining, I'va accidentally hit it numerous times when trying to select text with the arrow keys.

 

[Kmax82]

Originally posted by: bearxor
When did Apple drop that second Enter key by the spacebar? Not that I'm complaining, I'va accidentally hit it numerous times when trying to select text with the arrow keys.

Aww.. boo! I use that all the time in Photoshop. I guess I'll have to remap that key now.