New Macbook Pro

WANT.

No mouse button? Weird.

The solid case is very cool, though.

No mouse button, but you can push the trackpad itself for a left click. I don't know exactly how the right/middle click will work (presumably gestures or corner taps) but I've gotten along just fine with those on other touchpads.

The one fly in the ointment for me is there's no longer an option for a matte finish screen. This may not be a large enough concern to outweigh the positives, though.

Is there a way to emulate a right-click (other than two-finger tap) on the older MBPs? I don't know what generation mine is, but it has a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo and 15.4" screen.

Sometimes I want/need to do a dragging right-click in Windows (VMWare).

One way to get what you want would be to use the hard button as a right click instead of a left click. Sidetrack lets you do this, but you lose the two-finger taps. (Corner taps instead.)

I'm not sure how the new MBP trackpad will handle the multiple buttons. I've never used any of the multitouch pads, but I did use the Fingerworks Touchstream keyboard, on which the multitouch tech is based. On that keyboard, you could easily do drags with any of the button gestures. I think the default was index and middle finger was left-click, index, middle, and ring was right-click, and index, middle, and thumb was middle-click, any of which could be dragged.

The implementation on the trackpad is probably more limited, but I haven't found any details to confirm that.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I wonder what the chances are of work buying me one to replace my ageing Inspiron. Probably zilch.

The lack of matte screen option is down to the design of the case itself. There's now a sheet of glass in front of the LCD. It looks good in controlled photographs, but it's also my biggest concern at this point.

The other concern is the track pad. From reading various bits it's starting to sound like it will be usable though. I still wonder about leaving a thumb resting at the bottom of the pad while being able to scroll around normally with your index finger. The clicking is supposed to be very similar to the separate button. The pref pane shows that you can set an option for the Right_Click to trigger on a particular region of the pad. It'll be interesting to find out how fine grained the region detection for clicking is - might offer an opportunity for someone to release an enhanced pref pane for the positioning and assigning of functions for more than 2 "buttons".

No Firewire 400 port. That means getting adapters or new cables to use with the FW400 drive enclosures I have now.

I'd have preferred a silver keyboard.

My biggest gripe is that there's no 17" model using the new design yet. It's not the first time Apple has left the introduction of one model to a later date, so I have hopes it will be announced toward the end of the year or early next (Macworld).

I don't really care about BluRay, but I didn't like the answer Steve gave. The "we're waiting for the industry" is a bit of a cop-out when they're introducing a product that's supposed to be leading the industry. Let's hope they don't take a sit-back approach to new battery tech when it starts hitting hard over the next couple of years.

The Cinema display looks nice too, but would have been a lot more appetizing at $599.

Looks like with the triple-connector on the new monitor that they thought about laptop docking. Too little, though.

I for one am quite disappointed by the price point of the new Macbook. It seems to loose Firewire and Gigabit Ethernet and costs more if I can remember the old pricing. £950 for the entry model seems very steep. (Ok they are still selling the old macbook for £720).

I hope this doesn't continue with the rest of the range, I am looking at a new iMac whenever they next update them.

Cheers

Cris.

It only loses Firewire - it has gigabit ethernet. The price stays the same in US dollars as the old one. You do get a number of features that are brought from the Pro line of machines, two of them being backlit keyboard and support for Dual-Link displays.

More negatives about the new Pro models:

Doesn't come with any DisplayPort adapters. With the old machines featuring a Dual-Link DVI port and coming with a VGA adapter you were pretty much set. Now you'd have to buy at least two of the adapters below for a total of anywhere from $60 to $130 extra.

Normal DVI adapter costs $29.
Dual-Link DVI costs $99.
VGA costs $29.

I'd also like to see the standard warranty increased to 2 or 3 years, but that's not a concern specific to this latest revision. I do feel like the value proposition of the Pro models has diminished with the latest revisions. They're just not offering the same bang for the buck that previous PowerBooks and MacBook Pros have offered. Apple has been notorious for scaling back on little items like adapters and remotes as well as keeping new revision standard prices centered around similar-speed processors while offering the faster ones at an additional premium. They've done it again now by tossing in updates to the stuff that's come through the floor in pricing lately, like hard drives and memory. I suppose the have to maintain and even increase their margins somehow.

Yeah, It's nice, and I'll be buying one in the near future, but Apple isn't doing a whole lot to endear themselves to their own fanbase.

A $2500 laptop doesn't come with the necessary adapters to plug it into any external display besides the one that they haven't even released yet? And they want $100 for the DualLink adapter?

The MBP takes new expensive DDR3, but only supports 4GB? 4GB sodimms aren't available on newegg, but I'm sure Micro could have sent them a few preproduction modules.

There's still no option for a high res 15" screen.

Last but not least, AppleCare can't hold a candle to Dell's CompleteCare. I don't care if your geniuses were freshly pressed black tshirts, I want to say "it's broken" and have someone show up in a day or two with the parts and fix it.

But damn, it's pretty and it runs OSX.

Matthew

Wow, a day or two. I'd rather just head on down to the local apple store and have them work on it there and then.

My wife is about to get a new laptop for work, and it's going to be a decision between the 13" and 15" MacBook. As far as I can tell, the 13" MacBook is a full pound lighter than the 15" MBP, a big deal if you're hauling it around. At that point, everything else is pretty much irrelevant, particularly if you pony up for the 24" Cinema Display.

No Firewire? The only reason you want it is for fast external hard drives. She'll have a drive for TimeMachine backups, but performance isn't as critical.

Slower hard drive (5400 vs. 7200rpm)? She mostly does PowerPoint and web surfing. HD performance probabably isn't relevant, particularly if you max out the RAM.

No ExpressCard/34 slot? A minor issue, because moving pictures from SD cards would require an external USB adapter rather than an internal ExpressCard adapter.

Am I missing something? Looks like the regular MacBook is a good deal.

Not so easy if your nearest Apple Store is a 45 mile drive away as it is for me. When my Toshiba laptop broke the service was amazing. Apple have a lot to learn in this area, I don't have much interest in standing next to someone being explained how to use their Nano while waiting for some "Genius" to tell me my battery is dead, I am perfectly able to figure that out myself, just send me the part already!

I think as we see Apple go more main stream and the volumes increase, that the Apple Store experience will be more and more difficult to maintain.

I will however, be very interested in checking out the new cases

Cheers

Cris.

Random thought: will the new MacBook Air 120GB SSD drive be plug compatible with the existing 60GB SSD drive? Assuming it's technically possible to do the swap, what's the resale value of the old 60GB drive?

(Or, I suppose I could stuff it into an empeg...)

The 13" Macbook is certainly the better bang for the buck, but the smaller and lower resolution screen is an absolute deal breaker for some, including me. I'd imagine that the better screen on the MBP 15" is the #2 reason folks would choose the MBP, right behind "work is paying for it."

Then again, there are probably many folks who will choose the 13" even if they're not footing the bill because it's more portable. It's all about how you setup the utility function, I guess.

According to the Engadget hands-on, they felt that the right-click region was too small and hoped/assumed that eventually someone would create a hack to adjust the size of it.

Personally, I just can't see spending $2500 on that laptop. Then again, I want to spend at least the starting $2500 on the Mac Pro, so it's really just me. Philosophically, I can't bring myself to spend more money on less hardware, especially in a device that's intended to be portable and therefore vulnerable. If I spill on/drop my $350 netbook, I wouldn't care nearly as much.

I really dislike those super shiny screens.

I know Apple's cinema displays are supposed to be great and all, but is the new display they announced really $600 better than Dell's $299 24" model? Not to me.

Yes to a lot of professionals though, and even non pro users. The Dell E248WFP 24 inch screen uses a TN panel, meaning it cannot reproduce full 24bit true color images properly. They also tend to have strange issues with viewing angles where the colors become very distorted. The nearest comparable Dell would be the 2408WFP at $619. The new Apple display still has one feature about either, and thats the LED lighting.

Cinema displays have tended to be aimed specifically to Pro users, and as such carry both pro needed features and pricetags.

The glossy screen was one of the major hangups for me about getting the MBA. Turns out, it's one of the things that I rarely ever notice. I'm not sure what they've done to ameliorate the glare problem, but it's been far better than any other glossy screen I've ever used.

What I do notice all the time is the brilliant rich colors, the great brightness, and the incredible viewing angles.

Then again, I don't know if they've used similar screens on the new MBs and MBPs, but I would assume so.

My advice would be to wait til you can get your hands one one and decide for yourself. It may not be as big a deal-breaker as you think.

To chip in on the glossy vs mat issue. I've been been using a glossy display since they appeared. (Sony VGN-S150)

Glossy yields sharp reflections, but it's only a problem when there is a direct bounce from from a bright light source to the eye.

The same bounce with a mat finished display yields a glare that's just as bad. And it radiates a low level glare from the ambient lighting no matter how it's adjusted.

You make the same adjustments no matter which.

At this time, I'd most likely check the glossy option on any build to order.

I agree with some of that, but I definitely disagree about the aim. Even in this latest announcement, the focus on the Cinema Display was that it could so easily attach to your MacBook or MacBook Pro, the emphasis being [IMO] on the MacBook due to its small screen. I don't consider that a pro-type usage.

So I can concede that the Cinema Displays are good for pro use, but for anyone else I just don't think the cost is worth it at all. I've seen plenty of Dell monitors, at least 10 sizes and models over the last few years, and they all look perfectly fine to me. Right now I'm working on a 30" model, and I've looked at the 30" Cinema Display every time I'm in the Apple store, and never found it to be significantly better, at least not in that limited time.

And I simply can't accept any explanation for that glossy screen. There are Windows merely at a 45 degree angle behind me, and I still frequently get annoyed by the diffused glare off my matte screen. If it were glossy I wouldn't be able to see a single thing during the day.

My Samsung Q45 laptop has a glossy screen. I didn't really think about it when I bought it, but it's given me no real problems, except when (as you say), a matte screen would have had (admittedly, different) problems.

On matte vs. glossy: I was hesitant, but my MBA works well for me, and the reason why is that the screen is so amazingly bright that it blows right through any reflections. If I'm on an airplane and keeping the brightness down to save battery, then I tend to see reflections more. I'd still prefer matte over glossy, because the matte "reflections" are less distracting. Still annoying, but not attention-drawing.

On the Apple-branded display: It's definitely a steep price bump. Ultimately, it's your call. LED backlights are sweet. Built-in web cam is a nice bonus. The Apple solution is clearly the "premium" solution, but there's no reason why you might not prefer a cheaper solution.

Intriguing: Apple is moving away from DVI to DisplayPort. Presumably, all future Apple monitors will also be DisplayPort, as will subsequent Mac minis, MacPro towers, etc. That would say that, if you had a craving for an Apple 30" crazy big monitor, you might prefer to wait a while.

My concern with this move is that they aren't moving to DisplayPort, but their own proprietary Mini DisplayPort. All this is going to do is further complicate the video connector landscape, rather then moving to simplify it.

I'm curious what Apple is doing to allow VGA out of that port as well. From what I can tell, normal DisplayPort doesn't carry any analog information like DVI could. I'm also puzzled over the $100 adaptor for dual link DVI, vs the $29 for normal DVI or VGA.

I'm wondering whether it's actually a DisplayPort at all. It could be some sort of intelligent multi standard connector whose configuration is determined by the cable you plug in. If you plug a VGA dongle in, it tells the port to output VGA signals. If it's the DVI dongle then the port outputs DVI signals and so on.

I'd have thought the dual link one probably has more brains in it to work at higher speeds or something?

I think the most curious thing of all is when will Apple offer a full-sized DisplayPort adapter? You know, for connecting the machines to a 3rd Party DisplayPort equipped display that isn't using the mini connector.

If the port on the MacBooks outputs only according to DisplayPort specs, then all the adapters have to have somewhat complicated guts, since DP is packet-based.

Yeah, but Apple has a long history of repurposing connectors in that way, though. The first thing that comes to mind is the combination headphone/AV output on the clamshell iBooks, but there's been a lot of that sort of thing from them over the years.

Good, technical article about DisplayPort vs. HDMI:
http://www.edn.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA6594089

Most interesting factoid: DisplayPort is certainly the "right" way to go and, if not for HDMI's widespread adoption, would have otherwise completely displaced it. Despite this, DisplayPort is also aimed at supplanting LVDS, the way that digital signals get from your laptop to its screen. That, alone, could drive all of the necessary chipset volume to make DisplayPort a success, even if it fails to get traction in the consumer space.

It appears you can get several Dell monitors with DisplayPort (and VGA and DVI and lots of other crud). It's not at all clear that you can get a cable to go from the MacBook's Mini DisplayPort to the "full" DisplayPort connector. Unless Apple offers one at some point, you're out of luck.

For backward compatibility, if you believe Wikipedia: "The video signal is not compatible with DVI or HDMI, but a DisplayPort connector can pass these signals through."

Very solid build feel to the new systems. I'm amazed that they managed to do such a good job on the new systems, that the old ones just really feel old now. I played around with both the Pro and normal model while waiting for a coworker to buy their first Mac.

The new trackpad seems fine, though it would take a little to get used to. Context clicking (right click) is still easy, and is simply two fingers vs one. The one quirk I did notice is that you can't click unless your on the bottom 80% or so of the pad.

I'll probably hold off though. My system (original MacBook Pro) still does what I need it to, and with the desktop, it no longer does my heavy lifting. If something on it breaks once it is out of warranty, then maybe. Otherwise I'll probably wait for the next bump to the Macbook Air and go that way.

I had a quick go this evening. It feels really slick (although I still prefer the keyboard on my current MBP) and the fact the whole trackpad clicks is kind of cool, although I hope you can still do a tap of the pad (like the current one) to do a click but I didn't get round to fiddling in the control panel.

I had a quick read through the DisplayPort spec (at vesa.org). Apparently the spec includes some bits about wiring up the connectors a certain way so that the computer can recognize when an adapter is plugged in and what type. It can then signal the video circuitry to output a different type of signal (HDMI or DVI or VGA or whatever) out of the same pins. So, these DisplayPort->DVI or DisplayPort->VGA adapters should be fairly standard beasts, and work on any DisplayPort equipped computer, assuming the underlying graphics hardware supports HDMI or VGA or whatever it is you're trying to get out of the port.

So, there's no translation of the signal going on here (with the possible exception of that Dual Link DVI box). It's just signaling the computer to repurpose some pins on the connector.

This is all completely disregarding the physical incompatibility introduced by the "mini" DisplayPort connector (a connector which is completely absent from the spec, by the way). I don't fault Apple for wanting a smaller connector. Their connector seems much better for laptops than the bigger standard connector. That said, any hopes for interoperability depend on it either getting into the next rev of the spec, or Apple selling so much equipment that the market forces its adoption.

Nice to know I'm right every now and then.

Do you guys think we'll see a quad core chip in the MBP at some point? It's not as if the clock speed has rocketed in the last few years.

Quad core? Maybe. They're just as likely to use all those extra gates, assuming they have them, to shove an entire GPU on the same core as the CPU.

There's no reason that they couldn't put a desktop CPU in a MBP, but they currently don't, and Intel doesn't seem to have any plans to make a quad-core mobile CPU.

I would've thought it's only a matter of time before intel realise there's possibly a market out there for insanely powerful laptops. Given I have to use my work laptop as a desktop replacement I'd welcome the extra power.

DVI does the same thing. It can carry 1 or 2 digital signals and 1 analog signal. None of the pins overlap however so the adapters are all just straight through.


Unless other laptop manufacturers all adopt it, it will just stay an Apple only thing. Apple made a mini VGA connector on some of their old iMacs and iBooks which never caught on. You were stuck with using an adapter.

You won't see a desktop CPU in an Apple laptop because they're too big, too power hungry and too hot.

But you'll likely see a quad core sooner or later in a MBP, especially since they're on Intel's roadmap:

http://www.intel.com/products/processor/core2xe/mobile/index.htm

Intel® Core™2 extreme mobile processor QX9300

I read about this earlier this year, but I think they're only slated for 1Q09. Hopefully we'll see them in the 17" MBP.

If it were to happen anywhere, it would be in the netbook space, where Apple isn't the only vendor wanting to build skinny little laptops, and a VGA connector is way too big.

It amazes me that while some companies copy many superficial Apple actions, such as the format of their ads and on-the-street commentary, no one out there grasps the reason for their success.

In terms of product design and process, practically every manufacturer out there still produces a poorly built and afterthought-designed product, both in the mobile and desktop space. [EDIT] I am talking about all notebooks and all desktops here. [EDIT]

Just look at some of these notebooks that pundits are using to price compare against Apple's latest. Flimsy plastic construction and other low-end materials, no leadership in features and some seem like they were designed in a vacuum, without any concern for use. Tossing on as many little blinking lights as possible and stickers isn't going to help you move product or make any impact on the industry.

Is it any wonder Apple has 18% of the US market? That's huge for a "proprietary" ecosystem.

Another 20 Eee variants from Asus isn't going to help them make any gains. The company has totally and utterly destroyed that brand.

I hate the removal of ports as much as the next guy, but the MacBooks are still BMW-class compared to the 1980's Yugo stuff most of the rest of the industry is producing. In fact the only recent example I've seen of a decent looking notebook by anyone else was the VooDoo Envy. But recent news from that camp indicated HP is likely going to ruin the brand and ideology. (Compare to what ATI did with FireGL)

I'd agree with your argument if the Eee PC/netbooks were even close in price to the Apple machines. Most of the netbooks that you are lambasting for a lack of design and innovation are a third of the price of the cheapest Mac laptop. Some are closer to a fifth of the price of the cheapest Mac book.

Sure they don't have the finesse of a Mac, Apple make some really excellent hardware, but they are still innovating. They are just innovating in different areas, in this case the amount of functionality you can get for a very, very low price.

They also weigh half as much as the cheapest Mac book, which is another feature some people score above class leading industrial design.

Don't get me wrong, I nearly bought a Mac book recently and did buy an iPhone, so I don't dismiss Apple out of hand. But they really can't compete on price, functionality and weight with the netbooks at the moment.

Everyone I know with an Eee PC seems to be very happy with them, including their durability.

True. If I did use the connector however, I'd prefer it to be the regular one. I don't want to have to remember to lug around a little adapter or special cable.

Sorry, I was replying to multiple posts, so I think some of what I wrote should have had a little better separation.

I did mention the netbooks, but I was lambasting all portables from all manufacturers/designers other than Apple and VooDoo, at all price ranges. Some of the prices are as high or considerably higher than any MacBook or MacBook Pro.



You won't get any arguments from me there because Apple don't have any systems to compare. They don't offer an sub-notebooks at all right now. I don't like the term netbook, too ambiguous. Though I think Apple will slaughter the netbook market with the iPhone. Which is just as silly to compare to a "netbook" as one is to a proper notebook.

I can agree on netbook being a lousy term, I can't agree with the rest though.

What most people do with a notebook is edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations, send email and browse the web. The great think about these new "netbooks" is that they can do all of that pretty much as well as a full blown notebook while at the same time costing 2-3 times less and weighing 2-3 times less.

Much as I love my iPhone (which is a lot), the only two things from that list that it is ever going to be very good at is browsing the web and dealing with my email. Yes the keyboard is unfathomably good, but that doesn't mean it is ever going to be good an editing/creating anything other than the most basic documents.

Which just goes to show how silly the netbook term is, because I don't think people are buying them to surf the web with any more than they would buy a notebook just to do that sort of thing.

The iPhone is of course good at a whole load of other things as well, such as: social networking, music playing*, listening to podcasts, todo lists, traffic info, mapping, calendaring, train timetables, looking up reference data, IM, BBC iPlayer, last.fm, geocaching, geo-enabled searching, photo browsing, on-the-go-gaming, news, ebook reading - which the notebook/netbook is far interior at doing.




* ignoring for a moment the appalling design of the iPod app, iTunes and all that goes with it

I picked up a high end 15 yesterday from the Apple Store, and I've been getting used to it today.

This is my first real experience with the new style keyboard, and it's OK, but I'm not sure if it'll grow on me to be as comfortable as my Powerbook. The spacing between the keys is visually appealing but means the keys seem further apart.

The screen is very glossy. I'm not sure if it's worth it, in my house with the brightness all the way up, it's not bad. On battery with the brightness turned down? We'll see. It seems like the keys won't touch the screen anymore, which will be nice. The hinge is much weaker, which means when tilting the whole machine more than 45 degrees, the screen falls down to close. It's nice and smooth to open and adjust, so it's just something to get used to.

The build quality is really disappointing. I'm not sure if it's just mine, but the plastic piece on the back of the hinge is warped (and still wouldn't be attractive if installed properly), and one of the screws on the bottom isn't flush. This one's going back to the store as soon as I can get it there.

The trackpad is also just OK. Occasionally it doesn't pick up a finger, but it may be that I'm resting a second finger on it or something that I haven't figured out. It ignores my thumb resting on the bottom third of the trackpad just fine, if it's above that, it does its multitouch thing. The clicking seems to require more effort that I'm used to, but that may just be getting used to it and getting it broken in. I find myself right clicking by accident, but I'll get used to it.

The bottom removable piece it fiddly. Getting it open is easy, but putting it back requires careful alignment. It'd be fine for the hard drive, but for swapping out the battery it's annoying. Of course, the battery should last twice as long as my powerbook ever did, so the increased time should even out.

The new design is amazingly sturdy. There isn't any flex in it anywhere. The aluminum is incredibly smooth, and the black bezel does make the screen pop.

Matthew

Update: Apple has broken bluetooth PAN. Exhibit A. Exhibit B. Exhibit C. In every computer they've released since the macbook air.

I'm on the train now. Connected and got 10 to 15 second ping times with 30% packet loss. I plugged in my $12 compusa firesale bluetooth dongle and re-paired, and it gets 136ms ping times with 1% packet loss.

The Ol' Powerbook could handle the same phone just fine, and it seems to be widespread over multiple phone manufacturers.

I've got my Genius appointment set for Tuesday morning, I'll report back how it goes.

Matthew

To be fair, there have been a number of particularly clever Japanese laptops. For example, I'd probably prefer a Sony Vaio G2 over my MacBook Air (a pound lighter, available with 12 hour battery, and it even includes a PCMCIA slot). I bought the MBA because it ran OS X. That and I don't trust Sony support normally, much less when buying from a grey market importer.

I don't want to take away from the fact that Apple is producing truly innovative gear, but at the end of the day, others can make hardware just as good or even better, but it's going to be high-end fringe stuff for high-end consumers. What Apple truly excels at is bringing high-end stuff down to earth and making it work.

[Example: it's marvelous how well an iPhone, running Apple's Remote app, can remote control iTunes and display on my AppleTV.]

Yup, same here. Our academic discount on Lenovo can be pretty decent, and Lenovo makes some pretty well built machines. But they don't run OSX worth a damn.

I don't want to get into the "is ubuntu ready for desktop use" debate, but I know that Vista definitely isn't ready for the desktop. XP works, but it's nothing like OSX for sheer usability.

Matthew

Sorry, I completely disagree. The iPhone was first announced two years ago. The EeePC was a year old last week. The netbook market exploded around the same time the App Store was getting huge. Obviously the netbooks aren't hurting from the iPhone.

I'll agree that Asus has completely and totally screwed up their product line. There must be something like 20 different SKU's of the EeePC. They recently released a sort of "designer" model that costs almost as much as a white MacBook. That's ridiculous.

But other companies are doing it right. The Aspire One from Acer is $350 for a machine running XP with 1GB or RAM and a non-solid state 120GB hard disk. That's a really attractive price, and [IMO] an attractive machine (though I'd be happier with black instead of blue and without that red ring on the corner). That kind of product exists in a separate market from the MacBook or the iPhone, and I consider it to be quite innovative.

I think the netbook market will founder on its own. They're cute, and I can see them being useful for some people, but I really don't think there's a viable market between the top-end PDA (of which the iPhone is just one of several) and the small laptop (e.g. Sony).

The SSD netbooks excel for travel use. With digital cameras having replaced film, more and more people are discovering that they need to lug a computer along simply to unload their flash cards each day.

A tiny little computer with dual USB ports (one for the flash card reader, and another for an external hard drive) fits the bill nicely.

Plus, it also gives easy access to all of those free wifi hotspots at cafes and the like, fits in a ladies purse (or a backpack) without any noticable weight, and can even be used for reviewing/culling those photos at days end.

Huge market potential there alone.

Cheers

There perhaps isn't a detectable technical gap (I use my small Sony laptop as, essentially, a netbook) but there's certainly a price gap. Sony, like Apple or Toshiba, still charge more for the very small laptops than for the normal-size ones -- a Vaio or Air comparable in size to a netbook costs three times as much as one. The Tier Ones, it seems to me, are busily pretending that netbooks are cheap nonsense made only by second-tier manufacturers, and it's interesting that Dell has broken ranks.

If, heaven forfend, anything were to befall my beaten-up old Vaio PCG-SRX41, I'd probably get the Dell netbook. And that's despite also having an Iphone.

Peter

My comment was mainly directed at some people's notion that Apple needs to make small and cheap notebooks. They could do that, but obviously don't see a reason for it. Neither do I. The iPhone will likely outsell every Eee sku combined for every quarter from here to perpetuity. You could probably add on a few other manufacturer's systems into the Eee sum and still fall short. On top of the raw numbers, Apple's margins will be higher on the iPhone. It makes a lot more sense to sell this even more cut-down mobile platform.

An Air actually costs a six times as much as an Aspire One.

Sounds like a fair price for the Air then, because it's probably 8 times better than the Aspire One. You're getting an extra factor of 2 for "free."

I do see that smiley there, but isn't this the opposite of your other point? A Macbook Air with a 10in screen would probably cost three or four times what a netbook does, both because they're pricier to make and because of the margins Apple expects -- but, if what you're saying is near true, people would still buy them.

Peter

I'm not sure, my retention is down to a few hours now and I can't remember what my prior point was.



Nothing wrong with a light and somewhat smaller form factor, but the market for something smaller than the Air would be miniscule compared to the other lines Apple is already promoting. Except maybe the Mac Pro desktop systems, but it might also eat away some of the other notebook sales to get those numbers.

Most people want a notebook for use as a primary system, not a second or sync-and-run system. Apple is catering to the right market segments right now. Can they make improvements throughout their entire product line? Absolutely, lots of room there.

Another request you'll see from some Apple fans is for the release of a tablet Mac. Ya, the idea sounds "cool" but I think the reality would be a let-down. For the life of me I can't find any purpose for one over a more standard notebook other than for use as a (very expensive) sketchpad. They've done right by staying out of that game.

Toshiba does me proud.

This could be the ugliest notebook you've ever seen. With more plastic than a recycling depot and a paint job that makes the cars from Fast and the Furious (all of them) look understated.

Shiny shiny, only $4200. But it does have that quad-core QX9300 in it.

Wow. That's the most garish laptop I've ever seen!

Ewww. Ewww!

Toshiba are designing for the candy raver crowd now?

Ok, I'm officially opposed to the glossy screen. See the attached self portait taken on the train. It also is evidence of having to use Windows to get decent tethered internet when I forget my bluetooth dongle.

The apple store experience was fine. They did "try and fix it in the back" which I suspect meant they pushed pretty hard while I couldn't watch, then came out and told me they'd swap it out. That fixed the problem with the plastics, but the new one also the problem with the same screw simply not being screwed in all the way. The genius told me it was probably just a problem with the design, which I found amazing. A few seconds work with the screwdriver when I got home got it fixed up.

Anyways. I'd been considering buying Apple stock at its recently depressed price, but with the lack of attention to detail on this one I'm leaning against it. My powerbook just worked for three and a half years, the macbook pro, not so much.

Has there been any word/rumors of a glare filter made for the new MBP models? Does it look like there's room for one that fits over the glossy screen and doesn't interfere with the lid closing?

Seems like someone could make some sticky film à la the protective films for PDA screens.

Edit: Yup.

Edit edit: Even better. (Their films get excellent reviews.) Not one available specifically for the MacBook Pro yet, though.

I don't think there's anything out there yet. The problem is that there's no traditional bezel to hold the filter on the LCD. It could be permamently installed with something sticky, or some sort of picture corners style solution which might not be too bad.

Note: This is an older thread. But better than killing/hijacking Rob's RAID thread.

Just a FYI. BluRay will be (should be) in Apple machines this year. It's being worked on now.

The concerns I expressed in this thread about the large trackpad seem not to be a problem. Testing at the Apple Store was OK with leaving a resting thumb at the bottom. At least in a standing position at a counter.

From looking and handling I would never guess the trackpad has any glass in it whatsoever. At least not with a 15 minute perusal. The glossy screen looked OK in the Apple Store (it's all I saw on display) but I went for the matte option anyway since it's what I'm accustomed to with my PowerBook (and because I don't want glare obviously).

NVIDIA seems to have a clean sweep of every standard Mac configuration. I can't even remember the last time that's ever happened with any vendor, if it's ever happened at all. I'm pretty sure that even in ATI's Mac heyday there were always at least a couple of SKUs with NVIDIA or another vendor (before NV hit the scene).

It doesn't look like NV will hold this sweep through the rest of 2009 though. Expect some changes in the summer.

How certain of this are you? Jobs is pretty famous now for describing BluRay as "a big bag of hurt." And I believe that was pretty recent.

True he said that, but with some context, the comment was another way of saying "No, we have nothing to talk about regarding BluRay here at this event where we are launching new notebooks". Apple completely ignoring BluRay is just not an option if they want to keep their footing in the movie production business. They at a minimum need to get their pipeline working on disc mastering. This also means BluRay burners as an option in their products and so on.

Though OS X does support burning BluRay data disks already. I have an external burner here at work for some things, and didn't have any problems using Disk Utility, or the third party Burn program.

100% - I just don't know what the roll-out schedule is. Might be for Snowleopard, but might not be. I can probably find out what the working schedule is right now though. I'll update this bit later when I've had the chance to get some more info. Steve and I are having dinner next Thursday.

I just found out (by reading that Engadget MBP 17" review) that the anti-glare screen doesn't have a black bezel Too bad, I was looking forward to the black bezel to give the screen more "pop."

As an aside, if anyone is rocking the new Safari 4 beta (or any version really), one of the better plugins is (now) definitely Glims

It's totally replaced Stand for me to enable things like type-ahead page searching and search shortcuts. It also adds some nice features to the search box without removing the search history display.

Easily fixed.



tanstaafl.

How did I know (even before hovering over the link) that you were going to send me to Krylon? ESP man, ESP.