Ehhh. Doesn't seem too innovative or exciting. And I'm baffled by why anyone would want a display that is LCD but has a shiny finish. What I like about LCD screens is the matte-finish that eliminates nasty screen glare. Which is why I love my Samsung SyncMaster 226bw.
Oh really? Try one and see how you feel then. "Innovative" isn't always about flash and shiny new features, although Apple is frequently good at delivering ye olde razzle dazzle. My point being that considerable work that could be rightly called "innovative" did indeed go into these releases, but may not be evident as such at first consideration. These babies are all about performance, although they are very stylish as well, obviously. You can get a "stick sheet" that clings to the screen to give it a matte appearance and help protect the screen from scratches, if the default glossy surface doesn't appeal. Some have complained that Apple's computers still don't come with Blue-Ray drives. They will, eventually. For now licensing issues and the general public acceptance curve aren't quite "there" yet, but in another year or so...
I love Macs. I own a Mac. I also own a Black & Decker power drill & sander. I don't cheer like crazy and loose my shit when Black & Decker comes up with a new way to drill things. I don't get excited about brands. I get excited about useful tools that bring something new to the table. These new MacBooks are a definite upgrade from the previous line, but it seems that the main difference is a real GPU (instead of an integrated/CPU-bound GPU) and twice as much RAM. So it's not a bad package, but nothing that excites me. Well, the LED display is a tad exciting... But not that much. And it is kind of odd how they introduce a new model of MacBook, but retained the old model (white version) to keep the marketed price point at $999. Seems like bad and confusing planning.
Why? One of the biggest knocks against Apple is the pricing of their products. Retaining the previous model at a sub $1000 price point allows them to be more competitive without having to do any re-engineering. I think it was a great decision.
Wow, for once I'd rather keep my 17" MacBook Pro with high res display over the new model. The MacBook is definitely a step up, the MacBook Pro, not so much.
Easy. To bring the new MacBooks in line with the $999 price of the bottom of the line model, all they would have to do is perhaps not have a separate GPU and have a smaller hard drive and less RAM. No re-engineering needed. So it seems sloppy move at best to have the old model and the two new ones. Yeah, I sound like a Debbie Downer, but it seems they are boosting the specs on MacBooks, lowering the specs on MacBook Pros and perhaps will just merge it all in one line a year from now.
I bought a black macbook solely as a "stable" platform to run Serato off of. I only keep 1500 songs on it at once and the rest backed up on a seperate computer to not overload it and its all I use it for is to use at gigs, maybe 4 hours at a time tops, and then pack it up. The hard drive has crapped out on me twice and they just say oh hard drives are unpredictable bla bla bla. Second point, and this is the big one I feel like they didn't change over to solid one piece aluminum as a genious design bla bla bla they did it for two reasons a) White macbooks get dirty as crap where you rest your hands and you CANNOT clean it off completely and it looks disgusting and b) Black macbooks matte finish retains oil from your hands all over it and starts to peel at the seems, corners, and around the battery compartment to reveal the shiny black underneath, which looks like crap unstead of all "sleak" So to me it seems like they just came up with a way to solve those problems and to be bragadocious all at the same time. Work on the hard drives so they stop crapping out then I will care how you house all those crappy components. Its by far cheaper for them to make a piece that might cost a tad bit more but doesn't have to be replaced like the old finishes, straight up thats where their design idea came from and not that bullshit, apple thinks everyone is stupid and has proved they are time and time again
The macbooks are still essentially using an integrated chip. It might seem like a real GPU just because it's made by Nvidia, but it still sucks up system memory...and up to 256Megs at that...ouch. I dont buy the 'up to 4x faster' talk. It's probably only more like 1.25x more noticeable. These systems also use a Nvidia chip sets instead of Intel, which is surprising, as it seemed like part of the reason they went with Intel in the first place was to get package deals on processors and chip sets. All in all I like what they've done with these new machines. It's VERY cool that the macbook pros now come with both the 9400M and the 9600M GT so you can run it in a low power mode if you are doing non-GPU intensive tasks. As for the glossy screen I dont really think it matters all that much. I have problems with glare on my matte laptop as much as my glossy one.
MicromanZone, I hear ya. I'm kinda hype-allergic myself. Your second comment made me understand the context of your first one a lot better. My best bud is the head of Apple's notebook division. I asked what he thought the biggest criticism of these releases would be, and without hesitation he said "the price point." The explanation is that in order to deliver machines of this quality, there's no way to lower the retail prices without significantly reducing the required specs. Naturally the company is aware of the current economic outlook and the probability of how this will affect sales, but the specs were defined long before we knew the current situation would be what it is now, and that company does stick to its goals without compromise. I wouldn't know (and wouldn't ask anyone to violate their NDAs) but strongly suspect that the company will develop lower-priced high-performance initiatives if they haven't already. (Dev is usually two cycles ahead of "current" production.) I haven't seen these babies in person yet but am really looking forward to it. I have no need for one but they sure are purty.
i think the new design looks good for macbook pros, but they should of kept the macbooks one solid color. they are nice though, don't need one, but would like to see one at the store.
+1...these look like cheap garbage to me with black keypads and screen surrounds. they may have more power but they sure suck to look at...
I suggest that Apple contract with MSI or ASUS or whoever makes the Dell Mini 9 and create an official Mac ultra portable. I'd buy one of those in a heartbeat since I mainly work from a desktop computer, but the few times I've needed a PC outside of that an ultra portable fits the bill. More power than an iPhone or an iPod touch with a full-sized keyboard and decent screen but not powerful enough to replace my desktop setup. Perfect satellite machine! And great for travel.
2 IBM notebooks here. 0 complaints over the years. Current book is 6 years old and runs like new. My GF just picked up an IBM (Lenovo) book. She's already using it for 3D design and other graphics apps. Loves it. Very fast machine. For the price, reliability, and features, I think it's very tough to top an IBM book. For people who go nuts over new Macproducts - eh, if it's your thing, go with it. Personally, I'm interested in relaibility and performance above all, so Lenovo/IBM will keep getting my $$$.
I use my iPhone as an ultra portable. Seriously good enough to surf the net, emails, watch movies, read PDF files, listen to music, scheduling, play games and IM people. I can't do photo shop or design work on it but hey it's just a phone Can someone tell me if the new Vista has anti aliasing for fonts on the browser? Every time I see fonts on a Windows machine, it makes me cringe.
I seriously doubt you'd ever see anything like this from apple. This fits into the same category as the 'cheap mac you can upgrade that doesnt come with a screen' of things apple will never deliver. I think Locomoco is right in that apple already created this machine and to them it's the macbook air. This whole netbook category has only been around a short while and it's already too crowded a market.
