Slashdot Mirror
MacWorld Keynote Announces x86 iMac & Laptop
Steve Jobs began giving his keynote at 9am local time, PST. The action was posted live at MacRumorsLive, and Engadget. From the Engadget liveblog: "How many [iPods] did we sell last quarter? Some of the estimates were getting astronomical - 8 million, 9 million. I'm really pleased to announce that last quarter we sold 14 million iPods .. that is over a hundred every minute, 24/7 throughout the quarter. And it still wasnt enough. We've now sold over 42 million iPods -- as you can see the curve is going up again" MacWorld and Ars Technica has coverage as well. The shiniest news: MacBook Pro. iSight, Front Row; $1999 1.67 Core Duo; 667 DDR bus, Radeon x1600; $2499 1.83GHz. Intel chip.
This is it. Never Microsoft Windows again. Not one more second of pain.
basharteg has big balls
It is important to note that Apple now sells PCs, since these are Intel-based dual-core laptops. Please refrain from calling this computer a "Mac"!
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
I'd hoped for a drop in pricing when apple moved to "commodity" processors...
Well, what do you know. As Apple pushes the state of personal computing back by 20 years, it seems I was right all along: even with Jobs' relentless quest for cheap-over-good, Apple has no intention of passing the savings onto its userbase. Rather than improve an elegant architecture, they have chosen to go with Intel's cesspool because of a few marketing numbers, and the users will eat it up like candy.
Very well. I had hoped that Apple would take long enough to introduce these systems that I would at least be able to get one more purchase in, but I never anticipated needing a new machine this year, and this doesn't change that. It just means that I'm using my last Macs, instead of my second-to-last ones. If I'm going to be forced to use a garbage architecture like x86 in the future, I want to at least get my money's worth out of the machines I buy. With the move to Intel, particularly with the Apple tax intact as I knew it would be, Macs are no longer different enough from other personal computers to justify the price premium.
No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
This is why Apple users are generally regarded as "retarded".
Who cares what it's called?
It's what it DOES that matters, and to some lesser degree - how it looks.
you're a dumbass. the new macbooks are using the BRAND NEW intel yonah chips. the prior p4 based intel chips are slow as shit, even with a higher clock rate. again, you're a total dumbass, and i hope your mother knows she's failed.
Waah. Who cares? It's a name.
- oZ
// i am here.
I think the name is fine. Unfortunately, the product looks less like an Apple product and more like a laptop from a company that rhymes with "Hell".
In addition, it looks like they split the USB ports between the two sides of the laptop. That's just not cool. The power cord is a neat idea, though. I went through several of the older power adapters from my youngest son dumping my laptop off a desk. I tried to keep the door closed at all times, but he was a sneaky little bugger. Glad to see that Apple is addressing this issue in their newest lines.
Man, I wish I'd gotten in on those 50:1 odds against Intel machines, though. I'd be rolling in dough!
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
So they did have to take two very interesting -- can we say essential? -- features to get a decent notebook with Intel processors. Sad. What could have the MacBook been if they had stayed with Power or went AMD? Or if they had went with Alpha in the first place?
I was all for Power, and FireWire, and I don't want to be limited by the lack of CardBus in such an expensive machine. And I try to run all free software. So this launched has killed the Mac for me. Good-bye, Apple. Hello, Pegasos
Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
Not bad at all. Can't justify the extra $500 though for the high-end version.
Order at applemacbookpro.com.
I'm sorry, but "pheed" looks stupid. I like photocasting much better.
"Sufferin' succotash."
I suppose I am being a bit more inflammatory than I might otherwise be. But it's not my intent to troll. I honestly believe what I'm saying here, and I am in fact done with the Mac. The Apple tax used to come with superior technology, which made it worth it. Now it doesn't. So I'm done.
You can put Linux or BSD on a much cheaper Dell, Gateway, HP, or other laptop when they become available in the next few weeks. Then you'll have UNIX on a dual-core laptop and an extra ~$500 in your pocket.
Also, not to knock OS X as I do have a good respect for the OS, but it is as much a UNIX distribution as Windows 98 was a DOS version. It is based on it, but it is not "all there" if you want to do real UNIX work. I know- I have tried. There are very limited UNIX-type tools included, such as there is no gcc, make, and X11. And it is a lot geekier to run something like Gentoo where there is a lot of work to be done and you have to have at least some "geek skills" to get it up and running. OS X is a pop-in-the-disk-and-it-runs, which is good, but not very geeky.
Just "gittin-r-done," day after day.
Mac users like to take it up the ass, raw and unlubed.