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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.
Macbook sounds offensive and computer illiterate.
What do you guys think?
-Sj53
http://www.apple.com/macbookpro
Dropped FW 800 and cardbus.
We CANNOT allow "MacBook Pro" to take off. Everyone needs to keep calling them Powerbooks. I don't care what Apple says. If customers keep coming into the stores asking for Powerbooks maybe they will come to their senses.
Really, all the top Mac news sites and blogs need to get on board with this. It is NOT a "MacBook Pro". It is and always will be a Powerbook.
This isn't the first "Duo" Apple has released in notebook form. The original PowerBook Duo was a very cool machine for its time.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
I guess the real question is can it run Windows, Linux and OS X? What kind of black magic will we need to do to make it work?
Macbook sounds offensive and computer illiterate.
What do you guys think?
The art of choosing strategically well thought out product names is a declining art these days, I need only point to "Windows Defender". While most of us nerds know that Windows is on the defensive in the malware department there is no reason to let the uninitiated masses of Windows users know about it, they think the current situation is normal.
Not that I really care about the 'stupidity' of the MacBook name and I do agree with you that it is kinda clumsy. What I care about is what this MacBook can do and how soon I can get my filthy paws on one. Now if you will excuse me I have to go and empty my piggybank....
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
Wow, Apple stock is up almost 7% on this news.
Worth noting that the CardBus slot has been replaced with a ExpressCard/34 slot.
Actually, they said they would not go out of their way to stop you, they never said they would support it or make it easy.
This is it. Never Microsoft Windows again. Not one more second of pain.
In fact, while I was always die-hard Apple supporter (I'm typing this on my fourth Apple-branded laptop) I appreciate the fact that now I will be able to dual boot in Windows and play the games not-yet or not-at-all released for MacOS. I actually do have a copy of "Deus Ex 2" waiting for the release of Intel-based Macs. Now I'll be able to dust it off... and play on a soon-to-be-mine iMac.
how do you other geeks deal with girlfriends whose laptops are better than yours? aarrgghh ... :)
Slashdot readers don't have to worry about that.
Power Up With MagSafe
The new power adapter with MagSafe connector is designed to magnetically guide your cord into place and disconnect smoothly if someone (else) trips over it.
---
I think that's awesome. I can't tell you how many times I've grabbed my PowerBook thinking it wasn't plugged in, only to have the chord yanked out, or worse, have the laptop almost pulled out of my hands.
I like big butts and I cannot lie.
MACBOOKPRO! ~ PC OR KABOOM!
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
The product mix has stopped making sense, although only temporarily. In the portable line they have iBook G4 and MacBook Pro intel; in the desktop line they have iMac intel and PowerMac G5.
iMac that's as powerful as a PowerMac? Who's gonna wanna buy PowerMacs for the next couple months? Does Apple expect to make so much profit from the iMac intel over the coming months than the forgone profit from lost PowerMac G5 sales? I would think that the PowerMac G5 made a much higher profit than the iMac.
And a MacBook Pro that's 10x more powerful than a iBook?!? There goes the iBook market...
Anybody else see the logic of transitioning the consumer desktop and pro laptop first, rather than starting with the consumer desktop and laptop, or the pro desktop and laptop, or the pro desktop and consumer laptop, or some other combination?
The Yonah architecture is the next generation of the Pentium-M - the mobile chip first designed by their Israel design team. It's small, faster at lower clock speeds, and uses less power than the Pentium 4 chips, which you are referring to.
;-)
This is a dual-core 2Ghz Yonah which I daresay will blow the doors off of a 3Ghz P4 Prescott, and run much cooler, which is necessary in a case that thin (the iMac case) when coolers are space-limited.
Did you post anonymously because you knew that was just a stupid question, or are you just now figuring this out?
Keep it up, genius.
Stiny! Get me a danish!
I have never owned a mac, and have never wanted one... until right now.
Am I the only person who thinks that 1440x900 is a pretty low resolution for a 15" laptop?
My 10" laptop has 1280x768 for goodness sakes.
badness 10000
It looks just like my G4 Powerbook. What's so different?
The Acer Travelmate has the same components, faster processor, more ram, more storage space, but a cheaper price.
Apple's doom is sealed if they are going to start charging more for the same thing you can get in the PC WORLD!
Only difference, Apple is running OSX, so Apple should charge less then the Acer Travelmate, Acer has to pay Microsoft for Windows, Apple doesn't have to pay anybody for OSX.
Apple doesn't get it. They have become PC OEM retailers and with the exception of the OS, every component is made by PC OEM manufacturers, but Apple thinks they can charge more for it. Brand recognition might drive big sales in the first few months, but eventually people are going to realize you can get the same performance in a PC product for cheaper without paying more for the branding, as has been the case for the last few years.
Apple DIDN'T EVEN REDESIGN THE CASE!
MacBook Pro = the biggest joke yet. Apple claims it is more then a PC, it IS a PC, just costs more.
We can finally compare Apple's to Apple's now, I can't wait for the benchmarks that prove Apple isn't anything more then a PC with a different logo. Considering OSX has had lousy comparisons to similar Linux and Windows concepts (like threading performance, etc) which have been provem kernel related, I am sure that we will find that performance on the Mactels are probably not as good as with the same system running Linux or Windows.
Good luck Apple! After a year of hype you have come out with a product that has already been on the market for months.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
I'm just damn excited about the MagSafe connector. Probably half of all the laptop hardware repairs I've done were to replace the power connector. It's one of the weakest points in current design, and I'm glad to see someone finally innovating along that front. Although, if this catches on it will mean declines in laptop repair revenue....
---- El diablo esta en mis pantalones! Mire, mire!
The lack of FireWire 800 may be due to a lack of adoption to the interface (although its speeds do exceed FW 400 and USB2).
Another likelihood to the lack of FW 800 includes Intel (who developed the USB spec and may have asked Apple to push USB2 instead), as well as problems in heat or design that prohibited use of FW 800. I'm betting for simplicity + Intel pressure. We've already seen Apple choose USB2 as its dominate sync interface for iPods, and this is a reflection of that change.
Overall, not a bad introduction for a new 'book, but betware the Rev1 Effect. Remember the first PowerPC systems? Not bad, BUT...
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
According to a person with a MacBook Pro prototype, it won't boot with the Windows install CD. Or the FreeBSD install CD for that matter. But that's just booting with the C key held down, like you do to boot the OS X installer CD. Maybe there is another way?
The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
An FM tuner is announced and there's No bitching about OGG? I am so disappointed in all of you.
Just how long will it be before someone 'hacks' a way in to view through it at any time?
These days, a lot of people leave their machines on 24/6...I pretty much do all of mine. You've just put up a ready built survellience (sp?) system on yourself, and you might not even know it. Bad for personal usage, but, what if this was in a company somwhere...makes it easy to spy on you.
Will there be a neat little iPatch that you can slip over the camera to prevent is seeing anything?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Sure but you'd still not be able to run MacOS X, the purpose behind getting a Mac in the first place.
Don't lead me into temptation... I can find it myself.
Why not package the new iMac guts in a case without a monitor? I understand the desire to use their allotment of Yonah processors in the machines that will give them the highest markup, but all the PC fanboys are going to complain now that they don't want to pay for a monitor just to upgrade their machines... and even Mac fanboys aren't going to buy PowerMacs, iBooks, or Mac minis when iMacs and this ( IMHO poorly named ) "Mac Book Pro" are so far ahead of them and clearly on the way out, if not already gone.
Anyone have thoughts on why there were no Mac mini, iBook, or eMac updates ( or Intel conversions ) today ? What is going to happen there ?
Just how long will it be before someone 'hacks' a way in to view through it at any time?
With the switch to Intel, I can see why you're a little confused... these will be running Mac OS X, not Windows.
appreciate the fact that now I will be able to dual boot in Windows and play the games
Actually, this is the most important remaining question about this entire announcement. Is it really the case that one can install Windows on Apple's new hardware? Can any geeks out there truly verify this? Has anyone actually gotten the shipping hardware and tried to install Windows on it and successfully gotten it up and running with a dual-boot configuration?
It wouldn't surprise me if Apple has implemented some kind of unique encrypted handshaking between the OS X installer and the hardware so that only Apple's OS can be installed on it, so that they can avoid receiving support calls from people who put Windows on Apple hardware. Keep in mind that even if they refuse to provide support for such a configuration, the bulk of a support call's cost is in the customer placing the call in the first place. If someone calls only to be told "we don't support that", that has already cost Apple a good bit of money.
Moderator hint: a comment is neither "Flamebait" nor "Troll" if it is true.
Sony VAIO N505VE: power connection killed by my son when he started learning to crawl and pull himself up things
/. I'm guessing it's the kids thing.)
Thinkpad A32: power connection killed by my son about 6 months later
Dell 5160: power connection killed by my daughter as she's learning to crawl and pull herself up things.
Thinkpad R52: power connection seems OK so far. Crossing my fingers.
(Those of you who are thinking, "Well, duh, just keep your laptop away from your kids" either don't have kids or don't have a serious computer addiction. And since you're on
Ok, I'll play that game. To get a comparable system, you need to do some serious upgrading to the Gateway. XP Pro (which is free for a limited time), Office Basic (as the mac comes with iWork '06), a single 512mb stick of ram (only available in 533mhz modules, oh well), upgraded graphics, upgraded monitor (the MacBook has a 1440x1960 resolution, closest option on the gateway is the 1400x1040), upgraded hard drive, upgraded optical drive, and upgraded bluetooth.
All of that to get it *almost* equal to the MacBook is $1814.98. Plus, that does not come with a firewire camera, nor a remote control, not to mention all the software Apple bundles in for free.
So the premium is $185.02, and that's only if the additional hardware and software standard on the MacBook are worthless to you.
I dunno who it is
but it prolly is fhqwhgads.
That extra $550 can be measured in five things:
Size and weight(which translates to engineering and design), since the Gateway is 1.3" thick and 6lb and the MacBook is 1" thick and 5.6lb
Dual link DVI; the Gateway only has VGA and s-video, while the MacBook can power the new Dell or the old Apple 30" LCD.
Software: The MacBook comes with iLife, OS X, iChat, etc
Hardware: The MacBook comes with a 640x480 30fps build in video camera
QA: I think Apple notebooks are slightly more reliable than Gateway... but feel free to buy the Gateway if that extra $100 savings means that much to you
All five things together work to roughly $110 per point, don't you think?
GPL Deconstructed
What happened? Where's the Firewire 800?
USB 2.0 comes practically free with any modern chipset. Firewire does not. A good firewire interface will take 2-3 sq inches of PCB realestate, and add $1-2 to the total cost. The only area where firewire gained some market hold was with digital video cameras, and those now include USB 2.0. Lastly, very few pieces of equipment can even use firewire 800 to it's fullest. USB 2.0 is cheap enough and fast enough to do 99% of what needs to get done. Further you don't have as much customer confusion between ports and cable types and powered vs unpowered ports.
So all that means is that there's a very small slice of people who need firewire for which USB cannot work. They can get a card in the laptop, and Apple can save a few dollars per Mac.
Those who complain about it most are usually doing so for emotional reasons more than logical reasons. Much like those complaining that the new notebook should be referred to as a "Powerbook." They like Apple; Apple came out with firewire; ergo they like firewire. Nevermind that few new peripherals support firewire, and even fewer support only firwire and not USB. Nevermind that similar USB only peripherals are generally cheaper and perform as well as if not better than the equivilant firewire peripheral. Firewire lost in the market. Apple has acknowledged that. Let's move on.
-Adam
Also absolutely no mention of battery life, apart from a vague "Battery life depends on configuration and use."
I think we may be looking at a return to 2hr. battery life. When you configure a new Powerbook, err, MacBook Pro, at the Apple online store, the first recommended product is the "Rechargeable Battery - 15-inch MacBook Pro - Buy an extra battery to double your battery life when traveling." Hmmm.
Like the absence of the Floppy Disk less then a decade ago.
Most hotels and buisnesses use WiFi 802.11b/g. If you really want the modem you get a USB one. But for most systems now it is becoming one of those unused ports. on my powerbook I used my Modem like 4 times in 4 years. Once to see if it worked, 3 Times after I moved waiting for my Cable to be hooked up. Modems are no longer as nessary as they use to be.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
A: Clock for clock the G5 is faster than the Pentium 4 architecture, so you were told the truth.
B: Clock for clock the Pentium M based Core Duo chip is faster than the G5. So again the truth.
Mix in some marketing (aka exagerations) and you have your situation.
Statement A: was meaningless because the P4 architecture always ran at a much faster clock speed which made it faster in actual use. So Intel in practical terms has pretty much always been faster.
It helps to ignore marketing and think for yourself what you want.
I never bought a Mac before but I might get one this year becasue I like the new architecture. I am waiting on a new Mini. I hope it uses the new Core Duo and runs cool and quiet. I hope they aren't putting the core solo in the mini as I would have to keep waiting...
"These days, a lot of people leave their machines on 24/6"
And on the seventh day Jobs rested and saw what he had made, and saw that it was good.
Sheesh ...
It wouldn't surprise me if Apple has implemented some kind of unique encrypted handshaking between the OS X installer and the hardware so that only Apple's OS can be installed on it, so that they can avoid receiving support calls from people who put Windows on Apple hardware. Keep in mind that even if they refuse to provide support for such a configuration, the bulk of a support call's cost is in the customer placing the call in the first place. If someone calls only to be told "we don't support that", that has already cost Apple a good bit of money.
They won't support that, but they declared already that they will do nothing to prevent it. After Apple Intel FAQ:
After Jobs' presentation, Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller addressed the issue of running Windows on Macs, saying there are no plans to sell or support Windows on an Intel-based Mac. "That doesn't preclude someone from running it on a Mac. They probably will," he said. "We won't do anything to preclude that.
You've read 1984, haven't you? Those weren't TVs, they were computers.
Yes, because as everyone knows the Mac has so saturated the market to be near ubiquitous.
"This calls for a very special blend of psychology and extreme violence" - Vyvyan "The Young Ones"
And if I bolt a snow plow on a Yugo I have a truck. Bolting garbage on the outside of something is not as clean or appealing as having it built in. Having a Bluetooth dongle and a cam with a cable is not the same thing as built in.
By the way loading of a free *nix is not the same thing as a OS that is supported by a company. So if you have a problem with your install who are you going to call for free support? Go ahead and load iTunes and MS Office on your version of *nix and make sure that you have that special MS support number for Office versions running on *nix.
Why are you bothering with using a Gateway computer you can buy barebones laptops and build your own. Hey you can save even more buying an LCD panel and duct taping a small computer to the back of it.
Why don't you compare similar items. An OS with telephone support, an Office package with phone support, built in features that actually work rather then bolt on items that may or may not work, and when you buy your bolt on crap don't go for the lowest price bargain bin trash go with a name brand item.
I am all for OSS but you might as well say the Gateway is a rip off since includes software. You and I might enjoy playing with computers but 99% of computer users are just that users. Any version of *nix is not as good for the average user because of the lack of a support structure.
If I asked my wife to compile something so she can install a program she needs to run she would tell me to kiss her ass as would 99% of the computer users out there. Talk to someone at Best Buy and ask them how many people come in looking to buy a new computer because their old one is full of spyware and they would rather buy a new one then redo the old one. The Gateway and the MacBook are both directed at those users and the MacBook just happens to do the job better. The right tool for the right job I always say.
-- To mess up an OS X box, you need to work at it; to mess up your Windows box, you just need to work on it.--
Why? I mean really. Why in the name of all that is holy would ANYONE want to put Windows on a Mac?
I switched FROM Linux (which I was fairly happy with as a longtime user) to OS X about 6 months ago. Comming from Linux - I actually GAINED games that I can play. That being said - around 1995 I switched from Windows to Linux. I just learned to live without Windows specific software. It really does not take much. What gaming I could not do with Linux I substituted with a console. I can see why some people would want to dual boot Linux (I still feel that open source has great merit and the urge to tinker is hard to overcome), but Windows?
To put it another way - WHY would you go out and buy yourself a Mercedes, drive it home happily, then promptly put a nice set of square wheels on it?!?
There is just SOO much crap in the way of viruses and MBR issues that you'd be creating for yourself that would ruin the reason you own a Mac. Why do that to yourself?
"Now we'll finally be able to combine the security and ease of use of Windows with the flexibility and low cost of Apple hardware!"
(first read somewhere here on Slashdot, I'm sure)
ClutterMe.com - easiest site creation on the Net. Just click and type.
So much for the bogus 42" and 50" media center plasmas.
The Rumors sites, such as ThinkSecret and MacOSRumors.com, were almost universally wrong this time around.
No new iBook. No Intel mini. No plasma TV's. No "media center" mini. No movie streaming on demand (that was Cringely's guess). None of it.
As of this keynote, Intel chips are going into the iMac and the replacement for the Powerbook... just about the only systems which NOBODY predicted upgrades for.
Looks like Apple managed to plug up the leaks from last year.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Hot potatoes, Oxford shores, Puck to make amends!
Imagine different. They use EFI.