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Apple Unveils New Macbook
Several readers have written in to mention that Apple has released the new Macbook on their site. Yahoo! has details from the press release: "With prices starting at just $1,099, the MacBook lineup includes three models: a 1.83 GHz and 2.0 GHz MacBook in a newly designed, sleek white enclosure and a 2.0 GHz MacBook in a stunning new black enclosure. The new MacBook offers performance up to five times faster than the iBook and up to four times faster than the 12-inch PowerBook with a completely new system architecture including a 667 MHz front-side bus and 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory expandable to 2GB."
Anyone hoping for 9in MacBook Micros, 36in MacBook MegaPros or other outlandish designs might be disappointed - the hardware overview page describes the Apple laptop family as 'now complete'.
So, is this the full range?
The black MacBook seems a bit weird - it's $200 more than the nearest equivalent white model, except it has 20GB more hard disk and, erm, a rather pay-as-you-go black finish. Odd.
Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
and a 2.0 GHz MacBook in a stunning new black enclosure.
;-)
What the article doesn't mention is that the new black enclosure is made from the same patented finish as the ipod nano
Seriously, $1099 for the low end one is making these look pretty tempting, but I'm going to have to wait for the fourth gen (instead of usual second gen) for mactel stuff.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
Leave it to Apple to set the trends again. I bet all the other companies are gonna copy them and come out with black laptops now... ; )
This guy's the limit!
The new system is availabe in three specs. All have:
13.3-inch widescreen display
1280 x 800 resolution
512MB memory (2 x 256MB SODIMMs)
USB, Bluetooth 2.0 and Firewire
Airport
The bottom end model has:
60GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive 2
Combo drive (DVD-ROM, CD-RW)
White
US: $1099 UK: £749 ($1423)
The mid-range model has:
60GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive 2
SuperDrive (DVD±RW, CD-RW)
White
US: $1288 UK: £899 ($1708)
The high-end model has:
80GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive 2
SuperDrive (DVD±RW, CD-RW)
Black or White
US: $1499 UK: £1028.99 ($1953)
So.. Once again Apple think that in the UK we should pay as much as 30% more for the privilege of having a machine shipped across the Atlantic and a couple of keys in a different place. Great.
...FireWire is present, as it is on all new Intel-based Macs to date, proving that FireWire isn't going anywhere (anytime soon, anyway) on Apple's computer products. It also totally shatters Jason O'Grady's ridiculous predictions that "FireWire is gone completely from the new Intel iBooks", which were widely accepted as fact. Of course, it made zero sense at that time, too, but that didn't stop it from spreading around the net like wildfire.
;-)
Note also that the MacBook features the Core Duo, not Core Solo, and the screen resolution has increased from 1024x768 on the old 12" iBook and PowerBook to 1280x800.
With the array of connectivity (mini DVI also supports VGA, S-Video, and composite), built-in Bluetooth and 802.11a/b/g (yes, a is included and supported by the OS), the ability to boot Windows natively or use Windows (or other x86 OSes) in virtualization, for just over $1000, this looks to be a great deal.
It appears that some of the traditional differences between the "iBook" and "PowerBook" line are shrinking even more; I wouldn't be surprised if there was no 12" MacBook Pro based on the new MacBook's specifications.
One hopes that Apple is applying a reasonable amount of thermal paste on the new MacBooks.
I guess now when I'm showing price comparisons to family & friends who know nothing about computers, it won't be so confusing to try to explain the different architectures to them.
This way, they can look at the specs and compare them. Because 1 GHz on an Intel Core Duo is the same as 1 GHz on an Intel Core Duo. No more, "This is a RISC PowerPC architecture, the numbers on P4 and G5 aren't comparable."
Of course, I'll now have to delve into the finer details about how well OSX versus Windows utilizes the hardware and also the support of the applications/peripherals for these machines.
When you consider suggesting a machine to a friend or relative, you have to be careful. The wrong choice could put you on tech support for the next 3 years of your life. I can't decide which I'd recommend for them but in the end, I'm trying to minimize how many times they're going to call me. If I go Mac, they'll call me about programs they used to use but can't find for Mac. If they use Windows, they'll call me about their blue screens of death. What to do?
My work here is dung.
I mean 200USD for black and a 20GB bigger HD?
And for the love of God why don't they just give them all 1GB of RAM?
Still it's pretty and I want one.
This
1.83Ghz - $1099.00
2.0 Ghz, 60GB HDD- $1299.00
2.0 Ghz, 80GB HDD, Black - $1499.00
So you will pay an extra $400 for approximately 0.17Ghz faster speed, 20GB more space and a black finish to look cool?
Why not just release it for $1500 and include a 100GB HD, 2Ghz, and the choice of any colour you like?
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
in a stunning new black enclosure.
...for an extra US$200. I can't help but think that most people will go with the white model.
Intel GMA 950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory
This guy's the limit!
Hi. yeah i'd like a macbook 20 with black cover and maybe a side order of ram.
is a brushed metal MacBook Pro that's black. That would be sweet.
The guitars sound good, now give me about 10db more on the cow bell.
anyone notice that now its 2x256 and not 1x512?
Integrated graphics? I thought Apple was about being better equipped? This is the deal killer for me. I can't imagine using integrated graphics. If this was a HTPC then yeah its ok (see mini), but its not.
Shipping with 2xSODIMMS? (meaning your tossing out both) Essentially ripping off the customer.
Black is essentially a premium color? It cost more that the system below it with a $50 upgrade to the HDD.
The price points are good for Apple.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Anybody think the BlackMacBook will be called the BlackBook (like the TiBook?)
Looks like Apple is settling on a trend: glossy black or white, and brushed metal.
I wonder if they scratch as easily as the Nanos?
Would also like to see the new glossy screens on the 15" and 17" BTO models.
DVI, VGA, S-video and composite out all require adapters (sold separately, of course).
Lies about crimes
The UK store is showing the 1.83 MBP as no longer part of the range with 2.0Ghz being the base model and the 2.16Ghz as the top model for the same money as the old 2.0Ghz was.
"I have the attention span of a strobe lit goldfish, please get to the point quickly!"
This new laptop is much closer to the MacBook Pro than I expected. I thought they might only do Core Solo processors, to create more distinction between the two levels.
I had been planning on getting the 15 or 17" Pro, but looking at the specs on these - and the price, I might go for the MacBook.
The biggest difference I see is the display resolution.. 1280x800, like the older PowerBooks.
The graphics chip is kind of a bummer, but let's face facts, anybody serious about gaming wasn't holding out for the MacBook. It's more than enough for what people actually want this for. $200 more for black and 20 gigs of HD space is a total ripoff. This is clearly an experiment by Apple to see exactly what they can get away with. I'm all for paying the "Apple premium," but I'll be damned if I'm going to pay a "color premium." Those glossy screens look nice, but between the crazy glare and the fact that they seem like fingerprint magnets, I don't know if I'd want one. I'd be happier if that was an option, and not standard. All in all, it's a nice machine. I'm not buying one, but my sister is going to college in the fall, and I can tell my parents to buy it for her. I'm sick of being asked if they should just get her a G4 model. Yeah, that would be really killer four or five years from now.
Slashdot: 24 hours behind every other site or your money back!
... since all of my most important files from my PC just disappeared.
I'll wait before seeing one irl, for five^H^H^H^H three factors:
1/ There is a new 'glossy' screen
2/ The whine that plagued the macbook pro. Is it gone ?
5/ Most important: These babies have a brand new keyboard design, which may be the best thing since sliced bread, or your very own personal nemesis...
Well, of course there is still the GMA950 issue, but still, I think I'll replace my aging powerbook...
It really makes me wish mac would come out with a tablet PC.
Then again, let's I'd like to see them perfect their new relationship with intel before I go invest in anything new.
Also, is anyone else annoyed by glossy screens, other than me. I mean sure the screen looks nice, but one bright light's reflection from the background, and you can't see what it's displaying anyway. I always feel like glossy screens are a gimmick. I think most laptop screens are mat for a reason.
Go ahead and call me unreliable; reliable is just a synonym for predictable.
I wonder what they've changed with respect to keyboard.
They claim that it is firmer than before.
Picture
Seeing as it is more than a quarter of an inch thinner than the iBook G4, this one looks like a pretty nice little system.
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
I mean, it's really not that great value for the black ones. It's quite an expensive price bump for the black finish and an extra few gigs of hard dr....OH GOD I WANT A BLACK MACBOOK!
"Proudly Posting Without Reading The Article"
Dual Purpose Get the big picture when you join your MacBook with either a stunning 20- or 23-inch Apple Cinema Display by way of a crystal-clear connection miniDVI port. (Requires miniDVI to DVI adapter, sold separately.)
It looks sweet.
Fight Crime - Shoot Back!
Do those prices include some sort of VAT or anything like that?
Just trying to figure out if Apple is screwing you, or your government.
is the addition of screen spanning, mirroring, and lid closed operation with a external monitor. Integrated graphics are a bummer, but are expected given their appearence in the mac mini. The new screen is long overdue (a 1024x768 screen doesn't cut it in 2006). Now the only thing we still are waiting on is a replacement for the powermac, but seeing as how few of the major pro apps are universal binaries, that release may be a ways down the road.
1.83Ghz - $1099.00
2.0 Ghz, 60GB HDD- $1299.00
2.0 Ghz, 80GB HDD, Black - $1499.00
You wonder why? Because you have to give people something to show, visible to the world, that they have got for their money, and the more useless it is the better. You are selling to people who you are encouraging to feel different. Now, there is a subset who want to send out the message that they are different enough for a few hundred dollars to be of no importance to them whatever compared to the color of the thing.
It is designer label marketing. The funny part is, its aspirational, not having arrived. The richest guy I ever knew was once arranging a car purchase. His assistant asked him what kind he wanted. "a blue one, yes dark blue" he said. I don't suppose he even knew what marque it was.
Meanwhile lots of sad people go around saying they wouldn't be seen dead in a Ford and thinking various other brands are marks of class.
Basically, the black mac, its marketed for you to send a message to your friends, which, if you had achieved what the message would like to send, it would never occur to you to want to send it, and certainly not like this.
Its like Lenox china for the digerati, and equally gauche.
Something this topic is sorely lacking
http://www.apple.com/macbook/gallery/index2.html
-- Boycott Shell
The difference is partially in VAT. If you calculate the VAT out of the price, the difference between US- and UK-price is (still) US$ 150 on the black and US$ 144 on the white 2GHz.
I don't know if there is any additional tax or whatever in UK. I guess the difference is to compensate for the current exchange rate (US$ vs GBP and US$ vs EUR) as well as for administrative overhead in Europe (Apple Europe + Apple UK)
UK education prices are: £643 with VAT (£548 without).
What a great deal for a Core Duo 1.83GHz CPU, decent other specs, software etc. plus the little Front Row remote.
From the Dell UK website, for £802(the link page here says £649, when you go to the configure page, the price jumps to £802, wtf?) for the Inspiron M, you can get a slower CPU (1.66GHz Core Duo), same memory, same HDD, inferior Graphics (Intel GMA 900 vs GMA 950 in the Macbook). Same optical drive, except the Macbook is slot loading (nice). Both have 802.11g networking, but the Macbook also comes with Bluetooth 2.0EDR, the Dell has no Bluetooth capability.
The Dell does have an extra inch on the screen than the Macbook, but is not widescreen.
The Dell lacks:
- Bluetooth
- Remote
- iLife
- OS X
The Dell is also bigger in every dimension. Heavier too. Whichever of the two prices Dell.co.uk give you (£649 or £802) it's clear that the Macbook is very competitive price-wise if you're a student. (We are comparing prices for students here, but I believe the price compares well without the student discount too.)
Looks like a great little machine at a really affordable price. Very impressed, I was worried we'd see some price hikes.
(Ah just figured out the pricing difference on the Dell site, they 'automatically' select the highest service-level when you go to the configure screen... great.)
This sig has been deprecated.
The use of RAM in pairs is due to the inclusion of an Intel Integrated Graphics.
If you put the RAM in pairs the amount of bandwith is double compared to the use of one single module (dual channel vs single channel)
These things are way too heavy. 5.2 lbs is just too much for a laptop of such a small size, especially when the 15" Macbook Pro is just 0.4 lbs heavier. The whole reason it's small is to make it more portable. Sony has a very similar machine (13.3", Core Duo, Camera, etc) that's a full pound and a half lighter. I know it's more expensive and all that, but that's not the whole difference. I don't know why Apple always makes only heavy notebooks, but they should stop.
We all know OS X runs like a dog on 512 MB of RAM, yet Apple keeps shipping it standard. RAM is cheap, cheaper than drive space, why not up these all to 1 GB???
Otherwise me thinks Apple is just lying to itself about MacOS X's performance...
I dub them 'Snake Eyes' and 'Storm Shadow.'
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
It's late May, HS graduation is around the corner and here comes Apple with its flagship college laptop. At this price point, and with these specs, I'm pretty sure Apple won't be able to fill demand. A it's an $1100 Apple engineered laptop with built-in webcam, wifi and bluetooth that can also run Windows (and run it VERY well) - AWESOME. Sure, nobody's going to be playing games on it - nobody ever bought an Apple laptop to play games before (generalization) - but 90% of college students aren't CS majors and there are probably more people interested in the iSight web cam then in 3D performance.
Not too big, not so small that you can't see the screen, with a LOT of horsepower under the hood and the incredible iLife package to boot. The only comparable performance/form factor laptops I can find after a cursory search are $1700+ VAIOs, so the price point is pretty great too. If I were a betting man, I'd be putting a buy order on some Apple stock today.
(All this said, the only one I would ever think about getting is the lowest-end model and dropping in some extra RAM.)
My sister downloaded a virus that caused her Windows XP Home edition to BSOD on her everytime she tried to start Windows.
I am sick of explaining to people that Windows XP still BSODs whether it be due to viruses or "third party drivers."
"... MacBook in a stunning new black enclosure."
And here is the new MacBook logo
Am I the only one who thinks 1280 is ridiculous for a 13.3" screen width? Gone are the days of 14" at 1024. Why? We're not all into video editing and, no, upping the view options within OS X does not compensate.
If you do a price comparison and upgrade the middle-range white one up to 80 GBs, the difference is only $150 for black. I'm sure they'll fix that soon, the whole thing seems rather odd to me...
Looking at the technical specifications there does not seem to be a microphone in the MacBook, compare with the MacBook Pro specifications for example. The wording on the iSight pages for the two machines seem carefully phrased to avoid the indicating that the MacBook has a microphone. For example they mention videoconferencing but not podcasting as they do for the Pro. What are you supposed to do, videoconference in sign language? It seems like a pretty major oversight, I need to get to a store to confirm if this is the case. Does anyone have conclusive information that the MacBook does have a microphone?
Sigh. When will Intel get off their ass and come out with their x86_64 mobile cpu so apple can have a laptop worth buying?
Well, I'm gonna get a white 2.0 dual core, upgrade the harddrive for $60 and buy a $5 can of black spray paint. A net savings of $135!
__
Thou hast besquirted me, O leotarded one.
The difference is at least partially to protect Apple for fluctuations in currency exchange.
*sigh* back to work...
C'mon. Admit it. PowerMac, PowerBook, iMac, iBook, eMac, Mac mini, MacBook?
Any minute now it'll be QuadMac, QuadBook, MacCore, . . .
"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)
Don't mean to nitpick, but even "anytime soon" isn't proven unless "anytime soon" is defined to be "right now in this model". The next model... who knows?
In terms of semantics, claiming that the most recent observable case reliably proves a continued future trend is like that quote by Bart's evil twin: "They say I'm crazy, but aren't we all a little mad? I know *I* am." There is always a last machine as far as any given feature; Apple had a final SCSI machine, a final 8-din connector machine, and so on.
In terms of analysis, there may be args one way or the other that have to do with strategy analysis or market demand, but again the presence of firewire on this machine and all previous machines is not proof of Apple's plan to do any particular thing. Sample counter theory: for all we know, Apple will drop firewire the instant it has released at least one Intel machine for every slot in its lineup, so that the transition to intel machines seems less disruptive.
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
I beleive with certin types of DDR ram, pairing yeilds better proformance than a single bigger DIM, so I would probably match both slots with new ram anyway if I were upgrading; hell, for ~$200 from a 3rd party, why not upgrade to 2GB
The price comparison page http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/compariso n_chart.html says "glossy display option" for MacBook Pros, so I think your wish is granted :-)
Sig erased via substitution of an identical one.
I'm not silly enough to pay extra for black though...
Ocean is land, covered with water.
you put up to 2GHz of pure Intel Core Duo power, an iSight camera, Front Row, iLife '06, and a 13-inch" ...
What you get is (yet another) intel notebook yet one that can't boot into windows without tweaking but is preinstalled with a port of MacOSX to Intel and a set of OSX drivers that match the hardware.
You don't get any of the powersaving magic and literal coolfactor of using a performing PPC notebook.
What you do get however, is what ACER could have whipped up for you for $1000 plus the $99 Intel MacOSX license, so I'd say it's nothing to get excited about but still worth looking into because you do get the MacOSX to check out and play around with thrown in there cheap.
http://www.apple.com/macbook/design.html
look at the right side where it says "Dual Purpose" and shows an external display hooked up. the second display lacks a dock, and seems to show the MacBook supports screen spanning.
the iBooks used to only support the ability to mirror your display (unless you hacked it). that had been a distinction between the iBook and PowerBook lines.
Introducing the superfast, blogging, podcasting, do-everything-out-of-the-box MacBook.
Finally, a laptop that can do blogging and podcasting. This is exactly what I've been waiting for! Go Apple!
So, apparently, for no extra charge, you can now get a glossy screen on the MacBook Pro. Can anyone explain to me why you would want a glossy screen? It just seems like it would make the glare rediculous.
I was really hoping Apple would step up and try to develop one. The Win Tablet market is so inadequate.
Decided I'd browse over to Dell and see how big the "Apple premium" is sitting right now.
...So the Apple premium now stands at -$340, close as I can figure.
Dell Inspiron E1405:
14.1" screen (1280x800)
Core Duo 1.83
1 GB RAM (can't get 512)
80 GB HD
Total cost: $1540
MacBook:
13.3" screen (1280x800)
Core Duo 1.83
512 MB RAM
80 GB HD
built-in Webcam
Total cost: $1100
Averatec and other manufacturers aside, When you see a white notebook, you assume it's a Mac. Apple is giving you a $150+ subsidy for advertising that you're using their product when you go with white versus the color used by almost every other maker.
Moderation in All Things... Especially Moderation - gurutc
I just got my Macbook Pro on Sat. THANK GOD I still can exchange for a free 2.0 Ghz upgrade!!
I don't think I'm going to go with the iBook this time round... I like the screen size on the Pro but I'll bet the battery life in the MacBook is just killer.
Plus.. the whining people have been talking about is barely audible... the only issue with the MacBook pro I found is the HEAT... the HEAT... they are hot as a mother fucker... no matter how much of a tough guy you think you are, you can't let it touch your skin!!!
This is a neat update to the Mac line, but some things bug me about it:
1) iBook used to be the cheapest Subnotebook available. That has changed, with cool-looking widescreen subnote PCs available for 800$ or even less.
2) 3D is gone. That is bad. My iBook has a 3D gfx chip (ATI) and I use it too.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
check email and surf the web
use itunes and iLife (but not likly to be using RAW or HD)
play back movie trailers
do projects for School (think MS Office/iWork)
Maybe some LIGHT design work (a great little computer to take with you to show clients mock-ups that you made on your desktop workstation)
play back DVDs.
No one expects a gaming or "desktop replacment" laptop to be in the sub $1500 range, Mac or Windows!
The Intel GPU also blows away the old ATI 9X00 Mobilities that were in the iBooks, the shared ram is not that big of a deal for most, and if it is, just order 2 GB chips, and upgrade.
When I bought my 12" PowerBook awhile back I went into the Apple store thinking I was going to get the cheaper 12" iBook. However the much weaker and toy-like feel of the plastic case vs the aluminium and, especially, how far FAR superior the PB's keyboard was made me spend quite a bit more getting it instead. I remember playing with both side to side and thinking "I could never type on this crappy iBook keyboard all day..." It just felt awful to type on and was very noisy in comparison to the PB. I will have to wait and actually hold one and type on one to see whether it is going to work for me physically.
The graphics is not a huge deal for me as I have a desktop PC for games.
I hope that they improved it over the iBook in these respects because the smaller form factor is also deal-breaker for me.
According to the comparison chart http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/compariso n_chart.html , both the MacBook and the MacBook Pro have a built in omnidirectional microphone. Why it's not listed on the technical specs, I don't know.
Donald Roeber
Generating 2048 Bits of Randomness...
If it wasn't for OS X I wouldn't consider ANY Apple laptop even vaguely acceptable.
Even the Powerbook/Macbook Pro keyboard feels like crap after you've used a Thinkpad, and of course the single mouse button on the trackpad just adds insult to injury.
I call this a big WTF?!?!
This "ridiculous" price differential happened because Apple understands its market. These things are going to fly off the shelves like food in a famine.
I personally am resisting the shift to Intel because a fairly wide array of software I depend on will run poorly (if at all) in Rosetta. Plus, I'm poor. Still, my high-debt budget is twitching for more since this announcement, mostly because I want the black one.
Color me a victim of techno-capital.
blog
Apple's web site indicates this new model has a stunning glossy screen. Am I the only one that hates these new glossy screens. They reflect glare and just look bad. The screen on the MacBook Pro isn't glossy. Why does the MacBook need a glossy screen?
Was that deliberately written to be maximize outrage?
You pay an extra $200 for an 0.17Ghz and a SuperDrive (DVD±RW, CD-RW) instead of a Combo drive (DVD-ROM, CD-RW).
And then you pay an extra $50 for the extra 20Gb of space.
The outrage should come from the extra $150 on top of THAT to get a black finish.
I can only think of 3 reasons as to why Apple did this:
1) Typo (unlikely, $1499 seems like a price point they want to fill)
2) They want to exploit people's desire for something "trendier" and something Different.
3) More expensive for them somehow (It may cost them more for black cases since its not created in the same volume as white ones. Or it may have more protection from scratches than the Black iPod, which costs more)
I don't really know which it is, but I find anger against Apple to be amusing in this case. If aesthetics are important to you, then pay the $150 extra. If its not, then don't. No one is entitled the same price for both. If the black one had something you COULDN'T get in white (say, Firewire 800), but was still unnecessarily expensive (say $300 more expensive instead of $150), then I could see outrage, as Apple is forcing you to spend $150 extra on aesthetics when you just wanted the Firewire 800.
"Thanks to a 13.3-inch glossy widescreen display that's 79% brighter...."
Good thing they put this warning on the website, although they make it sound like a glossy display is actually a good thing...
(Perhaps it is a good thing for people wanting to spend $1099 on an Apple designed make-up mirror?)
In cell phones and notebooks, everywhere. Makes it a pain in the ass when you work in a secure installation.
Ick.
It's probably just me, but I don't see the advantage of the shiny screens sported by some recent laptops. Yes, the screen is brighter. Yes, it is slightly sharper. But the glare! Ow, my eyes.
Oh, and: "Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950"
Intel -- bringing a whole new meaning to the words "graphics accelerator". Or do these integrated graphics not suck as much as all previous offerings? (Checks specs: 64MB of shared memory, and it apparently uses 80MB from the system -- note the footnote on the specs page) Not looking good.
It is the non-Pro version, I suppose.
Compared to the iBook G4, this thing is amazing for $50 more.
If the benchmarks on the product site are correct, this is a major leap forward.
Audio in/out, camera, all Core Duos... hard to imagine they could have done this better.
They've answered most if not all of the iBook critics' points - better res, MagSafe, audio in/out+optical, DVI, camera, the battery doesn't have times yet, but looks like it might be on the iBook curve.
Personally I can't stand glossy displays, but what the heck.
Of course I bought my iBook G4 three months ago... so I'll be drooling for two years and nine months...
Ah! If anyone complains about the 0.3 lb weight gain, buy the low-end white one and I'll trade you so you can go back to the 4.9 lb...
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
I have on my desk an iBook G3 800 in Ice - transparent plastic with white paint underneath. I personally think it looks far nicer than the snow white of the curent Mac laptops. And no, it's not scratched to hell even though I still use it heavily.
"What use is power to the Keeps of Balance?" -Disnt of Nightmare LpMud
Can anyone give me more information about what Apple means by a "glossy display?" The press release and website are quite short on details. As a matter of fact, on the MacBook's product page, there is even a hyperlink referring to the glossy display. Alas, it takes me to the Design page which, while cool and informative, doesn't have any information about the display.
I assume the glossy display is meant to improve the contrast and sharpen things up in general, getting away from the flat matte of most LCD screens. I'll probably have to wait a few weeks for pictures of this new laptop sitting side by side with an iBook to tell the difference (there is no Apple store in my remote viscinity).
I am a little wary of it, however. I have encountered laptops with what I would have called "glossy" screens. Instead of the matte surface finish of a typical LCD, it looked like the LCD was encased in glass. No doubt this improved the screen clarity and contrast in darkened environments, but the screens were about as reflective as, well, plate glass.
I trust apple to not go with something that flawed. Does anyone have more info?
I don't think that people who will buy the black MacBook will care at all that it's at a $200 premium.
The top of the line machine isn't for students.
It's not for stingy^H^H^H^H^H^H ubernerds who sit down with feature comparison charts and plot gigaflop per $ ratios.
It's for the corporate executive who wants a small machine to tote around for Powerpoint meetings that is mean and sleek and doesn't scream "look at my son's baby pictures." These people will be sending a memo to their purchasing department: "Get me one of those Mac laptops with the slick screens and the remote control. It should fit in my briefcase. And make it black." $200 isn't going to make a dent. It'd have to be priced $500-1000 more to make them pause, and probably then even barely.
To the vast majority of the world computers are tools. When you need a hammer, you go to Home Depot and buy a hammer that feels good in your hand and does the job. If you're not a carpenter, do you obsess about whether the shiny metallic cold-forged shank and the ergonomic claw hammer is really worth the extra $5? Or do you just buy the one that you like?
Why would I want a laptop to have a great graphics card?
That's the wrong question, because the Intel GPU isn't just "not great", it's "bloody awful".
The right question is "Why would I want a laptop to have a complete OpenGL implementation?".
Because this chip's OpenGL is incomplete, and Mac OS X's graphics is built on top of openGL. So one of the two cores in your Core Duo is going to be sitting there running OpenGL emulation... less efficiently than even an entry-level ATI or nVidia GPU... and generating heat. And the extra RAM you'll have to install, both to support this extra code and to make up for the missing VRAM (that's another thing, this chip doesn't have any), will be generating heat too.
If I have to choose between a cheap and power-savvy low-end card and a high-performance but expensive and power-hungry one, I choose the first.
Unfortunately Apple doesn't give you that choice. You get a cheap chip that makes the computer as a whole more power-hungry. A low-end ATI or nVidia chip would have given you the "cheap and power-savvy" option, but just as in the Mac mini you're stuck with what they provide.
So basically they don't have an acceptable low-end laptop, and they don't have an acceptable low-end desktop. So much for the Intel switch making Macs more affordable.
If you're actually in a secured area, you don't bring in external computers, flash drives, iPods, cell phones, etc. (Though some of them will let you bring your cell in if you check the battery at the door.) The problem is those places that want to give the feel of being secure installations but aren't really, so they'll ban cameras but let you bring your own cell in, etc. Those tend to have no place to check them at the door, either :-P
Those are the places that have me continuing to reject camera phones when I order cells.
.sig: file not found
Audio in/out, camera, all Core Duos... hard to imagine they could have done this better.
Included a GPU that doesn't suck dirty swamp water through a clogged garden hose?
Yes...yes it is.
"1 GB RAM (can't get 512)"
Then why not just upgrade the iBook to 1GB? It then costs $1,249.
Thus the price difference is $1540 - $1249 = $291.
Your price difference is wrong, and you have not included the cost of the 80GB HD upgrade.
I still think that is an amazing deal, even though you get a slightly smaller screen.
The upside to Intel graphics is that they have had much better support in free operating systems. Nvidia and ATI might have the better hardware, but the reverse engineered Linux drivers leave a lot to be desired, especially the nv driver. I'd rather be able to suspend my laptop than play some shoot-em-up game on a small screen with my touchpad.
Well, I have a couple of very simple questions:
-What can be done a what can not be done with the integrated graphic card? (Which programs/games can run smoothly)
-Will Windows Vista run smoothly on this MacBook?
Kiitos
I would have expected the refurb powerbooks to be cheaper. Maybe they will start showing up on ebay for teh cheap.
The only comparable performance/form factor laptops I can find after a cursory search are $1700+ VAIOs, so the price point is pretty great too.
You can get a similarly equipped Dell E1405 for about $800. The only thing missing is a webcam, but an USB webcam would cost you $25.
But then, when I was in college... I bought Levi Jeans. Some students can afford to spend twice as much for designer labels.
Let's see...
In Ireland I'd pay 1438 euros for the white 2GHz model with 1Gb of RAM and a VGA-adapter
alternatively I could buy HP/Compaq's business line:
Core Duo T2300
15.0 TFT
1GBMB RAM, 80GB HD
DVDRW DL, WLAN, GBLAN
FW 400, 4xUSB
for just under 1400 euros
which also includes a built-in microphone, serial and parellal ports, VGA and S-video outputs, 56k modem, I/II PCMCIA and a 7-in-1 card reader.
AND it's build by people who know how to apply thermal paste!
so quit babbling about how 'reasonably priced' the macbook is!
www.tribalnetworks.org - helping tribal people around the world to own their own means of high-tech communications
Really???
How about Spy vs. Spy? Is that flamebait too?
GO JOE!!!
"You don't get any of the powersaving magic and literal coolfactor of using a performing PPC notebook. "
Are those PPC-CPU's REALLY that "powersaving"? IIRC the G4 PowerBooks weren't that good on the battery. And those G5's in PowerMac runs very hot and consume quite a bit of power.
The G4-CPU's Apple used were designed for embedded systems, hence the relatively low power-requirements. Now Intel has designed a CPU from the groud up to consume little power, and it's perfectly competetive with PPC as far as power-consumption is concerned. And it's dual-core!
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
that release may be a ways down the road.
/.
No. Expect Macintel Pro (and probably XServe too) on or before WWDC.
Intel pushed up the ship dates for Woodcrest & Conroe, which somehow passed unnoticed on
Am I the only one who thinks 1280 is ridiculous for a 13.3" screen width?
It's not great, but it beats the pants off the crappy 1024 they used to have.
1152 is the absolute minimal acceptable screen width with modern applications, at least until they get the GUI to really take advantage of OpenGL's 3d support and automatically rescales text and icons.
Gone are the days of 14" at 1024.
Yeah!
Why?
Because 1024 is nasty.
Good comparison, but there's one important thing to consider: Win 2000/XP is going to perform a hell of a lot better on the same hardware than OSX does. This machine is a monster of a PC unless you have some kind of special needs. This is the lowest-end OSX machine.
That's not true, I run the latest version of OS X for PPC on my G4/400 w/1 GB RAM and for normal operations it runs just as fast as my MacBook Pro runs the Intel version of 10.4.6 using 512 MB RAM.
My stepdaughter runs 10.3.9 on a G3/400 with 800 MB RAM with equal alacrity.
You must remember that unlike Windows, OS X isn't bloatware. Those iBooks (er... MacBooks) will run OS X like a dream.
A $150 premium for the black color option. Ouch.
One thing I always loved about the 12" Powerbook is that it is almost exactly the dimensions of an 8.5" x 11" standard sheet of paper - which meant it fit into any space a typical binder would fit. The 13" is nice, as is the aspect ratio, but I cannot help but mourn the loss of what I considered 'perfect' ultraportable laptop size.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
The PowerMac G5 is the only PowerPC survivor. When it gets replaced, the transition to Intel will be complete and the PowerPC architecture will be out of the personal computer market (even when it will be alive in consoles and POWER will exist in big iron).
I have a G4 Powerbook, I know Apple will support PowerPC for some time, and Universal Binaries will be around for a little more; but I fear PPC will be a stagnating platform for Linux (and other open source OSes) development, just like MIPS and Alpha have been; growing the x86 monoculture.
I feel that my Powerbook is an example of an endangered species.
I remember trying a T23 keyboard and not being that impressed with it. Also, there were many complaints about the keyboards on models like the T30. On my own machines, the X30's keyboard was not as firm as the one on my 560z or the 600s.
I didn't like Apple portable keyboards, either, but the one on the 12" G4 pb is quite nice. It has no mush whatsoever. The keyboards on the larger PBs had more sag. I think the compact form of the 12" PB made the kbd more solid.
Vacation in Wilmington. Ah yes, "A Place To Be Somebody" where "It's Good to be First."
Yes, I often find myself thinking "Oooh, St. Moritz or Wilmington? I just can't decide."
People love black electronic devices. Most of the U2 iPods were sold, not to U2 fans, but to black-colored electronics fans. Most of the U2 iPods I sold went to people who didn't give a rat's ass about U2, they just wanted a black iPod.
Same thing here. "Whatever the market will bear."
Now that they came out with something in black, I can finally replace my Pismo.
For those that don't know, the "Pismo" (PowerBook G3 from 2000) was the last notebook which Apple made in a stylish black case. I've been using one almost every day since I bought it in 2000 and it's been the best computer I've ever owned. It runs Tiger pretty well, but for some applications it's getting to the point where it's not quite fast enough.
Too bad. I would have bought one (the plastic cases are more durable than the aluminum ones) except that I want to be able to drive a 30" external monitor with it. I guess I will have to go with the MacBook Pro.
I never thought I would see this, but I can't enter apple.com, it seems it's finally been slashdotted.
Go hug some trees.
VAT Ahahahahahaha
ahahaha
17.5%? rotfl. Violated Anally Tax? I had no idea it was even that high. They charge that much extra for new cars too?
The only thing stupider than that are the handful of states over here that make you pay annual property tax on your CAR. Because, you know, a car is just a special kind of property except without square footage, or something. I did not even know this phenomenon existed before I moved to Boston.
Bloat or no bloat, OSX on Core Duo seems to trail the pack in simple horsepower.
http://sekhon.berkeley.edu/macosx/intel.html
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
To make the black MacBook worth the price and differentiate it from the white they should have made it with a ATI video card.
Yup, and my Porsche cost more than a Toyota, and does actually drive better.
Why can't they make this thing lighter! It is listed at "Weight: 5.2 pounds". This is way too much for a 13" laptop (i.e. most 13" laptops are between 3 lbs and 4 lbs, even Toshiba's M400 laptop/tablet convertible is lighter than 5 lbs...). And where is the second mouse button? :-)
Close, but no cigar for me.
What part of "consumer level" do you not grok?
The part that says "Apple's shipping Windows XP on these babies", because if they're shipping them with Mac OS X they need a real GPU. Mac OS X graphics are built on top of OpenGL, and use the GPU heavily.
The part that says "consumers don't play games".
Seriously. A businessman's less likely to miss the GPU than a "consumer".
If you want whiz-bang GPU, they've got a nice shiny MacBook Pro to sell you.
I don't want a "whiz-bang GPU". Any current ATI or nVidia would do nicely, thanks.
Five Architectural Flaws in Windows Solved In Mac OS X
;)
;)
/once spent 3 hours removing a botched uninstall of norton utilities on some winblows box by manually rooting through the registry
//gouging my eyes out might have almost hurt as much
Apple's MacTel: TCO for wintel is DOUBLE that of mactel over 3 years
Microsoft Says that Malware Is Often Unbeatable
These come directly from my del.icio.us bookmarks tagged "apple_advocacy"
I'd prefer to be a mac tech support guy for my friends/family, to a Windows tech support guy for my friends/family, ANY day
First the new ads now the MacBook, there is bound to be some script/virus that will eat away at our machines. Hopefully it will not be Universal Binary and won't run on my PPC :).
you know there's nothing really to bitch about.
What I'm curious about is if the non-native resolutions look like crap. (From Apple: supported resolutions: 1280 by 800 (native), 1152 by 720, 1024 by 768, 1024 by 640, 800 by 600, 800 by 500, 720 by 480, and 640 by 480 at 16:10 aspect ratio; 1024 by 768, 800 by 600, and 640 by 480 pixels at 4:3 aspect ratio; 720 by 480 at 3:2 aspect ratio.)
He wants his spaces to resonate. Maybe he needs an interior decorator.
... hmmm, I don't wanna go any further.
Or an interior vibrator? And maybe he's a she, or has a good she friend, or
Infuriate left and right
If there is one thing that annoys me is that Apple never allows the option of configuring the lowest model laptop with a DVD burner. They didnt allow it with the iBook and now they dont allow it with the Macbook.
With these new revisions, the 1.83Ghz & 2.0Ghz models are nearly the exact same machine, yet only the 2.0Ghz has the Superdrive dvd burner. Go to the online Apple store link and no, you cannot add the Superdrive to the lower speed model.
You have to pay the premium for the speed bump for the privelege of burning DVDs? WTF is up with that? Burning DVDs isnt exactly power user territory; and it certainly doesnt rely on having 2.0Ghz vs 1.83Ghz.
So why limit the Superdrive to only the higher end model, Apple? Does the higher model offer such a negligible real world performance boost for the extra $300, you're afraid that you'll completely poach 2.0Ghz sales by giving the 1.83Ghz the option for DVD burning?
The 15" came with a 2.0 ghz processor and a 100 gig hard drive for $2500. The 17" was released with a 2.16 ghz processor and a 120 gig hard drive for $2800. You could upgrade the 15" to have the same size hard drive and processor speed, but it would actually cost more than the 17" with those same too specs. This made the 15" a real ripoff, as the 17" had a larger screen, Firewire 800, and a much better DVD drive.
Now the 15" comes with a 2.16 ghz processor, so upgrading the hard drive to 120 gigs is still $200 less than the stock 17" Macbook Pro. The DVD drive is still a lesser one, but that's because no one yet makes a dual layer drive to fit in that size of a case.
What I'm wondering about is why the shiny layer on the LCD?
Doesn't it give more reflections?
I know other brands also use them but I never understood why....
My book mark jumps to the Edu store pricing - retail is $100 more than the iBook G4.
Yeah, the graphics performace remains to be seen - do you suppose they took a step down from the iBook / PB G4 performance?
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Can they be serious? A built-in camera, but no mic?
It will be tempting to switch from my MBP just for the battery life. Although the weight is now only 6.4 ounces less. Still, if work didn't pay for my laptop, there is no question which one I'd buy. I already have an external DVD burner (and dual-layer to boot), so I'd get the cheapest and spend the extra $200 on maxing out the RAM. The only thing that would give me pause is the integrated graphics. I don't care about games, but I do use Aperture and some other pro apps and I'd like to know what difference this will make. Apple is going to be supply constrained for quite a while.
Does anyone have any guesses on when Apple might upgrade their G5 pro desktop line? I got my dad to finally consider getting a Mac, but now he's convinced that he needs the biggest and baddest machine possible before he'll buy one. (He won't just get a top of the line iMac at this point since it isn't "pro" enough somehow. *sigh*) Since the G5 appears to be on the way out, I told him to hold off buying a PowerPC desktop and wait for the Intel upgrade - but it has been awhile now, and there hasn't been any mention of upgrading the PowerMac line that I've heard. (And apparently the money to buy a new computer is burning a hole in his wallet or something - wish I had that problem!) He even called Apple to ask them, but the tech support response was that PowerMacs would never be upgraded and support for them would never be dropped. (Sounds a bit fishy to me... I suppose if they change the name to something without "Power" in there, technically the guy didn't lie.)
Hexy - a strategy game for iPhone/iPod Touch
still no pc card slot? i have a verizon card i want to use.. looks like another dell for me :-(
Has anyone had a chance to play with these in-person yet in an Apple store? (There are no such stores around here...) How does the glossy display look and feel? How does it compare with a standard Windows screen or vs. the displays used on the MacBook Pros or older PowerBooks and iBooks?
Hexy - a strategy game for iPhone/iPod Touch
Every time I see "up to" in their claims, I know I'm not going to see that performance on anything. I would so much rather see a substantiated claim of performance double or better in all circumstances than this other crap -- excuse me, hype.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
so, there's no real difference between the black and white macbooks, except for 20gigs, a black paint job, and $200...
is apple just trying to destroy the inner nihilist?
I'm not certain, but I think the basic rule is that glossy displays are good for watching movies and games, while matte displays are good for actual work related activity.
Yes, because I remember all the countless times I've seen my window reflected on my TV and thought "Gee, the picture sure looks so much better with all kinds of shit reflected on it."
I wanted a MacBook... but now I'm gonna have to wait till they de-gloss the screen.
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
The parent stated that Windows would be "a hell of a lot faster" on the same hardware. The Berkeley article you reference states only that for statistical computing XP runs 10% faster. So opening Safari takes 1.8 seconds instead of 2.0? I think Grandma can live with that.
(On a side note, they didn't mention what version of Tiger they were using... the difference in speed between 10.4.5 and 10.4.6 was remarkable with my MBP.)
"Sure, if you are a regular "end user" who doesn't want to learn how to responsibly use their computer, you should have all these things installed on your system. If you actually know what you're doing with Windows, you don't need any of these thing"
Pshaw.
Securing Windows for use on a network is not trivial even to experienced admins. Moreover, when it comes to a desktop computer "regular end users" are the norm and should not be ridiculed (as you have done) for being "regular." In fact, even seasoned professional admins are, at times, "regular end users" and deserve to expect their desktops to "just work."
There is NO EXCUSE for the state of Windows in regards to network vulnerabilities. NONE.
Can Windows be secured? Yeah, but not without effort, vigilance and forgiveness.
Yes, your content-less post got under my skin. You've not "defended Windows"; you've embarrassed yourself in an attempt to "one-up" others by your delusional assertions of superiority. My response isn't about Windows as much as it is about the vile arrogance you exude.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Rosetta doesn't run all the time. If you aren't using any PPC apps then its not running.
But when (not if) you do, it is.
And there's still the GPU screw-up. Only 448M of RAM.
As long as the screen you want is 13". What a joke!
What is the point of complaining here that a machine doesn't have the specs you want?
What's the point of praising a machine that has the specs you want? Just buy it and shut up. Oh, you want to convince others of how good it is? I see. Maybe the point of complaining is to convince others how bad it is? You like the machine, you want others to buy it, you praise. He doesn't like the machine, he doesn't want others to buy it, he criticizes.
Presumeably, we are here to discuss the merits and demerits of a particular product. Oh, I see. We're only allowed to discuss the merits of an Apple product. There's no zealots like Mac zealots.
Yes, I am into BDSM, and I'm eagerly awaiting a bitchslapping from rabid apple fanboys with mod points. OOoooh! Give it to me, daddy!
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
From their line, only the macbook pro has with FireWire 800 Port.
When hooked to an external Firewire 800 harddrive, it makes music producers and video editors very very happy. It allow portability and swapping huge projects, by swapping a firewire-like cable. With very good transfer rates.
He could dump the tea, er... I mean computers in the harbor.
Wow! The specs on the upper tier white machine are fairly equivalent to my PB 15" I got last Feb. Can go to 2GB RAM, 120GB disk, and 1280x800. This is really a good thing. Apple is very competitive against PC's now!
... no more dam commercial when visiting www.apple.com.
No, it's simple logistics. Manufactures want to keep their supply lines simple and their stock of computers low to keep their overhead costs down. Adding the option to get a superdrive to the 1.83 GHz MacBook means that they would have to keep an additional variant in stock.
And actually, the difference is only $200 (1.83 GHz w/ combo drive is $1099 and the 2 GHz (white) w/ superdrive is $1299).
All editorial writers ever do is come down from the hill after the battle is over and shoot the wounded.
Core Solo
Core Duo
Core 2 Duo
Core 2 Extreme
Good god almighty, they really want to bury the Pentium name.
But an x86 by any other name will smell the same.
Probably 90% of the same parts and specs, right down to the lame integrated intel 950 graphics which have no video memory and steal system memory. Still, if the $800 mini is an ok deal, then including a display, keyboard, trackpad, battery and camera for as little as $300 more is a pretty good deal.
Start Running Better Polls
MacBook in a newly designed, sleek white enclosure
p ass1.JPG
A WHITE apple product!? you must be kidding!
and [...] in a stunning new black enclosure.
BLACK LAPTOPS!? no way! what ultra-ingenious artist could come up with such an idea? I'm totally stunned! http://www.total.net/~hrothgar/museum/Compass/Com
The new MacBook offers performance up to five times faster than the iBook and up to four times faster than the 12-inch PowerBook
does that mean it overheats five times faster or does that mean apple sues people five times faster who point such disadvantages out publicly?
The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
"Choose iLife. Choose a blog. Choose a podcast. Choose a Macbook. Choose a fucking big hard disk, choose washing machines, cars, cable modems and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and a 21" LCD. Choose fixed interest mortage repayments. Choose an ISP. Choose your friends. Online. Choose Livejournal and .Mac. Choose an office suite from Microsoft with a range of fucking security holes. Choose WoW and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that Aeron chair playing mind-numbing, spirit-crushing MMORPGs, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourself."
Dorothy: What kind of PC is that?
Coachman: Why, that's the iBook of a different color you've heard tell about!
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Will it run Linux?
Yes.
is two farking mouse buttons. Come on, Apple, putting another mouse button next to the one already there or just making the one already there sense a "right-click" for the right half of it is not rocket science anymore, and even Mac OS uses context menus more and more, not to mention for Boot Camp.
More overhyped, overpriced crap from the traveling salesmen...
Shit.
Shit shit shit shit shit.
am I the only one who felt betrayed by this announcement because I own the 1.83 MBP?
Not only did Apple give the Black MB (almost) the same spec as the 1.83 MBP, to add insult to the injury, they have now DISCONTINUED the 1.83 MBP.
WHAT DO I DOO??!! *runs away sobbing*
WWDC 2006 takes place August 7 - August 11, 2006.
This is the likeliest date for an announcement/unveiling.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
Also take into account the current offers:
$200 off E1405 (Instant coupon)
Free Shipping & Handling
So, taking into account the above comments:
For the 1.86Ghz Core Duo
---
$1,249 -- Apple 80GB HD/1GB RAM/WXGA+ 13" -- DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo - 1yr Warranty
$1,441 -- Dell 80GB HD/1GB RAM/WXGA+ 14.1" --DVD±RW, DVD+R DL,CD-RW - 2yr Warranty
Looks pretty even to me...
I guess we will be seeing some powerPC chips on Woot.
I can get a computer with Windows XP for less than $500. I can even get a laptop for about $600 or less. But I can't get Mac OSX for less than $599, and now they've raised prices on their entry level laptop(?) I can't get Mac OSX in a portable size for less than $1099. So the pricing is bad.
I'm not arguing whether this is a real value, I'm just saying they need a real entry level laptop. Something for mom and pop to web-surf and look at baby pictures.
You can't upgrade the tiny screen!
I have a Gateway with a 15" screen for less than $800. Who cares about speed when it's just my home machine? It's not like you can play games on a Macbook, anyway. What's the duo core going to be doing?
All that was needed was to make a fair comparison between a genuine alternative and the advocate zombies come out of their caves and mod it down to a Troll.
First of all, the point about the price is perfectly valid, considering the claims on this thread that this Macbook is cheap based on custom Dells people have cobbled together on their website.
Nor is the reference to the thermal paste issue uncalled for since the Pro models have a history of shoddy quality. One is therefore justified in speculating what kind of build quality the cheaper and consumer oriented Macbook will have.
And finally, it is no wonder that mac people get hyper when you mention ports. They want to deny the reality that it is better to have the option of a certain port or interface, however obscure, than not.
I'm sure the people here can think of tons of fun with serial and parellal ports. I myself use a serial port to program various microcontrollers and a parellal port for an old reliable dot matrix printer to log events 24/7 on my instruments racks. And have you ever had your telco or a lightning take out your card from the local DSLAM. It's nice to be able to dial-up for your essential email.
However for me the PCMCIA card slot is perhaps the most important shortcoming in mac portables since expansion is impossible without it. What if you need a portable sampling interface or an extra wireless card (GPRS, WCDMA). What if you wanna do music on the road and want a better sound card or need a faster firewire for multitrack recording? The lack of PCMCIA limits your choices to inferior quality external and bulky USB peripherals.
In the past I've had PB1400 and G3 portables from Apple and they've been nice. However now that I'm doing serious work I have had to opt for a HP business notebook with a dual boot w2k/linux. I might consider buying a Macbook for the kids though.
Sincerely - Disgruntled ex-mac user
www.tribalnetworks.org - helping tribal people around the world to own their own means of high-tech communications
Add to that the subpar wireless performance and the fairly lackluster processor performance (I have a 1.25ghz with 1.5g of RAM) and this is a pretty middle of the road computer. Now take into consideration the tremendous amount of abuse this laptop has received, the dents in the case, the cup of coffee that spilled into it while it was asleep, etc. and it IS a superior machine, IMO.
Ocean is land, covered with water.
The price on the macbook plan is good, recognizing the drop of the video card to a Intel GMA ( I'm good at powerpoint ! ). If the wife could be convinced to try OSX again .. I'd go with one ( yes, I have the one S.O. who switched and didnt like it ... sigh )
I bought my 15" with an eye on BootCamp for Gaming ( xp hostname = wintendo ) and have been very happy.
Very Nice, either way. Good choices, but OUCH heck of a premium to get it in black.
FWIW, I did benchmark my MBP 15" ( 2.0 GHZ with 2gb RAM, 7200 rpm disk ) with 3dMark06 and 3dMark05.
Results below for those interested
http://rfoundry.com/
Compare:
Mattel Aquarius
but one thing's for sure: with Intel you get neither the power nor the coolfactor
I was looking at various LCD's in store and the Sony Glossy screen models looked really nice. The non glossy next to it looks like someone took steel wool to the surface. Hey that might be a solution to glossy woes. :-)
I wouldn't mind matte either but the current screens are kind blah. I would prefer something more like the screen on a real glass monitor like my trinitron. Which manages to be perfectly but manages glare quite well.
I think the matte laptop screen are too matte.
They also say it is longer lasting and far more powerful.
There are utilities out there (can't remember the name) that let you control-click for right click just like OS X on Windows. Pretty easy to find and it's been around a long time, longer than people trying to run Windows on Macs. Works pretty well, I just can't remember the name.
I would assume something could probably be worked for linux too.
I don't understand these terrible comparisons. What am I specifically referrring to?
The screen and notebook size. Why is it that when people do a comparison, the feel free to include a comparable system with a larger screen and think that it's just a better deal? People pay a *premium* to own a smaller notebook. Price comparing it with a larger notebook is like comparing the value between a toyota corolla and a ford fusion. the quality in both are good, performance is similar but one is much larger than the other.
dell doesn't make any notebooks similar in size (the 700m, which i own is thicker and has a battery pack sticking out the back). Asus and Sony are 2 companies who make notebooks similar in size to this macbook. if you want to do a fair comparison, compare their offerings to the macbook.
Dell had a deal where you could have bought a e1705 for around 1200$ with 1 gig of ram. For those that lug around their notebooks, like me, I would easily still pass up on the e1705 for a tiny 13.3" (hell, 12" widescreen would have been good) notebook for the same price.
"Tread softly because you tread on my dreams"
Give me the option for a dedicated graphics card, even if it's at the expense of something else if it's a physical limitation that's preventing it even being an option, and I'll jump on it.
But integrated, non-upgradeable graphics = not really useful for 3D rendering, and I'm not even talking about games, and yes I KNOW from the Mac mini discussions at the very least that this integrated Intel isn't the crap from 2 years ago. It's the crap from last week, optimized for video playback.
It is, surprisingly, a better deal than a Dell, but I've got a 133MHz P1 lappy that does all the basic internet crap this thing does - video and audio capture included - and on Linux, no less. And it's a fucking COMPAQ. Give me a goddamned break.
Seriously - why is it so hard to make a dedicated GPU and dedicated graphics RAM an option for Apple? Why does it absolutely have to be integrated video with shared RAM?
Have you visited www.colorware.com yet? They apply custom colored finishes to aluminum Powerbooks, and I'd assume therefore, they can do MacBook Pros as well.
It's heavy (heavier than my Superdrive Powerbook and S-Series VAIO), the finish is matte (reminds me of a black RAZR) but should be durable, and fast. Photos are here: http://beta.zooomr.com/photos/jwolf More to come...
I currently have a 1.5GHz 12" PB. I was all ready to buy a white 2.0 GHz for the academic price of $1,199.
DIY 2GB ram would add $200 or so, and when 160GB SATA drives came down in price, that would be the next DIY upgrade. I figured I could suffer through the nasty keyboard and lack of aluminum enclosure.
But the lack of dual layer DVD burning killed it for me.
Now I wait.
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
Also, the black IBM Thinkpad design is not a resoponse to anything from Apple. If anything it was the other way around, because IBM had been using the color black for its business grade machines for quite a while, which is why the color is usually referred to as "IBM Business Black". Apple clearly wanted to get a more professional image for itself and tried to copy IBM's image with the release of a black colored notebook.
...but no cigar! Once you get a light weight iBook and notice the battery runs for 4.5 hours, you regret every paying more than $1500 for an 8lb Windows notebook with 2 hours of battery life. Plus, all the Macs come standard with GNU Screen. There simply is no comparison.
What does the new keyboard feel like?
Slippery/slidy with poor feedback like the Powerbook/Macbook Pro?
Wobbly with poor feedback like the iBook?
Apple is selling a product that has the reputation of Thinkpads and VAIOs, in a price range right around that of Dell and HP...
Apple is selling a product that has the reputation of Gateways and Packard Bells, if you listen to people who've had hinge/connector/power/heat problems in the past.
Reputation is a useful guide for deciding what to evaluate, but you have to evaluate what they're actually selling... not what the rumor mill says about them.
Just buy the slower white one, and then pimp it out with a big aluminum wing, a coffee can exhaust and some racing stripes made from red electrical tape. Man, that would be so fast.
Need Free Juniper/NetScreen Support? JuniperForum
Mn my G3 900 ibook I can play Quake 3 with acceptable frame rates at maybe 800 x 600 with an old school mobile radeon 32 meg card. While not stunning presumably the intel integrated card is better than a 32 meg mobile from 3 years, ago, i.e. very acceptable for a very casual gamer such as myself? Any Windoze review of frame rates of these intel graphics chip out there?
Tired of all the isms, don't exploit people as an employer, or a government, mmmmK?
Tablets are a tiny percent of the laptop market. Apple has a tiny percent of the computer market. Apple tablet = (tiny number) x (tiny number) = really tiny number. It just won't happen. Your best bet is to get a PC tablet and install OS X for Intel on it. :-)
I've got a tablet from work. Great for surfing on the couch (though 'typing' URLs and search terms sucks) and fun to play with (I highly recommend 'dots' and the make-your-own-font app), and occasionally I use it instead of pen & paper for note taking, but overall, it's not especially useful. Plus I feel conspicuous taking it out in public in all but the geekiest settings. (And even at conferences, I feel like I'm showing off.) Given the price premium, I'd never buy one with my own money.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Apple's iBook line has been relatively trouble-free since the 800 MHz G4s were phased out.
Of course, you could just listen to the people who have problems with their machine. That doesn't mean they're a representative sample. I had to have the LCD on my Inspiron 8200 replaced twice because entire regions of the display died. That doesn't mean I'll assume every Dell machine will have such problems.
I've bought five iPods for various friends and family. Not a single one has ever had a problem, though "everybody knows" iPod batteries crap out after a year! Simply put: the word on the street isn't necessarily a reliable indicator of reality. Apple's got a ridiculously high customer satisfaction rating from consumer reports. I'd take that as much more evidence of their reputation than random forum posts.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
I hoped they will finally make >=2kg(>=4lbs) notebook, so I can buy the equipment.
My spine cord doesn't seem to like change from 1.2kg notebook (IBM X41) to something at least twice as heavy.
There are a few things I see from the specs which I haven't seen mentioned yet that I thought I'd bring to everyones attention:
Those are the bits that jump out at me which I haven't seen discussed much -- everyone seems focussed on the display, lack of a decent video card, the fact that FireWire 400 is indeed present, with one or two people mentioning the fact that Bluetooth has been updated to 2.0+EDR. Oh, and not to forget the built-in iSight camera.
As a 12" PowerBook owner, I'm tossed up about all of this. There is a lot of great new stuff to these new machines which I would love to have. The use of integrated Intel graphics, however, is disappointing (I wouldn't mind if these machines were just replacing the iBooks, but they're also replacing my beloved PowerBook! :P). And I don't like losing the cool aluminium alloy look either (although the black is rather striking). I also always rather liked the fact that the 12" lacked any wasted space to either side of the keyboard, but now with the wide screen display there is a small gap between the edge of the outermost keys and the edge of the case. As such, I'm a tiny bit ambivilent about these new machines -- I see a lot to like about them, but feel like I'm losing some things at the same time. I hope Apple realizes that there are some of us out here who need professional features and high portability at the same time, and eventually adds a 13.3" MacBook Pro to the new Intel family.
Yaz
Apple is selling a product that has the reputation of Gateways and Packard Bells, if you listen to people who've had hinge/connector/power/heat problems in the past.
Oh, puh-leeze. People complain about individual problems, of course. But every survey conducted objectively (Consumer Reports, PC Magazine, etc) that looks at large numbers of customers says unconditionally that Apple is one of the best, if not THE best, manufacturers of computer hardware.
You can find bad hinges, heat problems, etc about every laptop ever made. Apples get more vocal complaints since the customers have higher expectations, but at the end of the day the volume of the complaints does not show up in actual customer satisfaction or hardware failure surveys. Sony, IBM and Apple are the only 3 brands that continually, year after year, survey after survey, show as reliable, well-built, and well-supported when problems do crop up. It's a shame IBM left the one consumer business they were good at.
The only ones judging on the "rumor mill" are those who bash Apple hardware because they think it makes them look cool rather than uninformed, naive, and new to the computer industry. Some guy's brother's website does not constitute a statistical sample, no matter how bad his hinge was.
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
he went from a celeron to an athlon 64, this means he also has a new motherboard and memory. thats the major parts of the computer. Upgrading your motherboard with Windows, is just asking for problems. I've never tried actually upgrading a motherboard on OSX, as there really isnt upgrades to completely different versions and companies available.
I can't believe they eliminated the modem. First serial ports went poof! on laptops, now modems. These are essential things for IT people. Sure, we can haul around USB dongles, but what a pain in the ass! I need serial ports for configuring switches and routers, and a modem comes in DARN handy when on the road and broadband ethernet isn't available OR if you want to send/receive a FAX. In fact it's the FAX function that is the most handy. It's sad to see these things dropped off. :(
Ok, this should not have been modded up to informative. I actually spoke with Dr. Sekhon via email. A lot of his performance issues were due to the memory manager in Mac OS X not being designed for HPC applications (that's what he's testing, *NOT* desktop apps!!!). He has since tried to get a hold of the memory manager Dr. Varadarajan wrote for System X and will be doing his tests again (once he gets a hold of it). These issues (I'm hoping, and will find out at WWDC) should be addressed in Leopard (10.5) based on our (Virginia Tech's) input into Apple's OS development group(s).
Yes, today, out of the box Mac OS X *is* slower than Linux and Windows XP on an Apple Core Duo product for high-performance computing applications tested by Dr. Sekhon. Do not expect that disparity to last for very long. Also, remember, Mac OS X for Intel is really nothing more than a hack in its current form. Leopard will be the real proving ground for the Apple Intel platform.
See my post it clarifies a little more. He is using 10.4.6, the gcc compilers, and the standard (non-HPC optimized) memory manager for his published tests. Thank you for reinforcing his tests were domain and application specific, not general computing applications. Mileage may vary, see dealer for specific details...yadda, yadda, yadda
This has nothing to do with "simple horsepower" and everything to do with how malloc works and piss poor coding on the associate professor's part. See http://ridiculousfish.com/blog/archives/2006/05/16 /36/
But every survey conducted objectively (Consumer Reports, PC Magazine, etc) that looks at large numbers of customers says unconditionally that Apple is one of the best, if not THE best, manufacturers of computer hardware.
That's what "reputation" means... a lot of people think good things about it. Reputation is a great tool when deciding what products you're going to look into.
My point isn't that the OP was wrong about their reputation for having great hardware. It's that the fact that they have a reputation for great hardware doesn't mean that any particular machine is great. Objectively, many of the machines that got great reports in magazines turned out to be duds. The first generation Powermacs, for example, are now widely considered "Road Apples" in retrospect. The later consumer-grade Powermacs like the 6400 also turned out to be dead-end machines. The first revision of the Beige G3s, the Rev A-D iMacs, the "Yikes" G4, and so on.
For that matter, the "Cube" is still widely considered a great computer by many people, but objectively the cooling problems and resulting poor expansion capability make it a poor buy... and if you were unlucky enough to get the first-generation monitor with it you ended up losing out both ways, because they don't seem to have came out with any video cards after the Rage that could power an analog ADC monitor.
I believe that the first generation low-end Intel macs with the Intel graphics chips are going to end up in the same "Road Apple" category as the Powermac 6100 and 7100 or the "Yikes" G4. I may be wrong, but the "overall reputation" of the Apple product line... or even the reputation of specific products... is neither proof nor evidence of that.
Simply put: the word on the street isn't necessarily a reliable indicator of reality.
Indeed.
Apple's got a ridiculously high customer satisfaction rating from consumer reports.
That's just a fancy version of "the word on the street".
Again, I did not say "apples suck because they have a rep for problems". I said "you can't use their reputation as evidence that this is a good product" because every company has models that are lemons (or, in the case of Apple, "road apples"). You have to look at the particular model, and this particular model is not a superior laptop for a bargain price, it's a typical laptop for a higher than comparable price.
I think its colorwarepc.com youre looking for.
The slowdown for emulating a different instruction set doesn't make the 5x speedup a "mirage" -- it's hard to come up with a more stupid and dishonest argument.
Yes, but it still doesn't have OS X.
Karma Schmarma
If you look at what's offered for the MacBook Pro, it looks like Apple has also changed the price points. It looks like the 15" 2.0 GHz MacBook Pro is now $1999, coming down from $2499. The 2.16 GHz model is now offered at $2499 instead of as an upgrade. So it looks like in addition to adding the MacBook to their line-up they've adjusted the pricing on some of their models.
From what I've read (somebody posted this awhile ago, but I haven't been able to dig up the post yet) the Intel motherboard in the MacBook Pros only have FW400 onboard. The MBP 17 has enough room for a separate chip to handle FW800, but the MBP 15 does not. Perhaps the next revision will have it.
All editorial writers ever do is come down from the hill after the battle is over and shoot the wounded.
It's not always possible to use nvidia's drivers. At the moment, I'm using a ppc laptop. Guess what? There are no nvidia drivers for ppc. I'd be equally screwed were I to run a bsd on an x86 laptop with nvidia graphics. This is why binary nvidia drivers don't really turn my crank.
Need to remove OSX from this thing and let it breath with Linux.
I wonder how well Linux would run on this machine?
no offense lad, but seven times in two years? Perhaps you might be thinking in investing in a part time cheauffeur, or maybe a complete change of residence and venue? Perchance it might not only be related to color of chariot;)
With an expresscard, any 15.4" MBP will give you even faster transfer rates.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
...gets the black one, because he cuts the checks, so his just has to be cooler, and it has to cost more, to *prove* somehow that it is cooler. You know how that deal goes... That's my guess.
The first interesting Core Duo Notebook besides the MBP: weighs only 2kg (I would choose the smallest battery pack), decent screen resolution (WXGA+ 1140*900 Pixels - I don't care for the 1280*something crap, ever since I have seen the Samsung X20), Core Duo. With that I compare it to a MBP, which is 1000 to 1500EUR more expensive (depending on how you rate the 3 year warranty).
:-(
I wish I could see one of those D620 notebooks, though - my only fear is that it might be very ugly. Not sure if that justifies paying 1000EUR more, and I don't think the MBP is THAT well designed, anyway. I have only found positive words about the D620 on the internet, though. I am looking for a good work horse that is not too heavy to drag around.
The MacBook however I consider to be just cheap and trashy. Glare display is all I can say.
What the D620 is sorely missing is DVI out. Maybe the time hasn't come to buy a new notebook yet
As an owner of a white MacBook 2.0, I can say the screen looks great. Anyone who has owned an old iBook knows how shitty the screens were in sunlight, regardless of the matte finish. At the very worst, you'll have the same outdoor/sunlight performance as you did on the iBook.
How come Aperture lists "MacBook Pro" as a requirement? does this mean we can't run aperture on these new babies?
I see they dropped the 1.8 Ghz Core Duo and lowered the price slightly on the 2 Ghz model...
"You do not support the root but the root supports you." - Romans 11:18
...asshole.
Is this the best Apple can do? I was really looking forward to buy one of these, but the specs are terrible for what's supposed to be a "portable" machine. I really like mucking around with OS X, since the computer labs here are 50% OS X and 50% windows, and they spend much more money on the OS X machines than the windows machines...
To the specs:
Sony SZ series: 3.7 lbs, 13.3" widescreen, integrated DVD burner, integrated webcam, core duo
Apple MacBook: 5.2 lbs, 13.3" widescreen, integrated DVD burner, integrated webcam, core duo
ONE AND A HALF POUND difference...ouch. And the SZ has been on the market for a couple of months already. And it has dedicated Home/End/PgUp/PgDn keys, which I find invaluable as a programmer. And an extra mouse button. And ONE finger scrolling. Back to the drawing board, Apple.
You can go find a bunch of other Windows notebooks that are more portable for the same form factor (look at some ASUS notebooks, Sharp WideNote, etc.), but the thing is, 5.2 lbs is WAY too heavy for a notebook with a 13.3" screen. Hell, Apple's own MacBook Pro weighs in at 5.6 lbs. with a 15" screen. Looks like I'll be sticking with my T43 for a while yet.
As for reliability, I notice no difference in failure rates between OS X and Windows machines in my dorm (200 students, and here @ Stanford the Mac rate is around 25%), where I support all the computers. (Yes, for dorm IT support they just hire students.) In terms of hardware failure, my anecdotal evidence points towards the Apple computers being even worse than your average computer. Software-wise, once you install Firefox onto most people's Windows computers, you don't hear from them again for a very long time.
Granted, that's not a huge sample, but don't delude yourself into thinking that Apples are built any better on the inside than an average (re: regular old HP and Dell) computers. They're all built by the same few ODMs in Taiwan, anyway.
Too bad. It almost looked like a good deal.
Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet
Maximum storage altitude: 15,000 feet
Maximum shipping altitude: 35,000 feet
Any expert knows why it's not advisable to operate a notebook at say 35,000 feet?
Are you sure the keyboard is the same as the iBook? I seem to remember reading somewhere that it was improved.
Sadly, firewire has significantly more power, so it charges iPods significantly faster. (Well, my third gen iPod, I guess it's possibly that's no longer true.) This is presumably why the new iPods still allow you to charge via firewire even though they don't allow you to sync, but that's not as much help if you want to do both.
The USB2 spec irritates me no end. Just a wee bit too little power to run an external hard drive off of. How many damn Dell laptop motherboards have we fried that way? At least six. Could they release a new spec, USB2.1? Of course? Do they care? No.
-fred
Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
I was interested in that myself - it appears that for most things, the Intel graphics are significantly slower than the Radeon 9200 in the PPC Mac Mini (Benchmarks and here)
That's why you can change it, just like everything else you mentioned.
Look, I use a PC at work. I pray to God every day that Microsoft steals Exposé from Apple (yeah, I know there are extensions, but I don't want to mess up my work PC).
Perhaps the adjustable icon size and spacing is to make up for this incredibly obsolete part of the specification:
>> At a resolution of 1280 x 800, the MacBook display provides 30 percent more viewing area than the iBook and the 12-inch PowerBook.
1280 x 800??? What, 800 vertical, in 2006?
FFS, 800 of vertical resolution is about the same as the 1024x768 of ages ago. And every decent Toshiba laptop manufactured in the last several years has provided 1400x1050 in the same widescreen format, and they're cheap, so to provide a standard 1024 vertical on LCD would hardly have been the bleeding edge.
Is this Apple's idea of "advanced"? It shows incredible cheek to claim "most advanced" status with such Jurassic resolution, which is almost in the realm of the latest PDAs. It seems that Apple is now starting to rely on the fanboy effect so that they can get away with labelling any old crap as "advanced" and still be lauded as supreme.
Not impressed by the screen spec, sorry. The rest may be great, of course.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
A 3-year On-site plan can be added to the Dell for $100. AppleCare costs $250 for the Macbook.
As others have pointed out, the Macbook offers more value for some people, the Latitude offers more value for others. They are way too different for a good comparison and they are targeted toward different markets.
TO START
PRESS ANY KEY
Where's the 'ANY' key? I see Esk, Kitarl, and Pig-Up...
It's also worth noting that you only get pricing like that in the US.
For example, in Finland, a Latitude D620 configured like the middle Macbook(with extra RAM) - with a 2 GHz Core Duo, 1 gig RAM, 60 gig 5400 rpm HDD, WLAN, Bluetooth, DVD-RW, WinXP Pro and a GMA950(no options there) costs 1952 EUR, which by today's rate would be 2465 USD. 22% VAT included, of course, but it's very very far from being cheap. No rebates available, either. Ever.
That's for Finland, but I would guess you see the same prices in the UK and only a bit lower on the continent.
Oh yeah, the middle MacBook with 1 gig RAM costs 1428.98 EUR(1804 USD). Over here, it *is* cheap. Only stuff from Acer or LG can compete.
You can get second mouse button functionality by touching two fingers on the track pad and clicking.
Once you get used to it,, it makes second mouse buttons seem primitive.
* One of my first tests was the Airport range: the range on the MacBook surpasses other laptops I've seen. The TiBook has notoriously poor WiFi range, and my wife has a 12" AlBook which has better, but not great range. I have an Apple Airport base station in the basement, and my bedroom is 1 level above. I always got dodgy reception with the AlBook, and virtually no reception with the TiBook . . . the MB gives a rock-solid signal from the bedroom, and all throughout the rest of the main level of the house. Fantastic.
* The "glossy" display looks like the displays I've seen on Sony and Toshiba laptops at Best Buy. The screen is nice and sharp and, IMHO, quite bright (esp. compared to my old TiBook). Looks great reading text, web pages, etc.
* This was my first experience with Apple's system migration tool. I booted the TiBook in firewire mode (reboot and hold 'T') and connected it to the MB . . . * Keyboard: I never really liked the TiBook keyboard, and I never liked the feel of my wife's AlBook keyboard either. The MB keyboard seems a little on the flimsy side, but it is certainly usable. I like it better than the iBook keyboard which I though to be really flimsy. I haven't noticed any problems with keys in weird positions or things like that. I saw an earlier post griping about the lack of PageUp/PageDown keys, but I've always found that the Fn key (at the bottom-left of Apple keyboards) coupled with the inverse-T keys in the bottom-right give me great cursor control.
* Speed: This thing is fast compared to the G4.
* iSight: The camera works great, although it's not going to take any studio quality portraits.
* Front Row: I don't really care about the remote much, but it is nifty, and works as advertised.
* MagSafe: I was going to get a G4 PowerBook, but the Intel compatibility and MagSafe were enough for me to wait for the MB. MagSafe needs to be seen to be believed.
Verdict: For me, the price was right, the CPU performance matches the 1st MacBook Pro (and blows away G4s), and the Airport range is great. I'm glad I waited.
Sure. Installing most applications involve just copying them to the Applications folder. So just: sudo cp -R Application.app /Applications/.
Sure. /usr/sbin/softwareupdate
Sure. Application preference files are stored as XML files in ~/Library/Preferences/. Use your preferred editor to edit the files directly. Or read up on the defaults command to use a more progmatic way to edit the preference files.
Sure. Your standard Unix stuff is in the ubiquitous /etc (which is actually symlinked to /private/etc). The XML (Mac OS X specific stuff) ones are in /Library/Preferences. The netinfo database (read up on the usage of niutil on how to manipulate the databse) is located in /var (again - /private/var).
All editorial writers ever do is come down from the hill after the battle is over and shoot the wounded.
Since Jobs returned, the product line-up has been simple. Remember the grid? Consumer/pro vs mobile/desktop. Four simple boxes, with only 2 or 3 models in each. (The only major aberrations have, IIRC, been the Cube, which didn't sell; eMacs, which were really just a subdivision of the consumer mobile section; and the Mini, with a different target audience.) In that light:
Hmmmm. Would that be enough to move it into the same section of the grid?
If so, that leaves the 'consumer portable' section empty. Put that together with all the rumours over the past decade about tablets, and you get...?
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
For all intents and purposes, my 12" PowerBook is my only computer (I've got a PC running as a file server which I never see, and a "gaming machine" that permanently lives at a friend's house that I only use for Half-Life 2). It goes everywhere with me, and I do everything with it- work, surfing, e-mail, audio editing, gaming, DVD mastering- name it (except Half-Life 2, of course. Curse you, Valve!). It works like a champ.
Having a small display is a bit of a trade-off, but frankly it's trivial. At work I have it connected to an external display, which gives me a huge amount of real estate to work with. Everywhere else the portability gained by the form factor is so great that it's a no-brainer. Prior to my 12" I had a 15" TiBook, and while it was reasonably portable the extra bit of hassle of carrying it around prevented it from becoming the "extension-of-self" that my 12" is. Expose makes switching between windows effortless, and the display is still plenty large enough for WoW, Unreal Tournament 2004, and TRON 2.0 to look great and be completely functional.
My wife is in a similar situation with her iBook (though she never uses an external monitor), and is delighted with it even though her eyesight is lousy.
Boundless Expansion, Self-Transformation, Dynamic Optimism, Intelligent Technology, Spontaneous Order- BEST DO IT SO!
I have to disagree on OS X being space hungry. I bought a 12" PowerBook less than a month after they came out, and have been using a 12" PB as primary machine ever since, so I've got more than a little experience with this.
;-)
Space-wise, I find that the big advantages of OS X vs Windows are the single menu bar (rather than each app having its own menu bar eating up screen real estate) and the unobtrusive (and hideable) Dock.
You talk about "Folder windows" taking up space, with icons being too large- are you referring to Finder windows? If so, I think I understand the problem. It sounds like you're using Icon View, which sucks. By all means, switch to column view (in the three-button cluster at the top of a Finder window, it's the one on the right). Also, go to Finder preferences (Command-,), and in the General tab check "Open new windows in column view". Column View is what Windows Explorer should be. It's intuitive, very easy to navigate, and space efficient. Also please note that the side bar on the left of the Finder window is customizable. If you've got a directory that you go to frequently you can drag it to the side bar and it gives you a quick shortcut that you can drag items straight to (make sure that Spring-loaded folders are enabled in preferences). This has saved me hours of sorting my porn.
If even that is taking up too much space, you can eliminate the button bar, side bar, and Spotlight field entirely by hitting the little oblong button in the top-right corner.
A couple of other quick notes regarding the Dock (and I apologize if this is all obvious stuff to you, but I don't know you and have know idea what your level of familiarity is with OS X). The default Dock settings are, I believe, designed so that even Stevie Wonder can see it. Go to System Preferences, make it smaller, and move it to the left side of the screen. You'll be glad you did. If you like, you can also set it to auto-hide, so it's only visible when the mouse moves to the edge of the screen.
Boundless Expansion, Self-Transformation, Dynamic Optimism, Intelligent Technology, Spontaneous Order- BEST DO IT SO!
any thoughts if the 512K is enough ram?
You'll never need more than 512 K
--Bill Gates
Seriously though 512 megs is probably not enough. 640 megs barely cuts it on my 3 year G3 ibook running Panther and mainly used for web surfing, e-mail and light photo editing. Go for a gig minimum with Tiger and 2 gig if you are doing anything heavy duty with media like sound editing, video editing or serious photoshop.
Tired of all the isms, don't exploit people as an employer, or a government, mmmmK?
I am pretty sure Aids, TB and Malari is a better reason for overprizing then a cool black hat hacker MacBook...
Maybe I did not read the Stanford talk from Jobs correct... I thought he started thinking about live, death and stuff. Then again I never really have understood Californian Global Thinking....
So I suggest.. buy that White MacBook and go spend your saved money on a pair of cool Converse at http://www.joinred.com/
I left myself wide open for that one.
-- Boycott Shell
It looks cool and all but that integrated Intel graphics chip is shit. Too bad. At first I was sold but I want at least whatever lowest-grade graphics ati or nvidia currently deliver, which is still an order of magnitude superior to Intel's worthless excuse for graphics. So... no MacBook for me.
Been hearing a lot about the new macbook. Is it worth switching for a hardcore pc user? Been thinking bout crossing over to the mac side with the BootCamp transition. Any one used bootcamp with the new Macs Blue I get my mac free at http://www.notebooks4free.com/default.aspx?r=64967 5