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."

Comments

Re:Stunning new black enclosure?

[justsomebody]

Tempting price? Where the hell do you live in?

Display has way to small both resolution and dimension for that price. Damn thing is practicaly unusable. OSX Aqua is not really space savy interface. Large icons, large space between, damn irresonable spacing between controls.

One can buy a lot better notebook much lower price.

Re:Specs and Prices (US and UK)

[nomadic]

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.

Let's be honest here, the average brit just isn't stylish enough to have a mac. If you want our trendiest computers apple will have to charge you a special fee for diluting the brand--I mean, other people will see your poorly-dressed, bad-haircutted self carrying around our pretty computers.

Not for me

[bananaendian]

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:

• NC6320
  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!

Re:Stunning new black enclosure?

[justsomebody]

With a much better OS?

Actualy, yes.

I have two Apple PCs. G5dual and mini (which was not my choice and is to my personal misfortune worth 600$ waiting to pissed enough over it and throw it into trash. Yeah, I know. Now million posts will follow that I should sell it for 50$ which is better than nothing or to send this mini to them. NOT GONNA HAPPEN'. Damn thing is acceptable loss of my other bussines. And I rather throw it in the trash than hear anyone saying this mini is being reffered as computer).

Well, for your info OSX has more flaws than Windows or Linux together.
Worst dual monitor setup support ever (while I agree that both monitors are working, note that I use always 2 24" WS monitors. Now imagine my mouse milleage when I want to access menu. And I could go on and on).
Consuming astronomical ammount of RAM.
Trashing all over the network drives with AppleDouble, AppleShare, etc.
Damn 0.5s time lag on mouse events.
No configurable WM. Windows don't have that either, but at least they pose sensible defaults.
Best mailer one could come up with OSX is still only Thunderbird.
I'm still waiting to succesfully run at least most of the movies (MPlayer and VLC are working best, but still with a lot of crashing). Can do that on both, Windows and Linux.
Too many window themes, but there's no one default theme.
Stupid network chooser.
No decent crossplatform compatible Office suite. MS Office would still account as the best Office suite on OSX, but I refuse to use .doc or .xls.
Damn ICal can't connect to most iCal servers.
No virtual desktops. Windows lacks this one too. I know I could install the shareware or freeware implementation. But unfortunatelly implementation sucks for the same reasons why Windows Virtual desktops you install with ATI suck.
THE... WORST... TERMINAL... EVER. Yeah, I tried iTerm and all other terminals. Few of them could come to the state of actualy being usable if people have really low terminal needs

Need more reasons why OSX is the worst OS ever?

Ridiculously poor

[simscitizen]

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.

Re:Black is the new black

[localman]

What's the extra $150 for?

So you can feel special. Isn't that what all this consumerism/materialism is about anyways? (Says I from a 17" MacBook Pro :)

Cheers.