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Apple Announces New Aluminum MacBooks

Well judging by this thread

http://forum.cubase.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=106153

Don't know if anyone else has posted this, but it appears that the new MBP uses the Agere firewire chipset (the one that doesn't work with most audio interfaces for those that don't know).

So no firewire in the alu MB, and broken firewire in the new MBP, not too clever :apple: really, not too clever at all :confused:
 
myca said:
Well judging by this thread

http://forum.cubase.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=106153

Don't know if anyone else has posted this, but it appears that the new MBP uses the Agere firewire chipset (the one that doesn't work with most audio interfaces for those that don't know).

So no firewire in the alu MB, and broken firewire in the new MBP, not too clever :apple: really, not too clever at all :confused:
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Yeah but look at all the pretty color iPods! :rolleyes:
 
Fast Shadow said:
Yeah but look at all the pretty color iPods! :rolleyes:
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way to contribute with relevent posts.

I reallyy like the new books, but i still havnt gotten a change to meet one in person.

I will be purchasing in February, after any bumps at macworld
 
NT1440 said:
Google "hackintosh compatible laptops" or something like that. Research these days aint exactly hard.
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Actually, finding out this sort of info is very difficult as most results are people requesting the same info with very little reliable information amongst the chatter.
I need to know that a laptop I want is 100% compatible before I buy and as I said above, you basically have to research all the compatible hardware and them check your laptop has that kit and then hope that particular combination of kit works as that is another unknown variable.
The EFI-X solution seems promising, bar the fact it seems to be an internal solution.
 
I went to the Apple store to check out the new glossy screens. After further review they suck worse than I thought. I tried to play a movie on a pro and stood back 5 feet and I could see my image in the screen. The Apple store looked like a walmart. When You walk around in a walmart and try to look for dvds the shine from the cover makes it hard to concentrate. But hey, what do I know. Other people in the store(old people and young punks) looked quite happy with them.
 
coffey7 said:
I went to the Apple store to check out the new glossy screens. After further review they suck worse than I thought. I tried to play a movie on a pro and stood back 5 feet and I could see my image in the screen. The Apple store looked like a walmart. When You walk around in a walmart and try to look for dvds the shine from the cover makes it hard to concentrate. But hey, what do I know. Other people in the store(old people and young punks) looked quite happy with them.
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I can certainly understand hesitancy with glossy screens.

I ask: is your house lit like a Walmart? Are many of your working conditions? For your sake, I hope not. I think many would agree that massive overhead fluorescent lighting is one of the worst lighting conditions one can have. No doubt, reflections in similar lighting conditions are likely to be terrible. And that is a downside to a glossy screen.

The glossy-only option delayed my upgrading from my old 12" PB to a MacBook for many years. When the Santa Rosa MacBooks came out, the hardware upgrades were enough to put me over the edge and I've been thrilled with my MacBook.
I even really like the glossy screen. The crispness and color saturation is great.

But glossy/matte is definitely a personal choice. I used to be biased against glossy out of association with low-end laptops (seems that's where glossy screens first arose). Now I just see it as another choice.

Except that Apple doesn't offer a choice. Which is a bummer. I can only imagine that Apple's increase in lack of options is to decrease overhead and increase profit. But it's definitely a bummer and causing me to lean towards replacing my MacBook (whenever that happens) with a ThinkPad. Boring looks and design, good options, features, and price.
Of course, no OS X, but I'm hoping by then I can run OS X virtually, and that would be good enough for me. Of course, I'm the example to not allow OS X to be run virtually. Except, if Apple allows OS X virtually, they would at least get $130 from me instead of nothing. Something is better than nothing, right?

Except that I tend to get the impression from Apple that they don't feel that to be the case.
Sigh. Apple seems like it will always remain an enigma.
 
jegbook said:
The glossy-only option delayed my upgrading from my old 12" PB to a MacBook for many years. When the Santa Rosa MacBooks came out, the hardware upgrades were enough to put me over the edge and I've been thrilled with my MacBook.
I even really like the glossy screen. The crispness and color saturation is great.
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That is my experience too. I hated the idea of the glossy screen. Now that I have it I like it. It is clear and sharp, and the glare doesn't bother me.
 
Eric S. said:
That is my experience too. I hated the idea of the glossy screen. Now that I have it I like it. It is clear and sharp, and the glare doesn't bother me.
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Exactly. The glass is fine. It's no different than the iMac. As long as you don't have a light at eye level behind you it is fine.
 
Compile 'em all said:
Why are you guys insisting on making up these hypothetical situations that make non sense whatsoever to support your arguments?

Printer and scanner at the same time? LMAO. You want Apple to include a port in a machine they will ship millions of just so when the situation arises that someone somewhere absolutely must PRINT AND SCAN at the same time they can do it?

The fact is, when designing the machine, ports take up space. This will instantly affect the shape and volume of the laptop. Some of the people will say, they don't care. But Apple does care and this is what makes Apple.
[/B][/I]
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I hear what you are saying, except look at the Dell XPS M1330 or Vostro 1300 and ThinkPad SL300. 2 or 3 USB ports, Express Card slot, built in media readers, Firewire (albeit 4 pin), VGA AND HDMI, or HDMI only, built in cellular wireless, fingerprint readers. These laptops are similarly sized and arguably have many more features for similar pricing.

I don't understand why Apple refuses to offer these options. They seem committed to ensuring Macs won't be used in business environments, but given that 95% of the computers I work on in offices supporting computers are Dell's. That's a lot of potential sales.

Apple? But, they are doing something right...
 
piraeus7 said:
. They were paying money in order to get the best hardware and the best OS at the same time. Till 1997 mac OS was the best comercial OS.
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I hate the MacOS back then so clearly your statements are an opinion. In MY opinion, the Commodore Amiga had the best hardware/OS system until they went out of business in 1994. So I guess that leaves you a window of 1995-1997 for your older Mac operating system. I might agree it was better than Windows95, but definitely not Windows98 so I would agree with your end date. Mac OS X, however, rocks and is based on a much more stable Unix core and unlike older Mac operating systems, has full CLI access to those that might 'want' to use it. It even comes with X11 for mucho compatibility with many Linux apps. The Amiga IMO is actually more similar to OS X than OS 8 or OS 9 in that it's essentially a combination of a Mac like GUI with a Unix like CLI. Unfortunately, its GUI never got as advanced as it should have (since C= went bankrupt) without 3rd party utilities to fill in the gaps. But until OS X came out, I was left in Windows la la land (although I still have a PC for gaming).

It is Apple that has changed. They dont provide us the (by far) best hardware as they did before. They dont offer an elementary customisation and flexibility. So, after having been «faithful» to Apple for lots of years someone could feal cheated with their shift. Thing that is really painful and cause complaints.
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This is why I support the Psystar argument (because we NEED more hardware choices; hardware and OS should be separate buying decisions, IMO) and Hackintosh efforts. Unfortunately, it sounds like Psystar and Apple are making some back woods deal instead of taking it to court now (probably because Apple is afraid of losing and Psystar can't really afford to make their argument in court).

As for the new Macbook lines, I just got my new "old" model 15" MBP (2GB Ram 200GB HD) two days before going on a vacation to Arizona ($1444 with rebate from Amazon, which is basically a MBP for the "new" Macbook regular price and with a larger screen and better graphics compared to the integrated set). So I'm still playing around with getting it set up the way I like it (a trackpad takes a bit of getting used to when you've used a 3 button scroll mouse for the past 10+ years; I'll definitely be getting a 3-button scroll to carry with me), but so far I'm fairly impressed by its matte screen, which looks VERY sharp and colorful without any reflective nasties. I can't understand why Apple would WANT to get rid of that screen when it looks as good as it does without the glare. I don't see any yellow look, etc. that people talked about in the past. It seems very responsive so far, etc. and no sign thus far of any graphic glitches. The MBP's keyboard feels reasonably good and I don't see any signs of key-sticking or missing keystrokes. It has the newer multi-touch track pad (no glass cover and with a full size button) and two firewire ports. In short, the new MBP looks like a downgrade except for the slightly faster graphics and bus, which doesn't seem to matter much in its performance testing. It also doesn't have a propriety graphics connector (I'd prefer HDMI at this port, but DVI is better than a mini-port that no one but Apple in their very newest monitor supports and so you get stuck with a $99 cable adapter fee, which it SHOULD come with for free, IMO).
 
New MacBook Pro Display?

Anyone know who is manufacturing the new LED-Backlit Widescreen Display for the new MacBook Pro?
 
Well, it's 2016 and I'm still using my 2008 MacBook unibody that I bought at release.
Last year I fitted a New battery, New SSD, New Screen for less than £100. I'm running the latest OS X and running fast and smooth!
I could't be happier with this investment! 8 years of reliable computing.

Boom! for the short lived Alu MacBook.
 
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mrboult said:
Haha. Thanks suckfest.
I felt sure no one would care, but I'm so amazed at how well/long this laptop has lasted I just had to add to this thread. Been through a lot of iPhones/ipads in that time period!
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Me too. I upgraded it to 8Gb of RAM a few years back and added a 500Gb hard drive. It isn't exactly a graphics powerhouse but it does the basic computing tasks reliably. Also running the latest operating system, though I wonder how much longer we will be able to do that. Mine needs a new battery, it lasts about 45 mins, so I use it plugged in to an outlet.

I'll probably upgrade later this year but I'm pretty sure I'll still find a willing buyer on eBay.
 
mrboult said:
Well, it's 2016 and I'm still using my 2008 MacBook unibody that I bought at release.
Last year I fitted a New battery, New SSD, New Screen for less than £100. I'm running the latest OS X and running fast and smooth!
I could't be happier with this investment! 8 years of reliable computing.

Boom! for the short lived Alu MacBook.
Click to expand...

It's a great computer. Back when user upgrades were still possible.
 
yes, 2008 Macbook still going strong here. Updated through each new OS to El Camino, 512GB SSD and 8GB RAM.
Does need a new battery though.
 

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I agree with you guys, this MacBook Pro design took laptops to another level. Personally, I think the unibody MBP is the most well designed product Apple has ever made, taking into account iOS and non-iOS platforms.

It really is perfect. I'm still running my 2009 15", and I don't foresee myself upgrading anytime soon. I have no reason to. I still find myself flipping the thing over every now and then to admire the craftsmanship. I just don't see how you can improve on something so essential. There is nothing there that needs not be there, and there is nothing missing that needs to be there.

I've criticised Apple lot post-2010, but full credit to Jony for designing this beauty.
 
Hephaestus said:
I agree with you guys, this MacBook Pro design took laptops to another level. Personally, I think the unibody MBP is the most well designed product Apple has ever made, taking into account iOS and non-iOS platforms.

It really is perfect. I'm still running my 2009 15", and I don't foresee myself upgrading anytime soon. I have no reason to. I still find myself flipping the thing over every now and then to admire the craftsmanship. I just don't see how you can improve on something so essential. There is nothing there that needs not be there, and there is nothing missing that needs to be there.

I've criticised Apple lot post-2010, but full credit to Jony for designing this beauty.
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I vastly preferred the 2008 model. It had a removable battery. It also had an vastly more usable Express Card 3/4 slot (I got a USB3 card for $12 that works in it; you're screwed with the 2009 model for connectivity of any reasonable speed and the CPU wasn't much faster at all and instead of an Express slot, you got a worthless SD card reader. I still have a FW800 backup drive for it, but now I can connect USB3 drives and still get 150+ MB/sec; FW800 tops out around 70MB/sec). You got mini-display port (without Thunderbolt) at a time when almost NOTHING supported it so buy more adapters while I had a full size DVI port (everything used it then and a simple $3 adapter converts it to HDMI). I also have a Firewire 400 port in addition to an Firewire 800 port. This proved invaluable for a music interface (Presonus) without having to be concerned with using up the port for any external hard drive use on the 800 port (many adapters do NOT provide pass-through ports so you'd have to rearrange your layout to connect anything; Thunderbolt has similar issues). Despite the notorious Nvidia 8600M GT GPU, I've never had a problem with it in the past 8 years even once. I did have the left fan go noisy (replaced it myself for $11) and I upgraded the hard drive before starting to use Logic Pro. Otherwise, I had no other issues. It's now running El Capitan without issue.
 
Well, almost exactly 10 years after purchase I have finally retired my Alu' MacBook from daily use. I'm still stunned it has run so well for so long. Sure I do disk wipe installs upon OS upgrade, and have had to fit SSD, Screen and battery during that time to keep it going.

The only real reasons for retiring it are slow internet browsing, poor battery life, and the fact that the supported OS (El Cap?) grows more and more outdated. iPhoto, iMovie, PS, Sketchup, etc all running fine. .

Possibly the best value £1000 I ever spent.
 
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