Apple Announces New Aluminum MacBooks

[Ramsav24]

I was so excited and don't mind all the updates except- glossy? Seriously. What were they thinking about the Pro? I'm in for either major headaches from the screen or I've gotta get the old model ASAP! Anyone know if there's a screen cover for the glossy

 

[hueyproductions]

They have forced video editing to the pro.

The old Macbook still has firewire right. Well all you audio/video buffs with thousands of dollars wrapped up in that equipment, you now have your solution.....

Okay really, the crying has to stop. I'm joking...some.

But I'm in. I just have to figure it out I guess. Which one.... what to do, what to do.

nope. they have basically taken video-editing functionality out of the macbook line. taking away firewire takes away easy, fast, efficient transfer of not only videocameras to laptop, but also laptop to external hard drive, which is needed for most video editing. The firewire input is still on the $999 macbook, but there's no superdrive there. So for someone like me, who does small, but frequent, editing of video on my macbook and then burns DVDs of the videos, having that same functionality now costs at least $1999. And here I was lamenting the fact that I had to go ahead and spring for a macbook in July when my old computer started acting up, even though I knew refreshes were coming out. Now I'm quite glad I got my macbook then - saved $700.

 

[KissStephanie]

They look so awesome. But I don't know why I feel so disappointed. If I look at the price it has a worse processor and lost a FireWire.

If you don't like them, then just buy the low-end white version which has the Firewire and processor you seem to desire, even if it has the rubbish old integrated graphics. Some people are completely unaware that processor speed is not what determines how fast a computer is, and there is no doubt that the new 2.0 GHz is much faster than the MacBook it has replaced.

That said, I am disappointed that a Firewire port is missing. It would be lovely to see a Firewire 800 port there like on the iMac. That is the only con that I can find though, and I will be getting one of these in the next two weeks, I'm just not sure if it will be the 2.0 GHz or the 2.4 GHz just yet. The strength of the aluminium and the unlikelihood of scratching it as with the plastic MacBooks sounds fantastic! As does the graphics.

 

[NT1440]

Well, lets see, all of my external drives are firewire and my video camera is too....so it looks like I will be holding on to my Blackbook until Apple comes to their senses and puts a firewire port into their MacBook, or until I absolutely have to have a new computer AND can afford one of their MacBook Pros...lame....

....whats wrong with your blackbook?

 

[gadgetgirl85]

When do you think these will be available in the UK stores? Wed

Macrumors says in Nov but shipping on Apple Store UK is 7 business days and i also thought only the display and mb air was coming in nov.

As I said, I thought Jobs said they were shipping tomorrow? and Aus store is saying 1-3 business days

 

[burntoutjoy]

Guys I'm not happy about the lack of FireWire either, but let's face it: hardly anyone in the great scheme of things will care. Most people don't even know what FireWire is, but they know USB, and USB is "good enough". Yeah, I know about DV transfer. I heard rumours of an Ethernet -> FW adapter, maybe that'll be the solution, and a USB -> Firewire adapter, though ugly, can't be technically impossible. There'll be a way around it.

Otherwise, lovin' it all. Awesome upgrade. The price hike is presumably (hopefully) there because all this environmental friendliness is more expensive and they couldn't absorb all the cost. We will all have to dip into our pockets a bit more to save the world! If Apple is just being greedy though, yeah, **** 'em, but something tells me they'd like to keep the price as low as they can. They want to sell a lot of these, remember.

edit: oh wow, super lame censoring. Also, haha vvvv "useless". Yeah, because you can't actually use these for anything? Stop foaming at the mouth, people, and get a grip.

 

[cube]

No FireWire on Macbook!!

So, now not only does apple make useless and expensive netbooks, but raises the price and downgrades their mainstream notebooks to garbage.

 

[jufjo]

I dont care about how the thing looks, I just wanted them to become better and faster and especially cheaper.
I have always used windows computers and wanted to switch to apple if the new model laptops would be more reasonably priced.
They arent.
€50 euro off the basic one, still too expensive.
No firewire, only 2.1ghz...

I don't know, I made my mind up to switch but now im having daubts again.
Its just that finding a good windows laptop is such a hassle (there are so many) and my 'fear' of vista that is keeping me luring towards apple at the moment.

 

[John Jacob]

Three questions:
1. Is the hard drive still user replaceable? Don't see it mentioned anywhere.
2. It says "upto 4GB RAM supported". Is that because only 2x2 GB DDR3 SO-DIMMs are available right now, but some day when 2x4 GB DIMMs are available, 8GB will work too? Or is it that 4GB is the limit?
3. The manuals for this MacBook are not yet available on the Apple support website. When do they normally become available?

 

[RZetlin]

My thoughts:

Good:

- Stylized aluminum casing

- Nvidia graphics card (Finally a good video card not the half-baked Intel GPU)

- lighter weight

Bad:

- No firewire (I like to know how a user profile is transferred between Macs because the old Macs require a firewire)

- Lower CPU specs. (For a better GPU, Apple seem to trade it off for a lower CPU specs. My Macbook has a CPU of 2.2 Mhz.)

-Mini DisplayPort - This is no difference in function from on the old Macbook DVI video ports. Now the old cables don't work on the new Macbook.

Questionable:

- Glass trackpad with the mouse button underneath it. I don't know how well it would work.

It seems with the new Macbook the sum is greater than it's parts.

 

[whyamihere]

But the rumors were accurate!

What were you expecting?

initial rumors were not accurate. initial rumor was an $899 macbook with the new "brick" design. not until moments before the event was it discovered $899 was for the display.

 

[PMR]

$1300
No FW
2.0Ghz
160GB HDD
2GB Ram

Happy new 2006!!!!!

My white MB costs even more. Thank you Steve!

One more thing - The 9400 is pretty fast for an integrated gfx card, but will this be recognized as a "dedicated" video card to run some titles, or at the beginning of the installation we'll see something like this:" Sorry, your gfx card is fast as ****, but integrated cards are not supported"?

 

[editguy]

Removing firewire stinks, but consider how much more expensive and difficult it is to find firewire equipped devices.

Almost all external hard drives now start with USB only options; you usually have to pay an extra $30-50 for the same drive with firewire (usually marketed as a "dual" or "triple" interface; USB, Firewire, etc.

DV cameras are mainly USB and some do still have firewire. Still; firewire is becoming more the exception to the rule on these devices.

I mention these because I have a macbook and bought both of the above items within the last 12 months.

I'm not apologizing for Apple; I'd still rather have more connection options and more reliable speed and power with firewire.

I am a twenty year video professional and a broadcast teacher. I want you to show me all these USB camcorders. They don't exist. Firewire at the consumer and prosumer level is the defacto transfer protocol for both DV and HD. Firewire is not the exception to the rule, it IS the RULE and will be until flash storage reaches the point that it is cheap and practical. Eliminating firewire from the Macbook eliminates it as a teaching tool for my students because they can't afford MBP's and now I will be forced to recommend that my students get a cheaper PC laptop that will have firewire and runs Premiere Pro (I teach both PP and FC because the two programs are very similar).

 

[greenmeanie]

I was hoping for a higher resolution on the 15" MBP.
I can't see them selling to many with the economy and price increase which I think is BS.
But I do like the looks of them.
And I could care less about Firewire it never really took off anyways. USB is the way to go.
Will I buy one NO because I don't have the money.

 

[SirOmega]

x2 why'd they kill the firewire port? That alone means I won't be buying a new Macbook. How in the hell do I import video from my DV cam? Answer: with the new Macbook, I can't! Get a clue Apple!

Because they want to keep "Pros" from moving from the 15" MBP to the 13" MB.

 

[Chiselteeth]

UK Shafted on pricing once again!

I was so looking forward to the launch of the new Macbook. My 12" powerbook is slowly coming to the end of its life and needs replacing. I thought the $1299 price tag was a little higher than expected, but a price I would be willing to pay the UK equivalent of. Sadly, after looking at the UK Apple store the price here is set at £949, which converts roughly to $1655 !!! WHY??????

 

[daneoni]

Seriously WHO is making these ridiculous decisions at Apple?. How can you NOT ship a matte screen for your flagship PRO laptop when your company's demographics market is the Art & Design crowd who rely on accurate colours

Also why ditch firewire from your consumer product that emphasises making movies with iMovie and is bought mostly by students with art/film majors and for added measure jack the price UP

Is it me or is every revision starting make Apple look bad. Its as if they're abandoning their loyal customers and ethos.

Also whats with all the designs looking like Dells and HPs what happened to Thinking Different!

Every product just seems to get worse and worse and yes that includes iPhone 3G

 

[EMT123]

funny how the stock price declined as the event progressed.

 

[DaBrain]

You know, I probably would have purchased a MB, but the lack of Firewire really is a problem for me. I have three hard drives that instantly become useless to me, since they're Firewire only.
EDIT: I suppose I could use the USB HD that is currently used to backup and iMac and use one the Firewire drives for the iMac instead. So only two drives are useless.

Hence, the definition of a " Brick! " Our Firewire peripherals are now useless bricks if we get another macbook! No Thanks Stevo! I like the looks, but you can keep the slower speed, higher price and lack of not even a lowly 400 Mhz fire wire port! Cya next time around perhaps when you can offer more features. Not interested in paying another grand for a 2 dollar port and a back lit keybd!

 

[NT1440]

No FireWire on Macbook!!

So, now not only does apple make useless and expensive netbooks, but raises the price and downgrades their mainstream notebooks to garbage.

Wanna tell me what the **** is useless about a macbook? Jesus christ stop the bitching.

 

[penguy]

nope. they have basically taken video-editing functionality out of the macbook line. taking away firewire takes away easy, fast, efficient transfer of not only videocameras to laptop, but also laptop to external hard drive, which is needed for most video editing. The firewire input is still on the $999 macbook, but there's no superdrive there. So for someone like me, who does small, but frequent, editing of video on my macbook and then burns DVDs of the videos, having that same functionality now costs at least $1999. And here I was lamenting the fact that I had to go ahead and spring for a macbook in July when my old computer started acting up, even though I knew refreshes were coming out. Now I'm quite glad I got my macbook then - saved $700.

the press release indicates that the $999 Macbook is refreshed and includes a superdrive and a 120 gb HD

Pricing & Availability
The new MacBook, 15-inch MacBook Pro and 17-inch MacBook Pro are now shipping and the new MacBook Air will be available in early November through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. An updated 13-inch white MacBook featuring 2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors, a 120GB 5400 rpm hard drive and a slot-load 8X SuperDrive® is now available for $999 (US).

 

[Jack123]

!

AND THERE NOW CHARGING £15 FOR THE APPLE REMOTE!



Well. Its off to dell for me

 

[Bubba Satori]

Unbelievable epic fail. Insanely stupid pricing. What are they thinking ? Have any of these idiots been shopping for laptops the last two years and checked how prices have fallen. No firewire, Matte screen, ExpressCard or memory card reader. More *rap video. No Blu-ray or Quadro options. For god sake take the "pro" off the MacBook cause it isn't even close to being a professional laptop. It's an embaressment. I still can't believe I waited two months for this load of "thin and cool" junk. Another retarded event like "lets rock". What a bloody waste of time.

How am I supposed to sell this over priced rubbish bling.

 

[depulse]

The firewire input is still on the $999 macbook, but there's no superdrive there.

According to the Apple store there is a Superdrive for all MB.

 

[Romanesq]

well....

Wanna tell me what the F@#^* is useless about a macbook? Jesus christ stop the bitching.

Sign of the times man, sign of the times....

But I'm waiting for the Blue Ray folks to catch up soon with some serious crybaby comments?

Where are you guys?

The firewire folks be p**&^ on you Opies.