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Apple on Blu-Ray, Touch Screen Displays, Netbooks
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check dell's $479 option for a blu ray drive and you'll understand why apple isnt touching it.
Sorry perhaps I wasn't clear, I'm interested in a reader.
Either way judging the price that Apple would pay or even people putting drives in themselves from the Dell website is unfair. Have you seen the price of RAM from Apple !
Readers retail at £60-70 writers at £146
$99 for the DVI-D adapter!
I thought about "upgrading" my Penryn MBP to a newer model if it was enticing enough. Yes, I like the new case construction, and more powerful GPU but then I saw the negatives such as the glossy screen and the loss of one of the FW ports and I decided it wasn't worth it.
The real kicker was when I noticed that it costs another $100US to get the DuaLink DVI to Displayport adapter I would need to connect my existing 30" ACD. The adapter adds yet another box to the setup and doesn't provide a way to support the FW ports on the back.
I thought about "upgrading" my Penryn MBP to a newer model if it was enticing enough. Yes, I like the new case construction, and more powerful GPU but then I saw the negatives such as the glossy screen and the loss of one of the FW ports and I decided it wasn't worth it.
The real kicker was when I noticed that it costs another $100US to get the DuaLink DVI to Displayport adapter I would need to connect my existing 30" ACD. The adapter adds yet another box to the setup and doesn't provide a way to support the FW ports on the back.
You can use Ethernet to transfer files. Gigabit Ethernet beats Firewire 400 speed-wise (theoretically). Just connect both devices with a good Ethernet cable and you're set.
As for target mode to access the hard drive of a dead laptop: you can now easily remove the hard drive and put it into a cheap USB external enclosure that costs about as much as a Firewire cable. On 2.5" drives, you don't notice the speed advantage of Firewire that much because the hard drive (even at 7200rpm) does not have the throughput of a 3.5" drive.
All Intel Macs can boot from USB just fine. Just hold the ALT key when booting and select the boot device you want to use (nicest looking boot loader of every platform by the way, you can even use the mouse).
Newer camcorders mostly have USB now. They record on Flash (SDHC cards) or hard drives so you don't really need realtime video transfer, although it's awesome to make a high quality webcam.
But every useful audio equipment uses Firewire, and this kind of equipment is expensive as it is. On the other hand, Logic 8 is so buggy, lacking advertized features and mangles your work randomly that Apple might just drop the whole pro audio market and concentrate on photo and video editing.
I don't think pure BTO is worth it for the them, real real money and effort is licensing, and getting OS X and all components HDCP compliant. I think they should be taking Blu-ray more seriously, and they are going to turn very sheepish when they are finially forced to release support for it. It should be given as standard in any new Mac Pro model and maybe BTO in anything else.
Pure ignorance on their part.
Also, what is this crap about SD movies being 'good enough'. Has anybody noticed how hard HD ready and full HD tv's are being pushed upon people? Maybe it's time we get some REAL high def, high bitrate stuff to watch on these mammoth pieces of kit. You might be able to argue that you don't need a PC/Mac to watch a movie, but it's about convenience and wanting it, not what Jobs thinks you NEED. Also, it would be great if Apple could help Blu-Ray and not sit on the fence - the more people we get using it, the more the price of the media and hardware will come down. Apple TV supplies ***** bit-rate 720p, personally if i spend money on a 1080p tv, I really want to watch some 1080p on it, and my mac should be able to supply that ability. At £2200 (>$4000) I would expect the least a machine like this could do is play the latest optical format. It isn't fair for anyone to say 'well if you want to watch that stuff, get a blu-ray player', I have a Blu-ray player but people still (rightly) want the *facility* on their PC/Macs (we had dvd very early on).
And to argue against HD all together is insane! HD is coming, in what way Apple will bring it is a different story altogether. They owe it to their customers to bite the bullet, stop moaning like children and get on with BD (properly). It's getting to the stage now where the PC consumer is laughing at Apple for not supporting this technology.
And what about the pro's that want the FW in their macbooks, matte screens and Blu-ray drives to write their authored content to? Or the people who want to start shedding 50GB of stuff from their hard drives at a time? Apple is pissing right on your faces, do the right thing - don't sit there and lap it up!
*runs away*
I know that and even if I couldn't watch my DVDs I'm not loosing my DVD player with buying a blueray player so that's not my point. I just think, for me, buying movies just doesn't make any sense.
I suspect this is very true.
I think the major issue for blu-ray right now for the laptops is the hardware. Is a 9.5 mm slot loader even available?
Sugar dimples, £146 is around NZ$412 - that is a hell of a lot of money for something that has expensive media, very little selection out at the moment, and questionable merit when it comes to watching watching a movie on a buggery small laptop screen.
Over in UK land where people throw around NZ$412 quite freely, it may not sound a lot - but for everyone else, that is close to a weeks pay.
*Sigh* Where on earth have you got that from? Apple products (not necessarily un-justly, so lets not have THAT argument) are expensive as it is, so you can hardly stand around an pretend you are out begging for pennies to scrape together for a MB, MBP or MP. For most people anywhere in the world, those machines alone are well over a months pay (spec'd well) and you don't seem to be missing out:
MacBook 'White' (SR), 2.4Ghz ; 20inch iMac 2.6Ghz ; 80GB iPod 'Black' Classic w/ Belkin Leather Case
It's all proportional to the price of the machine, not this magical idea that people in the UK throw money around?!
A lot of pro's want and need this regardless of the cost.
I'd like to know why Apple didn't incorporate Blu-ray disc support when even console players have dropped under US$250 for players that actually have BD-Live (e.g., Profile 2.0) support. The circuitry to support Profile 2.0 Blu-ray playback is (more or less) already built into the new MacBook Pro models, with only HDCP support missing.
Hey, it's ALL about making money!
If Macbooks sell well at $999, they're gonna stay at $999 no matter what...
Apple has developped the new multi-touch technology for trackpads, they're gonna sell it till there is no possibility to sell it. THEN, they will introduce a new technology: multi-touch screen...
That's the way it works...
If Macbooks sell well at $999, they're gonna stay at $999 no matter what...
Apple has developped the new multi-touch technology for trackpads, they're gonna sell it till there is no possibility to sell it. THEN, they will introduce a new technology: multi-touch screen...
That's the way it works...
I am surprised by this "poor" update.
the only real improvements seem to be the new video card on macbook (the current one is not great) and the new multitouch.
BUT, they removed useful things like the firewire port, for example, which is unexplicable. And, by the way, now that there's a better video card (useful for making videos/movies faster) we won't have the usual way of importing DV footage.
I was looking forward to this update but will stick to my macbook!
I DO think it is a HUGE bummer to lose FW400 as I used to edit video on my macbook. I mean iMovie 08 anyone? Don't they advertise this all the time? "And you simply hook your camera.. oh wait.. umm.. Steve?"
On the other hand I think these updates are a great step forward. You forgot to mention LED backlit displays for 13.3 finally. And unibody design anyone? I'm all up for a laptop that has no flex! Hopefully, when the next revs come out they drop 100 off the two macbook prices.. and add firewire
It is all relative. I paid over NZ$800 for my first CD Reader (in NZ). You need people to purchase them at the initial prices in order to get them cheaper later. And if you are that worried about expensive items, why look at Apple products?
It's nowhere near as saturated as normal laptop-market is.... Or phone-market. Or desktop-market...
I agree, imagine how much a Mac would cost with a Blu-ray drive that at least half of us wouldn't want anyway
But for everyone who doesn't want it, there's probably someone who wants the latest technology so their computer isn't obsolete as fast.
I spend an extra $79 on my mac mini so it would have Wireless and bluetooth. Now it's older, but (sans burning a DVD) it can do everything that my much newer macbook pro can do.
C
champ01
Guest
i don't wanna bring a case full of cables to connect stuff thats not easy
and thats not pro either
logic buggy yeah right
and if you are right about them to drop it i'll drop apple in a heartbeat
and many people should follow
oh how ever did you manage to leave Steve's epic "bag of hurt" comment out from this article? it was the highlight of the keynote!
I imagine you don't have a 50"+ TV at home? You can def see a difference with movies like Iron Man, Spiderman 3, etc. With that said, I now buy Bluray movies for home. I also want to be able to watch these when I travel but alas, I cannot. That's my biggest pet peeve right now, I pay all this money to "own" a movie, yet I can only watch in one place. Having a Bluray reader on my laptop would certainly help.
"Netbook (low cost laptop) - "a nascent market thats just getting started.""
Sure, Steve. Unlike the booming razor thin, underpowered laptop market.
Sure, Steve. Unlike the booming razor thin, underpowered laptop market.