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I agree with you on the topic that some people use their computer/lcd as their main movie-watching-mechanism...and I mentioned YOUR SITUATION in my post.

Sheeeeeeeez. Please read the post before replying.

-Eric
wouldnt there be an issue with connecting your laptop bluray player to a non hdcp device? This is another reason mac hasnt jumped on the blu ray band wagon..
 
Well....

I got my Unibody MBP in late Nov. '08.

I was kind of miffed at the 2.53 to 2.66 bump but 130 mhz isn't too big of a deal.

I'm really liking my replaceable battery and express card 34 slot though.

I think Apple upped my resale value.
 
I feel bad for the "poor" college student who can't hook their Macbook Pro to play all their 30 dollar blu ray dics on their flat 50" plasma screen/lcd in their dorm because it lacks a blu-ray drive.. waaaaaaaaaahhh..
 
I can NOT live without an ExpressCard slot, least of all when it's being replaced with... an SD slot???

I could live without the ExpressCard slot, *if* it had two firewire busses (either one each of 400/800, or two 800).

Please people, don't go telling me to daisy-chain all my devices together, it causes problems, and can't be used practically in professional situations.

He is correct. It doesn't work. Even if it did, your firewire 400 audio interface is going to slow down your external firewire 800 drives. Not good. And working solely off a large internal drive (as someone else suggested) is not recommended. The audio app & the audio project need to be on separate drives for best performance, and besides, audio/video work is HARD on drives... it is easier to format/replace external drives than internal ones.
 
While I understand that there are performance aspects being called into question in terms of what is now being branded as pro and how this machine would perform today.

However, is it possible that even these base machines were designed for pro performance around the soon to be released "snow leopard"?
 
The removal of the ExpressCard slot is an outrage, for sure.

You could make an ExpressCard slot into an SD card reader, but you can't make ANYTHING else out of SD card reader! WTH were they thinking?

Where are people supposed to plug in all their ExpressCard gear (you know, eSATA adapters, extra FireWire ports, Verizon wireless cards, etc.?!) unless they want to lug around the 17" behemoth?

Definitely a disappointing day from Apple on so many levels. The only saving grace is the Snow Leopard family pack @ $49.
 
I got my Unibody MBP in late Nov. '08.

I was kind of miffed at the 2.53 to 2.66 bump but 130 mhz isn't too big of a deal.

I'm really liking my replaceable battery and express card 34 slot though.

I think Apple upped my resale value.

Something sure makes the last gen seem more Pro than the current one. Don't know what though... :D
 
And that's what apple is aimed for, really (don't know if I approve). They put SD card because the target demographic uses point and shoot cameras with SD cards. I like express card -> you could get semi-decent ssd, stuck it in and have 32gb of extra storage that would just sit there forever (well, you can get 16GB SDs I think...)

On a side note, I don't know a single human being that takes their memory chip/card out of their digital camera and sticks it into their computer. Not even me.

Everyone that I know plugs the camera into the computer's USB slot (presumably so they can load the pix into the camera-vendor's-software for pix management). Or maybe they can't find the chip...or they fear breaking it or losing it...or are like my parents who would never figure out how to put it back in the camera.
 
I can live with glossy displays (although I don't like 'em).
I can live with the 9400M on the baseline 15".
I can live with a non-replaceable battery.

I can NOT live without an ExpressCard slot, least of all when it's being replaced with... an SD slot???

As has been stated before, as someone who works with audio, I can't understand why Apple just removed the ONLY slot that allows for true upgradeability. It allowed me to have the FireWire buses I need on my original baseline UMBP.

Please people, don't go telling me to daisy-chain all my devices together, it causes problems, and can't be used practically in professional situations.


I don't know what has happened to Apple... ever since ditching matte screens (and FW400) they've been heading downhill for professionals.

I'd love today's announcements if I was a consumer though :)

Sad isn't it. It used to be that the audio/video pros (among others) used to look at each new macbook pro update and say "wow! look at all these new tools and functionality apple just gave us to do our jobs better. Lets figure out a way to use them". Now it seems to be a regular case of "crap! look at all these tools and functionality apple just took away from us. Now we have to figure out a way to work around this."
 
While I understand that there are performance aspects being called into question in terms of what is now being branded as pro and how this machine would perform today.

However, is it possible that even these base machines were designed for pro performance around the soon to be released "snow leopard"?
Even with snow leopard, real pro software is on windows. 3dsmax, autocad, ....
Even the mac pro has a geforce gt 120... :confused: Pro??

Here the only pro is steve jobs. He is the only man in the world that can sell bmws at ferrari's price
 
Worthless updates other than the price drops. Oh and SL Family Pack @ $49 is nice.
 
wouldnt there be an issue with connecting your laptop bluray player to a non hdcp device? This is another reason mac hasnt jumped on the blu ray band wagon..

I dunno...but I've been seeing tons of hacked/copied BR titles already on the internet. But I'm not about to download that kind of filesize.

All I really care about BR is:

-more titles need to appear
-better quality BR titles ("transfers" from the masters need to be better)
-cheaper movies ($20.99 - $24.99 for "sale" movies does not court me...I want consistently under $18)
 
I bought my UMBP 2.66 with 4GB RAM and 320GB HDD from BB April 3, got the matte display protector last month and **just** bought the AppleCare last Friday (4th June) and activated it. With tax (7%) I dropped $3,056.98. The exact same config (RAM, HDD and processor speed) is now $2,549.76 or a $507.22 difference!

I may just go sell it and get a new 15" 2.8GHz or even the 17". I know the new MBPs were just introduced hours ago, but what do you think the going rate for my machine would be if I put it in the for sale forum?

2.66 --> 2.8 is not worth it. You will not be able to tell the difference without a long processor-intensive task and a stop watch.

You've just got classic buyer's remorse. Try to just let it go. It really does not matter. And anyway, you've got the Express 34 slot.
 
Rip-off!

HOLYS**T AM I GETTING RIPPED OFF HERE?!?!?!

£200 for a 128GB SSD+faster C2D on the MacBook Air
BUT
£320 OPTION from 320GB -> 128GB SSD on the 13" MacBook Pro?!?!?!

off to the refurb store:mad:
 
i just do not understand swapping the express card slot for sd card. that's ridiculous. countless other laptops have slots that can read everything, so why such a step backwards here? they just killed the 15" mbp for audio and video professionals. daisy chaining doesn't solve all of the problems you'll run into, and you now have no real expandability options anymore.

i might just have to pick up an old one with the express card, before they're gone. i had been waiting for a refresh, but this is a waste.

a 17" isn't much more portable than a desktop under most circumstances.
 
HOLYS**T AM I GETTING RIPPED OFF HERE?!?!?!

£200 for a 128GB SSD+faster C2D on the MacBook Air
BUT
£320 OPTION from 320GB -> 128GB SSD on the 13" MacBook Pro?!?!?!

off to the refurb store:mad:

But... but... You'll get a 'Pro' and not expensive air! :D
 
I'm Panasonics P2 cards (very big in the video field) can only be read by an ExpressCard reader, and most times on set you need to have two (even more) firewire devices on different busses going.


http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webap...d=94262&catGroupId=34402&surfModel=AJ-PCS060G

http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webap...ons-_-Right Hand Promo-_-AG-HPG20 P2 Workflow

Granted, taking a speed hit in transfer speed and it puts another expensive device between the card and the computer so can see how could possibly be taking a hit on transfers, but looking at the other P2 equipment this is very expensive stuff. As said before ExpressCard which impacts a relatively large set of MacBook Pro owners. ( I think the number of folks on movie/tv sets are far outnumbers by someone who runs a 'regular business who needs a "power" laptop to move on the go. )


P2 appears to be PCIMA cards [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P2_(storage_media) ]. So can't directly plug them into express slots anyway. That should be a clue. Can't see why folks don't have relatively inexpensive FW800 devices that would take these (other than FW800 isn't popular or widespread. ;-) ) since you have to plug the card into something else before plugging that into the MacBook Pro anyway.

A bit forward looking, this might be one of the missing demand rivers for FW1600/3200. What have is HD content that must be transferred from one hard drive to another very quickly.

So yes, still looking for something that is express card native and a large set of MacBook Pro users.
 
I don't understand why Apple downgraded the batteries on the Unibody 13" and 15" models, then a short time later had miraculously improved Li-Polymer battery tech available for the 17"? I mean, why don't they revise the removable batteries to include the new Li-Poly cells and charging circuitry - voila, better battery capacity and lifespan in the same sized battery.

There are so many questionable design decisions on the Unibodies. For instance, moving the battery indicator off the battery itself is a mistake. If you have a spare battery you can no longer check its capacity without removing the old battery and inserting the new one.

I reckon Apple have been planning all along to migrate to captive non-removable batteries like in the 17". The next 13" and 15" revisions could see non-removable batteries and a switch to the one-piece screw-on bottom case. Then the relocation of the battery indicator starts to make more sense.

So, I was completely and utterly right. I wrote this back in February.

All kneel before me ;) :D
 
i just do not understand swapping the express card slot for sd card. that's ridiculous. countless other laptops have slots that can read everything, so why such a step backwards here? they just killed the 15" mbp for audio and video professionals. daisy chaining doesn't solve all of the problems you'll run into, and you now have no real expandability options anymore.

i might just have to pick up an old one with the express card, before they're gone. i had been waiting for a refresh, but this is a waste.

a 17" isn't much more portable than a desktop under most circumstances.
They are stupid.. at least a 15 in one media card reader or so... but an sdcard slot?? Apple people live in wonderland. No blueray, no xpresscard, 9600 graphics, no quad core... gold price for aluminium crap computers
 
Even with snow leopard, real pro software is on windows. 3dsmax, autocad, ....

You may have a point with autocad software, but the best of the rest is still on the Mac. I've used several different audio apps, and Logic Pro is hard to beat at the price it is offered. 3dsmax? Maya is just as good. We've also got Cinema4d, which is supposedly pretty darn great for the price. And last I checked Photoshop and Illustrator are still available on the Mac.
 
Blu Ray

I don't quite understand the people who are against Blu Ray.

I want blue ray on the mac and think it's pathetic that it is not offered as an option. Here it is as the way I see it:

  • Professionals need it - especially people who work with video. It's a great storage medium.

  • Blu Ray is a common format at this point and it is clear that the studios eventually want it to replace DVDs. Many people already own a player which is not so expensive anymore ($150 or so) and several movies. Why should I be forced to purchase the movie again just so I can watch it on the road?

  • Purchasing movie through iTunes is NOT currently a good solution. There are multiple reasons for this, but first and foremost is that HD content seriously tests the bandwidth and storage currently available. For example Time Warner and Comcast are both throttling and/or capping their downloads. Consider trying to download "Planet Earth" off of iTunes in full HD quality, at 200GB this alone would fill up almost half of a 500GB HD as well as kill your bandwidth quota. This also brings up the point that, right now the "HD" content off of iTunes is not yet the quality of a Blu Ray disc (and is already causing problems).

    I also have a problem with the fact that movies purchased through iTunes are DRM laden. Thus, to play it on my TV I am forced to either purchase an AppleTV or connect my computer to the TV. I cannot stream it through alternative media servers (e.g. a ps3, xbox, etc).

If purchases through iTunes became more ubiquitously compatible and bandwidth/drive spaces significantly increased then and only then would I consider a Blu Ray drive not necessary. At that point, however, why include a DVD drive? It is an obsolete technology that has been superseded and is backwards compatible.

So I don't understand why there are some people attacking others for wanting Blu Ray. It should be offered as an option, and if you don't want it then don't buy it. I, however, want it and would be willing to pay for it.

As an aside, what's up with the screen resolutions? Hasn't apple promised us for years that there would be full-resolution independence built into the OS and thus higher resolution screens?
 
kinda upsetting for the people (including me) who bought unibodies in the 08
even the lower end model has backlit.
 
they just killed the 15" mbp for audio and video professionals. daisy chaining doesn't solve all of the problems you'll run into, and you now have no real expandability options anymore.

i might just have to pick up an old one with the express card, before they're gone. i had been waiting for a refresh, but this is a waste.


so are you saying that the existence of an ExpressCard slot is the main reason why the old 15" has been priced higher than the new 15"?
actually, i don't use either an SD slot or an ExpressCard slot, but the higher battery performance of up to 7hrs, a higher GHz, and a larger hard drive 500GB that come with the new 15" for $2-300 less than i paid for my 15" a few weeks ago have made me think otherwise..:(
 
On a side note, I don't know a single human being that takes their memory chip/card out of their digital camera and sticks it into their computer. Not even me.

Might be more prone to do it with a SD card that goes into your digital picture frame ( as oppose to something that displays pictures as opposed to taking them) or portable picture showing device ( phone , etc. although those are usually microSD. ).

You need a usb cable to make the transfer. If you don't have one handy (you're off on the road with extra cables) you can just do it with the slot.
This has happened a couple of times when doing things spontaneous and mobile.

Although with the mini-display port.... probably need a cable bag to carry with you anyway if going to deal with other vendors equipment.
 
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