Apple Releases the MacBook Pro

[SiliconAddict]

Actually I may have flopped with my concern on the battery.

Jade at Macworld: MacBook Pro battery life meh


3 hours on the readout? I hope this is simply with brightness at 100%, wireless turned on, and the CPU set to full. think calm thoughts. It’s a preproduction model. There is still tweaking left to do. *breaths into a bag*

 

[digitalbiker]

Don't waste your breathe trying to convince these people. Some people are never happy. I myself think it's a dream come true. This is an INCREDIBLE machine folks. Be happy, and soak it in.

Randall, I think the reason a lot of people aren't that impressed is because the intel CPU is everywhere, and in many other laptops. Not that it is a bad cpu. It isn't. It is a great piece of work. Intel did fantastic engineering to overcome the x86 design shortcomings.

But the PPC was very special. It was a better design, ran cooler, better performance, and it was unique to Apple. Unfortunately the PPC wasted away because IBM and Motorola wern't making enough profit to reinvest in updates and improvements.

It's not that people aren't happy that Apple has a dual core intel MacBook. It's just that there was such great vision a few years ago for a dual core G5 PB. It would have been unique, powerful, outstanding, and have the full Apple mystic thing going for it.

Now, it is kind of hard to really get excited when Sony, Dell, Acer, etc. etc. all have the same innards and we just have a different colored, textured. or different sized box.

 

[bmcj]

Used mac

So I really want to get one of these MacBook Pros. But need to make a little cash first. Is there any place that buys sort of dead Powerbooks. I have a 1.25 GHz where the motherboard doesn't recognixe the HD so I have to boot off an external HD.

So just looking for advice where to sell if I can, or if parting it out would get me more money.

Thanks

 

[~Shard~]

As noted several times, the lack of FW800 is depressing, oh well, still a breathtaking machine...

Other than external HDDs which can't fully utilize the speeds of FW800 in the first place, what other devices do people use regularly which require FW800?

 

[Rivix]

Student discount is nice

Whats better?

• 120GB Serial ATA drive @ 5400 rpm
• 100GB Serial ATA drive @ 7200

 

[KREX725]

not that i should be surprised, but there are a BUNCH of @^%#$ whiney people on this post. "is doesn't have a modem" "it's not a 'pro' machine" "it doesn't have FW 800" "it doesn't burn dual layer DVDs"

everyone here, including myself have bitched for 2 years to get a faster powerbook. well, it's F@(&ING here.

• no it doesn't have a modem. we have to move forward & some things get left behind. for as many people that bitch about this, there are 10 that are glad to see it no longer taking up space inside our machines. people bitched when we didn't have floppy drives, ADB ports and SCSI on machines, too. deal

• it doesn't have FW800. sucks for those handful of people that actually FOUND FW800 devices. i've bought a few external drives in the past couple years and never saw one myself.

• "it's not a pro machine"??!? what the hell did you call the LAST powerbook? y'know, the one w/ no camera, a slower, single core hot-as-$#!+ processor and less of a video card?

• "the keynote was lackluster". i guess steve should have come to you and asked you what he could personally build for you. of course, you would have said 'an intel powerbook' anyhow.

• "i wanted to see a 1GB/5GB/23GB/164GB iPod w/ wi-fi and built in cameraphone." we've got iPods coming out our freakin ears. thank GOD we had a keynote that focused on the C O M P U T E R. those things Apple used to make before the iPod.

i know there will be another 8 pages of people whining, but i had to vent. i thought this was an excellent keynote. i'm looking fwd to playing w/ the new software & i can't wait to get my paws on the new Powerbook.

whine away...

Preach it, Brother Sinister!

Even if Steve did the keynote underwater while demonstrating a waterproof (duh) Super-Mac-Book (sporting a dozen ultra-micro, quad-core, heatless processors, with a 13-42 inch collapsable widescreen, five button trackpad, and a shape-shifting super device port) would half of us ever be happy.

 

[nagromme]

When I heard that Apple just released a machine that was 4.5x faster than the one I bought 4 days ago, I was a little upset. I was ready to take the machine back to the store, get a credit, and wait for the new 17" Intel Powerbook.

Now I'm wondering if I should just hold onto the one I have. I *REALLY* like the screen size, and I'm going to be using the machine for some PhotoShop work (not tons), web stuff (Studio 8), and maybe a little Final Cut Express.

If you can return it, I would--that's just me, liking to have the latest And a MacBook WILL have a longer useful life, with that extra speed.

It's your call, but my thoughts:

* 17" MacBook won't be too far off. March?

* Rosetta will be fine for casual Photoshop use--or download some shareware to do what you need, and buy Intel Mac Photoshop in the fall (or whenever it's out).

* Rosetta should be fine for Web stuff.

* Final Cut Express? I'm not sure. Is that considered "pro" or not? Might want to wait until it's Universal--which shouldn't be more than a couple months. Meanwhile, you'll have iLife 06 and a new iMovie to work with--and that's actually pretty good.

* BUT if you need a machine now, then you need one. And returning it is likely to cost something.

* And that 17" is a very well-proven time-tested design. (Not to mention having a faxmodem, S-video out without needing an adapter, a CardBus slot, and FW800, which the MacBook 17 may give up.)

* And 4-5x is marketing speak and a best-case example. The MacBook is a LOT faster--and don't forget the faster GPU--but maybe not always THAT much faster (many Apple tests show closer to 2x).

Whichever way you go, welcome to Mac!

 

[dontmatter]

what's the lithium-polymer battery do, relative to ion? Anybody?

 

[pixelfreak]

Apple is buying time till Merom

The Powerbook line hasn't see a significant update in nearly a year.

The new MacBook released today is using the Yonah processor, which is the dual core successor of the Pentium M CPU.

While the update is respectable (especially the 256MB PCI Express graphics system) I think Apple will be releasing a completely redesigned Pro Laptop once Intel's Merom mobile chip is released sometime near the end of 2006.

Merom, Intel's next generation Microarchitecture, will be 65nm process, run at higher clock speeds, have a larger shared L2 cache with on-die memory controller and consume significantly less power than the 95nm Yonah.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Next_Generation_Microarchitecture

 

[syklee26]

How To Stop Whiners

Apple must release the following notebook:

17 inch MacBook Pro

Intel Core Duo at 2.0 ghz
2gb ram at 667 mhz
120gb hard drive
5 FW 800, 5 FW400 and 5 USB 2.0, 2 PCMCIA, modem, floppy drive.
Blu-Ray Drive
polycarbon casing
x1600 ATI 256mb
backlit keyboard
24 hour battery life

priced at a cheapo 10 bucks.

and maybe Steve-O will still find whiners.

this is why you are sitting at home watching the keynote and Steve-O is speaking at it. Just say you got no cash to buy one.

 

[Randall]

Randall, I think the reason a lot of people aren't that impressed is because the intel CPU is everywhere, and in many other laptops. Not that it is a bad cpu. It isn't. It is a great piece of work. Intel did fantastic engineering to overcome the x86 design shortcomings.

But the PPC was very special. It was a better design, ran cooler, better performance, and it was unique to Apple. Unfortunately the PPC wasted away because IBM and Motorola wern't making enough profit to reinvest in updates and improvements.

It's not that people aren't happy that Apple has a dual core intel MacBook. It's just that there was such great vision a few years ago for a dual core G5 PB. It would have been unique, powerful, outstanding, and have the full Apple mystic thing going for it.

Now, it is kind of hard to really get excited when Sony, Dell, Acer, etc. etc. all have the same innards and we just have a different colored, textured. or different sized box.

Cheer up. The Core Duo is amazing. I could understand being upset over a Pentium 4 or something, but this is quite a feat of engineering. It will only get better. Apple has a certain sense of style and sophistication that will never die. (Unlike FW800, phone modems, and DL DVD burners apparently)

 

[digitalbiker]

I just bought a 17" PowerBook G4 (last Saturday). I've been a PC user for years, and decided to get the PowerBook without doing a lot (none) of research on the Powerbook lineup.

When I heard that Apple just released a machine that was 4.5x faster than the one I bought 4 days ago, I was a little upset. I was ready to take the machine back to the store, get a credit, and wait for the new 17" Intel Powerbook.

Now I'm wondering if I should just hold onto the one I have. I *REALLY* like the screen size, and I'm going to be using the machine for some PhotoShop work (not tons), web stuff (Studio 8), and maybe a little Final Cut Express.

What I'm reading between the lines is:

Don't buy a Rev A product
Wait until more apps are compiled universal
I personally would need to wait for the 17"

Seems like I may be waiting 6-8 months (or more) for the one I may benefit from (if I chose to return my new 17" Powerbook).

Any advice/thoughts from current Powerbook users on whether to keep what I have, or return and wait it out?

Don't fret. Stay calm. Remember this is the post Keynote high period. Soon things will come down to earth and you will start to see the real benchmarks from the very apps that you use. Many MacBook users are going to be running into problems with everything that they use.

You have to remember that this is not only all new hardware, but the OS is completely new too. All of the i'Life apps, safari, iTunes, etc. have never been released to the general public. Software testers try their best to find all of the bugs and work things out but inevitably many pass through and will be felt by these first time users.

You are in perfect position to sit back. Let the new users of the first Intel OS X machines find all the problems. Wait for the native binaries of software to be released. Let those bugs get worked out.

Then when the rev b or c Merom based MacBook Pro's are release you have a very workable, hardware, software solution.

So use your mature and bug free system with pride!

 

[Randall]

Other than external HDDs which can't fully utilize the speeds of FW800 in the first place, what other devices do people use regularly which require FW800?

That's a great point. But the new LaCie drives do. The Little Big Disk. Also accepts FW400 and USB 2.0, but at 1/2 the transfer rate of FW800 obviously.

 

[blueflame]

So... my big thing

one of my biggest uses for a laptop is simply movies. portable
no svideo? I NEED svideo, what does this have that i can do that now?
4x dvd burner? i can even live with it being single layer, but whats up with lowering the burn speed?
andreas

 

[Surreal]

Other than external HDDs which can't fully utilize the speeds of FW800 in the first place, what other devices do people use regularly which require FW800?

alright, FW 800 is technically too much right now. but how long will this be true?

but, that isnt my real problem. crickey laid out the specifics of my real problem.

to add, if they gave one 800 and one 400, i would be fine. if they gave 2 400's i would be fine. 9f they gave 2 800s i would be fine. but one 400 hurts. i will add via the express card slot...but that is 150 dollars i shouldnt really have to spend.

and maybe is was because of the 7200 rpm drive...but the lacie triple interface hard drive was incredibly fast to me over 800. i actually thought it was mediocre till i noticed that it was megabytes per seconds not kb. and i have used fw drives for some time now.

 

[kretzy]

one of my biggest uses for a laptop is simply movies. portable
no svideo? I NEED svideo, what does this have that i can do that now?
4x dvd burner? i can even live with it being single layer, but whats up with lowering the burn speed?
andreas

I'm disappointed about about svid too. Maybe there's an DVI to AV converter?

 

[zync]

Randall, I think the reason a lot of people aren't that impressed is because the intel CPU is everywhere, and in many other laptops. Not that it is a bad cpu. It isn't. It is a great piece of work. Intel did fantastic engineering to overcome the x86 design shortcomings.

But the PPC was very special. It was a better design, ran cooler, better performance, and it was unique to Apple. Unfortunately the PPC wasted away because IBM and Motorola wern't making enough profit to reinvest in updates and improvements.

It's not that people aren't happy that Apple has a dual core intel MacBook. It's just that there was such great vision a few years ago for a dual core G5 PB. It would have been unique, powerful, outstanding, and have the full Apple mystic thing going for it.

Now, it is kind of hard to really get excited when Sony, Dell, Acer, etc. etc. all have the same innards and we just have a different colored, textured. or different sized box.

Well said!

Plus the fact that they upgraded some stuff and downgraded others is kind of disconcerting. Honestly, I'm perfectly happy with my PowerBook and, though it may sound ridiculous to some of you, I don't think I could ever feel proud pulling out a machine called a MacBook—Pro or otherwise. Why not simply PowerBook or even ProBook? I mean anything, anything is better than MacBook. That is the most ridiculous name I have ever heard. I wouldn't doubt that they change that as soon as the PowerBook G4 is phased out. It's probably going to be like when they used iPod Photo to differentiate between iPods, only this time they picked a stupid name for their product.

I really wish IBM would have got it in gear to come up with some great mobile G5 chips. It feels like we've been slighted. The new machine sounds great and all but, as digitalbiker said, it doesn't feel like Apple anymore.

Oh and to attempt to settle the FW800 issue slightly, I use my LaCie FW800 drive all the time. I specifically paid more for it because it had FW800, 400, and USB2.

 

[digitalbiker]

That's a great point. But the new LaCie drives do. The Little Big Disk. Also accepts FW400 and USB 2.0, but at 1/2 the transfer rate of FW800 obviously.

Sony video cams use the FW 800 for digital video transfer on the HD cameras. You'll want FW 800 for HD digital video transfer.

 

[ibilly]

Anybody notice that the tests were done in january 2006 with pre-production models (for the iMac Gi and Mbp). It's January 10. Methinks that they may have been in a bit of a rush to get the products and specs out in time. Let things happen, let the laptop emerge. AFAIC, it's still a little bit premature to be making all these conjectures, experiencing all this outrage, and reveling in all this joy. Given, it looks great, but there's more to come, both on this specific product and on other product lines. Let's see where it goes.

Correction: The pages actually say December 2005. Pretty sure taht I read January, but I wouldn't be surprised if I was simply mistaken. The rest of my post stands.

 

[Alex Cutter]

* Rosetta will be fine for casual Photoshop use--or download some shareware to do what you need, and buy Intel Mac Photoshop in the fall (or whenever it's out).

They're estimating early 2007. And "fine for casual Photoshop use" is debatable. Many believe that Rosetta "emulates" at a G3 level.

* Rosetta should be fine for Web stuff.

How well do you think Dreamweaver or GoLive are going to perform using emulation?

* Final Cut Express? I'm not sure.

It won't run until it's updated.

Whichever way you go, welcome to Mac!

Yep!

Personally, I don't think it would be a good idea to return it, based on the concerns you expressed, as well as many more that have popped up on this thread.

 

[nagromme]

no svideo? I NEED svideo, what does this have that i can do that now?

Apple has in recent years added video out (composite and S-video) to all of its machines at least as a cheap adapter option. Even the lowly eMac! And pro laptops are often used to give presentations to TV (not to mention watching DVDs or any other FrontRow usage).

Therefore, although I too wonder about it being missing from the MacBook specs page, I think it's a near certainty that video-out is on the way. Probably (like with the 12" PowerBook) by an optional $20-$30 adapter that is not yet seen on Apple's site.

The only reason I can think for the adapter not being there yet is that it's a different part: it connects to a full-size DVI port, unlike past adapters which connected to mini-DVI or mini-VGA. I expect to see this adapter show up at Apple's site around the time the MacBook ships if not before.

A firm answer on this would be cool--sorry if I missed it on this thread. But I'm hopeful regardless.

 

[strange days]

Student discount is nice

Whats better?

• 120GB Serial ATA drive @ 5400 rpm
• 100GB Serial ATA drive @ 7200

i would take 100GB @ 7200

in my experience, hd drive speed in laptops make for a large part of "snappiness" factor to the end user experience...

 

[kretzy]

Apple has in recent years added video out (composite and S-video) to all of its machines at least as a cheap adapter option. Even the lowly eMac! And pro laptops are often used to give presentations to TV (not to mention watching DVDs or any other FrontRow usage).

Therefore, although I too wonder about it being missing from the MacBook specs page, I think it's a near certainty that video-out is on the way. Probably (like with the 12" PowerBook) by an optional $20-$30 adapter that is not yet seen on Apple's site.

The only reason I can think for the adapter not being there yet is that it's a different part: it connects to a full-size DVI port, unlike past adapters which connected to mini-DVI or mini-VGA. I expect to see this adapter show up at Apple's site around the time the MacBook ships if not before.

A firm answer on this would be cool--sorry if I missed it on this thread. But I'm hopeful regardless.

I really hope this is the case, because even though it may be on the way out, I know of many people who still use it regularly.

 

[puckhead193]

The one fault i didn't see posted here was, what are you going to do with the apple remote.... they need to design it where it can fit inside the computer and be removed...

 

[Warbrain]

Now, being the Apple old-timer I am, a bit of me died inside today when the first Intel Macs came out. But that's expected. I knew it was coming.

But the name of the laptop...MacBook Pro? That's not too Apple-like at all, at least to me. At least they're not giving them numbers like all the other computer companies and like they did in the past, but doesn't sounds as sweet as iBook or PowerBook does.

I know they really wanted to show off what they could do with the new processor. The MacBook Pro is a hell of a machine. It's a beast. But it's a bit pricey. I'm hoping that price comes down over time.

But did anyone else cry a bit inside when they saw the bunnies in the new ad? I was waiting for them to get toasted.