Apple Releases the MacBook Pro

[Randall]

In researching ExpressCard/34 devices it seems to have existed since mid-2004. Do any devices actually exist?

I am interested in preferably a Verizin broadband wireless connection.

A WiMax alternative might suffice.

I seem to read several folks wishing for FW800 and while we are at it, what about fibrechannel or some such?

Rocketman

Currently only a handful, but that is because it only started appearing in notebooks in mid-2005. Now that Fujitsu, NEC, Toshiba, Sony, Dell, HP, and now Apple have laptops available, you can bet that more devices will come soon. Here is a list of devices. http://www.expresscard.org/web/do/pub/resourcedirectory

 

[Randall]

Does anybody know how many PCIe lanes are used with the ExpressCard/34 technology? 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16?

PCIe supports a data-rate of 250 MB/s in each direction, per lane. So if it were only 2x, then it would still be slower then FireWire 800's theoretical transfer rate...

EDIT: Nevermind. From Wikipedia:

ExpressCard supports x1 PCIe and USB 2.0; hot-pluggable

 

[darwin022]

Does anybody know how many PCIe lanes are used with the ExpressCard/34 technology? 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16?

PCIe supports a data-rate of 250 MB/s in each direction, per lane. So if it were only 2x, then it would still be slower then FireWire 800's theoretical transfer rate...

EDIT: Nevermind. From Wikipedia:

Also keep in mind that not many drives can handle the theoretical limit for throughput of FW800...

 

[oeditus]

FW800, LaCie's upcoming line and my thoughts about MB

from reading the posts on this thread it seams as if some people here are pretty sure that FW800 is dead...

apparently no one told the guys at Lacie development...

http://www.lacie.com/products/range.htm?id=10036


check out the new line of products... some of the new FW800 bus powered HDs are sooo sweet...

i was just about to buy the latest 17" with 2gb of RAM and the 120gb HD

found it new for 2000$

when I first saw the MacBook Pro I thought Sh*t... here goes my plan for a new LapTop next week.

24 hours later I feel more confident than ever in my decision to get the
17" PB.

for all reasons mentioned above... i edit on the PB, I was a PC user or years and I switched because the PB had options for me that no PC laptop could offer. the MacBook isn't it.

today, editors need their system to support DL burning, FW800, S-video out, full range support to complex software and 56k modems, of course, from a new generation of laptops we expect new stuff that we didn't even knew we needed yet.
https://forums.macrumors.com/images/smilies/eek.gif


first and second generations almost always disappoint.

i can wait a year for the real cool stuff to come out...

i was kidding about the modem

 

[Wkgstiff]

Need some sleep..

From Macworld: "the 5.6-pound system is housed in a one-inch thick aluminum enclosure"

Answer: Aluminum.

Thanks for the kind reponse to a simple question. My fault, I guess I should
of got some sleep and re-read it before I asked the question. Aluminum. got it. Thank you.

 

[gnasher729]

Rubbish? It's INSANE

$1999 in the US, £1779 in the UK. That's over $3100 according to xe.com.

My credit card's going back to bed too, particularly with nothing smaller than a 15.4" model - that's too big for a portable IMHO. Roll on the MacBook Amateur...

********. There are two models. The cheaper one is $1999 in the USA, £1429 in the UK, £1216 without tax. The more expensive one is $2499 in the USA, £1779 in the UK, £1514 without tax. US prices are all excluding tax. So it is not £1779 vs. $1999, it is £1514 vs. $2499. Not $3100 vs. $1999, but $2661 vs. $2499.

 

[gnasher729]

Just realised - Apple got the UK price wrong when their web site first came back on-line after the updates. They originally said £1779. About an hour later it was changed to £1429 !!!
This caught me out, and at least one other (see posts 8, 73 and 77).

It's still too expensive for an Intel laptop - Apple are competing with the big boys now!

Oh bugger off. Dell has nothing comparable. Nobody actually _sells_ a comparable Acer laptop. You can check out the third rate manufacturers, Gateway and so on, perhaps they have a dual processor laptop that is cheaper. You're welcome to buy it.

 

[gnasher729]

Now just wait until someone finds a way to hack OSX to run on that Acer and not a lot of people are going to buy the MacBook Pro. I wonder what Apple has done to prevent this from happening? What is the show stopper from putting OSX on this Acer? Looks like the same laptop to me "inside anyhow"

So you are saying the Acer is only competitive when you start adding pirated software? Nice one.

 

[itsbetteronamac]

Dumb apple Mistake

Thought this was a dumb mistake. And it not just a typo. I'm posting this just so people arn't confused.

 

[devman]

I think you've just been unlucky.. I went with the G3 ibook rev a and 17" PBook rev a and never had an issue. having said that I have ordered the MacBook Pro and must say that a little bit of me is nervous. The truth is that I am a heavy iPhoto user and can no longer bare the time it takes to do things. I will therefore be one of the early Xbenchers and will probably report on issues.

As if to affirm my anxiety it worries me that apple still offer the 15" PBook. OK there is a proce difference but their website claims up to 4x faster (almost certainly an untruth) so why keep the PBook? Anyone that can come up with a reason that allways my fears would be good.

Just guessing (as we won't know for sure till peoople get their hands on these things and try them) but Steve made it pretty clear in his demo that Photoshop performance under Rosetta is ok for casual use, but not good enough for pros. Therefore, if you need a new Mac laptop and you are a serious Photoshop user then a PPC Powerbook is for you. We're in a transition and they're covering ALL the bases.

 

[devman]

You're unique, unless the last revision of the PB was *much* better that all previous ones, including the January 2005 release I use every day at work. Conincidentally, it lasts no more than 3.5 hours on a charge with full screen brightness. That ain't FUD ... that's fact. It's just not what you are seeing.

Yep, I get the same results as you. I have never got 5-6 hours battery life (I'm on a 15" PB).

 

[CalfCanuck]

Just guessing (as we won't know for sure till peoople get their hands on these things and try them) but Steve made it pretty clear in his demo that Photoshop performance under Rosetta is ok for casual use, but not good enough for pros. Therefore, if you need a new Mac laptop and you are a serious Photoshop user then a PPC Powerbook is for you. We're in a transition and they're covering ALL the bases.

It's likely 8-10 weeks before a new laptop arrives on this users doorstep (due to start shipping in 6, but I'm sure there will be a minor backlog as well).

Hopefully Adobe will ship a Universal pretty soon, esp. with their desire to not let Aperture steal Photoshop's thunder!

 

[gnasher729]

I was going to spend up to $1500 on an ibook today but now I am looking at something else.

Maybe this http://www.gateway.com/products/gconfig/proddetails.asp?seg=sb&system_id=s7510nb&clv=Img .

Speced out with a 2Ghz Core Dual and 1GB RAM with upgraded video for $1,598.99

Can you go to their webpage and add all the bits that you need to upgrade it to the same standard as the MacBook Pro, and then come back and tell us the price?

 

[gnasher729]

Having seen pricing at £1799 for the 1.67GHz Macbook and been thoroughly disappointed by this pricing level (works out $1000 more than US price), I am somewhat releived to have seen it drop down to £1429 (about £30 than the original 15inc) tonight (now around $350 more than US price).

Also looking at the Specs, did anyone notice the following:

# Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet
# Maximum storage altitude: 15,000 feet
# Maximum shipping altitude: 35,000 feet

It is placed in the "Electrical and environmental requirements" section, so could simply refer to the power adapter; however if it is related to the Macbook itself, don't these figures seem just a tad strange... as international flights tend to operate at 35,000 feet.

True. If you are on a flight across the Atlantic, and a door falls off from your plane, the MacBook could get damaged. However, in that situation that is one of the smaller problems. (Airplane cabins are usually pressurised to an equivalent of 3,000 feet altitude in order to avoid killing the passengers)

 

[surroundfan]

Powerbook 17" order cancelled.

MacBook Pro 1.83GHz with 7200RPM 100GB HDD ordered.

10% discount from my original order honoured.

But now begins the wait...

 

[yankeefan24]

I've noticed something with apple. Everytime i get something from them, in less than a month later, they release something that i want more. including fixing things i didn't like. most evident with the nano. i got a nano, i liked it, the video comes out, i like that more. So my prediction is, the release the MacBook Pro, and in a few weeks, they will release the MacBook TURBO. Better than pro, it will be similar, but it will have a 2 GHz core duo, completely redisigned, 3 USB ports, a built in projector, etc. etc. That is what i would buy. I changed my mind on the Pro, not until the Turbo comes out or the Rev. B.

 

[devman]

As for the lack of a dual-layer DVD burner, SHAME ON APPLE! Every other company ships a DL burner with their laptops, and so did Apple with the last G4 Powerbook revision. To downgrade is stupid, because this is a mainstream technology that people will actually use, not like dial-up (which you can still use on these macs, but with the adapter- no reason to get upset, folks).

-Jim

I don't care about the DL burner. Anyway, as has been pointed out in this thread, not every other company ships a DL burner with their laptops. The Thinkpad T43 for example. The reason cited was that the DL drives are 13mm thick and the drive like the Macbook and Thinkpad use are 9mm thick. See https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/2045916/

 

[devman]

It's likely 8-10 weeks before a new laptop arrives on this users doorstep (due to start shipping in 6, but I'm sure there will be a minor backlog as well).

Hopefully Adobe will ship a Universal pretty soon, esp. with their desire to not let Aperture steal Photoshop's thunder!

Aperture is not a Photoshop competitor.

Adobe last public statements about universal were "their next regular product cycle" which means end of 2006 or early 2007. Hopefully, what's happening with the speed of the transition by Apple (and others) will pressure Adobe to do something sooner.

 

[gnasher729]

I speculated that that was probably not the case, since "pros" like myself and others use computers with similar speed as a mini. Therefore, if it is unusable for a new laptop, and not unusable for a current laptop, it probably runs better on a current laptop (or similar). Obviously this whole topic depends on your definition of "usable".
Got it?

Pros run Photoshop on a 2.5 GHz dual core, dual processor G5 Powermac with two 30 inch screens. Poor pros run Photoshop on a 2 GHz dual core G5 Powermac with a single 23 inch screen, and they suffer.

 

[iEdd]

Reading through this I just realised how F***** screwed UK customers are getting. My recommendation, buy a US one. From eBay or otherwise. All you'd need is the UK charger.

 

[gnasher729]

Basically, in order to really take advantage of the Dual Core, you need applications that has code compiled to run certain tasks in parallel to each other. As the translated programs are not compiled for Intel processors, there is a good chance that the Rosetta translator would not know how to make use of the two processors.

Of course, I might be underestimating the power of Rosetta, but in my view, it is very unlikely to really take advantage of the two cores.

You are underestimating Rosetta. Rosetta translates PowerPC code into Intel code. After that translation, it is just plain ordinary Intel code. It is not quite as good as code translated directly by a compiler from source code to Intel code, that is why you lose a few percent, but if the original PowerPC code could take advantage of two processors, then the translated code will take advantage of two processors in exactly the same way.

Also, if you run two applications at the same time that are both absolutely incapable of using multiple processors, then each will run on one processor at full speed. On a single processor system, they would have to share the same processor and therefore run at half speed only.

 

[gnasher729]

The 85 W power adapter is probably necessary because the chip, HD, display, fan, etc uses a lot of juice. The 65 nm process makes the system more power efficient for the processing speed but it still pulls a lot of watts, and I'll bet the CPU isn't as power hungry as the display or the DVD.

With a dual processor system, the maximum power need will be much higher than the average. If you do the same things that you used to do on a G4 Powerbook, most likely one chip will be turned off and the other will run at reduced clockspeed to safe power, and you won't notice a difference.

But then you decide to encode a DVD to H.264 on batteries :-( The G4 batteries are empty after four hours, with one third of the work done. On the dual core, the batteries are empty after three hours, and everything encrypted

 

[jbouklas]

Edited.

 

[Edwin the Elder]

Will Existing PowerBooks be discounted soon?

Sorry if this has been asked already.

Anyone know if Apple plans to discount the existing PowerBooks?

While the MacBook Pros look really interesting for power users, I suspect I'd be paying for a lot of power I really don't need. The price seems to reflect this.

The exisitng PowerBooks would likely be all I need for now, and unlike the MacBook Pro, they have S Video outs.

Alternatively I could wait for the iBook replacement.

 

[gnasher729]

Once again us Brits get screwed on the price conversion... $2,499 at the current exchange rate say $1.7 = £1,470... not £300 more at £1,779!!! Same applies to the lower spec model.

I cannot remember any new Macintosh introduced in the last ten years without someone having to rant about how expensive things are in Britain and completely forgetting that US prices are always quoted without sales tax, and UK prices are always quoted including 17.5% sales tax.