Apple Updates 13" Aluminum MacBook, Rebranded as "MacBook Pro"

[ZebraineZ]

I registered just to share how Apple took care of me. Today was Day 13 with my Unibody 13" MacBook. When I found out that the 13" got moved to the Pro line with availability of a better processor, FW, and SD card and all this for less money, I was truly disheartened about my purchase.

I called Apple up on the phone twice today; once at lunch and held for 10 minutes, then again after I got home and held for 45 minutes. Someone finally picked up and helped me. The guy said he would accept the return "this one time only" as they usually don't do returns on customized MacBooks (mine was 2.4ghz/4gb/320gb/iworks+aperture). I did have to take a 10% restocking fee hit but it still ends up being cheaper with the newer 13" MBP AND the iPod Touch deal was not available when I first purchased back on 5/21. So, I will end up with the better MBP and a free iPod Touch and save a little money too (although not saving much).

I thanked the guy thoroughly. Can't wait to get my new MPB now! I just dropped off my "old" MacBook at FedEx about 30 minutes ago. So, thanks Apple!

Was it bought with a credit card?
Did you have/need your original receipt?

I got mine straight from the apple store 2.4gzh stock config.
So... They said they would exchange it with the new ones when they get it in stock at the apple store, and I still need to get the receipt from my dads friend.
They said I have to pay a restocking fee, but I don't see the point since the new macbook pro is 100$ cheaper.

Can anyone tell me if that even makes sense? Paying 100$ more to exchange it with something 100$ less...hmm..

 

[spronkey]

I have never bought applecare on any of my mac laptops and never had an issue, as any problems I had cropped up within the first year. Then again, now that I've said this, I'm sure I'll have some crippling logic board disaster on day 366 of my new 13" ownership.

I used to subscribe to this same logic. Now I'm the owner of an 18-month old white Macbook, I decided against AppleCare because the machine hadn't had any issues, and am now suffering the wrath of Apple pricing.

Replacement motherboard + labour to fix loose ethernet port: $~2,000 NZ
New, better-spec'd white macbook: $~1,950 NZ.

Sigh. AppleCare only makes sense because of the ridiculous prices on Apple parts!

 

[PCMacUser]

This is definitely the happiest day of my life. This is such a deal. I just don't know what to do.

I'm not sure what to say... I'm so sorry.

 

[celtikmind]

Could somebody please tell me, what to do with this strange port, named audio in/out?

Don't worry, tape it over or something... They'll axe that in the next revision together with all the other stuff "no-one" uses.

Besides one thing I don't get, why have the magsafe port? No-one using that since the thing runs on battery anyway... Come on, I have to use this extra white brick battery to get 7 hours? Apple, you're getting sloppy.





Please note! As in compliance with current Apple standards this post is 'Pro'.

 

[cheesymogul]

Even if not, it's not that big of a deal to buy an external Blue Ray disc and rip the movie and save it your HDD.

Only possible with Windows! OSX still doesn't support Blu-ray, that's the real problem!!!

You can edit HD content on a Mac. You can burn BD's with Toast on a Mac, with Toast Pro short films even to ordinary DVD's (no BD drive required!).
But you can't watch BD's on your Mac! And you cannot professionally author BD on a Mac! With Adobe Encore and Toast only very basic menus with "play only" buttons are possible...

If they won't finally fix this with SL and FCS3, they are going to lose a major chunck of the professional video market to Microsoft!
Blu-ray is growing into a very strong format in corporate video and wedding video business.

 

[Mugen1516]

Was it bought with a credit card?
Did you have/need your original receipt?

I got mine straight from the apple store 2.4gzh stock config.
So... They said they would exchange it with the new ones when they get it in stock at the apple store, and I still need to get the receipt from my dads friend.
They said I have to pay a restocking fee, but I don't see the point since the new macbook pro is 100$ cheaper.

Can anyone tell me if that even makes sense? Paying 100$ more to exchange it with something 100$ less...hmm..

I used a credit card and bought through the online apple store. I just called Apple themselves and the guy set me up to do a refund and then I re-ordered the new uMBP. I didn't have to have a receipt because he could pull my order up himself.

Guess it depends on the person whether it makes sense or not. I'm one of those people that gets caught up on the latest and greatest, so it does make a difference to me. Also, the FW800 matters to me as I just bought a seagate external HD so now I can better utilize it. And the free iPod Touch doesn't hurt. In the end, I might have lost $20 or so because of having to ship the "old" macbook back but I will end up with the latest macbook pro with features that I will benefit from and the iPod.

 

[ateslik]

Put me in the group of 12" Powerbook fanatics who are FINALLY ready to upgrade.

To this day, when I travel with my Pbook G4, it still attracts attention...it continues to do the job I need it do, which is on the road GB's of photo downloads, light editing with Photoshop CS3, cataloguing and RAW correction with Lightroom, and normal travel tasks like surfing, email, maintaining my Mafia Wars..

But certainly it is groaning a little under the weight of some of this software. It runs 10.5 happily, but is shortly going to be left behind when 10.6 arrives. Plus it has had a new keyboard, a new (much bigger) hard drive when the old one crashed, a new battery, a new power input socket, and multiple power adapters...so after 5 years it is ready for replacement.

Now I have the option of a 13" unit (close enough!) retaining all the small size advantage, FW, tons of CPU horsepower, ready for Snow Leopard, backlit, longer battery, the fabulous Al. unibody fit and finish, and all at a price that is LOWER than I spent 5 years ago! Amazing value.

So count me as delighted. I was never happy with the idea of the Macbooks, white, black or even Aluminum (although that generation - shortlived - was getting closer). The 15" MBP is too big for my preference...now I have the perfect package. I was even considering a netbook Hackintosh...now I won't need to. This is a worthy successor to the famous 12" pbook G4 that has been all over the world with me.

Thanks Apple!

What he said!!

Shipment Date:
Jun 10, 2009

Delivers by:
Jun 15, 2009

Oooo! must ..... wait ...... just ... a ... little ... bit .... more.

 

[uv23]

What he said!!

Shipment Date:
Jun 10, 2009

Delivers by:
Jun 15, 2009

Oooo! must ..... wait ...... just ... a ... little ... bit .... more.

Mine is the same. I'm so excited!

 

[rfb]

Mine is the same. I'm so excited!

Mine too!! Only now I'm panicking b/c I configured it to 4 GB of Ram, and it says that there are no returns if you configure it... I'm sure I will be thrilled with it, but I still have this bad feeling that if there are any problems with these first ones I wouldn't be able to return it! Someone ease my mind, please!

 

[rfb]

Only possible with Windows! OSX still doesn't support Blu-ray, that's the real problem!!!

You can edit HD content on a Mac. You can burn BD's with Toast on a Mac, with Toast Pro short films even to ordinary DVD's (no BD drive required!).
But you can't watch BD's on your Mac! And you cannot professionally author BD on a Mac! With Adobe Encore and Toast only very basic menus with "play only" buttons are possible...


So, to edit my footage in iMovie, you're saying that I don't need an external BD drive, just Toast?

 

[djharris]

bought it!

pulled the trigger yesterday morning and bought my first mac.

13" MBP, base model except for 4GB RAM and a 500 gig HD, custom configured.

order placed 7:22AM Tues 6/9 pacific time...

did anyone else... was it custom, when did you order, did it ship yet? I figure lotsa other people were waiting till WWDC like me/us, so I/we may have to wait a while.

BTW the manual is up for it. Looks like RAM and HD upgrades should be pretty easy (good news!) which bodes well for when 8 GB of RAM for it is affordable. Here's the manual link

 

[dkny3362]

I can totally understand people being upset, but what this poster said hits the mark...they bought it sooner and got to use it and enjoy it rather than waiting. It's all a gamble with any product. For me, I had a feeling that they were going to bring firewire back after seeing the petitions and having even the sales people in the Apple Store say that they had no idea why Apple chose to get rid of firewire. I was torn between the White which I really didn't want, and using USB (my camera does support both, but I really wanted firewire.) I was willing to wait it out as long as possible especially when the buyers guide said "approaching the end of the cycle." The guy at the store said that they wouldn't be upgrading anytime soon, but my gut told me differently. This was a pain b/c my iMac crashed, and I was forced to bring my Dell (yuk!) home from work each day so that I could at least have Internet. I really missed my Mac and almost caved a few times while it was getting fixed. IMO Apple should upgrade (for a reasonable charge) for people who bought within the last month or two. For everyone else, you bought it, enjoyed it, and you can now sell or just keep enjoying it the way you were before.

I purchased my macbook a little over a month ago, i had to customize the 13.3 inch to get a larger hard-drive. I had no idea there was a new macbook coming out and the 10 times I went to the apple store, nobody mentioned it either. I'm very upset and feel I have every right to be considering I paid an extra $400! Apple should do something for people that purchased their macbooks within the past 1-2 months. This is my first computer with apple since making the switch from pc and I can already tell you i'm not happy about this! I love my macbook but am disappointed in Apple right now. I understand things change and technology gets updated, but I also thought a new Macbook wouldn't be released until November as this one was this past November.

 

[jpcrockett]

pulled the trigger yesterday morning and bought my first mac.

13" MBP, base model except for 4GB RAM and a 500 gig HD, custom configured.

order placed 7:22AM Tues 6/9 pacific time...

did anyone else... was it custom, when did you order, did it ship yet? I figure lotsa other people were waiting till WWDC like me/us, so I/we may have to wait a while.

BTW the manual is up for it. Looks like RAM and HD upgrades should be pretty easy (good news!) which bodes well for when 8 GB of RAM for it is affordable. Here's the manual link

bought mine at about 4:00 mountain time on Monday. i ordered the 13" base model (i'll upgrade the memory myself and will put in a 7200 rpm drive). shipped yesterday, scheduled for delivery tomorrow!

 

[Red-red]

I've sent my feedback in. It seems the only way they will take any notice is if we write in as politely as we can.

 

[wh!plash]

I can't quite "get" the concern about not having replaceable batteries that some people voice. The last time I felt I needed replaceable batteries in a Mac was with my old Duo.

The new Macs can take 1000 charges; that's like once a day for 3 years before they show degradation. Apple sees them good for five years. I don't know about anyone else here on this board, but who really doesn't upgrade every three years or so anyway...just to enjoy the speed and other improvements??

The problem is it makes it harder for us enterprise IT guys to sell the Mac in our organization. Lets face it, not every battery we get lasts the full manufacturer quoted lifetime. We have macbooks that are only a few months old that get battery failure all the time (we buy 52 macbooks a week).

A dead battery is no longer a matter of stopping by an Apple store. It means an employee dead in the water while their machine comes in for service.

 

[djharris]

The problem is it makes it harder for us enterprise IT guys to sell the Mac in our organization. Lets face it, not every battery we get lasts the full manufacturer quoted lifetime. We have macbooks that are only a few months old that get battery failure all the time (we buy 52 macbooks a week).

A dead battery is no longer a matter of stopping by an Apple store. It means an employee dead in the water while their machine comes in for service.

assuming the batteries in question aren't user-replaceable like they are on the whitebooks...

you could estimate how many employees you have "dead in the water" at any given time, and buy some extra macbook's for loaners. Even if they don't have access to the stuff on their hard drive, with web-based mail options they could have some level of productivity.

Sounds like quite the organization though from an IT standpoint, from the size and number of mac's.

 

[Eric S.]

I had no idea there was a new macbook coming out and the 10 times I went to the apple store, nobody mentioned it either. I'm very upset and feel I have every right to be considering I paid an extra $400! Apple should do something for people that purchased their macbooks within the past 1-2 months.

People at Apple stores generally don't have any more idea than anyone else about new product releases. Apple is very secretive about product roadmaps and dates, I would say overly secretive. That's what makes sites like MR so valuable. There were any number of threads here in the past month or two on "should I buy now or wait?" and every one of them had responses advising to at least wait to see what WWDC would bring. In the case of Apple, reference to the user community is a must.

Sorry the timing was bad for you but you still got the system you intended to buy, and it's a great computer. I don't intend to upgrade mine for quite a while. Although it's probably worth the effort to see if the store manager would give you some kind of compensation considering the circumstances.

 

[uv23]

I purchased my macbook a little over a month ago, i had to customize the 13.3 inch to get a larger hard-drive. I had no idea there was a new macbook coming out ...

I've said it before and I'll say it again: people should use the buyer's guides that MR graciously provides. They're an excellent resource. The MBs and MBPs were all well past their average update cycle when this update came out, and with WWDC approaching, an update was all but guaranteed. Information + patience = happiness.

 

[Lara F]

I left Windows about 2 years ago when I bought my Imac but I had an old Windows laptop as my traveling (work) companion. I waited for the Unibody to come out but was really disappointed with the absence of Firewire, as many were. I waited some more and continued to read the Forums and Apples response like (Firewire is for PROs) (Firewire is dead) etc etc etc. I also read many comments here like (get a USB camcorder as thats the way to go) (USB3 is the future and will be compatible with USB2) (Apple will never put Firewire on the Macbook) so I bought one in March. Three months later and ... Its a PRO now its got Firewire 800 and its got an SD slot.

Should I be mad, hell YES.

When Tiger was released back in 2005, Apple updated their iMacs to a relatively sweet price-to-spec point (kinda like the 13" MBP now). The combo got me to take the plunge and get my first Mac. I read the forums and the consensus was that it was a great buy.

Not 60 days later (probably barely a month) Apple announced the switch to Intel at WWDC.

Point is, there's always a chance of being burned no matter how much research you do.

 

[rfb]

pulled the trigger yesterday morning and bought my first mac.

13" MBP, base model except for 4GB RAM and a 500 gig HD, custom configured.

order placed 7:22AM Tues 6/9 pacific time...

did anyone else... was it custom, when did you order, did it ship yet? I figure lotsa other people were waiting till WWDC like me/us, so I/we may have to wait a while.

BTW the manual is up for it. Looks like RAM and HD upgrades should be pretty easy (good news!) which bodes well for when 8 GB of RAM for it is affordable. Here's the manual link

On the website it says, "ships within 24 hours" but I ordered the 4GB, and it said, "ships in 1-3 business days." I probably should have just gotten one in the store, so I could have it right now and then added the extra RAM later. I'm still freaked out about the no return policy.

 

[rfb]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: people should use the buyer's guides that MR graciously provides. They're an excellent resource. The MBs and MBPs were all well past their average update cycle when this update came out, and with WWDC approaching, an update was all but guaranteed. Information + patience = happiness.

Well said. I agree that I would be mad at MYSELF for not waiting, and I am so grateful that I read the forums and went with my instincts to wait. Like I've said before it was not easy for me to wait. I had to use a Dell!! I just can't see being so mad at Apple for making a better, cheaper product sooner rather than later. If you bought yours recently, give them a chance and see if there is anything they can do for you. It sounds like a lot of people have just had to pay restocking fees.

 

[djharris]

On the website it says, "ships within 24 hours" but I ordered the 4GB, and it said, "ships in 1-3 business days." I probably should have just gotten one in the store, so I could have it right now and then added the extra RAM later. I'm still freaked out about the no return policy.

Mine, ordered 6/9 7:22AM, says this (same as you)

Ships: 1 - 3 business days
Delivers: Jun 11 - Jun 17

Mine had 4GB RAM and a 500 gig HD. Hey, at least we didn't want a solid state drive, those are taking waaay longer!

Return policy shouldn't be that big a deal. Assume you want to keep it, they have to provide warranty service anyway. Adding RAM is easy, adding a HD takes more time as you have to backup/restore data and the OS and so forth. (Yes, time machine should make it easy tho if you have a spare drive!)

Besides, replacing the HD and RAM doesn't void your warranty, and crucial.com has a free lifetime warranty on their RAM anyway and have competitive prices. (You can't get your RAM/HD serviced under Applecare if you didn't buy it from them, of course, but if you did, you can)

What if your RAM or HD fails a week after your 3-year applecare expires? buy another one for peanuts, or spring for a solid state if you want, restore backups if necessary, and you've still got a nice solid 3-year old computer. (Regardless of whether or not you would actually want to use a 3-year old computer, you can let someone else use it, sell it, or whatever. )

All around, good choice!

 

[Demosthenes X]

I purchased my macbook a little over a month ago, i had to customize the 13.3 inch to get a larger hard-drive. I had no idea there was a new macbook coming out and the 10 times I went to the apple store, nobody mentioned it either. I'm very upset and feel I have every right to be considering I paid an extra $400! Apple should do something for people that purchased their macbooks within the past 1-2 months. This is my first computer with apple since making the switch from pc and I can already tell you i'm not happy about this! I love my macbook but am disappointed in Apple right now. I understand things change and technology gets updated, but I also thought a new Macbook wouldn't be released until November as this one was this past November.

Then stop whining. I bought my MacBook in August 2006 - two months later they switched to Core 2 Duo. Instead of whining, I looked at my computer and thought: "Does it still do what I need it to? Yes? Good." And that was the end of it.

It's technology. It changes. Get over it.

 

[djharris]

It's technology. It changes. Get over it.

Nice thing about Ubuntu is that you always know that a new version will come out every April and October (except like Dapper, and when that happens, they'll tell you as soon as they know it will slip) Furthermore, we always know that every fourth release will be kept maintained with security updates for 3 years on the desktop, and 5 years on the server. Every release other than every 4th one is supported for 18 months. And even if I had noooo idea what the release schedule was, I couldn't complain too much if a new version came out the week after I installed it because I didn't actually pay anything for the product itself.

Sometimes I wish Apple would take a page from the Ubuntu playbook, but then again, it wouldn't be nearly as fun, would it?

Just my $0.02

 

[PhixionFilms]

This is exciting news. That means the refurbs are only 949. for the aluminum macbooks