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dclocke said:
It amazes me that people who are so opposed to discussion of upcoming Merom notebooks still click on the links to the forums with titles using the terms "Merom" and "MacBook Pro". If you're a regular on the forums, sure, I can see how constant discussion about the "next" platform might get old. So ignore them. Do something productive with your time.

That isn't exactly what I said, I don't have a problem with people discussing new and upcoming products and features and when we might see them. Count me in.

Its the people that are getting so worked up, annoyed at Apple, threatening to dump the platform and move to Windows, claiming Apple are three months behind Windows systems and generally bitching.

Its all pointless as the same people will start up again with the next technology advances as soon as the Macbook range is updated with Merom.
 
babyj said:
Its the people that are getting so worked up, annoyed at Apple, threatening to dump the platform and move to Windows, claiming Apple are three months behind Windows systems and generally bitching.

agreed, 100%.
 
HiRez said:
The aluminum design has been been pretty good (although I personally like the Titanium design better, with the dark keys that don't get glared when light is shining on them). But, the Mac pro laptop line is in dire need on a system refresh. The design is getting a little stale.

Here's what I'd like to see:

-- How about some new textures for the case, such as brushed copper? I think that would look sharp. Or tinted aluminum, including brushed black metal. The brushings could even have subtle anisotropic patterns visible when tilted into and away from light sources, like circular rings, houndstooth, herringbone, starburst, etc. Imagine a blue-greenish "surfer" MBP with a "wave" pattern brushed into it, or a Boston Celtics green or two-toned wood-colored model with a brushed parquet pattern. This would be some real cutting-edge design that no other laptop vendor could easily copy.
-- 256 MB graphics, Radeon X1800 Mobility or better
-- HDMI output
-- SDI input and dual SDI video output (fill + key). Yes, input. This would be fantastic for mobile video professionals.
-- 1920x1200 resolution on the 17" model (this will become important with the resolution-independent UI in Leopard)
-- 1680x1050 resolution on the 15" model
-- 12"-13" model with 1440x900 resolution and backlit keyboard
-- Dual Firewire ports on separate controllers, with no shared bandwidth. One 400 Mbps, one 400/800?
-- Three USB2 ports on separate controllers.

The x1800 would require a machine that's a half inch thicker.
 
generik said:
Apple's reliability? Care to elaborate more specifically? Good high quality well designed never dying logic boards that run at 40-ish degrees Celsius for one? :p

Well I have had 5 PC laptops in the past 7 years, through work and personal use. Other than the IBM, I have had various unacceptable problems from frequent crashes to jacked-up touchpads that go where they please. My second hand PB has yet to do anything, not one crash. Also, I have taken apart my laptops (b/c I am a geek like that) and I must say that Apple laptops are a work of pure attention to detail. Finally, just read consumer reports for reliability. Apple smokes everyone. But, I also think that a lot of issues arise in PC's due to people not knowing how to maintain their computers and their computer's software.
 
babyj said:
Its all pointless as the same people will start up again with the next technology advances as soon as the Macbook range is updated with Merom.
Don't you get that it's special with a Rev.B, at least that's how I view a Merom version, of Macbook Pro.
When using machines for professional reasons it's no good jumping on the first machines, and seeing what happened I'm glad I didn't buy the first Macbook Pro's. And there are a lot of people that have thought this way I believe, so this is a special update that a lot of professional users have been waiting for. By all means, they may have fixed the current Macbook Pro's a long time ago, but when I'm finally going to upgrade form my Powerbook G4 now, I'd be stupid to buy something that would be old in 1 week.
And now I won't be bitching about anything in 2-3 years time, as I got what I need when I buy a Merom Macbook Pro. I've had Macs for 16 years now, and never been nagging on an update like I am now, so it's not all the same every time something new comes. At least not for a lot of us.
 
p0intblank said:
I can see this happening. The MacBook will now be available in five colors! ;)
I wonder what flavor its GPU will be? GMA950 or something else? Apple will use more then just CPU cycles to show the difference? Same old 950 or something new?
 
Leoff said:
It gets annoying. Why? Because it's true and most people don't want to admit it.

In a few cases here and there, the extra processor power/speed is going to help. But for a majority of people buying a MacBook, they're not going to be burning home-made DVD's, doing intense Music compositions, or using it for hard-core gaming. They're going to SURF and WRITE.

As for the "resale" value, again, most people who are buying a used MacBook are NOT going to ask "is it a Merom?" They're going to ask how nice the case is, how much use it's gotten, and how much it is, and that's it.

Everybody likes to play "ooo, I'm the hard-core computing whiz and I need the BEST out there", but I bet you if you took an honest poll out there of everyone who's answered this thread, you'd find at least 75% these Apple fans have no need for for the extra speed, they just want it because it's "cool" and "fast" and it's the latest thing out there.

You may be right to a certain extent, but l i assumed that most people who want a Macbook Pro are going to be using it for intensive stuff - I was under the impressions that Macs are the platform of choice for a lot of graphics professionals etc so the high end line would have a lot of those kind of ppl buying. Granted the difference in speed will probably be fairly minimal, but when you are spending a load of cash on a top-of-the line notebook, why shouldnt you expect to have the latest and greatest technology available? It also seems quite likely they might either make them cheaper, or offer more RAM on the base model etc. so buying now unless you really have to seems foolish.

Im also not sure about your point on the resale value, i would imagine pro users probably would be concerned about which processor it had in it.
 
mustangs said:
I purchased my 1.83GHz Mac Book with 1GHz of RAM on Sep 07, and apple sent me an email that it was going to be shipped on the 18th. Today I got this email from Apple "
To Our Valued Apple Customer:


Thank you for your recent order with the Apple Store online.

We are unable to ship your MacBook by the date given when you placed the
order. It is expected to ship on or before 9/27/06. We sincerely
apologize for
any inconvenience this delay may cause."

If the delay is because of the chips then I will be happy, if it's not because of the new merom chips then it's just lame to wait that long.

It's new logicboards, all of the current ones are going to people who already have Macbooks and need them repaired. The new Rev of logicboards fixes the RSD issue.
 
teme said:
I wish this board would block automatically "************" and replace it with "************" so this tired so-called-joke would end someday.

generik said:

Nice :D

I'm going to be p*ssed right off if Apple roll out a measly chip update as this latest rumour states. They need to keep up in order to attract the switchers....& keep them. Switching can go both ways of course. Let's see some other MBP updates too, so the wait translates to something positive.

@babyj

I'll "bitch & switch" because I go where I feel I can get competitive advantage (rolling many aspects into this). I'm bitching first as a courtesy to Apple. Is it better if people slip off quietly & buy PCs? If community unhappiness hastens some kind of Macbook attention from Apple then that's great.
 
babyj said:
That isn't exactly what I said, I don't have a problem with people discussing new and upcoming products and features and when we might see them. Count me in.

Its the people that are getting so worked up, annoyed at Apple, threatening to dump the platform and move to Windows, claiming Apple are three months behind Windows systems and generally bitching.

Its all pointless as the same people will start up again with the next technology advances as soon as the Macbook range is updated with Merom.

There's something to be said for that. I apologize if I misunderstood your post...
 
grum said:
You may be right to a certain extent, but l i assumed that most people who want a Macbook Pro are going to be using it for intensive stuff - I was under the impressions that Macs are the platform of choice for a lot of graphics professionals etc so the high end line would have a lot of those kind of ppl buying. Granted the difference in speed will probably be fairly minimal, but when you are spending a load of cash on a top-of-the line notebook, why shouldnt you expect to have the latest and greatest technology available? It also seems quite likely they might either make them cheaper, or offer more RAM on the base model etc. so buying now unless you really have to seems foolish.

Im also not sure about your point on the resale value, i would imagine pro users probably would be concerned about which processor it had in it.

Note that I, and the previous commenter who I quoted, have been talking about MacBooks, not MacBook Pros.
 
Well, the store's not down. My theory that an update would happen today looks to be bunk. Couple with this story, and I have no idea what to think now. I'm completely perplexed. Oh well, I guess we'll just see what happens at Photokina.
 
What a non-story. Basically no performance increases except for slightly faster chips. No other improvements mentioned. How about FW800 for 15", how about DL for 15", this is simply a money maker. :(
 
All you people who keep whining about "But I want 64 bit!!!" need to step back and think about what possible benefit a 64-bit system will give you. Those of you who need to address more than 4 gigs of RAM are excused. The rest of you, tell me WHY you need 64-bit computing.

When they go Merom I want the MBP's and MB's to have useful, practical features. More ports, user-removable hard drive, better battery life, better video card, stuff like that. I'm waiting just as impatiently as everyone else, but the hype needs to be toned way down.
 
News rumors: MR reports that new posts are going to appear in its website. Those include reports of angry individuals complaining about issues such as: my screen has white blobs, my (sony) battery exploded, I licked my magsafe and I got zapped!, my laptop is yellow, I found a piece of plastic surrounding the cpu fan, for god's sake! learn how to spell, we want Core 3 Duo new laptops now, Intel macs = apple's biggest mistake, my moo cow, my mbp whines... again, I am on my fifth MBP, I found a dead chinese cockroach inside the box, etc.
 
Perceived Value

As a fomer Mac user, who had Macs from 1987 through about 1997, and did most of my graduate school work on a Quadra in that period, I am looking forward to returning to the fold. For a variety of personal and professional reasons I need and will continue to need a high-end gaming rig, meaning a Windows box, but for my academic work I really want to switch to a Mac Book Pro to replace my aging Compaq laptop that I use as my primary office machine. I want a machine I can carry about, that is easy to use, and that will be more useful for me in doing classroom presentations, working with some video and audio stuff (again for presentations). So a MBP seems ideal.

But I'm also a computer fan, reasonably knowledgeable, and reasonably savvy. I've built machines before, routinely do hardware and software tweaking and upgrading, and have had multiple computers of various sorts since my first back in early 1983. That's the main reason the delay in getting the new MBPs out is frustrating. I don't need a 64bit processor right now. I don't need the extra 20% or whatever it is performance boost. But I also don't want to drop $2500 on a notebook that is neither leading-edge nor a price-performance leader within it's own market segment.

In buying PCs, I usually buy a step below the best, because the price performance ratio is very good. Until Apple upgrades the MBPs, I can't do that, as there is only, um, one choice really. I also can't get the latest and greatest, C2D, either. So while the current Yonah MBP is 100% fine for my needs, I'm reluctant to drop a wad of cash on it when I know that is will either be 1) superceded by a newer model I'd buy for the same price, or 2) reduced in price to help clear out the old stock. Either of those options would work for me at this time, but neither is available.

Part of buying something like a Mac is the satisfaction one gets from buying a well-engineered piece of gear that works and looks and feels like a sophisticated work of technology. The current MBPs lose a lot of that when you know you're buying something that is in the last days of its product life cycle, even if you also know it doesn't make any difference in day to day usability.

Luckily, my old machine is working fine, so I can wait, but still, bah....
 
notjustjay said:
All you people who keep whining about "But I want 64 bit!!!" need to step back and think about what possible benefit a 64-bit system will give you. Those of you who need to address more than 4 gigs of RAM are excused. The rest of you, tell me WHY you need 64-bit computing.
There is a general unease about the AMD64 instruction set. We are already seeing a few programs that only run on Intel Macs. What's to stop developers from ignoring the x86 target in new software, especially on the high end, given the short sales cycle of x86-only Macs? The Mac Pro didn't even have a 32-bit version.
 
notjustjay said:
All you people who keep whining about "But I want 64 bit!!!" need to step back and think about what possible benefit a 64-bit system will give you. Those of you who need to address more than 4 gigs of RAM are excused. The rest of you, tell me WHY you need 64-bit computing.

Need, no. Want, yes. I got significant performance improvements from 64-bit binaries on both development & server machines. Memory was not the issue, throughput was. Now, why do you need 32-bit when Apple should be releasing 64-bit Merom MBPs?
 
HecubusPro said:
Well, the store's not down. My theory that an update would happen today looks to be bunk. Couple with this story, and I have no idea what to think now. I'm completely perplexed. Oh well, I guess we'll just see what happens at Photokina.

The one good side to today's non-event is that I have a little longer to graduate from 'macrumors newbie' :eek: before I'm outta here to play sorry work with my new MBP :) (my plan is to change my moniker to ExLax when I make 'macrumors regular')
 
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