If the next MBP doesnt have i5, Blu Ray & ATI say goodbye to highend consumers Apple!

[hundert]

Should I buy a new MacBook Pro this week or should I wait and see if the new intel chip will be shipping?

WAIT!!! Do not buy this two year old performance. Unless your work requires one very soon - but even in this case I would get one from ebay.

So, WAIT!! Even if it will take a month or more. I am making a thread about Why we should wait.

Um...fail! Really, no one is putting caps on anything?

Check this out

And this!

Enjoy!

I just read 250GB cap for comcast. That is way beyond of my reach. 250gb cap a month reasonably cannot be an argument for the problem.

Please, stay logical! Thank you.

 

[twl130]

Should I buy a new MacBook Pro this week or should I wait and see if the new intel chip will be shipping?

Switch over to this thread... https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/668803/ and have fun reading the 6500+ posts, ha.

 

[Rogzilla]

I just read 250GB cap for comcast. That is way beyond of my reach. 250gb cap a month reasonably cannot be an argument for the problem.

Please, stay logical! Thank you.

Dude, I wasn't taking sides. I was just pointing out that you are talking out of your ass here.

And guess what, 250 GB is very easy to reach. Comcast has already slowed my service a couple times cause I went to high with my online gaming, downloading movies and videos and music, emails with large attachments, ect. And, the more people you have using a single connection, the quicker you will reach that cap, so my wife helps with that. And that was before they officially said they were capping service. A LOT of people have been capped who have very active "digital lives".

I wont say if BD or Digital DL is the future, cause I don't pretend to be psychic, but I will call out people who don't know what they are talking about.

 

[hundert]

Dude, I wasn't taking sides. I was just pointing out that you are talking out of your ass here.

And guess what, 250 GB is very easy to reach. Comcast has already slowed my service a couple times cause I went to high with my online gaming, downloading movies and videos and music, emails with large attachments, ect. And, the more people you have using a single connection, the quicker you will reach that cap, so my wife helps with that. And that was before they officially said they were capping service. A LOT of people have been capped who have very active "digital lives".

I wont say if BD or Digital DL is the future, cause I don't pretend to be psychic, but I will call out people who don't know what they are talking about.

What are you talking about!!!
I am staying friendly.

You say: Comcast slowed down your service.
Cap says: 250g, no slowdown.

It gives me a brain short circuit! What does a cap has to do with slow down? Plus comcast allows (Ive just read on dslreports.com) to step over a limit once a year.

Plus, same source says: "Currently, the median monthly data usage by our residential customers is approximately 2 - 3 GB." That is what I was saying in the last post.

In your family, it might be the case, but for 99% of users, it is not and business goes for average, the rest will be neglected (utilitarism). When you said "a lot of people" you really meant individuals.

Can I ask: how many times have you reached 250? Now without lying.

 

[Rogzilla]

What are you talking about!!!
I am staying friendly.

You say: Comcast slowed down your service.
Cap says: 250g, no slowdown.

It gives me a brain short circuit! What does a cap has to do with slow down? Plus comcast allows (Ive just read on dslreports.com) to step over a limit once a year.

Plus, same source says: "Currently, the median monthly data usage by our residential customers is approximately 2 - 3 GB." That is what I was saying in the last post.

In your family, it might be the case, but for 99% of users, it is not and business goes for average, the rest will be neglected (utilitarism). When you said "a lot of people" you really meant individuals.

Can I ask: how many times have you reached 250? Now without lying.

This is what slowing down my speed has had to do with caps. Again, this was before they announced "caps". This is just when they feel I am being too active, but don't pretend for a moment that it isn't tied in with it. All the addition of a cap means is that they will charge more as well as slow down my service.

99% of users? Where do you get that number from? (This is what I meant about talking out of your ass. I am not being mean here, or unfriendly. That is what that is called. When you don't know the actual information and so just make up things to support your point, it is called talking out of your ass.)

And of course by "a lot of people" I mean individuals. Who else would I mean, hedgehogs? A lot of individuals are having their speed throttled because they use the internet "too much".

I can't say for certain how many times I have gone over 250, but I can tell you that my service has been severly slowed down (ie-so slow it is like I have no internet at all) at least 4 times in 2009, maybe 5. I didn't know what was going on until I did research and realized it was always on months when I used the internet a lot.

 

[wikoogle]

High end consumers frequently eat through that 250GB bandwidth cap. And it's precisely these consumers that have the disposable income to buy higher end Apple products and they often do. The average person buys the $1100 MBP if they want a laptop. It's the high end consumers that buy the $2500 MBP with all the specs maxed out. So it's those high end consumers that account for Apple's highest profit margins and precisely those same consumers that are likely to have blu ray movies and want to be able to watch them on their laptops.

Digital Distribution isn't anywhere close to there yet. I have 10 MBS internet, but it never actually performs at that speed.. I got Netflix 2 months ago. Netflix offers SD resolution movies for streaming online. And yet, the movies still sometimes lag, or screech to a halt. And this is with SD content, and with a higher end internet speed than most people subscribe to. HD content needs atleast 6 times a much bandwidth as SD content.

Assuming each HD movie in 12.5 GB, a 250 GB cap is eaten up with just 20 movies. Of course, that's not feasible since you'll be using up most of that cap on your work and such. So yes, the cap is yet another limitation.

I frequently exceed 250GBs of usage, almost all tech savvy higher end consumers do. I don't think you realize how much data you use just browsing online. Every single picture, or ad or graphic image that you stumble across while browsing the web eats up a few megabytes of bandwidth.

Between downloads, hulu.com, work, justin.tv etc etc, I probably eat through 250 gb every week. Even without the downloads or hulu, I probably eat up close to that much every month. And this was all before I ever got netflix.

And yes, my speed does get slowed down frequently by my ISP. Many ISPs do that already.

Now with Netflix I use up even more bandwidth, and keep in mind this is by streaming SD content only. I'm fortunate to live in a big city where I was able to opt for an ISP without bandwidth caps. But even then, with all the slowdowns I get, streaming HD content isn't realistic for me. Besides, I like to have physical copies of the movies that I own, many people do. And I also don't like having to wait whenever I want to watch a movie.

If I ever move to a smaller city, I'll likely be stuck with an ISP that does cap bandwidth, at which point, not buying/streaming HD content won't even be a preference. It's be a requirement.

 

[fs454]

Blu-Ray and all optical media should be removed.

 

[bsizz234]

Blu-Ray and all optical media should be removed.

agreed, with the caveat being that the external superdrive drops in price a little bit. (or even is included with a new mbp) I still want to be able to rip the DVDs that I buy for $5 from walmart or $3 from the movie rental place... (legal movies ftw). for me, blu-ray is irrelevant until they can match these prices.

 

[quadG5guy]

Blu-Ray requires 1920x1080 screen resolution and a dolby digital surround audio system to fully realize its potential. The vast majority of new laptops have neither of these. Watching Blu-Ray movies on a laptop is pointless.

Additionally, with most blu-ray movies costing DOUBLE (or more) what the DVD costs, I'll be sticking with DVD thankyouverymuch. I have a Blu-Ray player and 1080p TV in my living room.... for when the blu-ray disc prices finally come down into the realm of reality. Blu-ray disc sales are in the toilet right now, and its because the discs are all way over priced.

 

[spyker3292]

Apple has recently purchased the HD-DVD standard from Toshiba and they will be incorporating that into the next MBP instead of Blu-Ray.

Hahahahahahahahahhahaha

Sorry, but I doubt Apple would include a dead media form in their computers. The main reason why Blu-Ray isn't in Macs right now is because they seem unsure of it's success (or so I've heard).

 

[ae3265]

Intel i5/i7 Processor - Yes - Certainly, a quad-core processor would be nice, as long as battery life doesn't take too much of a hit.

HDMI - There really is no more room on the left side for another port - Worthless from my POV. I'd rather keep ExpressCard, or maybe another FW800 port.

A HDTV Tuner & PVR Functionality - Never, especially in a laptop - Again, worthless in my POV. If you want it, you can get it in USB form.

Blu Ray - And those who want to ditch the Optical drive...Some of us have a requirement for the drive. Now, if it's an option, fine.

eSATA - Might be useful.

What might make some sense is a "media consumer" version versus a "professional consumer" version. Myself, I'm a consultant in the UNIX realm and so I need optical drives for installing software, Ethernet, FW, USB and actually ExpressCard has some uses. The point being that for me, the MBP is a tool first. Watching media is a secondary benefit.

The problem is that with too many models, choice becomes more confusing for many consumers. Too few and you lose customers to other products.

Honestly, if your laptop is for watching movies, well, a cheap Windows machine might do the job. OTOH, I suspect that many of us who work with our laptops have a lower need for some of the media functions. That the specs of my current 17" MBP make a very good compromise between meeting my work needs and being able to watch media while I'm on the road, I'm good.

More cores, more memory for running more VM's faster, that's what's going to interest me the most.

I still hold that just because some manufacturers have more gizmos on their products I'm not interested in dealing with Windows, nor the lower quality of those products, nor the crappy support.

At this point, I don't see any reason for me to abandon Apple products based on specs. This is one high-end consumer who disagrees on many points with the OP.

Cheers!

 

[hippo206]

Blu-Ray requires 1920x1080 screen resolution and a dolby digital surround audio system to fully realize its potential. The vast majority of new laptops have neither of these. Watching Blu-Ray movies on a laptop is pointless.

Additionally, with most blu-ray movies costing DOUBLE (or more) what the DVD costs, I'll be sticking with DVD thankyouverymuch. I have a Blu-Ray player and 1080p TV in my living room.... for when the blu-ray disc prices finally come down into the realm of reality. Blu-ray disc sales are in the toilet right now, and its because the discs are all way over priced.

1 billion in blu-ray sales in 2009 does not equal "blu-ray disc sales are in the toilet".

For new releases, amazon usually sells blu-ray for 16.99 and dvd for 14.99 (sometimes for 12.99, but that is not the norm). The only time you get a tremendous dvd value is for older movies.

 

[bsizz234]

More cores, more memory for running more VM's faster, that's what's going to interest me the most.

after just setting up my first VM to run windows without rebooting yesterday, and kicking into 5GB of swap, I would second this notion.

 

[quadG5guy]

after just setting up my first VM to run windows without rebooting yesterday, and kicking into 5GB of swap, I would second this notion.

x2, My MBP is maxed out on RAM and still swaps like crazy when VMware is running. I need 8 GB at least in the new MBP to make it worth upgrading.

 

[Jazojas12]

I would have to agree with almost everything, at least if these things were an option.

--If it was possible I would like to have an HDMI port because for *myself* it is a standard among my camera, TV, etc.
--I would definitely like more battery, not that I need it or use it a lot but why not?
--Higher resolution iSight would be nice, again not that I need it or use it but why not? I don't think the cost would be reflected onto consumers at a crazy price.
--I can't really see myself using the HDTV Tuner, however, I could see 3G built in as an option, not standard if you are an on the go person. But that would be solved with ExpressCard.
--Oleophobic coating would be nice on the screen, I always get prints around the edges when closing the lid.
--I would like an SSD but it is not cost effective for me, the benefits do not outweigh price. I don't shutdown often, don't do things that need faster read/write. I do like that they use less power though.
--I would like USB 3.0 if the price was the same, I don't have a problem with transfer speeds as is.
--I would like support for BD as an option also. Even if I could have a portable drive I would take it over a built-in DVD drive. I don't use my optical all that much and would prefer greater performance to having it. I do have about 100 BDs. I'm not sold on the let's download everything. I'm not a huge downloader but my ISP like most has different tiers for service. For example I have the lowest cable which is about 1Mb/300Kbps and works fine for me. I can't justify paying $50 more a month to have 5x the speed which I would take advantage of maybe a handful of times a month. If ISPs made one service I would be all for downloading movies; granted downloading isn't pay per download. When I purchase my Blu-rays I can watch it when I want, as often as I want and it won't cost but once. Most PPV things are just that, you pay-per-view. They may charge less but you pay every time you use it. Now if they have a rent/buy option that would be cool. I would assume the buy option would be cheaper than physical media too. Another problem I have with that now is competition, there will little if any. That's a whole other story and I've gone far from the BD argument now.

Apple would lose me if not for OSX and a beautiful laptop design. I really hate Windows and all of the PCs that I like because of specs look like cheap plastic.

My $.02

EDIT: I wouldn't mind see a 14" either.

 

[JamesGorman]

-Obviously we need i5 or i7 in the next MBP, thats a given.
-Blu Ray is not going to happen, and that does not really bother me. As far as Im concerned, Id rather download everything.
-4GB ram standard is good, and hopefully 8GB will come down in price. I wouldn't mind if apple went up to the 1333mhz ddr3 though.
-Larger HDD standard. anything that is 160GB -> 250GB, Anything that is currently 250GB -> 320GB and anything that is at 320GB could probably stay the same. Thats already quite a bit of space.
-include an apple remote
-SSD's will come down in price, until than, they wont be standard. The price per GB is still far to high.
-A tv tuner is just stupid, if you want one, get one yourself.
-USB 3.0 would be good, but it won't happen this refresh. There is still not enough products that use it to add it. I read somewhere that it is shaped a bit different than usb 2.0, thus making it not backwards compatible. Although as far as Im concerned, if this were the case that would be terribly stupid. If it is backwards compatible, than apple should add it now so that in a few years when it becomes more mainstream people who purchased a MBP at this time are not left in the dust.

 

[wikoogle]

I love how everyone here takes an off the cuff, possibly misquoted comment by Steve Jobs as confirmation that blu ray isn't going to happen and have switched to justification mode for it.

There's two kinds of people in this thread here, those who own blu ray movies and thus understand their superior quality and want to be able to carry them around, and those who don't own any blu ray movies and thus don't care about carrying them around and watching them on the go. It's predicatable how both groups will feel about this. Though the latter group will likely change their mind whenever they do go out and get some blu ray over the course of the next few years.

 

[moel]

Wikoogle

I nearly laughed my ARSE off at your 485mbps data transfer rate claim.

Yes that is now possible with 12x Blu-ray drives...but OH WAIT I don't seem to be able to find ANY laptops that have 12x Blu-ray drives, in fact THE ONLY thing i can find is Pioneers 12x burner...and even THAT doesn't read blu-rays at 12x, only 8x, and thats only available in a desktop enclosure.

And the most expensive blu-ray equipped Sony laptop i can find, only has 4x blu-ray..which is....oh YES half the data transfer rate of a 24x DVD drive.

As has been said numerous times in this post now...a 5gb download really isn't that much of an issue these days..rather than either paying for a disc, or waiting till there is some sort of blu-ray drive.

 

[thederby]

I love how everyone here takes an off the cuff, possibly misquoted comment by Steve Jobs as confirmation that blu ray isn't going to happen and have switched to justification mode for it.

There's two kinds of people in this thread here, those who own blu ray movies and thus understand their superior quality and want to be able to carry them around, and those who don't own any blu ray movies and thus don't care about carrying them around and watching them on the go. It's predicatable how both groups will feel about this. Though the latter group will likely change their mind whenever they do go out and get some blu ray over the course of the next few years.

and then there's the third kind, like me, that have no interest in carrying around a bunch of ~$30 disks when travelling to watch a 1080p movie displayed at 1440x900... people like me that just as easily rip/re-encode our brds (that don't come w/ digital copies) down much more portable-sized files that require much less battery life to watch (spinning the optical drive and decoding avc aren't exactly battery friendly).

 

[niuniu]

I Really don't want Blu-Ray in my MBP. If it's an optional extra they can provide then great everyone's happy and I do recognise that BR is being in some areas that where I am currently so the market is there, and Apple consumers are likely participants. But I personally don't want to pay for something I won't use. I download content and watch it on the TV, that's what I do - plan my viewing in advance, always have d/ls going. Putting the money saved from the Blu-Ray option into a better card and processor is what I'd like.

I have a feeling that the update, which I'm waiting for after chickening out on the last updates, will be disappointing. I don't know why I have this impression, but I think that the updates in performance we've been waiting for will be absent and many of us may well end up saving our cash and buying some last season refurbs feeling a bit miffed by it all..

 

[wikoogle]

I doubt a blu ray drive with a dvd burner would be more than $10 over the price of the current dvd burner alone. If they're including in $500 i5 laptops already, (with that being the retail price), they can't cost more than $50 for the manufacterer. And I'm sure the current dvd burner drive costs close to as much.

..flamebait..

trolling is fun isn't it. you made the ridiculous claim that bluray speeds don't compare to streaming hd, when even the slowest 1x drives (much less the 4x and 8x drives that everyone is manufacturing) have the twice the data transfer rate of 1080p content, making your point completely ridiculous. The 4x drive you laugh at is still 8 times the bandwidth/data transfer rate of streaming hd. But I guess your main intention was not to make a point but rather to troll. So go ahead, troll away.

and then there's the third kind, like me, that have no interest in carrying around a bunch of ~$30 disks when travelling to watch a 1080p movie displayed at 1440x900... people like me that just as easily rip/re-encode our brds (that don't come w/ digital copies) down much more portable-sized files that require much less battery life to watch (spinning the optical drive and decoding avc aren't exactly battery friendly).

I haven't payed anything over $15 for a bluray movie in 18+ months. In fact, over holiday season, I picked up about 20 blu rays recently released from gohastings (they were having a sale) for $4-6 each! So I think if you plan on spending $30 for blu rays, you just need to shop at better stores.
900p is still a HUGE jump up over 480p (dvd movies) and will look far better.

And how are planning to rip your brds without a blu ray drive in the MBP anyways if it doesn't have a blu ray drive? If your plan is to install a blu ray drive on your desktop, rip them on that, copy them to a hdd, and then over to your MBP, (having to clear out 25gbs of hdd space on your MBP every time you do), that sounds like a giant pain in the butt.

I would just rather be able to throw a disc or two into my laptop bag when traveling rather than have to put all that effort. Blu Ray drives are scratch proof thanks to a special coating they use on every disc. I regularly throw naked discs into my laptop bag without having had a single one scratch up ever, where as if you tried that with a dvd, it'll become unreadable in no time.

 

[spaceballl]

I REALLY want Blu Ray in my next apple notebook. I watch them on my PS3, and i wish I could watch them on the go. That being said, I care more about usability and my overall mobile experience, not to mention the OS and all of the apps I know and love... so I'll be sticking w/ the MacBook Pro regardless.

 

[rjwhite]

I doubt a blu ray drive with a dvd burner would be more than $10 over the price of the current dvd burner alone. If they're including in $500 i5 laptops already, (with that being the retail price), they can't cost more than $50 for the manufacterer. And I'm sure the current dvd burner drive costs close to as much.




trolling is fun isn't it. you made the ridiculous claim that bluray speeds don't compare to streaming hd, when even the slowest 1x drives (much less the 4x and 8x drives that everyone is manufacturing) have the twice the data transfer rate of 1080p content, making your point completely ridiculous. The 4x drive you laugh at is still 8 times the bandwidth/data transfer rate of streaming hd. But I guess your main intention was not to make a point but rather to troll. So go ahead, troll away.



I haven't payed anything over $15 for a bluray movie in 18+ months. In fact, over holiday season, I picked up about 20 blu rays recently released from gohastings (they were having a sale) for $4-6 each! So I think if you plan on spending $30 for blu rays, you just need to shop at better stores.
900p is still a HUGE jump up over 480p (dvd movies) and will look far better.

And how are planning to rip your brds without a blu ray drive in the MBP anyways if it doesn't have a blu ray drive? If your plan is to install a blu ray drive on your desktop, rip them on that, copy them to a hdd, and then over to your MBP, (having to clear out 25gbs of hdd space on your MBP every time you do), that sounds like a giant pain in the butt.

I would just rather be able to throw a disc or two into my laptop bag when traveling rather than have to put all that effort. Blu Ray drives are scratch proof thanks to a special coating they use on every disc. I regularly throw naked discs into my laptop bag without having had a single one scratch up ever, where as if you tried that with a dvd, it'll become unreadable in no time.

Interesting thread this. I think Wikoogle is missing the point about data transfer though - it might not be only video content that someone would want to move to-and-from a Blu-Ray. Wikoogle is coming at this from a purely A/V perspective and is committing a tautology - of course a retail Blu-Ray movie and player has a high-enough read/write speed for HD video otherwise it would not be fit for purpose. The argument that it is a bit slow for transferring large amounts of data still stands though.

Despite being an avid consumer of music and movies I have held off buying Blu-Ray. I nearly dipped in 18 months ago but decided to upgrade my SKY HD PVR to 1tb - I now have 50 HD movies backed up at any one time that I don't even have the time to watch. My viewing on a laptop isn't critical therefore a few DVD's or downloads encoded with Handbrake to laptop or Iphone suffices.

On the other hand Wikoogle is right about Blu-Ray being a higher quality product. The visual quality of a Blu-Ray compared to a 5gb download is arguably quite noticeable on a 42"+ screen. I'm not sure how noticeable it would be on a low-res 13" laptop (for this same reason despite the fact that I still buy all my music on CD I am more than happy to use AAC on my iphone - whereas I will listen to the CD when using my massive Sennheisers at home)

I actually can't see me ever buying into Blu-Ray unless it replaces DVD. Satellite TV provides me with my HD fix and is much better value for money than purchasing Blu-Ray discs. I also only use my laptop optical drive for burning CD's to Itunes and would be more than happy with an external drive if it meant extra goodies in the new MBP.

 

[Porco]

As has been said numerous times in this post now...a 5gb download really isn't that much of an issue these days..

lol, you canot be serious. Maybe where you live a 5GB download isn't much of an issue, but I'm stuck on a 1Mb connection where I live, and no way am I tying up my internet connection for hours on end just to get an inferior file that only plays on certain devices.

Apple has already looked stupid for a while by not having Blu-ray as an option, and they will continue to look stupid. It actually harms their brand in my opinion, and undermines any desire they have to look 'innovative' etc.

I am fairly sure that by this point they have the software ready at the flick of a switch / an update or two to playback Blu-ray, and I'd guess they probably have since their computers supported HDCP. I think it's just about pointless iTunes movie promotion which means very little to me. We all know that one day downloads will be utterly dominant, Apple seem intent on trying to push that completely inappropriately, and in my view, hypocritically (Jobs is fine with his Disney customers enjoying Blu-rays, just not his Apple customers).

 

[Jaro65]

No hardware wise it's realistic, software wise it isn't. For it to run on OS X would require a pretty serious investment in software programming, for something that hasn't really taken off inside a PC and which has another few years in it at best.

You mean it would require as big (or a similar) investment as when Apple made DVDs play on their computers? Is that what you were referring to - really?