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MacBook and MacBook Pro Unpacking, Disassembly and First Impressions
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looks like apple changed the error for the keyboard in the lower specd new macbook. It doesnt have the backlet once you select and can upgrade hd and ram.
* Keyboard (English) / User's Guide
* Keyboard (Western Spanish) / User's Guide
* Keyboard (English) / User's Guide
* Keyboard (Western Spanish) / User's Guide
Thanks for the Coldplay ref Quillz! We'd sorted City of Blinding Lights a page or two ago. I guess the musicology of the manufacturing video is now complete
I wonder if Apple paid royalties on these buggers? Oh, wait, they sell on iTunes so I guess Apple has, uh, leverage
they killed mac, The new key boards are terrible in my opinion. what were they thinking =]]
In my opinion the new keyboards are better. I have an old 12" powerbook and have hated the keyboard from day 1. I bought a Mac Pro earlier this year which included a "chicklet" keyboard and started using it with sceticism. Now I have bought the little bluetooth one as well. I love it. It's fast to use and feels great. I am sure more people feel the same. So no I don't think it has "killed the mac"
Why I don't buy the new Macbook yet!
I really like the new Macbook refresh but I am not going to rush to buy it yet because.
1. The entry level Macbook costs aprox. USD400 more in Switzerland as opposed to US.
2. No firewire port in Macbook
3. No backlit keyboard in the entry level Macbook
4. No remote control
And most importantly now that the global financial and economic crisis is unfolding I would think twice before spending my money on anything that I do not really need.
My advise to everybody, do not buy it with Credit card. Only buy it if you have cash. Don't be a tech junkie
I really like the new Macbook refresh but I am not going to rush to buy it yet because.
1. The entry level Macbook costs aprox. USD400 more in Switzerland as opposed to US.
2. No firewire port in Macbook
3. No backlit keyboard in the entry level Macbook
4. No remote control
And most importantly now that the global financial and economic crisis is unfolding I would think twice before spending my money on anything that I do not really need.
My advise to everybody, do not buy it with Credit card. Only buy it if you have cash. Don't be a tech junkie
Thanks for the Coldplay ref Quillz! We'd sorted City of Blinding Lights a page or two ago. I guess the musicology of the manufacturing video is now complete
I wonder if Apple paid royalties on these buggers? Oh, wait, they sell on iTunes so I guess Apple has, uh, leverage
hehh.. Dont you remember the Coldplay iTunes ads and the U2 iPods?
Buy a model thats specced for firewire then or settle for old stock.
Twice the price of a PC. Hmm. Better quality? Apple have survived this long with the pricing structure they use so they cant be totally wrong.
Remote control. Thats the thing I got last time and threw in a box someplace like I am sure a lot of other people do.
It is cute and you will probebly get used to the smell in time
Every Mac user I know utilizes firewire in some way. There is a complete line of firewire hardware that this computer is incompatible with. Don't assume everyone else is just a consumer, too.
Again, you obviously do not know many people who work on their Macs. A year ago people were telling those complaining of the glossy on the Macbook that it was a consumer computer and if they wanted "pro," buy the pro models.
I know a LOT (hundreds, personally) of people who edit color on their laptops. Open your eyes.
My laptop is not a phone. It's a tool used for creation. Reflections should not be a non-issue. They should not have to be something put up with. It is a problem that Apple is embracing rather than offering a solution.
Great, another dongle to carry in the bag. Do you ever use a 400 hard-drive and back up to a master 800 drive? Now I have to use splitters to do this, rather than simply plugging into my computer? Give me a break. And enough with the screws and pins. You sound like an Apple PR parrot. Apple's idiotic array of display connectors is a headache for any AV technician who has to deal with a constantly changing variety of presenters and their laptops.
Anyone defending these laptops and the omissions obviously do not use their computers for serious work.
Has anyone read about or seen how one switches between GPUs on the MBP? Apparently you have to log in and out every time. Which annoys me cuz I always have tons of applications and documents open at once. It’d be nice if it could switch on the fly.. but maybe that’s just wishful thinking.
Video
I’m no techie, but what’s the feasibility of SLI with the dual graphics cards?
Video
I’m no techie, but what’s the feasibility of SLI with the dual graphics cards?
Cayce said:
I think they're not somewhat worse than unremarkable. Indeed, for some applications, they're decidedly not more or less than average.
Curiously I really liked the 12" PB keyboard, but don't like what should be almost exactly the same keyboard on the Feb '08 MBP. I reckon they did something else when they changed the arrangement, dropped the embedded keypad and reassigned the F-keys. A lot of my keys give kind of sticky sounds - which seems to be a feature of this sort of keyboard but is especially noticeable on this particular machine.
I have really enjoyed using the external chiclet keyboard; I really like the sound it makes as you type, especially compared to this 'spongey', as was said earlier, old MBP keyboard.
You are so very right, when not happy you really should tell Apple. So I took your advice and wrote them:
Dear Apple,
I'm a pro user, Apple solution expert and a APPL share holder and I'm very sad to say that I was totaly and utterly dissapointed by the new notebook product line. Here are my thoughts.
Glossy screens
Those who have tried both matte and glossy screens knows what I'm talking about. Sure, colors may appear more saturated on a glossy screen but there is nothing that says that a good matte screen shouldn't be good at displaying colors. With a glossy screen there is much greater problems with reflections, mirroring, dirt, dust and smudge than with a matte screen. Then there are personal preferences as well, myself I develop hedaches when using a glossy screen, I have two MBP 17", one with glossy and one with matte screen so I do notice the difference. There are several reports that confirm this and in several european countries there are regulations about using glossy screens in workplaces and those regulations are there for a reason. Sure, you can move or adjust your work place to avoid reflections in the screen, but why would I have to rearrange my desk in order to make my new $2000 laptop work as it should? Also, rearranging my workplace or moving around gets hard when travelling like on a train or in a plane. Sure you can turn off the light in the room to avoid refelections but why would I want to work in darkness? Sure, I can adjust the screen brightness to compensate the reflections but then agian, why would I do that? How grey would the black parts of the screen get and how much would the increased brightness affect the battery performance while travelling? All those problems could easily be fixed by offering a matte screen as an option to the glossy one. To me a glossy screen is a big "no no" and I will simply not buy a machine with a glossy screen based on my thoughts above. This is a worsening of the product line.
Firewire
First, the Macbook. I currently own a white Macbook that I mainly use when on vacation. Checking emails, backing up photos from my camera and movies from my DV-camera. But that will no longer be possible since there is no firewire and my DV-cam is firewire only. Also, at home, this Macbook serves as somewhat of a mediacenter using Eye-tv and that's also firewire only. So there's a "no no" on the Macbook as well. Considering the alternatives, buying a $2000 MBP just to be able to connect my DV-cam when on vacation? No way. Buying a new DV-cam just to be able to connect it to a USB? No way. Big dissapointment. Also, Apple has until now always promoted firewire so all my external equipment such as backup disks etc. are firewire only. What about Firewire target disk mode when troubleshooting or transfering accounts to a new Mac? This is a worsening of the product line.
The Macbook Pro then. Well, when introducing the Macbook Pro CoreDuo there was only one firewire port which was bad and when the Core2Duo version arrived it was equipped with two ports, much better. Why is that better then. Well, many firewire peripherals such as soundcards, Eye-tv some harddrives lacks firewire throughput connectios thus ending the firewire chain. Well, I have two such devices which makes it impossible to connect them both to the new Macbook Pros. Sure I could get myself a expresscard with firewire ports but why would I have to do that on a $2000 portable? This is a worsening of the product line.
The overall design
My personal preferences are that the black border and keyboard are ugly but that is my personal preferences although I think that I shuld share them with you, they are not design flaws as the problems described above but still an issue to me. Also why is the new macbook 15" heavier than the old 15"? That seems really backwards. To me this is a worsening of the product line.
I might sound bitter and disappointed and perhaps I am but I consider yesterdays "upgrades" to be "downgrades". Apple has finally become more style than substance and functionallity has become less important which is sad.
I feel that Apple is unfortunately loosing its goals and failing to provide to fullfill the customers requirements. I have now spent a lot of time reading forums and blogs to get a feel of how the new product line was recieved and I have noticed two things:
1. "Regular consumers" feels that the product line is to expensive and that Apple is to much into the pro-market.
2. "Pro users" feels that Apple is turning to much "consumer" especially when it comes to the glossy screen and firewire flaws and that Apple is forgetting the Pro-users.
That leaves Apple with a very small and uncertain target group, those who are willing to pay premium prices for non-pro products. As a share holder this is troubling. Lycky enough Apple has very loyal customers who are determined to stick with Apple whatever happens and many, like myself, have built and purchased so many things based on the Apple platform such as peripherals and software that there really is no alternative than to stick with Apple. This is sad.
Those are my thoughts and I hope that they are valuable to Apple.
No more telling friends to buy a Mac
This is a dark day for me, a diehard mac fan.
I can no longer recommend that my friends buy Macs.
Apple wants $2000 for a laptop that doesn't do video?
How can you get video into a Macbook? You can import into a $500 sony.
How many people are going to hate their decision to get a Macbook when they try to import video from their camcorder and find it impossible?
Can you imagine spending 2k then not being able to import video? Sad, sad, sad.
Macs are supposed to be multi-media machines, and now they have a $2000 laptop that doesn't import video.
Idiotic.
This is a dark day for me, a diehard mac fan.
I can no longer recommend that my friends buy Macs.
Apple wants $2000 for a laptop that doesn't do video?
How can you get video into a Macbook? You can import into a $500 sony.
How many people are going to hate their decision to get a Macbook when they try to import video from their camcorder and find it impossible?
Can you imagine spending 2k then not being able to import video? Sad, sad, sad.
Macs are supposed to be multi-media machines, and now they have a $2000 laptop that doesn't import video.
Idiotic.
Ok so here is the deal I'm getting:
MacBook 2,0 GHz 1055 Special University EDU
iPod Touch 16GB 154 Backt to School Promo
Canon MX310 Printer 9,95 (save 90 if you buy a new mac)
sounds good to me
MacBook 2,0 GHz 1055 Special University EDU
iPod Touch 16GB 154 Backt to School Promo
Canon MX310 Printer 9,95 (save 90 if you buy a new mac)
sounds good to me
Nice Comparison =]
Hee hee. When faced with a hard decision, the best path is usually obfuscation.
As stated in the "brick" manufacturing video. Apple worked for months on the track pad. Simply put, if you can't get the idea molded in a reasonable amount of time, then it's time to move on. Scrap the idea and move on.
That was months Apple could have spent on other things that actually matter.
That was months Apple could have spent on other things that actually matter.
I think the wise thing to do now is to buy old stock the day before a new announcement. That way if Apple FUBAR the announcement then you have no problem and if they actually announce something good, then you just return/cancel your old stock item under the 14-day window and buy the new models.
My sister was looking to get her first mac after the new announcement but i honestly can't recommend any of the new macs now (MB no firewire and she has a DV camcorder & today's MBP price has been jacked up beyond her budget) and would advise her to either get the old models if Apple stores still sell them or for her to stick to windows & buy an HP.
My sister was looking to get her first mac after the new announcement but i honestly can't recommend any of the new macs now (MB no firewire and she has a DV camcorder & today's MBP price has been jacked up beyond her budget) and would advise her to either get the old models if Apple stores still sell them or for her to stick to windows & buy an HP.
That is not a problem since you are able to boot with usb, the real question is hw do you start it in firewire target disk mode?