The processors you speak about are desktop processors, no way to fit them in laptops, except some exotic desktop replacement based on Clevo barebones...
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MacBook Pro Update Due for Launch as Soon as Tomorrow?
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Not to get you guys excited and full of false hope but the store went down for a short period 2 days before the iMac was released. 2 days from now is Tuesday....very unsure it means much but think what you will. Also I think they'll wait till start of April anyway!
That's like saying a man won the lottery two days after he saw a Maserati driving down the road, and today you saw a Maserati, so maybe you'll win the lottery in two days. The two have absolutely nothing to do with each other whatsoever.
Besides, even if A did mean B was about to happen, A hasn't happened. Store's up and running full bore today.
Store went down briefly late last night, but it seems like it was just to update the iPad camera connector info.
Waiting...waiting...
I've never gotten into the waiting game on these products before, but this one is starting to get to me.
I'm reaching a point where I need a notebook computer. I'm doing more stuff mobile now, and all my software is Mac based. This rules out a PC laptop, but I don't believe the base macbook will have the horsepower I need.
I've been waiting a few months, so waiting a little while longer won't kill me. While the iPad looks intriguing, I simply can't imagine carrying an iPhone, an iPad and a laptop, and I can't see the iPad meeting my needs for mobile computing.
It also seems like a bad idea to get a macbook pro this close to the end of the cycle. It was a decent deal early in the cycle, but now it's behind the curve, and purchasing it now would probably put me in a position of having to replace it earlier.
So, if waiting a couple more days (or months) gets me a computer that's a year newer in specifications, I can live with it. Can you tell it's bugging me BIG TIME to keep waiting, though?
I've never gotten into the waiting game on these products before, but this one is starting to get to me.
I'm reaching a point where I need a notebook computer. I'm doing more stuff mobile now, and all my software is Mac based. This rules out a PC laptop, but I don't believe the base macbook will have the horsepower I need.
I've been waiting a few months, so waiting a little while longer won't kill me. While the iPad looks intriguing, I simply can't imagine carrying an iPhone, an iPad and a laptop, and I can't see the iPad meeting my needs for mobile computing.
It also seems like a bad idea to get a macbook pro this close to the end of the cycle. It was a decent deal early in the cycle, but now it's behind the curve, and purchasing it now would probably put me in a position of having to replace it earlier.
So, if waiting a couple more days (or months) gets me a computer that's a year newer in specifications, I can live with it. Can you tell it's bugging me BIG TIME to keep waiting, though?
i feel the same way you do in a sense. i want to get one, but the release of the new mbp is literally too close to buy one...i can't see myself carry all 3 either...just too much -_-
Just unboxed 25 base model Macbooks at work. They get a higher geekbench score then my early 2008 MBP (2.4 6GB RAM). They are really sleek as well.
Playing with the 13" model for a week makes me wish that Apple would make screen size just an option like anything else. It would be nice to build a 13" MBP to the highest specs a 17" has. Then you get power when you plug it into an external monitor and portability when you disconnect. It would be nice just to have more options.
Power of a 17" MBP in the 13" would fry it.
Reason the 13" MBP can't have really powerful stuff (i.e. discrete GPU, higher clock CPU) is because of the heat. 13" MBP only has room for one fan. The second fan in the higher end 15" and 17" are for the GPU.
Core i7 isn't that much more expensive and will offer more future proofing imho.
Perhaps SSD won't be standard, although it's only a matter of time before it becomes so I feel (smaller form factor, weight, better performance, lower power requirements, etc). True, most operating systems file systems still don't take 100% advantage of SSDs (GNU/Linux is quite poor here at the moment imho, Windows 7 performs better on SSDs). Of course, the prices that Apple charges for it's hard drive units is also horrendous - I can get a Seagate MOMENTUS 7200.4 500GB SATA 2.5 7200rpm 16MB @ retail prices of $149. Compare that with Apple's offering of 5400 rpm @ $220. I can get the 5400 rpm unit for $116 retail. Again, Apple gets its hardware a LOT cheaper.
I would be surprised at the non inclusion of Blu-ray, at least as a higher end offering. Apple has close ties with the movie industry, and the movie industry wants Blu-ray to succeed (hence the death of HD-DVD which was a far better technology imho). Blu-ray drives are starting to become more popular on Windows based laptops as well.
As to RAM - it's not as pricey as Apple is making out. Compare what you can get off the shelf, vs what Apple offers - off the shelf is around 1/3 the cost. Apple is deliberately overpricing the RAM to make a profit. And remember, the off the shelf prices are retail, Apple, being a manufacturer, gets it a LOT cheaper than this.
As to glossy screens, they are imho, a mindsore. Reflectivity wise they are horrid to use, they do seem to produce headaches after extended viewing (I can confirm both from my personal usage of my new 13" unit). I'm seeing quite a few posts about headaches from the glossy screens as well. Apple will have to be a bit careful here as it's responsible for any health issues that using their products might produce. Again, most photographers, serious ones at least, will be calibrated their screens/monitors, and glossy screens are horrid. Do a bit of research and you'll see a plethora of problems.
If Apple has i7 units in it. That tells me that the next release of MacPro units will almost certainly feature them (or the Xenon variants). The iMac units aren't exactly at the top of the Apple product foodchain I might add. Perhaps the 13" and 15" units won't have i7 mobile CPUs. Also, i7 CPUs aren't that more expensive than the i5 counterparts, see:
http://ark.intel.com/ProductCollection.aspx?familyID=43483
and
http://ark.intel.com/ProductCollection.aspx?familyID=43402
It looks like I was wrong with my previous chipset naming, as has been mentioned, they're desktop CPUs (silly me, looked at the wrong table rofl). It looks like nearly all of the mobile CPUs offer integrated graphics, a rather silly move from Intel imho, and something that might get them into trouble from a competitive/monopoly point of view (attempting to kill off ATI who is currently the largest supplier of integrated GPUs). I can't see Apple really using them, at least standalone. Perhaps they'll use the integrated GPUs for basic stuff and then switch in a more powerful separate GPU for games etc (like they do with the current 9400/9600 dual offerings in the 15" and 17" units).
Don't take it personally, but Apple is raping the market with costs of hardware items. Saying that it's too expensive for Apple to include some suggested (or hoped for) hardware upgrades is a bit ridiculous, when most of the expensiveness is due to Apple rigging the costs. Yes, some of you might argue that as a consumer company, Apple can charge whatever it wants. I'll just say that I'm not a fan of capitalism one iota, it's the sole reason why we're at the current problematic place of socio-economic poorness ;-) If a company is left to price whatever it wants, it'll typically rape its customer base to make an EVEN larger profit. I don't mind companies making a profit, but there's a profit, and there's profit raping. Apple tends to do the latter.
To be fair to Apple, their products are typically better designed, and better built. But, let's make a hypothetical - if OS X could be legally ran on a non Apple piece of hardware, you'd see massive drops in Apple hardware sales imho. Apple will never do this because it knows what I'm saying. Personally, and this may annoy the hell/anger some of you, Apple should never have won the case against Psystar. The courts have basically said that Apple can dictate what you install the operating system on, and if that isn't a clear case of monopolism, I don't know what is. But then, only in America. Imagine if Microsoft's EULA said you could only install Windows on Dell computers. That would cause an industry and consumer outrage. I find it amusing that Apple can do the same, but get away with it.
Anyways, my weekly rant out of the way ;-)
Dave
That's something you want that Apple doesn't. They want you to upgrade early and often. Besides, others have already noted that Core i7 per what you described is a desktop processor.
There's no "perhaps" about it. It won't be standard. It's way too expensive, and the sizes are far too small. It's easier to market 320GB HDs that cost <$100 than 160GB SSDs with costs around $450. Besides, TRIM isn't even supported yet. SSD is an "option" through and through.
Again, they charge a premium because they can. Many users would rather get it from the factory than upgrade their own -- even if it is incredibly easy. So I don't see how this affects the fact that you just aren't going to see 8GB as standard.
I think you continue to misunderstand what I typed. I'm not contesting the fact that matte is better. The fact that it isn't standard is the reason I haven't purchased a unibody. But Apple's made the decision to stick with glossy.
This has been addressed in several other threads. At the start of the year, news/rumor stories came out that Apple refused Intel's integrated GPUs. This has been one of the rumored reasons for the delay -- the need for a custom chip, that is.
Again, nothing I typed was about the cost to Apple for these options. It's about the added profit they get by making these things options, not standard. You stated that you were making predictions for the release. What I was saying is that your predictions won't happen. I stand by my previous statements.
I took the plunge and ordered the high-end 13" MacBook Pro with a 320GB hard drive and AppleCare, as well as a Magic Mouse and a few other accessories.
Update or not, I'm going to love it!
Also, I'm donating my current MacBook to my mother. I won't have much of a use for it soon, and this way I know it's going to a good home.
Update or not, I'm going to love it!
Also, I'm donating my current MacBook to my mother. I won't have much of a use for it soon, and this way I know it's going to a good home.
I have to agree, I cannot see the update coming before the iPad has launched. It's a shame as I have been waiting for months to make the jump to Mac from Windows and thought I could wait for the update. However, this update has been on the cards for a while and I am losing faith in it ever happening.
Ever hear of the term, "Blue Balls"??
That's what Apple did to me over the weekend. Go offline and then back on with nothing substantial to report.
Frustrating!!
It's good to read some of the wishlists on here, but some of those items are VERY unlikely. I just don't see SSDs as standard. They will be available as a very expensive option though.
Apple does gough there customers. They are known for it and there customers are okay with it. How do you think they moved to #4 in the "America's richest companies", right behind, Exxon(1), Microsoft(2), and Walmart (3)?
That's what Apple did to me over the weekend. Go offline and then back on with nothing substantial to report.
Frustrating!!
It's good to read some of the wishlists on here, but some of those items are VERY unlikely. I just don't see SSDs as standard. They will be available as a very expensive option though.
Apple does gough there customers. They are known for it and there customers are okay with it. How do you think they moved to #4 in the "America's richest companies", right behind, Exxon(1), Microsoft(2), and Walmart (3)?
BTW the reason i'm willing to be "goughed" by Apple is cause i'm getting a fantastic "family" discount. My sister works for Apple.
SSD already comes as standard in the 2.13GHz MacBook Air, and the overall price of MBAs went down when they introduced that model with the 128GB SSD... so at least they're getting cheaper, or larger... however you want to put it. Apple must be beginning to realise that people will just shove one in there themselves if they don't make the pricing a little more competitive. I definitely want one in my future MBP.
I have to agree, I cannot see the update coming before the iPad has launched. It's a shame as I have been waiting for months to make the jump to Mac from Windows and thought I could wait for the update. However, this update has been on the cards for a while and I am losing faith in it ever happening.
On the flip side, if Apple releases new laptops tomorrow, the people in the store purchasing or picking up an iPad on Friday might be more tempted to make an additional purchase.
It also might tempt people to add on an iPad while they are purchasing a MBP tomorrow.
This is what I figured. Apple won't have a better opportunity to show off their other products than when feet come through the door for the iPad launch.
Surely having a bunch of last years product kicking around won't be a good look.
Fixed that for you. Any Linux user will inform you that flash sucks just as bad on Linux as it does on OS X. Now who should the finger of blame be pointed at? Adobe for their shocking code??
The only difference between those two models is the drive and less than 300 Mhz of processing power. And the reason it's palatable is that the 1.86Ghz one has a wimpy 120GB hard drive. So, it's still a "gain" of 8GB. Contrast that with the MacBook Pro, where the default HD in the $1999 one is 320GB, and you've got an apples to oranges comparison.
You know, their pricing on SSDs *is* competitive. It's not a complete ripoff like it used to be. The only part that makes it a ripoff is that their SSDs aren't nearly as good as the third-party ones. But adding $300 to upgrade the hard drive to a 128GB SSD is, as BTO options from Apple go, eminently reasonable. It's just not something that you or I would do.
this may have been brought up already and I freely admit I'm too lazy to do the proper search to find out, but has it occurred to anyone else that the delay in updates may be due to apple switching to AMD from Intel?
Amd's recent family of server grade processors has more cores then Intel's latest offering, AMD has ATI which might give them an advantage over Intel's integrated graphics which I believe it's been mentioned Apple was not happy with. The lower price of AMD processors compared to Intel would allow a greater boost without an commensurate increase in price (and in fact, may even increase Apple's profit margin at the same price point) not to mentions Steve jobs comments about seizing opportunities and being able to jump on the next be thing when he was talking about Apple's cash reserve (probably mangling the actual quote, apologies) not to mention that the iPad uses a custom chip (from what I've read anyway) so they aren't married to Intel it seems.
Anyone think this might be a possibility? Have we heard any official word that Apple's sticking with Intel for the next round of their computing line?
Amd's recent family of server grade processors has more cores then Intel's latest offering, AMD has ATI which might give them an advantage over Intel's integrated graphics which I believe it's been mentioned Apple was not happy with. The lower price of AMD processors compared to Intel would allow a greater boost without an commensurate increase in price (and in fact, may even increase Apple's profit margin at the same price point) not to mentions Steve jobs comments about seizing opportunities and being able to jump on the next be thing when he was talking about Apple's cash reserve (probably mangling the actual quote, apologies) not to mention that the iPad uses a custom chip (from what I've read anyway) so they aren't married to Intel it seems.
Anyone think this might be a possibility? Have we heard any official word that Apple's sticking with Intel for the next round of their computing line?
