MacBook Pro Updates Imminent (Really), Part Numbers Appear

[Eric S.]

I hope apple doesn't get behind with its MBP 13 since the hp envy 13 has at least icore 3. the least thing apple can do is to put icore 3 to its mbp 13 otherwise, the 13 won't be the most purchase laptop from the company anymore

My understanding (and I could be wrong) is that with the 13" Envy you either have an SSD or the optical drive is removed, and this is how you're able to get Arrandale plus dedicated graphics. Because Arrandale is a two-die solution, Apple would have to make some room on its 13" logic board to be able to offer dedicated graphics. I think it's unlikely Apple would make the optical drive optional but we'll see. Otherwise users may be stuck with Intel's integrated graphics, and that will disappoint many people. Of course the other option is no Arrandale but just a C2D spec bump on the 13", and that would disappoint many people too.

 

[Beric]

That's why you don't run any companies. You'd fail. Fast.

Video on blu is amazing. If you don't appreciate that, good for you and who cares.

Judging by your Flash comment, your taste in movies is most likely restricted to people getting hit between the legs with various objects, putting clothespins on their nipples, falling off skateboards, etc, etc. Again, good for you. Nobody is going to be watching Criterion movies in Flash, I promise you.

And screw the cloud.

I love the Blu-ray quality and am willing to pay for it. So I'd buy Blu-ray quality movies off the iTunes store if

A: they're cheap ($5-10 apiece)
B: 1080P on everything
C: most every Blu-ray in existence is on there (TV shows as well) - I'm picky
D: I had a good internet connection (3Mb is the highest available in my area)

I don't yet have a Blu-ray drive on my PC (with a nice 1080p monitor) because

A: A good BR drive is $100
B: The movies/ TV shows are expensive ($25 a movie, $50+ a TV show)
C: I wonder whether Blu-ray will even last
D: I hate messing with physical media

Because of this quandary, I've so far been unable to enjoy 1080p quality video at home. I've even been slightly temped to pirate, just to screw the Blu-ray execs, but I've resisted, partly just because of my network speed. But I honestly hate this. Even if Macs got Blu-ray BTO, I probably wouldn't get a drive, because the physical media costs so much.

 

[Eidorian]

I love the Blu-ray quality and am willing to pay for it. So I'd buy Blu-ray quality movies off the iTunes store if

A: they're cheap ($5-10 apiece)
B: 1080P on everything
C: most every Blu-ray in existence is on there (TV shows as well) - I'm picky
D: I had a good internet connection (3Mb is the highest available in my area)

I don't yet have a Blu-ray drive on my PC (with a nice 1080p monitor) because

A: A good BR drive is $100
B: The movies/ TV shows are expensive ($25 a movie, $50+ a TV show)
C: I wonder whether Blu-ray will even last
D: I hate messing with physical media

Because of this quandary, I've so far been unable to enjoy 1080p quality video at home. I've even been slightly temped to pirate, just to screw the Blu-ray execs, but I've resisted, partly just because of my network speed. But I honestly hate this. Even if Macs got Blu-ray BTO, I probably wouldn't get a drive, because the physical media costs so much.

I feel that Blu-ray is a somewhat questionable area as well. Don't forget that with that good Blu-ray drive you need playback software as well.

It's much easier to just let Steam download a game overnight on a slower connection vs. dealing with buffering/downloading a 1080p movie you want to watch.

 

[praetorx]

My predictions:

- Macbook/Pro refresh in May (i5/i7, no blu ray, no HDMI, ATI or Arrandale graphics only)
- Mac Pro refresh in June 2010 (gulftown xeon 6-core CPUs)
- Mac Mini & MacBook Air due Christmas 2010 (core i3/i5 CPUs)
- No iMac updates until Q1 2011

 

[penter]

Yesssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ajsnow6234]

im with this guy and orignial guy who was called a douche by some loser. this is for aj or whatever his name is i think you are a douche for calling him out and saying "what he did is douchy"! how about them apples.

Well gee...that just makes me feel terrible. I don't know how I'm going to sleep tonight. I'll give it a try though.

 

[tmt345]

the macbook should have an i3, and the 13 inch mbp should have an i5 and the rest should have an i7 imo

 

[Beric]

the macbook should have an i3, the 13 inch mbp should have an i5 and the rest should have an i7 imo

The i5 520m and i5 540m are both quite powerful, and yet are excellent with both power consumption and heat. I wouldn't be surprised if one of those processors were BTO on the MBP 13 and standard on the 15" and 17". I'm honestly expecting no BTO on graphics on any laptop, and an i3 standard on the base 13" MBP and the base Macbook. I would be surprised if i5 is an option on the MB at all.

 

[hypermog]

I love the Blu-ray quality and am willing to pay for it. So I'd buy Blu-ray quality movies off the iTunes store if

A: they're cheap ($5-10 apiece)
B: 1080P on everything
C: most every Blu-ray in existence is on there (TV shows as well) - I'm picky
D: I had a good internet connection (3Mb is the highest available in my area)

I don't yet have a Blu-ray drive on my PC (with a nice 1080p monitor) because

A: A good BR drive is $100
B: The movies/ TV shows are expensive ($25 a movie, $50+ a TV show)
C: I wonder whether Blu-ray will even last
D: I hate messing with physical media

Because of this quandary, I've so far been unable to enjoy 1080p quality video at home. I've even been slightly temped to pirate, just to screw the Blu-ray execs, but I've resisted, partly just because of my network speed. But I honestly hate this. Even if Macs got Blu-ray BTO, I probably wouldn't get a drive, because the physical media costs so much.

Not to be Donald the Dork here, but not all 1080p streams are made the same. Blu-ray offers a higher bitrate (meaning more quality, less compression) than nearly all downloadable 1080p sources. Too tired to find the linkage, but if the finished file is smaller than 25GB (capacity of single-layer blu-ray disc), then the Blu is likely better.

 

[AidenShaw]

Ok I pulled that figure out of thin air! But back in 2000 IDC reported that Apple had 30% of the US Education market - a simple good will show this. Still even at the same 30% US Education (not including multiple universities featured on iTunes University using XServers or Podcast Producer); that's still significant enough for Apple not to ignore.

But you have no links to support that? Oh, Apple had 30% in 2000.

That was 10 years ago.

Does Apple still sell Xserves?

 

[uluvbs]

Question:

If new MBPs are *not* being released next week, why would BestBuy's inventory of them appear to be empty?

I'm trying to understand why else this would be allowed to happen unless the refresh was literally days away?

 

[saturn79]

Not to be Donald the Dork here, but not all 1080p streams are made the same. Blu-ray offers a higher bitrate (meaning more quality, less compression) than nearly all downloadable 1080p sources. Too tired to find the linkage, but if the finished file is smaller than 25GB (capacity of single-layer blu-ray disc), then the Blu is likely better.

Now Blu-ray disks are up to 50 Gb

 

[stevo101]

Well gee...that just makes me feel terrible. I don't know how I'm going to sleep tonight. I'll give it a try though.

thanks for making my point you are the Douche! not the other guy! who was trying to be helpful i hate people like you on forums! annoying.

 

[mikeo007]

But you have no links to support that? Oh, Apple had 30% in 2000.

That was 10 years ago.

Does Apple still sell Xserves?

They had 31% in 2007...not getting involved in this squabble, just providing relevant information.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/apple_passes_dell_marketshare_higher_education

 

[collegembp]

wow. they got really damn expensive.

 

[dcoux09]

I just hope its not all a big disappointment like the Ipad was to me.

**iPad

 

[bcb23]

Question:

If new MBPs are *not* being released next week, why would BestBuy's inventory of them appear to be empty?

I'm trying to understand why else this would be allowed to happen unless the refresh was literally days away?

It is unlikely that most retailers have much advanced notice. I would venture to guess that they simply make educated estimates for when they feel changes in product lines are coming. We have seen Best Buy before make changes (remember the iX Intel sticker a number of weeks ago, and the low inventories before as well). They are in the same boat: just hoping and guessing.

 

[MorphingDragon]

But you have no links to support that? Oh, Apple had 30% in 2000.

That was 10 years ago.

Does Apple still sell Xserves?

Does Dell still make crap computers?

 

[Beric]

Not to be Donald the Dork here, but not all 1080p streams are made the same. Blu-ray offers a higher bitrate (meaning more quality, less compression) than nearly all downloadable 1080p sources. Too tired to find the linkage, but if the finished file is smaller than 25GB (capacity of single-layer blu-ray disc), then the Blu is likely better.

Exactly. And then my 650GB HDD on my desktop becomes puny, and my 160GB HDD on my laptop becomes laughable.

 

[Mystikal]

Does Dell still make crap computers?

They have made crap computers since the dawn of time.

 

[Smith2542]

**iPad

thanks...

 

[Beric]

They have made crap computers since the dawn of time.

A few of their $1000+ computers aren't half-bad in terms of quality, but then they end up costing about as much as a Mac.

While I'm OK with PC's, there's few times indeed I'd say a Dell is the best purchase.

 

[mikeo007]

They have made crap computers since the dawn of time.

Have used a $400 dell notebook as my main computer for the past 3 years. No problems at all. How exactly do you define crap?

 

[dcoux09]

End of Life Products?

Does anybody have experience buying end of life cycle products from Apple? I've heard that you can get a discount on old Mac's when new ones come out, but I don't know for sure. If they hike the price on the 13 inch MBP, I would want to buy one of the old ones. Can you do this? Has anybody here done this at an Apple store? Thanks!

 

[Grimace]

Start of refresh cycle

I have it from a pretty good source on the technician side (think Genius repair manuals sent out ahead of a launch) that these are in fact the updated MBP models, and that they do not include a 13" model update.

The higher prices are due to Blu-ray reader drives (the writers add $300) for each of the 15" and 17" models. He didn't know if it was something that you could down-grade (making it cheaper) but that does seem likely from the days of SuperDrive/ComboDrive options.

Other than that, nothing super special to report - slightly longer battery life, greener technology, newer graphics cards, slightly cheaper RAM modules, etc. - no mention of USB 3.0 or FW3200.

Supposedly these will mark the start of Blu-ray options across the board, with the Mac Pros updated in April/May and the iMacs in May/June. He didn't think the Mac Mini would receive an update, just that Blu-ray would become a new option -- around the same time as the iMacs (I guess they want all the pro machines to go first).

That's what I hear, time will tell.