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MacBook Pros Due in Early March, Additional Enhancements?
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I don't want to get too excited about this... as really everything is still speculation. But good lord, if this is indeed a full design overhaul and we get some of the tasty changes we'd like to see to-boot... I may have a jubilation induced aneurysm.
I haven't chimed in about design changes in a Mac machine in a while. I doubt they'll change the design. The Powerbook G4 Aluminum designed stuck around for almost ten years.
Apple does some solid designs, the current one for the MacMini and MBP being the best I've seen in a machine for a decade, and ones thats far more recognizable than even the PBG4 alu. model.
I wouldn't mind seeing minor tweaks, added ports for FW800 at the least. Maybe even a return to Express Card 34 on the 15" model
Not surprised if it would be true. Since Apple named the new MBA the future of notebooks I can envision that Apple
1.) dumps the MB - old concept
2.) The New MBA will be the new MB with a different name, they are low end with baseline RAM 2G, not back-lit keyboard etc.
3.) Those new MBP will have a form factor/weight similar to the MBA. I hope they have a simila wedge shape as it is the most pleasant thing to type on...
4.) New color scheme but still metal case (aluminium) to distinguish from the older ones.Together with the new form factor. Good marketing. Now all the aluminium MBP will be immediatly recognized as old...
1.) dumps the MB - old concept
2.) The New MBA will be the new MB with a different name, they are low end with baseline RAM 2G, not back-lit keyboard etc.
3.) Those new MBP will have a form factor/weight similar to the MBA. I hope they have a simila wedge shape as it is the most pleasant thing to type on...
4.) New color scheme but still metal case (aluminium) to distinguish from the older ones.Together with the new form factor. Good marketing. Now all the aluminium MBP will be immediatly recognized as old...
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Time Machine can already do this. A drive is a drive to Time Machine. Currently I have a 1TB internal system drive a 1 TB external media drive and a 1.5 TB time machine drive on my iMac. My system and media drives are both backed up to the same time machine drive.
Pic of the new 17" Macbook Pro.
This is the real deal, folks. That's also the new version of Final Cut on screen. Blade SSD standard and room for a 9.5mm tall traditional hard drive. Someone get our their rulers and measure the bottom. You'll see there's enough room for 9.5 mm drive. This is the 17" model, btw.
EDIT: Apple hasn't went crazy about the ad because they haven't been told about it yet nor has it hit major media outlets. Someone contact Apple's lawyers and we can see if Intel takes down the ad. If taken down, we know it's legit. BTW, the tell-tale "macbook pro" insignia and isight camera are PS'ed out. Look closely.
EDIT 2: discussions.apple.com is down. They are making room for the new categories.
I'm skeptical that this isn't heavily photoshopped beyond the iSight and insignia removal. I could see it replacing either the current MacBook or the current 13" MacBook Pro were they to merge that machine back into the "MacBook" line. Otherwise, I can't picture the move to black from the iconic silver unless the black looks as shiny as the plastic MacBook and is as sturdy as the aluminum.
Nope, I think I got 'em all.
Does that mean that a high-res screen, like the 13" MBA will be built-to-order, that is, you can't pick one up at a store? That will seriously defeat the purpose of this update for me.
MBP update - neat
a working i7 or better MBP would be good. Especially with masses of RAM, a BIG HDD, a deep drive bay, blazing GPU and a high-res matt screen.
Having a DVD or SSD option would be neat. I really like being able to use the DVD drive. I can see that some folks don't.
As for bluray. Well much as I like my PS3, bluray was dead on arrival for video. Yes, nice HD images. But repeat viewing of discs in no way amortizes the outlay unless they're bought late on eBay. I'd prefer to buy the digits or rent, at lower cost, several times.
3G? Who cares? I'd rather buy a MiFi device and share the connection without having to suck power from the MBP.
Let's see what comes up.
a working i7 or better MBP would be good. Especially with masses of RAM, a BIG HDD, a deep drive bay, blazing GPU and a high-res matt screen.
Having a DVD or SSD option would be neat. I really like being able to use the DVD drive. I can see that some folks don't.
As for bluray. Well much as I like my PS3, bluray was dead on arrival for video. Yes, nice HD images. But repeat viewing of discs in no way amortizes the outlay unless they're bought late on eBay. I'd prefer to buy the digits or rent, at lower cost, several times.
3G? Who cares? I'd rather buy a MiFi device and share the connection without having to suck power from the MBP.
Let's see what comes up.
I'm also waiting for an update as my late 2007 MBP is now kept together by glue and duct tape
I do not care much for a complete redesign, SSD would be a nice standard, and hope that a matte screen is not +119 or something. There was a still a free choice when i bought this one, don't really like the -gorgeous, with absolutely amazing colors- shiny screens.
I do not care much for a complete redesign, SSD would be a nice standard, and hope that a matte screen is not +119 or something. There was a still a free choice when i bought this one, don't really like the -gorgeous, with absolutely amazing colors- shiny screens.
Nice try. Keep telling yourself that when people
with $600 laptops can pop BD movies in their laptops.
BD has had a faster market penetration than DVDs did.
Next.
Frankly the one feature I want in the next MacBook Pros more than anything is a hard drive with over 500GB in capacity. We have 750GB drives functioning just fine in these things aftermarket, why not sell them included?
mb pro wish list
QUAD-CORE !!! c'mon already. I want a 20" laptop that's 2560x1280
USB3, firewire 1600, a built in sub-woofer, multi-color light up keyboard. 4G, one of those rugged cases, that i can slam around and throw off buildings. tablet.
QUAD-CORE !!! c'mon already. I want a 20" laptop that's 2560x1280
USB3, firewire 1600, a built in sub-woofer, multi-color light up keyboard. 4G, one of those rugged cases, that i can slam around and throw off buildings. tablet.
That statement isn't completely true. For the average person they want the higher quality blu ray on their 1080p TV. They don't want the lower quality DVD. The average person doesn't have enough storage space or fast enough internet to stream in true blu ray quality.
This statement might be true in 3-5 years but definitely not now.
I suppose that might be true for people who like to buy physical media. I have no interest in collecting movies on any disc format (and I think very few movies are good enough to watch over and over anyway). I've never owned a Blu Ray player. Considered it when I was looking for an alternative to XBox to get Netflix but I decided Blu Ray was a dying technology I didn't want to invest any money in. 720p rentals from iTunes look great on my TV, as does HD cable television, so I couldn't care less about Blu Ray. I don't think anyone in my family, except maybe my techie nephew who likes to own everything, owns a Blu Ray player.
Blu Ray is gradually getting more common but it's still only 11 percent of movie sales and might get to 18% of households with tvs by the end of 2010, according to:
http://www.technewsdaily.com/redbox-blu-ray-offerings-may-fuel-blu-ray-adoption-0957/
We'll see what effect all the new streaming boxes will have on this. I think people love convenience and instant availability more than being able to see the wrinkles on actor's faces. If Netflix goes to all streaming, there's another nail.
LOL. Your requests are far too logical and purposeful for the shiny-pretty-touchy priorities of iApple Toys, Inc.
Google.
Stop fooling yourself. The MBP line stopped being Pro when the 13" was released. Crap resolution. Crap hardware. It's the neglected joke over at apple. Not for power users, or their original target audience. They simply pulled the aluminum MB's and slapped the word Pro on it so people would shell out for A NAME, and AESTHETICS.
Thats why we wont see quad core laptops.
Thats why we probably wont lose ODD.
Why not open it up yourself and plop in a 1TB for under $100?
I like the fact I can do this myself rather than pay Apple's BTO extortion fees.
But you know this already. I probably don't understand your post.
I am with you. the consumer ought to be given the option to buy this. Anything less just isn't a "pro" model.
Some commenters here have raised the idea of using hybrid drives (SSD and HDD in one) or using both, but separate (SSD for OS and applications, HDD for Data). This would be nice for some users, but it won't happen. Two reasons why:
1st, the price of the SSD is an added cost, you cant' take anything away to cover it. Thus it would imply a price hike - something not acceptable in the baseline models at least. Theoretically it would need to be an BTO-option.
2nd, Unlike in the old days, you can't expect a user to handle the idea of multiple drives or different partitions (People just want "storage"). Therefore you'd need to implement an especially smart "JBOD" -type system, which would allow both logical drives to be viewed as one. Although many solutions for this exist, I really don't see Apple settling for a software-based solution (and any HW-based solution would constrain the usable components, effectively limiting user upgrade paths).
There are though some enhancements I expect to see in the new MBP's:
- Obviously Sandy Bridge, and everything which comes with that.
- Upgraded screen resolutions, at least on the 13" model (to equal the resolution of the 13" MBA), possibly on the 15" MBP (Scrap the base resolution of 1440X900, make 1680X1050 the new baseline), but probably not on the 17"
- possibly upgraded iSight
- upgraded discrete GPUs in the 15" and 17" models. Then again, I do not expect the upgrades to be big.
- Minor improvements in battery performance.
Unlike many other commentators I'm highly skeptical about the BTO-selectability of the superdrive. My reason is that that would necessitate two different unibody cases (one with the slot, one without), and I really can't see Apple going there. Having two different concurrent cases goes against everything apple design stands for.
Just to paint some black clouds: Now that the 13" MBA's performance has significantly improved, and it's price has come way down, there is some crowding in the 13" sector.
According to local resellers the three families (MB, MBA13", MBP13") are selling very comparable amounts (with supermarkets and electronics retailers standing for most of the MB sales), and there are no really major segmentation differences. As one salesman pointed out: "It's a pain trying to analyze which model suits the customer best - in many ways this is not something we're used to."
Apple is famous, even notorious for it's one-for-all -approach, and clearly the low-medium segment (MBA, MB, MBP 13") is clearly not in line with that approach.
I expect the product offering will change within the year, but I'm not sure how.
Pekka
1st, the price of the SSD is an added cost, you cant' take anything away to cover it. Thus it would imply a price hike - something not acceptable in the baseline models at least. Theoretically it would need to be an BTO-option.
2nd, Unlike in the old days, you can't expect a user to handle the idea of multiple drives or different partitions (People just want "storage"). Therefore you'd need to implement an especially smart "JBOD" -type system, which would allow both logical drives to be viewed as one. Although many solutions for this exist, I really don't see Apple settling for a software-based solution (and any HW-based solution would constrain the usable components, effectively limiting user upgrade paths).
There are though some enhancements I expect to see in the new MBP's:
- Obviously Sandy Bridge, and everything which comes with that.
- Upgraded screen resolutions, at least on the 13" model (to equal the resolution of the 13" MBA), possibly on the 15" MBP (Scrap the base resolution of 1440X900, make 1680X1050 the new baseline), but probably not on the 17"
- possibly upgraded iSight
- upgraded discrete GPUs in the 15" and 17" models. Then again, I do not expect the upgrades to be big.
- Minor improvements in battery performance.
Unlike many other commentators I'm highly skeptical about the BTO-selectability of the superdrive. My reason is that that would necessitate two different unibody cases (one with the slot, one without), and I really can't see Apple going there. Having two different concurrent cases goes against everything apple design stands for.
Just to paint some black clouds: Now that the 13" MBA's performance has significantly improved, and it's price has come way down, there is some crowding in the 13" sector.
According to local resellers the three families (MB, MBA13", MBP13") are selling very comparable amounts (with supermarkets and electronics retailers standing for most of the MB sales), and there are no really major segmentation differences. As one salesman pointed out: "It's a pain trying to analyze which model suits the customer best - in many ways this is not something we're used to."
Apple is famous, even notorious for it's one-for-all -approach, and clearly the low-medium segment (MBA, MB, MBP 13") is clearly not in line with that approach.
I expect the product offering will change within the year, but I'm not sure how.
Pekka
Question wasn't pointed directly to me, but there aren't any "massive" laptop drives. There are slow 750GB, and 1TB. Or if you want 7200rpm drives then you can only get 500GB. Find me a 2TB 7200rpm 2.5" drive and I'd be VERY happy.
As a result I've already given up my (seldom, but ocassionally used) optical drive, and bought an external DVD. The internal HDDs are both mostly full. Also the Macbook Air superdrive isn't compatible with the MBP, so had to get a 3rd party one. However, you can't boot other OSes from an external DVD drive (FW or USB), so if I need to reinstall windows I have to take the 2nd drive out and put the DVD back in during install, which is a massive PITA.
BTW, Blu-ray isn't dead. I finally just got a decent 1080p TV. I now wish I had a Blu-ray player in my MBP (or better, an external one). I'm already short of HDD space (hence the Optibay/2 HHDs), so I don't want Hi-def movies on my HDDs. I want them on a series of shiny discs on a shelf. There's shops in town with thousands of these discs in. And often, especially in the sales, they're cheaper than the online Apple store!
Streaming is no good: too slow over my internet connection. Also if I'm away on business or whatever I may not have an internet connection, or have to pay some ridiculous daily fee for it in the hotel.
Downloading: I could get another external FW drive, but that's cumbersome, and quite frankly a crap solution compared with High data density optical discs.
It's not a proper solution unless you only use your macbook for a few emails, photos and facebook. I actually bought this machine because I use it to its full potential, which means not filling it with huge files I hardly ever use!
Streaming is no good: too slow over my internet connection. Also if I'm away on business or whatever I may not have an internet connection, or have to pay some ridiculous daily fee for it in the hotel.
Downloading: I could get another external FW drive, but that's cumbersome, and quite frankly a crap solution compared with High data density optical discs.
It's not a proper solution unless you only use your macbook for a few emails, photos and facebook. I actually bought this machine because I use it to its full potential, which means not filling it with huge files I hardly ever use!
Could you do us all a favor and stop trying to convince some of these naive posters?
No one has time for your facts, logic, or common sense. No matter how solid they are.
Don't wanna start a hype, but the european apple store is down. let's hope for some interesting updates
Today was rumoured as the launch of the new MBPs. Enjoy.