Macbook Released

[PaulinMaryland]

Don't smart people encase their laptop to protect it?

OMG, I am going to be one of the clowns who pays too much for the black.

Enlighten me: Do you plan to protect MacBook against knocks by encasing it in a "skin"? If not, why not? If so, why pay more for a color you won't see again?

I wouldn't dream of using a $200 MP3 player unprotected, much less a $1200 laptop.

 

[Multimedia]

MacBook Is Yesterday's Workstation

Why on earth are you guys so determined to make a light notebook into a multimedia workstation? A week ago, Multimedia was warning people not to but Yonahs, but to wait for the Meroms as they would impliment 64-bit architecture, be faster and have a faster bus. I agreed with him and said so, but decided in the end that my needs are so light in terms of computing power on my portable that I would go ahead and buy an MB anyway.

Now you and he are arguing that this is a multimedia workstation? I can ride a bicycle on the freeway, but that doesn't mean that I would want to unless I hadn't a more suitable choice. Suggesting that the MacBook is a multimedia workstation is ludicrous in my opinion. There are much better choices. If you need a portable as a multimedia workhorse, for goodness sake wait until the Merom MBPs come out. You'll get a faster bus, hopefully Firewire 800, and a somewhat bigger screen for those times when you do have to use the portable screen. If you plan to dedicate a monitor to it, just get a desktop that will be faster.

The MB is great for showing video, but cutting video? Makes no sense to me. It's a bicycle on the freeway.

Look. The MacBook is running at almost the fastest speed you can get in a MacIntel today. Leemo has demonstrated numerous times that the entire Final Cut Studio runs well on it. Workstation? I don't think any of us were talking about Workstations. Yes I still think waiting for Yonah is prudent.

But that doesn't quell my enthusiasm for what is really Apple's First Mobile Professional Mac for under $2k. It has Gigabit Ethernet, supports 1920 x 1200 monitors spanning, has a HUGE SCREEN 1280 x 800 is HUGE and it even has TWO cores running @ 2GHz. So today's low end portable is yesterday's impossible worstation. In that sense I guess MacBook is a workstation. I just wrote my self into it. So yes NetDog, MacBook is a workstation from the past.

And there is a very good reason for integrated graphics in MacBook - Battery Life. The GMA950 supports Quartz Extreme and CoreImage. It is better than previous generation dedicated video cards. Leemo has demonstrated it will even let you run Motion 2 in Post #2078. These Integrated Graphics are only going to get better soon with the GMA955 coming up very soon. So I think the argument that Integrated Graphics are a bad thing for this application - mobile battery conservation - is very bogus.

 

[Cybergypsy]

As it turns out, they expect me to do actual work around here? What the???

I didn't get to play around with it much but so far so good. I'm using it in an office lit by flourescent bulbs and there were noticable reflections when the thing was starting up, but once I had it running I didn't notice anything, Yes, if I thought about it and looked for it, I could see reflections, but nothing that will bother me. When I moved from the MacBook to my office Wondoze machine, I noticed how dim the monitor I have here is. I'll probably be turning the brightness down on the Mac... I suppose the whole reflection issue could get worse once I do that? We'll see, I'm not too worried about it.

The keyboard seemed weird for the first minute or so, then I got used to it. I can't type all that well anyway so I didn't have to re-learn much as far as touch typing goes.

Noises don't seem to be an issue either, but my office has a rather loud HVAC vent so it would take quite a bit of noise for me to notice it. I put it to sleep once and had to strain to hear anything when it was awakening. Speaking of sleeping, I just looked over at it and the sleep light cycles on and off. It doesn't blink, it slowly transitions from bright to dim/bright/dim... For whatever reason I imagine/hear sounds when I see lights blink, and I can't look at this one without hearing, well... breathing. Kinda freaky. But that one may just be me...

I think that last little bit may have slipped into the too much information zone so I'll get back to real work now.

I should have mine in my hands by noon tomorrow unless someone screws up..oh wait this is Fed ex not UPS!

 

[mkrishnan]

Enlighten me: Do you plan to protect MacBook against knocks by encasing it in a "skin"? If not, why not? If so, why pay more for a color you won't see again?

You're going to encase the whole thing in a skin, while you're using it?

FWIW, have you ever used an iBook before? I have a skin on my iPod, but it's mostly there for the color ... and my iPod goes through much rougher handling than my iBook. I can see casing it up when you're transporting it -- I have a Tucano Second Skin, and I have a sleeve built into my backpack for it. But a skin that you use on the computer while you're using it? Erm....

 

[Cybergypsy]

You're going to encase the whole thing in a skin, while you're using it?

FWIW, have you ever used an iBook before? I have a skin on my iPod, but it's mostly there for the color ... and my iPod goes through much rougher handling than my iBook. I can see casing it up when you're transporting it -- I have a Tucano Second Skin, and I have a sleeve built into my backpack for it. But a skin that you use on the computer while you're using it? Erm....

I have had a ibook for ever and have no problem keeping it perfect

 

[milo]

Can we please drop the ALL CAPS AND THE INSULTS? That sort of stuff is much more welcome at AI me thinks. Thanks.

The tone was set by the post I was responding to.

Don't take it personally, it wasn't directed at you.

 

[dr_lha]

Enlighten me: Do you plan to protect MacBook against knocks by encasing it in a "skin"? If not, why not? If so, why pay more for a color you won't see again?

I wouldn't dream of using a $200 MP3 player unprotected, much less a $1200 laptop.

You have to take the thing out of its skin to use it though. AFAIK there are no skins that encase a computer when its on (would be a bad idea for reasons of heat dissappation).

Basically, what the f*** are you on about?

 

[ImAlwaysRight]

According to an Apple Systems Engineer I know, FCS is not "supported" on machines with integrated graphics.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303470 (this article only mentions the Mac mini, but I'm assuming one for the MacBook will be up soon - it took 2 weeks for this article to get posted after the mini was released)

It's obvious from the screenshots we've seen earlier that these apps will still run, but whether or not they will have full functionality or decent performance is still up for debate.

I just read the following on the XLR8YOURMAC.COM website. Note he ran FCS on a 1.5 Core Solo Mini with the stock 512MB and stock HD, not a 2.0GHz Core Duo MacBook, with the possibility of a user adding 2GB RAM and their own 7200rpm SATA hard drive in a MacBook. (emphasis mine, below)

Intel Core Solo Mini owner comments on running Final Cut Studio 5.1 - In reply to earlier posts if Final Cut Studio would run on an Intel GMA950 (graphics) based Mac:

" Just for the fun of it I installed Final Cut Studio 5.1 on my daughters Mac Mini w/1.5GHz Intel Core Solo processor with 512MB RAM. I have only tried FCP and Motion. I started SoundTrack but have not used it.
Final Cut starts and runs fine. I can capture from my VX2100 camera and edit in the timeline (just basic stuff so far).
Motion also works on this machine (it kicks the crap out of my Powerbook 1.25GHz). Ran the update for Final Cut Pro 5.1.1 and it also starts and does basic edits. So far so good on basic stuff.

(I asked if he had exercised Motion on the Core Solo Mini (i.e. rendering, previews, etc.-Mike)
Done one render of a template I edited, changes text and speed of some assets. All templates run fine. Previews are really slow on first pass but run at decent speed after. Will be testing more things this coming weekend.

Have only used the Mini on a LCD minitor at 1280x1024 will be connecting it to a Dell 2005FPW this weekend also and test at 1680 x 1050.
To say it installed and worked is an understatement, I was blown away it worked!!
I wanted to try it to see if I could use a Mini to edit some basic stuff during the summer here in Phoenix. My two 2x-2GHZz G5's create too much heat so if I could have a solution to capture and do basic edits to cut down on the heat indoors.
Next step is to test a Mini Core Duo.
-Richard M. "

 

[motuman]

Never Fails, New Apple product, a preponderance of "Negatives" in MacRumors Forums

Never Fails, New Apple product, another preponderance of "Negatives" in Mac Rumors Forums

Whenever a new Apple product comes out (especially hardware) I am actually more entertained by visiting the Mac Rumor forums than Apple's own site.

Almost without exception, the "Negative" ratings are in the majority, until a few hours or days, when people actually get a funny thing called "facts" and first hand experinece.

But how could the MacBook, go from, it sucks, to I must have it, it amazes me!

Went to the Grove Apple Store in LA last night, saw the black MacBook Pro, it looks great. Best looking Mac laptop I have ever seen (IMO).

- Yes it was covered in fingerprints, but what do you expect, thats its purpose to be touched by tons of people at the Apple Store.

- the "glossy" screen, after 15 minutes, I didn't notice it, then I said, hey its cool, the colors are nice and the screen is bright. Not sure how it will look outside or how scratch prone is it?

- The keyboard: has the same individual removable keys as in any other Mac laptop of recent years, yes the whole keyboard unit does not lift out. The keyboard felt great to me.

- the "latchless" latch is awesome, magsafe awesome, and user upgradable hard drive very nice also, Gig Ethernet on a consumer laptop, gotta love it.

- Bottom line: it looks great, an performs great, it's fast! (Core Duo 2.0, 768 MB RAM)

I am actually an Apple technology consultant / sys admin, time to test it.

No pro apps on these so I did the best I could:

Launched Garage Band, iMovie and Safari (maybe 7-10 tabs) "simultaneously" all apps were opened in about 10 seconds, then opened Terminal (as fast as I could) and then the top command,

All were doing their thing at the same time, GB only 25-30 % CPU, iMovie 15 %, Safari 8 %. (Granted not huge demanding GB or iMovie projects, but still).

Not bad at all I would say, there was an article on Macsurfer the other day about, recent Mac Book Pro purchasers, might have reason to be upset. They have reason to be.

The Mac Book, performs (at least to me in my quick estimation) as a MBP, minus the screen size and ATI chip.

I would think Apple definitely plans, the "Merom" chip in the MBP, to further differentiate, but I also get this feeling, that the Aluminum case look is out on future MBP's even.

I digress, but I think Apple or the Web Kit team fixed - optimized or something in Safari in the Intel Xcode build, in opening Tabs, it does not hang or Spinning Beach Ball as it does even on a PM G5 Dual 2.0 (PPC).

Or it could just be the Intel Core Duo.

I was talking to a few guys there, (now basically giving a demo) and they said, "Man these are going to sell like hot cakes".

I agree, now who gets the black MacBook Pro, me or my wife

PS, (my PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz, feels like a dinosaur stuck in a tar pit compared to this Intel Mac Book), the PB G4 is just not a usable option for me any longer.

 

[Rower_CPU]

I just read the following on the XLR8YOURMAC.COM website. Note he ran FCS on a 1.5 Core Solo Mini with the stock 512MB and stock HD, not a 2.0GHz Core Duo, with the possibility of a user adding 2GB RAM and their own 7200rpm SATA hard drive in a MacBook. (emphasis mine, below

Yup, saw that article, too. Sounds like good news for MacBook/Intel mini owners trying to run FCS.

 

[milo]

Why on earth are you guys so determined to make a light notebook into a multimedia workstation?

I'm not, don't go all straw man on me. I'm just asking how Motion performs, and what slowdowns you're seeing with it.

I'm not sure why you're so insistent that these shouldn't be able to run apps like Final Cut Pro. Isn't FCP mostly dependent on the cpu? Does it even accelerate with the gpu at all?

Bus speed is same on the MB as the MPB's. And for video editing, you're best off with a big external drive anyway, it's asking for trouble to use any internal drive on a laptop. I'm just interested in real world performance reports here, with specifics. Benchmarks would be even better. I've already heard plenty of theoretical speculation on what should or shouldn't work, and it hasn't been useful.

 

[filterban]

But how could the MacBook Pro, go from, it sucks, to I must have it, it amazes me!

Went to the Grove Apple Store in LA last night, saw the black MacBook Pro, it looks great. Best looking Mac laptop I have ever seen (IMO).

There's a black MacBook Pro?

I think you mean MacBook, not MacBook Pro...

 

[sthiede]

iDvD

i dont want to shell out more money basically just for a superdrive, so is there a way to transfer iDVD projects to a Windows PC and burn it from there...If so, how would i go about it?

 

[Frozone]

i dont want to shell out more money basically just for a superdrive, so is there a way to transfer iDVD projects to a Windows PC and burn it from there...If so, how would i go about it?

I doubt there is a way to transfer the actual iDVD project, but you could just transfer the video and stuff you're going to burn to a DVD to your Windows PC and use an iDVD equivelant. There's plenty of Window's DVD burning applications.

 

[drobo]

macbook

Agree the specs are good but both the white and black Macbooks look more like PC notebooks than either the old iBook or PowerBook. They look cheap and the keyboard is rubbish. Why have smaller keys with these big gaps all over the place?
This is just about an acceptable upgrade for the iBook but it no way replaces the 12" Powerbook in terms of looks.

 

[sthiede]

I doubt there is a way to transfer the actual iDVD project, but you could just transfer the video and stuff you're going to burn to a DVD to your Windows PC and use an iDVD equivelant. There's plenty of Window's DVD burning applications.

would the windows programs be able to tell the format? And could you give me some examples of DvD burning apps for windows?

 

[Frozone]

would the windows programs be able to tell the format? And could you give me some examples of DvD burning apps for windows?

To be honest I'm not quite sure. I've not burned a DVD on Windows in about a year now. We had a windows machine at work with a DVD burner, but I no longer work there soo...

Someone else may know though, but if not I'm sure a quick search on Google will find a lot of results.

 

[mkrishnan]

i dont want to shell out more money basically just for a superdrive, so is there a way to transfer iDVD projects to a Windows PC and burn it from there...If so, how would i go about it?

iDVD can make an image, but it'll be in the .dmg format, I think. If you can convert it to .iso or somesuch, you should be able to burn it using Nero (or maybe Nero supports .dmg directly now?).

 

[sthiede]

iDVD can make an image, but it'll be in the .dmg format, I think. If you can convert it to .iso or somesuch, you should be able to burn it using Nero (or maybe Nero supports .dmg directly now?).

are there any other programs that are good besides nero?

 

[ImNoSuperMan]

Finally a thread on MacBook. Lots of posts as we`ve had till now with every MacBook/iBook rumor. But sans the name debate.


Someone still wanna bet what it wud be called????

No matter how frustrating it was at that time. It now seems like an entertainment. God I`ll miss those iBook vs MacBooks debates(or should I say WAR)

 

[mkrishnan]

are there any other programs that are good besides nero?

What do I look like? A Windows user?

This is pretty good: http://www.alcohol-soft.com/

Roxio probably also has a good product, but I don't know which one specifically... people like Toast on Macs, but I think the equivalent PC product has a different name.

 

[Multimedia]

I Rest My Case - The Jury Rules Without Deliberation

According to an Apple Systems Engineer I know, FCS is not "supported" on machines with integrated graphics.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303470 (this article only mentions the Mac mini, but I'm assuming one for the MacBook will be up soon - it took 2 weeks for this article to get posted after the mini was released)

It's obvious from the screenshots we've seen earlier that these apps will still run, but whether or not they will have full functionality or decent performance is still up for debate.

I just read the following on the XLR8YOURMAC.COM website. Note he ran FCS on a 1.5 Core Solo Mini with the stock 512MB and stock HD, not a 2.0GHz Core Duo, with the possibility of a user adding 2GB RAM and their own 7200rpm SATA hard drive in a MacBook. (emphasis mine, below)

Intel Core Solo Mini owner comments on running Final Cut Studio 5.1 - In reply to earlier posts if Final Cut Studio would run on an Intel GMA950 (graphics) based Mac:

" Just for the fun of it I installed Final Cut Studio 5.1 on my daughters Mac Mini w/1.5GHz Intel Core Solo processor with 512MB RAM. I have only tried FCP and Motion. I started SoundTrack but have not used it.
Final Cut starts and runs fine. I can capture from my VX2100 camera and edit in the timeline (just basic stuff so far).
Motion also works on this machine (it kicks the crap out of my Powerbook 1.25GHz). Ran the update for Final Cut Pro 5.1.1 and it also starts and does basic edits. So far so good on basic stuff.

(I asked if he had exercised Motion on the Core Solo Mini (i.e. rendering, previews, etc.-Mike)
Done one render of a template I edited, changes text and speed of some assets. All templates run fine. Previews are really slow on first pass but run at decent speed after. Will be testing more things this coming weekend.

Have only used the Mini on a LCD minitor at 1280x1024 will be connecting it to a Dell 2005FPW this weekend also and test at 1680 x 1050.
To say it installed and worked is an understatement, I was blown away it worked!!
I wanted to try it to see if I could use a Mini to edit some basic stuff during the summer here in Phoenix. My two 2x-2GHZz G5's create too much heat so if I could have a solution to capture and do basic edits to cut down on the heat indoors.
Next step is to test a Mini Core Duo.
-Richard M. "

I think I can rest my case with this post. Thank you all for your lovely and jubilant opinions. I recant any comments about limited functionality with the exception of Multi-Clips and limited to DV and HDV formats.

 

[MrCrowbar]

Mine has been silent apart from the optical drive and the occasional sound from the SATA disk. Makes my Intel iMac seem loud, and I can't hear that unless the room in dead silent. Honestly, my television tuner is louder than either. I was fearing the worst after some of the MBPs that found their way out into the field, but this MB is the quietest PC that I have ever owned.

Thank you so much. The last 12" powerbooks used to be pretty loud if you give them some work to do. Good to know it's quiet. Some people here might want to shoot you for using the term PC for the Macbook, but I'm sure you meant personal computer and not a Wintel mashine.

Oh yea, about that hard drive: I was in al the geek stores here today and asked for a 2,5" SATA drive with at least 120 GB. First of all, you can't buy ANY SATA 2,5" drives in stores here... and I found very few 160 GB drives actually. One is the Fujitsu MHV2160BT, but it's only 4200 rom and has 2 cylinders. So... will a 12mm thick hard drive fit into the Macbooks? I'd take the 120 GB as BTO option if I can't find a drive but it's so unreasonably expensive... Screw Apple for giving me easy access to the HDD!

 

[MrCrowbar]

are there any other programs that are good besides nero?

CloneDVD opens .ISO-files well. Alcohol 120% works well too.

 

[nem3015]

To save some money on upgrades

Hi everybody,

I haven't had time to check all the posts so firgive me if somebody already did, but I was playing with some numbers in order to upgrade the mac book memory and hard drive without giving a leg and an eye to Apple.

This is what I found:
Subtotal $2,049.00

* 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo
* 2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
* 120GB Serial ATA drive
* SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)
* Keyboard/Mac OS - U.S. English
* AirPort Extreme Card & Bluetooth

This is from the Apple store, starting with the white mac book 2.0 (I don't care about the black but if you like it just add 200) and adding 2Gb memory ($500) and a 120Gb disk for $250 more so total $2049

Digging around (not too much to tell the truth) I found:

Memory --- 1 Gb x 2 ----$112 x 2 = $224 (-$226 compared with Apple Store)
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/5300DDR2S1GB/

Hard Drive --- Seagate 120Gb Momentus 5400rpm ---- $176.99 (-$73 compared with Apple Store)
http://www.fadfusion.com/selection.php?product_item_number=10060604527

So total will be $1299 +$224 +$177 = $1700 with a total saving of $349 from Apple Store

Note: I used the same disk speed to make a valid comparison but there is other options too like 7200rpm. Even if they are more expensive the saving in the memory compensate for that and is still below the Apple Store for at least $200

Let me know if you could find better prices.