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MacBook Updated with LED Display, Multi-Touch, 7 Hour Battery
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£687.70 as standard and (+£69 for 4GB, so £756.70 total), better to buy standard and get crucial ram to save coin
Ah thanks. That's not that bad considering the upgrades and Applecare and such (which I will need considering 2 of my laptops have broken in a year and the third seems to be about to break in 2). Of course, two of those laptops have been Acers...
None of the negatives really bother me - I've never switched a battery (only really own a laptop because of switching between home and university flat a few times a month) and don't own any firewire supporting products. To be honest I prefer the white to the grey and black of the MBP as well. Well okay 2 USB ports is disappointing, but that's about it. Might see the price differently if I wasn't going to be using the education store though.
I do not understand why they haven't made this work via USB. It's a great feature and if it just pretended to be a USB 2.0 drive, it'd be acceptable to me...
Gary
http://GarySaid.com/
The statements here are FUD.
1. The majority of consumer video is not transferred over FireWire, but instead via SD or other solid state storage. It has been moving this way for a while now, and eventually all consumer video cameras will record to some form of solid state media.
2. I have several external HDs that don't require the use of both USB ports, and don't require external power supplies. Sure my FW800 drive is faster, but for consumers the difference is tiny, and most won't know to buy FW devices even if they had FW.
3. It's been removed to differentiate between the consumer MacBook, and prosumer MacBook Pro. Also, the HD is still accessible by opening the MacBook, and you can buy a £20 gadget to access it on another computer.
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And a backlit keyboard. But you have a max 4GB RAM in the non-Pro.
And the next refresh of the MBP will take care of the speed difference...
It's weird that it's got a bigger HD than the MBP, can't rationalize that. They should have kept it 160GB and priced it at $949!
I think the no SD slot will alienate more first-time buyers than bully people into jumping up.
Gary
Trying to mimic Avedon...It actually looks really clean and minimalistic. That is why I would say they do it. It is actually my favorite color of seamless. Love it. Nice and clean.
I'm sure this is only the beginning. Watch... 6 months later apple's gonna update the macbook again to have firewire and an SD card slot... and people are going to rebuy it again
To be honest, I don't see the loss of firewire and SD as a big issue. You can always get a reader, (pita I know but not unsolvable) Also Firewire is useful for a small segment. I'm not saying that it's not important to those people. But Apple has a few reasons. Number 1. Money. Why would you pay more for a 13 inch unibody with the same specs? For the firewire if you need it. There has to be some differentiation between the different classes.
Let's be honest here, USB with it's flaws, is still vastly far more supported than firewire. Most people, buying the macbook for school etc or what not, probably have no idea what firewire even is. But they probably have a USB flash drive... and would buy an USB external HD.
Now is USB2 the end all and superior? No. But it works well enough that most people will just deal with it. As we've had a vast history of adopting standards which are not better, just more popular... VHS, Microsoft office... etc.
USB3 is coming out soon. I'm going to bet apple jumps on it, and then light path. We're going to hear the firewire debate for a long time, but I get this feeling that it's eventually going to disappear. It will be like when the removed the serial port, or floppy disk. People will complain, and eventually move on.
I for one actually welcome the rubber bottom, I'm always worried about scratching the bottom of my umbp 13. And with the glass trackpad and LED screen and built in battery, I have no reason to not recommend the 13 inch macbook for most users.
Honestly if they want to get me excited about ports, they should make one of the USB ports dual purpose ESATA/USB combo... I'll take 3Gbps over 800Mbps anyday, plus it wouldn't cost apple any extra space.
Saa... but then again apple was never about being logical or practical.
To be honest, I don't see the loss of firewire and SD as a big issue. You can always get a reader, (pita I know but not unsolvable) Also Firewire is useful for a small segment. I'm not saying that it's not important to those people. But Apple has a few reasons. Number 1. Money. Why would you pay more for a 13 inch unibody with the same specs? For the firewire if you need it. There has to be some differentiation between the different classes.
Let's be honest here, USB with it's flaws, is still vastly far more supported than firewire. Most people, buying the macbook for school etc or what not, probably have no idea what firewire even is. But they probably have a USB flash drive... and would buy an USB external HD.
Now is USB2 the end all and superior? No. But it works well enough that most people will just deal with it. As we've had a vast history of adopting standards which are not better, just more popular... VHS, Microsoft office... etc.
USB3 is coming out soon. I'm going to bet apple jumps on it, and then light path. We're going to hear the firewire debate for a long time, but I get this feeling that it's eventually going to disappear. It will be like when the removed the serial port, or floppy disk. People will complain, and eventually move on.
I for one actually welcome the rubber bottom, I'm always worried about scratching the bottom of my umbp 13. And with the glass trackpad and LED screen and built in battery, I have no reason to not recommend the 13 inch macbook for most users.
Honestly if they want to get me excited about ports, they should make one of the USB ports dual purpose ESATA/USB combo... I'll take 3Gbps over 800Mbps anyday, plus it wouldn't cost apple any extra space.
Saa... but then again apple was never about being logical or practical.
Totally worth target disck mode alone. Even if you don't happen to have a firewire HD laying around, grab a buddies mac, that has fw, plug it up to yours, hold down T and boot it up. BAM! You now have a big external drive. Fabulous.
If they keep taking fw off of computers, they seriously need to give us target mode via usb as well. I have been in a pinch already with those limited edition aluminum macbooks. Ugh! Craziness.
For all of you wondering why it has a bigger HD than the pro, the macbook just got refreshed. The PRO will get quietly updated to have a bigger/faster drive. Quite simple.
At the end of the day, do you really look at a drive when buying a computer? I look at ports, expandability, processort, screen, etc. That drive can be replaced quick.
My drive has been replaced 3 times in my MBP. 160 5400, 320 7200, 80 SSD.
At the end of the day, do you really look at a drive when buying a computer? I look at ports, expandability, processort, screen, etc. That drive can be replaced quick.
My drive has been replaced 3 times in my MBP. 160 5400, 320 7200, 80 SSD.
Mac is starting to piss the sh*t out of me.
This Macbook update is completely stupid: You get a regular Macbook for 1000$ when most of the other PC brand have become way more cheaper and more powerful in thinnier and thinner machines, and If you wan't a "Pro" Macbook, that is just a FW and SD slot, a retrolit keyboard and 2GB more, you just have to pay 500$ more !
I'm on an old white Macbook and I've been waiting for the MBPs for several month, this novembers I think me and my colleagues will just switchback to PCs, I really don't see the point in a Mac anymore.
This Macbook update is completely stupid: You get a regular Macbook for 1000$ when most of the other PC brand have become way more cheaper and more powerful in thinnier and thinner machines, and If you wan't a "Pro" Macbook, that is just a FW and SD slot, a retrolit keyboard and 2GB more, you just have to pay 500$ more !
I'm on an old white Macbook and I've been waiting for the MBPs for several month, this novembers I think me and my colleagues will just switchback to PCs, I really don't see the point in a Mac anymore.
They should at least drop to $899. $999 is uncomfortably close to the aluminum (not plastic) 13" macbook pro.
If they make it $899 I would eventually buy it.
If they make it $799 I would run for the store and buy it.
At $999, it pushes me to look to other vendors (hey, at least windows7 is not as bad as vista or as old as xp)
I was undecided on buying the MB or MBP before the new release. Now with the upgrade, I am leaning towards the MB by far.
I have a 24 inch IMAC and would like to transfer my pics and music to my MB when I buy it. Is that what firewire is for?
How would I do that with the new MB if it does not have firewire?
I have a 24 inch IMAC and would like to transfer my pics and music to my MB when I buy it. Is that what firewire is for?
How would I do that with the new MB if it does not have firewire?
They will drop it in price - eventually.
Apple typically with any new design skims off all those people who must have it due to the new design.
Then 1/2 year later they either drop the price or update the features.
So I can see an SD slot going in there at some point.
And who knows maybe even a FW port. Although maybe that's going to be a Light Peak port instead...
It's a nicely small machine though. Almost a successor to the 12" PowerBook - if it had a dedicated GPU...
Apple typically with any new design skims off all those people who must have it due to the new design.
Then 1/2 year later they either drop the price or update the features.
So I can see an SD slot going in there at some point.
And who knows maybe even a FW port. Although maybe that's going to be a Light Peak port instead...
It's a nicely small machine though. Almost a successor to the 12" PowerBook - if it had a dedicated GPU...
That is because FW has its own controller chip and does not require a host computer to transfer data unlike USB. You could conceivably create a small subcircuit for USB transfers but that would require space on an already cramped circuit board and the additional costs would not be worth the hassle, considering the fact that it is a trivial matter to remove the hard drive now.
Firewire is better than USB in that it isn't sitting there stealing processor cycles to do its work - the OHCI controller handles all of the signal parsing. This is part of what enables target disk mode - the machine can sit there and do what it needs to do with little load on the processor.
It sucks that it is gone... I'm a heavy Firewire user on my desktop, and target my iBook G3 to my desktop to transfer stuff to and from it quite frequently since its wireless is ungodly slow. That being said, I think that this white one is going to replace my battered old G3 within the next week or so.
It sucks that it is gone... I'm a heavy Firewire user on my desktop, and target my iBook G3 to my desktop to transfer stuff to and from it quite frequently since its wireless is ungodly slow. That being said, I think that this white one is going to replace my battered old G3 within the next week or so.
Why not 349? 199? that sounds awesome. look up what a market is. they obviously believe and have proof that they will be able to sell a healthy amount at this price, or else they would charge less. duh
1. It's not important how the "majority" transfers video. For sure, it is stupid to keep out all the others, only to save some cents, perhaps 1$ of industrial cost.
2. All the respected leaders in manteinance / emergence software tools advise NOT to use USB HDs for mission-critical tasks, as the power provided by USB port sucks.
3. The 13,3" MacBook Pro is enough differentiated with the wonderful all-aluminium case itself. Anyway, the new MacBook could have been differentiated in many other ways, for example not giving the all-clickable glass trackpad, or with a slightly slower processor, but NOT removing FireWire, that is far more essential. Opening the MacBook? Removing the internal HD? Going around with the bulky adapter you suggest? Reinstalling the HD inside the MacBook? But, how little is worth YOUR time?
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£687.70 as standard and (+£69 for 4GB, so £756.70 total), better to buy standard and get crucial ram to save coin
When I go to the edu store, the MacBook is showing up as a few pence over £750. Is it cheaper the higher in education you get? I'm choosing the standard edu store at http://store.apple.com/uk-edu
No it's not. The US price doesn't include TAX.
Also, because the exchange rate varies massively from day to day most companies operate on a simple £1 = $1.5 ratio. Keeps things simple and allows for currency fluctuations without the need to change the price every few weeks.
So on this basis, the $999 becomes £666. You then need to add 15% VAT, which brings the price to around £750. The additional £50 is most likely down to increased transport costs due to the rising cost of oil. Also, Apple have probably factored in the UK VAT increase due in December meaning they won't need to up the prices again.