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I went to two local post offices today and was directed that its been all moved to online now. I did it online but you do have to pay the $1.05 identity check fee. Small fee to pay when it will get back $130 on the new Macbook.

Only thing now I have been debating is going for the 13" rMBP with 256GB SSD. I currently have a 256 13" air and my usage fits exactly what the new rMB is being marketed for, only thing I am slightly concerned with is that I will lose 3 hours of battery life going from 12 > 9, but I am not sure how much I will notice it. I had a 13" air that had 9 hours battery life before I spilled a beer on it and loved that to death and am looking forward to having a computer the footprint of the 11" air but with a 12" retina screen.

Hoping Bestbuy will have these on the 10th, or else Ill just go to a Apple store.

Just noticed your location...assuming that's Portland, Maine, are you buying in Maine, or driving down to NH? ;)
 
Well, that still seems a little sneaky (although not illegal).

It wouldn't matter for me, though, because I will almost certainly be going with a BTO anyway.

Using those coupons on new Apple products is VERY "YMMV" ... I've tried to use them many times, and they call the Apple laptops exempt from the coupon because they're Manufacturer Minimum Retail Price products... in other words they can't discount the current model, except for education users. And they can only discount the old\clearance models.

However, with that said, there have been many who have reported being able to use them. I've lived all over the country, mostly in big cities, and never have been allowed to use them, so I'm guessing it's the smaller town stores where they're a bit nicer, and make exceptions.

But seriously, why would anyone buy from Best Buy? That store is a dump.
 
Some of these comments remind me of us Americans' desire to buy big trucks and full size SUVs. People say they need the room, want to sit higher, feel safer, etc., but they are in them alone or with one other person a lot of the time. Some of the same people join in with the complaints about gas prices. Huh? If anyone planning to buy a full size SUV or truck delayed their purchase, as a group, for two months the auto manufacturers would be on the phone with the oil companies so fast it wouldn't be funny. But that will never happen. The bottom has to fall out, like it did a few years ago, then those people with the large vehicles couldn't give their vehicles away.

Oh, my point. The rMB is more than enough computer for most people even though they think they need more. I am typing this from a 15" rMBP - gasp - without a CD/DVD drive. I have managed. The only thing I would be missing with the rMB is a SD slot when I am traveling and want to look at pictures. I'm sure an adapter will come out though.
 
I might purchase one this summer. All the heavy, intensive and demanding work is done on my iMac while many web-browsing, video streaming/YouTube and reading PDF documents are done on my tablet. And my 15" MBP is collecting dust…. Haven't turned it on for several days…

I would love to carry both my tablet and laptop, and this new 12" rMB would allow it. rMB would be only required to perform basic tasks like MS Office, emails, school-related softwares, web-browsing, video-streaming, viewing guitar tabs, writing some stuff, etc. Since rMB doesn't have fans, I can use it in bed without putting it on a small breakfast table! Furthermore, this new rMB would do wonders when traveling. Due to its compact design, it would be easy to handle this in hotel rooms and public places.

However….

I am a bit hesitant. I would love 15" screen. Yeah… my tablet is only 10.1 inches, but I want more screen space on a laptop (useful when typing…).
 
Some of these comments remind me of us Americans' desire to buy big trucks and full size SUVs. People say they need the room, want to sit higher, feel safer, etc., but they are in them alone or with one other person a lot of the time. Some of the same people join in with the complaints about gas prices. Huh? If anyone planning to buy a full size SUV or truck delayed their purchase, as a group, for two months the auto manufacturers would be on the phone with the oil companies so fast it wouldn't be funny. But that will never happen. The bottom has to fall out, like it did a few years ago, then those people with the large vehicles couldn't give their vehicles away.

Oh, my point. The rMB is more than enough computer for most people even though they think they need more. I am typing this from a 15" rMBP - gasp - without a CD/DVD drive. I have managed. The only thing I would be missing with the rMB is a SD slot when I am traveling and want to look at pictures. I'm sure an adapter will come out though.

Finally someone who gets it.
 
Buying a maxed out model. It's my travel computer. I have a more powerful set up I keep in the home office.

When buying a model of computer that is designed more for portability than power, is buying a 'maxed out' version worth the extra cash?
 
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Oh, my point. The rMB is more than enough computer for most people even though they think they need more. I am typing this from a 15" rMBP - gasp - without a CD/DVD drive. I have managed. The only thing I would be missing with the rMB is a SD slot when I am traveling and want to look at pictures. I'm sure an adapter will come out though.

You're spot on. Americans have screwed up ideas of what they need\want, it's a society of gluten and excess. My mom lives in Texas (yuck, but sorry if you guys are from TX and are offended). There she "needs" a 6 bedroom 5 bathroom house for her and her husband, and she drives an 8 passenger SUV for herself. Why? Because she thinks she needs it, and that one time every 3 months she goes out with her friends, it's convenient to be able to take one car. Forget the 99.99% she's driving it alone.

Point being you're right... nobody needs the specs... but people sell it to themselves, and they are suckers for the marketing.. "just $300 more for twice the storage" ... forget the fact that you've been getting along just fine with a quarter of the storage right now hehe.
 
I'm going into the store on Friday with the intention of buying one, but if I find something very apparent that I dislike, I'll walk. I will give it a good workout for the next 15 days before finally deciding to keep it.
 
I'm going into the store on Friday with the intention of buying one, but if I find something very apparent that I dislike, I'll walk. I will give it a good workout for the next 15 days before finally deciding to keep it.

Absolutely the perfect plan.
 
I'm going into the store on Friday with the intention of buying one, but if I find something very apparent that I dislike, I'll walk. I will give it a good workout for the next 15 days before finally deciding to keep it.

Yes, a sound plan.



I may do this myself instead of ordering online. WTF :eek:
 
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haha... I see a lot of people here on planning to do the same thing like I do:

buy the new rMB and use it to the max (read: your daily workload plus some extra heavy stuff) for about 14 days...Either Apple is getting a lot of devices back after 14 days or we'll see happy campers here in about 2 weeks from now...

:cool:
 
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The only thing I would be missing with the rMB is a SD slot when I am traveling and want to look at pictures. I'm sure an adapter will come out though.

You could buy the USB-C Digital AV adapter and then get one of the multi (with sd card slot on side) usb adapters they sell at any dollar store.

MJ1K2


th
 
haha... I see a lot of people here on planning to do the same thing like I do:

buy the new rMB and use it to the max (read: your daily workload plus some extra heavy stuff) for about 14 days...Either Apple is getting a lot of devices back after 14 days or we'll see happy campers here in about 2 weeks from now...

:cool:

Agree. Either way, Apple gets market feedback. :cool:
 
Waiting until the reviews hit probably sometime later tonight, assuming the they are good I will be buying the maxed out version.

I don't really need all that much power anymore, I'll probably buy a retina iMac later this year to replace my TBD display but honestly most of the apps I run on my desktop are not too demanding and even less so on my laptop.

What I need, what I will not compromise on is performance, my needs are simple but I refuse to spend my time staring at a beach ball.

If the reviews are not good I am ordering a 13inch rMBP.
 
I've been a little frustrated reading so many cases *against* the Retina MacBook around, glad to see this post so I can add my case *for* it here just to have a voice in the conversation.

TL;DR: The Retina MacBook is an excellent secondary computer for powerusers.

My recent history of laptops consists of an 11" Air from 2012-14, and a13" RMBP for this last year which I am still using. I *loved* my 11" Air, but the lack of retina drove my crazy after awhile and when I realized the fabled 12" retina MBA was still far away from release, I gave up waiting and got the 13" RMBP last April. It's a great computer, but I wish it were smaller, and lighter, and had no fans. This new RMB is the exact computer I've wanted all this time, and I'm thrilled that I'll be able to buy one this Friday.

I'll be buying the 512gb 1.3GHz version in Space Gray. That computer has more than enough processor power for the tasks I do 99% of the time I will be using it, and during the 1% of my use where it will be a bottleneck, oh well—I don't mind waiting a smidgen longer for tasks to complete for things I do very rarely. Only having a single port is also of no concern for me. I literally never use my laptop while plugged in to power, and almost never use anything that requires a USB connection. I think in the last 3 years I have had to use a USB thumb drive two times, used an ethernet-to-USB adapter once to have my car coded, and hooked up my DSLR while traveling maybe ten times total—I plan on buying a $10 Monoprice USB-C adapter for those rare instances, which I'll just keep in my camera bag. Lacking a SD slot is also no concern because I use a Canon 5d mkii which uses CF cards. 8gb of RAM is plenty for the tasks I'll be doing.

Therefore it's the perfect computer for me. A brilliant retina screen, amazingly light and small but with a near full-size keyboard and excellent battery life. Enough horsepower that I'll almost never experience any lag whatsoever, and enough storage that I can sync my entire Dropbox to it and have everything at my fingertips that I need to do my work in an emergency.

Of course, it is a bit pricey relative to other laptops in the line-up in terms of performance, but I'm willing to pay that premium because of how perfect this computer is for me. For what I'm looking for in a laptop, this is by far the best fit. Also, once I break down the price, it seems pretty reasonable for my situation. I expect to use this RMB for about two years after which I will sell it used. I estimate I'll get at least $750 for it, so my net cost for two years of use will be around $1,000. I'm fortunate enough with my freelance work that less than *ten hours of work per year* will more than cover the cost of owning this laptop. To me, that seems like a bargain for such an important and convenient tool.

Here is a more thorough breakdown of my uses for the RMB and how it fits in as my secondary computer:

My laptop is purely my secondary machine; currently my main computer and primary work machine is a maxed out 5k iMac set-up with a second 28" 4k Asus display, external TB2 array, blu-ray drive, etc. I do web coding, graphic design and page layout, photography, editing, and some writing. I also run my own business, so I do many activities relating to that: tons of email, messaging, accounting, web-browsing, social media creation, and note-taking,-keeping and -organizing. These tasks can all be divided into two categories—ones that require a maximum of computer horsepower as well as screen real estate, and ones that require neither of those things. For the former category, there is no substitute for my desktop computer and I never find myself in the situation of attempting to do that type of work for a significant length of time on a laptop—no matter how powerful the laptop or how big its screen, the experience will always be drastically inferior to doing that work on my desktop.

So, what I need out of a laptop is something that can handle the latter category of work on the regular, and in rare instances, can accommodate a quick dose of the more resource-intensive tasks when in a pinch. Checking and replying to email, editing and writing texts, doing research via the web, crafting blog and social media posts, communicating via Messages, are all tasks that will be *perfectly suited* for the RMB and there will be *zero* compromises doing these tasks on an RMB versus a more powerful/bigger laptop. My 1% of use tasks, such as a quick Photoshop correction of an image, minor emergency correction of some live code, and even an on-location 1080p video import and quick final Final Cut creation of a two minute video will suffer slightly on the RMB versus a more capable machine, but more importantly to me, they will all still be totally possible on the RMB, even if maginally less efficient. And given that these tasks are the exception and not the rule, that's a compromise I'll gladly accept.
 
I've been a little frustrated reading so many cases *against* the Retina MacBook around, glad to see this post so I can add my case *for* it here just to have a voice in the conversation.

TL;DR: The Retina MacBook is an excellent secondary computer for powerusers.

My recent history of laptops consists of an 11" Air from 2012-14, and a13" RMBP for this last year which I am still using. I *loved* my 11" Air, but the lack of retina drove my crazy after awhile and when I realized the fabled 12" retina MBA was still far away from release, I gave up waiting and got the 13" RMBP last April. It's a great computer, but I wish it were smaller, and lighter, and had no fans. This new RMB is the exact computer I've wanted all this time, and I'm thrilled that I'll be able to buy one this Friday.

I'll be buying the 512gb 1.3GHz version in Space Gray. That computer has more than enough processor power for the tasks I do 99% of the time I will be using it, and during the 1% of my use where it will be a bottleneck, oh well—I don't mind waiting a smidgen longer for tasks to complete for things I do very rarely. Only having a single port is also of no concern for me. I literally never use my laptop while plugged in to power, and almost never use anything that requires a USB connection. I think in the last 3 years I have had to use a USB thumb drive two times, used an ethernet-to-USB adapter once to have my car coded, and hooked up my DSLR while traveling maybe ten times total—I plan on buying a $10 Monoprice USB-C adapter for those rare instances, which I'll just keep in my camera bag. Lacking a SD slot is also no concern because I use a Canon 5d mkii which uses CF cards. 8gb of RAM is plenty for the tasks I'll be doing.

Therefore it's the perfect computer for me. A brilliant retina screen, amazingly light and small but with a near full-size keyboard and excellent battery life. Enough horsepower that I'll almost never experience any lag whatsoever, and enough storage that I can sync my entire Dropbox to it and have everything at my fingertips that I need to do my work in an emergency.

Of course, it is a bit pricey relative to other laptops in the line-up in terms of performance, but I'm willing to pay that premium because of how perfect this computer is for me. For what I'm looking for in a laptop, this is by far the best fit. Also, once I break down the price, it seems pretty reasonable for my situation. I expect to use this RMB for about two years after which I will sell it used. I estimate I'll get at least $750 for it, so my net cost for two years of use will be around $1,000. I'm fortunate enough with my freelance work that less than *ten hours of work per year* will more than cover the cost of owning this laptop. To me, that seems like a bargain for such an important and convenient tool.

I could have written every word you just did. It's been quite a journey going from 11" Air to 13" rMBP and now to the 12" rMB. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
 
I've owned at least 3 Airs.

Couldn't take it anymore. Thought they were obsolete (and that was two years ago LOL )

So, here we go :)
 
I'm hoping to buy a gold one on Friday. I will be traveling (planned months before the announcement) and I moved my hotel to one close to one of the apple stores in Honolulu. I've been into apple since 1980 and my first apple II. I currently have a 2014 15" MacBook Pro retina and a 2013 13" MacBook Pro retina 27" non 5k iMac, : iPad Air and retina iPad mini, iPhone 6 and 6 plus as well as a 5S. This will be great for a carry around computer. I'll also be ordering an apple watch stainless steel soon after getting off the plane at 12:01 am Pacific Friday which will be 9:01 pm Hawaiian time for me.

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Why am I still a newbie here? I've been registered for 13 years.

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I already have a USB-C adapter from Google.
 
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