It's ON like Donkey KONG! 14th new lappys are GO (1 Viewer)

[Craig S]

McGruber!!!!

Wow, John G. was spot on. He's got some damn good sources.

Let's get the monitor out of the way first. There actually is "docking" capability - but a three-headed cable is not the kind of Apple innovation we're looking for. Maybe at $500 this would be interesting. At $900... this'll go the way of the iPod HiFi. Here's hoping for some quick price drops.

New specs are fine, although I'd still prefer to have that 2nd firewire port. One thing I really like about my current MBP is the optical slot on the front. Shame it's going back to the side. I do give a big to the Pro finally getting the magnetic latch and easily accessable HD from the MacBook line.

Now that they have a backlit KB option on the MacBook, I REALLY hate that they dropped the FW port. I really prefer the smaller form factor, but the backlit KB is very useful in my theater work and that's what drove me to the Pro. I'd look seriously at going back to the MB if it had the FW port. I will say, however, that much of the intended audience won't care.

I think the new trackpad sounds promising. In general I hate trackpads, and one reason is I find it awkward to keep my thumb on the button while using them. Being able to just click the pad itself sounds like a more natural way to work to me.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Do other manufacturers offer a 24" LED backlit (not just LCD) 1920x1200 display with Display Port, built in webcam matching iSight's resolution and microphone? Why do I not even bother looking?

As usual Apple's products cost more but do more or are in some way unique. The choice on whether that is sufficient added value to buy one is ours.

Ted

 

[DaveF]

Whew. I skimmed the Ars feed and then Gruber's "Spoilers Ahead" post: nice new hardware.

What excites me with this evolutionary changes is the thought that in three years, when I'm replacing my 1-yr old MBP, there will be even cooler hardware available. I don't know what's out there for Windows, but Apple continues to press forward in cool and useful features for their portables.

Some disappointments: glossy only (I prefer matte), chiclet keys (I don't like the new keyboards), and mini-dvi video (but not a big deal).

Intrigued by: bigger, button-less trackpad; multi-touch trackpad; dual-GPU system (?)

The $899 24" monitor is overpriced for me...but this has the mini-dvi input integrated; it will connect to the MB, MBP, MBA without dongle. For those that love Apple integration at its best, this clear coupling of the portables and the displays will sell the 24" monitor. And undoubtedly a 20" will be available in due time.

 

[Craig S]

Fair point, Ted. I'd like the display a little better if it had more USB ports (why only three) and a firewire hub as well.

Store is up. Wanted to check the hit to go with the 128GB SSD (about minimum usable size, IMO). It's $600 to substitute the SSD for the 250GB HD in the MacBook. That's a big improvement over the $900 for 64GB MacBook Air upgrade from just 10 months ago.

 

[Ted Todorov]

My only complaint is that they don't have a new 30" ACD like the 24" -- if they did, I'd buy it tomorrow. Hopefully they will upgrade the rest of the ACD line for Macworld.

 

[Craig S]

Only $150 to go from 2 to 4 GB RAM on the MacBook. That's getting into the downright reasonable range.

 

[DaveF]

Is iSight / microphone a big selling feature? I don't twit, myspace, facebook, or videoconf, so that feature seems like a cool, but ultimately unused, perk on an expensive display.

DisplayPort -- I agree. This could be the rationale for many a mac user (if they even needed one

)

 

[Andrew Pratt]

So once again the rumours were spot on. Too bad the pricing isn't more aggressive as I think the market is ripe for Apple to make some serious headway in market share if they were to lower prices for a while...eps during the current markets.

Not sure about the 24" screen...its likely really nice but at 2 or 3 times the cost of the 24" Samsung currently on my desk here at work it'll be a hard sell to the masses...though lets be honest the masses don't buy cinema displays.

 

[Craig S]

After spending some time looking at the high-quality pics on the Apple site, I gotta say these are some extremely nice-looking notebooks. They've really made them sleeker and more seamless. And I love the black bezel around the screens.

Damn it!! AGL (Apple Gear Lust) is settling in again.

 

[ErichH]

I might complain about appl on these strings, but I lust with the rest

As for the display, the new glass is beautiful, however I have to have matte. Darn

 

[BrianShort]

Likes:
Looks - My current MBP has a matte screen, and I still think I'd prefer that, but the new glossy display with the black bezel does look really good. The small changes they made to the whole package all work for me.

User replaceable HD - My one big dislike of my current MBP is that I'd have to disassemble the whole machine to change out the HD.

Touchpad - My current MPB doesn't even have gestures, so this would be nice. I like how BIG it is. I've already set my current pad to accept taps for clicking. One finger for a left click and two fingers for a right click, so I don't really use the button anyway.

Dislikes:

Still no Blu-ray support- :frowning: This is the biggie and the dealbreaker for me. As nice as the new machines look, I'll be hanging onto mine. I've only had it for 6 months anyway! If the new machines had Blu-ray for the same price, I'd seriously be thinking about selling my current MBP. But I can wait, for now.


I like their new monitor and how it can provide power to the notebooks, but $899 is a bit too much for me, even if it is ONLY $150 or so more than equivalent Samsung or Dell monitors.

 

[Sam Posten]

Lotta overpriced junk. No BluRay = no sale. $900 for a 24" monitor is absolute rediculous. For new buyers the lappys are ok but 40% overpriced. Existing owners have no incentive to upgrade.

 

[DaveF]

Are the basic specs (CPU, RAM, HD) largely unchanged from previous models?

 

[Ted Todorov]

Blu-ray -- not coming any time soon. El Jobso: "Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt. It's great to watch the movies, but the licensing of the tech is so complex, we're waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace."

As far as the new MBPs being overpriced -- compared to what??? No one besides Apple has the new GPU units yet. Also with Snow Leopard CPU work will be getting offloaded onto the (dual) GPUs so performance should greatly increase with the next OS upgrade. These comparisons are just meaningless -- it either holds value for you or not.

My only question is where to buy from -- I don't need a BTO config -- one of the standard ones is perfect. Amazon doesn't have them listed yet. I wonder how soon the B&M Apple Stores will get them.

 

[Sam Posten]

Compared to Sony or any other company with half a brain.

A bag of hurt my ass. Apple just admited that the reason they arent doing BluRay is because it's too hard? BluRay is too complex a problem for Apple but Acer figured it out no problem?

Or is the real reason Phil Schillers response: It would hurt iTunes too much? Not enough margin in it for Apple and not everyone else.

Or is it that HDCP would muck with their plans too much and is competition for FairPlay?

Once again the Macbook pro is for PRO USERS. Pro users want to output high definition media to something bigger than DVD. That Apple ignores this very simple need is ludicrous. There are compact flash cards now that hold 4x what a DVD can, DVDs time is GONE.

 

[KeithAP]

Overall I am disappointed.

At first glance the $1299 MacBook doesn't look too bad. Sure it has a slower processor than the machine it replaced but the addition of the GPU should more than make up for that. However, the new MacBooks lost their firewire port. I use the the firewire port on my BlackBook all the time. I can't believe Apple dumped the firewire port. It is even more odd that they didn't add additional USB ports to make up for the loss of the FW port.

And don't get me started on the entry level MacBook that comes with just 1GB of RAM and a 120GB HD; both those numbers should be doubled. At least it has a DVD burner. Of course it does have a faster CPU (.1Ghz faster) than the $1,299 model.

The MBP is even more puzzling to me. I can live with the glossy screen of the MacBook given its price point, but if I was going to shell out the cash for the MBP I would want a matte screen. And while no rumors where indicating it would have one, I was really hoping that Apple was going to add a esata port to the MBP.

The new trackpad is interesting but I think I rather have two physical buttons than multi-touch. When I use the pad I tend to keep most of my fingers on the keyboard using my thumb on the pad. I don't think I would use multi-touch much. Although I could be wrong about that.

I hear a lot of people complaining about the price of the new 24" display which I don't get. The only other LED backlit LCD I can think of at the moment is a 20" 1600x200 Samsung model that, last I checked, was selling for around $1600. I have no idea of the quality of the Apple display but if it is good color-wise and has a competitive response time, the price seems fair.

That being said, I would never purchase it because of the glossy finish, inability to rotate 90 degrees, and relatively unadjustable stand.

And Sam, I am with you on Steve's Blu-Ray comments. In fact, I would say they rank up there as probably the stupidest things he has ever said. I mean really, they can't work out licensing with BD but they can manage all the licensing that the iTunes store has to deal with? Not that I believe those are the real reasons they haven't adopted BD yet. They are simply trying to protect HD content on iTunes.

I am glad I don't need to purchase a Mac at the moment (my BlackBook is only 9 months old). Other than the Mac Pro, I don't find any of their other offerings appealing.

-Keith

 

[Ted Todorov]

I agree that Pros need Blu-ray authoring support, but the first target there should be FCP Studio software and MacPros. I'm really not convinced that any noticeable percentage of MacBookPro users need/want a BD burner.

As for outputting their HD media, I'd make a guess that Apple needs to worry more about supporting Red Ray then Blu-ray. Red Ray is the format associated with the Red & Scarlet (4K & 3K respectively -- i.e. more then HD) cameras that are blowing away all the competition in the Pro HD space right now. And so far as I know Red Ray uses regular DVD hardware. The challenge is all in software support.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Apple needs to deal with the iTunes licensing -- no choice. I doesn't have to deal with the the Blu-ray HDCP requirements & licensing. There it has a choice and choses not to. I think they are "a bag of hurt", and considering BD declining fortunes in the US since the end of the format war, Apple has every incentive to hold off until the BD consortium comes crawling with better terms.

 

[ErichH]

I think we all know Apple not wanting to burden us with those nasty fees from BD = we're not gonna say why, so don't ask, but nudge nudge .......

 

[DaveF]

The pricing of the new 24" monitor makes more sense now that I understand that this DisplayPort is a new display adapter technology. I thought it was just Apple's mini-DVI.

Though not on my shopping list anytime soon, I see the appeal of this 24" monitor with integrate power, USB, and display port connected to a new MBP. Very cool.