MacBook Pros Upgraded and Shipped 467
Moby Cock writes "Apple Insider is reporting that Apple has started shipping the new MacBook Pro with an upgrade to the CPU clock speed. The two models now sport 1.83 GHz and 2.0 GHz Core Duos (up from 1.67 GHz and 1.83 GHz). A 2.16 GHz upgrade is also available. The price point remains the same." Dear Apple: Slashdot needs to review 5 of these indefinitely. Thank you XOXO ;) Seriously, i'm waiting for someone to give good benchmarks on these- especially testing for Warcraft. Now that it has a new Universal Binary I can't wait to see how it holds up against a modern windows machine.
Still Rev 0. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:MacBook (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:OS is not everything (Score:1, Insightful)
Yeah, because I have so many options for video when spec'ing out my Dell laptop.
Oh, wait, you wanted to compare a laptop to your gaming machine with it's $500 video card?
Sure. That makes sense.
Re:What about iMacs? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:So many upgrades, so little time. (Score:3, Insightful)
Battery life? (Score:5, Insightful)
Does anyone have any idea what the battery life of these things are? It was previously unannounced because they were still testing pre-shipping versions. Well, now they're shipping. And the only thing on the technical specs [apple.com] page is a footnote that says
Yeah, that helps.
Re:MacBook (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Still Rev 0... but Intel did the internals (Score:2, Insightful)
If you're a pro user with a need for native Adobe & Macromedia apps then I'd wait for the universal binaries that are expected late this year or 2008. By that time OS X 10.5 Leopard is expected to be out.
Re:Dual boot (Score:5, Insightful)
So it seems the like "Running Windows natively" problem has become one of getting Windows drivers for the Mac hardware which given most of it is now Intel standard stuff means we are really waiting for Apple or Microsoft (or perhaps ATI) to release that driver or for someone to hack the Windows driver to work with the Mac BIOSed X1600s.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
More Important: What Doesn't Work (Score:5, Insightful)
So far Classic is a dead issue (pun intended, but unfortunate for us and Apple) and I'm sure there will be more.
To me it's just another cycle of waiting (hoping) vendors update thier products (as well as making the upgrades affordable) or manufacturers bother to re-code thier device drivers to work on yet anothewr new Apple platform.
Re:OS is not everything (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Happy with Windows machines (Score:5, Insightful)
My question is, why should we care?
If you're actually happy with your Windows box, good for you. Why even post in this thread?
The inevitable comparison (Score:2, Insightful)
As far as I can tell, the MacBook lacks any kind of feature that sets it apart, other than running MacOS X. The Acer TravelMate, Ferrari series and the Thinkpad X series seem to be much better computers if you don't need MacOS X.
I'm planning to stay with my 6-year-old PowerBook G3 until Apple releases a computer that's somewhere near as useful.
Re:MacBook (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:OS is not everything (Score:3, Insightful)
Hrm... But aren't they all using the same hard ware? I mean these are all laptops right? They are using Intel and then maybe ATI or nVidia? Hardware is not different.
Unless you count AMD.
Re:Faster, better, funner (Score:2, Insightful)
So you are spending close to $2000 so you can have the same graphics in your internet/email clients?
Most people I know could be using a computer made 10 years ago with no problems at all, at least this guy needs the power for something. You should be picking on the people buying $2000 computers to play solitaire. I believe you can get a high quality deck of cards for something like $3.
Re:I Was Down at the CompUSA The Other Day (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:That is an exceedingly bad idea. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Still Rev 0. (Score:4, Insightful)
This isn't just a "first rev" like so many Mac users seem to think. Honestly, Apple did a really smart thing by keeping the previous form factor: it effectively means that the new-architecture notebooks inherit a huge amount of engineering from their predecessors.
Re:Shh... That's a secret. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Why, kiddies? (Score:1, Insightful)
Also, I've only noticed a small minority of comments in this discussion talking about XP. It's hardly characteristic of the entire discussion.
Re:Still Rev 0. (Score:2, Insightful)
Retard.
(damn caps filter. YOU CANNOT SILENCE PROGRESS!!)
Re:The inevitable comparison (Score:3, Insightful)
Very few people care. Even on Slashdot, when this subject came up last, seemingly only a small percentage of PB owners used the PC card slot to begin with; among PC users the most common use of the slot was for WLAN cards, which are built-in on the Mac. As for memory card readers, they are starting to come out already [gizmodo.com]. I think because of the small form factor, you're never going to see a CompactFlash one in there, but I think most people are fine with USB ones anyway -- I can't imagine that's a deal-breaker for very many people.
It has no GPRS/EDGE/EVDO/1xRTT wireless WAN card, and no slot for adding one.
This is a legitimate complaint for people that use WAN services, but the MacBook does have the ExpressCard slot, so this situation probably won't last very long. It's the usual early-adopter problem, but as Dell and HP have also said they're going to release ExpressCard notebooks soon, I think you're going to see WAN devices fairly quickly. (There are USB EVDO and WAN devices around also, although I don't know if they're officially supported -- although last time I checked, the PCMCIA EVDO cards weren't officially supported on anything but Windows, either.) I further suspect that most WAN users are business types, who are usually stuck with Windows anyway, so that like PC card slots generally, it's not a deal breaker for a very significant market.
It has no SmartCard reader. The battery life, although unannounced, is expected to be average.
I think the demand for SmartCard readers is very limited, also. At best, it's a niche market, especially on the Mac. Most people I know who use SmartCards, use them to access secure systems, which are almost universally PC-based. No big loss of market there. Plus, Apple has never supported SmartCards themselves -- if enough people want it, there will be a ExpressCard reader, but I wouldn't hold your breath (plus I'm not sure it would fit). Or use an external USB reader.
As far as I can tell, the MacBook lacks any kind of feature that sets it apart, other than running MacOS X. The Acer TravelMate, Ferrari series and the Thinkpad X series seem to be much better computers if you don't need MacOS X.
Mac OS X is the feature that sets it apart, at least from PC laptops. And it sets it apart far enough that there's not really a comparison -- people generally pick an OS first, and then pick hardware. This is especially true of Apple users; the fact that the Acer or IBM isn't a Mac puts them out of the competition from the very beginning.
The thing that distinguises the MacBook from other Apple laptops is the software compatibility. It's not really practical to run some applications on a G3 or even G4, and also I think it's important not to underestimate the importance of people buying a fast computer simply because it's fast, and not for any real reason. Nobody wants to spend $2k for something that's not the best around, so perception is a large part of the sale.
As for battery life, just from personal experience I think Apple will do well there. My old iBook still gets better battery life than my ThinkPad PC notebook which is brand new -- and the PC notebook runs at less than 50% of its normal processor speed when it's not on AC power. Apple's "average" battery life of 3-4 hours would be at the higher end of what I've been told is normal from many PC users, and confirmed from my own experience (I get roughly 90min or less of 'real world' usage out of mine).
I do agree with your general analysis though, as someone who already has an existing Mac laptop. I'm not sure that Apple has created any gigantic reasons to upgrade to the MacBook right now, for anyone who's system is currently meeting their immediate needs. Which is good, considering that they've included some definite 'early adopter' technology in this system; this is the first machine in a new series, I don't think it's intended for everybody.
Verb tense (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, the article said "this week", which is pretty soon. But I still maintain that there is a difference between the future an dthe past. Conventional of me, I know.
Re:This doesn't deserve an article. (Score:3, Insightful)
2.) If you don't like it, you didn't have to click "Read More," click "Reply," and actually type out a post.
3.) The Apple-bashing price argument has been disproved time and time again.
Apple pricing strategy (Score:3, Insightful)
I think this pretty much sums up Apple's retail strategy completely.
The closest they ever get to a "sale" (usually a bit before the holidays, another one over the summer) is that they'll up-spec the whole lineup by a certain amount. The beauty of this is that people generally don't see the price on the laptop they bought decreasing -- they usually don't bump the specs by so much at once that the middle-of-the-road system instantly becomes the $999 one, it happens gradually. Even though the different systems (Fast, Faster, Fastest) become more powerful over time, it avoids the feeling of being ripped off that's common to computer purchasers when they go online six months later and find out the system they purchased for $1k is now $600. You'll never see that on Apple's site: all you'll ever see are three systems for each model, and always at (about) the same three price points. They just become progressively better, not the same model becoming "cheaper." It's kind of a subtle psychological thing, but it works.
It's also great because most people (most 'average consumers,' and definitely most parents who are buying a computer for a kid) pick out the price they're willing to pay FIRST, then choose specs. So they decide, "okay, I'll spend a grand on a laptop." And that's it -- aside from maybe a little upselling, that's what they're willing to pay. Very few people actually go out with an idea of the specifications of the computer they want to purchase (e.g. "I want a 1.2GHz system with 512MB RAM and a 80GB hard drive with WiFi."). Geeks may do that, but the majority of the people lined up at the Apple Store probably don't.
I have a feeling that the strategy was one that they developed as a company after it became clear that they weren't going to win the megahertz war; you don't want people emphasizing specifications, you want them to associate the price directly with the product, and that product with the user experience. The hardware specs are details. They're nerdy. Ignore them. And people do -- happily.
If you look at how Apple advertises its higher-end products (the Power Macs) you'll notice there's slightly more emphasis on specifications and customization, and less on price. But at the entry level, there are usually three price points, and three products: 'you pays your money and yous gets your computer.'
Because they're NOT THE SAME PEOPLE! (Score:3, Insightful)
Am I alone here when I utter a collossal WTF?
Believe it or not, there are different kinds of people on Slashdot! Whoa!
Some people don't like Microsoft. They probably still don't.
Some people do like Microsoft, and take exception to the fact that they've decided to come to a place where a lot of people don't. They'll post all about how persecuted they are and engage in passive-agressive discussion of the moderation system like "You are going to mod me down for this, I know it! Go ahead and prove me wrong unless you really are a bunch of elitist jerks." They will probably like to boot whatever they like on the Mac(Power)Book.
Some people don't care. They just want to run what they want to run on their hardware of choice. They'd like to know that Windows will run so that they can run whatever they want to run. After all, if Windows will run on it then most likely anything else will.
I know you all are going to mod me down for this, go ahead and prove me wrong unless you really are a bunch of moderators who think that this post doesn't merit a high score based on the quality of its content! Ha! So there.
Re:what about preorders? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Dude, seriously... get a life (Score:2, Insightful)
Now if i can just find out why my WoW game wont load on the PS2.... Might have to call in support. You think its a driver issue?
Re:WoW (Score:3, Insightful)
What is the price of something other than what someone is willing to pay for it? I was willing to pay the set price for the 1.8GHz, so I'm counting it as a free upgrade.
GHz Race (Score:2, Insightful)
Apple could dodge the GHz number when they're on the PowerPC. That's harder to do now.
The truth about the shipping (Score:3, Insightful)
Needless to say, I'm livid with Apple. I cancelled my order. I then called my local Apple Store (Newark, DE). They said they would be receiving MBPros next week.
In other words, Apple's priority is to ship MacBook Pros to people who have not even purchased them yet, rather than those who have been waiting for what will be nearly two months.
As a twenty-year Apple customer, I am ticked to say the least.