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Apple announces new 13-inch MacBook - Page 3

post #81 of 523
10/14/08 at 12:48pm
"Revolutionary" really gets abused here at times. Apple's giving themselves a huge pat on the back for their manufacturing, but at the end of the day nobody's going to know or care what a unibody is or the "story behind every part".

What they WILL care about is the price, and the stunted specifications. Apple's starting to go too far with their form over function mantra, and it's getting a little tiring to listen to their propaganda about how awesome they are.
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post #82 of 523
10/14/08 at 12:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dr_lha View Post

Yeah, but in the past the pound was worth more dollars than it is today. The dollar-pound rate changes, you can't expect Apple to change their prices daily to always match the current exchange rate.

I think a margin of fairness is needed. I guess the worrying thing for this long time mac user is that despite being a fan-boy to a certain extreme i see more and more examples of Apple doing what it thinks is best.....for Apple....or Microfruit.

These product releases are ill suited to these times, I guess i feel like a bit like the goalposts have shifted too far away from my consumer wants and moved more towards Apple's spooning dictat.

It's like VW announcing a new everyman car , which is doubtlessly engineered to perfection but still costs $30,000 oh and unlike the previous model has a no drive-by-fire-wire. But thats ok cause they'll still sell you last years model oh and thats gone up by $50.00.

I think that the backlash on this one will be felt at one infinite loop. I'll now park my card back in wallet and await REVB.
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post #83 of 523
10/14/08 at 12:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank777 View Post

Yeah, with no Firewire the 13" MacBook is seriously hobbled.

There's just no good reason for this except to drive people to the MacBook Pro. Insane.

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post #84 of 523
10/14/08 at 12:56pm
What surprises me, my friends and my professor is the fact that Apple dropped FireWire-400 off the new Macbooks.

Why would they remove such an important interface? Just when other laptop makers are adding IEEE-1394, Apple is taking it out? Does that even make sense? At least give us 4 USB 2.0 like other manufacturers then...

However, I do praise the new DDR3 and NVIDIA graphics chip because the Intel option was abysmal at best.

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post #85 of 523
10/14/08 at 12:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jonnoh2 View Post

Since the entry $999 Macbook is likely aimed at college students it will really cost $899 because of the education discount.

Nope.
The $999 MacBook only gets a $50 discount so it is still $949.
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post #86 of 523
10/14/08 at 12:57pm
Yeah people will swallow it and all will be fine, but listen to Ive talking in the video about how he managed to pull every 'non-essential' feature from the MacBook. They seem to be trying to make another Air so the next time they'll remove the ethernet connection and tell everyone to buy Airport Express.
Also I'm kinda worried about how Ive says he doesn't know how a notebook could be even more minimalist/essential whatever. Obviously, the rumored Mac[Book] Touch comes to mind. Does that mean no such thing is in the works? That would be pretty disappointing news.
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post #87 of 523
10/14/08 at 12:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bregalad View Post

The rumors say they'll introduce a $799 or $899 MacBook and they go and RAISE prices?? In this economy??

No wonder the stock is getting hammered. I should have sold yesterday.

To be fair they did actually drop the price of the MacBook to $999 from $1099 and included a Superdrive as standard (about time, it was embarrassing to still have combo-drives in the low end laptops). So in actual fact, MacBooks got cheaper today.
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post #88 of 523
10/14/08 at 12:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dr_lha View Post

FYI: Backlit keys are still a "Pro" feature only. EDIT: OK, so now the store is up it appears I'm wrong, sorry. It doesn't list backlit keyboard on the Tech Specs page, but does on the Apple store when you try to purchase one.

Nope, you only get the backlit keyboard if you cough up for the $1599 version.

"An illuminated keyboard, a popular feature of MacBook Pro and MacBook Air,now comes standard on the 2.4GHz MacBook model."

http://www.apple.com/macbook/features.html
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post #89 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bregalad View Post

The rumors say they'll introduce a $799 or $899 MacBook and they go and RAISE prices?? In this economy??

No wonder the stock is getting hammered. I should have sold yesterday.

You should never take rumors as fact. The economic crisis that we're in now did not exist a year ago when these models were being designed. Bad timing? Maybe. Crazy? No. The next time around, the $999 Macbook will be of the new design and the price points will end up being lower anyway.

I am a bit saddened about the lack of firewire (casualty of putting all the ports on the left), but not enough to refuse to buy it. A 15 inch macbook model would make more sense than the 13 inch $1599 model though. Something needs to bridge the huge gap between the consumer and pro laptop lines. Oh, and Apple could have inexpensively bumped the RAM in the entry Macbook model to 2GB.
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post #90 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dr_lha View Post

Yeah, but in the past the pound was worth more dollars than it is today. The dollar-pound rate changes, you can't expect Apple to change their prices daily to always match the current exchange rate.

Are you kidding? The dollar has plummeted against the pound in the last few months.

Apple might have been planning to make hay while the sun shines out of UK customers, but the differential's a joke.
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post #91 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by TBaggins View Post

AAPL was down by as much as 7.05 right after the event. That's more than a 6% drop, not a 'couple of percent'. And the market as a whole was not down by nearly that much at the time.

AAPL had already been down a couple percent before the event started, and the dow started dropping at the exact same time as AAPL - apple did only drop a couple percent more than the dow did during that time.

Quote:
Originally Posted by dr_lha View Post

To be fair they did actually drop the price of the MacBook to $999 from $1099 and included a Superdrive as standard (about time, it was embarrassing to still have combo-drives in the low end laptops). So in actual fact, MacBooks got cheaper today.

For a model that's a year out of date, that's not cheap enough. Too little, too late. The new price on the white model doesn't seem much different than refurb pricing on old models, I don't really see that as much of a price drop.
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post #92 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:07pm
No FireWire, no sale. What a mistake. When you go on vacation, you take your laptop. You also take your MiniDV camera too. Now with the new MacBook, you cannot import video while on vacation. Why waste money on two USB ports? There should have been one USB, one FireWire. If you want more devices, buy a damn hub!

They always find ways to cut features that people still use! They learned their mistake when they cut the Audio In years ago, and that returned in a later model. So maybe Apple will realize their mistake once again.
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post #93 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:07pm
I have heard that aluminum shortens the range of wifi, but the wifi antenna is is not surrounded by aluminum on these MacBooks, they have glass on one side and aluminum on the other. Any thoughts on what this will do for the range? If it raises it significantly that may be one reason for the glass on these and on the iMac.
And the glass looks nice
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post #94 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post

There's just no good reason for this except to drive people to the MacBook Pro. Insane.

Or to drive people away from the platform altogether.
As someone else here already pointed out, nearly all of the other notebook manufacturers are including FireWire as standard on their new models. Apple , in their infinite wisdom, takes it out! Utterly insane!

Apple R&D has F****d up big time with this and Jobs is a fool to let this happen. Something like omitting a FireWire port costing a couple of bucks is gonna cost Apple dearly in sales. I had been geared up to buy a new MacBook but now I will certainly pass on this ornamental piece of crap. Too expensive to go the Pro option. Man, this sucks!
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post #95 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:10pm
Does anyone know if you can buy a 320 GB HD from toshiba for $75.00 and just install it yourself instead of spending $200.00 for it through the apple store?
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post #96 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:11pm
I can't wait to get one

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post #97 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:21pm
Anyone care to explain how the price of the bottom end macbook just went UP $100 dollars in Canadian retailers (WITH education discount)?

I was $1050, and now it is $1150 with a super drive.


So we are paying an extra $100 dollars for a super drive, when that combo drive should have been dead years ago, and probably cost them MORE than the super drive (which they put it in just to differentiate products and scam us out of more money). So basically Apple is proving themselves to be a sneaky scamming poor company.
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post #98 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by thesmoth View Post

Anyone care to explain how the price of the bottom end macbook just went UP $100 dollars in Canadian retailers (WITH education discount)?

I was $1050, and now it is $1150 with a super drive.


So we are paying an extra $100 dollars for a super drive, when that combo drive should have been dead years ago, and probably cost them MORE than the super drive (which they put it in just to differentiate products and scam us out of more money). So basically Apple is proving themselves to be a sneaky scamming poor company.

Figures apple would raise the price

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post #99 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:22pm
Here's why they don't want to come down in price...it's all their R&D. For instance this directly from the MacBook "Design" page #2:

"Theres a story behind each part. Take the thumbscoop, for example. Its the indentation that allows you to open the display. If the scoop is too deep, you put too much pressure on the display to open it. If its too shallow, you struggle to open the display. It may seem incidental, but if the thumbscoop is well designed, it makes the difference between a bad experience and a good one. The challenge of the thumbscoop was to create a crisply machined scoop that was still comfortable to use. The designers at Apple worked on hundreds of versions of the thumbscoop even examining them under an electron microscope to get it right."
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post #100 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by thesmoth View Post

Anyone care to explain how the price of the bottom end macbook just went UP $100 dollars in Canadian retailers (WITH education discount)?

I was $1050, and now it is $1150 with a super drive.


So we are paying an extra $100 dollars for a super drive, when that combo drive should have been dead years ago, and probably cost them MORE than the super drive (which they put it in just to differentiate products and scam us out of more money). So basically Apple is proving themselves to be a sneaky scamming poor company.

Because the value of the Canadian dollar went DOWN?
US$1=CAN$0.85 as of 4:26 EDT on xe.com

Wasn't your monopoly money worth more than the dollar a couple of months ago? Now translate that difference to something like a MacBook. A $100 increase is fair.
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post #101 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by AHeneen View Post

Because the value of the Canadian dollar went DOWN?
US$1=CAN$0.85 as of 4:26 EDT on xe.com

Wasn't your monopoly money worth more than the dollar a couple of months ago? Now translate that difference to something like a MacBook. A $100 increase is fair.

The prices of Macbooks never went DOWN when our money was worth more, so why is it going up now? Let me guess, you're a brain-dead mac fanboy right?

Thanks for the economics lesson.
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post #102 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by minderbinder View Post

AAPL had already been down a couple percent before the event started, and the dow started dropping at the exact same time as AAPL - apple did only drop a couple percent more than the dow did during that time.


Check the chart below yourself. Fact is, AAPL dropped quite a bit more than the market did as a whole, starting at the time of the event. All times are Eastern:

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=A...urce=undefined



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post #103 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by AHeneen View Post

Here's why they don't want to come down in price...it's all their R&D. For instance this directly from the MacBook "Design" page #2:

"There’s a story behind each part. Take the thumbscoop, for example. It’s the indentation that allows you to open the display. If the scoop is too deep, you put too much pressure on the display to open it. If it’s too shallow, you struggle to open the display. It may seem incidental, but if the thumbscoop is well designed, it makes the difference between a bad experience and a good one. The challenge of the thumbscoop was to create a crisply machined scoop that was still comfortable to use. The designers at Apple worked on hundreds of versions of the thumbscoop — even examining them under an electron microscope — to get it right."

Under an electron microscope eh? That bit of marketing is assuming that no-one knows what an electron microscope does or how it could be useful in this application. The answer is that it would be of zero use and that is just BS apple marketing to make you fanboys drool.

"OMG acer doesn't use dem fancy TEM microscopes, lollolololol"

What purpose could imaging the 'surface' of aluminum at the atomic level serve? Coming from someone well informed in this subject the answer is that it would serve no purpose. And saying they made hundreds of version?

"Well this latch is too big, lets make it smaller. Oh, well it's too small now, lets make it a size between the two. BINGO, that seems like a good latch groove!"

I hope you people aren't stupid enough to fall for this type of thing and actually use it to justify being ripped off by Apple. I guess it shows that you don't have to be all that smart to make money.
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post #104 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by thesmoth View Post

The prices of Macbooks never went DOWN when our money was worth more, so why is it going up now? Let me guess, you're a brain-dead mac fanboy right?

Thanks for the economics lesson.

I don't recall the Canadian dollar being worth significantly more for a significant amount of time. I thought it was near even with the US dollar for a while. That said, you and Aheneen would do well to drop the insults.
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post #105 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:38pm
The $1299 Macbook: does it, or does it not have a BL keyboard?

This suggests the illuminated keyboard is not in the less expensive model, while this most positively declares its presence. Which department didn't get the memo? Was it the marketing department or the retail channel?

By the way based on specs and price, why would anyone buy the $1600 model?
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post #106 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:39pm
Apple always drops during an event so that's nothing to worry about.

The lack of a firewire port is not good. Here is the feedback I sent to Apple not that it will do any good.

FEEDBACK:

I love the new MacBook designs EXCEPT for ONE BIG PROBLEM on the MacBook.

Why the heck did you drop the firewire port. BIG PROBLEM, I can't connect my video camera anymore, I can use my firewire drives and I can't use Target Mode to migrate and repair problems.

Why Apple, Why.

I would have been much happier to have had one USB and one Firewire port rather than two USB ports.

I really think your going to loose sales because of this. I know that you've lost mine.

So sad, so sad, so sad.
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post #107 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bokuwaomar View Post

I don't recall the Canadian dollar being worth significantly more for a significant amount of time. I thought it was near even with the US dollar for a while. That said, you and Aheneen would do well to drop the insults.

Yes well I think our 'monopoly money' was worth either more than the US dollar, or close to it (i.e: significantly higher than it was previously) for at least a year. A lot of companies adjusted prices for the strength of the Canadian dollar, and Apple was not one of them. Even though the dollar is lower than it was it is still stronger than it used to be way back a few years ago.
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post #108 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post

There's just no good reason for this except to drive people to the MacBook Pro. Insane.


+1. Jobs likely figured that, now that the gfx performance on the MBs is no longer completely horrible (i.e. Intel integrated), he had to add in another artificial distinction between the two lines. As if expandability and screen size weren't enough.

Sux, and will continue to suck so long as Steve has it stuck in his head that you don't deserve a 'real' notebook 'til you're willing to cough up $2000+.


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post #109 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:43pm
OK - I'm not usually so categorical about such things, but the lack of firewire really is a complete deal-breaker. I never thought I'd say this about an Apple product, but that's the reality.

The points people have made about audio, and to a lesser extent video and older peripherals, are perfectly valid. These users will now be priced out of the Mac market, and hence tempted by cheaper PCs.

That's hardly the worst of it, however. I have an entire newsroom full of reporters that I was planning on trying to persuade the boss to switch to MacBooks (he'd never cough up the dough for Pro models.) Not anymore. Supporting them would be insane without target disk mode. Even if they make target disk mode function over USB, it'll be far slower, and my time is money. I can easily envision this hitting other markets than publishing, like education, for example. Apple have just lost potential sales to an entire department of my company.

Way to cheap-out, Steve. I hope consumers buy a ton of them. Producers certainly won't.
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post #110 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by thesmoth View Post

Yes well I think our 'monopoly money' was worth either more than the US dollar, or close to it (i.e: significantly higher than it was previously) for at least a year. A lot of companies adjusted prices for the strength of the Canadian dollar, and Apple was not one of them. Even though the dollar is lower than it was it is still stronger than it used to be way back a few years ago.

Well, you said the bottom end macbook was $1050 Canadian. It was $1099 US. If the two currencies were near equal around that time, chances are you were getting the better deal.
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post #111 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac Voyer View Post

The $1299 Macbook: does it, or does it not have a BL keyboard?

This suggests the illuminated keyboard is not in the less expensive model, while this most positively declares its presence. Which department didn't get the memo? Was it the marketing department or the retail channel?

By the way based on specs and price, why would anyone buy the $1600 model?

If I was going to buy the $1599 model I might skip it and go to the 15" Pro. Larger screen, no shared video memory and who cares about an extra 45 grams at this point. The problem is that it $500 more after paying for Apple Care.


Oh, one more thing Why can't they toss in that $19 remote after your paying this much for the computer?
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post #112 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bokuwaomar View Post

Well, you said the bottom end macbook was $1050 Canadian. It was $1099 US. If the two currencies were near equal around that time, chances are you were getting the better deal.

Sorry, that price was WITH educational discount. All prices i've listed are WITH educational discount. The low end macbook is now 1150 with edu discount.
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post #113 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by thesmoth View Post

Sorry, that price was WITH educational discount. All prices i've listed are WITH educational discount. The low end macbook is now 1150 with edu discount.

Ah, that makes more sense then. Kinda sucks :/
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post #114 of 523
10/14/08 at 1:55pm
It'd be interesting to know what percentage of Apple's MBP and MB sales are genuine pro users.

If the glossy/firewire combo of changes seriously disrupts sales I'd imagine the 17" MBP will either be matte or have a matte option when it emerges in November and that there'll be a matte option on the next MBP revision.
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post #115 of 523
10/14/08 at 2:02pm
Confirmed!!! (Always wanted to do that)

According to Apple, it only comes on the $1600 model.
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post #116 of 523
10/14/08 at 2:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cavallo View Post

That's hardly the worst of it, however. I have an entire newsroom full of reporters that I was planning on trying to persuade the boss to switch to MacBooks (he'd never cough up the dough for Pro models.)

er... get the $999 model?
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post #117 of 523
10/14/08 at 2:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. H View Post

er... get the $999 model?


Kinda sad that we have to say that, but yeah. It's probably the best thing that came out of the event, 'cuz it still has FireWire.


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post #118 of 523
10/14/08 at 2:08pm
I love it how apple leaves out 30 back lit keyboard out of 1300 laptop. (: Guess i better get used to bs like this as a new mac user.
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post #119 of 523
10/14/08 at 2:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by smartz View Post

I guess i'm irked by the UK/US price difference. Which i don't honestly think is all down to VAT or importing or doing business in the UK. In the past comparable prices have been pretty close bar the cost of the 160Gb Apple TV which is still a rip off price here in UK-land.

What bothers me more is the HD camcorder, external hard drives and Cinema displays which are now in effect redundant if you consider the new Macbook at the new state of Apple computing. As I've read on this forum this seems like a needless way of differentiating the Macbook against the Pro version and a way of forcing buyers to go for the pricer option. It's even more weird when you consider that they've keep both an original plastic macbook at cheaper price point and the 17 pro in the overall product family. For a company that prides itself on the aesthetic this seems frankenstein like lineup, much in the way my Alu Imac, has a matching Alu keyboard and then nice gloss white mighty mouse to spoil the effect.

Someone please tell me it's me!!!!!

It's you. The price is based on trending of exchange rates plus VAT. Apple doesn't hedge currencies, so they price products at the expected average exchange rate for the future. Things have actually gotten significantly better over the last two years.

Currently, the $ is getting stronger relative to the GBP, so prices in GBP will go up slightly.
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post #120 of 523
10/14/08 at 2:11pm
[QUOTE=John F.;1322757]So it's true, the $1299 and $1599 MacBooks don't have any FireWire. That is a complete rip-off at that price-point. Many older Mac users who want to trade in their Apple notebook and who have FireWire peripherals won't be able to buy a cheap Mac notebook newer style.

Exacly...what am I gonna do with my 2,5" firewire external harddisks? Block both USB ports with an Y-cable???

The price and design show the new macbooks as Mac Book Pros - just with left out ports. Where's the Macbook for the masses, the world's most wanted cook Macbook? Ah, just bye the 999 plastic book?? At least it's got firewire...and..I'm sure a combo drive...
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