Actually, you may not. Those pictures showed the MagSafe connector with with the new 5-pin arrangement for ThunderBolt and now we know that is not coming in this current iteration of MacBook's
Damn!! My eyes are deceiving me. According to Apple's site pictures, the magSafe is a 5-pin connector. They were no fake pictures. Have you read about the patent about MagSafe+LightPeak? Since my MacBook has a 4-pin MagSafe I thought all have to be so... and seeing this 5-pin connector... well, I had my heart jump high in surprise!!
Facetime is ubiquitous on newer iOS devices. To make it ubiquitous on MacOS devices, too, would probably signal anti-trust complaints from the likes of Skype. Making it an optional app keeps them out of the anti-trust waters. Making it 99c means only those who actually want it will get it, and keep away accusors from claiming, "Waaaah... I didn't want Facetime, and it came on my Mac by default... wahhhhhh... !"
That's the worst fucking excuse for being stroked that I've ever heard. They are nickel and diming, plain and simple.
That's the worst fucking excuse for being stroked that I've ever heard. They are nickel and diming, plain and simple.
Compliance to Sarbannes Oxley sucks, but it's the US Gov't (and the EU) at work. Don't complain to Apple, complain to your gov't (I want free beer and ponies with every release). Given the at $1... I'm sure the SOX accounting is probably costing Apple more than giving FaceTime away.
No one will have USB drives when you can transfer at Thunderbolt speeds.
I don't think that will be true. I find that Mini-DP is not the nicest of ports to plug into, especially on a regular basis and the 500MB/s limits of USB 3 is still a pretty decent speed. It would fill a 1TB drive in 8 minutes.
It's good that the Mini-DP port is so small as it means GPU makers like AMD can fit more ports onto a GPU but the USB plug is so standard now that to me it would have made more sense having a combined USB 3/LP port. I don't see the day we all use ThunderBolt mice (dongles I mean - bluetooth still sucks for mice) so we need both types of port anyway and they are the same height.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lukeskymac
AnandTech's tests show it to be a bit (~3fps) slower in games than the 320M, but 1) I don't know whether it had Turbo [20% performance increase] on and 2) Future updates will probably fix this, as the gap is really small.
That is correct but that's really part of the problem too. People are essentially buying a GPU that is around the same but slightly slower than last year's model with less software support - NVidia GPUs always have better feature support and the 320M supports PhysX.
You notice that Apple only compares the graphics performance of the 15" with the last generation.
The previous gap between the 13" and 15" was 50% in terms of GPU. Now, if the 15" is 3x the 330M, then the 15" Macbook Pro is 450% faster than the 13" in terms of graphics. I expect the difference won't be that much in a lot of games - I'd rather see a test with a game made in the last 2-3 years - but still the gap between the 13" and 15" has widened quite a lot now but both called Pro machines. How can both be Pro machines and perform so differently?
Double the CPU performance is fine but let's not forget, they were previously using 2.5 year old CPUs before the upgrade. Overall, I'd say the new 13" is not a good value machine when other manufacturers sell a faster i5 along with a Geforce 540M for $300 less.
Well I for one am disappointed. No SSD boot? No antiglare 13"?
I really hope that Apple comes out with a mid-2011 MBP with Lion's launch (maybe keyboard buttons for new mission control, etc). And I hope that MBP is redesigned, has antiglare 13", and an SSD boot already!
any guesses whether thunderbolt will support target disk mode? It does say it supports firewire with an adaptor...
Should do if the Mac itself has drivers for the Firewire controller within EFI.
It's simply a cabled tunnel for PCIe. I say 'simply' when it's clearly very complex and clever, but I believe that it is in many ways transparent to system operation - as all tunnels should be.
it looks like the iMac is being discounted in price I've had the 27" Quad Core in my cart to buy in the summer for some time and they changed the hardware and pricing. I only went to the cart to see if MobileMe was taken off and found my Memory was changed as well. Iwas gonna get the 2 slot 2x4 8GB for 400.00 i might go the extra 200.00 for the 16GB now. Couldn't do the 1,000.00 before.
And if Jobs shit on your bed you'd call it a pillow mint.
You know, I usually get annoyed at all the negativity that gets thrown around in forums, but that's a damn funny comment. Points for originality....
As for the new units.... well, while everyone is bitching that it doesn't come with free ice cream, I think the processor bumps are not bad. Plus the memory bus got improved. While I admit that Thunderbolt is an open question, can you really complain about a 10GB data port with no licensing costs? This stuff has to start somewhere; do people not realize that?
Ultimately, I just don't know many people that are upgrading their laptops at the rate they update their smartphones.
Are there things I would have liked to have seen? Sure. A matte option on the 13" would have been nice. A higher resolution on the 13" screen would be nice as well. A faster processor... meh... that's what Turbo Boost is for.
Who really believes that this stuff is revolutionary anymore?
I have an early 13.3" aluminum MacBook...before it went pro.
This update is good for me. I can sell my machine and upgrade to a new 13.3" MacBook Pro. A good increase in overall performance.
I would have liked the new 13.3" models to have a dedicated GPU, but I think the Intel HD 3000 is probably a significant improvement over the nvidia.
One thing I don't understand is why people think Blu-ray is an "essential" on a MacBook. Physical media is dead...and if I really do find the need to have Blu-ray...I'll buy a dedicated player....
Poor IT security if people are just bringing in their USB sticks.
Btw, they'll be USB2 sticks with cheap flash - 20MB/s at most. USB2 can handle them. MacBook Pro has 2 or 3 USB2 ports. Que Problemo?
If you *need* USB3, wait a month and someone will have a ThunderBolt -> USB3 adaptor (1 PCIe USB3 interface, one ThunderBolt chip, some ports, done).
I am a consult and work at 3 - 5 different customers per year on average, in the last 10 years I have been at one place that blocks USB sticks from working..... poor security yes but also very common practice not to block them.
Compliance to Sarbannes Oxley sucks, but it's the US Gov't (and the EU) at work. Don't complain to Apple, complain to your gov't (I want free beer and ponies with every release). Given the at $1... I'm sure the SOX accounting is probably costing Apple more than giving FaceTime away.
This is one of the dumbest and most ignorant statements I have seen repeated on this forum. THERE IS NOT ONE WORD IN THE ENTIRE SARBOX BILL THAT ADRESSES HOW YOU PRICE SOFTWARE. That is not the point of the law and for that matter there is nothing in GAAP or IFRS that would prevent Apple from giving facetime away. Nothing in SOX changed revenue recognition accounting and nothing in GAAP requires you to modify how you price products. It simply requires that you recognize revenue in a manner consistent with when you complete a sale and deliver the product. Free products have no revenue, hence no revenue recognition issues DUH!!!!!!! And for that matter there is no such thing as SOX accounting, moron. You have no clue what you are talking about, you have absolutely no knowlege of US law or accounting standards, SHUT THE F!#@ UP.
That is correct but that's really part of the problem too. People are essentially buying a GPU that is around the same but slightly slower than last year's model with less software support - NVidia GPUs always have better feature support and the 320M supports PhysX.
You notice that Apple only compares the graphics performance of the 15" with the last generation.
The previous gap between the 13" and 15" was 50% in terms of GPU. Now, if the 15" is 3x the 330M, then the 15" Macbook Pro is 450% faster than the 13" in terms of graphics. I expect the difference won't be that much in a lot of games - I'd rather see a test with a game made in the last 2-3 years - but still the gap between the 13" and 15" has widened quite a lot now but both called Pro machines. How can both be Pro machines and perform so differently?
Double the CPU performance is fine but let's not forget, they were previously using 2.5 year old CPUs before the upgrade. Overall, I'd say the new 13" is not a good value machine when other manufacturers sell a faster i5 along with a Geforce 540M for $300 less.
Yeah but the base 15" model is now $1800. I thought there was a cheaper model before that.
Oh, just for the kicks I built an Alienware m15x and pit it against a 15" MBP. Since there was no 4Gb option for the Alienware I put 8Gb on both of them. I went for the Alienware because like Apple they are a premium brand (although with different audiences)
MacBook Pro------------------------Alienware M15x
2.3GHz Intel Core i7------------------2.13 GHz Intel Core i7 (both with 8 megs of cache)
OS X Snow Leopard-------------------Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
8GB of DDR3 RAM 1333MHz------------8Gb of DDR3 RAM (doesn't specify but I'm sure it is 1333MHz as well)
500GB 7200rpm HD------------------500GB 7200rpm HD
AMD 6750 with 1GB of GDRR5 memory----ATI 5850 with 1024MB of memory (again, not specified [oh the irony!])
Backlit keyboard---------------------Seriously cool backlit keyboard. (nerdy, but awesome)
Wireless N, BT 2.1--------------------Wireless N, BT 2.1
Little things like MagSafe, Thunderbolt,----PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAH
aluminum casing, HD camera, Optical I/O,--HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAH
I am arguing that if you are going to have USB ports they should be the latest version which is now 3 not 2. We will need to wait and see with Thunderbolt, if it is adopted by the PC manufactures then the devices will follow. Not sure if this is fair or not but Beta was better than VHS.
Because of Thunderbolt that simply isn?t going to happen. We may even see other ports start to go away, though I imagine the physical USB port will outlast the physical FireWire and Ethernet ports on Mac notebooks.
One think Apple could have done is to move all Ethernet, FireWire, USB, EC/34 and audio ports to Thunderbolt as an internal hub with different ports tied to them. This would have allowed for very fast speeds on those ports, including USB3.0; and likely the fastest real world USB3.0 data speeds under Thunderbolt.
This is not likely since it would likely slow their adoption of Thunderbolt so I suspect we?ll see a Ethernet removed with the case shrinking and a second Thunderbolt port added as part of the same hub like with USB, as adoption increases. I think FireWire will be the next to go after Ethernet (or at the same time) since it?s a pretty tall port. I also suspect USB will be around on Mac notebooks for several years, at least, and that the 2nd Thunderbolt will be on the opposite side because the optical drive will be removed allowing for more room on the side for ports.
Symmetry and balance of Thunderbolt and USB ports on each side. I would expect only only MagSafe port, even if they include an optical cable it for connecting to an Apple Display as a single cable docking station.
Another one! Now is the time for the much-hated 13" to be put against the Alienware M11x!
The Alienware has W7 Ultimate, 1GHz i5 (strangely enough it doesn't seem to be quad), 4GB of DDR3 800MHz RAM, the 335M, 320GB 7200rpm HD, an external DVD burner, and bluetooth, priced at $1198
For the price of a MBP you get a much slower processor, slower memory, faster HD (strange considering this only improves loading times; 1333MHz RAM would be a better choice) and the obvious graphics superiority.
Pretty much balanced until you count in Thunderbolt, FireWire, the Trackpad, aluminum, HD camera, iLife...
I have to say that this has turned out to be a disappointing offering especially for 'The New MacBook Pro'. There was the potential to bump the MBP into a leap above the MBA but what happened to a hybrid SSD/HDD (a missed opportunity for instant on), improved screen resolution + matte screen for the 13", 12 hour battery in place of the superdrive. Instead, we have a processor update (well that would have happened anyhow with Intel update cycles), an integrated processor with questionable ability. The drop in battery performance from 10 to 7 hours - I don't care how you jiggle the figures that's a 30% delta and a marketing boo boo. 5400 HDD as well!
Was this all about Thunderbolt? If so, Steve's birthday offering today doesn't look like the toys we might have got. All the best to Steve though - he's done great job in bringing Apple this far.
In the end, I was hoping to press the button and splash the cash today but I guess I sleep on it for another update! My wife will be pleased - she'll be able to get a new washing machine!!
The drop in battery performance from 10 to 7 hours - I don't care how you jiggle the figures that's a 30% delta and a marketing boo boo. 5400 HDD as well!
This has been explained several times in several threads. Prior to the new MBA, Apple was not listing a very rigorous battery test time result. They have a more real world case involving the internet and wi-fi being used now. The old 13" 10 hr time was (I believe) either straight idle or just simple word processing. The only people who think it lost time are the ones who don't pay attention. The new processor is 10w higher TDP and the new vcard in the 15 and 17 is 2w higher, so considering they added 35% to their previous TDP and are still pulling 7 hrs on net+wi-fi, I think that's pretty darn good. An improvement even possibly.
Comments
Actually, you may not. Those pictures showed the MagSafe connector with with the new 5-pin arrangement for ThunderBolt and now we know that is not coming in this current iteration of MacBook's
Damn!! My eyes are deceiving me. According to Apple's site pictures, the magSafe is a 5-pin connector. They were no fake pictures. Have you read about the patent about MagSafe+LightPeak? Since my MacBook has a 4-pin MagSafe I thought all have to be so... and seeing this 5-pin connector... well, I had my heart jump high in surprise!!
Facetime is ubiquitous on newer iOS devices. To make it ubiquitous on MacOS devices, too, would probably signal anti-trust complaints from the likes of Skype. Making it an optional app keeps them out of the anti-trust waters. Making it 99c means only those who actually want it will get it, and keep away accusors from claiming, "Waaaah... I didn't want Facetime, and it came on my Mac by default... wahhhhhh... !"
That's the worst fucking excuse for being stroked that I've ever heard. They are nickel and diming, plain and simple.
That's the worst fucking excuse for being stroked that I've ever heard. They are nickel and diming, plain and simple.
Compliance to Sarbannes Oxley sucks, but it's the US Gov't (and the EU) at work. Don't complain to Apple, complain to your gov't (I want free beer and ponies with every release). Given the at $1... I'm sure the SOX accounting is probably costing Apple more than giving FaceTime away.
No one will have USB drives when you can transfer at Thunderbolt speeds.
I don't think that will be true. I find that Mini-DP is not the nicest of ports to plug into, especially on a regular basis and the 500MB/s limits of USB 3 is still a pretty decent speed. It would fill a 1TB drive in 8 minutes.
It's good that the Mini-DP port is so small as it means GPU makers like AMD can fit more ports onto a GPU but the USB plug is so standard now that to me it would have made more sense having a combined USB 3/LP port. I don't see the day we all use ThunderBolt mice (dongles I mean - bluetooth still sucks for mice) so we need both types of port anyway and they are the same height.
AnandTech's tests show it to be a bit (~3fps) slower in games than the 320M, but 1) I don't know whether it had Turbo [20% performance increase] on and 2) Future updates will probably fix this, as the gap is really small.
That is correct but that's really part of the problem too. People are essentially buying a GPU that is around the same but slightly slower than last year's model with less software support - NVidia GPUs always have better feature support and the 320M supports PhysX.
You notice that Apple only compares the graphics performance of the 15" with the last generation.
The previous gap between the 13" and 15" was 50% in terms of GPU. Now, if the 15" is 3x the 330M, then the 15" Macbook Pro is 450% faster than the 13" in terms of graphics. I expect the difference won't be that much in a lot of games - I'd rather see a test with a game made in the last 2-3 years - but still the gap between the 13" and 15" has widened quite a lot now but both called Pro machines. How can both be Pro machines and perform so differently?
Double the CPU performance is fine but let's not forget, they were previously using 2.5 year old CPUs before the upgrade. Overall, I'd say the new 13" is not a good value machine when other manufacturers sell a faster i5 along with a Geforce 540M for $300 less.
I really hope that Apple comes out with a mid-2011 MBP with Lion's launch (maybe keyboard buttons for new mission control, etc). And I hope that MBP is redesigned, has antiglare 13", and an SSD boot already!
Have you seen how many USB sticks and drives there are in any given office?
If you are going to have USB ports then they should be the latest version... you really can't argue that Apple missed the boat on this one.
Firewire was faster than USB but I don't see Costco selling 5 different versions of a firewire drive.
Poor IT security if people are just bringing in their USB sticks.
Btw, they'll be USB2 sticks with cheap flash - 20MB/s at most. USB2 can handle them. MacBook Pro has 2 or 3 USB2 ports. Que Problemo?
If you *need* USB3, wait a month and someone will have a ThunderBolt -> USB3 adaptor (1 PCIe USB3 interface, one ThunderBolt chip, some ports, done).
any guesses whether thunderbolt will support target disk mode? It does say it supports firewire with an adaptor...
Should do if the Mac itself has drivers for the Firewire controller within EFI.
It's simply a cabled tunnel for PCIe. I say 'simply' when it's clearly very complex and clever, but I believe that it is in many ways transparent to system operation - as all tunnels should be.
Originally:
27"Quad Core
Memory
?\t4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
?\t8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM -] 4x2GB [Add $200.00]
?\t8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB [Add $400.00]
?\t16GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x4GB [Add $1,000.00
Now:
27"Quad Core
Memory
?\t4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
?\t8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB [Add $200.00]
?\t16GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x4GB [Add $600.00]
And if Jobs shit on your bed you'd call it a pillow mint.
You know, I usually get annoyed at all the negativity that gets thrown around in forums, but that's a damn funny comment. Points for originality....
As for the new units.... well, while everyone is bitching that it doesn't come with free ice cream, I think the processor bumps are not bad. Plus the memory bus got improved. While I admit that Thunderbolt is an open question, can you really complain about a 10GB data port with no licensing costs? This stuff has to start somewhere; do people not realize that?
Ultimately, I just don't know many people that are upgrading their laptops at the rate they update their smartphones.
Are there things I would have liked to have seen? Sure. A matte option on the 13" would have been nice. A higher resolution on the 13" screen would be nice as well. A faster processor... meh... that's what Turbo Boost is for.
Who really believes that this stuff is revolutionary anymore?
This update is good for me. I can sell my machine and upgrade to a new 13.3" MacBook Pro. A good increase in overall performance.
I would have liked the new 13.3" models to have a dedicated GPU, but I think the Intel HD 3000 is probably a significant improvement over the nvidia.
One thing I don't understand is why people think Blu-ray is an "essential" on a MacBook. Physical media is dead...and if I really do find the need to have Blu-ray...I'll buy a dedicated player....
Have you seen how many USB sticks and drives there are in any given office?
If you are going to have USB ports then they should be the latest version... you really can't argue that Apple missed the boat on this one.
Firewire was faster than USB but I don't see Costco selling 5 different versions of a firewire drive.
And you think a USB stick is going to perform differently in a USB3 port than in a USB2 port?
Poor IT security if people are just bringing in their USB sticks.
Btw, they'll be USB2 sticks with cheap flash - 20MB/s at most. USB2 can handle them. MacBook Pro has 2 or 3 USB2 ports. Que Problemo?
If you *need* USB3, wait a month and someone will have a ThunderBolt -> USB3 adaptor (1 PCIe USB3 interface, one ThunderBolt chip, some ports, done).
I am a consult and work at 3 - 5 different customers per year on average, in the last 10 years I have been at one place that blocks USB sticks from working..... poor security yes but also very common practice not to block them.
Compliance to Sarbannes Oxley sucks, but it's the US Gov't (and the EU) at work. Don't complain to Apple, complain to your gov't (I want free beer and ponies with every release). Given the at $1... I'm sure the SOX accounting is probably costing Apple more than giving FaceTime away.
This is one of the dumbest and most ignorant statements I have seen repeated on this forum. THERE IS NOT ONE WORD IN THE ENTIRE SARBOX BILL THAT ADRESSES HOW YOU PRICE SOFTWARE. That is not the point of the law and for that matter there is nothing in GAAP or IFRS that would prevent Apple from giving facetime away. Nothing in SOX changed revenue recognition accounting and nothing in GAAP requires you to modify how you price products. It simply requires that you recognize revenue in a manner consistent with when you complete a sale and deliver the product. Free products have no revenue, hence no revenue recognition issues DUH!!!!!!! And for that matter there is no such thing as SOX accounting, moron. You have no clue what you are talking about, you have absolutely no knowlege of US law or accounting standards, SHUT THE F!#@ UP.
That is correct but that's really part of the problem too. People are essentially buying a GPU that is around the same but slightly slower than last year's model with less software support - NVidia GPUs always have better feature support and the 320M supports PhysX.
You notice that Apple only compares the graphics performance of the 15" with the last generation.
The previous gap between the 13" and 15" was 50% in terms of GPU. Now, if the 15" is 3x the 330M, then the 15" Macbook Pro is 450% faster than the 13" in terms of graphics. I expect the difference won't be that much in a lot of games - I'd rather see a test with a game made in the last 2-3 years - but still the gap between the 13" and 15" has widened quite a lot now but both called Pro machines. How can both be Pro machines and perform so differently?
Double the CPU performance is fine but let's not forget, they were previously using 2.5 year old CPUs before the upgrade. Overall, I'd say the new 13" is not a good value machine when other manufacturers sell a faster i5 along with a Geforce 540M for $300 less.
Yeah but the base 15" model is now $1800. I thought there was a cheaper model before that.
Oh, just for the kicks I built an Alienware m15x and pit it against a 15" MBP. Since there was no 4Gb option for the Alienware I put 8Gb on both of them. I went for the Alienware because like Apple they are a premium brand (although with different audiences)
MacBook Pro------------------------Alienware M15x
2.3GHz Intel Core i7------------------2.13 GHz Intel Core i7 (both with 8 megs of cache)
OS X Snow Leopard-------------------Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
8GB of DDR3 RAM 1333MHz------------8Gb of DDR3 RAM (doesn't specify but I'm sure it is 1333MHz as well)
500GB 7200rpm HD------------------500GB 7200rpm HD
AMD 6750 with 1GB of GDRR5 memory----ATI 5850 with 1024MB of memory (again, not specified [oh the irony!])
Backlit keyboard---------------------Seriously cool backlit keyboard. (nerdy, but awesome)
Wireless N, BT 2.1--------------------Wireless N, BT 2.1
Little things like MagSafe, Thunderbolt,----PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAH
aluminum casing, HD camera, Optical I/O,--HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAH
fantabulous trackpad, FireWire.....--------UIOHHEIEHIEHEIHEIEHAHhahahahHAHAHAHAAH!
The Price $2650 against $2999
(and that's with Dell's "super savings")
So you pay an extra $350 for a colored keyboard backlight and a slightly faster GPU. Congratulations. Anything to say now, DaHarder?
I am arguing that if you are going to have USB ports they should be the latest version which is now 3 not 2. We will need to wait and see with Thunderbolt, if it is adopted by the PC manufactures then the devices will follow. Not sure if this is fair or not but Beta was better than VHS.
Because of Thunderbolt that simply isn?t going to happen. We may even see other ports start to go away, though I imagine the physical USB port will outlast the physical FireWire and Ethernet ports on Mac notebooks.
One think Apple could have done is to move all Ethernet, FireWire, USB, EC/34 and audio ports to Thunderbolt as an internal hub with different ports tied to them. This would have allowed for very fast speeds on those ports, including USB3.0; and likely the fastest real world USB3.0 data speeds under Thunderbolt.
This is not likely since it would likely slow their adoption of Thunderbolt so I suspect we?ll see a Ethernet removed with the case shrinking and a second Thunderbolt port added as part of the same hub like with USB, as adoption increases. I think FireWire will be the next to go after Ethernet (or at the same time) since it?s a pretty tall port. I also suspect USB will be around on Mac notebooks for several years, at least, and that the 2nd Thunderbolt will be on the opposite side because the optical drive will be removed allowing for more room on the side for ports.
Symmetry and balance of Thunderbolt and USB ports on each side. I would expect only only MagSafe port, even if they include an optical cable it for connecting to an Apple Display as a single cable docking station.
The Alienware has W7 Ultimate, 1GHz i5 (strangely enough it doesn't seem to be quad), 4GB of DDR3 800MHz RAM, the 335M, 320GB 7200rpm HD, an external DVD burner, and bluetooth, priced at $1198
For the price of a MBP you get a much slower processor, slower memory, faster HD (strange considering this only improves loading times; 1333MHz RAM would be a better choice) and the obvious graphics superiority.
Pretty much balanced until you count in Thunderbolt, FireWire, the Trackpad, aluminum, HD camera, iLife...
If you are going to have USB ports then they should be the latest version... you really can't argue that Apple missed the boat on this one.
No, but I can easily argue that they couldn't care less about the boat because they're taking a jet.
Firewire was faster than USB but I don't see Costco selling 5 different versions of a firewire drive.
Licensing costs. Oh, but what's this? Thunderbolt is free! How. About. That.
I've had the 27" Quad Core in my cart to buy in the summer for some time and they changed the hardware and pricing.
Get that thing out of your cart and your finger off the buy button. You'll just have to reconfigure when the update (soon) comes along, anyway.
Was this all about Thunderbolt? If so, Steve's birthday offering today doesn't look like the toys we might have got. All the best to Steve though - he's done great job in bringing Apple this far.
In the end, I was hoping to press the button and splash the cash today but I guess I sleep on it for another update! My wife will be pleased - she'll be able to get a new washing machine!!
The drop in battery performance from 10 to 7 hours - I don't care how you jiggle the figures that's a 30% delta and a marketing boo boo. 5400 HDD as well!
This has been explained several times in several threads. Prior to the new MBA, Apple was not listing a very rigorous battery test time result. They have a more real world case involving the internet and wi-fi being used now. The old 13" 10 hr time was (I believe) either straight idle or just simple word processing. The only people who think it lost time are the ones who don't pay attention. The new processor is 10w higher TDP and the new vcard in the 15 and 17 is 2w higher, so considering they added 35% to their previous TDP and are still pulling 7 hrs on net+wi-fi, I think that's pretty darn good. An improvement even possibly.