While we weren't trying to put a positive spin on it (anymore than we were trying to point out that the delays aren't necessarily Apple's doing), I'm glad you see -- and pointed out here -- the bit about Merom and the iMac. Pretty much hits the nail on the head from what we've been able to gather.
Best,
K
Well it IS an Apple site. Presumably you would give Apple the benefit of the doubt for not announcing a merom update as Dell and HP have. If this was a Dell news site they'd give Dell the benefit of the doubt for late shipping of Merom laptops. So the comment was even taking that into account the info jibes and folks giving a hard time to Apple should leave off.
Everyone has bias...its not a flame or disrespect to point out the obvious. Redundant perhaps.
Faster, cooler, and more power efficient. All three are pretty useful in a laptop if you ask me.
Guess what?
None of those are true right now.
The inprovement is between 3 and 6%. Hardly noticable. The heat output is about the same, and that goes hand in hand with the pretty much the same power requirements.
So, there is no real performance advantage.
Compatability with 64 bit OS's, and programs, when they come out in the Spring next year is the only advantage.
The performance advantages will come with the Santa Rosa chipset, which is due, guess when? Spring next year.
The inprovement is between 3 and 6%. Hardly noticable. The heat output is about the same, and that goes hand in hand with the pretty much the same power requirements.
So, there is no real performance advantage.
Compatability with 64 bit OS's, and programs, when they come out in the Spring next year is the only advantage.
The performance advantages will come with the Santa Rosa chipset, which is due, guess when? Spring next year.
Santa rosa is atleast 6 months away, for an average user, only the 802.11n wireless card might tempt him, other than that he wouldnt need to wait.
atleast with merom u'll be able to use 64bit programmes. maybe there aren't much that use 64bits, but it'll be useful later on.
Well, that's kind of weird. Why are the wireless cards removable on the iMac's and removable on the MacBook's as well? I went to the Apple Store a couple of days ago and they had Airport Extreme cards for sale, so I don't see why you couldn't just remove your current wireless card and buy a new internal wireless card.
I can certainly remove my internal wireless card on my iMac (don't know why...) because I've googled it before and I've seen some .pdf manuals on that subject. Either way, I think that it could be upgraded internally (as long as Apple would sell the new 802.11n card seperate) and if for any reason it wasn't, well then you could buy a small external adapter to use 802.11n
Either way, the standard won't really be adopted until much later, it's still in the draft phase.
If i buy a merom laptop when it comes out will I be able to later upgrade the wireless card to 802.11n whenever that comes out?
Most likely no, in laptops I think these are frequently quite integrated (though I haven't opened a MBP or MB to confirm).
However, at least if you get a MBP, there is a handy express card slot you could easily use for a wireless n card. However, unless you need extremely fast wireless speeds across your home network, you will be fine with the g specification. N devices will be completely compatible with g cards.
The reason wireless n only makes a difference on your home network is that any consumer internet service (at least currently) only offers you speeds of about half of the b specification (we have 6Mb/sec download speeds from Comcast, 802.11b is 11Mb/sec). G specification is 54Mb/sec. If you're looking forward to using the iTV over wireless n, there is no gaurantee that it will be n, and even if it is, I think a lot of people are ignoring how easy it is to plug in one side of your network (e.g. plug in your notebook/desktop to the wireless n router in the den in the den, or plug the iTV into to an n router in the living room if the iTV isn't wireless n--either way it will be easy to get wireless n speeds as long as you either have an n wireless card, or the iTV supports wireless n). Any wireless n router is also going to have even faster wired speeds (1000 Mb/sec).
Future proofnes...I may not NEED 64 bit today but I bet it will buy me a few months at the end of the lifecycle whilst I'm waiting for my Mac Book Pro replacement in '09.
That's presuming that somebody ships 4GB SODIMMs before '09 and the MacBook Pro takes them.
I'm getting a little worried that the term "speed-bumped" was mentioned... I really hope that this is not just a small processor upgrade, because then I would be tempted to wait until Santa Rosa comes out
The only thing I care about is Merom to be 64-bit ready for Leopard and room for MORE RAM!! Sure, who doesn't want 2 GB, but it would be nice to have 4 GB addressable (especially since it's a 64-bit processor) or even 3 GB like the iMac would be swweet. Other than that, I don't expect much more, I'm just waiting until the beginning of next month and hopefully the 17" will be updated by then...
Oh yeah, 802.11n would be nice, but not a necessity
"Speed bumped" is little worrisome. But if it's going from a 2.16GHz to 2.33GHz, then yeah, that's a speed bump. Of course, it could be going from a 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo processor to a 2.33GHz Intel Core2 Duo processor. I think it's getting the Core2 Duo, otherwise what would be the reason for the delay. Hopefully the new version of the MacBook Pro will incorporate the consumer MacBook's design elements: the removeable hard drive bay and the magnetic latching system.
"Speed bumped" is little worrisome. But if it's going from a 2.16GHz to 2.33GHz, then yeah, that's a speed bump. Of course, it could be going from a 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo processor to a 2.33GHz Intel Core2 Duo processor. I think it's getting the Core2 Duo, otherwise what would be the reason for the delay. Hopefully the new version of the MacBook Pro will incorporate the consumer MacBook's design elements: the removeable hard drive bay and the magnetic latching system.
The only thing I care about is Merom to be 64-bit ready for Leopard and room for MORE RAM!! Sure, who doesn't want 2 GB, but it would be nice to have 4 GB addressable (especially since it's a 64-bit processor) or even 3 GB like the iMac would be swweet.
I believe that with the Napa motherboard, that the MBP can handle 3 GB too, I believe the max addressable ram is 3.2, though I've heard it varies from 2.8 to 3.2 GB. So the MBP could get up to 3GB too, but it needs either Crestline, which is unlikely, or a different one that can address more.
I believe that with the Napa motherboard, that the MBP can handle 3 GB too, I believe the max addressable ram is 3.2, though I've heard it varies from 2.8 to 3.2 GB. So the MBP could get up to 3GB too, but it needs either Crestline, which is unlikely, or a different one that can address more.
Actually, if you go to the Intel website and look at the laptop chipsets and see what chipsets are on the market right now, they have 4GB addressable RAM. I believe they are the 945PM chipsets that are capable of taking Core 2 Duo processors and holding the 4GB RAM max. It makes sense and unfortunately, doesn't make Santa Rosa seem as big of an upgrade. Santa Rosa will just bring Kedron and Robson and hopefully the new MacBook Pro's will give us a taste of Kedron (802.11n).
Repeat after me Caribou: Just because the Macbook has a nice keyboard, doesn't make it BETTER than the keyboard on the MBP.
I feel better now.
Repeat after me. Dont be stupid. A keyboards a keyboard. Frankly I havent heard complaints about either so im pretty impartial to both. But the mac books looks more appealing to me so id prefer that.
Comments
While we weren't trying to put a positive spin on it (anymore than we were trying to point out that the delays aren't necessarily Apple's doing), I'm glad you see -- and pointed out here -- the bit about Merom and the iMac. Pretty much hits the nail on the head from what we've been able to gather.
Best,
K
Well it IS an Apple site. Presumably you would give Apple the benefit of the doubt for not announcing a merom update as Dell and HP have. If this was a Dell news site they'd give Dell the benefit of the doubt for late shipping of Merom laptops. So the comment was even taking that into account the info jibes and folks giving a hard time to Apple should leave off.
Everyone has bias...its not a flame or disrespect to point out the obvious. Redundant perhaps.
Vinea
Faster, cooler, and more power efficient. All three are pretty useful in a laptop if you ask me.
Guess what?
None of those are true right now.
The inprovement is between 3 and 6%. Hardly noticable. The heat output is about the same, and that goes hand in hand with the pretty much the same power requirements.
So, there is no real performance advantage.
Compatability with 64 bit OS's, and programs, when they come out in the Spring next year is the only advantage.
The performance advantages will come with the Santa Rosa chipset, which is due, guess when? Spring next year.
Guess what?
None of those are true right now.
The inprovement is between 3 and 6%. Hardly noticable. The heat output is about the same, and that goes hand in hand with the pretty much the same power requirements.
So, there is no real performance advantage.
Compatability with 64 bit OS's, and programs, when they come out in the Spring next year is the only advantage.
The performance advantages will come with the Santa Rosa chipset, which is due, guess when? Spring next year.
Santa rosa is atleast 6 months away, for an average user, only the 802.11n wireless card might tempt him, other than that he wouldnt need to wait.
atleast with merom u'll be able to use 64bit programmes. maybe there aren't much that use 64bits, but it'll be useful later on.
but u could always use an external one.
dont worry about it. most places have g networks. it will be atleast a year or so till u see N networks as the standard networks.
i have a dell with a "802.11b" and it's just fine.
I can certainly remove my internal wireless card on my iMac (don't know why...) because I've googled it before and I've seen some .pdf manuals on that subject. Either way, I think that it could be upgraded internally (as long as Apple would sell the new 802.11n card seperate) and if for any reason it wasn't, well then you could buy a small external adapter to use 802.11n
Either way, the standard won't really be adopted until much later, it's still in the draft phase.
If i buy a merom laptop when it comes out will I be able to later upgrade the wireless card to 802.11n whenever that comes out?
Most likely no, in laptops I think these are frequently quite integrated (though I haven't opened a MBP or MB to confirm).
However, at least if you get a MBP, there is a handy express card slot you could easily use for a wireless n card. However, unless you need extremely fast wireless speeds across your home network, you will be fine with the g specification. N devices will be completely compatible with g cards.
The reason wireless n only makes a difference on your home network is that any consumer internet service (at least currently) only offers you speeds of about half of the b specification (we have 6Mb/sec download speeds from Comcast, 802.11b is 11Mb/sec). G specification is 54Mb/sec. If you're looking forward to using the iTV over wireless n, there is no gaurantee that it will be n, and even if it is, I think a lot of people are ignoring how easy it is to plug in one side of your network (e.g. plug in your notebook/desktop to the wireless n router in the den in the den, or plug the iTV into to an n router in the living room if the iTV isn't wireless n--either way it will be easy to get wireless n speeds as long as you either have an n wireless card, or the iTV supports wireless n). Any wireless n router is also going to have even faster wired speeds (1000 Mb/sec).
If i buy a merom laptop when it comes out will I be able to later upgrade the wireless card to 802.11n whenever that comes out?
I should think so, many generations of Apple's laptops have had removable Airport cards.
What the other advantages of Core 2?
128bit SSE instructions in one clock cycle instead of two?
Future proofnes...I may not NEED 64 bit today but I bet it will buy me a few months at the end of the lifecycle whilst I'm waiting for my Mac Book Pro replacement in '09.
That's presuming that somebody ships 4GB SODIMMs before '09 and the MacBook Pro takes them.
The only thing I care about is Merom to be 64-bit ready for Leopard and room for MORE RAM!! Sure, who doesn't want 2 GB, but it would be nice to have 4 GB addressable (especially since it's a 64-bit processor) or even 3 GB like the iMac would be swweet. Other than that, I don't expect much more, I'm just waiting until the beginning of next month and hopefully the 17" will be updated by then...
Oh yeah, 802.11n would be nice, but not a necessity
"Speed bumped" is little worrisome. But if it's going from a 2.16GHz to 2.33GHz, then yeah, that's a speed bump. Of course, it could be going from a 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo processor to a 2.33GHz Intel Core2 Duo processor. I think it's getting the Core2 Duo, otherwise what would be the reason for the delay. Hopefully the new version of the MacBook Pro will incorporate the consumer MacBook's design elements: the removeable hard drive bay and the magnetic latching system.
Maybe the MacBooks keyboard design too?
Maybe the MacBooks keyboard design too?
Not a snowball's chance in hell.
The only thing I care about is Merom to be 64-bit ready for Leopard and room for MORE RAM!! Sure, who doesn't want 2 GB, but it would be nice to have 4 GB addressable (especially since it's a 64-bit processor) or even 3 GB like the iMac would be swweet.
I believe that with the Napa motherboard, that the MBP can handle 3 GB too, I believe the max addressable ram is 3.2, though I've heard it varies from 2.8 to 3.2 GB. So the MBP could get up to 3GB too, but it needs either Crestline, which is unlikely, or a different one that can address more.
Not a snowball's chance in hell.
Let's hope not anyway.
Repeat after me Caribou: Just because the Macbook has a nice keyboard, doesn't make it BETTER than the keyboard on the MBP.
I feel better now.
I believe that with the Napa motherboard, that the MBP can handle 3 GB too, I believe the max addressable ram is 3.2, though I've heard it varies from 2.8 to 3.2 GB. So the MBP could get up to 3GB too, but it needs either Crestline, which is unlikely, or a different one that can address more.
Actually, if you go to the Intel website and look at the laptop chipsets and see what chipsets are on the market right now, they have 4GB addressable RAM. I believe they are the 945PM chipsets that are capable of taking Core 2 Duo processors and holding the 4GB RAM max. It makes sense and unfortunately, doesn't make Santa Rosa seem as big of an upgrade. Santa Rosa will just bring Kedron and Robson and hopefully the new MacBook Pro's will give us a taste of Kedron (802.11n).
Let's hope not anyway.
Repeat after me Caribou: Just because the Macbook has a nice keyboard, doesn't make it BETTER than the keyboard on the MBP.
I feel better now.
Repeat after me. Dont be stupid. A keyboards a keyboard. Frankly I havent heard complaints about either so im pretty impartial to both. But the mac books looks more appealing to me so id prefer that.