I'm going to buy one right away, and a second one in a month or two
This can't be overemphasized. If you consider your laptop to be a mission critical machine, you really should be buying two of these, as opposed to one $2000 machine. That way, when one goes down, you can just clone from your backup to the other while you send the first off to be repaired. Also, you have a backup machine sitting on your shelf that you can use to test your backups. (You do test your backups, right? To see if you can indeed re-create your system from the backup? Right?....)
More interesting to me than the specs of the new machine is Apple's making smaller changes to keep their products relevant and more price-competitive. Hopefully they start quarterly refreshes all over their product line instead of one big splash a year followed by half a year of stagnation. You can still have the splash when you change the case or add some critical new technology (Blu-Ray or something), but bumping chipsets and processors should just happen all the time.
Dammit, where is my updated mini? If they can update the whitebook they can update the mini...
The Mini, iMac, and Pro are all desktops. I have a feeling that Apple will be introducing these machines along with a SL* demo (wishful thinking) in 1 to 4 weeks.
* This is an Apple-centric site and Apple would not be demoing Second Life, so it should not take your gray matter more than 2 seconds to realize I'm referring to Apple demoing Snow Leopard?
So now the least expensive notebook has firewire, the mid-priced ones do not, but the most expensive ones do.
Give in Apple, and just give the aluminum macbooks FireWire.
Their is no "so now" about it. The polycarb MB has always had a FW400 port.
PS: I'm convinced that space issues are the reason that FW400 was removed from all unibody Mac notebooks with no replacement added. I'd est, no additional USB or FW800 added. If only we can get rid of that damn optical drive!
Sarcasm? I sure hope so, 'cause, although I'm not a hardware specialist, it seems to be that this isn't just a drop-in replacement in the old motherboard. If it would be, I stand corrected and completely understand why the memory is still 667. But with the 9400M combining chipset and gpu on one die and all...
DDR2 RAM is much cheaper of course...
I the "stupid conclusion" that was meant, was that this configuration was intentionally crippled by Apple.
Why do people always have to immediately assume Apple is "up to no good" when they have never shown any such indications throughout the entire life of the company? As far as corporations go, Apple is one of the most responsible and the most customer focussed, they have ridiculously high levels of customer service, excellent reviews by those same customers and are pretty good to their employees overall. I just don't understand why so many people's first reactions to something Apple has done is to assume some nefarious plot is in the works.
Sarcasm? I sure hope so, 'cause, although I'm not a hardware specialist, it seems to be that this isn't just a drop-in replacement in the old motherboard. If it would be, I stand corrected and completely understand why the memory is still 667. But with the 9400M combining chipset and gpu on one die and all...
DDR2 RAM is much cheaper of course...
No, they must have redesigned the motherboard. But 667MHz memory is still faster than the FSB.
This just seems to make the alu models a tougher sell... slightly faster RAM, alu case, slightly more HDD, LED backlit display, and no firewire for $300 more?
NVIDIA and firewire? Done. Applecare is up on my iBook G4 next month - so this settles it. No way I'm paying for aluminum and some speed if I have to scrap my video cam and repurchase many external hard FW drives as USB drives. Thanks, Apple! maybe once these sales take off, they'll consider swapping a USB for a FW on the alu MacBooks. It's much cheaper to buy a USB hub to solve that problem.
This just seems to make the alu models a tougher sell... slightly faster RAM, alu case, slightly more HDD, LED backlit display, and no firewire for $300 more?
I'll take that white model. ca-ching.
In terms of the specs i agree a 30% price bump makes the aluminum a harder sell...but i LOVE that trackpad.
No, they must have redesigned the motherboard. But 667MHz memory is still faster than the FSB.
Could you explain how? Does it have to do with there being 2 RAM modules that can be accessed at the same time?
And yeah my choice of words with deliberately crippling might seem a bit harsh. I totally understand and accept this "product line differenciation" or whatever. If I were Apple, I'd do the same. The list of arguments to go for the bottom line alu MacBook has gotten small enough as is.
I believe the unibody's screen while not as good as the MBP's, is a better display than the old white MB's.
Me wonders why Apple didn't just keep the white MB as is, but simply dropped the price by another $150. At least a $850 MB is at least more competitive to those cheapo $500 PC laptops.
It makes me wonder what the price point of the new mini will be. The original PPC mini started at $500, but ever since the switch to Intel the base mini price has been $600. Assuming the mini will be similarly spec'd to the updated white MB, keeping the MB at $1000 probably means the new mini will remain at $600. I was kind of hoping they'd get the base price back down to $500.
If they lowered the price of the MB to $850, a $600 mini (no monitor, keyboard, trackpad/mouse) would be tough sell. If those were the prices, I'd almost be tempted to get a MB as a media center instead of a mini. The flat profile would sit much better under my TV than a mini would!
This is a very interesting development by Apple which might indicate some other product changes.
1) That they didn't make a similar "quiet update" to the mini today might suggest a larger change is in store for the mini that involves more than just a change to the NVIDIA chipset and probable bumped CPUs.
2) This certainly debunks the notion that the motherboard change is what kept Firewire off of the aluminum MacBooks. Could this new model with FW400 indicate that Apple has listened to the cries and will restore Firewire of some flavor across the product line?
2) This certainly debunks the notion that the motherboard change is what kept Firewire off of the aluminum MacBooks. Could this new model with FW400 indicate that Apple has listened to the cries and will restore Firewire of some flavor across the product line?
It could just be that it was too expensive to redesign the case without the Firewire port. Apple would never leave an unused hole in the case or plug it with a blank (like some other manufacturers do).
Could they have simply used the motherboard from the MBP, which supports Firewire, but use the MB's chipset for CPU and graphics? Of course, I guess they'd still need to get the DisplayPort converted to mini-DVI. But that would allow them to update the white MB without creating a whole new motherboard or a new case.
Guess we'll juset have to wait until someone gets their hands on one and tears it apart.
It could just be that it was too expensive to redesign the case without the Firewire port. Apple would never leave an unused hole in the case or plug it with a blank (like some other manufacturers do).
Could they have simply used the motherboard from the MBP, which supports Firewire, but use the MB's chipset for CPU and graphics? Of course, I guess they'd still need to get the DisplayPort converted to mini-DVI. But that would allow them to update the white MB without creating a whole new motherboard or a new case.
Guess we'll juset have to wait until someone gets their hands on one and tears it apart.
I guess I don't really know how usable the MBP motherboard might be for this new white MB. Is there a significant motherboard change going from FW800 to FW400? Regardless, the fact that Apple did make a significant update to the white MB and kept Firewire seems to make the lack of FW on the aluminum MBs more of a head-scratcher (whatever the real reason for it's removal).
Comments
I'm going to buy one right away, and a second one in a month or two
This can't be overemphasized. If you consider your laptop to be a mission critical machine, you really should be buying two of these, as opposed to one $2000 machine. That way, when one goes down, you can just clone from your backup to the other while you send the first off to be repaired. Also, you have a backup machine sitting on your shelf that you can use to test your backups. (You do test your backups, right? To see if you can indeed re-create your system from the backup? Right?....)
Give in Apple, and just give the aluminum macbooks firewire.
Also seconding (thirding?) the updated mini. It now looks even more dated than it already was.
Dammit, where is my updated mini?
The Mini, iMac, and Pro are all desktops. I have a feeling that Apple will be introducing these machines along with a SL* demo (wishful thinking) in 1 to 4 weeks.
* This is an Apple-centric site and Apple would not be demoing Second Life, so it should not take your gray matter more than 2 seconds to realize I'm referring to Apple demoing Snow Leopard?
So now the least expensive notebook has firewire, the mid-priced ones do not, but the most expensive ones do.
Give in Apple, and just give the aluminum macbooks FireWire.
Their is no "so now" about it. The polycarb MB has always had a FW400 port.
PS: I'm convinced that space issues are the reason that FW400 was removed from all unibody Mac notebooks with no replacement added. I'd est, no additional USB or FW800 added. If only we can get rid of that damn optical drive!
Sarcasm? I sure hope so, 'cause, although I'm not a hardware specialist, it seems to be that this isn't just a drop-in replacement in the old motherboard. If it would be, I stand corrected and completely understand why the memory is still 667. But with the 9400M combining chipset and gpu on one die and all...
DDR2 RAM is much cheaper of course...
I the "stupid conclusion" that was meant, was that this configuration was intentionally crippled by Apple.
Why do people always have to immediately assume Apple is "up to no good" when they have never shown any such indications throughout the entire life of the company? As far as corporations go, Apple is one of the most responsible and the most customer focussed, they have ridiculously high levels of customer service, excellent reviews by those same customers and are pretty good to their employees overall. I just don't understand why so many people's first reactions to something Apple has done is to assume some nefarious plot is in the works.
Sarcasm? I sure hope so, 'cause, although I'm not a hardware specialist, it seems to be that this isn't just a drop-in replacement in the old motherboard. If it would be, I stand corrected and completely understand why the memory is still 667. But with the 9400M combining chipset and gpu on one die and all...
DDR2 RAM is much cheaper of course...
No, they must have redesigned the motherboard. But 667MHz memory is still faster than the FSB.
I'll take that white model. ca-ching.
This just seems to make the alu models a tougher sell... slightly faster RAM, alu case, slightly more HDD, LED backlit display, and no firewire for $300 more?
I'll take that white model. ca-ching.
In terms of the specs i agree a 30% price bump makes the aluminum a harder sell...but i LOVE that trackpad.
Dammit, where is my updated mini?
IF they can do anything else, they can update the Mini, but they won't.
Apple should call themselves "Apple Mobile Computer and iTunes Music Store, Inc." and be done with it.
No, they must have redesigned the motherboard. But 667MHz memory is still faster than the FSB.
Could you explain how? Does it have to do with there being 2 RAM modules that can be accessed at the same time?
And yeah my choice of words with deliberately crippling might seem a bit harsh. I totally understand and accept this "product line differenciation" or whatever. If I were Apple, I'd do the same. The list of arguments to go for the bottom line alu MacBook has gotten small enough as is.
I believe the unibody's screen while not as good as the MBP's, is a better display than the old white MB's.
Me wonders why Apple didn't just keep the white MB as is, but simply dropped the price by another $150. At least a $850 MB is at least more competitive to those cheapo $500 PC laptops.
It makes me wonder what the price point of the new mini will be. The original PPC mini started at $500, but ever since the switch to Intel the base mini price has been $600. Assuming the mini will be similarly spec'd to the updated white MB, keeping the MB at $1000 probably means the new mini will remain at $600. I was kind of hoping they'd get the base price back down to $500.
If they lowered the price of the MB to $850, a $600 mini (no monitor, keyboard, trackpad/mouse) would be tough sell. If those were the prices, I'd almost be tempted to get a MB as a media center instead of a mini. The flat profile would sit much better under my TV than a mini would!
1) That they didn't make a similar "quiet update" to the mini today might suggest a larger change is in store for the mini that involves more than just a change to the NVIDIA chipset and probable bumped CPUs.
2) This certainly debunks the notion that the motherboard change is what kept Firewire off of the aluminum MacBooks. Could this new model with FW400 indicate that Apple has listened to the cries and will restore Firewire of some flavor across the product line?
2) This certainly debunks the notion that the motherboard change is what kept Firewire off of the aluminum MacBooks. Could this new model with FW400 indicate that Apple has listened to the cries and will restore Firewire of some flavor across the product line?
It could just be that it was too expensive to redesign the case without the Firewire port. Apple would never leave an unused hole in the case or plug it with a blank (like some other manufacturers do).
Could they have simply used the motherboard from the MBP, which supports Firewire, but use the MB's chipset for CPU and graphics? Of course, I guess they'd still need to get the DisplayPort converted to mini-DVI. But that would allow them to update the white MB without creating a whole new motherboard or a new case.
Guess we'll juset have to wait until someone gets their hands on one and tears it apart.
Apple would never leave an unused hole in the case or plug it with a blank (like some other manufacturers do).
I bet you didn't think they'd go 18 months without updating an entire product line or its price, did you?
A pretty nice upgrade really, especially if you don't care about the case and want Firewire.
I just wish Apple would hurry up and give the Mac mini the same treatment.
I think this is a good sign that Apple sees it needs to be more competitive with it's low-end models.
Hopefully we will see a well specd Mac mini for $499 or $599.
It could just be that it was too expensive to redesign the case without the Firewire port. Apple would never leave an unused hole in the case or plug it with a blank (like some other manufacturers do).
Could they have simply used the motherboard from the MBP, which supports Firewire, but use the MB's chipset for CPU and graphics? Of course, I guess they'd still need to get the DisplayPort converted to mini-DVI. But that would allow them to update the white MB without creating a whole new motherboard or a new case.
Guess we'll juset have to wait until someone gets their hands on one and tears it apart.
I guess I don't really know how usable the MBP motherboard might be for this new white MB. Is there a significant motherboard change going from FW800 to FW400? Regardless, the fact that Apple did make a significant update to the white MB and kept Firewire seems to make the lack of FW on the aluminum MBs more of a head-scratcher (whatever the real reason for it's removal).