Apple's unibody MacBook: the review

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  • Reply 81 of 121
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by abernathy View Post


    The other day I was at lunch with 2 friends. All 3 of us had planned to buy the new MacBook. We had all changed our mind because of the lack of FireWire. None of us want a larger MacBook Pro. I don't think the 3 of us are quite as unusual as Apple thinks, and we're all sticking with our old MacBooks for the foreseeable future. I hope Apple realizes they have made a mistake.



    I had a similar experience with a friend of mine (also a musician) this week. I told him about the new MacBooks, and when I got to the part about it lacking Firewire he was absolutely dumbfounded and pissed off. Neither of us will be buying one of these things any time soon. Apple has let me down in a big way this time around. I thought they were supposed to make products for creative individuals... Well, musicians need Firewire, OK? And, we're not millionaires. And, we like small portable rigs. Apple does not have a system for me at this point.
  • Reply 82 of 121
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by CoreyMac View Post


    The screen is a deal breaker for me......I cant be bothered with such poor viewing angles and contrast / black levels. Its really a shame.



    Did you take that picture yourself? Sorry, but the Macbooks screens are nowhere near that bad in real world use.
  • Reply 83 of 121
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by graxspoo View Post


    I had a similar experience with a friend of mine (also a musician) this week. I told him about the new MacBooks, and when I got to the part about it lacking Firewire he was absolutely dumbfounded and pissed off. Neither of us will be buying one of these things any time soon. Apple has let me down in a big way this time around. I thought they were supposed to make products for creative individuals... Well, musicians need Firewire, OK? And, we're not millionaires. And, we like small portable rigs. Apple does not have a system for me at this point.



    Musician here too. Agreeing all the way! We don;t need better graphics, or bigger better screens. Just a small portable MAC (cause I'm not a PC) WITH FIREWIRE (cause, you know, USB SICKS DUCK)



    Considering what we could do with lesser desktops of the past. Processor speed is also not an issue and would not require the upgrade to a "Pro". Thus Apple is TAXING. Because they know stupid people will fall for it. OF course Apple used to be about SMART people, self educating people. NOW, just former "I'm a PC" people, who couldn't give a crap about their computer and just don't want any more viruses.
  • Reply 84 of 121
    "For the hard drive, Apple has only budged slightly. Its stock disks are exactly the same as before: the $1,299 model carries a 160GB drive, while the top-end model carries 250GB. Most of the change now comes from expansion options that include 250GB and 320GB drives spinning at 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM as well as a new 128GB solid-state drive (SSD) choice. We see the 7200 RPM hard drives as the best expansion options for anyone not satisfied with the stock hard drives, since hard drive transfer speeds can matter as much as RAM for perceived system speed. The SSD makes less sense here than on the MacBook Air or Pro, though, as few will need the extra speed in a mid-range notebook at the expense of a large amount of hard drive space."



    This is the 2nd place I have noticed a mention as to a 7200RPM drive option for the MacBook. However I only see this option listed for the MacBookPro, not the MacBook in which the above quote was written about.

    Can anyone confirm this?

    al
  • Reply 85 of 121
    zunxzunx Posts: 620member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wobegon View Post


    Looking at Bare Feats' storage interface shootout, Firewire 400 compared to the new MacBook Pro's (and presumably, the new MacBooks) USB 2.0, it's pretty clear there's essentially no noticeable difference in terms of speed.







    http://www.barefeats.com/mbpp10.html



    Nope. Transfer large files, audio or video in real time and you will see that USB 2 does NOT deliver. Even Firewire 400 is much, much, much better than USB 2. And do not forget the Target Disk Mode for repairs and troubleshooting. No Firewire, no purchase!
  • Reply 86 of 121
    zunxzunx Posts: 620member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ros3ntan View Post


    Dont forget that intel is already testing their USB 3.0



    Do not expect USB 3 until 2010. Instead, Firewire 3200, which is FOUR times faster than Firewire 800 is already available NOW. Transfer large files, audio or video in real time and you will see that USB 2 does NOT deliver. Even Firewire 400 is much, much, much better than USB 2. And do not forget the Target Disk Mode for repairs and troubleshooting. No Firewire, no purchase!
  • Reply 87 of 121
    zunxzunx Posts: 620member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    What is the point of that if only to further the decision to drop FW400 from the MB. The FW pendrive is $100 for a 1GB drive.



    As for moving large amounts of data 802.11n and 1000BASE-T are great, fast solutions that allow for significantly decentralized setup. FW400 has its benefits, but being better than other methods in every way it is not.



    YOU DO NOT GET IT. I will only say one thing: Firewire is needed to repair and troubleshoot Macs via Target Disk Mode. THIS IS A REQUIREMENT FOR ANY MAC. No Firewire, no purchase!
  • Reply 88 of 121
    zunxzunx Posts: 620member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by abernathy View Post


    My god I'm tired of people who obviously don't need FireWire making statements like this.



    YOU DO NOT GET IT. I will only say one thing: Firewire is needed to repair and troubleshoot Macs via Target Disk Mode. THIS IS A REQUIREMENT FOR ANY MAC. No Firewire, no purchase!
  • Reply 89 of 121
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by zunx View Post


    Nope. Transfer large files, audio or video in real time and you will see that USB 2 does NOT deliver. Even Firewire 400 is much, much, much better than USB 2. And do not forget the Target Disk Mode for repairs and troubleshooting. No Firewire, no purchase!



    Agreed.



    As I said in another thread, anyone wanting further info on FW compared to other techs should check out this whitepaper by the 1394 trade association



    yes it'll be biased based on it's source... find me one that isn't \



    but it's no more biased than some posts here who keep insisting either

    - FW is dead

    - or that it can be easily replaced with existing technologies...



    for those who think that the USB performance of the MBPs is up to that of firewire (note how the MB hasn't been tested - it'll certainly be slower because the CPU is slower)

    and keep posting the Barefeets test results please have a look at 'compared to USB paragraph'



    ditto for the ESata section

    oh and ditto for the Ethernet section

    oh and ditto for the USB3 section (noting the increased silicon cost of USB3 and the potential backwards compatibility probs)



    remember... pure speed has little to do with performance

    and no one is going to argue over single direction file transfer speed

    as if that's the most critical for any of us...

    if that's all you need, then feel free to go and buy a MB with only USB2



    the MB will be pretty for a year (or less) until the resale value plummets

    when Apple release an update nicely fitted out with the latest intelligent ports

    for rapid data transfer and connection to real peripherals (and by real peripherals i don't mean a mouse, a 1GB flash key or a keyboard)
  • Reply 90 of 121
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tamtam View Post


    They are replaced but that does not mean that one may not need to access those tapes again. I have a ton of 'old' videos on such MiniDV tapes and still shoot on MiniDV. I have many that I have not had the time to capture to the computer, edit etc but they are still on tape. I will need to have firewire for a few years to come even if I buy a HDD or NAND based camcorder in the near future. For he same reason, I will need to keep my old MiniDV camcorder as well.



    Then you keep your current computer, transfer the tapes now, buy a new machine that has FW. You can't expect a company to hold onto to legacy, dying port interfaces just because a very small percentage of people may want access to a certain type of recordable media in the future. I know people with floppy discs that they just can't throw out, for whatever reason, despite having had no floppy drives in their machines for years.
  • Reply 91 of 121
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by zunx View Post


    YOU DO NOT GET IT. I will only say one thing: Firewire is needed to repair and troubleshoot Macs via Target Disk Mode. THIS IS A REQUIREMENT FOR ANY MAC. No Firewire, no purchase!



    But Target Disk Mode is not the only way to troubleshoot and repair a Mac HDD. There are plenty of other Macs to purchase if you need FW400.



    If you do Mac repairs, then their a single screw between you and the MB HDD, which will get you into TDM as soon as you pop it into a external drive. If you perform Mac break/fix you should be happy that the MBPs now have a very easy to access HDD.



    I've used Target Disk Mode ONCE in long Mac using life. If I wanted to now I couldn't as none of my FW cables have a FW400 male connector on both ends. When you have almost all of your market base unaware of FW and Target Disk Mode, much less having ever used them, the decision to remove FW400 instead of removing the 2nd USB port is not a hard decision. It's the weakest link. Goodbye!
  • Reply 92 of 121
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bigalmac View Post


    This is the 2nd place I have noticed a mention as to a 7200RPM drive option for the MacBook. However I only see this option listed for the MacBookPro, not the MacBook in which the above quote was written about.

    Can anyone confirm this?



    Sorry, 5400RPM only, in the MB. However, HDDs are cheap enough that you can buy an after market one on the cheap, though I'm going for a Hitatchi 500GB 5400RPM drive for $120 for my MB. I prefer higher capacity than faster speed as it uses less juice and the read/writes tend to be faster than higher RPM drives holding the same amount of data.
  • Reply 93 of 121
    great review! i want to buy one now! i like appleinsider's style, compared to other over-blown rumor sites like macrumors. go APPLEINSIDER!!!!
  • Reply 94 of 121
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by macapptraining View Post


    i like appleinsider's style, compared to other over-blown rumor sites like macrumors. go APPLEINSIDER!!!!



    MacRumors has its pros, but I find that the average forum poster here is much more informed and mature than on other such sites.
  • Reply 95 of 121
    leppoleppo Posts: 66member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by zunx View Post


    YOU DO NOT GET IT. I will only say one thing: Firewire is needed to repair and troubleshoot Macs via Target Disk Mode. THIS IS A REQUIREMENT FOR ANY MAC. No Firewire, no purchase!



    I will second the essential nature of firewire.



    I took my Blackbook for repairs at the Apple Store this last week (faulty optical drive), and the Geniuses ran all their tests by hooking up their Macbook Pros to my comp via firewire. I couldn't help notice this and mentioned it to the guy. I asked him what they were going to do without firewire and he seemed honestly bummed when he answered, "I have no idea, I hear they're working on something, but nobody knows what is up yet."



    This is a rather poor exit strategy (make whatever allegorical parallels that you like) for such an essential technology. I could never buy a Macbook without firewire as things stand right now. In the future, there may in perfectly acceptable solutions (fw3200, usb 3, etc.), but right now there is nothing, and that is unacceptable.
  • Reply 96 of 121
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Leppo View Post


    I asked him what they were going to do without firewire and he seemed honestly bummed when he answered.



    What he'll do is...
    1) Flip hatch to remove bottom panel

    2) Remove single screw

    3) Plug into connector attached to FW cable
    I'd much rather have the HDD be removed easier than it was on the MBP than worry about the extra 30 seconds involved in removing the HDD in the new Mac notebooks.
  • Reply 97 of 121
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bluevoid View Post


    Did you take that picture yourself? Sorry, but the Macbooks screens are nowhere near that bad in real world use.



    Several people have created similar photo comparisons on other sites. It's not a set-up. No, the screens don't look quite like that to the naked eye; rather, in that instance, your eye will adjust to (and discount) the weaknesses of one screen while focusing on it, and then readjust to the peculiarites of the other once you shift your focus to it. But the one which creates the more photographable image is the one with the stronger screen. The other screen relies on your eye being a good deal more capricious than a camera for you to find it acceptable. Visual acuity differs greatly among people, though, which is why some of us do look at the Macbook's screen and see a mess comparable, at least in degree, to what the camera captures. I suppose you could consider yourself "lucky" if that screen really does seem acceptable to you in a $1600 notebook. I see it as worse than what the average sub-$1k pc notebook has.
  • Reply 98 of 121
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by zunx View Post


    YOU DO NOT GET IT. I will only say one thing: Firewire is needed to repair and troubleshoot Macs via Target Disk Mode. THIS IS A REQUIREMENT FOR ANY MAC. No Firewire, no purchase!



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by zunx View Post


    YOU DO NOT GET IT. I will only say one thing: Firewire is needed to repair and troubleshoot Macs via Target Disk Mode. THIS IS A REQUIREMENT FOR ANY MAC. No Firewire, no purchase!



    You keep repeating this, when it's complete BS.
  • Reply 99 of 121
    lafelafe Posts: 252member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    MacRumors has its pros, but I find that the average forum poster here is much more informed and mature than on other such sites.



    Thanks, and on behalf of the group, I hope we passed the audition!
  • Reply 100 of 121
    robb01robb01 Posts: 148member
    Great review, I've been wanting to see this for a while.





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