Apple is still dependent on other suppliers before making any major upgrades. They have thrown down the gauntlet in front of Intel to get them to lower the power consumption of their chips and Ivy Bridge coming next year is where we see Intel attempt to meet the challenge.
If they succeed, the 2012 MBP should ditch the optical, have a slimmer enclosure and have quad-core chips running at under 35W TDP and quite possibly SSD-only, although I suspect it will start out as a setup like the iMac with SSD + HDD so not MBA thin but the large size will allow better tapering.
I'm all for SSD and am growing impatient for prices to come down, but a 60GB SSD (SATA II) costs around $100, while a 2TB hard drive costs as low as $70, with 64MB cache, FireWire 800, USB 2 and eSATA.
Love 'em or hate 'em, the 1956 Winchester hard drives are still the best "game in town" for price/performance. (Even tho I don't like it.) Seagate and Hitachi have recently announced the first 4TB drives. (Although, I don't see the advantage over this.)
A Zero Striped Array R.A.I.D. might not be as fast as an SSD, but benchmarks have consistently shown a 90 to 100% speed increase over individual drives.
If consumers no longer have use for optical drives LET THE MARKETPLACE DECIDE!
Would it kill Apple to offer optical drives as BTO options?! If they get a paucity of BTO optical drive orders, then, by all means, eliminate the integrated optical drive.
Meanwhile, Windows desktops and notebooks are starting to offer optical drives with Blu-ray read ? and at reasonable price points ? and Blu-ray write (but at much higher price points).
This trend will only continue; prices will come down; and a distinct competitive disadvantage may beset the Mac.
I've already seen ads by Microsoft and others touting integrated Blu-ray drives as a prominent differentiating factor of PCs. (And that's BLU-RAY! let alone a lesser optical drive which Apple appears to be sunsetting.)
Meanwhile, ignoring Apple, several companies and a 19-company standards body (of which Apple is a part!!! ) is already feverishly working on Blu-ray's successor, HVD (and even more impressive optical storage technologies).
Speaking of which, you know that 4TB drive that Seagate sells but only in an external case?
Screw 'em. When is WD going to come out with their 5TB drive? They've had the tech to do it for over a year now!
Quote:
a distinct competitive disadvantage may beset the Mac.
So? when's that supposed to set in? Because they said that in back in aught six when the first PCs started getting Blu-ray, but Macs have just sold MORE AND MORE units every year since.
Quote:
the ever-increasing size of video games is closing in on the capacity of even Blu-ray
No, that's just bad coding. Games today aren't any longer or any more detailed or more impressive than DVD or even CD-based ones. They just waste more space.
Quote:
Apple customers may someday be stuck starting downloads of terabytes of content at bedtime and hoping it's done the next morning.
Nope. Sweeping change will come long before that's necessary.
Use Finder or Spotlight to locate the old document
Use Finder to duplicate
Use Finder to rename it
Open new copy
Edit
That's not how I do it... (At least this works in Pages):
Stay in pages
File->Duplicate
Edit
File->Save a version
Enter new filename
While it's certainly confusing at first (because it's different), now that I'm used to it I actually think it's a bit easier than the old way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by solipsism
I'm not following you. Lion apps still have Open Recent, and you can also Save As and then choose the location you wish to save a file.
Open Recent, yes. Save As... No, at least not in the Lion-aware apps I use (iWork). Save As has been replaced with Duplicate. The end result is the same thing, only Save As requires you to give it a file name. Duplicate does not (you enter the filename when you eventually save your work).
The Fine Print seems to offer the same Test scenario for Half Life E2, so why has it dropped form X3 to X2 performance? Will there be better battery life? (reviews showing 2.5 hours on the discreet graphics) or are the charts just wrong???
FIne print from apple.com for old and new pages below:
I don't know why Apple put that. I always use notebookcheck.net to compare mobile graphics.
I'm not following you. Lion apps still have Open Recent, and you can also Save As and then choose the location you wish to save a file.
The whole point is that merely opening yesterday's report risks having it changed by Auto-save.
So instead of finding the document I want to update through Open Recent I have to lock yesterday's document and duplicate it first. In fact I have to lock absolutely everything I write once it's done so that merely opening it in the future doesn't cause Auto-save to change the Last Modified date.
Yes there's a big flaw in the old way. After I open yesterday's report and start making changes I could inadvertently hit Save instead of Save as... That's a bad thing that's happened to me a few times, but I can accept that because it was HUMAN ERROR.
Auto-save is the MACHINE thinking it knows what I want to do. It's supposed to do my bidding not try to think for me.
Apple's pages show a weird graphics performance DECREASE:
(old on top)
The Fine Print seems to offer the same Test scenario for Half Life E2, so why has it dropped form X3 to X2 performance? Will there be better battery life? (reviews showing 2.5 hours on the discreet graphics) or are the charts just wrong???
As waytogobuddy mentioned, does anyone have any insight as to why apple would change 3x faster to 2x faster in graphic performance? Aren't the graphic cards better in this new macbook pro refresh?
I don't know why Apple put that. I always use notebookcheck.net to compare mobile graphics.
It could be the previous Nvidia GPU MBP models had driver updates that improved performance, making the ATI improvements less stark.
So assuming Apple re-tested everything with latest updates and 10.7.1 or 10.7.2, this could lead to the more "realistic" graphs Apple is showing.
Especially with Valve's Source port to Macs, they did mention a lot of times drivers and stuff were quite unoptimised... Through this year though the situation has improved, especially in light, I think, of Valve moving the Mac to first-tier release status.
Notebookcheck.net is only a rough guide, since a lot of the benchmarks are AFAIK mostly if you're running Windows. Graphics drivers are always changing as well, especially for Windows. That's why I abandoned the PC and moved on to Xbox360. I just want to play the darn game, not update my graphic driver, update Windows, this, that, deal with glitches, etc. etc. etc!
Plus the PC industry never figured out a way to make a simple, elegant, powerful gaming PC that could sit nicely on your home theatre shelf and hook up easily to your HDTV at a non-ridiculous price point. The PC and PS3 are grotesque beasts compared to the latest Xbox360 slim... which isn't perfect but the best option IMO.
As soon as I saw this article, I went online to order a new MacBook Pro. Big mistake choosing the cheapest price. I sprung for the overnight priority shipping, and low and behold, the next day it had not shipped. Called MacMall - we needed to verify the ship to and payment method - ok - verified. 5:00pst rolls around, still hasnt shipped. I call - "sir, i will personally monitor this and call you back within 45 minutes and update you on the status". 3 hours, no call. I call them - "I'm sorry, I dont see a status change yet"..... why not admit that you dont have the damn thing in stock yet so you cant ship it. I will never purchase anything from them again. Guess i'm driving an hour to the apple store tomorrow. At least they wont lie to me!
As soon as I saw this article, I went online to order a new MacBook Pro. Big mistake choosing the cheapest price. I sprung for the overnight priority shipping, and low and behold, the next day it had not shipped. Called MacMall - we needed to verify the ship to and payment method - ok - verified. 5:00pst rolls around, still hasnt shipped. I call - "sir, i will personally monitor this and call you back within 45 minutes and update you on the status". 3 hours, no call. I call them - "I'm sorry, I dont see a status change yet"..... why not admit that you dont have the damn thing in stock yet so you cant ship it. I will never purchase anything from them again. Guess i'm driving an hour to the apple store tomorrow. At least they wont lie to me!
Well sorry to hear you had problems. You did make me glad that I ordered directly from Apple. I was one click away from ordering from MacMall. Then at the last minute I decided I wanted the hi-res display. So I ordered BTO form Apple and it shipped from China the next day. The downside is paying sales tax through Apple. The upside is a free printer after rebate.
Comments
Something I do every day: open a report from yesterday or last week or last month, make some changes and Save as... a new document.
The Snow Leopard way:
Click on File : Open Recent : document name
Edit
Click Save as...
The Lion way:
Leave the application you're currently in
Use Finder or Spotlight to locate the old document
Use Finder to duplicate
Use Finder to rename it
Open new copy
Edit.
I'm not following you. Lion apps still have Open Recent, and you can also Save As and then choose the location you wish to save a file.
Apple is still dependent on other suppliers before making any major upgrades. They have thrown down the gauntlet in front of Intel to get them to lower the power consumption of their chips and Ivy Bridge coming next year is where we see Intel attempt to meet the challenge.
If they succeed, the 2012 MBP should ditch the optical, have a slimmer enclosure and have quad-core chips running at under 35W TDP and quite possibly SSD-only, although I suspect it will start out as a setup like the iMac with SSD + HDD so not MBA thin but the large size will allow better tapering.
I'm all for SSD and am growing impatient for prices to come down, but a 60GB SSD (SATA II) costs around $100, while a 2TB hard drive costs as low as $70, with 64MB cache, FireWire 800, USB 2 and eSATA.
Love 'em or hate 'em, the 1956 Winchester hard drives are still the best "game in town" for price/performance. (Even tho I don't like it.) Seagate and Hitachi have recently announced the first 4TB drives. (Although, I don't see the advantage over this.)
A Zero Striped Array R.A.I.D. might not be as fast as an SSD, but benchmarks have consistently shown a 90 to 100% speed increase over individual drives.
If consumers no longer have use for optical drives LET THE MARKETPLACE DECIDE!
Would it kill Apple to offer optical drives as BTO options?! If they get a paucity of BTO optical drive orders, then, by all means, eliminate the integrated optical drive.
Meanwhile, Windows desktops and notebooks are starting to offer optical drives with Blu-ray read ? and at reasonable price points ? and Blu-ray write (but at much higher price points).
This trend will only continue; prices will come down; and a distinct competitive disadvantage may beset the Mac.
I've already seen ads by Microsoft and others touting integrated Blu-ray drives as a prominent differentiating factor of PCs. (And that's BLU-RAY! let alone a lesser optical drive which Apple appears to be sunsetting.)
Meanwhile, ignoring Apple, several companies and a 19-company standards body (of which Apple is a part!!!
And Sony has found that the ever-increasing size of video games is closing in on the capacity of even Blu-ray, and 25GB does not lend itself to online downloads, so it is reportedly working on a higher capacity optical format for the upcoming PS4 that is backwards compatible with current Blu-ray.
Apple customers may someday be stuck starting downloads of terabytes of content at bedtime and hoping it's done the next morning.
?while a 2TB?
Speaking of which, you know that 4TB drive that Seagate sells but only in an external case?
Screw 'em. When is WD going to come out with their 5TB drive? They've had the tech to do it for over a year now!
a distinct competitive disadvantage may beset the Mac.
So? when's that supposed to set in? Because they said that in back in aught six when the first PCs started getting Blu-ray, but Macs have just sold MORE AND MORE units every year since.
the ever-increasing size of video games is closing in on the capacity of even Blu-ray
No, that's just bad coding. Games today aren't any longer or any more detailed or more impressive than DVD or even CD-based ones. They just waste more space.
Apple customers may someday be stuck starting downloads of terabytes of content at bedtime and hoping it's done the next morning.
Nope. Sweeping change will come long before that's necessary.
The Lion way:
Leave the application you're currently in
Use Finder or Spotlight to locate the old document
Use Finder to duplicate
Use Finder to rename it
Open new copy
Edit
That's not how I do it... (At least this works in Pages):
Stay in pages
File->Duplicate
Edit
File->Save a version
Enter new filename
While it's certainly confusing at first (because it's different), now that I'm used to it I actually think it's a bit easier than the old way.
I'm not following you. Lion apps still have Open Recent, and you can also Save As and then choose the location you wish to save a file.
Open Recent, yes. Save As... No, at least not in the Lion-aware apps I use (iWork). Save As has been replaced with Duplicate. The end result is the same thing, only Save As requires you to give it a file name. Duplicate does not (you enter the filename when you eventually save your work).
Apple's pages show a weird graphics performance DECREASE:
(old on top)
http://imgur.com/lAvek
The Fine Print seems to offer the same Test scenario for Half Life E2, so why has it dropped form X3 to X2 performance? Will there be better battery life? (reviews showing 2.5 hours on the discreet graphics) or are the charts just wrong???
FIne print from apple.com for old and new pages below:
I don't know why Apple put that. I always use notebookcheck.net to compare mobile graphics.
I don't know why Apple put that. I always use notebookcheck.net to compare mobile graphics.
It isn't a contradiction. The previous generation is different in the two cases!
I'm not following you. Lion apps still have Open Recent, and you can also Save As and then choose the location you wish to save a file.
The whole point is that merely opening yesterday's report risks having it changed by Auto-save.
So instead of finding the document I want to update through Open Recent I have to lock yesterday's document and duplicate it first. In fact I have to lock absolutely everything I write once it's done so that merely opening it in the future doesn't cause Auto-save to change the Last Modified date.
Yes there's a big flaw in the old way. After I open yesterday's report and start making changes I could inadvertently hit Save instead of Save as... That's a bad thing that's happened to me a few times, but I can accept that because it was HUMAN ERROR.
Auto-save is the MACHINE thinking it knows what I want to do. It's supposed to do my bidding not try to think for me.
Apple's pages show a weird graphics performance DECREASE:
(old on top)
The Fine Print seems to offer the same Test scenario for Half Life E2, so why has it dropped form X3 to X2 performance? Will there be better battery life? (reviews showing 2.5 hours on the discreet graphics) or are the charts just wrong???
As waytogobuddy mentioned, does anyone have any insight as to why apple would change 3x faster to 2x faster in graphic performance? Aren't the graphic cards better in this new macbook pro refresh?
I don't know why Apple put that. I always use notebookcheck.net to compare mobile graphics.
It could be the previous Nvidia GPU MBP models had driver updates that improved performance, making the ATI improvements less stark.
So assuming Apple re-tested everything with latest updates and 10.7.1 or 10.7.2, this could lead to the more "realistic" graphs Apple is showing.
Especially with Valve's Source port to Macs, they did mention a lot of times drivers and stuff were quite unoptimised... Through this year though the situation has improved, especially in light, I think, of Valve moving the Mac to first-tier release status.
Notebookcheck.net is only a rough guide, since a lot of the benchmarks are AFAIK mostly if you're running Windows. Graphics drivers are always changing as well, especially for Windows. That's why I abandoned the PC and moved on to Xbox360. I just want to play the darn game, not update my graphic driver, update Windows, this, that, deal with glitches, etc. etc. etc!
Plus the PC industry never figured out a way to make a simple, elegant, powerful gaming PC that could sit nicely on your home theatre shelf and hook up easily to your HDTV at a non-ridiculous price point. The PC and PS3 are grotesque beasts compared to the latest Xbox360 slim... which isn't perfect but the best option IMO.
Stay away from Macmall
No, they're pretty much the best source out there. I'll go to them if I choose to.
I will never purchase anything from them again.
Enjoy inconveniencing yourself.
Guess i'm driving an hour to the apple store tomorrow. At least they wont lie to me!
You're joking, right?
As soon as I saw this article, I went online to order a new MacBook Pro. Big mistake choosing the cheapest price. I sprung for the overnight priority shipping, and low and behold, the next day it had not shipped. Called MacMall - we needed to verify the ship to and payment method - ok - verified. 5:00pst rolls around, still hasnt shipped. I call - "sir, i will personally monitor this and call you back within 45 minutes and update you on the status". 3 hours, no call. I call them - "I'm sorry, I dont see a status change yet"..... why not admit that you dont have the damn thing in stock yet so you cant ship it. I will never purchase anything from them again. Guess i'm driving an hour to the apple store tomorrow. At least they wont lie to me!
Well sorry to hear you had problems. You did make me glad that I ordered directly from Apple. I was one click away from ordering from MacMall. Then at the last minute I decided I wanted the hi-res display. So I ordered BTO form Apple and it shipped from China the next day. The downside is paying sales tax through Apple. The upside is a free printer after rebate.
It isn't a contradiction. The previous generation is different in the two cases!
Apple's fine print suggests otherwise.