A closer look at Apple's 15-inch MacBook Pro

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  • Reply 21 of 62
    gamringamrin Posts: 114member
    I saw one at the student store today at my college.



    Anyone know what the new symbols on the F8, F9, and F10 keys are? Maybe they increase and decrease the brightness on a connected monitor?
  • Reply 22 of 62
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Gamrin

    I saw one at the student store today at my college.



    Anyone know what the new symbols on the F8, F9, and F10 keys are? Maybe they increase and decrease the brightness on a connected monitor?




    nah, those keys have been dedicated to controlling the brightness of the backlit keyboard for a while.
  • Reply 23 of 62
    gamringamrin Posts: 114member
    Ah. That makes sense. I've been using the 12" Powerbook, so I've never actually seen those F keys mapped that way. Thanks.
  • Reply 24 of 62
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by auxio

    Right, but having the magnet inside the connector on the Mac makes it possible for a small screw to get pulled into it, which would be very difficult to get out (needle-nose pliers or tweezers to get it out maybe?). It would be much easier to get a screw off the male ended cable than out of the female ended connector (no innuendo intended).



    The service manual for the MacBook specifically states that technicians who are servicing it should put tape over the connector to avoid this from happening.




    Why not use an oppisite polarised magnet that is just a litle stronger?
  • Reply 25 of 62
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by JeffDM

    I can think of several reasons.



    I think the reason is to make FCC, CE and other certifications easier. The same card could be used across the entire model line, and have fewer certification hassles to deal with, certifying one wireless card rather than certifying the wireless portion in every model revision, every board revision and potentially every speed bump.



    It might also be cheaper from a volume perspective, if it is an off the shelf Intel component, then the economies of scale may mean it is cheaper to put the card in a slot than it is to solder it to the main board. Another might be maintainability, if the wireless dies, the entire system board would have to be replaced to fix the problem.




    Also, Apple might decide to upgrade them for newer (faster) laptops that use the same mobo.



    I thought I read that Apple was not using Intel's solution, but was using a Broadcom chip, or possibly some other.
  • Reply 26 of 62
    coreycorey Posts: 165member
    I don't see magnetic media being much of a problem (who uses that anymore?) But I bet more than a few credit cards get zapped when someone throws a wallet or something in their computer case without thinking.



    Someone who has played with one, how strong is the magnet? It would be funny if it were strong enough so that a Mac in a light case set next to someone's purse zapped their cards.



    Corey
  • Reply 27 of 62
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Corey

    I don't see magnetic media being much of a problem (who uses that anymore?) But I bet more than a few credit cards get zapped when someone throws a wallet or something in their computer case without thinking.



    The use of miniDV tapes is still pretty common for video. The HDV standard uses those tapes too. There is a bit of a movement toward hard drive or optical storage for that, most of the market still seems to be miniDV.



    I do use floppies, though rarely, and never with my Mac. For one, a very rare firmware update, or when I can't find the thumb drive for transferring a small file to a customer computer, or when I can't find my newer digital camera. I also use it to make backups from an old DOS based CNC machine.



    I highly doubt that such a small static magnetic field would hurt any magnetic media though.
  • Reply 28 of 62
    auxioauxio Posts: 2,717member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by m01ety

    Um, completely wrong. If you look at pictures (or a real MBP), you'll see that it's a flat surface that just happens to be magnetic. There is no "in" into which things get sucked. If a screw sticks, it just sticks onto what is, for all intents and purposes, the side of the MacBook Pro. Easy as hell to remove.



    Well, I'm just quoting the official service manual. Not sure why Apple would recommend a technician cover it with tape if it wasn't a potential problem. I'll test it out with my MacBook tomorrow and let you know (just letting the battery fully charge and so I don't want to unplug it yet).
  • Reply 29 of 62
    Just over 3 hours battery life huh... Anyway good on ya guinea pigs working out all the rev A kinks for us
  • Reply 30 of 62
    doh123doh123 Posts: 323member
    i ran my battery from 100% down to 1%... was under 3 hours and 38 minutes of use, and 2 hours of sleep.



    guess it all depends how you use it... but id say 4 hours would be max if i was doing ultra power saving. Id list it as 1.5 hours to 4 hours in general
  • Reply 31 of 62
    aplnubaplnub Posts: 2,605member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by doh123

    i ran my battery from 100% down to 1%... was under 3 hours and 38 minutes of use, and 2 hours of sleep.



    guess it all depends how you use it... but id say 4 hours would be max if i was doing ultra power saving. Id list it as 1.5 hours to 4 hours in general




    That SUCKS! I thought they said the same as the 15" PPC version? Apple claims 5.5 hours on their website for it.



    Do you think with a less bright screen setting, no BT and WIFI turned on that it would get close to 5.5 hours?



    I may have to wait for a better battery life and pickup a Core Duo something else (iMac or hopefully something else cheaper) for our upcoming project.
  • Reply 32 of 62
    Quote:

    Originally posted by doh123

    i ran my battery from 100% down to 1%... was under 3 hours and 38 minutes of use, and 2 hours of sleep.



    guess it all depends how you use it... but id say 4 hours would be max if i was doing ultra power saving. Id list it as 1.5 hours to 4 hours in general




    Well, not correct.



    Quoting Nades:



    5 hours 39 minutes illumination lowest, low CPU performance, WLAN deactivated, Bluetooth deact.



    4 hours 23 minutes illumination medium, low CPU performance, WLAN activated, Bluetooth act.



    3 hours 36 minutes illumination high, high CPU performance, WLAN activated, Bluetooth act.



    Link to this information.

    http://discussions.apple.com/thread....73252&tstart=0



    A new battery wont preform as well as a "used" battery. (*with used I don't mean 2 years.)
  • Reply 33 of 62
    aplnubaplnub Posts: 2,605member
    Boy, that's better! I am glad you chimed in. I was begining to freak out over it.
  • Reply 34 of 62
    backtomacbacktomac Posts: 4,579member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by aplnub

    That SUCKS! I thought they said the same as the 15" PPC version? Apple claims 5.5 hours on their website for it.



    Do you think with a less bright screen setting, no BT and WIFI turned on that it would get close to 5.5 hours?



    I may have to wait for a better battery life and pickup a Core Duo something else (iMac or hopefully something else cheaper) for our upcoming project.




    I think, based on these reports, Apple should release a model with the 1.5ghz Core duo ultra low voltage. This could be in either a 12in MacBook Pro or in the iBook line. I know the price is a bit steep for the iBooks. I wonder if intel droped the price on it when they droped the prices on the other core duo chips?
  • Reply 35 of 62
    Quote:

    Originally posted by aplnub

    That SUCKS! I thought they said the same as the 15" PPC version? Apple claims 5.5 hours on their website for it.



    Which you only get with light use and the absolute lowest settings on everything. There have been a couple side by side tests, and it looks like battery life is about the same - for DVD playback, the G4 lasted about four minutes longer.
  • Reply 36 of 62
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by aplnub

    Boy, that's better! I am glad you chimed in. I was begining to freak out over it.



    O'Grady did some real world tests. Here is his article:



    http://www.powerpage.org/archives/20...ks.html#008641
  • Reply 37 of 62
    I also vaguely remember that you can turn off one of the processor cores to conserve power. I'd assume that that would help quite a bit. 3+ hours does seem very low. I can easily get 2+ out of PIII IBM Thinkpad (6 years old, I think).
  • Reply 38 of 62
    aplnubaplnub Posts: 2,605member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by mynamehere

    I also vaguely remember that you can turn off one of the processor cores to conserve power. I'd assume that that would help quite a bit. 3+ hours does seem very low. I can easily get 2+ out of PIII IBM Thinkpad (6 years old, I think).



    I had no idea turning off one of the processors was an option.
  • Reply 39 of 62
    Quote:

    Originally posted by syklee26

    BATTERY LIFE is about 3 hours and 20 minutes. I have one and after one-time calibration process I was getting 3 hours 20 minutes with the screen at the brightest setting and some websurfing.



    and it should improve as LiPo battery gets improved.




    I have been buying macs for some years now, but still i cannot believe why there is no data on the apple website about the life of the battery, after all, that is one of the MAJOR items of a notebook, no ?



    Why dont they just say it like it is.. or is it becasue steve said..it's all about the power/watt ??



    I have changed my order today to a 2.16cpu.. i guess my battery life will be ever lower!!
  • Reply 40 of 62
    aplnubaplnub Posts: 2,605member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by sternone

    I have been buying macs for some years now, but still i cannot believe why there is no data on the apple website about the life of the battery, after all, that is one of the MAJOR items of a notebook, no ?



    Why dont they just say it like it is.. or is it becasue steve said..it's all about the power/watt ??



    I have changed my order today to a 2.16cpu.. i guess my battery life will be ever lower!!




    As long as you dopes continue purchasing the MBP in record unexpected numbers, I will assume they will too busy trying to keep up rather than provide battery life expectations. If they don't have to provide the battery life information and they sell, why even address it? Silly boggers!
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