Mac Notebook line refresh Ping!
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
Posted on 06/08/2009 7:29:28 PM PDT by Swordmaker
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
I have the late 2008 unibody MacBook, so I was a little bummed out by today’s upgrade. By putting it in the Pro line, the MB gets a better display panel, Firewire, and a speed bump. I feel like I’ve missed out.
Well, nothing to do but buy some RAM and maybe a new hard drive for this thing. Upgrading: the cure for all computer ills.
Get the anti-glare display.
!
I learned a long time ago that whenever I bought something, it would be upgraded, lower priced, improved on, just afterward... usually just a day or so outside the window of opportunity to exchange it for the newer, better, cheaper, greater, spiffier model.
With Apple, I learned to appreciate that ANY Mac is a great computer that will last me for years, get faster with every OS update, and run the latest and greatest just like the new one. (Unfortunately, my G series computers can't go where my Intel series Macs can with Snow Leopard, so I guess that's the exception that proves the rule... whatever that means.)
You’re exactly right. This unibody MacBook will be a great machine, a handy device through the next presidential elections and beyond.
I just thought that Apple wouldn’t bother updating the MacBook line until Intel released their Calpella platform in Q3, and then all of these updates—FireWire, better battery, unification of the MacBook and the MB Pro line—would happen then.
I think they may be freeing up the Macbook name for a future Mac Touch Screen Tablet computer...
I’m just waiting for the next generation of SSD drives to come on the market. $400 for the smaller 128 GB version still seems a bit steep for me, even with the price cuts to the unit as a whole. I don’t know though, if it’s going to be a long wait I may just break down and buy one (a sure way provoke an upgrade).
It would be pretty odd to refer to a tablet as a MacBook, especially with the white MacBook still chugging along. I think Apple has a long-term product segmentation plan, and they’re halfway through implementing it.
I have this wacky idea of Apple shrinking the white MacBook, cutting the price in half, and calling it a netbook.
IMO, SSD as an upgrade isn’t worth it right now. They just don’t have the storage capacity to justify their cost. 7200 RPM drives are “ good enough” right now, especially since you can get them in 500GB varieties.
Still not sold on the non-replaceable battery. I’ve had too many times where I needed to swap charged batteries while working in inhospitable places. Cold weather kills even long-life batteries, and there is no way to put an extra battery inside your coat when it’s part of the laptop.
Yeah, I wouldn’t get the current generation of SSD; but since I’m looking at the 13” I would end up being stuck with the 5400 RPM drive. In a couple years I’m sure they’ll be great though.
So, it’s a newer, more powerful Laptop..Nt really world shaking...but I gotta admit i’m intrigued by the 7 hr battery life claims. I’d like to see that added to a Netbook.
Iwas thinkin...with the slim form factor, how difficult would it be to make a fottprint size battery dock that could be attached to the bottom of the notebook, and dramatically increasethe battery life, without adding too much bulk to the unit? Instead of 7 hrs, what about 21 or 28 hours?
In this era of tyrannical moves by our own government there is such a thing as "concern overload." The problems are exacerbated by our own difficulty in articulating clearly to the "sheeple" and to each other, when the language is corrupted with Newspeak terms such as "liberal" meaning "opposed to liberty" while seeming to mean the opposite, "public" and "society" being used when what is actually meant is government, and on and on.In that context discussing things like our favorite sports teams or our favorite operating system can be a welcome, even a needed, diversion. That, plus the obvious practicality that I do my FReeping on my Macintosh and am interested in the future of the computer, makes Swordmaker's Apple pings a welcome sight.
I hope that the courts will slap down the transparent efforts of clone "computer makers" to subvert the premium business model by which Apple has profited by selling good hardware whose effectiveness is multiplied by software which is bundled with the hardware which is aggressively upgraded to enhance the value proposition you perceive in the "showroom." And I hope that the merits computer hardware and operating systems will always be issues which are open to discussion, with a minimum of trolling and a maximum of good humor and toleration here on FR.
I'll take my HP nx9420 over my Macbook Pro 15" any day. I use both at work.
Mac's have their place, but they are FAR from the final word.
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