whoopdifriggindo.

Okay this is just dull. A new case? There really better be more to it.
Things I would love to see.
A new Mac Cube. A slightly larger mac mini with a PCIe slot for a video board ,a 7200 RPM drive, maybe room for an extra drive, and two to four dimm sockets.
Price $499. It would kill HP and Dell in one fell swoop.
A mac Netbook.
Back in the day the Steves tried to make computers for everyone. Now the Steve makes them for the "elite". Kind of sad in a way.
Yes I do like their good design work and great OS but they are making money hand over foot so why not go for a knock out?
The Apple Volksputer.

Nothing is going to kill Dell/HP except for themselves. The simple fact is most people buying PCs don't care about Mac because it does not have Windows on it. I know some live in a fantasy world but it is true, people don't care. If it works and they are used to it they will keep it.

As for those specs, Apple is doing a good job of moving further away from end user friendly hardware with each and every release. Steve isn't making computers for the "elite", he is making computers that make Apple money and making Apple money means that if you want an upgrade you buy a new computer.

The sad thing is presumably these extra components have gotten cheaper as USB is old tech as is Firewire. While connectivity realestate is at a premium for a laptop I'd think you'd want to have at least comparable to your competitions mid range offering.

I don't think you get it. People don't want Windows anymore. They want their software. I see more and more people buying Apples then running Windows on bootcamp, Fusion, and Parallels. The average home user just need a browser, email, iTunes, Quickin, and TruboTax. Maybe a few casual games.
The average home user can already move to the Mac with little to no problem.
The big thing is cost. If apple would come out with a Mac Mini that only cost $499 and was expandable You would see even more people buy them. The game market for the Mac would massively increase as would video card options.
People only buy Windows machines for two reasons. They are cheap or they have to run some program under windows.
Apple is already increasing their market share and more and more developers are porting to the Mac. Soon it will be only the the cost that keeps people on Windows.
Heck I am a Linux guy at heart but If Apple produced a $499 expandable Mac I would buy it.

Steve can't just keep doing that as EFiX and Psystar will pass apple up and if Psystar where to win a fee key points in court then apple will have to respond and come out with a real desktop mid-tower.

Also the mini is over year old with the same price how does that make people want to buy a new computer?

nvidia on board video / chipsets is a good step in putting better video in mac systems as $1200 or less systems have better video then the $1500 mac book black and the $2000 mac book pro has weak video next other $1500+ laptops.

Apple should make the mac book and mac book pro in to one line. $2000 to get a 15" screen and $2800 for 17" is way to high. Also they should have a 13" - 14" system with good video for people who want to have a mid to high mid-range low-high end video card but not a big screen.

Pompous attitude of its user base... ethical concerns over its atmosphere of secrecy and dodgey take on copyright and patent issues... I could go on.

I'm not a Mac hater, but neither are they the shining gods of saving us all.

P.S. It's M$. You know, because the dollar sign looks like an 'S'.

Hate Apple for no good reason? Apple is the new Microsoft. Apple updater on Windows is malware, installing poorly written USB drivers without your consent to push their DRM agenda while, reducing system stability. iTunes is a huge steaming pile of bloated shit. They NDA they're freaking App Store denial letters, for Christ's sake (along with anyone using the iPhone SDK for that matter). They try to lock you into their overpriced platform. This is the same company trying to DRM a fucking SHOE, so you can't use your Nike+ sensor in a non-Nike+ shoe. Worst of all, the Apple "people" who seem to turn a blind eye to anything Apple does.

I've been waiting for several months for an updated product line from Apple, so it's at least news to me. OS X has an even larger market share than Linux on the desktop, and we damn sure read about every little Ubuntu release here... I don't really see the problem. Apple is getting bigger too, not smaller.

Why less ports?

Because more people use wireless - the new Apple cordless mouse and keyboard are Bluetooth.

If you have to use a USB mouse + keyboard + hard disk + pen drive you're obviously at home so just buy a USB hub. Extra bonus - only one thing to plug in each time.

Well, those are some impressive credentials. What are you, secretary? Assistant (to the) regional manager?

Oh, so what does this imply? That you know the .NET stack? In-depth knowledge of the Win32 API?

Can you at least make an argument without using baseless claims and accusations? Anecdotal evidence, hard evidence, anything?

This is a website primarily for free software and GNU/Linux news though. I know in recent years that has weakened slightly, but I think the release of a bunch of software that everyone is encouraged to download, share, study, modify, run and distribute is somewhat different to 'proprietary software company release new model of their $2000 operating system dongle' in terms of its usefulness to society.

"Apple themselves have put up a barrier to that. In order to actually develop programs for Macs, you have to pay them quite a bit of money just to get the basic dev tools, and even more in order to make higher end programs."
Huhh?
Okay do you know how much MSDN+Visual Studio costs?
The professional version is $1,199 per year!
It goes up from there.
For the ADC it starts at $499. But you can get ADC online version which includes XCode for... Free.
Apple is if anything is cheaper than Windows for the official developers packages.
Free "gcc" development tools are available for both.

What's new here is not just another revision of an exxisting product. Apple has turned the physical structure of the notebook inside out. Older notebooks have an internal metal frame of some kind. Parts were screwed to the frame and then the case acted as a cover. What Apple has done is mde the cae out of very rigid aluminum. The parts are now screwed to the inside of the case and there is no internal frame. The case itself is the frame.

Cars and airplanes went through this kind of transition too. In the early days of cars and planes each had an internal frame but now the skin itself is the frame.

What we should expect is a stronger and lighter computer. Maybe better cooling too and easier to re-cycle later after it is no longer useful as a computer.

The thing that I really liked about the clamshell iBook is the handle. You close it and there's a handy handle to carry it with. Granted, someone described it as looking like a "drag queen's purse", but it was a tough handle. Most notebooks you just grab and hope for the best.

So if I buy Apple's overpriced MP3 player or phone I need to buy Apple's overpriced computer for it to work properly?

Exactly.

It's not all just "free money" or otherwise companies would jump at the chance. If CodeWeavers was saying they were just gifting other companies with cash (no strings attached) not many would turn them down.

Very likely these other companies have concluded that while there may be more money in this route the risks and extra expenditures aren't worth it. Before you say there aren't any risks or expenditures maybe you should ask yourself the question again - "If it's just free money why doesn't every company jump on this if offered?" You state that it's win-win while blithely ignoring the companies (including the gp) that don't want to do it. Well, perhaps it's not quite so win-win as you think, then?

While I may be hard pressed to come up with a downside some people at some very prominent companies must have come up with enough of a downside to outweigh the "free money" aspect you tout - or they would be in business with CodeWeavers. There must be at least a perceived downside or we wouldn't be talking about this. Perhaps different companies have even found different things they have issues with, which would mean there could be more than one "downside".

...or they could just turn off the "Apple" section and it wouldn't show up on their front page at all.