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Am I the only one who thinks (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm a huge Mac fan (I'm typing this on an older MacBook Pro), but man, I really think these new laptops are ugly as sin. I really prefer the look of previous model MacBooks and MacBook Pros, though when the Air came out it was probably inevitable that the other laptops would follow its lead.
Re:Am I the only one who thinks (Score:5, Interesting)
The black border isn't that great imho, but it's ok. Same for keys I guess.
But new macbook vs old one? Definitly. Way better than plastic.
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Re:Am I the only one who thinks (Score:5, Interesting)
But new macbook vs old one? Definitly. Way better than plastic.
Way better than the white plastic MacBook, which looks like a tacky toy IMO. OTOH, I think the black plastic looks pretty good.
I must be the only one who thinks Apple's white plastic products (iBook, iPod, iMac, MacBook) look lame. I like Apple's current move away from white plastic and toward uncolored (MacBook, iMac) and colored (iPod nano) aluminum.
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Re:Am I the only one who thinks (Score:4, Funny)
You're not the only one. I personally think these look pretty tacky, especially compared the sleek/slick, classy look of the previous model MBP.
In two years these will look like even uglier, like that K-car your stuffy old man used to drive. Of course by then all the others notebook manufacturers will have copied the design and nobody will notice that they all look cheesy.
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Re: (Score:2)
I'm a huge Mac fan (I'm typing this on an older MacBook Pro), but man, I really think these new laptops are ugly as sin. I really prefer the look of previous model MacBooks and MacBook Pros, though when the Air came out it was probably inevitable that the other laptops would follow its lead.
I never figured Jobs for a closet Raiders fan.
Re:Am I the only one who thinks (Score:4, Funny)
No, you're sane. Glad to see there's another REAL Conservative still hiding out there, getting more and more frustrated at the ass-hats who are spending billions on credit cards to buy shit they can't afford... ruining the country.
Enjoy the fruits of your labor -- with your new MacBooks. I'm working on saving up for something else myself, but have the budget to buy if the wife's old iBook or my Black MacBook (original model) croak... they're not showing any signs of doing so, but it's almost "time" for a new MacBook for one of us...
Keep up the good fight telling people that no... they DO NOT *DESERVE* loans. They *DESERVE* to learn to save for things and buy them WHEN THEY CAN AFFORD THEM. Great job, sir.
All the best (that you can afford...!)...
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Brightness (Score:5, Interesting)
Great! The displays are bright.
How about dim? Can they be dim too? My 24" iMac is painfully bright to use in a dark room at its lowest backlight setting. Some people resort to software that puts a neutral gray, transparent window over the whole screen just to keep the pain down at the expense of color resolution. I keep sunglasses by the computer so I can see to work on late night emergency calls while my eyes adapt to the light.
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Re:Brightness (Score:5, Informative)
The LED backlights seem to dim better than the old fluorescent ones did. My not-quite-latest-generation-now MBP with LED backlight works just fine in a dark room and goes nice and bright for a non-dark room.
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Re: (Score:2, Funny)
You guys are missing the whole point of getting a Mac. You guys haven't remodeled your room to match the design aesthetic of these babies? The plans should incorporate matching multi-mode "daylight"/"nighttime"/"coffee-shop ambience" lighting schemes. And they should all be controllable via keyboard, because only the keyboard knows how much light you will need at that time when you lift the lid.
Re:Brightness (Score:5, Informative)
It's not a real solution but holding control option command and 8 inverts the color making the screen a negative. Works well at night when you want to keep the light level down.
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Two separate NVIDIA GPUs? (Score:2, Interesting)
I guess that's so when the first one de-laminates you have a backup. *Bah-dum-bump*
Actually it's pretty cool to have both high- and low-power options. Too bad they can't switch on the fly. But since the GeForce 9600M GT can do CUDA, maybe you could use it as a compute accelerator while you use the 9400 for display.
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Uhm, I guess both can do Cuda/OpenCL?
hybrid sli non gefore boost. (Score:2)
hybrid sli non gefore boost.
Re:Two separate NVIDIA GPUs? (Score:4, Informative)
I assume it'll come sooner or later.
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Graphics switching disappointing beside Lenovo (Score:5, Insightful)
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The third-party patch will be out within a month ;-)
Re:Graphics switching disappointing beside Lenovo (Score:5, Informative)
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Environmentally Friendly? (Score:2, Interesting)
Watching the video, the Mac guys talk about all of the innovations that have gone into making the computer friendly to the environment. But the aluminum machining looks like a pretty energy intensive and wasteful process. Does anyone know if this is a true observation, relative to the process used to make other laptops?
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Yes, I am aware that the metal from one laptop will not directly go into
They cost more (Score:2)
The Canadian price for the low-end used to be $1250, now it's $1400. Whatever happened to the maxim that computers get faster & cheaper over time?
Then there's connectivity. One of the mixed blessings of apple is their place on the avant-guard of computer ports; sometimes they're annoying (proprietary video), sometimes not (usb on iMac). All I know is that there's no hope of using an external monitor without shelling out an Elizabeth for an adapter. That, and the newfound lack of firewire (and thus targe
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CAD:USD exchange rate isn't as favorable as it used to be. They priced aggressively before, and with the rate change they have to re-price. Won't be good for ROW sales in a recession...
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Our dollar slipped 20% (rather, the US dollar recovered 20%). That makes the difference.
CIV 4? Should work great on the integrated graphics. I'm pretty sure I've run it on my mini.
The integrated graphics is only slow compared to a cutting edge dedicated board. CIV 4 is a few years old.
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Low end price (Score:3, Informative)
I've been checking out the MacBooks to console my sister who I advised to buy a white MacBook two weeks ago (d'oh!). I can't speak for the Canadian dollar, but in USD there's been a branching among MacBook models.
Before there were two: a $1049 model with 1 GB memory, etc and a $1299 model with 2 GB memory, etc. Both were white plastic. If you go to the store now there are two aluminum versions: a $1299 model with 2 GB memory, etc and a $1599 model also with 2 GB memory plus a 90 GB larger drive and a 2.4
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I fracked the price up, but I was right about the increase - at least for the mid and high end ones!
Before, the Canadian prices were $1149, $1349 and $1549. Now, the prices are $1149, $1399 and $1749. The current lowest-end one is the same as the old lowest-end one, except the former combodrive been upgraded to a superdrive. The mid- and high- end ones are the new models. So, it's not as bad as I said, but the trend is definitely upwards.
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Civ 4 works fine on my May 2007-era Macbook. I'm not sure what revision it is, but it has integrated graphics, the 2Ghz Core 2 Duo, and a gig of RAM. I imagine it'd work fine on a new machine.
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You're right... I just checked my (two week old) price list and it was $1350 for the mid range model. $1150 for the low end.
Firewire (Score:5, Interesting)
Even if you get the new display that can fit along with the new MacBooks... it has three USB ports in the back yet no Firewire!
I wonder if it's a power issue...
Pre-loaded with iMovie, but no DV camera interface (Score:2)
Power issue or not, the lack of FireWire now officially makes the portable consumer-level Mac incompatible with the standard DV camera interface. I guess Steve really is pushing those memory-card HD cameras.
Re:Pre-loaded with iMovie, but no DV camera interf (Score:2)
> I guess Steve really is pushing those memory-card HD cameras.
Nope. Steve figures if you can afford a camera with a firewire port you will spring for the MBP. You might piss and moan but in the end you will pull out the credit card. It's all about the money.
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Not really.. firewire/DV has been fading over the last few years for consumer products. Flash/tapeless/USB transfer is pretty standard now in the consumer world. Old stuff won't really be useful, but Apple has never been about holding on to the old longer than necessary.
(fwiw i own mbp and am pro cam operator)
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Nope. Steve figures if you can afford a camera with a firewire port you will spring for the MBP. You might piss and moan but in the end you will pull out the credit card. It's all about the money.
I think it's a general sign of Firewire disappearing from general consumer products. The first major sign that I noticed was the lack of easy backwards compatibility between Firewire 800 and Firewire 400. Now the port is disappearing from Apple computers too.
I wonder if Target Disk mode and such will be implemented for USB in Mac OS X? External hard drives were nice with Firewire because of how it in didn't burden the cpu like USB. But as with SCSI/ATA, chips are invented that offload the work from the
MacBook Hardware (Score:5, Informative)
MacBook: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/First-Look/Mac/MacBook-Unibody [ifixit.com]
Pro: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/First-Look/Mac/MacBook-Pro-Unibody [ifixit.com]
Just bought the 15" MacBook (Score:3, Informative)
My quick comments while I'm erasing the hard disk and reinstalling it: (I always erase the HDD on all new machines to check for any SMART errors, and to know that the install is clean)
First, the package it comes in is 20% smaller than the black MacBook's tote box. Styrofoam is a thing of the past, replacing it is plastic. Its easy to pull out the MacBook and peel off the plastic on it, easy to yank out the power adapter, but you have to use a thin piece of cardboard to pull the OS media box out as it is set flush, with no fingertip grips to make it easier. This is a very minor thing, though.
Second, the MacOS CDs are not 10.5.0 as with the black MacBook. You get 10.5.5, and a DVD with the applications.
Third, like every article says, if you need FireWire for mLAN or other music tasks, go for a Pro, or hit Apple Refurb for a previous model. FireWire is a thing of the past with this model. For what I'm using it for, the two USB ports are good.
Fourth, its noticably thinner than the MacBook it replaced. Its not thin enough to slide into an envelope, but its definitely able to be slipped in a briefcase. Its definitely a nice student notebook for sling through classes.
Fifth, I personally have not noticed any significant changes to the screen between the previous generation, but I'm glad Apple went this route, because LEDs supposedly have a much longer life than the CCFL backlights.
Those are my first impressions for now, while I blank the disk on it. Overall, for what I need it for (slinging it around campus) it should do the job well.
Re:Who cares about the hard drive (Score:4, Funny)
Maybe they designed it for people who want to cross the US border a lot?
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Re:Who cares about the hard drive (Score:5, Insightful)
One doesn't only replace the hard drive due to failure. The last time I replaced my laptop hard drive was when I discovered I needed more room and didn't want to carry around another drive. I'm guessing most people upgrade their laptop drives for this reason.
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On Apple laptops you do :) My MacBook Pro has had a failed hard drive (barely a year old), and out of the other Mac users I know there have been at least 5 other HDD failures. I don't know what causes it, maybe Apple uses shoddy parts, maybe it's bad thermal design... But Apple HDDs seem to die more often than the rest.
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Do you realize what the most likely component on any given laptop to fail is? Setting aside occasional bad crops of GPUs, logic boards, the most likely component in a laptop to fail is the hard drive. Making replacing that simpler and easier is a great idea. In addition, a
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The 12" Powerbook is one of the most jam-packed packages that I've ever seen, and is not user serviceable, for sure, but I've done a few HD replacements in various 12" PB's and a new Superdrive in one. You just have to keep track of the screws and use the Apple service manual to track which seemingly strange piece you need to remove next. I think they designed the internals with a spoon and a comedy foam hand.
These laptops though, have the two most commonly replaced items within a few easy-to-remove philli
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Or, you know, they're aware that harddrives follow the moore's law curve closely, and users frequently want to upgrade them.
I replaced the harddrive in my macbook, not because the old one failed, but because I just couldn't stand working with only 80 gig of space on a dual-booting machine anymore.
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The latch is locked when the kensington cable is in. I don't remember where I read this, but I'm 100% positive.
Re:Who cares about the hard drive (Score:4, Informative)
The latch is locked when the kensington cable is in. I don't remember where I read this, but I'm 100% positive.
Just to make other readers 100% HIV positive, here's one place I read this: "Hands on with the Macbook/Pro's removable hard drive" [arstechnica.com].
From TA:
I'm surprised anyone would complain about an easy-to-replace hard drive on a Mac. Some current and previous model Macs make it a pain in the arse to replace the hard drive.
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What will apple do with the mini? If they mess up (Score:2)
What will apple do with the mini? If they mess up then EFiX and Psystar will have a field day.
The $800 mini better have a real video card with 256 of vram that is not from system ram.
Also if they put mini display port on it. It better have ship with the mini Display Port to DVI Cable Adapter and a mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort.
makeing you pay $30 for a Adapter to be able use your display on a DESKTOP is a slap in the face.
The mini should drop down to $500 with 2gb of ram and super drive.
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*if and only if your idea of "monitor" is "New Apple Cinema display" which, incidentally, comes only with a mini-displayport connector.
IF you have a 24 $900 display. (Score:2)
IF you have a 24 $900 display then you don't need one.
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I can only assume that their market research guys determined that essentially all buyers of Apple monitors are Apple laptop users.
Re:Mini DisplayPort is not a standard (Score:4, Informative)
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