[chevynig]

Hey,

I have been accepted to college and will start in sept.

I have a student number and the acceptance papers. I live in southern ontario and will be taking a road trip to buffalo possibly this weekend. With the Macbook update that just happened, I feel it would be a good opportunity to pick up a Macbook with educational discount, and take advantage of a higher Canadian dollar. There is also lower sales tax in the states which is better for me.

So i have 2 questions.

Are there any more performace related upgrades planned to be released between now and sept for the Macbook and will they give me the educational discount down there even though i will be attending a Canadian college?

Thanks

[mduell]

The education discount is only available online or in on-campus stores.

Intel will release their new mobile chipsets (Cantiga family) in about the third quarter which will bring a new graphics processor, faster memory support, faster FSB, etc. Apple probably won't implement it in the MacBooks for a quarter or two, so it will probably be too late for you at school. Any update between now and then will be very small.

[sogbrightlight]

I suggest getting a refurbed macbook pro over a macbook if you're going to buy a macbook new. You'll get more bang for your buck.

[megasad]

As the MacBook and MacBook Pro have been updated on the same date, hopefully that will hold true going forward.

Six months is the average time it takes for Apple to update a model.

So, come the end of August is when I'd expect the next update, which puts it just in time for folk going back to school (such as yourself). It's also when I hope they'll introduce the new design Pros, possibly even consolidate the line into simple MacBooks, all looking pretty much like the Air, only a little thicker to accomodate extra ports, larger hard drives and optical drives.

Of course, having said that, they'll probably wait until October. But I do not replace my May 2006 MacBook until I graduate in July 2010, so I'm in no hurry ;P