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New MB and MBP cases revealed (and Oct 14 speculation)
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So it appears the cases for the new MB and MBP have been leaked.
The new MBP case. Solid aluminum top, but it appears the sides are separate have been attached to the top. Even thinner, thinner than the width of a USB port actually. Those speaker holes are quite a bit smaller in diameter than on the current MBP - laser carving maybe? The ports look like Mini-DVI, Ethernet, 2xUSB, ???, mic, headphones. Is the mystery port the lock slot? If so, thanks Apple for again putting it in a bad location. Looks like MagSafe, FW and EC (and hopefully eSATA) will be on the right side.
Or is that a FW logo I see to the left of what I thought was the second USB port?
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Last edited by Simon; Oct 9, 2008 at 03:17 AM.
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Last edited by Simon; Oct 9, 2008 at 03:17 AM.
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Does Mini-DVI actually do DDL? IIRC it doesn't. And if you're going to require a dongle anyway, why chose Mini-DVI over Micro-DVI?
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After looking at the MBP pic some more, is that a monitor icon I see next to port between the USB and the mic? What kind of display port would that be?
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From left to right on the MacBook Pro:
(MagSafe - not visible in this image)
Ethernet
FW800/1600/3200 (there's a firewire logo to the left of the jack; the connectors are identical)
2x USB
Micro DVI (you can see the monitor icon just to the left of the port)
audio in
audio out.
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NO FIREWIRE ON THE MACBOOK!!???
(from left to right - MagSafe, Ethernet, 2x USB, micro-DVI, audio in, audio out)
WTF!
(please no please no please no - I really don't want to have to go 15" just to get a machine that isn't completely useless for audio/video work...I love the 13" form factor. Please.)
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R.I.P. MacBook Pro keyboard 2003 - 2008
Survived by Chiclet keyboard.
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Well, if all the MBP brings design wise is a slightly thinner shape and some ugly (on an aluminum laptop) chiclet keys, I wont feel as bad hanging onto my current MBP.
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Not exactly the most exciting photos.
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As it looks like Apple is going to keep slimming and trimming the MBP it will still have underclocked lamo graphics and dual core as usual so I'm going to get a Dell Precision M6400 if I need a PRO laptop with real pro power, not to mention it has a 100% Adobe RGB color gamut edge to edge screen and quad core processors.
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Last edited by Super Mario; Jan 10, 2018 at 02:28 PM.
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I love the PowerBook G4 keyboard. I don't like the MacBook keyboard. Of course they'd choose the latter. Drat.
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I like the MacBook keyboard except a couple I used were squeeky. The Sony Z series has a better version of the same thing that is sooooo solid.
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Last edited by Super Mario; Jan 10, 2018 at 02:28 PM.
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The MBA has a very nice KB. If they go with that I'll be fine.
I actually am more worried about the video output. I want regular DVI. I hate carrying around dongles. Although admittedly you do still come across a of VGA projectors so even with DVI out you sometimes still have to carry around a dongle.
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Originally Posted by analogika
NO FIREWIRE ON THE MACBOOK!!???
(from left to right - MagSafe, Ethernet, 2x USB, micro-DVI, audio in, audio out)
WTF!
(please no please no please no - I really don't want to have to go 15" just to get a machine that isn't completely useless for audio/video work...I love the 13" form factor. Please.)
That would royally suck... and could be enough to prevent me buying any new Mac laptop for the time being. Unless the new MacBook were killer in every other way, I'd consider just getting a refurb.
I could accept it though... if Apple implemented USB booting for the OS.
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Originally Posted by Eug
I could accept it though... if Apple implemented USB booting for the OS.
My first thought was "How do you do Migration?"
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Don't know if everyone saw it yet but what i see is that the first picture on this thread shows clearly what it may be the new 17" notebook and it includes a FW800 port.
Does fourth picture shows a 13" or 14" notebook case? From the sides/upper part it looks very similar to the Macbook Air only the power button is placed differently.
About the GPU I "believe" that the new nVIDIA promo has some correlation with all the new line of Apple notebooks.
Seems that this new notebooks will be indeed indestructible
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Originally Posted by darkmatter
Don't know if everyone saw it yet but what i see is that the first picture on this thread shows clearly what it may be the new 17" notebook and it includes a FW800 port.
It's the 15", and don't know if you saw it, but everyone's been discussing these pictures for a couple of posts already.
Welcome to the thread.
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Originally Posted by Eug
That would royally suck... and could be enough to prevent me buying any new Mac laptop for the time being. Unless the new MacBook were killer in every other way, I'd consider just getting a refurb.
It would instantly raise the entry-level price for audio from €1000 to €1900, ruling out Mac laptops as an affordable option to pretty much any budding musician.
Boy, would that ever suck.
Originally Posted by Eug
I could accept it though... if Apple implemented USB booting for the OS.
Macs have been USB-bootable for years now.
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Originally Posted by analogika
Macs have been USB-bootable for years now.
LOL. Welcome to 2006.
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And we have confirmation of the Oct 14 event.
Apple is staging an invitation-only Town Hall event in San Francisco next Tuesday, October 14th at 10AM PST.
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Originally Posted by analogika
Macs have been USB-bootable for years now.
With target mode? My understanding is that this doesn't work.
That's what I'm specifically getting at. ie. If my MacBook screen dies, can I put it in target mode and have my iMac boot off the MacBook's drive? Or can I at least access the drive somehow via USB?
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If the high-end MBP isn't quad-core, I'm going to be extremely disappointed.
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Originally Posted by analogika
It would instantly raise the entry-level price for audio from €1000 to €1900, ruling out Mac laptops as an affordable option to pretty much any budding musician.
Boy, would that ever suck.
Well, if it's true, you can count on being called all sorts of names on this board for failing to see the perfection of everything Apple ever does.
Myself, I wish they'd just put some sort of expansion slot on the MacBook like, oh, pretty much every other notebook on the market. It wouldn't matter what ports they included if you could just add an ExpressCard for FireWire, eSATA, or whatever you need. But that's considered a "high-end" feature by Mac users these days, despite being standard on budget-priced PCs cheaper than anything Apple offers - and possibly now FireWire will join it in that category. I can see all the angry posts now - "FireWire in a sub-$2000 computer?!! Boy, you sure want a lot without paying for it! Just pony up the extra cash and shut up!"
</rant>
Frankly, the MacBook Air was the writing on the wall for FireWire, and while removing it from the MacBook would sadden me quite a bit, it wouldn't surprise me at all.
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The picture looks like the old plastic MB. Seems counter-intuitive.
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No FW on MacBooks would be a disaster. USB boot (or not) with the size of modern drives and the amount of files to move using USB is just far far too slow. You need FW 800 as a minimum really.
Unless you actually enjoy waiting 15hrs for Time Machine to copy your data over.
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Ok, we get it, no firewire on MacBooks is bad.
As for these updates, if these are really the pics, and putting it together in my mind, it is certainly more attractive than the current iterations of MacBooks and Pros, but I am not impressed.
Same old alumitub design. Boxy. Industrial looking. Will they offer it in black? How about black with a bronze keyboard? Like the Pismo?
They had better:
-Improve the sound quality of the speakers dramatically
-Quad core processors on Pro
-2 GB Ram standard
-Tapered edges on case
-LED backlighting across the line
-256 MB video RAM standard on Pro
-Double the previous MB Pro's crap battery life
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Originally Posted by Andrew Stephens
Unless you actually enjoy waiting 15hrs for Time Machine to copy your data over.
You know we do!
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Originally Posted by freudling
-Improve the sound quality of the speakers dramatically
They're laptop speakers. I don't think it's actually possible to make them big enough to sound good.
-Quad core processors on Pro
This would be awesome, but probably would be very hot and a power drain.
Agreed.
This would seem to decrease the number of ports that will fit on the machine. Form over function.
-LED backlighting across the line
I think it's pretty obvious that this will happen.
-256 MB video RAM standard on Pro
256 MB already is standard on the Pro.
-Double the previous MB Pro's crap battery life
If they make the Pro quad-core, this would seem unlikely.
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I think that both laptop lines will simply become MacBook now.
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Last edited by Super Mario; Jan 10, 2018 at 02:29 PM.
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CharlesS:
They certainly can make the speakers sound much better if they want. My PowerBook Wallstreet at home has excellent sounding speakers: better in certain ways than my MacBook Pro. If Apple want's to have kick axx sounding speakers, they can do that. When Apple was researching and developing the Newton, a team from Bose came out to consult on audio, attempting to provide the team with a speaker(s) for the Newton. Because of the cost (I think) Apple never followed up.
Maybe they should hit up Bose? Those tiny little speakers Bose has would sound great in the MBP.
Anyway, it just irks me that these things don't get much better over time, and it takes so many years for Apple to come out with any substantial updates to their computers these days, you think they would be able to offer you the world after not updating, substantially, their laptop Pro line for almost 6 years.
On battery life, there are a host of new battery technologies available right now to consumers and manufacturers. I am sure Apple has been searching, but how hard? I know of one company licensing their lapatop battery tech that is about 40% better than the Lith Ion batteries we use in Apple's rigs, but is Apple biting?
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Chiclet keyboard on the MBP = me not waiting and getting the current design 17".
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Originally Posted by freudling
They certainly can make the speakers sound much better if they want. My PowerBook Wallstreet at home has excellent sounding speakers
I've got a Pismo, which isn't too far removed from a Wallstreet. The speakers aren't excellent sounding. They sound like laptop speakers.
The current models are also quite a bit thinner than the Pismo Wallstreet and thus there's not a lot of wiggle room - the speakers have to be tiny, and they're not going to sound anywhere near what a decent set of external speakers would sound like.
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My PowerBook G4s speakers weren't that good, but my current BlackBook's speakers can't even hit a volume one might consider marginally loud.
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Re: quad-core processors on the MBP.
Originally Posted by CharlesS
This would be awesome, but probably would be very hot and a power drain.
...
If they make the Pro quad-core, this would seem unlikely.
Not necessarily. There have been quite a few rumors about Intel launching the QX9300 at 35W TDP rather than the originally expected 44W. If that indeed turns out to be true, putting such a CPU into the new MBP would add nothing to the thermal enelope that we hadn't already seen on previous 15" MBPs. The current 2.4 GHz T8300 has a 35 W TDP too.
I'm not saying we will see quad-core MBPs. I actually on't thin it's very likely (yet), but there just might be a BTO option for the 17" and high-end 15". But in the end it will depend mainly on what thermal envelope Intel has managed to reach. If they come out with a 35W QX9300 at 2.53 GHz, Apple would have no engineering reason not to make use if it. Both heat and battery wise it's nothing we haven't already had.
In terms of marketing, they would have to come to the conclusion that the average MBP buyer is better off with four 2.53 GHz cores than with two at 2.93 GHz.
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So 9to5Mac is claiming that actually the MB will have a black plastic outer shell instead of being all aluminum. They predict it will be the same black plastic as what we know from the back panel of the current iMac. The inner shell (the area around the KB, ports and display) will be aluminum though.
(mockup)
I must say in terms of looks I'd prefer an all aluminum MB resembling the MBP or MBA. But in terms of wifi reception there would be an advantage. I'm not very fond of the iMac black plastic either. The current MB's bacl or the rubebry black of the Pismo would be fine, but to me the iMac's black plastic is too "plastic". IOW too much Dell, not enough Apple.
I don't really buy it but indeed, looking at the current iMac and MBA, Apple does seem to have this aluminum&black thing going right now.
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I'm just hoping that making it thinner doesn't make it suckier. If they gimp the GPU anymore I don't think it really deserves being called a MacBook 'Pro'.
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Originally Posted by Dakar V
My PowerBook G4s speakers weren't that good, but my current BlackBook's speakers can't even hit a volume one might consider marginally loud.
The trade-off is that they don't actually sound like ****.
I probably have different priorities than you do, but I'm *quite* happy with the compromise Apple made in the MacBook speakers.
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If they do remove Firewire from the MacBook line (would be a very stupid move, of course), that would be just another check-point to add to the list of reasons why the MacBook is crippled (int-degraded graphics AND no Firewire). I hope it's not true, but it most likely is. I would never consider a MacBook as long as it lacks a discrete GPU anyway, but it may make a difference to some. I suppose Apple cares more about forcing customers to buy more hardware than they need and less about the health of their bus technology.
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"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
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If they had cared about "their bus technology" they would have
a) never charged for FW in the first place
b) kept FW on the iPod/iPhone
c) added FW800 to all Macs as soon as it came out
d) moved aggressively from FW400 to FW800
e) pushed for S3200 a lot more
I think now FW is pretty much dead. Sure right now it's prevalent on digital cameras, external drives, and some audio equipment. But is it here to stay? Probably not. Not enough commitment on behalf of Apple. S3200 much too late. Sure FW still has some advantages over eSATA (and quite a few over USB), but the way Apple botched it that isn't going to be enough. AFAIC they can drop it altogether and instead just give everybody an EC/34 slot. That way everybody can get FW, eSATA, or even USB3 once it arrives depending on their needs.
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Originally Posted by Simon
I think now FW is pretty much dead. Sure right now it's prevalent on digital cameras, external drives, and some audio equipment.
See, it's not "some" audio equipment.
It's the entire pro market (apart from dedicated NuBus/PCI/PCI-X/PCI-Extreme solutions that are FAR less modular and much more quickly obsoleted).
And it's not like there are alternatives - USB is NOT an option, and there is nothing available for eSATA (and won't be until there's a bus-powered connector standard).
I'm not entirely sure whether Apple actually gives a serious **** about the pro audio market anymore, though. Even though they sure like to wear that feather in their cap.
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Bus-powered eSATA is just around the corner.
And if everybody just got an EC/34 the audio people could get FW for as long as they want.
To me the issue is not so much dropping FW, it's going USB-only w/o any expansion options. That said, all this "they're dropping FW" panic is totally premature since we have nothing but some blurry pics and rumors. If they do actually drop FW next Tuesday there will still be more than enough opportunities to whine about it.
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Firewire should not be abandoned. But what's this EC/34 you speak of? I imagine it's not in the mainstream yet because Google isn't very helpful in pinning it down.
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Originally Posted by Big Mac
But what's this EC/34 you speak of? I imagine it's not in the mainstream yet because Google isn't very helpful in pinning it down.
ExpressCard/34
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Originally Posted by Simon
Bus-powered eSATA is just around the corner.
And if everybody just got an EC/34 the audio people could get FW for as long as they want.
To me the issue is not so much dropping FW, it's going USB-only w/o any expansion options. That said, all this "they're dropping FW" panic is totally premature since we have nothing but some blurry pics and rumors.
and the MacBook Air.
But yeah, an ExpressCard slot in the MacBook would be sweet and more than make up for the loss of Firewire.
Except it takes up WAY more space than a bleedin' Firewire port.
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Originally Posted by analogika
Except it takes up WAY more space than a bleedin' Firewire port.
Indeed. That's why I'm actually not expecting it to happen.
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Originally Posted by analogika
I'm not entirely sure whether Apple actually gives a serious **** about the pro audio market anymore, though. Even though they sure like to wear that feather in their cap.
You know what you would have to read (if lack of FW is true)
Dude, sort of connect the dots:
Pro market belongs to…
MacBook Pro?
MacBook?
Even a first grader could do it !!
/end sarcasm
It would instantly raise the entry-level price for audio from €1000 to €1900, ruling out Mac laptops as an affordable option to pretty much any budding musician.
And (music/video) schools… heck I would swear FW was the first solution when it comes to backup/archiving files. Oh well, 'they' want you to buy Time Capsule, it makes sense now.
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Originally Posted by Simon
So 9to5Mac is claiming that actually the MB will have a black plastic outer shell instead of being all aluminum.
(mockup)
Hopefully that is not true. That's just horrible looking. The black keyboard is nice but the black cover and silver body doesn't look that great in my opinion. If they are going to add black I would prefer all black. Although I didn't really have a problem with the silver or white notebooks.
I would also be very disappointed if they dropped FW since I've gotten used to FW over USB. The direct transfer of data from one computer with FW to FW connection alone is worth it. It's very quick, simple, and fast to do.
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Not a chance it will be shiny. Look where the iPod classic has gone.
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Originally Posted by analogika
I'm not entirely sure whether Apple actually gives a serious **** about the pro audio market anymore, though.
Of course they do. That's why they've given you Garageband. You can do anything you want to with Garageband, and it'll sound really professional. No need for any silly firewire connectors for it either!
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That's where there's thunder... and the wind shouts back.
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